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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Patterns In Trash: Factors That Drive Municipal Solid Waste Recycling, Jared Starr
Patterns In Trash: Factors That Drive Municipal Solid Waste Recycling, Jared Starr
Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014
Municipal recycling is driven by a variety of factors. Yet how these factors change over time is not well understood. I analyze a suite of contextual and program variable in multiple time periods, spanning 16 years, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Based on the models run, I reach the surprising conclusion that most program variables have an insignificant effect on recycling rates. These findings can inform municipal officials and waste managers as they seek new ways to increase municipal recycling participation.
"You Were Adopted?!": An Exploratory Analysis Of Microaggressions Experienced By Adolescent Adopted Individuals, Karin J. Garber
"You Were Adopted?!": An Exploratory Analysis Of Microaggressions Experienced By Adolescent Adopted Individuals, Karin J. Garber
Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014
Sue et al. (2007, p. 271) define a microaggression as: “Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative…slights and insults towards [the marginalized group].” Microaggressions have not been used to analyze the experiences of adoptees in a bionormative society. A total of 156 interviews (males=75, females=81) and questionnaires of White adolescent adoptees in same-race families were analyzed using a mixed methods design. Study 1 used thematic analysis to discover 16 themes of microaggressions. Study 2 used the microaggression as the unit of analysis in chi squares to determine if …
Perceived Norms And Classroom Ethnic Composition, Thomas Christopher O'Brien
Perceived Norms And Classroom Ethnic Composition, Thomas Christopher O'Brien
Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014
Students’ perceptions of normative support for positive intergroup relations from teachers and school staff have been linked to a number of positive intergroup outcomes (Green, Adams, & Turner, 1988; Jugert, Noack, & Rutland, 2011). Additional studies testing the effects of ethnic proportions in classrooms show evidence for positive and negative intergroup outcomes between ethnic majority and ethnic minority students (e.g., Durkin et al., 2011; Vervoort, Scholte, & Scheepers, 2011). Still, research has yet to test simultaneously the effects of ethnic proportions in a classroom in conjunction with students’ subjective perceptions of normative support for positive intergroup relations. With a sample …
The Definite Article System In L1-English L2-Spanish Learners, Diego Ardura
The Definite Article System In L1-English L2-Spanish Learners, Diego Ardura
Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014
Previous studies on the acquisition of definite plurals in Child and Second Language Acquisition have found strong evidence on how transfer can affect the L2-acquisition of articles. Nevertheless, these studies presented some limitations. First, they failed to consider other variables that could interfere with transfer in the acquisition of the article system. And second, the methodology used to test the participants’ implicit knowledge of article system was very similar in all studies (Truth-Value Judgment Task). In order to fill these two gaps in the literature, the present study uses a listening comprehension task to test how the mass/count distinction …
Predicting Social Behavior By Sound & Surface Appearance In Infancy, Ashley Lyons
Predicting Social Behavior By Sound & Surface Appearance In Infancy, Ashley Lyons
Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014
Our naïve theory of social behavior assumes that the positive and negative actions of others are caused by some underlying social disposition. Furthermore, adults automatically infer such traits in advance based upon whatever observable, even superficial, properties are available (e.g., how someone looks or sounds). The goal of the current study is to explore the developmental origins of this bias. We tested whether 12-month-old infants automatically infer a character’s social disposition (i.e., whether they ‘help’ or ‘hinder’ another character’s goal) based upon the superficial properties they display. Infants were habituated to two characters that possessed surface properties that were rated …