Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Investigating Variation Among Arikara Crania Using Geometric Morphometry, Ashley H. Mckeown

Doctoral Dissertations

Geometric morphometry has seen minimal application in studies of biological variability among subpopulations of humans. However, as landmark coordinates are highly effective for capturing information regarding size and shape variation, the tools of geometric morphometry are appropriate for investigating such questions. This research utilizes landmark coordinate data to quantify morphological variation among Arikara crania to evaluate the biological relationships between skeletal samples from late prehistoric, protohistoric and historic sites. These samples are derived from well documented archaeological contexts, and the presence of biological variability among them has been reported in previous studies. These factors make these samples appropriate for assessing …

An Examination Of Upland South Farmsteads Using An Evolutionary Ecology Methodology, Todd Michael Ahlman

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of historic farmsteads in the Upland South has generally taken a normative approach that compared archaeologically recorded farmsteads to an idealized Upland South farmstead. This approach tends to avoid the issue of variation that is inherent among farmsteads within the region. To address this variation, a Darwinian evolutionary theoretical perspective is proposed. Of the different evolutionary perspectives in archaeology today, including selectionism, evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary ecology, it is proposed that an evolutionary ecological theoretical perspective is the best for examining and explaining the variation among Upland South farmsteads.

In employing an evolutionary ecology theoretical perspective, a resource …

Secretory Immunoglobulin A And Heart Rate Reactions To Mental Arithmetic And Hypnotic Suggestions, Grant Benham

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study replicates and extends previous research on the effects of both specific hypnotic suggestions and a mental arithmetic task on secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). Participants (14 males, 16 females) were shown a short video on immune functioning and then sat quietly for 8 minutes in order to obtain an initial baseline measure of sIgA. Participants were then administered an 8-min mental arithmetic (stress) task and a 16-min hypnosis task in a counterbalanced order and separated by a second 8-min baseline period. During the hypnosis condition, participants received a taped hypnotic induction followed by specific suggestions for increasing immune …

Psychometric Analysis Of The Self-Test; A Newly Developed Brief Screening Test For Detection Of Mild Cognitive Impairments In Early Alzheimer's Disease, Mateja De Leonni Stanonik

Doctoral Dissertations

Dementia is a major public health challenge, which is becoming more common as the aged population grows. Adequate care of dementia patients requires that they be recognized as having memory impairment, identified as having dementia syndrome, and evaluated for the specific cause of the dementia. Dementia is one of the first symptoms in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, the most common psychological instrument used in early evaluation of dementia and other cognitive problems in Alzheimer’s disease is the Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE, Folstein & Folstein, 1974). The MMSE evaluates different aspects of a patient’s memory, visuospatial functions, …

Social And Biological Structures In The Mound C Cemetery, Wickliffe Mound Group (15ba4), Hugh Bryson Matternes

Doctoral Dissertations

Cemeteries are archaeological phenomena that accumulate over time. When formed in socially unstable cultural environments, the messages communicated by mortuary-based material symbols may change over the course of grave accumulation. This dissertation explores whether Mississippian Period mortuary deposits in Mound C, of the Wickliffe Mound Group (15BA4) changed over time.

Cemeteries are places where the dead's social qualities are defined. They help reemphasize important community values and provide a biologically safe repository for the dead. Symbolized mortuary features convey seven general types of social information. This relationship is sensitive to temporal change.

Several analyses placed the cemetery into socio-biological contexts. …

Computerized Content Analysis: A Comparison Of The Verbal Productions Of High Hypnotizable, Low Hypnotizable And Simulating Subjects, Edeltraud Elter-Nodvin

Doctoral Dissertations

This research was designed to investigate the domain of hypnosis and to explore how the “state” of hypnosis, along with the susceptibility to hypnosis relate to lexical choice in verbal productions as well as to primary/secondary process mentation. The hypothesis that hypnosis facilitates primary process mentation has held a central place in numerous psychoanalytically oriented theories of hypnosis (Gill & Brenman, 1959; Fromm, 1992; Nash, 1991).

College students were screened for level of hypnotic susceptibility employing the following two hypnotic susceptibility scales: The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS: A; Shor & Orne, 1962) [Appendix D] and …

Religious Involvement And Dispositional Characteristics As Predictors Of Work Attitudes And Behaviors, Tami Leigh Knotts

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically examine the effects of (1) religious involvement on job attitudes, (2) dispositions on job attitudes, and (3) religious involvement on workplace behaviors. This study also assessed whether job attitudes mediated the effect of religious involvement an workplace behaviors or the interaction effect of religious involvement and dispositional characteristics on workplace behaviors.

Higher levels of religious involvement were hypothesized to lead to more positive work attitudes and behaviors. Conservative and self-transcendent values along with positive well-being were expected to lead to positive attitudes at work. The effect of religious involvement on work behaviors …

Effect Of Cooperative Learning (Student Teams -Achievement Divisions) On African American And Caucasian Students' Interracial Friendships, James Edward Cook

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gauge the impact of cooperative learning teams on interracial friendships. The participants were 256 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in English classes (20% African American and 80% Caucasian) at a rural middle school in Louisiana. After delivery of instruction, the experimental group studied worksheets in teams, received rewards based upon the team's performance, and received individual grades based upon individual exam scores. The control group studied worksheets individually and received individual grades. This eight week study utilized the sociometric question, “Who are your friends in this class?” as the pretest and posttest …

An Empirical Analysis Of Taxpayers' Attitudes And Behavioral Intentions Regarding Compliance With Federal Income Tax Laws, Stanley Wayne Hays

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze variables that potentially affect taxpayers' attitudes about income tax compliance. Phase one of the study focused on the relationships between four groups of variables and ethical perceptions of compliance behaviors. The four groups of variables follow: demographic variables such as age, education, and household income; personal characteristic variables such as idealism, relativism, conservatism, and religiosity; situational variables including an overall attitude about paying federal income taxes and impressions of the effectiveness of a number of law changes intended to make the IRS more responsive; and, consequential variables comprised of five dimensions of …

A Social-Cognitive Approach To Salesperson Work Motivation, Lawrence Scott Silver

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to apply a social-cognitive model of motivation, used extensively in educational psychology, to a sales setting. The topic pertaining to work motivation and its importance is evidenced by the amount of research devoted to the topic. The literature examined for this study was selected from the fields of industrial/organizational psychology, educational psychology, and marketing/sales. Specifically, this study addressed the following research questions: (1) To what extent is salespeople's goal orientation determined by their implicit personality theory? (2) Do salespeople's goal orientation determine their behavior pattern? (3) Does optimism moderate the relationship between salespeople's implicit …

Family Caregiving Experiences With Alzheimer's Disease: A Collective Case Study, Annabel Lee Agee

Doctoral Dissertations

This collective case study was designed to explore the perspectives of families who are involved in caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease and the cognitive impairment it entails. The collective design (i.e., extension of the study to multiple cases) facilitated understanding and interpretation of these phenomena associated with family caregiving experiences with Alzheimer's disease through not only within-case but also cross-case analyses. Advances in health care and medical technology have resulted in increased life expectancy, which means more people are expected to live longer. Parallel to these predictions for increases in the aging population over the next 50 years, the …

Pigs, Philistines, And The Ancient Animal Economy Of Ekron From The Late Bronze Age To The Iron Age Ii, Justin Samuel Elan Lev-Tov

Doctoral Dissertations

The assemblage of animal bones recovered from the excavation area of Field I at the site of Tel Miqne-Ekron, located in Israel, is the subject of this dissertation. This site has been identified as the ancient city of Ekron, one of the Philistine cities. The faunal remains from Ekron can be divided into three main parts, bones recovered from the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age I, or Iron Age II strata of the site. Research questions relevant to these three time periods were formulated for each corpus of animal bones. The theme which ties these subdivisions together is world systems …

African-American Conservatism: A Longitudinal And Comparative Study, Angela K. Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations

The proposed research addresses the following questions: “Have African-Americans become more conservative over the last 25 years?” While numerous commentators have noted the existence of a Black conservative group, heretofore, none have attempted to document this phenomenon empirically. In fact, the question of whether conservatism has substantial support in the Black community remains unanswered (Welch & Combs, 85; Welch & Foster, 87; Randolph, 95). The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically address the preceding question through the use of the National Black Election Study (1984, 1988, & 1996) and the National Election Study.

Perceptions Of Administrators, Counselors, Teachers, And Students Concerning School Safety And Violence In Selected Secondary Schools In North Louisiana, Sharilynn Duckworth-Loche

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purposes of this study were to determine the perceptions of administrators, counselors, teachers, and students, regarding levels of school safety and violence in selected secondary schools in north Louisiana; the types of violence that had the greatest impact on safety; and strategies that were currently being used to address violence in the schools. The secondary purpose was to determine the differences in perceptions of school safety and violence of administrators, counselors, and teachers by ethnic background, gender and years of experience. A tertiary purpose was to determine the perceptions of students by ethnic background, gender, age, and grade …

Conscientiousness And The Prediction Of Task Duration: Evidence Of The Role Of Personality In Time Prediction, William Ernest Kelly

Doctoral Dissertations

Accuracy in predicting the duration necessary to complete a task is an important dimension of daily fife. There exists a large degree of variation in an individual's accuracy in predicting task duration. One domain suggested to influence accuracy of predicting duration is that of personality factors and individual differences. Empirical and theoretical links were found in the literature between the personality factor conscientiousness, of the Five Factor Model of Personality, anxiety, and predicting task duration. The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically examine the role of conscientiousness and anxiety in the accurate prediction of task duration. Ninety-five undergraduate students …