Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

"I Now Pronounce You...Uhh": A Qualitative Autoethnographic Exploration Of Women's And Men's Marital Surname-Choice Experiences, Julie Louceil Germain Walker

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Marital name change has been a topic of fierce debate in social settings and has received some attention from academia, but largely scholarship on marital name change focuses on female choices and their rationale. Using a combined in-depth qualitative and autoethnographic approach, I sought to understand the connections between name and identity. I interviewed 11 heterosexual, married women and men about their marital name choices to explore the possible name-identity connections. Choosing a surname requires some type of pre-choice negotiation, either individually or with a partner, and several post-choice negotiations, such as with family members and the process of changing …

Tying It All Together: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Lgbtq Forensic Competitors, Alyssa Barrie Reid

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

It is a common held belief amongst the intercollegiate forensic community that it breeds a culture of affirmation towards marginalized identities. However, as a competitor I never felt confident portraying my LGBTQ identity while at a forensic tournament. This prompted me to employ interviews of former LGBTQ competitors to explore how they managed their identity. Using grounded theory and autoethnography I uncovered themes related to gender, sex, sexuality, and gender identity performance as they confronted and interacted with forensic competition.

I Had An Abortion: Midwest Women, Stigma And Disclosure, Katie Stack

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Since the legalization of abortion is 1973, both pro-choice and pro-life sides of the debate have struggled for political and cultural influence. Meanwhile, the voices of women who have utilized abortion serves remain unheard, their stories invisible. Largely, this silence surrounding women's abortion experiences has been attributed to the stigma that is associated with the abortion procedure. Other have argued that women are not silent about their abortion experiences, but that they navigate the complex political and social contexts of their lives by managing the stigmatized identity of having had an abortion. By utilizing in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and encouraging a …

Coping With Economic Stressors: Religious And Non-Religious Strategies For Managing Psychological Distress, Jonathan Karl Feil

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The current economic downturn has increased concerns over job insecurity and the potential negative effects of job insecurity and other economic stressors for individuals. While there is a great deal of research on traditional (non-religious) methods of coping with work stress (e.g., Latack, 1986), there has been little research concerning the impact of religious methods of coping on mitigating the effects of work-related stressors. This is true even though a significant amount of research has demonstrated that religious coping methods are effective at reducing negative effects of a wide variety of stressors. Specifically, the current study looked at the effectiveness …

The Creation And Validation Of A Pilot Selection System For A Midwestern University Aviation Department, Jacob William Forsman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The current study outlines an attempt to create a selection test for a Midwestern university aviation department pilot training program. Thirty-seven pilots were given a pre-test consisting of cognitive (math, arithmetic reasoning, spatial measures, table reading, and mechanical knowledge), attitudinal (cockpit management attitudes questionnaire- CMAQ), and personality questions (IPIP items, Achievement-Striving, Impatience/Irritability, and the Academic Motivation Scale). An additional measure of professionalism was collected during the training program. Following the completion of a 25-lesson course in flight training, pilots were assessed on performance throughout the initial flight course. The performance ratings ranged from supervisory ratings to hours used to complete …

The National Survey Of Student Engagement As A Predictor Of Academic Success, Paul Michael Fursman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Student engagement measures have been shown to be excellent predictors of desirable educational outcomes, and in some cases, these measures are being used as a means of institutional accountability. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is one of the most widely used measures of student engagement. In this study, I examine the relationship between NSSE subscale scores and measures of student academic success. I also examine the extent to which pre-college ability and ethnicity moderate the relationship between engagement scores and academic outcomes. Results indicate that the benchmark academic challenge was a significant predictor of freshmen GPA and the …

Talking The Talk And Walking The Walk: Do A Federal Agency's Women-Centered Services Match A Women-Centered Organizational Culture?, Sally Anne Mcshane

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Federal government agencies that provide services for women would presumably have an internal women-friendly organizational culture. In this study, organizational culture is measured by financial benefits - annual salary and federal General Schedule grade - provided to women. Regression analyses were used to examine whether gender, grade, and type of agency have an effect on salary and grade. Also bonuses to women are examined, as well as whether men or women are the heads of individual agencies or umbrella departments. Women were awarded fewer bonuses and lesser amounts as compared to men. Also women often are leaders of individual women-centered …

Teachers' Perspectives On Bullying: Understanding Educational Interventions, Ryan Dennis Buch

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

During the last number of years, middle school bullying has received wide spread attention across numerous media sources. Coverage of the most troubling accounts of bullying have even led to criminal charges and the introduction of legislation against acts of bullying. A substantial body of research has shown that bullying leads to negative social and emotional outcomes for both the victims and the perpetrators of such acts. The same body of research also shows how much difficulty there is for teachers and other school personnel who attempt to control these fluid acts of aggression on a daily basis in and …

Mental Illness And Stigmatization, Struther Louise Van Horn

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between mental illness and stigmatization. For most of the twentieth century, popular attitudes towards the mentally ill were overtly negative and stigmatizing. In the 1970s-1980s, however, a putative shift in perceptions--thought to be the result of increased public knowledge about psychological disorders--purportedly diminished the stigma attached to mental illness. Using race, gender, and age as moderating variables, this study draws upon data from the recent 2006 General Social Survey to reexamine more current attitudes by the public towards those with mental illness and how it affects the desire for social …

Are There Roles For Technical Communicators In Small Community Food Systems?, Brent William Chisholm

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The author explores the viability of incorporating technical communication genres, practices, and theory, into various components of small community food systems. He argues that certain types of food systems and users in those food systems allow technical communicators to participate in ways aligning with genres of conservation writing described by Johnson-Sheehan and Morgan (2009). He also incorporates ideas about authorship, describing that technical communicators can improve food systems by reconciling disparate agricultural technical material, advocacy for action, and the articulation of previously non-existent food systems.

Accessibility To Public High Schools And School Performance In Metropolitan Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1990-2010, Shaun E. Williams

LSU Master's Theses

Education policies developed to initiate improvements to public school systems across Louisiana often result in a continuation or intensification of salient yet overlooked accessibility challenges. The public high school and its students have been particularly susceptible to these actions which have been sustained for decades within the state despite the increasing awareness of individual and community hardships connected to high school level inadequacies. Beyond isolated district studies or aggregate state reports, limited focus has been placed on student accessibility to public high schools or on responses of students and communities to processes which alter their access to area high schools. …

Climate Change Policy In The European Union: Examining The Emissions Trading System, Tabitha Marie Cale

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is a cap-and-trade program regulating the carbon emissions of specific industrial facilities and is the EU’s primary policy mechanism for complying with emissions reduction targets found in the Kyoto Protocol. This dissertation examines the overall effectiveness of the EU ETS and more specifically what factors explain why some member states are more successful at reducing their carbon emissions than others. OLS and logistic regression models are constructed as well as qualitative case studies of Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Greece, to examine observed differences in emissions in all 27 EU member states from …

Communicating While Stimulated: The Effects Of Sensory-Processing Sensitivity On Behavior And Relationships, Christopher Charles Gearhart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In light of claims made by Aron (1996, 2000; Aron & Aron, 1997), this dissertation tested the influence of sensory-processing sensitivity on communication via two sets of research questions. First, are highly sensitive persons more easily aroused by stimulation, and if so does this necessarily cause a decrease in affect recognition? Results of an experimental study (N = 342) indicate that highly sensitive persons (HSPs) were more distracted by audio stimulation, causing more errors in accuracy judgments on non-verbal decoding tests, most noticeably for facial expression detection. The implication is that, when aroused by stimulation in their environment, HSPs may …

Measurement Of Pain, Pain Disability, And Pain Beliefs Of Morbidly Obese Adults, Brooke Louise Barbera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Both obesity and pain are pervasive public health problems, contributing to significant disability in the United States and worldwide. Studies have demonstrated a positive association between obesity and pain, with increasing BMI related to increasing levels of pain intensity; however, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well understood. The present study assessed the presence of pain, pain-related disability, and pain beliefs in a morbidly obese (BMI > 40 kg/m2) sample participating in a medically-supervised, nonsurgical weight loss intervention. After controlling for demographic variables and depression, pain was reported in 36.7% of the sample (N = 390). Results indicated that greater …

Composing A Method: Écriture Féminine As Performance Practice, Brianne Waychoff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall aim of this project is to theorize and invent a method of performance based on écriture féminine. This method is meant to be useable, generative, and transferable to other practitioners. Following a heuretic practice of reading selected texts for what they suggest about making new texts, writerly method that invites expansion in future research is revealed. This project is but a beginning of an articulation and proposes only one path through these texts. The tracking of the process of reading and experimenting with performance provides a space for reflection that illuminates gaps to be explored in future work. …

Development And Validation Of The Adolescent Thought Control Questionnaire (Tcq-A), Reanna (Sara) Elise Whiting

LSU Master's Theses

Despite receiving widespread attention in the adult literature, virtually no information about the effects of thought suppression currently exists using a developmental psychopathology perspective in adolescents. The current study describes the development and preliminary validation of The Adolescent Thought Control Questionnaire, a self-report measure of thought suppression strategy use among adolescents. A principal factor analysis revealed an identical factor structure to the adult Thought Control Questionnaire (Wells & Davies, 1994) and included subscales measuring Distraction, Reappraisal, Social, Worry, and Punishment strategies. Adequate evidence of internal and test-retest reliability was obtained. The TCQ-A evidenced strong validity when tested for relations to …

Making News In 140 Characters: How The New Media Environment Is Changing Our Examination Of Audiences, Journalists, And Content, Ashley Elizabeth Kirzinger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project answers the following questions: What does political reporting on social media look like? How is political journalists’ use of social media changing their relationships with sources and fellow political journalists? Triangulating qualitative and quantitative research methods (content analysis, social network analysis, and in-depth interviews) in an examination of Twitter, a social media platform popular among journalists, this project provides insight into how changes in media routines are affecting news content.

Intra-Individual Variability In Adult Adhd: An Exploration Of The Viability Of Distinct Purely Inattentive Condition, Daniel Proto

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers have suggested that intraindividual variability (IIV), or variation in cognitive testing performance within an individual across a measure or group of measures, may be an endophenotypic marker of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, not all studies have consistently demonstrated significant differences in IIV between individuals with and without ADHD. One potential explanation for this ambiguity is experimental group heterogeneity owing to Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT). Individuals with SCT exhibit behavioral characteristics dissimilar from individuals with ADHD; rather than being impulsive, hyperactive, and aggressive, they tend to be shy, day-dreamy, and cognitively slow. Researchers have hypothesized that the presence of SCT …

Amd&Art: Performativity And Participation In Ecological Remediation, Travis Paine Brisini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, I examine and theorize AMD&ART, an artwork devoted to treating polluted water in Vintondale, PA. AMD&ART is much more than simply a water treatment facility, however. Each chapter of this document examines AMD&ART through the lens of a different body of scholarly literature: the literature associated with land art, Systems Theory, Network Theory, Companion Specieshood and others. The theoretical focus of this paper is the emergent importance of the concept of performativity—“that reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains” (Butler, Bodies 2)—in the deconstruction of the binary division of “nature” and …

Performing Nostalgia: Body, Memory, And The Aesthetics Of Past-Home, Jade C. Huell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since its etymological beginnings, the meanings and usages of nostalgia have shifted markedly. In the shifting, nostalgia’s associations with the body and with the concept of home has diminished. This study of African American nostalgia for Africa uses genealogical inquiry, personal and autoethnographic narrative, and performance theories and practices to reinvigorate the relations between body, memory, aesthetics, past, and home. Attending to operations of time and space, I theorize the aforementioned relations in order to build a theory of critical nostalgia. Following Debbora Battaglia, I argue and illustrate that nostalgia is an act realized in performance, and I develop my …

The Responsibility Of Clothing Slaves In The United States As Described In Slave Petitions, 1775 To 1867, Ryan Jerel Aldridge

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The content analysis of eighteenth and nineteenth century slave petitions identified slave dress terms and descriptors by type and frequency and a descriptive analysis of slave dress petitions revealed the following themes: the expense and burden attributed to clothing slaves, slave dress neglect, hiring contracts that included slave dress, the use of slave dress as a reflection of the slaveholders character, compensation for slave dress provided by an individual other than the slaveholder, the quality of slave dress, the distribution of slave dress, and slave dress terminology descriptors. The most frequent specific provision request for slave dress items consisted of …

Hierarchical Linear Modeling Versus Visual Analysis Of Single Subject Design Data, Elizabeth Godbold Nelson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Visual analysis is the “gold standard” for single-subject design data because of a presumed low Type I error rate and consistency across raters. However, research has found it less accurate and reliable than typically assumed. Many statistics have been proposed as aids for visual analysis, but most suffer from limitations either due to methods of investigation or problems inherent to the statistics themselves. Several researchers have proposed the use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling to analyze single-subject data because it can withstand violations of assumptions often present in single-subject data that other statistics cannot. In addition, HLM is similar to the …

Gis-Based Urban Land Use Characterization And Population Modeling With Subpixel Information Measured From Remote Sensing Data, Quan Tang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation provides deeper understanding on the application of Vegetation-Impervious Surface-Soil (V-I-S) model in the urban land use characterization and population modeling, focusing on New Orleans area. Previous research on the V-I-S model used in urban land use classification emphasized on the accuracy improvement while ignoring the discussion of the stability of classifiers. I developed an evaluation framework by using randomization techniques and decision tree method to assess and compare the performance of classifiers and input features. The proposed evaluation framework is applied to demonstrate the superiority of V-I-S fractions and LST for urban land use classification. It could also …

Investigations At The Toncrey Site (16pl7): Analysis Of A Late Prehistoric Site In Extreme Southern Louisiana, Rebecca Muriel Brown

LSU Master's Theses

The Toncrey site (16PL07), located in the coastal marsh of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, is a prehistoric mound site containing three earthen mounds, on the north, west, and south edges of a plaza. The layout of the mounds in cardinal directions around the plaza suggests that this component of the site dates to the Coles Creek period. On the eastern side of the site an extensive, wave-washed and re-deposited oyster (Crassostrea virginica) shell midden contains diagnostic Coles Creek, Plaquemine, and Mississippian pottery. Archaeological research at the site was conducted to confirm the cultural affiliation of the mound group and midden, and …

Performance, Preference, Promotion: Political Mobility Of Chinese Regional Leaders, Liang Qiao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As a study exclusively on the political elites, the dissertation studies the Chinese regional leaders and their political career mobility controlled by the central government from 1949 to 2010. The Chinese Communist Party controls its regional leaders by controlling their career movement (political mobility). This study explains why some regional leaders were promoted while some others were demoted or dismissed while most of them shared similar personal background and career experience. By providing empirical evidence with quantitative analysis, this study shows that in post-Deng Chinese politics (1997-2010) there are certain patterns and manipulated by the CCP center in demoting and …

The Library Development Review 2011-2012, University Of Tennessee Libraries

LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT REVIEW

No abstract provided.

Loex 2012 Conference Report: Columbus, Oh, Clinton K. Baugess, Jessica Clemons

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Summary of plenary and breakout sessions of the 40th annual LOEX conference in Columbus, Ohio on May 3-5, 2012.

Feeling At Home: Learning, Law, Cognitive Science, And Narrative, Lea B. Vaughn

Articles

What is the "how and why" of law's affinity for narrative? In order to explain why the use of stories is such an effective teaching and presentation strategy in the law, this paper will consider theories and accounts from cognitive as well as evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and, briefly, cultural anthropology. This account seeks to address "how" narrative helps us learn and use the law as well as "why" we are so compelled to use stories in teaching and in practice.

Brain science, simplified here, suggests that the first task is to grab someone's attention. Emotionally charged events are more likely …

Annual Report 2011-2012, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Annual Reports: 1943 - Present

This file contains the Annual Report for the library from 2011-2012.

Advanced Seminar – Interviewer-Respondent Interaction: Survey Research & Methodology Special Topics 898, Spring 2012, Robert Belli

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This course will explore the theory and observations that underlie the attempt of survey methodologists to understand the nature of interviewer-respondent interactions and their impact on data quality. This exploration will entail the examination of different interviewing methods and different methods to observe and analyze the verbal behavioral streams that occur between interviewers and respondents. In addition, analytic approaches that seek to understand the impact of verbal behaviors on data quality will be considered.