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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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

1992

Portland State University

Sociology

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Psychological Models And The Stock Of Knowledge, David L. Sones Aug 1992

Psychological Models And The Stock Of Knowledge, David L. Sones

Dissertations and Theses

The research sought to ascertain whether or not psychological ideas and notions ("psychological models") are used to explain human behavior and human characteristics in everyday life, and if so, are these psychological models similar to the schools of thought within the field of psychology? Also of interest was whether or not "statistical categories" use psychological models as a "style of thought," and if so, are psychological models part of the current American Weltanschauungen? The convenience sample consisted of 34 respondents who were taking an introductory sociology course, and 39 respondents from non-college settings. An open-ended questionnaire containing 13 questions asking …

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Urban Native American Educational Attitudes: Impact Of Educational Background And Childhood Residency, Paul Adair Wood Aug 1992

Urban Native American Educational Attitudes: Impact Of Educational Background And Childhood Residency, Paul Adair Wood

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between educational attitudes and certain background features of Native Americans, in particular, where they were raised and what type of school they attended. The sample used consisted of 120 completed mail out-mail back surveys that were used primarily as a Needs Assessment for the Portland Indian Health clinic. The sample was randomly selected from the Portland Indian Health Clinic client/patient mailing list. The findings of this thesis indicate that the attitudes of Native Americans toward education in general are positive. The findings also indicate that older Native Americans who experienced …

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Soviet Pentecostal Refugees' Health And Their Religious Beliefs: An Exploratory Study, Dianne Fae Venable Aug 1992

Soviet Pentecostal Refugees' Health And Their Religious Beliefs: An Exploratory Study, Dianne Fae Venable

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explored the health practices and religious beliefs of the recent Soviet Pentecostal refugee population in the Portland, Oregon metro area. The methodology consisted of 25 in-depth interviews over a period of twelve months. Soviet Pentecostal refugees' health practices are influenced by their religious belief system which is Pentecostalism. The four primary factors that were found to have an affect on the refugees' health were lifestyle practices; coherence; or the meaning of suffering that religion provides; cohesiveness, or group belonging to the religious community, and world view provided by the underlying theology. The language barrier, distrust of outsiders, unfamiliarity …

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Factors Affecting The Repatriation Of The Afghan Refugees, Todd Trowbridge Ames Jul 1992

Factors Affecting The Repatriation Of The Afghan Refugees, Todd Trowbridge Ames

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the factors affecting the repatriation of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, by using data collected in these refugee camps, during the Fall of 1988.

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An Examination Of Moral Boundaries Associated With Legal And Social Changes In Response To The Aids Epidemic, Lauri Sue Johnson Jun 1992

An Examination Of Moral Boundaries Associated With Legal And Social Changes In Response To The Aids Epidemic, Lauri Sue Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between law and society and various forms of causality: (1) legal change leading to social change; (2) social change leading to legal change; and (3) the interdependent interaction between social change and legal change. It is proposed that a multi-directional approach would be the most useful in examining the moral boundaries exemplified in the law identified with legal and social changes that have resulted in response to the AIDS epidemic.

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Battle For The Boulevard, Patricia Luann Antoine Jun 1992

Battle For The Boulevard, Patricia Luann Antoine

Dissertations and Theses

This study explored the nature of community power and decision-making surrounding the renaming of Portland's Union Avenue in honor of the slain civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Employing an integrated theoretical framework based on G. William Domhoff's (1967) perspective of the compatibility of C. Wright Mills' Power Elite Model (1956) and Robert A. Dahl's Pluralist Model (1961) plus Claude S. Fischer's (1982) perspective on the nature of the urban social environment, this study attempted to provide insight into and understanding of the dynamics involved in the controversy that developed over the efforts to rename a street for Dr. …

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A Cycle Of Crisis And Violence : The Oregon State Penitentiary, 1866-1968, Joseph Willard Laythe May 1992

A Cycle Of Crisis And Violence : The Oregon State Penitentiary, 1866-1968, Joseph Willard Laythe

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines seven crises at the Oregon State Penitentiary between 1866 and 1968 which are symptomatic of a larger pathology of power at play at the institution. These prison crises brought the pathology of power out from behind the thick grey walls of the institution and to the eyes and ears of an uninformed public. This arousal of such attention forced the prison to re-evaluate its penal model, enact half-hearted reforms, but then resume to the institution's traditional pattern and style of punishment. This inability to address the crises or resolve the immediate problem points to a larger problem--namely …

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Effects Of Parents' Health Attitudes And Beliefs On Children's Preventive Care Utilization, Weiming Hu Feb 1992

Effects Of Parents' Health Attitudes And Beliefs On Children's Preventive Care Utilization, Weiming Hu

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis was designed to test the relationship between parents' health attitudes and beliefs and utilization of preventive health services of their children. Four measures of health attitudes and beliefs (HAB) were examined in this study, they were: 1) Interest in and concern with health; 2) Skepticism about physicians; 3) Tendency to consult physicians; and 4) Efficacy. Preventive care utilization included well-child care and immunization.

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Hegemony In Two Mainstream Oregon Newspapers : The War On Poverty Era Vs. The Post-Reagan Era, Marcia R. Hood-Brown Jan 1992

Hegemony In Two Mainstream Oregon Newspapers : The War On Poverty Era Vs. The Post-Reagan Era, Marcia R. Hood-Brown

Dissertations and Theses

In my research I use qualitative content analysis to determine if and how the hegemony of the capitalist class in the United States influences the content of news texts on poverty. I analyze messages from two contrasting historical eras, the War on Poverty era and the post-Reagan era.

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Adult Student Perceptions Of Traditionally Sex-Typed Toys, Shelly Lynn Jackson Jan 1992

Adult Student Perceptions Of Traditionally Sex-Typed Toys, Shelly Lynn Jackson

Dissertations and Theses

studies have examined children's toy preferences as they relate to sex-role development. However, studies have failed to examine the dimensions of the toys themselves. Because adults purchase the majority of toys children receive, this study sought to determine adult student perceptions of children's traditionally sex-typed toys. Eighty-one participants rated ten selected toys. Multidimensional scaling analysis revealed five underlying dimensions. The five dimensions included Productive Play, Sociability, Structure, Gender, and Age. It was discovered that the Gender dimension was less salient than both the Productive Play and Sociability dimensions. The dimensions pertaining to each toy are discussed.

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"Staying" And "Straying" : Social Reproduction And Resistance To Secularization, Lisa Graham Mcminn Jan 1992

"Staying" And "Straying" : Social Reproduction And Resistance To Secularization, Lisa Graham Mcminn

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores how church-founded liberal arts colleges--specifically fundamental/evangelical liberal arts colleges--stayed the drift toward secularization. It uses comparative case studies to examine the structures and beliefs which enabled "staying" schools to resist secularization. Social reproduction theories are used to explain both the reproduction of the dominant culture (secularization) and the reproduction of a subculture (fundamentalism/evangelicalism). Secularizing institutions conform to state incentives and so reproduce what the state sees as necessary for societal survival. Resisting institutions isolate themselves from the dominant culture by establishing boundaries which let in only what accords with the church and so reproduce a culture the …

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