Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gestalt Language Processing In Accredited Communication Sciences And Disorders Programs, William Harris

Master's Theses

The language development and usage of autistic individuals has become a controversial topic in many of the disciplines and professions providing support to these individuals. As a result, two theories of language processing have been proposed. Analytical language processing suggests that children process and develop language from its most simple form, a phoneme, to its most complex form, a word or phrase. However, the theory of gestalt language processing proposes that some children may instead extract larger, more complex language such as whole words and phrases first and break it down to the simpler language. Gestalt language processing is often …

The Emerging Impacts Of Tourism On The Economy Of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study Of Oil And Tourism, Dania Abu Jabal

Master's Theses

Saudi Arabia was heavily dependent on oil, which caused an economic crisis due to the collapse of global oil prices. In 2016, the Saudi government launched Vision 2030 to diversify the Saudi economy and avoid dependence on oil revenues. One aim of Vision 2030 is to initiate numerous tourism initiatives to boost the tourism industry's economic impact, elevating its contribution from 3% of GDP to 10% by 2030.

This paper provides the necessary assessment to understand tourism's role and contribution to the Saudi economy and to determine whether the industry's growth is on the right track. Also, this paper also …

Using Behavior Bingo To Increase Academically Engaged Behavior In A General Education Elementary School Population, Faith Elizabeth Hamilton

Master's Theses

Spending instructional and work time addressing disruptive behaviors in the classroom is a common complaint of many teachers. The literature suggests that group contingencies are beneficial for improving behavior on a classwide and individual level. The current study investigated Behavior BINGO, a group contingency intervention whose research is in its infancy, and its effectiveness on increasing academically engaged behaviors and decreasing disruptive behaviors on a classwide basis. This study utilized a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design in three 2^nd grade, general education classrooms in a public school.

Whose Woods These Are: Human-Environment Relationships Among Stakeholders Of South Mississippi's Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, Helen Greene

Master's Theses

Between 1870 and 1920, the longleaf pine belt of the southeastern United States experienced an extensive and unsustainable period of logging. In the years after the logging boom the landscape of the Southeast was reforested, but fire suppression and a preference among landowners for loblolly pine resulted in a dense and less resilient forest with reduced biodiversity. This research looks at the human geography of remnants of the longleaf pine ecosystem in South Mississippi and the nature of contemporary relationships between South Mississippi residents and this ecosystem.

In an effort to make sense of the complex relationships between people and …

The Classroom Password Group Contingency With Randomized Reinforcers, Emily Maxime

Master's Theses

From the principles of reinforcement and punishment established by operant conditioning, there have been a variety of different behavior modification methods explored. Group contingencies are one of these behavior modification procedures that can be applied at a class-wide level by teachers who are seeking to improve student behavior as a group or individually. The three types of group contingencies are independent, interdependent, and dependent group contingency. Additional components, such as randomization within a group contingency, have been seen to further the effectiveness of behavioral strategies. A novel independent group contingency that has recently been investigated and demonstrated some promise as …

The Examination Of A Teacher Mentorship Intervention On Junior Teachers' Stress And Self-Efficacy, Cagla Cobek

Master's Theses

This study examined a daily Check-In/Check-Out mentorship intervention for junior teachers. Changes in junior teachers’ stress level and their sense of self-efficacy were measured. Researchers collected data from three junior teachers and mentor dyads in a Southeastern school district. A Multiple Baseline Design across three teachers was used in this study to examine the impact of the daily mentorship intervention. The results suggested that daily Check-Ins and Check-Outs with mentor teachers decreased all three junior teachers’ daily stress. The intervention did not impact significantly on junior teachers’ perceived stress and their sense of self-efficacy. Overall, this study supports a promising …

An Exploration Of Symptom Severity And Suicidal Ideation Within A Sex Addiction Sample, Emily A. Cordova

Master's Theses

Currently sex addiction is not recognized as a mental disorder in the DSM-5-TR, yet it continues to negatively affect a significant number of people annually. The following study aimed to explore the relationships between sex addiction, attachment styles, and suicide-related behavior, and other psychopathology related symptoms as measured by the MMPI-3. Using data from the MMPI-3, the Sexual Dependency Inventory-4^th Edition, the Sexual Addiction Screening Test-Revised, and the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Revised, this study explored the relationship between attachment style and sex addiction symptoms, suicidality, and sex addiction severity in a sample of 222 men seeking treatment for …

Comparing Effects Of Praise Rates On Classroom Behavior, Brittany Pigg

Master's Theses

High-quality academic instruction, and, in turn, student success, are correlated with effective classroom management (Gage, Scott, Hirn, & MacSuga-Gage, 2018; Johnson, 1997; Stronge, Ward, & Grant, 2011; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993). Students are spending up to 50% of their instructional time engaged in non-instructional activities such as classroom procedures, transitions, and discipline (Codding & Smyth, 2008). However, academic activities should account for at least 70% of classroom time (Little & Akin-Little, 2008). Praise, a simple classroom behavior management procedure, includes statements commending behavior and is intended to increase the future probability of the behavior that warranted praise. Behavior-specific praise …

Cultural Behaviors And Their Influence On The Proximal Femur: Comparisons Of Postural Behavior, Occupation, And Subsistence-Settlement Between A Pre-Contact And Historic Sample, Joanna Klein

Master's Theses

Little is known archaeologically about the Late Woodland Schroeder Mounds mortuary group from west-central Illinois. As such, bioarchaeological data is at the forefront of archaeological problem-solving for not only the site, but the geographical area as well. Skeletal data such as proximal femur angles and activity markers contribute to the understanding of subsistence-settlement trends and postural behavior of the mortuary complex. Femoral neck version is associated with postural behaviors such as squatting and kneeling. The neck-shaft angle is linked to mobility and settlement patterns. Bicondylar angle was explored to see if behaviors had any affect. Allen’s fossa and Poirier’s facet …

Assessing The Contributions Of Proximity To Effective Instruction Delivery, Kenneth Ross

Master's Theses

Effective instruction delivery (EID) is a component of the Compliance Training for Children (CTC) Model developed by D. Joe Olmi from the School Psychology program at the University of Southern Mississippi that is designed to increase childhood compliance to adult-delivered directives. EID has been observed to be an effective strategy for increasing compliance in children (Bellipanni et al., 2013; Derieux, 2021; Ford et al., 2001; Griffin, 2007; Wimberly, 2016). Additionally, the contributions of the individual components of EID, such as demanded eye contact (Everett et al., 2005; Faciane, 2004) and contingent praise (Everett et al., 2005), have been investigated over …

Social Anxiety And Relational Aggression In The Peer Relationships Of College Women, Summer Boggs

Master's Theses

Relational aggression (i.e., a type of aggression in which the aggressor harms others by damaging their relationships, reputation, and/or feelings of social acceptance) is common among emerging adults and has been linked to several adverse correlates. Research on relational aggression among college students has found some evidence that it is positively associated with social anxiety; however, the specific components of social anxiety and the possible mechanisms through which this relationship may operate are unclear. The current study examined the relationship between social anxiety and relational aggression among college women (N = 292), focusing on fear of negative evaluation (FNE) …

New Insights Into The Paleovegetation Of The Ancient Underwater Forest Located In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Karla Lizarraga Garcia

Master's Theses

A well-preserved remnant of an ancient bald cypress forest (hereafter, Underwater Forest) constitutes the only known archive of a glacial refuge on the once exposed continental shelf of the Northern Gulf of Mexico. This forest existed around 41-72 yBP (MIS 3-5) according to the existing dating methods applied on previous studies. As the climate conditions and sea levels changed, the vegetation of this glacial refuge shifted from bald cypress forests to open marshes, altering the vegetation dynamics. The present research analyzed four new cores (21DF-5A, 21DF-5B, 15DF-6, and 16DF-3A), which provided additional insights into the vegetation that once existed in …

Introspective Accuracy For Social Cognition Across The Psychosis Spectrum: Influence Of Sleep Disturbance, Cassi Springfield

Master's Theses

People with schizophrenia-spectrum and bipolar disorders can have impairments in introspective accuracy (IA; ability to accurately estimate one’s own abilities). Research suggests that positive, negative, and depressive symptoms may be related to IA, but findings are mixed. Examining sleep disturbance as a determinant of IA may help explain these mixed findings. The current study aimed to explore the relationships between sleep disturbance, symptoms, and IA in participants across the psychosis spectrum. Participants completed diagnostic, symptom, and sleep disturbance assessments. Participants also completed social cognitive tasks, estimated their performance on the tasks (used to calculate IA), and indicated their confidence in …

Brazilian Camming: The Monetization Of Intimacy In Online Sex Work, Fernanda Veiverberg

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses a form of online feminized labor in Brazil, which employs digital technology to relieve the urges for intimacy and monetary insecurity. Camming is a genre of online sex work, in which cam models sell their body image and attention online through computer-mediated interactions. It constitutes a profitable activity that employs body performance without physical contact between model and client, typical in most categories of sex work such as prostitution, and where the clients are not mere spectators as within the pornography industry because camming requires authenticity and communication. For that, I explored three conceptual spheres that combined …

Gender Differences In Personality Dysfunction And Aggression In A Sample Of At-Risk Youth, Chloe O'Dell

Master's Theses

Youth with antisocial and borderline traits in adolescence have been found more likely to commit violence and experience negative outcomes later in life. There is evidence for gender differences in the manifestations of dysfunctional personality features (antisocial and borderline traits) and functions of aggression, but little research has sought to assess unique gender differences that may help unravel the sequelae of personality dysfunction in youth. Accordingly, this exploratory study examines gender differences in associations between antisocial features, borderline features, and proactive and reactive functions of aggression in a sample of at-risk youth. Four hundred and sixty-four adolescents (M_age = …

The Relations Between Rumination, Thought Control, And Suicidal Thinking, Morgan Buerke

Master's Theses

Despite the far-reaching impact of suicide on our communities, we need more research to understand how suicidal thoughts develop, and what leads to their maintenance. As suggested by the depression distress-amplification model (Capron et al., 2013), emotion-regulation strategies such as rumination may cause or worsen suicidal ideation by amplifying the distress associated with negative thoughts. In addition, ruminative thoughts are often described as difficult to control, which may lead people to think about suicide as an escape from these uncontrollable thoughts. The current study examined the relationship between certain forms of rumination (i.e., brooding, reflection, anger rumination, and suicidal rumination) …

The Implications Of Sexual Assault Awareness On Sexual Overperception Bias, Zach Buckner

Master's Theses

Heterogeneity has recently emerged in research investigating men’s overperceptions of women’s sexual receptivity, namely that such overperceptions are less robust than previously considered. Various social movements (e.g., #MeToo) could be a modern-day contextual factor that has reduced men’s tendency toward overperception. In this study, participants viewed hypothetical information regarding sexual assault perpetration committed by men or women (or control information) before rating opposite-sex targets on perceived sexual interest in them and reporting individual differences in just and dangerous world. The results indicate that individuals who hold stronger beliefs in an unjust world are more sensitive to perceived threats from potential …

I Was Looking For God: A Study Of Wehrmacht Personnel And Their Personal Relationships With Religion, Christopher Bishop

Master's Theses

The Wehrmacht was Germany’s fighting force in the field during World War II. Its brutality and discriminatory practices rivaled that of the Nazi paramilitary and police units dispatched alongside them in newly conquered areas during this conflict. Coming from a society that was not at all unfamiliar with Christianity, some within the Wehrmacht related to Christianity in some form and attempted to use it to either justify actions or make sense of the world around them.

While considerable scholarship exists on the Nazi Party’s relationship to Christianity as a convenient propaganda tool for both soldier and civilian alike, the historiography …

Disability Identity In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Letters, Jackson Fields

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on letters written by British Romantic author Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote about his chronic illness during the period of emerging modern ideas of disability. Coleridge’s letters are valuable to readers in the twenty-first century because they enable us to track the formation and negotiation of Coleridge’s disability identity. As one of the most important thinkers and authors in the English language, Coleridge has a lot to teach us about how one can understand their illnesses, medical authority, and the influences of disability on friendships and social roles. This thesis considers Coleridge’s letters to his loved ones …

Finding Balance: A Content Analysis Of How Newspaper Authors Framed Simone Biles Before, During, And After The 2020 Olympic Games, Hadley Howell

Master's Theses

Simone Biles was considered the GOAT, Greatest of All Time, going into the 2020 Olympic Games. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Larry Nassar trial, and the weight of the world on her shoulders, Biles would withdraw from the women’s gymnastics team final competition for mental health reasons. Thus, the following study examines how Biles was framed in the ten most circulated newspapers in the United States before, during, and after the 2020 Olympic Games. Results show that an author’s race and gender, topic of the article, type of article, and if an article contained an image or not ultimately …

Impacts Of The Poultry Industry In Mississippi, Sara Watts

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the impacts of the poultry industry in seven counties in the Piney Woods region of South Mississippi: Wayne, Jones, Forrest, Lamar, Jefferson Davis, Marion, and Pike. Current research indicates that the poultry industry has a significant impact on the cultures and economies of rural towns throughout the United States. There is no current research that examines the effects of the poultry industry on residents of the Piney Woods. This thesis addresses that gap in the research and contributes to current understanding of how the industry molds and impacts the lives of those intimately associated with it.

I …

Message Convergence In Information Seeking And Decision Making Among Adult Children Regarding Their Parent's Diagnosis, Collyn Leggett

Master's Theses

Adult children have a unique role in caregiving and decision-making for a parent diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or condition. In this qualitative study, 15 individuals participated in one-on-one interviews to share their experience seeking information for their parent’s life-threatening diagnosis. This study utilized deductive and inductive coding approaches through axial coding, and two coders analyzed the data through a lens of message convergence framework and uncertainty management. The results show participants engage in information seeking from personal connections to the medical field to retrieve additional information from a more familiar, trusted source. The participants managed uncertainty retrospectively by reassessing …

Drinking Motives As Mediators For The Relationships Between Overparenting And Alcohol Outcomes, Tatum Freeman

Master's Theses

The present study investigated the mediating role of drinking motives in the relationship between overparenting and alcohol outcomes using a sample of 207 traditional age college students (i.e., 18-25 years old; M = 19.8, SD = 1.64). Data on participant demographics, drinking motives, the practices of participants’ primary caregiver, typical weekly drinking, hazardous drinking, and alcohol consequences were collected via SONA (an online participant management software that allows researchers to collect data from a university psychology subject pool). Participants were 89.4% female and 54.1% White. Coping and conformity drinking motives partially mediated the relationships between overparenting, alcohol consequences, and hazardous …

Stability Of Universal Screening Over Time: An Examination Of The Student Risk Screening Scale, Rebecca Wagner Lovelace

Master's Theses

Universal screening is a proactive method to identify students that are at risk for social-emotional and behavior (SEB) problems and provide information to schools to support early intervention for at risk children. Current recommendations for practice indicate screening should be conducted at three time points during the school year. Previous studies suggest that this recommendation is not empirically based and fewer screenings per year may be sufficient for identifying students at risk. The current study seeks to extend the literature regarding the stability and consistency of screening scores over time by analyzing ratings from the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS) …

Examining The Moderating Effects Of Adult Social Support On The Relationship Between Adverse Experiences And Psychosocial Adjustment, Zachary Wilde

Master's Theses

Exposure to adverse experiences during childhood place adolescents at a disproportionately high risk of developing physical and mental health problems later in life (Anthony et al., 2019; Basto-Pereira et al., 2016; Brown & Shillington, 2016; Felitti et al., 1998). Further, at-risk adolescents, conceptualized as children and adolescents who lack resources for upward mobility, are more likely to be exposed to adverse experiences and thus are at greater risk for these negative outcomes when compared to adolescents who are not considered at-risk (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2018). To obtain better specificity of what outcomes adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) predict in a sample of vulnerable …

Infidelity And The Bioecological Protective Factors For Mental Health: A Longitudinal Investigation, Lindy Williams

Master's Theses

Infidelity is an important topic of research due to the profound effects on the individual experiencing the trauma. Through the lens of bioecological systems and betrayal trauma, the impact of infidelity on mental health is examined in relation to the most proximal systems to an individual which include personality traits such as agreeableness and neuroticism as well as support from friends, family, and community. This research explores the hypotheses that more support leads to more positive mental health outcomes after the experience of infidelity and the possibility that support from friends, family, and community may buffer specific personality traits and …

Alt-Right Of The_Donald And Authoritarian Communists On Reddit: Internet Memes To Build Community, Joshua Hendricks

Master's Theses

This project infuses Lacanian psychoanalysis further into the rhetorical study by exploring authoritarian discourses on Reddit. I analyze the alt-right community that found a home on the subreddit r/The_Donald and chart their discourse as it shaped from the quarantine to the establishment of an independent forum called TheDonald.win. I selected memes and the comments around them to build the analysis. The second aspect of this thesis examines authoritarian communist discourse on Reddit. The leftist community splintered when r/socialism banned a community member because the person made catgirl art. The ban sent shockwaves through the leftist community on Reddit and generated …

A Bioarchaeological Investigation Of The Courtney-Anderson Cemetery, Lauren Scott

Master's Theses

Located in Perry County, Mississippi, the Anderson Family Cemetery represents an abandoned turn-of-the-century Piney Woods cemetery. The cemetery is located on land once owned by the Courtney and Anderson families, who farmed the area until it was taken under eminent domain by the United States government in 1942. The purpose of this thesis is to present three osteobiographies created from human remains and material culture recovered from three graves excavated from within the cemetery in 2022 to explore the lifeways of rural Piney Woods families of Mississippi at the turn-of-the-century.

Among the graves explored, one did not contain evidence of …

Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge Detection In Slash Pine Radial Growth Along The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Coastline, Alyssa C. Crowell

Master's Theses

My thesis examines the ecological impact of tropical cyclone (TCs) storm surge on coastal slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. elliottii Engelm) communities along the Gulf of Mexico in the southern United States (U.S.). Previous research has shown slash pine radial growth trends can be examined to identify long and short-term growth changes associated with TC passage, providing insight into overall stand health and resiliency through time. However, this previous research encompasses just one site in Mississippi. My thesis expands the spatial footprint of TC-surge impact on slash pine radial growth with the addition of three new sites.

I examined …

The Impact Of Environmental Variability On Perceptions Of Parental Ability From Bodily Cues, Kaitlyn Boykin

Master's Theses

This study aimed to extend work considering how bodily cues appear diagnostic of parental ability. I examined body adiposity and sexually dimorphic features for women (i.e., breast size) and men (i.e., muscularity). I further considered how salience of resource scarcity might heighten perceptions of a potential mate as an effective parent when possessing features that connote underlying resource availability (e.g., body fat). Participants were primed with resource scarcity or a control condition before assessing parental affordances of female and male targets. Targets were orthogonally manipulated to possess high and low levels of adiposity. Female targets were manipulated for breast size …