Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Educational Benefits Of Cultural Institutions, Brian Kisida

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant portion of the education children receive occurs outside of the traditional classroom and produces outcomes not typically captured by standardized achievement tests. This dissertation is part of an effort to expand the educational venues and outcomes educational researchers rigorously examine. In particular, I present the key results from experimental studies of the effects of school tours to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR., and to the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, AR.

Chapter 1 focuses on arts exposure and critical thinking outcomes. A problem for the arts’ role in education has been a …

A Social Marketing Plan For The Arkansas Miracle League, Abby Stuart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Miracle League is a baseball league specially designed to allow disabled children, teens, and adults have the same opportunity to play baseball as able-bodied individuals on a field specifically designed to accommodate all disabilities. This thesis offers the Miracle League of Arkansas a specified Social marketing plan. In order to assist Miracle League in the acquisition of new players, volunteers, and donors, research was compiled and conducted to implement a successful Social marketing plan for the spring 2016 Miracle League season. This Social marketing plan gives Miracle League recommendations on how to appeal to parents of potential Miracle League players, …

Architectures For A Future South: Posthumanism And Ruin In The Novels Of Cormac Mccarthy, Joshua Ryan Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reads the novels of Cormac McCarthy as posthuman southern literature to explain why fiction from the South after World War II could no longer convey a sense of place during postmodernity: that is, because the region's culture and economy were transitioning from predominantly humanistic thinking (i.e., believing that humans [and especially southern humans] are supreme beings) to predominantly posthumanistic thinking (i.e., believing that humans are not as supreme as they think they are). It argues that we can trace this ideological change over time via structural shifts in the South’s architectural record, which we see in the ruins …

Human Nature And Cop Art: A Biocultural History Of The Police Procedural, Jay Edward Baldwin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior to 1948 there was no “police procedural” genre of crime fiction. After 1948 and since, the genre, which prominently features police officers at work, has been among the more popular of all forms of literary, televisual, and cinematic fiction. The received history suggests that much of the credit for this is due to Jack Webb, creator of Dragnet.

This study complicates that received history and traces the historical emergence of this signifying practice to early 20th century ideologies of Social control and the conjuncture of Social forces that ultimately coalesced in the training practices of the Los Angeles Police …

Noise., Laura Katherine Polaski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My research is in the realm of the psychological, the emotional and way these drives manifest physically. The works in Noise. aims to give a physical representation to the non-physical. Research on Affect Theory and the teachings of Silvan Tomkins were paramount to understanding emotional drives and the ways in which they manifest.

The purpose of this research is to understand how emotions are generated and communicated and to ask if specific emotions can be generated upon viewing inanimate objects. I create abstract figurative sculpture, which imitate emotion that has no specific physicality. These works exist with one foot in …

Homelessness In Arkansas, Nichelle Sullivan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to reveal a realistic narrative about homelessness in Arkansas through the qualitative perspective provided by people directly affected by homelessness. We interviewed experts with both theoretical and applied experience in examining the causes and different pathways into homelessness, as well as some of the avenues that can assist someone to successfully navigate out of homelessness. This research documentary focuses particularly on the experiences of homeless families headed by single women and the challenges they face in resolving homelessness. Qualitative interviews were performed and a website was created that is targeted towards helping others to find the necessary …

Framing Responsibility For Bullying: An Ethnographic Content Analysis, Kayla Knight

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to explore ways in which American print news media frame responsibility for adolescent and teen bullying. More specifically, how media portray responsibility for the underlying causes and consequences of bullying, as well as for responding to bullying, are examined. Drawing from media studies and the construction of Social problems literature, the study is guided by two broad research questions, 1) How do American news media frame responsibility for bullying? and 2) What news sources, or "claims-makers," are selected as authorities on bullying in news media articles? Articles published between 2009 and 2013 are …

Treasonous Patriot: A Comparative Content Analysis Of The Media's Portrayals Of Daniel Ellsberg And Edward Snowden, Kaylin Mcloud

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On June 9, 2013, the world was introduced to Edward Joseph Snowden, a 29-year-old NSA contractor and the man responsible for the biggest leak of classified government documents in American history. Almost immediately, comparisons were drawn between Snowden and another famous whistleblower--Daniel Ellsberg, the man behind the 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers. The overwhelming rhetoric surrounding the comparison was that Ellsberg was a true American patriot and that Snowden was nothing like him, that he was a traitor. Despite Ellsberg's own claims that he and Snowden are exactly alike, the media still finds Snowden lacking when comparing him with …

The Impact Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty On International Students' Intercultural And Intracultural Conflict Management, Yekaterina Syrtsova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the role of intolerance of uncertainty in international students' conflict management in intracultural and intercultural settings. International students at a large U.S. university were surveyed and their responses were analyzed using quantitative methods. Analyses indicated that the higher the intolerance of uncertainty scores, the higher the use of dominating and avoiding strategies. The results in this study also revealed that when controlling for sex, the higher the individuals' intolerance of uncertainty score, the lower their preference for integrating-compromising strategy. Finally, there were limited differences between the ways international students handle conflict with conflict partners from their own …

Congruent And Incongruent Effects Of Ethnic Music On Ethnic Menu Item Selection, Ryan David Muniz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated what impact ethnic music had on ethnic menu item selection. College students were randomly divided into three groups and listened to one randomly assigned sound treatment in sensory booths. Three hundred and five participants completed the questionnaire with measures of expected price value and willingness to pay value. One of the groups listened to an Italian folk music, the second group listened to a Thai folk music, and the third group listened to a restaurant background noise in order to examine if the music will impact each participant menu items selection and perceived price values. The result …

Identifying Emerging Researchers Using Social Network Analysis, Syed Masum Billah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Finding rising stars in academia early in their careers has many implications when hiring new faculty, applying for promotion, and/or requesting grants. Typically, the impact and productivity of a researcher are assessed by a popular measurement called the h-index that grows linearly with the academic age of a researcher. Therefore, h-indices of researchers in the early stages of their careers are almost uniformly low, making it difficult to identify those who will, in future, emerge as influential leaders in their field. To overcome this problem, we make use of Social network analysis to identify young researchers most likely to become …

The Jim Lindsey Story, Clinton Robert Fullen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The history of Arkansas Razorback football is composed of legends, and without a doubt, Jim Lindsey is one of its most successful players—on and off the field. Lindsey won a national championship, became an NFL captain and built a thriving real–estate empire across the South.

Narrated by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, “The Jim Lindsey Story” begins in the Arkansas Delta. Back then, Lindsey was simply a small boy who dreamt of playing ball. Weekdays were spent in the cotton fields, and weekends were used for cow–pasture baseball. In time, that boy grew up to be a very big man. …

Imagining Kurdish Identity In Mandatory Syria: Finding A Nation In Exile, Ahmet Serdar Akturk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation looks at the activities of the Kurdish nationalists from Turkey who were exiled in Syria and Lebanon during the period of the French mandate, and especially Jaladet and Kamuran Bedirkhan. Scions of a princely Kurdish family from the Botan region in Eastern Anatolia, the Bedirkhan brothers initiated a Kurdish cultural movement in exile following the failure of two armed rebellions against the new Turkish Republic in 1925 and 1930. Central to this cultural movement was the publication of journals in Damascus and Beirut, namely Hawar (1932-1943) Ronahi (1942-1945), Roja Nu/Le Jour Nouveau (1943-1946), and Ster (1943-1945).

This study …

Turpentine Creek: Arkansas' Refuge, Jacob Paul Bain

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this Master's thesis film project was twofold. First, I wanted to explore the problem, huge but relatively unknown, of the ownership of exotic pets in the United States of America. Second, in conjunction with that problem, I wanted to see how Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR) approached it and what, as an organization, they do to help resolve this problem locally and nationally. In turn, the film also provides an in-depth look at a very unique refuge in the state of Arkansas. Using my own equipment, I shot and edited a short-form documentary about TCWR. The film …

Your Media Speak So Loud I Can't Hear A Word You're Saying: Impact Of Media And Media Selection On Performance, Martin Hassell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the proliferation of communication media and technologies available, it is important for teams to understand the influence of these media on the performance of their communications. Additionally, it is important for researchers to understand how teams choose and use media. Literature on communication media impacts and communication performance has been somewhat fragmented, and researchers have used different theories and paradigms to study this problem. Researchers still do not have a full understanding of how media influences communication, whether teams recognize and select appropriate media for their communication needs, and what makes some communication more effective, irrespective of the communication …

Visual And Linguistic Influences On Public Perceptions Of Swine Confinement, Arthur Leal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to analyze the visual and linguistic characteristics of online (YouTube) videos and electronic newspapers, identifying relationships with positive, negative, and neutral attitudes toward swine confinement.

This study followed a content analysis design. Two coders, trained to an acceptable level of agreement (κ = .68), examined online videos and electronic newspapers, assessing linguistic and visual images used in relation to attitudes toward swine confinement. A series of search terms deemed suitable for this study's objectives were employed in multiple search engines, and 48 articles and 157 videos were coded for content.

Results from this study showed that …

Cycle, Nichole Annette Howard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cycle is the exhibition of a year-long project that experiments with growing food and medicinal herbs. Alongside an exploration of plant growth, I transfer iconic cultural objects of daily life from plastic to ceramics. Using material culture as a physical and conceptual platform, this re-contextualization of objects offers a radically different view of use and meaning. I transform the soda-filled, plastic Big Gulp cup into a terra planter filled with new life.

My working method involves making molds of Big Gulp plastic cups and transferring the form into a traditional plant growing material, terra cotta. I then germinate seeds inside …

Media Focus In Afghanistan News Coverage, Abdul Qahar Jawad

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the Media Focus in Afghanistan News Coverage to examine what categories of Afghanistan-related news received the largest amount of coverage during periods from 2010 to 2012. This study covered reports in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Daily Outlook Afghanistan, a national Afghan news outlet, as a sample within a period of three months over three years (June 2010, July 2011, and August 2012). The 147 news stories' headlines of the four news organizations were studied to find what categories (process: peace talks, negotiation, and economic development; conflict: violence and military action; …

Archaeological Prospecting Using Historic Aerial Imagery: Investigations In Northeast And Southwest Arkansas, Emily Jean Bitely

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the potential of historic aerial photographs as a tool for archaeological site prospecting. Craighead and Mississippi Counties in northeast Arkansas and areas adjacent to the Red and Little Rivers in southwest Arkansas were chosen as study areas. These regions have undergone significant changes in the past few decades and were expected to yield visible types of archaeological sites. Historic aerial images of these areas were obtained through the U.S. Geological Survey's EarthExplorer database (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). These images were processed using Agisoft PhotoScan Professional to produce extensive regional orthoimages.

Using the Arkansas Archeological Survey's Automated Management of Archeological Site …

"Why Can't We Be Friends?:" Does The Quality Of Romantic Relationships Influence Facebook Friendships With Former Romantic Partners, Dylan Medeiros

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research attempted to identify relational characteristics of unmarried, romantic partners that ultimately distinguish between former partners who remained Facebook friends versus those who did not. Survey results (N=323) revealed no significant differences between former partners who remained Facebook friends versus those who did not remain Facebook friends based on quantity of relational investments, preference for de-escalatory disengagement strategy, and relational satisfaction.

University Public Relations: A Survey Of University Communicators' Efforts To Influence U.S. News & World Report Peer Survey Respondents, Heidi Stambuck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined what differences exist between the work of public relations professionals (also called communicators) who are members of CASE, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, at colleges and universities ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report and CASE-member communicators at colleges and universities that are ranked between 21 and 200 in their behavior in four areas: (1) communication goals they consider top priorities, (2) types of communication tasks they perform, (3) types of media in which they purchase advertising, and (4) their rating of audience importance. A survey completed by CASE-member …

Ant Tribe, Yan Zhao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Ant Tribe" describes the post-80s generation university graduates who live together in poor conditions without Social security in communities around China's major metropolises. They dream of a better life in big cities but struggle with low-paying jobs. These struggling "elites" have become the fourth weak Social group, after peasants, migrant workers and unemployed people. The reason why these college graduates are compared to ants is that they are like ants: clever, hardworking, politically weak and living in groups.

The real world is always different from the ideal world of the "Ant Tribe" in China. They often lose their purposes in …

Inspired Living, Gongke Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inspired Living is a juxtaposition of old and new, contemplating the shift of values in contemporary China.

Patriotism used to be one of the key values in the Chinese people's minds, but those values have changed dramatically. Fewer people are thinking about or talking about patriotism, like sacrificing for the country or serving the people. In reality, getting rich and spending money to purchase all kinds of products, either absolute necessities or unnecessary luxuries, has become the key value of many Chinese people.

The images used in this project are all found and come from various sources, including books and …

Content Of Sexual Assault Prevention Programs: What Evidence Could Change College Women's Minds?, Abigail Lee Moser

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault is a serious health issue for college women. Unfortunately, the results of previous research revealed that intervention programs designed for women have been largely ineffective at changing women's attitudes, knowledge, and victimization concerning sexual assault. The purpose of the present investigation was to identify forms of persuasive evidence that women report as having changed their attitudes, knowledge, and behavior concerning sexual assault. Focus groups were used to identify common themes college women use to explain their understandings of these topics. These focus groups discussed how close family members impacted their behaviors concerning sexual assault, how they gained their …

The Relationship Of Women's Magazines And Their Websites: A Comparative Analysis Of Print And Web Content, Allison Walker Ruff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the digital expansion of magazines, it is essential to determine how a magazine's online and digital content compares to its print content. The editorial strategy for print content versus Web content could make a difference in consumers' brand attachment and loyalty to a magazine. Magazines must have a dynamic online strategy that offers a different experience than printed material in order to gain new relationships and strengthen those relationships people already have with the brand. A comparative analysis of the print content versus the online website content of four separate women's publications can help determine if each magazine is …

Contextual Influences On Small Group Decision-Making: A Field Investigation, Sarah Kathryn Chorley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines small group decision-making among groups of educators in an elementary school through the Bona Fide Group Perspective, which focuses on a group and its relationships to elements in its context. Twenty-six faculty members were interviewed and 26 meetings were recorded; these were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicated contextual, relational, and discursive factors influenced the decision-making process. Most critically, power, status, overlapping group memberships, and competing Discourses shaped the group decision-making process.

Objectivity And Balance In Conflict Reporting: Imperatives For The Media Amid The Tensions In The South China Sea Dispute, Huong Thu Thi Vu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This cross-cultural study explores practice of journalists during June and July of 2011, the most recent peak period of the multi-national conflict in South China Sea. It examines factors that influence journalists and news media outlets when reporting a conflict in which their country is a party, using the theory of news framing process and war journalism.

The Perception Of Athletes In Local And Neutral Media Markets, Gregory Stine

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the perception of professional athletes in local and neutral media markets. The purpose of the study was to determine how people in Philadelphia and people in Arkansas feel toward the Philadelphia Eagles' Nnamdi Asomugha. It was expected that the study's participants in Philadelphia would feel more positively toward Asomugha and would be more aware of his off-the-field contributions. Additionally, it was expected that there would be a positive relationship between team identification level and both positive feelings toward Asomugha and awareness of his efforts away from the field. Finally, it was anticipated that participants near Philadelphia would …

A Survey Of Women In Sports Media, Holly Sullivan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since 1995 (Miller and Miller), women in sports media (WSM) have been citing the difficulties of balancing their careers and their personal lives, specifically the challenges of family life. Previous research has shown that most WSM are leaving their careers between six to ten years on the job and have cited reasons of work conflicting with their careers (Hardin, Shain and Shultz-Poniatowski, 2008). Work-family conflicts has also been cited a reason for lower job satisfaction (Reindary, 2007). This survey is the first survey to compare work-family conflict to variables of job satisfaction.

The Price Of Dissent: Freedom Of Speech And Arkansas Criminal Anarchy Arrests, Jamie Leto Kern

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolutions, America's Red Scare began, inciting fanatical patriotism and an alleged threat of anarchy that gripped a nation with fear. Paranoia about communists, Socialists, and anarchists divided the country and resulted in many states, including Arkansas, passing criminal anarchy laws. Since a majority of those accused of anti-American activities were involved in labor disputes, Arkansas makes for an interesting case study; not only did it have a relative lack of labor disputes, it still passed anti-Bolshevik laws. The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of the ways in which dissenters …