Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Employing A Public Policy Evaluative Framework: An Analysis Of Domestic Theme Park Development, Anthony Gray Houser

Honors Theses

The intention of the thesis is to examine the relationship between the development of the Walt Disney Company’s theme parks and public policy. Using the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California and the Walt Disney World Resort outside of Orlando, Florida as case studies, this thesis will execute a comparative analysis to better understand the relationship between the Walt Disney Company’s theme parks and public policy. Using an evaluative framework, this thesis will provide a deeper understanding of how public policy affected the development and the current operations of these theme parks. The driving research question in this thesis is, ‘what …

Why Did The Camel Cross The Road?: The Use Of Camel Racing And Military Pageantry In Unifying Oman Through Nationalism Racing, Elizabeth Williams

Honors Theses

In 1970, Sultan Qaboos bin Said seized power from his father Sultan Said bin Taimur in a bloodless coup with backing from the British. Prior to this, bin Taimur led with policies that left Oman open to foreign involvement and internal divisions between the interior and exterior of the country. After coming to power, Qaboos undertook several progressive policies to modernize and unite the country. This paper examines how two cultural symbols- camel racing and military pageantry- were used to develop ethnic nationalism into civic nationalism.

Analyzing The Consumer’S Decision-Making Process To Visit Walt Disney World During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Corinne Kincade Williams

Honors Theses

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people have had differing opinions about traveling and visiting popular destinations. This study analyzes why people decide to visit or not visit Disney World during the pandemic. To understand motivational factors affecting customers’ visit intention, a Qualtrics survey was administered through GroupMe, Disney Facebook fan pages, and MTurk. Questions applied the theory of planned behavior and additional constructs of perceived severity and perceived vulnerability to understand the reasons behind participants’ decision-making process to visit or not visit Disney World.

From the 553 responses analyzed, it was found that the most influential factors on Disney World visit …

Mississippi Downtowns: Examining The Relationship Between Downtown Revitalization And Place-Based Economic Development, Cade Slaughter

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to measure the relationship between downtown revitalization and place-based economic development theory in the downtowns of Hernando, Mississippi and New Albany, Mississippi. Collectively, people progress and cultural normalcies shift. This is a facet of life that has historically begotten movement away from the city cores that initially cradled the sole hub of social and professional life. Progression gave way to urban and industrial sprawl that has challenged the American downtown to maintain a spot of relevance and economic as well as social viability.

By analyzing the broad history of the American downtown and also extrapolating interview data …

The Transfer Culture In College Basketball, Ariel Massengale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2017, 18.5% of female women’s basketball players transferred. That ranked the highest it has ever been, second on the list for women’s sports and higher than any male sport (NCAA.org, 2018). The decision to transfer is a multifaceted issue that involves many reasons from generational differences, social media, technology, among other factors and has been rapidly increasing. For the lack of empirical studies, the foundation of this research was built on studies that focused on student retention because the same reasons a student may be retained could be the very reason a student decides to transfer depending on the …

Basketball Officials' Training And Development: Links To Retention, Nathan Ferdinand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sharp decline in retention from year-to-year among sport officials is considered a “crisis” among the officiating community and research has attempted to explore the issue by identifying factors that impact retention (Warner et al. 2013). The seven-factor “Referee Retention Scale” (RRS) seeks to predict the likelihood of retention for officials one factor being officials’ ratings of their continuing education (Ridinger et al. 2017). However there is a lack of study for examining the relationships among methods and outcomes of training continuing education and referee retention across sporting contexts. A cross-sectional design was created using an online survey which combined …

Professionals Knowledge Of Standards Required For Leed Certification Of Indoor Recreation Facilities At Four Year Public Universities, William Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bryant (1995), found that students “were at least 20% more likely to take part in recreational activity than in any other listed campus activity”. Campus recreation facilities (CRF)s promote “healthy living” programs and services for students. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a certification program housed within the United States Green Building Council and a LEED certification indicates the facility has a “green” status. LEED certification standard measures include Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Interestingly, southeastern states have the fewest LEED certified CRFs (Kiernan, 2015). The purpose of this …