Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Using Tribal/State Title Iv-E Agreements To Help American Indian Tribes Access Foster Care And Adoption Funding, Eddie F. Brown, Gordon E. Limb, Chey A. Clifford, Ric Munoz, Leslie Schueler Whitaker

Faculty Publications

Funding under Title IV-E has historically not been available to American Indian communities, therefore, tribes have had to develop agreements with states to access these funds for child care services. This study analyzes Title IV-E intergovernmental provisions to help tribes and states strengthen Title IV-E agreements. A nationwide content analysis of existing Title IV-E documents, phone interviews, and focus groups revealed that Title IV-E tribal/state agreements vary widely, with most tribes not receiving full access to state services. These agreements focus on foster care maintenance payments and services. This article includes recommendations to help facilitate tribal access to Title IV-E …

Ethnic/Racial Matching Of Clients And Social Workers In Public Child Welfare, Robin Perry, Gordon E. Limb

Faculty Publications

Although considerable debate exists throughout the human-service literature regarding the potential benefits and limitations associated with ethnic/racial matching of clients and workers, there are few studies that examine the prevalence of this practice with large representative samples. This study utilizes a secondary analysis of data collected from 4813 public-child-welfare workers throughout California. Using census data to control for county-specific population demographics, American-Indian, Hispanic/Latino(a), Caucasian, and Asian-American child-welfare workers are more than two times more likely to have caseloads with a high percentage of clients who match their race/ethnicity than workers self-identified as another race/ethnicity. African-American workers are 1.28 times more …

Output Gap Uncertainty And Monetary Policy During The 1970s, David E. Spencer

Faculty Publications

The conduct of monetary policy during the 1970s was greatly complicated by systematic real-time misperceptions of the state of economic activity as measured by the output gap. Employing real-time data and using the Taylor rule as an analytical framework, I explore the implications of utilizing alternative observable proxies for the unobservable output gap. I compare the counterfactual paths for the federal funds rate generated under each proxy with the actual path of the federal funds rate and a benchmark ("ideal") path implied by a full information Taylor rule. Results suggest that these real-time proxies would have resulted in better policy …

Fiscal Decentralization In The Czech And Slovak Republics: A Comparative Study Of Moral Hazard, Phillip J. Bryson, Gary C. Cornia, Gloria E. Wheeler

Faculty Publications

Fiscal decentralization has provided neither the benefits of decentralization nor an independent revenue source for subnational governments in the Czech and Slovak Republics. In Slovakia, political conditions early in the transition led to the relative neglect of revenue transfers from the center. This produced financial stress but also encouraged greater fiscal independence for local governments. It also forced them to seek maximal property tax revenues. The Czech Republic made more substantial transfers to local governments, but the development of fiscal autonomy was stifled as transfers reduced the need for own-source local revenues. The Czech real estate tax has remained nominal …

American Fatherhood Types: The Good, The Bad, And The Uninterested, Loren Marks, Rob Palkovitz

Faculty Publications

This paper presents four contemporary types of American manhood: (a) the new, involved father, (b) the good provider, (c) the deadbeat dad, and (d) the paternity-free man. These four types are compared, contrasted, and contextualized with related data from the classic Middletown studies of the 1920s and 1930s. The significance and implications of the trend toward paternity-free manhood are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.

Expanding Tree Adjoining Grammar To Create Junction Grammar Trees, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Ronald Millett

Faculty Publications

Junction Grammar (JG) combines junction operators, multiple linked syntax/semantics trees, and flexible traversal algorithms. The multiple tree and flexible ordering characteristics of MC-TAG and other TAG extensions are somewhat analogous. This paper proposes that these similarities can be integrated to form a new approach, JG-TAG. Relevant aspects of both theories and the proposed new model are discussed in turn, and representative examples are sketched.

Taking Assessment On The Road: Utah Academic Librarians Focus On Distance Learners, Allyson Washburn, Rob Morrison

Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of focus groups conducted by Utah academic librarians at branch campuses in Utah. Librarians met with distance learners on-site to gain insights into their information-seeking behavior and to learn if they are using library services. Students rely heavily on the web for information and also utilize known resources in friends and family. Marketing and publicizing library services through classes and at the delivery sites is vital. Students appreciate the services libraries offer and strongly prefer face-face instruction and direct assistance from a librarian.

80 Miles From The Nearest Library, With A Research Paper Due Monday: Extending Library Services To Distance Learners, Allyson Washburn, Jessica Draper

Faculty Publications

This presentation reports the results of a project to extend the services and resources of Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library to distance-education students located in many areas of the world. Focusing on students enrolled in university-level English courses, the project team created a one-stop, integrated Web portal of library services and resources in Independent Study courses. This Library portal includes links to subscription databases, interlibrary loan, and personal reference services such as Ask a Librarian Live. The project team promoted faculty members' use of library research in the assignments for their Independent Study English courses. Finally, to ascertain …

Integrating Perception, Language And Problem Solving In A Cognitive Agent For A Mobile Robot., Deryle W. Lonsdale, D. Paul Benjamin, Damian M. Lyons

Faculty Publications

We are implementing a unified cognitive architecture for a mobile robot. Our goal is to endow a robot agent with the full range of cognitive abilities, including perception, use of natural language, learning and the ability to solve complex problems. The perspective of this work is that an architecture based on a unified theory of robot cognition has the best chance of attaining human-level performance.

This agent architecture is an integration of three theories: a theory of cognition embodied in the Soar system, the RS formal model of sensorimotor activity and an algebraic theory of decomposition and reformulation.

These three …

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.

Adapt: A Cognitive Architecture For Robots, Deryle W. Lonsdale, D. Paul Benjamin, Damian M. Lyons

Faculty Publications

The goal of the ADAPT project is to create a robot that can model its environment accurately in real time, and use that model to perform tasks and interact with people using natural language.

Resolving Automatic Prepositional Phrase Attachments By Non-Statistical Means, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Michael B. Manookin

Faculty Publications

Prepositional-phrase attachment is a topic of active research in the field of computational linguistics. Properly attaching prepositional phrases to their pertinent constituent proves straightforward for humans, but inferring these attachments in a cognitive modeling system becomes difficult. For example, in the sentence, ‘Ralph threw the frisbee to John,’ the prepositional phrase ‘to John’ will attach to the verb phrase ‘threw’. In another example, ‘Joe saw the dog with fur,’ the prepositional phrase ‘with fur’ will attach directly to the noun phrase ‘the dog.’ Humans would have little difficulty resolving these examples, but for computers this would be difficult.

A Computational Approach To Resolving Certain Issues In Spanish Stress Placement, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

Previous research into Spanish stress assignment suggests that accentuation involves learning and storing individual word tokens along with their inherent stress patterns, and analogizing on stored words when the need arises to determine the stress pattern of an unknown or unavailable word. Exactly what variables are most relevant to stress assignment has been hotly debated. In the present study, a number of analogical simulations were carried out to determine whether elements of the CV tier, syllable weight, phonemic representation, or a combination of these, best accounts for accentuation in Spanish.

An Examination Of The Mechanisms Of Action In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Bulimia Nervosa, Scott A. Baldwin, Diane L. Spangler, W. Stewart Agras

Faculty Publications

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for bulimia nervosa (BN) has received consid- erable empirical support for its efficacy. However, few investigators have examined the mechanisms proposed to account for the reduction of BN symptoms during CBT. The current study examined the associations between therapist interventions, client mechanisms, and symptoms during treatment in a sample of 56 clients under- going CBT for BN. Results suggested that behavioral interventions were most asso- ciated with symptom change during treatment whereas relational interventions were most associated with change in client mechanisms such as client engagement. Addi- tionally, some changes in BN symptoms were mediated by changes …

Fathering In A Beijing, Chinese Sample: Associations With Boys' And Girls' Negative Emotionality And Aggression, Chongming Yang, Craig H. Hart, David A. Nelson, Christin L. Porter, Susanne F. Olsen, Clyde C. Robinson, Shenhua Jin

Faculty Publications

Whether specific patterns of parenting are similarly associated with child outcomes in diverse cultural contexts has been a topic of inquiry for the past several decades. Most recently, attention has focused on Asian parenting and the indigenous meanings of parental control among specific Asian groups as contrasted with Western cultures (Chao & Tseng, 2002). Recent debates in this literature center on whether coercive parenting has similar meanings for mainland Chinese and North American children and their parents (e.g., Grusec, 2002; Lau & Yeung, 1996). To further address the question of whether there is a universal nature to parenting and its …

Latter-Day Saint Returned Missionaries In The United States: A Survey On Religious Activity And Postmission Adjustment, Bruce A. Chadwick, Richard J. Mcclendon

Faculty Publications

Each year, approximately twenty to thirty thousand Latter-day Saint young adults leave to serve missions throughout the world. Once these young adults return home from their missionary service, most go on to further their education, begin a career, marry, and establish a family. Returned missionaries are a unique group in the Church and are often a point of interest. Parents, for example, note the challenges their missionary has as he or she makes the transition from the mission field to home. They sometimes observe their returned missionary confronting increased stress levels as he or she shifts from the singular focus …