Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Research On Second Language Teacher Motivation: From A Vygotskian Activity Theory Perspective, Tae-Young Kim, Qian-Mei Zhang

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

Second language (L2) teachers’ motivation has considerable influence on their students’ L2 learning motivation, personal satisfaction, and fulfillment. It has important influence on national educational reform and development. Although a number of studies have examined teachers’ motivation to teach, to date, few have focused on L2 teacher motivation. Based on the limitations identified in previous research, this paper articulates the inherent complexities of L2 teacher motivation and identifies its dynamic characteristics from the perspective of Vygotskian Activity Theory (AT). With a concise overview of AT, this paper elaborates on the applicability and relevance of AT to L2 teachers’ motivation by …

Building Cultural Competency In Therapy, Naveen Jonathan

Marriage and Family Therapy Faculty Presentations

Discusses how to build better cultural competency in order to help clients of diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds.

Moore’S Paradox In Belief And Desire, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

Is there a Moore’s paradox in desire? I give a normative explanation of the epistemic irrationality, and hence absurdity, of Moorean belief that builds on Green and Williams’ normative account of absurdity. This explains why Moorean beliefs are normally irrational and thus absurd, while some Moorean beliefs are absurd without being irrational. Then I defend constructing a Moorean desire as the syntactic counterpart of a Moorean belief and distinguish it from a ‘Frankfurt’ conjunction of desires. Next I discuss putative examples of rational and irrational desires, suggesting that there are norms of rational desire. Then I examine David Wall’s groundbreaking …

“Mad-Speak” And Manic Prose: Nick Cave’S Presentation Of Insanity In And The Ass Saw The Angel, Laura Hardt (Class Of 2014)

English Undergraduate Publications

Nick Cave’s novel And the Ass Saw the Angel attempts to exist firmly within the Southern Gothic tradition, pulling direct inspiration from authors such as William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, and Flannery O’Connor. However, Cave’s novel seems to lack the careful construction and purposefulness of these writers, with its graphic violence, constantly shifting tone, style, narrative voice, and employing an utterly bizarre and arcane vocabulary. This essay aims to illustrate that although this may make the work seem poorly composed and somewhat slipshod, the manic prose of Cave’s novel is actually rather purposeful, presenting the protagonist’s descent into madness in an …

Effects Of A Forgiveness Intervention On Lesbian And Gay Adolescents Hurt By Homophobia, Mark William Charles

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact a group level intervention based on Robert Enright's (2001) forgiveness model would have on LGBT adolescents hurt by homophobic offenses. The purposive sample consisted of 26 LGBT- identified adolescents recruited from community-based organizations located in the Midwest and randomly placed in either an experimental group or a wait-list control group. The group intervention consisted of six weekly sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. Participants completed an assessment battery that measured levels of forgiveness and mental health symptomology at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and approximately one month after completion of the …

Uncertainty, Individual Differences, And Paranormal Beliefs, Kelly Mccoy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined the relationship between uncertainty and supernatural beliefs, as well as the link between individual personality traits and supernatural beliefs. Participants were placed in four different prime conditions: self uncertainty, other uncertainty, self affirmation, or other affirmation. The current study was created due to the widespread belief in supernatural phenomena in America and its effect on society. Results suggest that uncertainty increases religious beliefs but not paranormal beliefs when the self is threatened. Results also suggest that narcissism and neuroticism have a negative correlation with paranormal beliefs, inconsistent with previous research. The search for meaning in life …

Hurting Leaders: The Lived Experiences Of African-American Clergy And Their Views, Attitudes, And Barriers To Help-Seeking, Bernice Suzette Patterson

Dissertations

The help-seeking tendencies of African-Americans, as a whole, have long been a source of confusion to the field of counseling. Moreover, in the available literature on help-seeking, in the African-American community there is an apparent deficit of information on the help-seeking habits of its clergy members. Current literature focuses primarily on African-American clergy and their roles in facilitating the development of professional counseling relationships for their parishioners rather than on their ability to seek out professional counseling relationships for themselves.

The focus of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of African-American clergy related to …

Congruent And Incongruent Effects Of Ethnic Music On Ethnic Menu Item Selection, Ryan David Muniz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated what impact ethnic music had on ethnic menu item selection. College students were randomly divided into three groups and listened to one randomly assigned sound treatment in sensory booths. Three hundred and five participants completed the questionnaire with measures of expected price value and willingness to pay value. One of the groups listened to an Italian folk music, the second group listened to a Thai folk music, and the third group listened to a restaurant background noise in order to examine if the music will impact each participant menu items selection and perceived price values. The result …

The Role Of Music-Specific Representations When Processing Speech: Using A Musical Illusion To Elucidate Domain-Specific And -General Processes, Christina M. Vanden Bosch Der Nederlanden

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When listening to music and language sounds, it is unclear whether adults recruit domain-specific or domain-general mechanisms to make sense of incoming sounds. Unique acoustic characteristics such as a greater reliance on rapid temporal transitions in speech relative to song may introduce misleading interpretations concerning shared and overlapping processes in the brain. By using a stimulus that is both ecologically valid and can be perceived as speech or song depending on context, the contribution of low- and high-level mechanisms may be teased apart. The stimuli employed in all experiments are auditory illusions from speech to song reported by Deutsch et …

The Impact Of Counselor Level Of Spiritual Well-Being On The Morale, Global Symptoms, And Global Impairment Of Adolescents Receiving Treatment For Substance Use And/Or Other Mental Health Disorders: A Pilot Study, Michael William Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years there has been a movement towards a holistic perspective of human nature in the counseling leading to increased interest in the nature and role of spirituality in counseling and the counseling process. In the present study multiple regression analysis is used to determine whether Counselor Level of Spiritual Well-Being, or aspects thereof, namely, Counselor Level of Existential Well-Being and/or Counselor Level of Religious Well-Being, as measured by the Spiritual Well-Being Scale significantly impacts client outcomes, namely, Morale, Global Symptoms, and Global Impairment as measured by the Health Dynamics Inventory for adolescents receiving treatment for substance use and/or …

Clinical Benefits Of Emotional Freedom Techniques On Food Cravings At 12-Months Follow-Up: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Peta Stapleton, Teri Sheldon, Brett Porter

Peta B. Stapleton

This randomized, single-blind, crossover trial tested whether participants who used Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) maintained reduced food cravings after 12-months and updates previously reported 6 month findings. Ninety-six overweight/obese adults were allocated to a 4-week EFT treatment or wait list condition. Degree of food craving, perceived power of food, restraint capabilities, and psychological symptoms were assessed pre- and post-test and at 12-month follow-up for collapsed groups. Significant improvements occurred in weight, body mass index, food cravings, subjective power of food, craving restraint, and psychological coping for EFT participants from pre-test to 12 months (p < .05). It appears EFT can result in participants maintaining reduced cravings over time and affect weight and BMI in overweight and obese individuals.

Decentering Anthropocentrisms: A Functional Approach To Animal Minds, Matthew C. Altman

Between the Species

Anthropocentric biases manifest themselves in two different ways in research on animal cognition. Some researchers claim that only humans have the capacity for reasoning, beliefs, and interests; and others attribute mental concepts to nonhuman animals on the basis of behavioral evidence, and they conceive of animal cognition in more or less human terms. Both approaches overlook the fact that language-use deeply informs mental states, such that comparing human mental states to the mental states of nonlinguistic animals is misguided. In order to avoid both pitfalls -- assuming that animals have mental lives just like we do, or assuming that they …

An Exploratory Study Of Recovery And Recovery Maintenance For Victims Of Childhood Sexual Abuse Who Completed Faith-Based Residential Treatment Programs, Ann Kerlin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This interpretive phenomenological analysis of the experience of recovery and recovery maintenance for women with a history of childhood sexual abuse and its sequelae included interviews and a non-standard questionnaire. Ten women with this history who had completed a faith based treatment program for substance abuse and/or eating disorders described recovery. Themes that emerged related to the process of change included: Changes in Relationships with Others, to Self, to God, and lastly, Forgiveness as a Catalyst for Change. Six practices emerged in the exploration of maintenance recovery. This research highlighted the need for thorough bio-psycho-social-spiritual assessment and areas of concern …

Can Enlightenment Be Traced To Specific Neural Correlates, Cognition, Or Behavior? No, And (A Qualified) Yes, Jake H. Davis, David R. Vago

Publications and Research

The field of contemplative science is rapidly growing and integrating into the basic neurosciences, psychology, clinical sciences, and society-at-large. Yet the majority of current research in the contemplative sciences has been divorced from the soteriological context from which these meditative practices originate and has focused instead on clinical applications with goals of stress reduction and psychotherapeutic health. In the existing research on health outcomes of mindfulness-based clinical interventions, for example, there have been almost no attempts to scientifically investigate the goal of enlightenment. This is a serious oversight, given that such profound transformation across ethical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive domains …

An Invitation To Debate: Envisioning An Africa-Centered Perspective, Engaging Sociological Endeavor, Nikitah O. Imani

Black Studies Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Presented at the 2013 James Madison University Africana Studies Conference October 18, 2013

Inception And Ibn 'Arabi, Oludamini Ogunnaike

Journal of Religion & Film

Many philosophers, playwrights, artists, sages, and scholars throughout the ages have entertained and developed the concept of life being a "but a dream." Few works, however, have explored this topic with as much depth and subtlety as the 13thC Andalusian Muslim mystic, Ibn 'Arabi. Similarly, few works of art explore this theme as thoroughly and engagingly as Chistopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception. This paper presents the writings of Ibn 'Arabi and Nolan's film as a pair of mirrors, in which one can contemplate the other. As such, the present work is equally a commentary on the film based on …

Christian Devotional Meditation For Anxiety, Fernando L. Garzon

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Preliminary research suggests Christian devotional meditation is efficacious with conservative Christian clients. This chapter describes three Christian devotional meditation strategies that may be useful in psychotherapy for anxiety: Scriptural Truth Meditation, Scriptural Drama Meditation, and Christ-Centered Present Moment Awareness. A clinical case study highlights their application. Handouts for clients are provided.

The Functions Of Literature And The Evolution Of Extended Mind, Nancy Easterlin

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Social Role Theory Of Unethical Leadership, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price, Laura Poatsy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Challenging the standard reasoning regarding leaders’ ethical failures, we argue that a potent contributor to these failures is the social role expectations of leaders. We maintain that leaders’ central role expectation of goal achievement contributes to the over-valuing of group goals and greater moral permissibility of the means used to achieve these goals. In studies 1 and 2 we demonstrated that the role of leader, relative to group member, is associated with an increased appraisal of group goals which is predicted by the leaders’ role expectations and not driven by the psychological effects of power. Next, we experimentally demonstrated the …

Course Syllabus (Fa13) Coli 211 Literature & Psychology: "Power, The Subject, And Technological Rationality", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty Scholarship

Course Description and Objectives:

In this course, we will examine mechanisms of power and the processes by which these produce categories of subjectivity. Theoretically speaking, we will begin by considering these processes at the level of society and then dwell on their human experience at the level of the psyche. Here, we will aim to discover processes by which the subject reproduces conditions of domination by power at the level of psychic experience. Power-practices assume their condition of possibility by positing, on the one hand, that the category of the subject is a priori existent and, on the other, that …

Ciis Today, Fall 2013 Issue, California Institute Of Integral Studies

CIIS Today

This volume is the Fall 2013 issue of CIIS Today, the Magazine of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Ethical Decision Making And Leadership: Merging Social Role And Self-Construal Perspectives, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends our understanding of ethical decision making on the part of leaders by merging social role and self-construal perspectives. Interdependent self-construal is generally seen as enhancing concern for justice and moral values. Across two studies we tested the prediction that non-leading group members’ interdependent self-construal would be associated with lower levels of unethical decision making on behalf of their group but that, in contrast, this relationship would be weaker for leaders, given their social role. These predictions were experimentally tested by assigning participants to the role of leader or non-leading group member and assessing the association between their …

Proof For The Power Of Prayer?, Thomas Schwartz

Thomas W Schwartz

Mindfulness meditation has been found in the research literature to promote a sense of well-being, quality of life, and even physical health among its practitioners. Does centering prayer have the same effects? A reflection.

Do Patient-Reported Androgen-Deprivation Therapy Side Effects Predict Anxiety And Depression Among Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy? Implications For Psychosocial Therapy Interventions, Christopher Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika, David Christie

Vicki Bitsika

Antiandrogen therapy (AAT) is a common adjunct treatment for prostate cancer (PCa) patients and has shown significant benefits to long-term outcomes from radiation or surgery. Although AAT has some adverse side effects and data from breast cancer patients indicate that such side effects from hormonal therapies may contribute to anxiety and depression and may also hinder AAT treatment compliance, this issue has not been investigated within a sample of PCa patients. This study explores the incidence of AAT side effects in a sample of PCa patients, the links between those side effects and anxiety and depression, the possible ways in …

Do Prostate Cancer Patients Suffer More From Depressed Mood Or Anhedonia?, Christopher Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika, David Christie

Vicki Bitsika

Objective: This study aimed to compare the prevalence of depressed mood and anhedonia in a sample of men with prostate cancer (PCa) and to determine which of these key symptoms contributed most to the overall depressive status of that sample. Method: From Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) responses collected on 526 PCa patients, direct comparisons were made between the prevalence of the first two DSM-IV-TR symptoms of Major Depressive Episode. These symptoms were then tested for their predictive power on depression total score and Zung’s criteria for ‘clinically significant’ depression. Results: Mean scores for anhedonia were significantly higher than for …

How Prostate Cancer Patients Cope: Evaluation And Refinement Of The Prostate Cancer Patients' Coping Strategies Questionnaire, Christopher Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika, David Christie

Vicki Bitsika

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) patients suffer from identifiable stressors that may cause them anxiety and/or depression. In a previous study, an initial exploration of the ways in which PCa patients seek to cope with those stressors was described. However, several methodological limitations prevented direct comparisons of the relative effectiveness of patients’ coping strategies. To further investigate this issue, a standardised format was used to present the most commonly-used coping strategies to a new sample of PCa patients and to compare the effectiveness of those strategies. Methods: A total of 147 PCa patients completed a background questionnaire and the Prostate Cancer …

Comorbidity Of Anxiety-Depression Among Australian University Students: Implications For Student Counsellors, Vicki Bitsika, Christopher Sharpley

Vicki Bitsika

The incidence, factor structure and scale item differences in anxiety-depression comorbidity were investigated in a sample of Australian university students defined according to the presence of anxiety and/or depression. The incidence of anxiety-depression comorbidity was over 32%, about four times that for anxiety or depression alone. Participants with comorbidity had significantly higher Selfrating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) total and factor scores than those with anxiety or depression alone. The major differences between the comorbid and unitary disordered subgroups were for self-disintegration and autonomic arousal. Comorbidity of anxiety and depression is a more serious disorder than either …

The Structure Of Consciousness, Lowell Keith Friesen

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the nature and structure of consciousness. Conscious experience is often said to be phenomenally unified, and subjects of consciousness are often self-conscious. I ask whether these features necessarily accompany conscious experience. Is it necessarily the case, for instance, that all of a conscious subject's experiences at a time are phenomenally unified? And is it necessarily the case that subjects of consciousness are self-conscious whenever they are conscious? I argue that the answer to the former is affirmative and the latter negative.

In the first chapter, I set the stage by distinguishing phenomenal unity from other …

Gender Bias In Leader Evaluations: Merging Implicit Theories And Role Congruity Perspectives, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends our understanding of gender bias in leader evaluations by merging role congruity and implicit theory perspectives. We tested and found support for the prediction that the link between people’s attitudes regarding women in authority and their subsequent gender-biased leader evaluations is significantly stronger for entity theorists (those who believe attributes are fixed) relative to incremental theorists (those who believe attributes are malleable). In Study 1, 147 participants evaluated male and female gubernatorial candidates. Results supported predictions, demonstrating that traditional attitudes toward women in authority significantly predicted a pro-male gender bias in leader evaluations (and progressive attitudes predicted …

Practical Application Of Emotional Freedom Techniques For Food Cravings, Peta Stapleton, Terri Sheldon, Brett Porter

Peta B. Stapleton

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) has been shown to have a lasting effect on food cravings, power over food and restraint ability, and ultimately results in weight loss. This paper discusses the approach utilised in a recent food craving clinical treatment trial (Stapleton, Sheldon, & Porter, 2012; Stapleton, Sheldon, Porter, & Whitty, 2011), and highlights the case of a single participant. Sessions are described in detail and specific recommendations are made for the application of EFT to food cravings in overweight and obese individuals.