Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fibromyalgia Syndrome: The Relationship Between Alexithymia And Attachment Style On Couple Relationship, Ileana Ungureanu

Marriage and Family Therapy - Dissertations

The fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is the most frequent cause of chronic, widespread pain in North America and Europe. It is a non-inflammatory musculoskeletal syndrome predominantly found in the female middle-aged population with a ratio men/women of ¼. Considered for decades an `imaginary' or at best a psychosomatic disease, fibromyalgia gained its status as a diagnosable entity in the early 90s giving a `voice' to the invisible suffering of people, the majority of them being women afflicted by it. While in general the research on psychosocial aspects of fibromyalgia is scarce, couple and family aspects are even less studied than individual …

Comparing Newspaper Coverage Of Climate Change During Election Campaigns In The United States, Canada And Australia, Dan Rowe

Mass Communications - Dissertations

This study compares newspaper coverage of climate change and global warming during the national elections in Australia, Canada and the U.S. during 2007 and 2008. Using a census of newspaper coverage and in-depth interviews with reporters, editors and columnists in the three countries, the study confirmed the findings of earlier studies that the political agenda shapes the news agenda when it comes to climate change coverage. However, the study did find that coverage of general climate change stories continued during the election campaign periods in the three countries. Reporters who cover either politics or environmental issues or both found it …

Toward A Theory Of Serial Entrepreneurship: Decomposing Entrepreneurial Experience, Dan Kai Hsu

Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises - Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is to examine the nature of the entrepreneur's prior experience and how it affects entrepreneurs' intentions to reenter entrepreneurship after business exit (i.e. serial entrepreneurship intentions). Drawing on psychology theories, I argue that there is qualitative difference among entrepreneurial experiences and suggest that one's entrepreneurial experience can be decomposed into three factors: financial performance, self-efficacy, and psychological ownership. Those three factors will jointly determine serial entrepreneurship intention. In addition, those three situational factors would interact with the individual's dispositional regulatory focus orientations to affect serial entrepreneurship intention. To this end, I conducted two experimental studies …

Applying The Golden Rule Towards Recruitment Effectiveness, Amanda Grant Nicholson

Social Science - Dissertations

The purpose of the present work was threefold: (1) to examine the perceptions of what makes retail recruiting organizations attractive to college undergraduates and examine what attributes recruiting organizations believe students are attracted to; (2) to examine the differences in these perceptions with particular interest in the role of the recruiters themselves and (3) to test whether specific recruitment attributes, ranked highly by the students, impacted variables already cited in the extant literature, in order to assist human resources professionals increase the effectiveness of their recruitment practices.

In the fall of 2008, four in-depth interviews with key retail recruiters, and …

A Dis-Ability Perspective On The Stigmatization Of Dissent: Critical Pedagogy, Critical Criminology, And Critical Animal Studies, Anthony John Nocella

Social Science - Dissertations

This intersectional and interdisciplinary social science qualitative dissertation in six chapters is grounded in critical research and theory for the purpose of engaged public service. This project is grounded in three formal disciplines: education, criminology, and peace and conflict studies. Within those three disciplines, this project interweaves newly emerging fields of study together, including critical animal studies, eco-ability, disability studies, environmental justice, transformative justice, green criminology, anarchist studies, and critical criminology, This dissertation adopts three qualitative methodologies; autoethnography, case study, and critical pedagogy. My project uses the animal advocacy movement as its case study. Using a critical pedagogy methodology, I …

Aghoreshwar Bhagawan Ram And The Aghor Tradition, Jishnu Shankar

Anthropology - Dissertations

Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagawan Ram Ji, a well-established saint of the holy city of Varanasi in north India, initiated many changes into the erstwhile Aghor tradition of ascetics in India. This tradition is regarded as an ancient system of spiritual or mystical knowledge by its practitioners and at least some of the practices followed in this tradition can certainly be traced back at least to the time of the Buddha. Over the course of the centuries practitioners of this tradition have interacted with groups of other mystical traditions, exchanging ideas and practices so that both parties in the exchange appear …

Genealogies Of Resistance To Incarceration: Abolition Politics Within Deinstitutionalization And Anti-Prison Activism In The U.S., Liat Ben-Moshe

Sociology - Dissertations

"Genealogies of resistance to incarceration: Abolition politics within de-institutionalization and anti- prison activism in the U.S." looks at two main sites in which abolition of "total institutions" is enacted. The first site is activism around penal and prison abolition. The second site is deinstitutionalization- the move to close down institutions for people labeled "mentally retarded" (or intellectual/developmental disabilities) and "mental illness" (or psychiatric disabilities). My goals in this study are twofold and interrelated. First, I investigate abolition or closure of institutions as a radical form of activism and sketch the costs and benefits of engaging in abolition as an activist …

Information Behaviors In Higher Education Research Administration: Support For Collaborative Proposal Development Activities, Christina Leigh Deitz

School of Information Studies - Dissertations

Proposal development is a very complex process. While the existing river of instructional materials for proposal development runs wide, the body of empirical research regarding this topic is narrow, especially concerning information behaviors surrounding the process. This study responds to this need as an empirical examination of a user-based method for improving our understanding of proposal development information behaviors. A hybrid concept of problem/situation is adopted for the purpose of characterizing proposal development as a problem situated in time and space, with institutions of higher education (IHEs) faculty as the users or population of interest for this study. This study …

The Pinochet Project: A Nation’S Search For Truth Memory Struggles In Post-Pinochet Chile, Christine Mehta

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Chile has fought for 21 years to overcome General Augusto Pinochet’s violent legacy, but moving past the pervasive influence of Pinochet’s 17-year reign is a difficult task, even today. The following work is an investigation on memory, and Chile’s struggle to come to terms with its memory of the dictatorship. The key questions asked are: How do Chileans remember the dictatorship? What does each individual’s memory mean to the collective whole? Why is confronting the past important to Chile’s future?

The investigation is divided into two parts: a journalistic portion in which individual accounts are highlighted, and an academic thesis …

Content Management System, Timothy P. Daigle

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The goal of my project was to develop a Content Management System for the CitrusTV website. This project was first brought to my attention in the Fall of 2009 by fellow Syracuse University student Alyssa Elias.

As a Newhouse Broadcast Journalism major, Alyssa recognized a need to develop a site that better mirrored the CBS news video website after having interned there the summer entering Junior year.

I was brought into the project because of my Information Technology minor, which allowed me to be familiar with the technical background necessary for the project. Additionally, my role involved maintaining communication between …

Perceptions Of Gender Roles In The Advertising Industry, Cristina Perez Balitaan

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The advertising industry since its inception has been saturated with male views and opinions, consequently manifesting in the sexual objectification of women. However, with more career opportunities for women in recent years, more women are choosing to engage in non-traditional careers, such as the fields of advertising and marketing. Yet, despite the growing female population within the advertising industry, the content of advertising still continues to be filled with gender stereotypes. To understand how female advertisers negotiate their gender role and their role as a media producer, I surveyed female advertising students of S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (N=100) …

Mandatory Hiv Testing During Pregnancy: A Review Of Its Considerations, Ethics & Precedents, Abigail C. Beaudette

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Every year, in the United States, between 100-200 babies are infected prenatally with HIV. With the use of antiretroviral medications, elective cesarean section and formula feeding, the risk of vertical transmission can be reduced to less than 2%. In this paper I analyzed whether or not state governments should mandate HIV testing for all pregnant women in order to reduce vertical transmission of HIV. By looking at the cases for and against mandatory testing, as well as looking at states such as Connecticut who have implemented mandatory testing, I will present the case for why the benefit of mandatory testing …

Preventing Pandemics: Contributing Factors To Susceptibility During The H1n1 Pandemic, Melanie A. Zilora

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper uses Poisson and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques on panel data from the United Nations World Health Organization’s FluNet to evaluate factors contributing to a country’s H1N1 influenza (swine flu) pandemic outcomes. Countries with higher development (as measured by gross domestic product and the United Nations Human Development Program’s development index) and higher mean annual temperature (as measured in the capital city) tended to have an earlier first reporting of cases. Though subject to reporting biases, the results also suggest that mass vaccinations have a negative effect on weekly reported cases. Countries that would vaccinate in the …

The Effects Of Walmart On Healthcare And Unionization: Is America Really Saving Money And Living Better?, Leyla Ziad

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As the largest private sector employer in the United States, corporate retail giant Walmart continues to make waves in United States culture and the economy since launching its first store in 1962. As Walmart seeks to expand, the validity of its consumer guarantee to “save money, live better” has been increasingly scrutinized, given Walmart’s use of controversial business practices, most notably its employee benefit policies and anti-unionization efforts. With over 1.4 million employees in the United States, there is much talk surrounding the potential costs of Walmart’s low prices. This study analyzes selected healthcare and unionization impacts of Walmart in …

Between Structural Violence And Resistance: The Everyday Resistance Of Karen Migrants In Thailand, John Giammatteo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper details the lives of eight Karen-Burmese migrants living in Mae Sot, Thailand, a city on the Thai-Burma border and one of the main legal crossing points between the two countries. The study demonstrates the important relationship between structural violence and everyday resistance. It documents how individuals in a legally liminal state can increase their security and it describes just how these linkages occur – that migrants utilize their liminality and “in-between” status and attempt to increase their security to avoid oppression and harassment in daily life. By linking these concepts – resistance and liminality posed against structural violence …

Utilization Of The New York State Division Of Human Rights, Sarah Turney

Honors Capstone Projects - All

There is a general disconnect between the services the New York State government offers and their utilization. This paper focuses on the New York State Division of Human Rights. The New York State Division of Human Rights purpose is to enforce the Human Rights Law through investigations into complaints of discrimination based on the protected classes. For the purposes of this paper, only employment discrimination will be discussed.

This paper argues the lack of utilization of these services arises from the lack of resident awareness of these services. Moreover, this paper argues that implementing practical government lesson plans into the …

Imagining Place, Fighting For Space The Story Of The National Heritage Area Movement, Jesse Solomon Turiel

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In this paper, I analyze recent economic and political trends by providing an in depth look at the National Heritage Area (NHA) program. By tracing their conception and origination back to the early 1980s, I attempt to place NHAs within the larger framework of deindustrialization and government cutbacks that were occurring at the time. Furthermore, I show how, with their emphasis on building social capital and creating cross-jurisdictional ties, NHAs were a natural response to emerging “new regionalist” ideals in America. By embracing the concept of regional partnerships to enhance economic competitiveness, NHAs signaled a new drive towards geographical thinking …

The Medicalization Of “Homosexuality”, Kristin (Lula) Townsend

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Cross culturally and historically people who are attracted to members of their own sex ("homosexuals") have been viewed and treated in radically different ways. Some societies have exhibited tolerance or indifference, whereas others have vilified and persecuted homosexuals. Using primary sources, this project reviews the major sociological and medical theories of “homosexuality” between 1864 and 1946, evaluates their bias and political implications, and closes with a brief overview of contemporary research.

In chapter two the themes of the texts presented are: causality, diagnosis, and treatment. The primary theory between 1864 and 1908 argues the congenital nature of “homosexuality. The themes …

Bricks And Brick Making At The Harriet Tubman Home: Archaeology, History And Neutron Activation Analysis, Alan D. Armstrong

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This archaeological study examines a brick kiln and use of brick at Harriet Tubman’s farmsteads in Auburn and Fleming, New York. The study begins by presenting evidence of a brick kiln on the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged (HTH) property and proceeds to a refined analysis of brick and clay element composition using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to define source from structures and features across the property. The study uses findings relating to brick use to examine and the social and economic roles of brick making on Tubman’s properties and in the local community. The brick kiln on the …

High School Students’ Knowledge Of Careers And Non-College Post-Secondary Options, Mariel Stein

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This Capstone Project discusses high school students’ knowledge of careers and non-college post-secondary options. The problem this project addresses is the fact that many high school students lack adequate knowledge of careers and non-college post-secondary options, and therefore they often make poor decisions regarding their post-secondary plans.

The methodology used was research, observations, and personal communication. I conducted inductive research because I felt that my information of high school vocational education was too narrow and I wanted to broaden my knowledge to see what the trend is across the country, what the causes of the aforementioned problem are, and what …

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Global And Domestic Implications Of The Rise Of A New Major Player In International Finance, Michelle Sollod

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The subject of petrodollar recycling has frequently captured the interest of academics, politicians and the media. Specifically, the issue typically boils down to one central question: where exactly are the petrodollars—revenue earned from the sale of oil—flowing? According to traditional scholars like Bernard Mommer and Terry Lynn Karl the recurring argument is that in oil-exporting nations, oil revenues are channeled directly into the hands of a few government officials resulting in corruption, inequality and economic decay.

However, the main limitation of this traditional argument is that it tends to focus solely on the dynamics between the national level and local …

Is Creativity Related To Physical Health? The Relationships Between Creativity, Flow, Self-Esteem, Physical Activity And Health-Related Quality Of Life, Molly Siwula

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The relationship between creativity and overall health has not been widely examined, as researchers have previously focused mainly on the association between creativity and mental illness. Certain aspects of the creative personality (i.e. high physical energy, intelligence, passion, and self-discipline) may predict engagement in healthy behaviors. Creativity has been shown to positively relate to self-esteem, which also has been linked to general health. In addition, both athletes and creative individuals tend to experience flow. This study examined self-esteem and flow as possible mechanisms to partially account for the relationship between creativity and general health. Community participants (N = 83) …

Investigating How Resource And Situation Type Influence The Sunk-Cost Fallacy, Jenae A. Richardson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract Not Included

The Informal Economy And Women In Latin America, Maria Rein

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My project addresses the issues surrounding the informal economy in Latin America specifically as it pertains to Latin American women. Though my biggest difficulty was the lack of official statistics of an informal economy, I was able to perform my research through an in depth analysis of many other documents concerning social, cultural, economic and political factors. The first part of my research addressed the definition of an informal economy and how it is measured. Importantly, it distinguishes between an “illegal” informal economy and a “proper” informal economy, with most of my research relating to the “proper” informal economy. I …

Liminality As A Space Of Self Reflection On El Camino De Santiago Del Norte, Amanda Redpath

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As ancient pilgrimage across Spain, El Camino de Santiago has affected the lives of the pilgrims that travel it for centuries taking on new meanings as it passes through time. Traditionally, scholars maintain that the focus of a pilgrim’s journey lies at the final destination, or pilgrimage center in Santiago de Compostela. This project demonstrates, however, that the emphasis should lie on the journey or period of liminality which through concepts of place has created a space for self-reflection and meditation. Analysis of pilgrim interviews within the context of a wide array of scholarly literature in the disciplines of anthropology, …

Renewable Energy Policy In Ukraine, Joe Ralbovsky

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose and motivation behind the creation and administration of a renewable energy policy creation simulation was to test the usefulness and feasibility of a participatory simulation as a way to teach concepts of policy, negotiation and energy strategy. The learning objectives of the simulation were illustrate the challenges associated with developing comprehensive policy, to teach the content of the simulation in an effective and meaningful way, and to provide a chance to practice discussion and negotiation skills in a practical setting.

I chose to place the simulation in the setting of Ukraine to avoid preconceptions about energy policy on …

Media Bias In Covering The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: With A Case Study Of Bbc Coverage And Its Foundation Of Impartiality, Gerard Mctigue

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In 2009 I began a long process of researching allegations made against the British Broadcasting Corporation and its media coverage of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict. Stemming from courses on European society and politics as well as a summer program examining the British Government’s relationship with the media, I took an immediate interest in the BBC. I was then fortunate enough to know a professor from abroad who worked with the BBC and through his connections I was able to interview a plethora of employees from the Corporation.

The former correspondent from Jerusalem, the Editor of BBC Online Middle East, an …

Micropolitical Opportunity Structure In Burma, Nicole Loring

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper looks to answer the question: Why do citizens in Burma continue challenging the military regime through peaceful social movements despite of the threat of violent oppression? I set out to examine Burma as an anomaly in political opportunity structure theory. Political opportunity structure influences the type of political action most likely to take place within a regime by affecting which political claims are possible. At first, Burma appears to be a low-democracy, low-capacity regime, which should host civil wars. However, in Burma’s cities, peaceful social movements continue to take place. My capstone seeks to explain this problem.

In …

Assessment Of Suny Upstate Medical University’S Child Telepsychiatry Consultation Program, Mary E. Lau

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Objectives: The project assesses the child telepsychiatry services provided by SUNY Upstate psychiatrists to several county mental health clinics in central New York State. Method: Data for forty-five patients was extracted from pre-consultation forms completed by the referring clinic and post-consultation summaries completed by the Upstate psychiatrists that occurred between July 13^th, 2009 and May 12^th, 2010. The study identified characteristics of patients for whom telepsychiatry consultations were sought, reviewed recommendations provided by the telepsychiatry consultant, and noted recommended changes in therapy and medication. Results: Analysis of the data showed that there was a large variation …

Women’S Rights To Contraception And Abortion In Chile And Spain, Erin Kosalwat Elzo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract

Women’s reproductive rights, particularly the rights to contraceptives and abortions, have been a contentious issue that often divides people into different political spectrums. The objective of this research was to examine women’s rights to contraception and abortion inChileandSpain. The majority of the population in these two countries is Roman Catholic (94% inSpainand 70% inChile). Both countries ratified the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as well as signed the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW. This research was based on an extensive review of literature that involved documents from government and non-government …