Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

​Burned Out But Barely Begun: A Qualitative Study On Newer Clergy And Communication Surrounding Emotional Labor And Personal Well-Being In South Mississippi, Lauren Noll

Master's Theses

This study provides an overview of the concepts surrounding clergy burnout,

organizational culture, and emotional labor theory. Furthermore, it explains the need

for  clearer understanding of clergy perceptions of their own personal

experiences with burnout and their emotional wellbeing in relation to their organizational environment and careers as clergy members. The methodology of qualitative interviews sought to understand the narratives and experiences of clergy members from their own words and worldviews rather than from a statistical basis or analysis.

This research found answers to key questions involving communication about burnout in the context of organizational culture and emotional labor, including …

Navigating Hate: The Public Deliberation Of Matthew Shepard And Hate Crime Legislation, Abigail Barnes

Master's Theses

Since Matthew Shepard’s murder in 1998, his narrative has been recirculated to justify a federal hate crime statute and Shepard has been used as a symbol for the demand for hate crime legislation. This study seeks to evaluate how Shepard is used in public deliberation, the role of private organizations in the public deliberation of hate crime legislation, and the discursive history of the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009. Through a rhetorical criticism, this study finds that the nuances of Shepard’s narrative are abandoned in order to construct him as a “permissible” symbol for LGBTQ+ protections. However, if …

The Wakefield Phenomenon: A Rhetorical Examination Of The Resurgence Of The Anti-Vaccination Movement In The 20th & 21st Century, Karen Boger

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the phenomenon of the anti-vaccination movement and existing publications documenting significant points in its resurgence in the late 20^th and early 21^st century following the now redacted publication by the former Dr. Wakefield asserting a correlation between children receiving vaccinations and children exhibiting the onset of developmental disorders, with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) garnering the most public attention. With increasing numbers of parents delaying or forbidding their children from receiving vaccinations, along with the re-emergence of previously eradicated disease outbreaks and casualties, questions about the salience of Wakefield’s anti-vaccination statements arise. Investigation here is key …

Online And Offline Identity Gaps: Cross-Contextual Predictors And Psychological Outcome, Ningyang Wang

Master's Theses

Using Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, this study compared an individual’s online and offline personal-enacted identity gap and examined the effect of each personal-enacted identity gap on individuals’ psychological well-being, as well as tested four cross-contextual predictors for online and offline personal-enacted identity gaps.

Survey data were collected from 214 participants on Amazon M-Turk. A sequence of hypotheses was tested. A questionnaire used for measuring individuals’ online personal-enacted identity gap was generated.

The result suggested individuals experience larger personal-enacted identity gap offline, which significantly negative predict individuals’ psychological well-being, whereas online personal-enacted identity gap positively predicts psychological well-being. …

Barriers To Health: Understanding The Barriers Faced By Community Intervention Projects, Vera Landrum

Master's Theses

Health disparities affect significant portions of the population and are most often experienced by marginalized communities (Wilkin, 2013). Health disparities are also impacted by geographical location, and hunger often affects rural areas (Dutta, Anaele, & Jones, 2013; Rural Health Information Hub, 2017). This study aims to understand how nonprofit organizations focused on addressing food insecurity disseminate information to members of the local community and how the input of community members impacted the overall food insecurity campaign. This study was conducted by interviewing five nonprofit directors and conducting three focus groups with clients of the. aforementioned organizations. The author found that …

The Impact Of Berrien Springs Water Types On Multiethnic Hair Textures, Ralna M. Simmonds

Master's Theses

This thesis documents an explorative study into the effect of water from various Berrien Springs water sources on the multiethnic hair texture of Andrews University students/faculty. Participants were living in the area for at least five months, whether originally from the United States or other countries of the world. The theory informing this study is the Expectancy Violations Theory (EVT) by Burgoon (1976). EVT is a communication theory that examines the reaction to behaviors within nonverbal communication that are expected or unexpected in a positive or negative light. In this context EVT has not been used to examine nonverbal communication, …