Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Technical Services Librarians And Outreach: Communicating Our Value To Engage Students In Critical Thinking About Information, Caitlin Harrington, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

At the University of Memphis (UM), two technical services librarians were inspired to present at an institutional conference with the goal of engaging students in building professional competencies and, specifically, enhancing their understanding of an increasingly complex information landscape in which they learn and work. This case study presents an example of technical services outreach outside of the library, shares methods used to engage students in thinking critically about the behind-the-scenes work entailed in resource management, and explains some of the ways in which technical services relates to the information students encounter as researchers.

Substance Use And Life-Course Narratives For Criminally Involved Veterans, Tyler J. Marcheschi

Theses and Dissertations

Criminal justice involvement stemming from substance use is a common issue with whichmilitary veterans struggle. Research on substance use has indicated that a multitude of negative life-course outcomes can result for individuals who abuse substances. While prior research has studied the relationships between substance use and military veterans, there is little empirical analysis that focuses on the narrative accounts of veterans and their experiences with substance use. The goal of the current thesis is to expand on this topic by exploring how criminally involved veterans experience substance use and the perceived impact substance use has on the life-course according to …

A Covid-19 Mathematical Model Of At-Risk Populations With Non-Pharmaceutical Preventive Measures, Bismark Oduro

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Prime Supporters In College Students' Support Networks, David Chan, Hollee Mcginnis, Michael Broda, Haya Hamid, Jeremy Winslow, Quindel Jones, Joy Ma

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Implicit Attitudes Toward Children’S Gender Nonconforming Behavior: The Mediating Role Of Stigma By Association When Blaming Mothers, Emily A. Morrow

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the possible connection between a child’s gender nonconformity and attitudes toward both the child and the mother of the gender nonconforming child. Specifically, this study explored the impact of gender nonconforming behavior on undergraduate student perceptions of the child and the parenting competence of the mother. Following social psychology theories examining stigma and stigma by association, this study represents an attempt to determine whether gender nonconforming behavior is a stigmatizing factor, and if that stigma is carried over to the mother. Findings from this study suggested that gender nonconforming behavior is indeed a stigma …

Social Media Rumination: The Impact Of Materialistic Value Orientation, Keeley Hynes

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research demonstrates that ruminating on social media content is associated with greater mental distress (Yang, Holden, Carter, & Webb, 2018). However, it is unclear what factors are associated with rumination. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a theoretical framework, this study examined how materialistic value orientation (MVO) predicted social media rumination in a sample of racially and socioeconomically diverse high school students at two waves of time. Those who are more materialistic value the means by which to gain possessions, and extrinsic life-goals associated with MVO are aimed at garnering external reinforcers such as money and social status (Richins & …

Privacy And The Digital Divide: Investigating Strategies For Digital Safety By People Of Color, Denavious Hoover

Theses and Dissertations

People of color are becoming increasingly concerned with digital privacy. They are concerned about the obfuscated data collection and sharing practices of major social media plat- forms and the strong entitlement of other users in the online space to their content. This study examines how people of color conceptualize and behave to produce safety in the online space, or, in other words, digital privacy. This study challenges notions that people are not purposeful about privacy in the online space and highlights the voices of people of color, whom are not of- ten included in theorizing or decision making about the …

Dance And Know You Are A Part: The Instrumentality Of Performative Politics And Dance In The Configuration Of Local Social Memory And Afro-Brazilian Identity And Agency In Pelotas, Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, Triston R. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The arts have been a refuge from perpetual repression and omission, and, a platform for social activism for Afro-descendants in the Americas. In Brazil this is very much the case. With performance serving as a social barometer or a looking glass, dance becomes a source of cultural knowledge, acts as preservative, and negotiates individual mobility within a given context. The Afro-Brazilian dance company, Cia de Dança Daniel Amaro in Pelotas, Brazil grants its members a means of activism and agency to challenge entrenched national narratives and reinterpret local social memory.

Most academic writings about dance or performance in Brazil, focus …

It Takes A Village: Populating The Institutional Repository With Performing Arts Content, Anne Shelley

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Managing an institutional repository is not a project in its own right: rather, it is an operational service that involves conversations with faculty, students, and other content providers. However, once those stakeholders decide that the repository is a good, stable, discoverable home for their work, there are projects involved in populating the repository. This article presents a case study of how the author, a music librarian and institutional repository manager at Illinois State University, approached adding thousands of items from the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts into the institutional repository, ISU ReD: Research and eData.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Moral Disengagement, And Victimization: The Demeaning Socio-Cognitive Attitudes Of Bullies, Megan E. Donnelly

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To examine the socio-cognitive attitudes of Right-wing authoritarianism and moral disengagement as they relate to bullying victimization and perpetration within the high school context. Method: Ninth grade students (N = 212; 50% male) at a public Midwest high school completed self-report measures during study hall assessing their levels of Right-wing authoritarianism, moral disengagement, and the frequency with which they were involved (i.e., as perpetrators and victims) in bullying both online and in person within the last month. The current study utilized a moderated mediation model to examine the effects of Right-wing authoritarian and morally disengaged attitudes on the school-based …

The Value Of Information In Professional Settings Is Experienced Through Relationships And Networks, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

A review of: Sharun, S. (2019). Exploring value as a dimension of professional information literacy. Journal of Information Literacy, 13(2), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.11645/13.2.2627

Parent Reactions To Individualized Education Program ( Iep ) Meeting Vignettes: The Effect Of Jargon And Labels On Emotional Reactivity And Feelings Of Collaboration, Kristin Gallaway

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on the emotional responses of parents of school-aged children who read a vignette describing an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. The vignette used either specific or generic language to label the participants’ relationship to the child who meets the eligibility criteria for Specific Learning Disability. The label used was either a specific “Your Child” description or a generic description of “A Child.” Further, the vignettes were presented either with or without technical professional jargon commonly used in an IEP setting.

In a pilot study, parents provided emotional response ratings for the 13 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act …

Promoting Digital Literacy: The De-Mystifying Technology Workshop For Families, Angela Stangl, Samaa Haniya, Kim Naples, Casey Mccoy, Rebecca Ransberger

Critical Media Literacy Conference

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Admission To Jail On Crime Rate In Mclean County, Illinois, Derek Conley

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

The relationship between crime and incarceration is growing in interest in the United States. The United States incarceration rate is often double or triple the rate of other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The hardline approach the United States has taken on crime has many citizens and academics questioning its effectiveness on achieving safer communities. Traditional theory suggests incarcerating individuals for deviant behavior reduces the crime rate through the mechanisms of incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution. However, some scholars believe concentration of incarceration in neighborhoods disrupts the social fabric of the neighborhood and produces the opposite of …

Men, Women And Witchcraft: The Feminist Reclamation Of The Witch In The Modern Horror Film, Brian Joseph Hadsell

Theses and Dissertations

The witch as a figure possesses a powerful and enduring legacy in Euro-American culture; she is both a victim of patriarchal persecution and the natural enemy of a deeply-gendered society. Recent horror films that employ the witch, however, have generally done so in the form of reclaimed feminist icon: a violently retributive figure avenging the wrongs done to women both past and present. The purpose of this research is to provide insight about our acutely gendered society and culture in the times during and preceding the #MeToo movement through a semiological analysis of three recent horror films that center on …

Explicit Teaching Of Critical Thinking Skills In Communication Science And Disorders, Dana Battaglia

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Critical thinking requires one to be abstract, continually raise questions, independently obtain and reviews evidence, and converge these experiences to offer open-minded solutions. These same traits are required for speech-language pathology students to become successful clinicians. This work describes a mixed method investigation of explicit and infused instruction of critical thinking skills in the context of one graduate-level course in a program accredited from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. While quantitative findings only demonstrate significant positive change on select items using a Likert scale, qualitative data describe deep learning and growth in the areas of broad life-impact, expansion of knowledge, …

The Role Of Microfinance Workers In Financialization: Negotiating The Meaning Of Development In China, Xue Ma

Theses and Dissertations

Microfinance is an attempt to alleviate poverty through offering collateral-free small loans to poor borrowers, especially women in developing countries or rural areas. Though it is indeed an actual economic activity, usually engaged in through some type of bank, there is much that is informal and context-bound in these transactions, making microfinance a kind of “social business.” While the impact of microfinance on women borrowers has been discussed many times, only a few studies have looked at the significance of the other members of the interaction: the microfinance workers, who are instrumental intermediaries between the women-borrowers and the microfinance institutions …

Comparing Verbal And Spatial Working Memory In Monolingual And Bilingual Speakers, Rosaury Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

The bilingual advantage has been demonstrated in different domains of cognitive functioning, especially executive functioning. Compared to other domains of executive functioning, the impact of bilingualism on working memory in children and adults has received relatively little attention. Moreover, research on the bilingual advantage in young adults has produced mix results in tasks where working memory is required. The present study examined whether bilingual expertise yielded different results depending on the working memory task. The present study included 54 participants, 44 identified as female and 10 identified as male. Spatial working memory was measured using the computerized spatial span task …

Social Support, Mental Health Problems, And Rule Infractions: A Study Of Female Inmates, Suraiya H. Shammi

Theses and Dissertations

Currently there are few studies that solely focused on female inmates and their mental health problems. There is huge lack of in-depth examination on the impact of social support variables on overall rule infractions. Using a multilevel analysis, this study analyzed the moderation effect of social support variables on rule infractions among female inmates (n=2,930) from the 2004 Survey of Inmates of State Correctional Facilities in the United States. Findings suggest that almost 55% of the sample suffered from mental health problems where female inmates with mental health problems reported significantly higher rates of minor rule infractions (78%). Also, the …

Reducing Narcissistic Aggression: Examining The Effect Of Self-Affirmation On Subclinical Levels Of Narcissism, Kelsey Ann Anello

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of narcissism has been studied for hundreds of years and has typically emphasized grandiose aspects of personality – inflated self-esteem and being socially domineering. More recent literature has sought to differentiate between two aspects of narcissism – grandiosity and vulnerability; that is, narcissism may be marked by not only grandiose thoughts and beliefs, but also have negative emotionality and hypersensitivity. Both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism exhibit tendencies to act out aggressively, especially in the face of interpersonal rejection. There are still gaps in the literature when it comes to interventions, especially ones that may be used in order …

Collaboration In The Technical Communication Classroom: Negotiating Team Contracts In A Pwi, Alyssa Herman

Theses and Dissertations

As TPC teacher-scholars, we must acknowledge the overwhelming Whiteness of our field and the racism, ableism, and sexism inherent in our institutions. We must actively work toward inclusivity and socially just collaborations in our classrooms by encouraging dominant-identified students to confront their privileges and implicit biases in order to better engage with historically marginalized students. With that said, this thesis examines how teacher-scholars might take up a cultural-rhetorical approach to teaching TPC and how we might negotiate team contracts in PWIs. Firmly situated within the social justice turn, Herman draws from both feminist disability theory and critical race theory to …

Political Violence In Bangladesh: Explaining The Role Of State, Zunaid Almamun

Theses and Dissertations

Violence has been an integral part of the politics of Bangladesh since after its independence. The government has used the coercive apparatus of the state in order to confront the political opponents and the dissenters. Irrespective of the type of regime and political parties in power, the state always perpetrated violence against its citizens. On the one hand, the government used the law enforcement agencies, and the specialists of violence relied on coercion against the citizens, on the other hand, various groups appeared as the affiliates of the government in perpetrating violence. However, the nature of violence changed over time, …

“When Two Elephants Fight, It’S The Ground That Suffers ”: A Neo- Marxist Rhetorical Deconstruction Of The United States’ Rhetoric Of Power In Resistance To United Nations Treaties, Divine Narkotey Aboagye

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I present a Gramscian rhetorical reading of American antagonism to the International Criminal Court, a crucial agency of the UN. I probed the rhetoric of power in resistance concerning the discourse of international treaties by showing how both the United States and the United Nations have become global hegemons. From the foregoing, I uncover American resistance to the constitutive force of United Nations treaties by paying attention to post-Cold War American presidents. By using a neo-Marxist lens and analyzing a key foreign policy accord – the International Criminal Court – that spans the presidencies of Clinton, Bush, …

The Dark Tetrad At Work: Examining The Effects Of Bottom-Line Mentality, Job Satisfaction, And Perceptions Of Organizational Politics On Counterproductive Work Behavior, Ryan Barry

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary organizations often use personality measures when selecting new employees. Recent developments in the literature have shown that measures of the dark tetrad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) provide additional benefits (e.g., incremental validity) over measures of normal personality (e.g., Big Five) in predicting counterproductive work behavior (CWB). The purpose for this study was to identify factors that may affect the positive relationship between higher levels the dark tetrad and CWB. We proposed that perceptions of supervisor’s bottom-line mentality (their focus on prioritizing profits over other goals) serves as a moderator, whereas one’s job satisfaction and perceptions of organizational …

Managing Citizen Engagement: Local Leader Perspectives From A Midwestern Small City, Isabella B. Green

Theses and Dissertations

Small cities, with their mix of urban capacity and small-town charm, are a promising environment for interactive and inclusive citizen engagement. However, small cities have received very limited attention by sociological and planning literature, and even less attention has been paid to the leaders of small city communities. This study contributes to this gap through an analysis of the dynamics of participation between small city leaders and their constituents from the leaders’ perspective. Studying up through interviews with planners and officials of a midwestern small city, this study examines how small city leaders pursue citizen engagement while managing the bureaucratic …

The Influence Of Instructor Mental Illness Disclosure On The Perceptions Of Mental Illness, Classroom Climate, Teacher Credibility, Homophily, And Social Attraction, Kirsten L. Bridgemen

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the lens of Communication Privacy Management theory to analyze the impact an instructor’s depth of disclosure of their mental illness can have on mental illness stigmatization, classroom climate, as well as teacher credibility, homophily, and social attraction. Participants responded to a series of quantitative-based questions regarding a hypothetical syllabus with varied levels of a teacher disclosing their mental illness. Results indicated that none of the investigated dependent variables were negatively affected by the hypothetical instructor’s disclosure, and mental illness stigmatization was lessened. Implications, limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.

As Good As Woke? : Mutuality And Third Spaces In A Guatemalan Volunteer Tourism Organization, Hannah Gdalman

Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that as many as 10 million individuals participate in international volunteering projects annually (McGehee, 2014). Since its rise in the late nineties and early aughts, voluntourism has drawn the attention of academic and non-academic audiences alike, who have warned of the perils of exploitation, commodification, and white saviorism. This study conducts an issue-focused analysis to examine the extent to which the voluntourism experience has evolved into one of mutuality rather than cultural hegemony. Sixteen semi-structured interviews and participant observation were conducted at a longstanding Guatemalan voluntourism site. Wearing & Wearing’s (2006) Third Space interactive cultural tourism framework …

Perceptions Of A Small Midwestern Food Cooperative: A Case Study, Rebecca Forsythe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to illuminate how individuals form perceptions of cooperatives, specifically of Green Top Grocery, a cooperative located in Bloomington Illinois, using the Bourdieu-sian habitus and notions of capital as a frame. Green Top Grocery suffers from fiscal instability since they opened in 2017. They also struggle to gain support of lower income individuals, a key demographic they sought to help since their inception based on their stated values. By conducting qualitative interviews of three sample groups: Green Top Grocery board members and leadership, local food access experts, and West Bloomington residents, and non-participant observations, this …

Applying Psychological Reactance Theory To Intercultural Communication In The Workplace: Dealing With Technological Change And Tolerance For Ambiguity, Oumaima Boulhna

Theses and Dissertations

Psychological reactance theory has yet to be applied to intercultural and cross-cultural communication, at least not to a sufficient extent. This study conducted a cross-cultural examination of psychological reactance in intercultural workplace communication situations. Using the theoretical framework of psychological reactance as well as the constructs of intercultural sensitivity and tolerance for ambiguity, this study expanded applications of PRT for technological change messages in the workplace. The present study extended the previous applications of psychological reactance theory and found a significant cross-cultural variation for trait reactance. The results also revealed that tolerance for ambiguity was negatively related to trait reactance, …

Experiences From City Year: A Glimpse Into The Complex Roles Of Racially Diverse Americorps Members And What That Means For The Nonprofit Field, Orsolya Ficsor

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the lived experiences of alumni from City Year, an AmeriCorps education nonprofit dedicated to providing academic and social-emotional interventions to address social inequity in education in disadvantaged schools throughout the U.S. and abroad. Their thoughts and ideas reflect the complexities of working on a diverse team, serving students of color in a nonprofit organization that is limited in its ability to create structural change. Guided by an analysis of historic systems of oppression, whiteness, white saviorism, and the nonprofit industrial complex, I examine how the nonprofit sector operates as a shadow state that is restricted …