Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Case Study To Evaluate Effectiveness Of A Treatment Approach For Comorbid Anxiety And Depression, Maria Brent

Theses and Dissertations

This case study evaluates the effectiveness of supportive-expressive therapy combined with aspects of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of an adult female who has breast cancer and is diagnosed with comorbid Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. The subject had many psychosocial stressors. The subject voluntarily participated in outpatient individual psychotherapy received in a private counseling facility based on the twelve-step model of Alcoholics Anonymous. She completed various formal assessments of anxiety and depression periodically during the course of treatment, as well as a satisfaction survey following the termination of treatment. The literature review, which explored empirically supported treatments …

Preliminary Studies Of A Measure Of Conscientiousness, Braddon M. Garner Ma

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Psychologists have been interested in personality characteristics for decades. One characteristic of personality studied by researchers is that of conscientiousness. Conscientiousness can de defined as a "degree of organization, persistence, and motivation in goal-directed behavior" (Costa & McCrae, 1985, p.2) This study divided the terms defining conscientiousness into three categories for purpose of item development: organization, persistence, and motivation. Organization incudes, but is not limited to, being organized, reliable, and practical. Persistence includes concepts of responsibleness, thoroughness, and commitment to hard-work. Motivation involves characteristics of enthusiasm, morality, cautiousness, and seriousness. The purpose of this study was to develop a measure …

Athletic Participation: A Test Of Learning And Neutralization Theories., Mario Bernard Hankerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Athletics has been regarded as a means of encouraging youth to build character, discipline, and develop healthy habits. However, literature has emerged that asserts athletics do not prevent deviant behaviors, but instead, influence one to commit deviant acts. As such, this research examined effects of athletics on the commission of deviant behaviors via learning and techniques of neutralization theories.

Subjects for this project included 325 college students from a southern regional university. Data were generated through the use of a self-report questionnaire, which measured variables pertaining to self-reported deviant behaviors including perceptions of peer deviance, neutralizing indicators, and sports participation. …

An Evaluation Of The Ispcan Inter-Sectoral Training: Child Abuse Protocols In South Africa, Amy Maheswaran

Theses and Graduate Projects

This research studies how child abuse has become so pervasive in South Africa and evaluates a project that provides training for professionals to learn the necessary skills to build an effective social welfare system, potentially create national procedures for serving abused children and potentially change child abuse laws. Efforts have been made to build awareness on the rights of children in South Africa. Children, before and after the apartheid regime, have been affected by the breakdown of families and oppressive laws in a patriarchal society. Child abuse services and policies have attempted to address protecting children from abuse. Despite efforts …

A Preliminary Investigation Of Sense Of Humor And Purpose In Life, Sandra Batten

Student Work

It was hypothesized that sense o f humor is related to purpose in life. A convenience sample o f 136 undergraduates completed the Modified Purpose in Life test (Chang & Dodder, 1983-84) and the Multidimensional Sense o f Humor Scale (Thorson & Powell, 1993). The overall correlation between the two scales in this sample was .30 ( p < .001). The sub-scales o f the MSHS that related most robustly to purpose in life were Coping ( r = . 3 1 , p < .001) and Attitude Toward Humor and Humorous People ( r = .45, p < .001).

Fears And The Presence Of Imaginary Companions And Personified Objects In Preschool Children, Jill R. Ramet

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between a pre-school child’s fears and the child’s use of an imaginary companion or personified object. Preschool-aged children (36 To 74 months) were interviewed using a revised version o f the FSSC-R fear scale, and an imaginary companion questionnaire. Parents were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire. Data analyses revealed that children who did not have an imaginary companion or a personified object had an absolute higher total fear score than children who had this type o f figure, although this difference was not significant. Children with the lowest absolute …

The Prehistory Of Fentress County, Tennessee: An Archaeological Survey, Jay Douglas Franklin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a synthesis of recent and ongoing archaeological investigations of the caves, rock shelters, and open air uplands of the Upper Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. The primary working hypothesis of this research is that existing culture histories applied to this region are inadequate. Existing culture histories for Middle and East Tennessee were developed in adjacent regions, primarily lowland river flood plains. These culture histories have been boiler-plated onto the Cumberland Plateau even though comparatively little systematic archaeological research has actually been conducted in the region. Furthermore, upland regions, such as the Cumberland Plateau, have often been characterized as …

Peak Alpha Frequency: An Electroencephalographic Measure Of Cognitive Preparedness, Efthymios Angelakis

Doctoral Dissertations

Background.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) peak alpha frequency (PAF) has been shown to correlate with a variety of phenomena, including age, memory performance in healthy and demented individuals, different emotional states, schizophrenia, anxiety, recovery from stroke, cerebral blood flow (CBF) velocity, brain oxygenation, as well as acute administration of stimulant and nootropic substances. These studies have shown that PAF varies between healthy and clinical individuals, with the latter consistently having lower PAF. Moreover, PAF varies between healthy individuals, reflecting cognitive performance, with better performance being associated with increased PAF. Finally, PAF varies within individuals both between developmental stages and between different cognitive …

The Link Between Capital Structure And Product Market Competition: Theory And Evidence, Lee Greer

Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship between capital structure and product market competition is examined using a theoretical model and two econometric analyses. In an extension of Glazer (1994), a theoretical model is derived that allows a quantity leader and follower to issue debt and then twice play a sequential product market game, after which each firm must either repay its debt in full or go bankrupt. It is demonstrated that the follower maximizes operating profit irrespective of capital structure but that the levered quantity leader in every period produces more than the Stackelberg profit-maximizing level of output. As such, the industry characterized by …

Biological Affinities Of Archaic Period Populations From West-Central Kentucky And Tennessee, Nicholas Paul Herrmann

Doctoral Dissertations

The Green River Archaic period skeletal collections represent one of the largest regionally specific aggregate hunter-gatherer sample available for study. These collections have been the focus of numerous studies on paleopathology and paleodemography. Indian Knoll (15OH2) is the largest collection with over 1000 individuals. These burials were recovered from two primary excavations directed by Clarence B. Moore and the Work Progress Administration (WPA) in the first half of the nineteenth century. The WPA excavated numerous sites along the Green River and it’s tributaries resulting in additional skeletal collections from sites such as Barrett (15McL4), Carlston Annis (15BT5), Chiggerville (15OH1), Read …

Eeg Patterns Of Tbi Patients With Attention Deficits During Cognitive Tasks And Second Resting Baseline, Stamatina Stathopoulou

Doctoral Dissertations

According to previous research, different regions of the brain are activated when a person is required to use different types of attention like selective, alternating, focused, sustained and divided attention. The frontal, prefrontal and parietal areas especially in the right hemisphere, seem to be the most frequently activated areas. Little research has addressed differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) between traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients, with different types of attentional deficits because of their injury, and normal population. This study focuses on differences in magnitude in five brain regions between TBI patients and normal population, during recording of one cognitive task …

Negotiated Families: Lesbians And Institutions In Southwest Michigan, Cynthia E. Foor

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I look at the practices of certain lesbians and locate them within a particular historical and cultural context. I argue that the resources, the capital, both material and social, as well as the internalized orientations and expectations each woman brings to the crafting of her family, accounts for the particular family each has negotiated. It is within the particular historical constraints and opportunities that we can understand each family's experiences. The uniqueness of family experience is predicated on differences in the women's ages linked to the particular historical trajectory of sociopolitical changes in the U. S. Yet …

Artificial Tanning Salon Behaviors, Intentions, And Attitudes In Terms Of Sensuousness And Sensation Seeking., Christopher Jonathan Armes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the Theory of Alternative Behavior (Jaccard, 1981), we examined the relationship of warmth sensuousness, physical sensuousness, and sensation seeking to individuals' tanning salon behaviors, intentions, and attitudes among undergraduates at a Southeastern university.

Females, high sensation seekers, those high in warmth sensuousness, and those with darker skin types were more likely to tan. Females were more likely to intend to tan in the next year. Those higher in warmth sensuousness were more likely to intend to tan more than 10 times in the next year. Females and subjects higher in warmth sensuousness had more positive attitudes toward tanning. Significant …

The Need For Control In Interpersonal Relationships And Courtship Violence., Marcella Horn Dunaway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored an individual's need for control and the level of violence within a dating relationship.

This was a self-report study. Subjects consisted of 175 students from a university in the southern Appalachian region of the U.S. Questionnaires were combined with a scenario depicting violent behavior. Subjects were asked to rate their level of control on the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Inventory (FIRO-B), to complete the Conflict Tactics Scale - revised (CTS-2), and to rate the acceptability of the scenario. Data were analyzed using an ANOVA.

Results did not support the main hypothesis. No relationship was found between control and …

Human Subjects Protection In Research: Are We Doing Enough?, Marsha L. Green

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Scientific research has produced substantial social benefits but has also posed troubling ethical questions with regard to the use and protection of human subjects. These questions have continued to be in the forefront of all biomedical and social research. The increased education of researchers on the subject of protection of human subjects has become of vital importance in the research world. This education involves program administrators, faculty, staff, students, research participants, and Institutional Review Board Committee (IRB) members. In this study of the University of Nevada, LasVegas (UNLV) human subjects’ protection program administration, the question to be answered was: has …

The Effect Of Personality On The Spiral Of Silence Process, Kyoungtae Nam

Doctoral Dissertations

The study examines the effect of personality on the spiral of silence process. Despite the social-psychological nature of the spiral of silence theory, there has been little investigation on the relationship between personality and the spiral of silence process. In the current study, two personality constructs, independent/interdependent self-construal and right wing authoritarian personality, are examined to see how they affect a person’s willingness to speak out. In March through April 2002, 714 college students were surveyed. Three topics that were identified as highly controversial in the preliminary study were used in the final survey: abortion (n=238), affirmative action (n=234), and …

Three Essays On Economic Reform: Effects On Human Development, Fertility, And Factor Shares, Khaled Ibrahim Abdel-Kader

Dissertations

This dissertation contains three essays on economic reform programs supported by the IMF and World Bank. Using appropriate theoretical and empirical models, we investigate the impact of reform on three aspects of economic development: (1) human development, (2) fertility, and (3) income shares of factors of production. In the first essay, we examine the long-run impact of reform on different measures o f human development and income. Empirical results show that reform has long-run positive impact on GDP per capita and measures of human development. However, worse initial macroeconomic conditions offset this impact. In the second essay, we examine the …

The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Activation Group Therapy: Treating Comorbid Depression On A Specialized Inpatient Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Unit For Combat Veterans, Theodore P. Wright

Dissertations

The comorbidity of depression and PTSD has been shown to be relatively prevalent. Researchers have found a 70% lifetime prevalence o f comorbid PTSD and depression among combat veterans. This study examined the effectiveness of a behavioral activation (BA) group treatment when administered to combat veterans with comorbid depression and PTSD in the residential treatment program at the Battle Creek Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Forty-five veterans participated in the study. Twenty-four veterans participated in a BA treatment group while in the treatment program. Twenty-one veterans attended the treatment program, but did not participate in the BA treatment group and served …

Law, Media And Political Dissent: The Case Of The Faln, Yanira Reyes

Open Access Dissertations

Inspired on the works of scholars and activists that had denounced state repression of political activists in the United States, this research explores the theoretical proposal about the criminalization of political dissidence. The proposal of the criminalization of political dissidence is analyzed through the study of the case of Puerto Rican pro-independence organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberaci6n Nacional, F.A.L.N. The subjects of this research were charged with seditious conspiracy and other charges. They claimed the status of prisoners of war and deny the jurisdiction of US courts over them. Affirming their right to fight for the independence of Puerto Rico, …

An Examination Of Death Salience: A Component In The Death Anxiety Model, Rachel A. Mason

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Reviews of the literature have identified few consistent theoretical approaches in the assessment of death anxiety and death attitudes for patients diagnosed with a potentially life threatening illness, such as cancer. This illness experience forces patients to contemplate their mortality. The present study employed a portion of the Death Anxiety Model to examine the relationships between death salience, beliefs about the self, beliefs about the world, death meaning, and death anxiety. Three groups (N = 121) who differed on death salience were examined: cancer survivors (intrapersonal - high salience), spouses of cancer survivors (interpersonal - moderate salience), and healthy patients …

Culture Of Intimidation: Power Relationships, Quiescence, And Rebellion In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Barry R. Durbin

Masters Theses

Studies suggest that quiescence, or the absence of challenge from deprived groups can be explained as a function of power relationships. Power has the potential to influence the decision-making process by monopolizing decision-making arenas. Furthermore, elites that occupy positions of power have the capability to resist challenges from deprived groups by preventing certain issues or grievances from ever being raised. This study’s focus is a former nuclear weapons production facility (the former K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the quiescent nature of workers there, and the subsequent rise of rebellion. I employ a historical perspective using in-depth interviews …

Framing Of Breast Cancer In African American Magazines, Lanise Hutchins

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

International News Coverage, Borrowed News And Geopolitical Focus In The New York Times During 1991, 1996 And 2001, Heather E. Rogers

Masters Theses

International news coverage by the U.S. media (and for the purpose of this study, newspaper coverage) is a heavily debated issue within the scholarly and professional worlds. Critics, both in the United States and abroad, charge that the U.S. media prescribe to an egocentric attitude about international news coverage, and that Americans do not receive the quality of news that could be expected in a nation with a free press, where citizens are, for the most part, highly educated and where access to news is not restricted.

Previous studies have focused on how much international news coverage Americans receive, and …

Lifecourse Of A Community Survey, Craig Tollini

Masters Theses

This paper seeks to uncover the factors that may have impacted how the officials of a medium sized, Midwestern city used the results of a survey of city residents, which had been conducted by the same university-based research center for sixteen years, in their budget and policy decision-making process. The researchers who directed the survey project and the officials who designed the survey and/or were in a position to use its results were interviewed, and various written materials related to the survey project, from memos between the city manager and the researcher to the final report the researcher provided to …

Tales Of Forbidden Love: A Sociological Analysis Of Interracial Intimacy, Candice L. Bryant

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the constructions of race, marriage, and love insofar as these components promote the exclusion of interracial intimacy and marriage from the dominant discourse. The study focuses on the ways in which the social sciences have polarized "blacks" and "whites" (linguistically, socially, and economically) thus, making it difficult for persons living in black and white skin to experience social affirmation through literature, media, and agents in everyday life.

A qualitative content analysis of historical and contemporary literature regarding interracial marriage and intimacy were conducted in conjunction with an auto ethnography of the author's …

Measuring Urban Sprawl In Kalamazoo Region: A Land Cover Approach, Olena I. Smith

Masters Theses

Urban sprawl is a common American problem that has continued unabated throughout the last six decades. The pattern of urban sprawl in many metropolitan areas of Michigan is typical for much of the United States. Urban sprawl has been recognized as a major social problem in Michigan since the beginning of the 1990's. However, few studies measure urban sprawl by utilizing land cover information.

This research is a temporally comparative study that concentrates on changing patterns of "land cover" (the way land is covered by natural or human activities) from 1978 to 1996 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The study focuses on …

Investigating El Nino Southern Oscillation And Tornado Activity In Texas, Joel R. Intrieri

Masters Theses

The possible relationships between El Nino Southern Oscillation and tornado frequency and intensity (as measured by the Fujita Scale) within Texas are explored in this paper. Reported tornado occurrences from 1950-2000 are compared to the Japan Meteorological Agency's Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Index to discover significant patterns and trends throughout the state. Overall, results reveal that more intense tornadoes are likely to touchdown during the cold phase (La Nina) of the ENSO cycle. Regional differences are also observed with the La Nina extreme favoring increases in tornado frequency and intensity within distinct areas of the state. Finally, the cold swing …

The Effects Of Group Size On Incentive Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis, Angelica C. Grindle

Dissertations

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effects of group size on incentive effectiveness using data obtained from incentive systems implemented in 13 companies. Other predictor variables included the organizational level targeted for improvement, long/short-term profitability type, company number, and length of exposure to the incentive system. The main dependent variable was the monthly score for each measure of performance. Three types of meaningful comparisons were defined for these data: (1) Between-Group - Within-Company comparisons in which a performance measure was in place in two or more units of an organization; (2) Between-Group - Across-Company comparisons in which a performance …

Examining The Experiences Of Nontraditional Undergraduate Women: Pedagogy Versus Andragogy, Beverly Ann Hair

Dissertations

Increasing numbers of nontraditional students, of whom many are women, are enrolling in two-year and four-year colleges and universities. The purpose ofthis study is to critically examine the experiences of nontraditional undergraduate women and their preferred learning environment--pedagogy vs. andragogy. Students were asked to respond to a variety of questions in order to reflect upon their preferred learning environment. The researcher looked for differences inthe experiences of 20 (ten Black and ten White) nontraditional female undergraduate college students within their respective institutions based on their race, socioeconomic background, age, and religious background. Also, the researcher focused on why these nontraditional …

A Study Of The Leadership Preparedness Of U.S. Public University Chief Business Officers, Daniel J. Hurley

Dissertations

Despite the enormous role that Chief Business Officers (CBOs) play in administering the business and financial affairs of American public universities, little research has been conducted on their leadership preparedness. The primary objectives of this study were to assess the self-perceived preparedness of U.S. public university CBOs at the time they assumed their first position in the role, and to determine if specific factors could be associated with their overall preparedness.

With support from the National Association of College and University Business Officers, a survey was developed and mailed to the entire population of CBOs at four-year public universities in …