Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 1057

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Impact Of Medical Device Usability And Accessibility Information On Purchasing Decisions Of People Without Disabilities, Maysam M. Ardehali Dec 2023

The Impact Of Medical Device Usability And Accessibility Information On Purchasing Decisions Of People Without Disabilities, Maysam M. Ardehali

Theses and Dissertations

The disparity between people with and without disabilities in timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment is exacerbated by inaccessible medical devices. The industry appears reluctant to address the shortcomings or provide usability and accessibility information to enhance the purchasing decisions of people with disabilities. This reluctance is mainly caused by the lack of market motivation based on perceptions of market size and the profitability of investments in accessibility evaluation and improvement. This study aims to challenge this notion by demonstrating that usability and accessibility information do not solely benefit what may be considered a “niche market,” and the purchasing decisions of …


Imagery In Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles From The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katherine A. Cianciola Dec 2023

Imagery In Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles From The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katherine A. Cianciola

Theses and Dissertations

Textiles associated with the Nasca culture (0-650 C.E.) from Peru’s South Coast have been recognized for their complex and colorful ecological, anthropomorphic, and geometric imagery. Little, however, has been written about their three-dimensional cross-knit looping and embroidery. Cross-knit looping produced three-dimensional figures that were part of an elaborate border on clothing and a style specifically associated with the Nasca (Sawyer 1997:24, 27, 41, 97, 131-132, 136 for example). This thesis focuses on Nasca textiles primarily from the Malcolm K. Whyte (Accession Numbers: 18046 and 20517) collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and includes three-dimensional cross-knit looping of ecological and …


Elucidating Aposematic Patterns In North American Hylids, Joseph S. Cannizzaro Iv Dec 2023

Elucidating Aposematic Patterns In North American Hylids, Joseph S. Cannizzaro Iv

Theses and Dissertations

Recognizing form and function of animal defenses is paramount to understanding the ecological and evolutionary forces behind predator and prey dynamics. Color patterns are strongly related to defensive strategies in animals. Some rely on camouflage to avoid detection, while others are brightly colored and conspicuously signal their noxiousness to potential predators. Still others combine cryptic dorsal coloration with colorful patches that are concealed in resting position but are facultatively unveiled by special behavior or simply during activity. Such hidden conspicuous color patches may be an intermediate stage in the evolution from camouflage to aposematism. We investigated whether conspicuously colored thighs …


Toward Truth And Reconciliation: Public Memory, Philosophical Pairs, And The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Allyson K. Hayden Dec 2023

Toward Truth And Reconciliation: Public Memory, Philosophical Pairs, And The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Allyson K. Hayden

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis connects the rhetoric of Bryan Stevenson which advances truth and reconciliation for racial healing in the United States to a case study of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. I examine common cultural invocations of the bridge that support the persistence of a blurry public memory that occludes visibility of its original memorial dedication to a known white supremacist and instead celebrates it as a landmark of the civil rights movement. I also analyze arguments for both changing and keeping the name of the bridge that occurred between 2015-2020, illustrating ways in which Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s philosophical …


Squaring The Circle: Talking About Accessibility At Discovery World, Ariel Butler Dec 2023

Squaring The Circle: Talking About Accessibility At Discovery World, Ariel Butler

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, museums have made a concerted effort to consider accessibility and the needs of the broader community in their programming. This thesis analyzes how Discovery World, a science and technology museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, can better accommodate diverse learning styles and disabilities in their 2023 Summer Camp program through a case study of implementation. The thesis analyzes the impact of the plan to improve accessibility and inclusivity in the classroom for children in grades 1-8, focusing on how staff conceptualize the ideal setup and aims to provide valuable insights to enhance inclusivity and accessibility in informal educational settings. …


Dancing Mi Cultura: The Production Of Ethnic And National Identity In Midwestern Mexican-Americans Through The Performance Of Ballet Méxicano Folklórico, Katrina J. Frank Dec 2023

Dancing Mi Cultura: The Production Of Ethnic And National Identity In Midwestern Mexican-Americans Through The Performance Of Ballet Méxicano Folklórico, Katrina J. Frank

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies how Mexican Americans living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago produce connections to their Mexican heritage and culture through the performance of ballet Mexicano folklórico. Through ethnographic interviews of current and former folklórico dancers, as well as participant observation of adult folklórico dance practices, I contextualize the experiences of the interviewees using the anthropological theories of habitus, continuous and discontinuous selves, double-consciousness, liminality, and collective effervescence, as well as the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Frantz Fanon, with the discussion of folklórico as an art, and the concept of institutional use of dance as …


Beyond Their Smiling Faces: Reconstructing The Remojadas Ritual And Culture Through The Sonrientes Figurines From The Mpm Collection, Abigail Munoz Dec 2023

Beyond Their Smiling Faces: Reconstructing The Remojadas Ritual And Culture Through The Sonrientes Figurines From The Mpm Collection, Abigail Munoz

Theses and Dissertations

Sonrientes (Smiling Faces) scholarship has waned after a brief period of archaeological interest in the mid to late 20th century by both Spanish and English language scholars. Since then, brief attention to these figurines in the Remojadas style, or similar, has been given when discussing the Classic Period on the Gulf Coast and few direct studies on their interpretation or reinterpretation have been given within the last few years. The present study attempts to contribute my own interpretation of these Remojadas-style figurines and answer five major questions driving my research: What kind of rituals did Remojadas or other people carry …


“Artifacts Of Stone And Pottery”: An Analysis Of The Linn Site (Ias U-28) Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Anastasia Tesfaye Demaio Dec 2023

“Artifacts Of Stone And Pottery”: An Analysis Of The Linn Site (Ias U-28) Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Anastasia Tesfaye Demaio

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on an understudied archaeological collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) from the Linn Site (IAS U-28) in southern Illinois, acquired in the 1930s. Using archaeological methods and archival research, the research aims to characterize the collection's physical attributes and temporal and period affiliations and to contextualize it. This is accomplished through detailed analyses of ceramics and other materials, as well as comparison with other collections from the Linn Site, demonstrating the value of collections-based research. The significance of the research lies in utilizing unstudied materials as archaeological sites disappear. The research highlights ethical tensions and interpersonal …


Ghost Town Living: Presenting The Past On Youtube, Alannah Ray Dec 2023

Ghost Town Living: Presenting The Past On Youtube, Alannah Ray

Theses and Dissertations

Cerro Gordo is a privately-owned historic mining town in California, and the YouTube channel Ghost Town Living, with over 1.6 million followers, documents the current owner's goal of preserving and restoring the town for visitation. This thesis explores how Cerro Gordo and Ghost Town Living can be understood together through the lenses of museology, digital anthropology, and archaeology. Based on a site visit, analysis of digital media, and interviews with staff and people connected to the site, I explore the intersection between heritage sites and social media, and more widely, changing perceptions of American heritage, including who has the right …


Multimodal Vocabulary Learning Through Manga In Japanese As A World Language, Atsuko Suga Borgmann Dec 2023

Multimodal Vocabulary Learning Through Manga In Japanese As A World Language, Atsuko Suga Borgmann

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the effect of manga, a form of Japanese comic strip, on vocabulary learning among college-level Japanese as a world language (JWL) learners. Vocabulary acquisition through reading in the context of world language education has been researched widely, but less attention has been devoted to multimodal literature with image and text such as manga. This research examines how manga’s multimodality affects learners’ context building, inference for unknown words and how manga affects retaining vocabulary. The study raises three research questions. First, to what extent does manga influence one’s ability to infer the meaning of unknown words compared to …


From Creator To Curator To Author As Content: Nicolas Winding Refn, Transdiscursive Authorship, And Self-Branding In Twenty-First Century Media, Christopher J. Olson Dec 2023

From Creator To Curator To Author As Content: Nicolas Winding Refn, Transdiscursive Authorship, And Self-Branding In Twenty-First Century Media, Christopher J. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s development from creator and curator to author as content within an evolving media ecology driven by capitalist ideology. A close critical study of Refn’s career from 1996 to 2019 offers insight into contemporary techniques of creating, collecting, and curating media texts, as well as the phenomenon of presenting oneself as content via discursive branding. Given that Refn’s career coincided with the emergence of the World Wide Web and the rise of digital platforms, he thus emblematizes what it means to be a creator working within an increasingly interconnected media ecology. Refn initially …


Potential Moderating Impact Of Circulating Endocannabinoids On Resting State Networks And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily Anne Albertina Dec 2023

Potential Moderating Impact Of Circulating Endocannabinoids On Resting State Networks And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily Anne Albertina

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Traumatic injury increases risk for long-term adverse outcomes such as the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research has found that risk for the development of PTSD after such an injury varies depending on individuals’ race/ethnic group and sex. Although prior work has explored relationships between injury and PTSD in these groups utilizing imaging paradigms (e.g., resting state functional connectivity) and biological paradigms (e.g., the endocannabinoid system), the relationship between these factors has been understudied. The present study explored the potential moderating effect circulating endocannabinoids may have on the relationship between resting state functional connectivity and post traumatic stress …


Deconstructing Decapitation In Late Roman Gloucestershire And Oxfordshire, Uk, Shaheen M. Christie Dec 2023

Deconstructing Decapitation In Late Roman Gloucestershire And Oxfordshire, Uk, Shaheen M. Christie

Theses and Dissertations

The Roman conquest in Britain (AD 43) led to significant changes in indigenous settlements and agricultural systems, population diversity, social organization, economic activities, and funerary traditions. Archaeological investigations of burials from the first to fifth centuries AD in Britain have revealed a complex array of burial treatments and attitudes toward the dead, including decapitation burials, which are the most common form of differential burial represented in this period. Traditional interpretations of these burials have included infanticide, punitive execution, trophy taking, fear of the dead, and veneration practices. This project investigates a sample of decapitation burials from Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire dating …


Big Data Applications And Challenges In Giscience (Case Studies: Natural Disaster And Public Health Crisis Management), Amir Masoud Forati Dec 2023

Big Data Applications And Challenges In Giscience (Case Studies: Natural Disaster And Public Health Crisis Management), Amir Masoud Forati

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the application and significance of user-generated big data in Geographic Information Science (GIScience), with a focus on managing natural disasters and public health crises. It explores the role of social media data in understanding human-environment interactions and in informing disaster management and public health strategies. A scalable computational framework will be developed to model extensive unstructured geotagged data from social media, facilitating systematic spatiotemporal data analysis.The research investigates how individuals and communities respond to high-impact events like natural disasters and public health emergencies, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, it assesses the impact of socio-economic-demographic …


Transportation Needs Of Older Adults In Suburban And Rural Areas, Dahai Han Dec 2023

Transportation Needs Of Older Adults In Suburban And Rural Areas, Dahai Han

Theses and Dissertations

The fact that the average age of the world's population is increasing, which is more pronounced in developed countries, necessitates the understanding of the challenges faced by older adults in accessing transportation services. With advancing age, individuals may experience age-related changes that can notably affect their driving capabilities, emphasizing the importance of alternative transportation alternatives. This challenge is more evident in suburban and rural settings, where transportation choices are limited, and older adults often find themselves without access to suitable transportation alternatives. Given that mobility plays an essential role in maintaining social connections, accessing healthcare services, and fulfilling daily needs, …


A Paleoethnobotanical Comparison Of Mortuary And Village Langford Tradition Sites In Northern Illinois, Tania Lee Milosavljevic Aug 2023

A Paleoethnobotanical Comparison Of Mortuary And Village Langford Tradition Sites In Northern Illinois, Tania Lee Milosavljevic

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeologists working in northern Illinois have conducted research on Langford Tradition (ca AD 1100-1450) sites for more than a century. The last 40 years have seen increasing methodological sophistication providing for a relatively nuanced understanding of food technology and resource use. Paleoethnobotany has provided one way to observe the diversity of plant use among Langford site occupants. Using standard paleoethnobotanical practices, plant macroremain from the Robinson Reserve Site (11CK2) are analyzed. The results of the plant macroremain analysis are then compared to existing floral data from the Washington Irving Site (11K52). This research investigates whether site functionality is distinguishable between …


Masculinity-The Next Generation: Millennials, The Mrni, And Measurement Invariance, Charlotte Maria Shanaver Aug 2023

Masculinity-The Next Generation: Millennials, The Mrni, And Measurement Invariance, Charlotte Maria Shanaver

Theses and Dissertations

Socialization is, “the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). It is inescapable and pervasive. One of the most socialized constructs is gender. Gender roles, norms, expectations, shape how male and female identified folx move through the world and expect others to move through the world. However, this can become problematic when such norms become rigid and insurmountable. Adherence to traditional or hegemonic masculine norms, has been correlated with worse mental health outcomes (Gerdes & Levant, 2018). For decades, psychologists have utilized the Male Role Norms Inventory (Levant et al., 1992; Levant …


Information Needs Of Korean Immigrants In The United States: Selection And Use Of Social Media, Tae Hee Lee Aug 2023

Information Needs Of Korean Immigrants In The United States: Selection And Use Of Social Media, Tae Hee Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-method study investigates the information needs of Korean immigrants on social media and their selection and use of social media for finding information in the United States. The study was designed to answer six research questions: 1) What are the top types of information needs on social media that Korean immigrants fulfill during their everyday lives in the United States?; 2) What types of social media do Korean immigrants most frequently use during their everyday lives in the United States for different types of information needs?; 3) Are there any relationships between the types of social media Korean immigrants …


Life Styles, Death Styles, And Posthumous Portraiture: Elite Female Burials In Iron Age Europe, Emily Ryan Stanton Aug 2023

Life Styles, Death Styles, And Posthumous Portraiture: Elite Female Burials In Iron Age Europe, Emily Ryan Stanton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the grave good assemblages in 222 burial contexts from HallstattD (c. 600-400 BCE) tumulus cemeteries in west-central Europe to test the hypothesis that certain combinations of grave goods were associated with particular categories of persons based on an intersectional marking of gender, status, age and social role. The primary data set consists of high-status graves – male, female, ungendered/pre-gendered subadults, and those of indeterminate gender – in the Heuneburg interaction sphere in southwest Germany. The results of this analysis are compared to a secondary data set of comparable burials from other west-central European locations, to determine whether …


Beyond Borders: Representations Of Refugees And Place In Clarkston, Georgia, Sarah Ryniker Aug 2023

Beyond Borders: Representations Of Refugees And Place In Clarkston, Georgia, Sarah Ryniker

Theses and Dissertations

In the last thirty years, socio-political shifts within the city of Clarkston, Georgia, have led to an evolution in representations of the city and of its many refugee and immigrant populations. This dissertation examines the site-specific effects of the evolving policies and practices of refugee resettlement and integration within the city of Clarkston and the emerging immigrant gateway of the South. While the city itself has transformed, so have its representations of refugees, challenging imaginative geographies and complicating the mainstream dichotomic racial imaginative geographies and socio-political representation of the U.S. South. Using qualitative methods, I analyze materials from four years …


The Temporal Association Between Simultaneous Alcohol And Cannabis Use And High-Risk Sexual Behaviors, Haley Kolp Aug 2023

The Temporal Association Between Simultaneous Alcohol And Cannabis Use And High-Risk Sexual Behaviors, Haley Kolp

Theses and Dissertations

High-risk sexual behaviors (HRSBs; e.g., having sex without protection against pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections) are a public health problem. HRSBs disproportionally impact college students and are associated with numerous negative outcomes, such as unwanted pregnancies. Alcohol use has been strongly linked to HRSBs in college students, but the research is less clear when investigating the relationship between cannabis use and HRSBs. Additionally, there is a lack of research examining the relationship between simultaneous alcohol and cannabis (i.e., marijuana or SAM) use (i.e., using alcohol and cannabis at the same time so that the effects overlap) and HRSBs in college …


Medical Interpreters' Experience Working With Distressed Families In Pediatric Settings, Paulina Lim Aug 2023

Medical Interpreters' Experience Working With Distressed Families In Pediatric Settings, Paulina Lim

Theses and Dissertations

Effective communication between families and pediatric clinicians is essential for mitigating family stress and improving quality of care. Families who speak a primary language other than English must contend with the added stress of language barriers during stressful encounters, which could impact the quality of patient care and health outcomes. Trained medical interpreters facilitate communication, including distress expressions, during interpreted medical encounters (IME). Little is known about how interpreters identify distress and what factors impact distress identification during IME. This project describes how interpreters identify distress of families during IME, and how they identify cultural nuances in distress expression and …


Psychophysiological Impacts Associated With Social Media Use, Lindsey Hieber Aug 2023

Psychophysiological Impacts Associated With Social Media Use, Lindsey Hieber

Theses and Dissertations

Social media has become increasingly relevant to everyday life since its inception, with new social media applications being created regularly. There has been some research regarding social media use and mental health; with studies finding both negative and positive mental health effects possible. TikTok, one of the newest and fastest growing social media applications has not been studied thoroughly to investigate potential mental health effects. The psychophysiological impacts of social media use have not been explored at all. An initial survey was done to investigate personality and mental health effects of social media use as well as if the reasonings …


Developing A Tool To Analyze Communication Access In Restaurants For Individuals Who Use Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Kylie Elizabeth Robinson Aug 2023

Developing A Tool To Analyze Communication Access In Restaurants For Individuals Who Use Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Kylie Elizabeth Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

Communication accessibility has been defined by many scholars and organizations, but it is generally described as clear communication that everyone can access and understand. The objective of this research thesis is to create a tool for assessing communication accessibility for people who use augmentative and alternative communication (PWUAAC) within a variety of restaurant settings. Through a two-part study, researchers interviewed 5 adults who use AAC (Study A) and created a survey rated by an additional 10 adults who use AAC (i.e., Study B). The interviews from Study A were qualitatively coded and revealed common communication accessibility themes that restaurants and …


Behavioral And Eye-Movement Correlates Of Item-Specific And Relational Memory In Autism, Greta Nicole Minor Aug 2023

Behavioral And Eye-Movement Correlates Of Item-Specific And Relational Memory In Autism, Greta Nicole Minor

Theses and Dissertations

Recent work has challenged past findings that documented relational memory impairments in autism. Previous studies have often relied solely on explicit behavioral responses to assess relational memory integrity, but successful performance on behavioral tasks may rely on other cognitive abilities (e.g., executive functioning) that are impaired in some autistic individuals. Eye-tracking tasks do not require explicit behavioral responses, and, further, eye movements provide an indirect measure of memory. The current study examined whether memory-specific viewing patterns toward scenes differ between autistic and non-autistic individuals. Using a long-term memory paradigm that equated for complexity between item and relational memory tasks, participants …


The Context And The Commissioner: The Effect Of Milwaukee’S Health Commissioners’ Social, Cultural, And Historical Understanding Of Milwaukee’S People During The Last Five Pandemics, Madeline O'Dea Fruehe Aug 2023

The Context And The Commissioner: The Effect Of Milwaukee’S Health Commissioners’ Social, Cultural, And Historical Understanding Of Milwaukee’S People During The Last Five Pandemics, Madeline O'Dea Fruehe

Theses and Dissertations

Resistance to pandemic response policies was observed globally throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This resistance has been linked by researchers to the prolonged duration and higher mortality rate of COVID-19 compared to previous pandemics, despite advancements in modern medicine, extensive surveillance networks and record vaccine production. However, the strategies implemented by public health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic closely mirrored those successful in mitigating past pandemics. To elucidate this disparity, a historical analysis encompassing the 1918, 1957, 1968, 2009, and Covid-19 pandemics was conducted within the city of Milwaukee. By examining archival documents and over 800 newspaper articles, this research found …


Latino Career Choice And Prestige: Examining Prestige, Cultural Values And Family Influence In Predicting Career Choice, Edwin Ramos Aug 2023

Latino Career Choice And Prestige: Examining Prestige, Cultural Values And Family Influence In Predicting Career Choice, Edwin Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

Career choice continues to be a principal area for career development research, as finding ways to determine what contributes to career choices, and how those choices impact individuals’ micro and macro systems, informs best practices in vocational psychology. The field of vocational psychology can benefit from exploring myriad variables that may have an impact on career choice, career congruency, and persistence in the world of work; and highlighting the unique experiences and needs of diverse populations can produce new insight about different groups and people that the field should endeavor to improve. To this end, this study sought to uniquely …


Is That A Rhetorical Question?: A Pragmatic Analysis, Jacklyn Ryan Aug 2023

Is That A Rhetorical Question?: A Pragmatic Analysis, Jacklyn Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

There has been much work on the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of questions.While the argument herein is that rhetorical questions do not function like typical information-seeking questions, it remains the case that they are, if nothing else, syntactically interrogative. This fact is explored by examining different types of rhetorical questions through various lenses, including question semantics, Gricean pragmatics, and Speech Act Theory. A pragmatic framework is proposed to explain the effects that rhetorical questions have on the conversational scoreboard. Their illocutionary force is also considered, as it, along with contextual factors, can affect how rhetorical questions are interpreted. This paper …


“Being Straight In The Army Is Pretty Easy, Being Gay Is Not”: The Communicative Resilience Of Lesbian And Gay Military Service Members, Dathan Nathaniel Simpson Ii Aug 2023

“Being Straight In The Army Is Pretty Easy, Being Gay Is Not”: The Communicative Resilience Of Lesbian And Gay Military Service Members, Dathan Nathaniel Simpson Ii

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Military has 1.9 million individuals serving across five branches, and official policy permits anyone to serve regardless of sexuality (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020). Despite the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), the culture of the U.S. military remains unfriendly to Lesbian and Gay service members (McNamara et al., 2021b), which influences service members’ decisions to disclose sexuality or be “out” in the military (Evans et al., 2019; McNamara et al., 2021a). Lesbian and Gay service members are situated in a heteronormative and masculine culture in the U.S. military and as a result experience disruptions that may …


Pinpointing The Cognitive Structure Of The Cpt-3: A Case For Distribution Appropriate Statistical Methods, Chandler J. Zolliecoffer Aug 2023

Pinpointing The Cognitive Structure Of The Cpt-3: A Case For Distribution Appropriate Statistical Methods, Chandler J. Zolliecoffer

Theses and Dissertations

The present study used the CPT-3 as a model to illustrate the complementary use of distribution-appropriate statistical methods to analyze non-normally distributed empirical datasets. Study results reaffirmed that while group-level analysis (e.g., via traditional parametric group-level analysis or distribution-appropriate group-level analysis procedures) offers insights into performance of the group in aggregate, it is oftentimes inappropriate to presume that patterns reflected by the group are, necessarily, applicable to a smaller subset of respondents. Thus, understanding how subgroups within the population navigate and approach a given task can have direct implications for more personalized/individualized assessment and treatment, especially in clinical and research …