Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Intra-Individual And Cross-Partner Associations Between The Five Facets Of Mindfulness And Relationship Satisfaction, Katherine Allison Lenger

Masters Theses

Research has established that mindfulness may be useful to individual and dyadic wellbeing among both early-stage and long-term relationships. Nonetheless, it remains unclear which mechanisms of mindfulness are most relevant to relationship satisfaction among long-term married couples. Furthermore, although previous research suggests that an individual’s total mindfulness is not related to his or her partner’s relationship satisfaction, we have yet to determine whether any specific facets of mindfulness may evidence a significant cross-partner association with relationship satisfaction. The present study seeks to address these gaps in the literature using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Data were collected from 164 …

Understanding The Relationship Between Country Reputation And Corporate Reputation, Minsoo Kim

Masters Theses

Increasing attention has been paid to the relationship between country reputation and corporate reputation by both public and private sectors. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship by investigating the factors that influence and are influenced by country reputation. In particular, this study examines (a) the impact of country reputation on foreign consumers’ attitudes toward brand and product purchase intentions, (b) the relationship between corporate reputation on country reputation, and (c) the mediating role of product image. Key findings of the study include the positive impact of corporate reputation on country reputation, and the mediating …

A Morphometric Examination Of Cranial Vault Modification In The Middle Cumberland Region Of Central Tennessee, Gregory James Wehrman

Masters Theses

Cranial vault modification (CVM) is a physical manifestation of intersections between culture and biology. Cultural practices that apply pressure to the head during infancy result in significant reshaping of the skull and can be either intentional or unintentional. Occipital flattening is present among many Mississippian skeletal samples from the Middle Cumberland Region (MCR) of central Tennessee and is thought to be an unintentional result of childcare practices. Traditional methods for CVM classification have concentrated on visual assessment of location and means of flattening; however, this method is subjective. This thesis seeks to evaluate visual assessment of CVM through a morphometric …

Iraqi Refugee Mothers’ Perceptions Of Parental Involvement And Experiences Within School Systems, Bethany Deniece Parker

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to examine Iraqi refugee mothers’ perceptions of their involvement in and experiences within their children’s schools. Research was informed by symbolic interaction framework, which views human behaviors in relation to their perceptions of and experiences with the world around them. Therefore, qualitative methodology was employed in order to ask participants specific questions related to their perceptions of parental involvement and their experiences with the local school system. Four participants were recruited, and recruitment of participants was facilitated through an organization that aids refugees as they resettle in the United States. The organization assisted …

Grounded Theory On China’S New Population Policy Reporting By The New York Times, Chen Hu

Masters Theses

The current thesis explores The New York Times’ coverage of China’s new population policy. On November 26, 2013, China updated its one-child policy to the selective one-child policy that allowed couples to have two children if one of the parents is single child. On October 30, 2016, China then erased the one-child policy, implementing the universal two-child policy that allowed all couples to raise two children. The New York Times, as an important western medium extensively covered China’s population policy.

This study collected 40 news articles from The New York Times, using grounded theory to explore the …

Testing A Model Based Approach To Selective And Flexible Attention, Anastasia Nicole Kerr-German

Masters Theses

A recent neural-process approach using dynamic field theory (DFT), put forth by Buss and Spencer (2014), demonstrated how a simple dimensional attention mechanism can explain the behavioral and neural data associated with the development of flexible attention and performance in the Dimensional Change Card Sorting task (DCCS). Taking a dynamical systems approach to the development of attention in executive functioning is critical as it allows us to further probe the underlying processes and mechanisms that give rise to later life success.

The goal of the current proposal is to generalize DFT in order to explain the development of selective attention …

Family Environment Variables And Adjustment Outcomes In Appalachian Youth: The Moderating Role Of Participation In Extracurricular Activities, Rebecca Lee Shorter

Masters Theses

Objective: Poor family functioning and parenting practices are often linked to poor adjustment outcomes for children and adolescents. We examined the association between relational and contextual family environment variables and adjustment outcomes in an understudied sample of rural Appalachian youth. Also examined was whether extracurricular involvement moderated the relationship between these variables. Method: Participants were 367 adolescents from multiple high schools (grades 9-12) in an Appalachian region of rural East Tennessee. Self-report measures were used to assess internalizing and externalizing problems, family relationships, extracurricular activity, and health risk behaviors; truancy data was collected from academic records. Results: As expected, family …

Functions Of Aggression And Peer Victimization In Elementary School Children: The Mediating Role Of Social Preference, Samantha Manring

Masters Theses

This study examined the longitudinal associations among functions of aggression, social preference, and peer victimization. Participants were 492 children (249 girls, 227 boys) in grades 2-5. Proactive and reactive aggression was assessed via a self-report measure and indices of social preference and peer victimization were assessed via a peer nomination inventory. Data was collected during the fall and spring of two academic years. Results suggest that the relation between aggression, social preference, and peer victimization varied by the function of aggression and gender. For girls, reactive aggression was a significant negative predictor of social preference. Findings also revealed social preference …

Factors Influencing Product Liability Insurance Adoption Among Tennessee Fruit And Vegetable Farmers, Matthew Robert Edwards

Masters Theses

Foodborne illness outbreaks linked to the consumption of fresh produce expose fruit and vegetable growers to uncertain legal and compensatory costs associated with product liability actions. Product liability insurance protects farmers against the risk of financial loss from product liability actions and may create opportunities for market expansion, but insights from recent focus groups suggest that Tennessee farmers may perceive this insurance coverage as cost prohibitive. This study evaluates the factors influencing adoption of product liability insurance among Tennessee fruit and vegetable producers. Using data from a 2013 survey of Tennessee fruit and vegetable farmers, factors influencing the adoption decision …

Young Adults And The Consequences Of Precarious Work, Aaron Robert Lemelin

Masters Theses

Despite the appearance of affluence attained by the community’s economic growth, the prevalence of service sector jobs have altered the employment structure of South County. Within this thesis, it is my purpose to answer two questions. First, how are young adults limited in their economic security due to precarious work? Second, how has precarious work disempowered young adults and altered their ability to respond to their immiseration? In order to answer these questions I conduct qualitative interviews with young adults within a region of Hillsborough County, Florida. These interviews help me elaborate on young adults and their experiences with precarious …

Deeply Rooted: A Feasibility Study Testing The Potential For Ams Dating Through Paleoethnobotanical Recovery Methods At The Topper Site (38al23), Sarah Elizabeth Walters

Masters Theses

Archaeologists often make limiting operational choices that — though considered and logical — are (sometimes) necessarily selective in nature. One such a priori framework posits that costly paleoethnobotanical recovery and associated analyses are not worthwhile when working in sandy, acidic soils; as dateable organic remains are too rapidly destroyed by inherent chemical and mechanical processes to allow for differential preservation. This research demonstrates that these destructive processes are largely misunderstood. Indeed, the successful collection of significant paleoethnobotanical material is possible from certain types of sandy soils previously thought to be organically sterile. Moreover, such paleoethnobotanical recovery efforts can yield viable, …

Incentives For Best Management Practice Adoption Among Beef Cattle Producers And Effects On Upland Sediment Loss: A Case Study In Southeastern Tennessee, Laura Jane Medwid

Masters Theses

Federal programs incentivize livestock managers to adopt best management practices (BMPs), such as rotational grazing, water tank systems, stream crossings, and pasture improvement to prevent or reduce soil erosion. This thesis addresses the challenge of integrating socio-economic data on rotational grazing (RG) adoption behavior with hydrologic/biophysical models to analyze the association between incentives, BMP adoption, and changes in soil erosion. Using primary survey data of livestock producers in an East Tennessee watershed, the study estimates willingness to adopt BMPs among livestock producers. The propensity to adopt one or multiple management technologies, given an incentive, is estimated with a multivariate probit …

Social Capital: Helping Hand Or Source Of Friction? A Case Study Of Knoxville, Tn, Michael Davis Hodges

Masters Theses

Social capital is defined as the use of social substitutes for resources that usually must be purchased. Social capital can be an impetus for upward residential and social mobility or a source of friction that leads to stagnation. Social capital is often considered as a valuable resource with a potential to lift the urban poor out of poverty, putting them into more equitable housing situations. In low-income communities, however, this resource has the potential to suppress mobility as the quality of such social relationships is affected by fault lines of society like racism, gender disparity, and the increasingly unequal distribution …

Estimating The Economic Value Of Water For Agriculture And Other Industries In Tennessee, Stephanie Michaela Owen

Masters Theses

Tennessee’s currently abundant water resources could eventually become stressed as population continues to rise, climate change impacts water resources, and as agricultural producers continue to increase irrigation. These stresses could impact the productivity of the agricultural sectors and other economic sectors as competition for limited water resources increases. Farmers, policymakers, and researchers alike could benefit from quantifying the economic value of water to help formulate cost-effective and sustainable water use practices. This analysis establishes the water withdrawals (also referred to as “water use”) per dollar of output for competing economic sectors and uses those values in an Input-Output Linear Programming …

Regional Dynamic Price Relationships Of Distillers Dried Grains In U.S. Feed Markets, Matthew Fulton Johnson

Masters Theses

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is now a mainstream substitute in U.S. animal feed rations. DDGS is rich in fat and protein content and serves as a competitive feed source in livestock markets. The objective of this study is to identify dynamic price relationships among DDGS, corn, soybean meal, and livestock outputs in context of specific livestock sectors and their geographic location. Four locations associated with a predominant livestock sector are selected for analysis by measuring density and relative proportion of a livestock sector’s grain consumption at the county level. A vector error correction model is applied to post-mandate …

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of The Bonnaroo Music And Arts Festival Website: A Cultural Criminology Of Peace- And Community-Building, Katie Marie Highbaugh

Masters Theses

Social settings that are low in interpersonal crime offer an opportunity to understand social control and, moreover, peace-making. Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival held each summer since 2002 in Manchester, Tennessee, is a contemporary example of a peaceable provisional community. To analyze the culture of Bonnaroo, I undertook a multimodal discourse analysis, which is as a systematic analysis of all texts and images (Fairclough 2013; Machin & Mayr 2012). I paid particular attention to how the website was able to foster community via what they communicated and how – through overall website design or visual semiotics, and images, as well …

Troubles At Coal Creek: Rhetorics Of Writing, Research, And The Archive, Sumner Stevenson Brown

Masters Theses

Digging through the past can uncover painful truths. As such, historiography that does not acknowledge negotiated spaces, cultural erasures, and flexible frameworks may fall short. It may limit both breadth and depth of the past, thereby (re)producing erasures, whereas a reflexive theoretical framework delivers not only depth and breadth, but it also adds texture and dimension to historical writing and research processes. It is for these purposes that the value of alternative methodologies is not situated at the margins of the rhetorical canons. Instead, it is embedded in the very core of the canons, defined as an element that works …

The Rhetoric Of Perpetual Warfare: A Political Discourse Analysis Of The Obama Administration’S Legitimation Of U.S. Drone Strikes, Douglas Ray Oeser

Masters Theses

Since 2002, the United States has engaged in a new form of warfare that is not fought by armies or navies but by pilotless aircraft able to conduct surveillance and direct missile strikes across the globe. To date, US military drones have launched hundreds of attacks against locations in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen (Bureau of Investigative Journalism 2016). During the Obama presidency, a program that began as a strategic alternative to direct military intervention became the dominant means of confronting imminent threats to national security before they came to fruition. Increased reliance upon this new technology has resulted in international …

Utilizing Behavioral Monitoring To Detect Sickness Or Injury In Dairy Cow And Calves, Nicole Louise Eberhart

Masters Theses

Cattle experience behavioral changes during incidences of discomfort such as respiratory disease, hock injuries, and lameness. Visual evaluation of these conditions, particularly lameness and respiratory disease can be subjective and may lead to untreated animals, which reduces the overall well-being of the animals. In order to improve detection of affected cattle, continuous or combined monitoring systems should be used. These technologies may improve detection compared to visual assessment by reducing human bias. Behavioral changes in particular may be detected through these means, with changes indicating potential health abnormalities in the individual cattle. One such behavior that changes during incidences of …

Slave Subsistence Strategies At Thomas Jefferson’S Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis And Interpretation Of The Site 8 (44ab442) Macrobotanical Assemblage, Stephanie Nicole Hacker

Masters Theses

Throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, millions of enslaved Africans and African Americans were crucial to the success of plantations in the American South, but despite their numbers little exists in the written record to provide an accurate history for the African American slave community. However, archaeological and historic research shows that even under the constraints of slavery, enslaved African Americans were active in forming their own families and communities, countering ill-treatment and nutritional deprivation, maintaining their cultural and spiritual identities, and establishing ways to enhance their well-being. The research presented in this study emphasizes the utility of studying carbonized …

Acknowledgement Lag And Impact: Domain Differences In Published Research Supported By The National Science Foundation, Monica Inez Ihli

Masters Theses

This research combined archives of grant awards with a five-year period of bibliographic data from Web of Science in order to conduct an input-output study of research supported by the National Science Foundation. Acknowledgement lag is proposed as a new bibliometric term, defined as the time elapsed between when a grant is awarded and when a document is published which acknowledges that award. Acknowledgement lag was computed for the dataset, and domain differences in lag times were analyzed. Some areas, such as Plant & Animal Science or Social Science, were found to be more likely than other categories to acknowledge …

Identifying Team Dysfunctions Within Two Natural Resources Conservation Service Offices, Norman E. Pipkin

Masters Theses

Many teams fail to recognize what causes dysfunction within their team. The purpose of this study is to examine team dynamics and produce an example of applied leadership research for leadership educators. By identifying the causes of dysfunction, teams will be able to advance the functionality and success of their team by achieving a higher level of cohesiveness and production for the customers and communities in which they serve. Leadership educators will be able to use this study in discussing how team functionality can be studied and improved.

NRCS offices in two counties were given the opportunity to participate in …

Music Student Satisfaction: The Relationship Between Learning Style Preferences And Major Satisfaction, Cora Marie Powers

Masters Theses

Based on Holland’s (1997) theory of person-environment fit, the primary purpose of this study was to examine learning style preferences of college music students utilizing the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory and VARK Learning Styles Inventory (Kolb, 1976, 1984 ; Fleming & Mills, 1992). These preferences were also explored relative to music students’satisfaction with their major. A tendency to prefer the Aural, Kinesthetic, and Active Experimentation learning styles was observed in the 134 music majors sampled. Among the music students sampled, those who most prefer the Active Experimentation learning style are most satisfied with their major. Some differences in learning style …

Parenting Emerging Adults Who Game Excessively: Parents’ Lived Experiences, Linda Lee Haleigh Russell

Masters Theses

Excessive gaming among emerging adults is a growing concern, especially in cases where it interferes with key developmental milestones such as gaining an education or establishing a career. Although researchers have begun to understand the effects of excessive gaming on young people themselves, we know remarkably little about how emerging adults’ gaming may affect family relationships. Utilizing phenomenological interviewing of parents of emerging adult sons who game excessively, this study presents a rich description of the experience of parenting a young adult who games excessively. In-depth interviews were conducted with two fathers and two mothers. Findings suggested that parents felt …

Remittance Behavior Of Us Immigrants, Nathan Edward Trombley

Masters Theses

Remittances, the sending of a portion of an immigrant’s income to friends and family, have become an undeniable and significant part of the global economy. This is especially true in some common immigrant sending regions where remittances make up a dominant portion of the local economy. The New Immigrant Survey has released the second wave of data in its cohort study of immigrants recently achieving Lawful Permanent Residence status in the United States. In light of this newly available information, this study seeks to highlight demographic and background characteristics of immigrants that have a statistically significant relationship on their sending …

The Value Of Soil Testing For Potassium Fertilizer In Tennessee Cotton Production, Xavier Lee Harmon

Masters Theses

This thesis presents two separate studies focusing on the value of soil test information for potassium (K) fertilization of upland cotton. The objective of the first study was to determine the value of soil test information for available K in upland cotton production using the linear response plateau (LRP) and linear response stochastic plateau (LRSP) functions. This study uses dynamic programming to solve for optimal K fertilizer rates that maximize NPV when K carryover was and was not considered by a producer. This study extends the existing literature by comparing the value of soil testing information using a stochastic and …

Peer Educators In National Panhellenic Conference Sororities, Kelsey Kathleen Elam-Geuting

Masters Theses

National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) member organizations have numerous officer positions that might be informally defined as peer educators based on their position responsibilities. Little is known about these officers’ experiences as peer educators, the amount of training they receive, and their effectiveness in providing relevant and purposeful programs for their chapters. The purpose of this study was to better understand peer educators’ experiences within NPC sororities. If the experiences and leadership development of peer educators in NPC sororities are better understood, more can be done to support them in creating meaningful programs and services for their sisters. By supporting small …

Classifying Nominal Voltage Of Electric Power Transmission Lines Using Remotely-Sensed Data, Erik Herman Schmidt

Masters Theses

Geospatial data of national infrastructure are a valuable resource for visualization, analysis, and modeling. Building these geospatial foundation-level infrastructure datasets presents numerous challenges. Among those challenges is that of acquiring non-visible attribution of particular infrastructure entities for which there is no viable tabular source. In the case of electric power transmission lines, these data are difficult to acquire, particularly nation-wide. The route, or geometry of transmission lines can be determined from aerial imagery, but nominal voltage, a fundamental requirement for analysis and modeling, is not readily apparent. However, inferences can be made about the nominal voltage based on visual characteristics, …

The Modulating Role Of Motor Action Anticipation In Relation To Visual Attention To A Scene, Rebecca Faith Wiener

Masters Theses

This study investigates how visual attention to a scene is modified when the actor has a reaching goal or not. Thirty-six 7-month-olds were recruited, with 18 in a reaching group and 18 in a non-reaching group. Infants in both groups were presented with objects out of their reaching space until they accumulated approximately six seconds of active looking as measured by an eye-tracker. For the infants in the non-reaching group, the trial ended after the six seconds. For the reaching group, the object was then moved into the infants’ reaching space where they could reach for it. We were interested …

Effective Followership Characteristics: Self-Regulation And Intercultural Communication Competence, Cassandra Ann Mellon

Masters Theses

Followership is a remarkably pervasive experience shared by all human beings who occupy the masses within national and global organizations. The purpose of the current study was to further knowledge and understanding of the followership construct by distinguishing a set of communicative characteristics that effective followers demonstrate—exploring the associations among perceptions of effective followership, self-regulation, and intercultural communication competence. This study examines whether self-regulation and co-cultural competence are characteristics of effective followership. Followership scholars suggest that followership research should develop followership characteristics based on variables focusing on the perceptions of followers in relation to leaders (Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, & Carsten, …