Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sowing The Seeds Of War: The New York Times' Coverage Of Japanese-American Tensions, A Prelude To Conflict In The Pacific, 1920-1941, David Robrt Schreindl

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the New York Times' coverage of unique generational influences between Japan and the United States from 1920 through the start of hostilities at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The purpose of this project was to see if the Times gave Americans an accurate picture of the relationship between the two countries or to determine if there was a lapse in coverage exhibiting negligence on the part of this prominent paper.

This thesis concludes that the New York Times was not negligent in its coverage of the issues prior to World War II. However, it was the …

Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Realizing Mission Objectives: A Promising Approach To Measuring The Social Performance Of Microfinance Institutions, Katarzyna Pawlak, Michal Matul

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper proposes a new approach for measuring the social performance of microfinance institutions. The key to developing sustainable social performance measurement (SPM) systems and practices is to consider their design from the perspective of the organizational mission. The fact that the SPM system is built on the organizational mission ensures its cost-effectiveness and facilitates its institutionalization. It not only stimulates an MFI to verify the fulfilment of its social mission and to innovate in the search for optimal solutions to address development needs in a given intervention context, but it also can improve its financial condition through client segmentation …

Foreign Exchange Risk Management Practices Of Microfinance Institution, Peter R. Crabb

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Foreign exchange risk remains a significant problem for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Many sources of potential funding for MFIs remain untapped due to the high risks of currency devaluation faced by these funding sources. Specifically, debt capital is available for MFIs but foreign exchange risk is a potential deterrent. This paper reviews current practices in the management of foreign exchange risk for and by MFIs. The advantages and disadvantages of these practices are discussed and alternative practices proposed.

Scoring Arrears At A Microlender In Bolivia, Mark Schreiner

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Can scoring models help microlenders in poor countries as much as they have helped credit-card lenders in rich countries? This paper presents a scorecard that predicts the probability that loans from a microlender in Bolivia will have arrears of 15 days or more. Although arrears in microfinance depend on many factors difficult to include in scorecards, the paper shows that inexpensive, simple-to-collect data does have some predictive power. In micro-finance, scoring will not replace loan officers, but it can flag high-risk cases and act as a cross-check on loan officers' judgment.

The Transformation Of The Microfinance Sector In India: Experiences, Options, And Future, M. S. Siriaram, Rajesh S. Upadhyayula

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper discusses the growth and transformation of microfinance organizations (MFO) in India. Issues that have triggered transformation include size, diversity, sustainability, focus, and taxation. Transformation experiences in India are few. To move to the mainstream, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) choose from three popular forms of organizations: non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), banks, and cooperatives. It appears that there is no ideal path for spin-off. Regulatory changes are needed to allow MFOs to graduate to other legal forms as they grow organically. NGOs must be permitted to invest in the equity of MFOs, as is the case in Bolivia and Africa. Norms …

Impact Of Microfinance Programs On Children's Education: Do The Gender Of The Borrower And The Delivery Model Matter?, Nathalie Holvoet

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article highlights the effects particular features of microfinance programs have on childhood education. Using data from a South India household survey, the article examines how microfinance impacts schooling and literacy, how credit enters the household, and who brings it in. Regression results show that, in the case of direct bank-borrower credit delivery, it does not matter whether credit enters the household through the mother or the father. However, large differences occur when mothers obtain credit through women's groups. Analysis indicates that combined financial and social-group intermediation leads to higher educational inputs and outputs, mainly for girls. Individual interviewis with …

Microleasing: The Grameen Bank Experience, Asif Dowla

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

Grameen Bank was the first microfinance institution (MFI) to introduce microleasing on a large scale. This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of Grameen's leasing program. Instead of providing a full-fledged impact assessment study, we examine the terms and conditions of the leasing program and evaluate its success in terms of outreach, repayment rate, and asset ownership.Analysis of program level data shows that the program is successful in terms of outreach and repayment performance. Through the program, poor men and women have become owners of power tillers, power looms, shallow machines, cellular phones, and even computers. The success of leasing suggests …

The Experience Of Financial Institutions In The Delivery Of Microcredit In The Philippines, Maria Abigail Carpio

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper identifies the characteristic features of the different financial market players involved in the delivery of microcredit in the Philippines and looks into their experiences in addressing the credit demand of the small-borrower market segment, particularly the microenterprise sector. This paper argues that each group of lenders, specifically commercial banks, rural banks, credit-granting NGOs, and an apex financial institution, allocates its funds by establishing its own criteria for assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers and its own mechanisms to avoid borrower default. The delivery of microcredit takes place within an environment where the different financial market players face their own …

Vol. 06 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Career Paths Of Eminent Researchers In Marriage And Family Therapy, Sarah R. Droubay, Thorana S. Nelson, Lee N. Johnson, Scott A. Ketring

Faculty Publications

The mental health field of marriage and family therapy (MFT) needs more MFT researchers and more research to validate and verify the effectiveness and efficacy of MFT for the treatment of various mental health and relational problems. Knowing more about how successful researchers have developed their careers would be useful in both inspiring and guiding young MFT researchers toward success. Three eminent researchers whose careers have focused on MFT (James Alexander, John Gottman, and Howard Liddle) and their publications served as the research sample. Research questions addressing types of research, research samples, research questions, therapy model development, funding, and paths …

An Empirical Examination Of The Indian Child Welfare Act And Its Impact On Cultural And Familial Preservation For American Indian Children, Gordon E. Limb, Toni Chance, Eddie F. Brown

Faculty Publications

Cultural and familial ties are crucial for the overall well-being of children. Extant research and permanency planning practices support the reunification of children with their families when possible. In 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was enacted to promote cultural and familial preservation for Indian children, but sparse empirical research has examined the implementation and outcomes associated with this landmark legislation. This article examines the relationship between compliance with ICWA in one Southwestern state and the rate of reunification of Indian children with family or tribal members following out-of-home placement.

Indirect Aggression On Screen: A Hidden Problem?, Sarah M. Coyne

Faculty Publications

Throughout history people have found violence and aggression entertaining. The Romans cheered in colossal arenas as gladiators were brutally murdered. In medieval England spectators applauded as knights fought each other in jousting tournaments. Shakespearean audiences were awed with bloody and violent conclusions of plays such as Macbeth, King Lear and Hamlet. Violence in entertainment today exists in a more accessible form, with over 60 per cent of television programs containing some form (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). Psychologists have studied the effects of viewing violence on television and in the movies for the last 50 years. Early studies were …

Marital Satisfaction And Depression In A Study Of Brazilian Women: A Cross-Cultural Test Of The Marital Discord Model Of Depression, Cody S. Hollist

Theses and Dissertations

Depression is a major societal health problem with individual, familial, social, and economic costs. Cross sectional research has linked depression and marital discord, with women frequently having a higher association between variables. Several longitudinal research studies have linked marital satisfaction to subsequent depression. The Marital Discord Model of Depression states that marital discord is an important antecedent in the development of depression. While some empirical evidence exists supporting this premise, no research has been done with Latinos. The purpose of this study was to test the longitudinal relationship between marital satisfaction and depression among Latina women.

The data was conducted …

September 11, 2001: An Individual Media Dependency Perspective, Tyrone Hamilton Glade

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses individual media dependency (IMD) to examine student dependency on the media before and during the attacks of September 11. A content analysis of media journals kept by a group of university students during the week of September 11 confirmed the existence of the IMD relationship, a finding that adds to the methodological breadth of IMD research. Goal scope, which is composed of the understanding, orientation, and play goals narrowed to the goal of social understanding on September 11 only to expand outwards to pre-September 11 levels by the end of that week. The theory postulates goal scope …

A Learner-Centered And Participtory Approach To Teaching Community Adult Esl, Haley Lynn Wiggins

Theses and Dissertations

This MA project examines the creation, implementation, and effectiveness of the guidebook, Moving Forward: A Learner-Centered and Participatory Approach to Teaching Community Adult ESL, designed to help adult English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers base their classes on the specific needs of community adult education students. This guidebook was created in response to the need for lesson plans and activities that help teachers focus on learner needs. The activities in the guidebook are based on the National Institute for Literacy's (NIFL) adult literacy initiative, Equipped for the Future (EFF) because it focuses on the tasks adults must perform …

Public Sector Transition In Post-Communist Economies: The Struggle For Fiscal Decentralization In The Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson, Gary C. Cornia

Faculty Publications

Transition studies have often been studies of transitioning private sectors. How centralist governments withdraw from the business of micromanaging a nation's enterprises is a fascinating story indeed. The other side of the coin, how the public sector is to be brought to decentralization and democracy, is likewise of great moment for the peoples of the transitioning countries. Under central planning the tradition was to provide all public goods and services under the direction of the central government and its ministries. There were no genuine subnational governments, since all policy decisions pertaining to taxation and the distribution of public services were …

Conjoint Marital Therapy: Proxy Voice Intervention And Softening In The Context Of Couple Enactments, Ryan B. Seedall

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the effectiveness of proxy voice intervention, embedded within couple enactments, on client-perceived softening. During enactments, direct couple interaction is the focus while the therapist coaches from the periphery. In the context of an enactment, the therapist may use proxy voice when partners appear to be distressed and expressing themselves in terms of secondary emotions by modeling appropriate attachment and self-concept expression. The primary research question was whether therapist use of proxy voice in an enactment would be more likely to bring about softening effects, or whether use of proxy voice was counter-intuitive to enactment conceptualization and would …

Marriage Moments: An Evaluation Of An Approach To Strengthen Couples' Relationships During The Transition To Parenthood, In The Context Of A Home Visitation Program, Kimberly Ann Rose Lovejoy

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates the efficacy of a self-guided, low-intensity curriculum, Marriage Moments, based on Fowers' (2000) virtues model of marital quality that emphasizes friendship, generosity, justice and loyalty. The Marriage Moments program consists of a guidebook and a video that were designed to strengthen marriages during the transition to parenthood and is used in the context of a home visitation program for first-time parents. Participants in the study included 119 married couples who had recently given birth to their first child. They were assigned to either a treatment, comparison or control group. The treatment group received the Marriage Moments curriculum …

Characteristics Of Preschoolers With Lower Perceived Competence, Robert J. Coplan, Leanne C. Findlay, Larry J. Nelson

Faculty Publications

The goal of the present study was to identify preschool children with “age-inappropriate” less positive self-perceptions, and to explore their parental and peer relationships as compared to their classmates with “age normal” self-perceptions. Participants were n = 127 preschool children (M age = 54.98 mos., SD = 8.21). Data were collected from multiple sources including parental ratings, child self-reports, and teacher ratings. Results indicated that as compared to their peers, children with less positive self-perceptions demonstrated more internalizing problems (i.e., loneliness, social-withdrawal), were more excluded by peers, and had mothers with less positive parenting styles. Results are discussed in …

The Effect Of Teachers' Error Feedback On International Students' Self-Correction Ability, Youngju Hong

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of teachers' error feedback on ESL students' self-correction ability. One hundred and nineteen international students enrolled in ESL composition classes at Brigham Young University's English Language Center participated in this research. The participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: (1) a coded feedback group, (2) a non-coded feedback group, and (3) a no-feedback control group. All participants were asked to write an in-class essay and to self-correct their grammatical errors during 20-minute time period. A grammar test and attitudinal survey were administered at the same time.

The Role Of Vocabulary Size In Assessing Second Language Vocabulary, Kevin John Zimmerman

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the role of vocabulary size in assessing learners from various L1 backgrounds and for institutional placement. Participants included native speakers of Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin, who took a test that estimated the size of their productive English vocabulary. First, the vocabulary size of students from each language group was compared and the relationship between vocabulary size and institutional placement level was examined. Then, scores were analyzed to determine how cognates and loan words influenced the participants' performance on the vocabulary test. Further, students' vocabulary size scores were correlated with their placement scores that evaluated reading, writing, …

Religion And Gender In Christian, Jewish, And Muslim Married Couples, Anna Mae Ridley

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the influence of religion on gender roles in marriage. Past research indicates that previous theories of marital power have ignored couples' own conceptualizations and have relied on taken for granted assumptions. Thirty-two religious couples (from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths) were interviewed regarding their gender roles. Grounded-theory qualitative analyses were conducted for couples' perceptions of religious influence on gender roles, the development of their gender practice, and their operationalization of marital power. Results are reported according to couples' discussion of role organization, role design, and outcomes. Valuing gender differences moderated religious impact on couples' role development and …

Melioration And The Behavioral Addiction Process: An Experimental Analysis, Jared Micah Dinehart

Theses and Dissertations

Melioration can be a factor contributing to behavioral addiction. In this study, 76 university undergraduates operated a "money machine" by selecting between choices that corresponded to maximization and melioration. Participants initially made choices consistent with a strategy of melioration and demonstrated significantly greater variability in choice behavior when visual cues were presented aimed at exposing the internality (or consequence) of the choice situation. Removal of the visual cues resulted in a return to lower responding. Visual cues may aid in interrupting the behavioral addiction pattern by limiting exclusive use of a melioration choice strategy. Methods of restructuring and experimentation with …

The Context Of Contact: White Attitudes Toward Interracial Marriage, Bryan R. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Using a year 2000 national racial poll conducted by the New York Times, I analyze Whites' approval of interracial marriage. I utilize the contact hypothesis, as originally formulated by Gordon Allport, to develop a conceptual model of White's attitudes toward interracial marriage. Specifically I propose and develop an additional dimension of the contact hypothesis, which accounts for the context in which interracial contacts occur. I do so by examining several specific social settings in which White respondents report experiencing contact with Blacks. The contexts examined are ordered in terms of the type of contact they likely provide, from close, personal …

The Million-Dollar Question: Why Pre-Adolescents Watch Television, Emily A. Smurthwaite

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents qualitative research examining the relationship youth have with television. Information for this study was collected through media journals, personal essays, in-depth interviews, and focus groups held with eighteen sixth-graders who attended a charter elementary school in Lindon, Utah.

The question posed to the students multiple times during the data collection was: “Would you give up television for $1 million?” Through the students’ answers and ensuing dialogue, the researcher examined the social value the pre-adolescents attributed to watching television. The findings identify three main categories the students said were reasons they were attached to television, which also corresponded …

Women's Response To Spousal Unemployment: Economic, Labor Force, And Family Constraints, Elizabeth Miklya Legerski

Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from 29 interviews with the wives of steelworkers who were forced into unemployment, I explore the conditions and factors that shape women's choices in response to their husbands' job loss. Access to a unique and under-studied sample of women married to unemployed working-class men necessitates the use of grounded theory research techniques that allow me to "give voice" to working-class women.

Communities, Place, And Conservation On Mount Kilimanjaro, Marie Bradshaw Durrant

Theses and Dissertations

The Chagga people have lived and worked on Mount Kilimanjaro for more than 250 years. Through traditions and social practices within their communities and families, strong bonds are established between the Chagga and their home on the mountain. Kilimanjaro National Park and Forest Reserve (KINAPA) was established in the 1970s to protect and conserve the mountain, based on a long history of colonialism and western ideals. As KINAPA has attempted to preserve the flora and fauna on the uppermost portion of Mount Kilimanjaro, they have alienated local residents from the land through a conservation approach that relies on "fences and …

A Formal Semantic Analysis Of Autistic Language: The Quantification Hypothesis, Michael B. Manookin

Theses and Dissertations

Autism is characterized by language dysfunction ranging from mild and peculiar language usage to a total lack of expressive language function. These language oddities are manifest in the form of phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic/behavioral dysfunction. Research suggests that the autistic language deficit is focal—dealing with a specific area of language processing; however, previous research has failed to identify this language enigma. This thesis demonstrates a novel approach to the problem, showing that the autistic language deficit is tied to a particular aspect of language processing—quantification. Quantification is defined and explained in the context of autistic language and behavior.

Combining Learning Approaches For Incremental On-Line Parsing, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Michael B. Manookin

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the integration of two different machine learning approaches to modeling language, NL-Soar and analogical modeling (AM). The resulting hybrid system is capable of functionality that is not possible when using only one of the systems in isolation. After a brief introduction of each system, an explanation is given of how AM is used to provide information useful to NL-Soar for two tasks. Examples are given, and related issues are outlined.