Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

La Olla Y Los Patios: An Ethnography Of Place, Selfhood, Violence, And Rehabilitation In Bogotá, Andrés Romero

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the early hours of May 28, 2016, the mayor of Bogotá, along with the Colombian military and SpecialForces, seized the biggest olla or open-air drug market in Colombia at the time. The olla known as “El Bronx” was a three-block area in downtown Bogotá and where over 2,000 people found shelter under the authority of paramilitary affiliated crime bands controlling the city’s drug trade. Widely depicted by the media and the broader polity as an “inferno,” El Bronx was regarded as a space where those socially relegated outside of the human were encumbered by seemingly endless transgression and drug …

Memory For Emotional Expressions In Adults With Acquired Brain Injuries, Lauren Jeanne Radigan

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Memory for emotions expressed by others forms the continuity that characterizes unique and intimate relationships. Successful memory for facial expressions requires the ability to remember the identity of the face (who showed the emotion) as well as the emotion (which emotion they showed). People with acquired brain injuries (ABI) frequently have problems with social cognition, which involves understanding cues that communicate emotional and interpersonal information. ABI is commonly associated with trouble perceiving emotional expressions and recognizing the identity of faces; however, research on memory for emotions after ABI is sparse. This study examined cognitive and emotional characteristics that contribute …

Backdoor To Essentialism? Genetic Ancestry Testing And The Social Deconstruction Of Whiteness, Whitney Hunt

Wayne State University Dissertations

Towards the turn of the 21st century, spawned in part by the Human Genome Project, ideas about race and ethnicity shifted away from the essentialist belief that humans can be grouped into discrete, biologically relevant racial groups. More recently however, genetic ancestry testing (GAT) has exploded in popularity, as individuals seek to identify their ancestry and/or health profiles through genetic testing. Genetic testing commercials implicitly promote the essentialist belief that racial and ethnic identities are embedded in genes by portraying images of people altering travel plans, checking a different racial category on a survey, or trading in bagpipes for lederhosen, …

Nonparent-Friendly Work Climate & Parental Role Value: An Updated Approach To Understanding Nonparent Work Experiences, Andrew Lutz

Wayne State University Dissertations

First, the present study entails a theoretically guided examination of relationships between nonparent-friendly organizational climate (NPFC) and important outcomes among nonparent workers. Second, the present study explores the role of social-identity theory in understanding nonparent work experiences by examining and comparing the function (i.e., moderation effect sizes) of parental role values and parental expectations (i.e., childfree status) on relationships between NPFC and outcomes including affective commitment. Third, the present study compares the relevance of NPFC and singles-friendly culture in the prediction of outcomes among nonparent workers. Lastly, the present study examines the potential role of intersectionality of nonparental role and …

Exposure To Family Violence And Early Sexual Engagement: Potential Disruptors To Intimacy Development In Girls' Early To Middle Adolescent Close Friendships, Jami C. Pittman

Wayne State University Dissertations

Informed by theories of interpersonal development, this study evaluates whether two known threats to psychosocial health – exposure to family violence (EFV) and early sexual engagement (ESE) – are associated with adolescent girls’ intimacy development with close same-sex friends. A sample of metropolitan-area, mostly Black and African American (77%) girls (N = 93; Mage = 12.5) provided three waves of longitudinal data over 18 months (T1 – T3), spanning early to middle adolescence. Multilevel models were used to examine changes in girls’ close friendships, including the number of closest same-sex friends and quality of best same-sex friendship. Cumulative EFV and …

Childhood Adversity And Alexithymia: Implications For Health Status In An Urban Police Sample, Christopher P. Urbanik

Wayne State University Dissertations

American law enforcement is regarded as one of the most stressful occupations in the United States, involving repeated exposure to threatening or challenging encounters and the risk of severe injury and death. A voluminous literature has documented various psychophysiological implications of police stress, including morbidity and premature mortality. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic stressors during one’s formative years, such as abuse, neglect, and household violence and dysfunction. ACEs have been linked to increased mental and physical health risks, yet ACEs have not been studied in police officers. Given the increase in the level of stress experienced by today’s …

How Do Nonprofits Increase Civic Engagement? Testing A Model Of Online And Offline Advocacy And Activism., Maria Clara Bello Martucci

Wayne State University Dissertations

The current landscape of Americans’ civic engagement has changed and taken new forms that are strongly impacted by the internet and social media communication. This dynamic can potentially influence nonprofit organizational effectiveness and nonprofit public relations strategies, yet it lacks in-depth scholarly investigation and understanding. Therefore, this dissertation sought to understand public support behaviors from the general population toward nonprofits, considering four different modes of civic engagement activities and three geographic levels of nonprofit organizations. Specifically, this dissertation introduced a conceptual model to explain individual factors that lead Americans to engage in online and offline advocacy and activism through and …

Romantic Miscalculations On Dating Applications: Definitions And Experiences Of Mobile Dating Micro-Rejection, Sean James Kolhoff

Wayne State University Dissertations

Millions of emerging adults use mobile dating applications (MDAs) daily in their efforts to find a romantic partner. However, the processes these daters use to interpret and react to rejection have received little attention. Not every attempt to develop a relationship can be successful. As daters evaluate profiles on these apps and interact with potential partners, they may miscalculate their perceptions of compatibility hand encounter rejection. Within MDAs, rejection could be a passive or active declaration by an individual signifying they do not want to initiate or escalate a potential relationship. These various forms of rejection are conceptualized in this …

The Association Between School Spending And Academic Growth Among Seventh Grade Students In Michigan, Angela M. Jack

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative ex-post facto research study was two-fold: (a) to investigate the association, if any, between school spending and student academic performance, and (b) to identify what, if any, student and school-level structural characteristics mediated a relationship. Multilevel linear regression models were estimated to identify the association between total site-level per-pupil expenditures and school aggregated student academic growth measures in mathematics and ELA among 7th-grade students in Michigan for the 2018-2019 academic year. The data for 847 traditional public and charter public-school academies from 667 districts in Michigan were collected from the Michigan Center for Educational Performance …

Murals In Motion: Mexican Muralism On The Silver Screen And Its Place In Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Angela Michelle Sherman

Wayne State University Dissertations

This research focuses on Mexican Muralism as a part of an educational initiative introduced following the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Functioning as a didactic art form, the intention of the murals was to educate the masses about its history, new national identity and promising modern future. This work not only examines Mexican Muralism and its recurring themes and representation of Indigenous subjects, but also tracks the appearance of these images from mural walls to movie screens in Mexican film of the Golden age. Using the 21st century theory developed by Django Paris and Samy Alim, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, this work …

The Efficacy Of A Novel Facebook-Based Psychosocial Intervention For Adults With Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Bethany Danielle Pester

Wayne State University Dissertations

Social networking-based groups such as Facebook groups have become increasingly popular among people with chronic conditions, and the affordances of such groups make them a promising platform for chronic disease intervention. Yet, there have been few controlled tests of the effects of social networking-based groups. Our team developed a Facebook-based intervention that focuses on enhancing social support by connecting adults with peers who also have chronic pain. Using a randomized controlled clinical trial, we aimed to understand the efficacy of this intervention and to explore whether a professional-led support group leads to greater effects than a support group alone. The …

Organizational And Financial Considerations Of Inter-District School Of Choice On One Small District In The Detroit Metropolitan Area, Lori Lucas

Wayne State University Dissertations

The research study investigated the organizational and financial structure of a school district that participated in inter-district school of choice. The goal was to see if choice, resident and non-resident, had any influence on these structures. The literature that I reviewed highlighted the various organizational and funding mechanisms that school districts need to account for when considering options such as school of choice. This research study was conducted on a smaller scale compared to studies that have been completed on a grander scale. The goal of this study was to review the organizational and financial changes that districts make to …

Exploring And Expanding The Utility Of Cultural Distance: A Multi-National Analysis, Daniel Wiegert

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the current study, I utilized multiple cultural constructs to create and compare the utility of various forms of cultural distance as a predictor of national-culture-level outcomes, aggregated across multiple countries (i.e., a novel term: “Aggregated Cultural Distance”, hereafter ACD). ACD was first conceptualized in the current study by utilizing the nine Global Leader and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (hereafter Project GLOBE) Societal Values dimensions in the calculation of ACD. I incrementally added and compared Project GLOBE’s Societal Practices and Tightness-Looseness scores (i.e., norms) to the Values ACD construct in predicting self-isolationist leadership behaviors (i.e., Project GLOBE’s Autonomous and Self-Protective leadership …

A Review Of Sample Size And Design Efficacy In Crossover Design In Peer-Reviewed Psychology Research, Kyle Moxley

Wayne State University Dissertations

A REVIEW OF SAMPLE SIZE AND DESIGN EFFICACY IN CROSSOVER DESIGN IN PEER-REVIEWED PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCHby KYLE C. MOXLEY November 2021 Advisor: Dr. Shlomo S. Sawilowsky Major: Education Evaluation and Research Degree: Doctor of Philosophy The present study seeks to investigate the efficacy of crossover research designs, and the application of crossover designs, in the field of behavioral sciences. Under ideal conditions, crossover designs are assumed to be more efficacious than parallel studies in that participants are given both treatments. However, the presence of carryover effects from treatments may influence outcomes (Jones & Kenward, 2014). To prevent carryover effects, researchers frequently …

Pre-Pregnancy Drinking Among A Sample Of High-Risk Women And The Association Of Social Networks, Sandra Lee King

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACTPRE-PREGNANCY DRINKING AMONG A SAMPLE OF HIGH-RISK WOMEN AND THE ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Background: Characteristics of drinking alcohol can include drinking contemporaneously; at the same time as others, and concordantly; when individuals exhibit identical traits or characteristics. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the association of pre-pregnancy drinking among a unique sample of high-risk women and to investigate the association of their social network members as predictors of alcohol consumption during the 3-month preconceptional period. Analysis was conducted on the patterns of alcohol consumption among study participants who were recruited from the Healthy Families Indiana (HFI) …

Understanding The Resilient Practices Of Journalists In The Face Of Hostile Sources: An Intersectional Approach, Kelsey Renee Mesmer

Wayne State University Dissertations

After former President Trump began calling the news media “the enemy of the American people,” many scholars and journalism practitioners worried about such anti-media’s trickle-down effect and how it would complicate work for local reporters. Given a growing need to pay attention to hostility toward journalists, this project sought to better understand the ways journalists experience the trickle-down effects of anti-media rhetoric in the form of hostile interactions with sources who vilify journalists; how women and journalists of color experience these effects to different, possibly heightened degrees; and how journalists are resilient in spite of these challenges. Drawing on 38 …

How Do We Learn To Hope? The Development Of The Parent Report Of Child Hope, Lauren A. Sparks

Wayne State University Dissertations

Hope has been shown to be an important protective factor, with hypothesized origins in early childhood (Snyder, 2002). However, despite the established importance of hope, little research to date has examined its developmental origins. Specifically, a lack of appropriate instrumentation represents a significant barrier to detecting hope in children under the age of eight years old. The current study meets this need by examining the reliability and validity of a novel parent-report measure of hope in early childhood, titled the Parent Report of Child Hope (PRCH). The PRCH represents an initial step towards understanding individual differences in early childhood hope. …

Removing The Mask Of Comedy To Reveal The Person Beneath: A Rhetorical Analysis Of How Three Comedians Engage In, And Go Beyond, The Post-Comedy Turn, Steve Ingham

Wayne State University Dissertations

From court jesters to lounge performers, the ‘Chitlin’ Circuit’ to vaudeville, radio to Netflix, the goal of comedy has been the same: use a comic frame to make the audience laugh. However, some modern comedians have altered that paradigm, including purposefully non-comedic material in their stand-up specials. While other comedians have done this before, they did so as an addendum to the narrative of their special, not as an integral part of that narrative. In this project, I engaged in a rhetorical analysis of three modern comedians, through the lens of humor theory, as they included purposefully non-comedic material, engaging …

Beyond The Rainbow: Predicting Intra And Intergroup Political Attitudes Of Latinx And Black Americans And The Potential For Cooperation And Conflict, Randall Wyatt

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation uses social psychological theory and methods to better understand the political attitudes of whites, Blacks, Latinx Americans and Asian Americans in the contemporary United States. Using quantitative methodology and survey research, I estimate the potential for cooperation and conflict between racial minorities and the political implications that these measures may have. I show that perceptions of competition with immigrants are strongly associated with anti-immigration preferences even among racial minorities such as Blacks and Latinx Americans, of who have a long history of migration to the United States. However, I also show that there is potential for interracial cooperation …

The Use Of Code-Switching By African-American Teachers In Inner-City Classrooms, Yvonne Wilson

Wayne State University Dissertations

Language and its use in classrooms has a significant impact on student motivation and self-perception (Delpit, 1988; Lei, 2009). Even more curious and significant is the motivation of teachers that intentionally use culturally-specific language and affectations, also known as code-switching, as an instructional device. This dissertation will examine the use of code-switching by African-American or Black teachers in urban, non-White classrooms. It will explore the foundations of sociolinguistics, specifically, language as a social construct (Gumperz; 1982; Gal, 2014; Levinson, 2015), as well as a communicative tool. In the span of the research contained in this dissertation, 12 African-American teachers will …

Psychosocial Outcomes Among College Students With Learning Disorders, Bobbi Isaac

Wayne State University Dissertations

Specific learning disorders, also known as learning disabilities, are defined as neurodevelopmental disorders in which long-term difficulties with learning and using academic skills occur within the context of one or multiple academic areas (i.e., reading, mathematics, writing). As our understanding of learning disorders (LD) has evolved beyond a focus on childhood diagnosis, a limited body of research has emerged examining adult outcomes for individuals with learning disorders in regards to higher education, employment, psychosocial, and health outcomes. Much of the results of this research seems to indicate that individuals with LDs may have poorer outcomes in adulthood across these domains. …

When Fake Is Good: The Benefits Of Deceptive Responsiveness In Relationships, Isabel Cantarella

Wayne State University Dissertations

Responsiveness is integral for successful relationship functioning (Reis & Shaver, 1988); however, it can be quite challenging to be a responsive partner (Reis & Patrick, 1996). Additionally, there may be an assumption that individuals need to be honest in their communication for their responses to be perceived as responsive. The goal of the present research is to determine if deceptive responses can be perceived as responsive and have beneficial consequences. The present research introduces the construct deceptive responsiveness, which we define as intentionally withholding information or providing false statements with the intent to make someone feel validated, supported, and cared …

Exploring Bullying And Peer Victimization Among African American Adolescents In Chicago’S Southside, Jeoung Min Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

Adolescent bullying is a serious concern for adolescents, parents, teachers, school officials, and the public. While many studies have explored serious forms of violence (e.g., gang violence and homicide) among urban adolescents, relatively few studies have examined “less serious forms of violence,” such as bullying among these adolescents. This dissertation research, which is divided into three studies, aims to examine antecedents of bullying and peer victimization as well as psychosocial outcomes of peer victimization from a sample of 639 urban African American adolescents in Chicago’s Southside. The first study applies Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems perspective and explores factors that are correlated …

Transformation Of The St. Clair Maritime Cultural Landscape From The Seventeenth To The Twentieth Centuries, Daniel Frederick Harrison

Wayne State University Dissertations

The St. Clair system—a river, delta and lake between Lake Huron and the Detroit River—offers significant opportunities to study long-term maritime landscape formation, and to preserve a unique resource. Few maritime landscapes in the Great Lakes remain so deeply and clearly inscribed by successive cultures. This permits both focused and comprehensive analyses and comparisons of the ideologies, technologies and practices of indigenous, colonial, and modern societies as each created its unique place in the environment through four processes: cognition, dwelling, movement, and representation. The socially-conditioned perception of environmental resources and constraints, and resulting strategies to exploit the former while minimizing …

The Days Take Care Of Themselves: Early Head Start Teacher Interactions With Children In Association With Factors Affecting Environmental Quality, Britta Karin Shine

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to propose a new framework for the assessment of environmental quality in infant-toddler classrooms in Early Head Start (EHS), in which sequential observational scores across the morning on the Quality of Caregiver-Child Interactions for Infants and Toddlers (Q-CCIIT; Atkins-Burnett et al., 2015) were re-framed as a micro-time-series. The purpose of these analyses was to assess within-person differences across a typical morning in EHS in teacher responsiveness and sensitivity to children’s social and emotional cues, their capacity for building relationships with children, and their support for children’s peer interaction and play. During hypothesis testing, interaction …

Using A Holistic Lens Of Adolescent Sexuality To Understand The Onset Of Girls’ Sexting, Davia B. Steinberg

Wayne State University Dissertations

Sexting, defined in this study as consensually sending or receiving sexually explicit texts, photos, or videos, is now commonplace during adolescence. Yet, research on adolescent sexting predominantly treats this behavior as risky, focusing on potential deleterious legal and mental health ramifications. This perspective is especially salient for females. Although sexting can have unintended negative consequences, a risk-centered perspective neglects the developmental contexts in which sexting emerges to obscure our ability to identify for whom and when sexting may be normative versus risky. There is a pressing need for a more holistic view of female adolescent sexuality that considers its positive …

Perspective-Taking And Relationship Quality In Traumatic Brain Injury And Support Person Dyads, Monica Lynn De Iorio

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: People with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often have problems with social communication, reduced contact with friends, and less satisfying social relationships than adults without history of TBI. Impaired abilities in perspective-taking may underlie problems in social integration and relationships following injury. This study sought to examine the perspective-taking ability of adults with moderate-to-severe TBI and support people, and examined the relationship between perspective-taking accuracy and relationship quality.

Methods: 48 dyads of adults with moderate-to-severe TBI and support people were included in the study. Both members of each dyad completed scales of distress, personality, and psychological flexibility. Measures were …

Mental Health Service Utilization Among Urban Adolescents: The Roles Of Perceived Mental Health Problems, Attitudes Towards Professional Help, And Stigma, Yi Tak Tsang

Wayne State University Dissertations

Mental health among adolescents is widely acknowledged as a significant concern in the United States. Based on a national survey, Merikangas et al. (2010) found that among 13-17 year olds, 42% to 48% reported experiencing mental health concerns. It is estimated that only half of adolescents with mental health problems utilize mental health services (Costello et al., 2014). An initial study found that caregivers of disadvantaged youth appeared to function as the “gatekeepers” to mental health services (Tsang et al., 2020). Also, the results suggested that positive attitude towards professional psychological help, but not stigma, predicted service enrollment. The current …

Attitudes Toward Organ Donation Among Saudi Arabians, Abdulaziz Fahad Alkaltham

Wayne State University Dissertations

The specific aim examined the relationship between Saudi Arabians’ attitudes toward organ donation and acculturation. The study tested the hypothesis that controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, Saudis who were more acculturated to Western culture would be more positive about organ donation.

A self-administrated Qualtrics questionnaire was distributed to the entire population of the College of the Social Sciences (approximately 12,000 faculty members, staff, and students) at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The instrument asked 63 questions about sociodemographic characteristics, acculturation, and attitudes about organ donation. The response rate was almost 8%, n=893. Students comprised 90.6% of …

Estimating The Size Of The Shadow Economy In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Ali Alsubaie

Wayne State University Dissertations

The shadow economy (SE), as unreported economic activity, is a challenge for researchers and policymakers worldwide because of its size, consequences for economic development, and the difficulty of evaluating it. This dissertation makes an original contribution to SE research by estimating the size of the shadow economy in Saudi Arabia for the period 1975–2018.

This dissertation uses a modified version of the most widely used method currently available for SE estimation: the Currency Demand Approach (CDA). This approach focuses on identifying excess cash used in an economy not accounted for in the official statistics on the assumption that shadow activities …