Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

$750 Million Of Neutral News Coverage: A Content Analysis Of Nextel's Media Exposure Before And After Becoming Nascar's Primary Corporate Sponsor., Joshua Tod Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the exposure of the Nextel brand name in major U.S. newspapers 1 year before and after Nextel became the primary sponsor of the North American Stock Car Association of Racing. A content analysis of 576 newspaper articles was performed. The hypotheses tested the quantity and quality of Nextel's coverage, as well where the stories were appearing and where the brand was being used in the stories.

The study found the number of Nextel mentions in year two was almost 4 times as many as year one. The data reveal a dramatic increase in cases found in sports …

A Study Of Instructional Technology Resource Teachers In Virginia's Public School Divisions: Who Are They And What Do They Do?, Kimberly M. Hooker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine the role of instructional technology resource teachers (ITRTs) within Virginia's public school divisions focusing on how ITRTs used their time throughout the school year to integrate technology into the curriculum. Based on data from surveys of current ITRTs, the researcher investigated further to find relationships, if any, among the professional and educational backgrounds and work calendar of these teachers and their responses to their actual role. The study also addressed training that the ITRTs have received to assist them in their job duties and explored the participants' perceptions of their roles as …

In Pursuit Of The Ed.D.: A Study Of East Tennessee State University's Doctors Of Education: Who They Are And Why They Persisted., Mata J. Banks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to Kerlin (1995a), first-generation students are not expected to survive to doctorate degree attainment because of vulnerability to negative affects associated with their status; yet persist they do at East Tennessee State University. The desire to study the first-generation East Tennessee State University's Doctors of Education and the limited number of first-generation graduate studies available, especially in the academic field of education, promoted developing this study. It was the intent of this study to offer additional empirical research toward understanding variables associated with first-generation persistence as encountered by East Tennessee State University's Doctors of education.

Quantitative analysis derived through …

Review Of Historical Statistics Of The United States: Earliest Times To The Present: V.1, Part A: Population; V.2, Part B: Work And Welfare; V.3, Part C: Economic Structure And Performance; V.4, Part D: Economic Sectors; V.5, Part E: Governance And International Relations, Rebecca Tolley

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Review of Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present: v.1, Part A: Population; v.2, Part B: Work and Welfare; v.3, Part C: Economic Structure and Performance; v.4, Part D: Economic Sectors; v.5, Part E: Governance and International Relations. Susan B. Carter et al Cambridge. 2006. 5v, 0521817919, $825.00

African American Public School Principals In East Tennessee: Motivation For Leadership., Joe L. Canada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore and document the factors that motivated African American public school administrators in a selected school system in East Tennessee to become school leaders. The study highlighted barriers and challenges, support mechanisms, and perceptions of training. If minority educators are to be actively recruited and retained, there must be an understanding of the factors that motivate them to progressively seek administrative leadership positions.

The African American public school administrators' experiences were collected through 17 one-on-one personal interviews. The interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, coded, and used to answer the 4 research questions.

The primary …

The Effectiveness Of Principal Training And Formal Principal Mentoring Programs., Robert B. Dodson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine principals' perceptions of how effective mentoring programs and university-based principal preparation programs are in developing the skills necessary to carry out the 13 critical success factors identified by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). A review of the literature addressed what it means to be an effective principal and what an effective mentoring program should look like.

The quantitative study was conducted using a survey developed from the SREB's 13 critical success factors that have been developed to determine what makes a successful, effective principal. Each factor was developed into a question …

American Reeducation Of German Pows, 1943-1946., Pamela Croley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States held almost 500,000 enemy combatants within her borders during World War II. Out of those 500,000 men, 380,000 were from Nazi Germany. Nazi POWs were confined to camps built near small rural towns in almost every state. It was not something that was well known to the American public. Even less known was the American Military's effort, through reeducation, to introduce Hitler's soldiers to a new political ideology-democracy. This thesis will explore how the reeducation program was formed; examine the people, both German and American, who participated in it, and make a determination on whether or not …

Perceived Job Satisfaction Factors Impacting The Retention Of Middle School Teachers In Northwest North Carolina., Karen Ward Farthing

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The body of research related to teacher retention continues to grow but is limited concerning middle school teachers. The focus of this study was to examine the factors of job satisfaction for middle school teachers. A portion of the study compares teacher responses with Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman's 1959 study of motivation. Additional components of the study provide middle school teachers' feedback on their dispositions and recommendations to administrators and others for attracting and retaining quality middle school teachers.

This qualitative study includes a review of related literature and includes a historical perspective of job satisfaction and a discussion of …

An Examination Of The Prison Environment: An Analysis Of Inmate Concerns Across Eight Environmental Dimensions., Andrew Ryan Bradford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was undertaken to better understand inmate concerns of the prison environment across 8 dimensions. The 8 dimensions examined in this study were activity, emotional feedback, freedom, privacy, safety, social, structure, and support. To determine the importance of these dimensions among inmates, secondary data were used in an attempt to replicate and validate the findings from Wright's (1985) study which used a prison environment inventory instrument to assess inmate concerns. The secondary data consisted of an inmate sample of 1,054 taken from 30 prisons of minimum, medium, maximum and close security across the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. …

Product Placement During The Family-Viewing Hour., Harry C. Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The so-called family-viewing hour, the eight to nine o’clock hour of prime time, is one of the most watched hours of television by both adults and children. Advertisers, of course, favor shows that draw large audiences so their product presentations or commercials are witnessed by masses of people. Now, because of videocassette recorders and other similar control devices, viewers are eliminating commercials from their viewing experience¹ and advertisers are clamoring for new ways to get their products into the mind of the consumer.² To counteract this commercial avoidance by consumers, advertisers are embedding products within television programming thereby …

Folk Medical Beliefs And Practices Concerning Women's Health And The Female Body In Southern Appalachia., Emily Lucinda Dale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores folk medical beliefs and practices regarding women's health issues and the female body, specifically menstruation, pregnancy, abortion and menopause, in the Southern Appalachian region. This research reveals what information was given to young girls, by whom was it given, and the effect this had on their self-image and on how they communicated about their bodies as they matured. Other key elements include the social restrictions surrounding menstruation and the ways these beliefs were communicated to young girls. In addition, this project presents information on the treatment of symptoms such as cramps, bloating, headaches, excessive bleeding, lack of …

Parenting, Home Environment, And Child Obesity: A Survey Of Parents And Children Attending A Pediatric Clinic., Amit Ravindra Bodhani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Data were collected from 60 parents of children 5-11 years of age to describe the parental and family factors and explore the associations of these factors with children's Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles. Mother's made up 81.7% of the sample. Whites/Caucasians comprised 88.3% of the sample. Males comprised 51.6% of the child participants while females comprised 48.3%. Among the child participants, 38.3% had BMI equal to or greater than the 95th percentile, and 6.7% had BMI 85th to less than 95th percentile. Concerns about child weight (r_s = 0.582), pressure to eat (r_s = -0.433), and monitoring (r …

Temperament, Distraction, And Learning In Toddlerhood, Wallace E. Dixon Jr., Brenda J. Salley, Andrea D. Clements

ETSU Faculty Works

The word- and nonword-learning abilities of toddlers were tested under various conditions of environmental distraction, and evaluated with respect to children's temperamental attentional focus. Thirty-nine children and their mothers visited the lab at child age 21-months, where children were exposed to fast-mapping word-learning trials and nonlinguistic sequential learning trials. It was found that both word- and nonword-learning were adversely affected by the presentation of environmental distractions. But it was also found that the effect of the distractions sometimes depended on children's level of attentional focus. Specifically, children high in attentional focus were less affected by environmental distractions than children low …

Bullying Behavior In Middle School: The Effects Of Gender, Grade Level, Family Relationships, And Vicarious Victimization On Self-Esteem And Attitudes Of Bullying., Jennifer Mongold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research was conducted to investigate the effects of gender, grade level, family relationships, and vicarious victimization on self-esteem and attitudes of bullying. A self-report questionnaire was administered to sixth and seventh graders at a middle school to 436 students of whom 209 were males and 224 were females. Each home base classroom was systematically sampled for a random sample. The survey consisted of several demographic questions as well as questions regarding the previously mentioned variables. The mean age was 11.8 with 80.7% indicating they were white and 19.3% indicating another race. In the overall regression equations, gender and family …

Training For Diversity In Journalism: Tracking The Columbia Summer Program Graduates, 1968-1974., Mary Alice Basconi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Columbia University's Summer Program, created by Fred Friendly, was the first enduring effort to prepare non-whites for jobs in the news media. It operated from 1968 to 1974 at the Graduate School of Journalism, training 223 journalists for print and broadcast jobs. Three decades after the closing of this elite program, 110 graduates responded to a telephone survey on attitudes toward first employers, careers, and their experiences at Columbia. Results from this exploratory study show respondents spent an average 17.6 years in news media after the Summer Program, and 30.9 percent of respondents spent thirty years or more in journalism. …

Physician Communication Behaviors That Elicit Patient Trust., Linda E. Bambino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The general relationship between the physician and the patient is one where communication is used to establish and maintain what will likely become a long-term partnership. Health communication research indicates that physicians who have apt communication skills in the patient-physician relationship develop a platform of trust behaviors. The physician communication behaviors perceived to elicit trust reported by patients are; comfort/caring, agency, competence, compassion and honesty. The objective of the research project was to assess patient perceptions of previously determined physician communication behaviors that predict patient trust through individual surveys (N=162) between foreign-born international medical graduates and American-born non-IMG resident physicians. …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Preparation To Choose And Implement Effective Methods For Teaching Emergent Readers., H. Brooke Blair

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reading is not an easily learned skill for most students. I chose to look at the methodology being used by teachers in East Tennessee to instruct emerging readers. Through my review of literature, I researched reading approaches implemented in American classrooms in the last 150 years. I compared and contrasted data to determine current researchers' findings concerning the most effective techniques for teaching reading and how teachers have implemented this knowledge base into their teaching strategies.

Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. Therefore, I also researched literature addressing the growing concern among educators with teachers' preparation and professional …

Laughing In The Shadow: The Role Of Humor In Ghost Story Telling., Melissa Ann Bentley-Edwards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ghost story concert is a popular modern form of presenting ghost stories to ticket buying audiences and is one of the last stomping grounds of the oral tradition. Attendees come to be scared but not terrified. Tellers employ humor to release tension during the tale. When does humor release tension while maintaining the momentum of the story? When does the humor employed deflate it into a comical tale and diffuse suspense altogether?

In an effort to answer these questions, four variants of a single story, Tailypo, were analyzed for the presence of tension and humor inducing stimuli employing …

War On The Media: The News Framing Of The Iraqi War In The United States, Europe, And Latin America., Maria Pestalardo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the framing of the war in Iraq (2003) during the week before and the week after the conflict started according to the media coverage of nine leading newspapers from United States, Europe, and Latin America. Through quantitative content analysis, the researcher answered seven research questions and analyzed the framing, sources, and approaches used by the newspapers in the news coverage of the conflict. The researcher compared the news coverage of each region and found that there were significant differences in the content of the war reporting according to the geographical area of the media. European and Latin …

An Analysis Of Financial Planning For Employees Of East Tennessee State University., Steven Roy Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if East Tennessee State University provides its employees appropriate financial planning services. In particular, it is unknown to what degree employees of East Tennessee State University have actively engaged in financial planning.

The research was conducted during June and July, 2005. Data were gathered by surveying faculty, staff, and retirees of the university. Ten percent of the population responded to the study. The survey instrument covered the areas of retirement, other financial planning services, and attitudes toward financial planning.

The results of the data analysis gave insight into what degree employees of …

An Investigation Of Gender Differences In Motivation Of Senior Administrators In Virginia Community Colleges Using Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory., Jewell Bevins Worley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences regarding motivation in the individuals who serve in senior administrative positions in Virginia's community colleges. Institutional morale can be damaged by administrators who become dissatisfied with their positions. Institutions use millions of dollars yearly to conduct searches for individuals to replace senior administrators who leave their positions because of lack of job satisfaction or high job dissatisfaction. This study also addressed the possibility of differences between male senior administrators and female senior administrators regarding job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction.

Frederick Herzberg' 2-factory theory of motivation regarding job satisfaction and …

Perceived Teacher Self-Efficacy In Early Childhood Settings: Differences Between Early Childhood And Elementary Education Candidates., Bradley Carroll Billheimer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the degree of perceived teacher self-efficacy between early childhood preservice teachers and elementary education pre-service teachers. There were 88 participants: 44 elementary education pre-service teachers and 40 early childhood pre-service teachers. Participants were mostly white, female pre-service teachers enrolled at East Tennessee State University. Using Bandura's 30-item "Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale" pre-service teachers rated their perceived self-efficacy on 7 subscales: decision-making, influence on school resources, instructional efficacy, disciplinary efficacy, enlisting parent involvement, enlisting community involvement, and creating a positive school climate. Significant differences were found between groups for 3 of the 7 subscales. Early childhood education pre-service teachers …

Portrayals Of Appalachia In America's Major Metropolitan Newspapers., Honey Leigh Comer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to Gerbner's cultivation theory, misrepresentations in the media create false realities in the minds of society. To date, much research has been done on the impact of this phenomenon on women, minority races, and the homosexual community. Little consideration has been given, however, to geographic minorities such as Appalachians. This study attempts to identify the frequency and manner of representations of Appalachia in major metropolitan newspapers across the U.S. By conducting a framing analysis on a sample of 823 individual mentions of "Appalachia" in 2005, the author is able to illustrate interesting relationships between geographic proximity and the type …

The Relationship Between Tobacco, Alcohol, And Marijuana Use Among Teenagers., John Donald Rose

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among teenagers. This study examined three research questions: (1) Is there a relationship between demographic characteristics (i.e., sex and race), the attitudinal variable (attachment to family), and the admitted use of marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco among teenagers? (2) Is there a relationship between the use of marijuana by teenagers and the use of tobacco by teenagers? (3) Is there a relationship between the use of marijuana by teenagers and the use of alcohol by teenagers?

The data used for this paper were from the …

A Perceptual Study Of The Impact Of Athletic Programs In Selected Community Colleges In The State Of Tennessee., Lee Martin Cigliano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the economic, institutional, and human impact of athletic programs at community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents community college system to determine how the athletic programs affects the benefits, or lack of benefits, for students, the institutions, and the communities.

Sixteen participants were interviewed: two presidents, two athletic directors, four coaches, and eight student-athletes. The student-athletes represented four different sports and came from a variety of educational backgrounds and academic standing. The primary benefits perceived for the institutions and the student-athletes were the impact on missions, enrollment, educational and athletic opportunities, …

The Perceived Impact Of No Child Left Behind On Third- Through Fifth-Grade Elementary Science Classrooms., Angela V. Kinsler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived impact of No Child Left Behind on elementary science classrooms in 3 Northeast Tennessee school districts. Quantitative descriptive methodology was used to document how No Child Left Behind impacts instructional methodology, professional development, administrative support, materials and resources, and assessment in 3rd through 5th grades.

Data were collected using a survey developed by the researcher. The survey consisted of a demographic section, 28 statements, and 2 open-ended questions. The 51 participants included elementary-school science teachers in 8 schools in 3 upper East Tennessee school districts.

Data analysis was based on …

Improving Parent And Teen Conflict Resolution Skills: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The "Family Reunion" Crisis Intervention Program., Carrie Davis Marchant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parent and teen communication combined with relationship skills, and their ability to resolve conflict, need extensive research to help understand if effective intervention can lead to short-term and long-term success in terms of continued crime and delinquency prevention and relationship endurance. This researcher conducted a short-term study by holding a parent and teen communication and conflict resolution intervention program for teens and parents in crisis called Family Reunion. Five classes were held with 102 research subjects. Pre and post treatment questionnaire surveys were administered containing both fixed responses and open-ended questions. Quantitative analysis of the fixed response items indicated positive …

Christian Fundamentalism, Authoritarianism, And Attitudes Toward Rape Victims., Christie Arine Carr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on the relationship of five variables: rape myth acceptance, attitudes toward rape victims, sex roles, authoritarianism, and Christian fundamentalism. Also, differences between men and women were compared. The study was conducted at East Tennessee State University, and 100 people participated. Contrary to past research, Christian fundamentalism was not a significant predictor of rape myth acceptance or attitudes towards rape victims, but there were significant relationships between all of the other variables. Men were found to be more accepting of rape myths and had a more negative view of rape victims than did women. Implications of these findings, …

Father Absence And Early Family Composition As A Predictor Of Menarcheal Onset: Psychosocial And Familial Factors That Are Associated With Pubertal Timing., Amanda Christel Healey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Father absence and the introduction of a stepfather before menarche have been shown to contribute to the early onset of menarche. The present study analyzes the effects of father absence situations that tend to result on the onset of menarche. Presence of a related male in a father-absent homes is also considered as a protective factor for menarcheal onset. Participants consisted of 342 female students enrolled in undergraduate work at a southeastern university. The mean age of participants was 20.7 years. Participants completed a survey consisting of 12 questions pertaining to their family environment before menarche. Participants were asked to …

Romantic Attachment Styles, Gender, And Reasons For Living., Niles Adrian Cruz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine reasons for living in people with secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent romantic attachment styles. Romantic attachment style was assessed by use of the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ). Reasons for living were assessed using the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL). The independent variables were gender and romantic attachment style. The dependent variable was the RFL score.

Participants included 235 male and female students from a southeastern university. A brief demographic questionnaire, the RFL (Linehan,M., Goodstein, J., Neilson, S., & Chiles J., 1983), and the AAQ (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), were administered in electronic format …