Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do Poor Countries Catch Up To Rich Countries? Structural Change In The World-Economy, 1816-1916, Jared Walker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Do poor countries catch up to rich countries? To answer that question, countries were divided into upper class (core), middle class (semi-periphery), and lower class (periphery) based on degree of industrialization as indicated by primary energy consumption data. Findings indicated twenty-three upward transitions and five downward transitions during the period examined. Asymmetrical upward mobility was understood in the context of geographic expansion of the system. This sufficiently increased the population of the lower class (periphery) to support larger populations in the middle class (semi-periphery) and upper class (core). Nevertheless, probability analysis indicated a stable system characterized by high levels of …

The Basic Dualism In The World, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Graham Harman writes that the “basic dualism in the world lies…between things in their intimate reality and things as confronted by other things.” This paper supports Harman’s assertion from a systems theoretic perspective and illustrates it with some examples, including conceptions about truth, ethics, value, and intelligence. But dualism implies irreconcilable difference; what Harman points to is better expressed as a dyad, where the two components not only imply one another but are related, and where this spatial dyad is usefully augmented with a temporal dimension, expressed in a third component or an additional orthogonal dyad.

An Exploration Of Defensive Mediatization Strategies And Motherhood Media Decision-Making, Emily B. Young

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study focused on media-related decision-making in motherhood, with mediatization theory serving as a framework for the research. The study began with an overview of recent changes to motherhood and family media use. The purpose of this study was to explore the problem of how mothers make decisions about their children’s media use. After providing a basic overview of the changes to motherhood and family media use, as well as establishing the purpose and problem for the study, the literature on relevant topics for this study was discussed. Primarily, the literature review focused on mediatization theory. Next, the survey …

Prosecutorial Actus Reus: Appellate Review Of Prosecutorial Misconduct And The Diminishment Of Responsibility, Elizabeth Griffiths, Heather L. Scheuerman, Sandy Xie

International Journal on Responsibility

The socio-historical concept of criminal responsibility links the action (actus reus) and mental state (mens rea), or intention, of the actor (i.e., the defendant) to determine legal and moral liability for his or her behavior and to apportion punishment. When the actor responsible for immoral conduct is the prosecutor in pursuit of a conviction, the courts respond very differently. More specifically, because prosecutors are presumed to be moral and ethical system actors, assumptions about their good character likely influence the ways in which they are held to account. This study explores the content and arguments made …

An Emergentist Critique Of The Contract Theory Of The State Of Nature, With A Consideration On Two Types Of Polity And Their Origins., Ryan A. Apperson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The theories of the state of nature provided by the political philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have made a significant impact in the general conceptions of the origin of states. Though there are many critical differences in the conceptions of the state of nature between each in their seminal works, they both possess of a view of states that is rational and constructivist.

In this paper, I use the game theory concepts of the coordination game, collective action problem, and focal point to illustrate a lacuna in this rational and constructivist conception of the origin of states, as their …

Words And Diagrams About Rosenstock-Huessy’S Cross Of Reality, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is a systems theoretic examination of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s “cross of reality,” a structure that fuses a spatial dyad of inner-outer and a temporal dyad of past-future into a space-time tetrad. This structure is compatible not only with the "human-centered" point of view that Rosenstock-Huessy favours, but also with the "world-centered" point of view inherent in science. The structure, based in his analysis of speech, is applied by him to a wide variety of individual and collective human phenomena, including language, religion, and social critique. To appropriate terminology used by physicists, the cross of reality could be viewed as …

Strength In Numbers: An Exploratory Case Study On The Impact Of Conflict In Multi-Institutional Higher Education Collaborations, Michele Robyn Dinicola

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The higher education landscape is changing. Students seeking access to college are increasinglydiverse, geographically dispersed, socioeconomically challenged, and will require higher education administrators to closely examine their models to ensure they are well-suited to serve the needs of these students. Responding to these shifts will require higher education administrators to shed traditional approaches in favor of innovative, cost-effective, flexible models of education delivery. Many institutions address this challenge through a reliance on higher education consortia and collaborations. In Maryland, one approach to collaboration takes the form of multi-institutional Regional Higher Education Centers (RHEC) like the largest of them, the Universities …

Social Work's Unremitting Identity Crisis: Can The Dsw Provide Answers?, Debra Joyce Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThis study is centered on a long-standing professional identity dilemma that poses potential problems for the future of the field of social work. Current literature points to specific shortcomings in the field that threaten the future of the profession. Some researchers also suggest that the reemergence of the Doctorate of Social Work (DSW) may be used to solve some of the identity concerns with the profession. The study further asserts that practicing licensed clinical social workers (LCSW) have not been a part of the conversation regarding the identity issues or the remedies that the field is considering. Using both a …

Social Work's Unremitting Identity Crisis: Can The Dsw Provide Answers?, Debra Joyce Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThis study is centered on a long-standing professional identity dilemma that poses potential problems for the future of the field of social work. Current literature points to specific shortcomings in the field that threaten the future of the profession. Some researchers also suggest that the reemergence of the Doctorate of Social Work (DSW) may be used to solve some of the identity concerns with the profession. The study further asserts that practicing licensed clinical social workers (LCSW) have not been a part of the conversation regarding the identity issues or the remedies that the field is considering. Using both a …

Utilizing Organizational Theory To Improve Education Opportunities In Correctional Facilities, Kelly Sullenberger

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

With 2.3 million people incarcerated, the United States is one of the most highly concentrated prison systems in the world (Sawyer & Wagner, 2020). In order to be in a position to improve that, the system of incarceration needs to genuinely care and invest in the lives of the inmates living in these facilities. The opportunity to receive an education is one way that allows for true rehabilitation and often can give an inmate a greater sense of purpose. This paper examines current programs in California that allow inmates to work towards and/or receive a bachelor’s degree while serving their …

Underutilizaiton Of Mental Health Services By Marginalized Populations, Jermaine Bennett, Anna Blum

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Underutilization of mental health services is a serious issue in the United States, particularly among marginalized groups. Previous research has not explored this issue in depth in the Inland Empire nor focused simultaneously on the federal protected classes of race, age, gender, and sexual orientation. This study expands the literature by using Systems Theory and Intersectional Perspective to determine whether there exists a difference in utilization of mental health services between marginalized populations and their non-marginalized counterparts in San Bernardino County. Through a non-probability sampling method, this study recruited 87 adults who completed a questionnaire on their participation in mental …

Energy Literacy In Portugal: A System Map And Framework To Increase Energy Literacy Through The Renewable Energy Transition, Molly S. Fox

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Western society lives with a great dependence and an almost simultaneous ignorance of energy consumption (van den Broek, 2019). The systemic landscape of energy knowledge and dissemination is more critical than ever as Portugal races to meet decarbonization goals. This paper fills a knowledge gap by updating the current social landscape of energy literacy in Portugal through a comprehensive system map and framework to increase energy literacy levels through the renewable energy transition. By conducting a semi-systematic literature review, meta-narratives and themes were identified and used to create theoretical concepts, a framework, and a system map. This research found that …

Roles, Responsibilities, And Contributions Of Medical Social Workers In An Interdisciplinary Team, Jacqueline Jeanette Ruffin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the field of social work, roles, responsibilities, and contributions of social workers within an interdisciplinary team are often undefined. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe medical social workers’ perceptions of their roles, responsibilities, and contributions to an interdisciplinary team. The theoretical frameworks that guided this study are Bronstein’s model of interdisciplinary collaboration, Luhmann’s systems theory, and Slater’s role differentiation. Interviews were conducted with 10 medical social workers who currently or previously worked within an interdisciplinary team to explore medical social workers’ perceptions of their roles, responsibilities, and contributions to an interdisciplinary team. Deductive coding …

The Diffusion Of A Discipline: Examining Social Marketing's Institutionalization Within Environmental Contexts, Liz Foote

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

As a social change discipline, social marketing has demonstrated its effectiveness in addressing many types of wicked problems. However, despite its utility in environmental contexts, it is neither well known nor widespread in its uptake in these settings. This study’s purpose is to reveal opportunities to drive the adoption, implementation, and diffusion (“institutionalization”) of social marketing within the domains of environmental sustainability and natural resource conservation. This research considers the use of social marketing as an innovative practice within a diffusion of innovations framework and uses a systems lens to examine early adopter social marketing professionals and the institutional contexts …

Thriving In A Vuca World: A Case Study Exploring Geopolitically- Focused Intelligence Teams In The Private Sector Through A Systems Theory Lens, Angela Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

For several decades, business executives have been faced with increasing complexity in the global environment, including disruptions, rapid changes, and heightened global pressures. In an effort to maintain a strategic advantage, business leaders are increasingly leveraging geopolitically-focused strategic intelligence teams to accurately and concisely synthesize large quantities of data to support high-level business decision making. However, limited research has been conducted on the organizational development of these teams, the context in which they exist, and how they can most effectively support differing and evolving decision-maker needs. As these teams have the potential to have an outsized impact on global business …

Grounding Evaluation Capacity Development In Systems Theory, Sarah D. Klier, Raphael J. Nawrotzki, Nataly Salas-Rodríguez, Sven Harten, Charles B. Keating, Polinpapilinho F. Katina

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

While “systemic thinking” is popular in the context of capacity development and evaluation, there is currently a lack of understanding about the benefits to employing systems theory in evaluation capacity development. Systems theory provides a useful orientation to the work involved in complex systems (e.g. national evaluation systems). This article illustrates how evaluation capacity development practitioners can use systems theory as a conceptual tool to gain a better understanding of the functional aspects and interrelationships present within a given evaluation system. Specifically, the systems theory perspective can help elucidate the reasons for the success or failure of a given evaluation …

Rosenstock-Huessy’S “Cross Of Reality” And Systems Theory, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is a systems theoretic examination of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s “cross of reality,” a structure that fuses a vertical spatial dyad of inner-outer and a horizontal temporal dyad of past-future into a space-time tetrad. This tetrad is compatible not only with the human-centered phenomenological point of view that Rosenstock-Huessy favors, but also with a world-centered scientific point of view. It is applied by him explicitly or implicitly to a wide variety of individual and collective human experiences. In this paper I mention a few examples of these applications from the realm of language, religion, and social critique. I also show …

In A Network, All Concerns Are Your Concerns: Applying The “Dual Concerns” Conflict Management Model To Communication Networks, Evelyn Plummer

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

The core premise of general systems theory (summarized by Bertalanffy, 1968) establishes that the elements within a given system have an interdependent and reciprocal relationship that creates a system-specific pattern of function. For some time, this analytical perspective of interconnectedness has been applied in many disciplines, including the study of human interaction (e.g. Ruesch & Bateson, 1951). Conflict situations, as with all systems, are not static and manifest with changing linkages and relationships. A more holistic attention to the structural complexity and the ever-changing features of conflict in systems can provide a more pragmatic, network-based understanding of group operations in …

The Systemic Experiences Of Social Workers In An Inpatient, State Psychiatric Hospital, Kesia Gwaltney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The National Alliance on Mental Illness surmised that 1 in 25 (9.8 million) adults in the United States are diagnosed with a serious mental illness annually. Of the 9.8 million people diagnosed, approximately 63% of them are psychiatrically hospitalized with repeat hospitalizations within 1 year of discharge. Social workers play a vital role in the treatment modalities of the patients they serve in the psychiatric hospital; however, there is no research that examined the professional systemic experiences of social workers in state, inpatient psychiatric hospitals and how these experiences may affect treatment outcomes of patients as it relates to frequent …

The Process Of Establishing A Green Climate: Face-To-Face Interaction Between Leaders And Employees In The Microsystem, Ingeborg Flagstad, Svein Åge Kjøs Johnsen, Leif Rydstedt

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This study explores the processes of establishing a green organizational climate in small-scale companies. Previous studies have primarily focused on factors associated with pro-environmental behaviour in large organizations. The role of a green organizational climate—specifically, the interactional processes involved in the construction of a green climate—has largely been unexplored. Entrepreneurial small companies constitute an ideal arena in which to study the initial phase of greening processes. The present study examined the process of establishing a green organizational climate in seven small-scale Norwegian companies. This article presents a systems model that was developed to analyse how processes at different levels interact …

Looking At Environmental Consciousness Through The Lenses Of Morphic Fields And Systems Theory, Johara Bellali

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This paper is an exploration of a space in which questions of self-determination and planetary crises can co-exist. It swims in uncomfortable seas of accepting that environmental consciousness is as innate as our existence, and at the same time not aligned to healthy ecosystems. In this paper, I will first explore environmental consciousness from an ecosystem perspective and present some self-organizing principles of our systems; then I will look into our perceptions, awareness, and sensing of them and finally propose an understanding of how the morphic fields in ecosystems and the creative flow of the life force co-exist in our …

Predictors Of Positive Outcomes In Treating Individuals Diagnosed With Idd And Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders, Jacob Omondi Wasonga

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the use of a new treatment protocol, the systemic treatment plan (STP) by identifying the predictors of positive treatment outcomes for individuals diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and comorbid mental health conditions. This study examined the relationship between challenging behaviors, psychiatric conditions, and positive treatment outcomes for individuals with IDD and co-occurring disorders, particularly those individuals whose treatment was driven by the STP. A linear regression analysis was conducted to determine which challenging behaviors and psychiatric disorders best predict positive outcomes in systemically engaged treatment. The results from this study …

Book Review: The Intelligence Of The Cosmos: Why Are We Here? By Ervin Laszlo, Elizabeth W. Szatmari Krasnoff

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Ervin Laszlo breaks down his theory of everything into a credo of 8 statements. This review looks in some detail at Laszlo’s theories and also touches on the other writers who have been invited to participate. It is noteworthy that Laszlo breaks with the current scientific belief that we are without purpose, and that evolution has no purpose. He believes that compassion, love, and expansion are our purposes for being here.

Understanding Early Childhood Engineering Interest Development As A Family-Level Systems Phenomenon: Findings From The Head Start On Engineering Project, Scott Pattison, Gina Svarovsky, Smirla Ramos-MontañEz, Ivel Gontan, Shannon Weiss, VeróNika NúÑEz, Pam Corrie, Cynthia Smith, Marcie Benne

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

There is growing recognition that interest is critical for engaging and supporting learners from diverse communities in engineering and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics. Although interest research has historically focused on older children, studies demonstrate that preschool-age and younger children also develop persistent, individualized interests in different objects, activities, and topics and that these early interests have important implications for ongoing learning and development. Unfortunately, there is relatively little research on engineering learning in early childhood and almost no work specific to the concept of interest. To begin to address this need, we conducted in-depth case study …

Finding Their Way : The Journey From Foster Care To Emerging Adulthood, Venita Rawal

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

I conducted a qualitative study prompted from concerns of poor outcomes such as homelessness, lack of employment for youth who age out of foster care between the ages of 18 to 21 with limited to no material or emotional support. However, there are youth who age out of foster care and find themselves on a positive life-trajectory, but little is known about what helped them find their path in life and what helps them stay on this path.

I used a multiple case study design to learn from three participants who self-identified as being on a positive life-trajectory about what …

The Impact Of Grief Work On Hospice Mental Health Providers Through A Bowen Family Systems Lens, Joshua Hernandez

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

Marriage and family therapists and other mental health professionals and clients can be thought of as their own, divine emotional unit, generating and distributing the anxiety of one to the other. In fact, Kerr and Bowen (1988) described anxiety as a driving force exchanged by every living organism, and the energy surrounded by every human relationship. Within a hospice setting, anxiety can be heightened due to catering to end-of-life care, which can potentially affect the emotional response and reactivity of the mental health professional, changing the course of treatment for the patient and their family. Emerging research within healthcare has …

Building Young People’S Capacity For Critical And Transcendent Engagement: Examining The Institution, The Community, And The Individual As Protagonists Of A School Setting, Livia Dittmer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As a powerful socializing force in Western society, schools have significant influence on young people’s development into adulthood. As powerful agents of societal maintenance and change, adolescents have significant influence on communities and institutions such as schools. In this embedded case study, I use structuration theory, German Critical Psychology, and systems thinking to examine the dynamic relationship between institutional structures and student agency in a school setting. I specifically examine the influence of this relationship on young people’s capacity for critical and transcendent engagement, constructs described further in this work. In the setting of Nancy Campbell Academy (NCA), an international …

Systems (Holistic) Approach To Religious Tourism, Tadeja Jere Jakulin, Alan Clarke

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Systems Approach has been accepted within natural sciences since Ludwig von Bertalanffy published his manifesto of general system theory (Bertalanffy, 1952) and Norbert Wiener his on Cybernetics (Wiener, 1948). The intention of general systems theory and cybernetics is the ‘ontology’ of action, which is shown by feedback information. Its goal is to find a method to predict the consequence of a decision-making action. Industrial engineering recognised it, when Forrester published the work Industrial Dynamics (Forrester, 1961) and social sciences rediscovered it with Senge’s work on the learning organisation - The Fifth Discipline (Senge, 1990). Systems Approach is a methodology for …

Evidence-Based Child Welfare Screening And Assessment Practices, Melissa Hardin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this action research project was to examine the screening and assessment behaviors of child welfare workers in the southwestern region of the United States. The study addressed whether social workers' knowledge of evidence-based practice influenced their implementation of evidence-based practice in child welfare screening and assessment, and whether the agency environment affects evidence-based practice implementation and use. The family systems theory was used to evaluate child welfare practitioner work and systems theory was used to evaluate the child welfare system in the region of the study. A focus group comprised of seven social workers practicing in the …

A Systems Theory Based Examination Of Failure In Acquisition System Reform, Charles B. Keating, Joseph M. Bradley, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, Craig Arndt

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The defense acquisition system has been the source of intense scrutiny and calls for reform for over four decades. This research is to examine the contributions of Systems Theory to enhance prospects related to acquisition reform. Systems Theory offers a set of principles, laws, and concepts that explain the behavior of complex systems. Although the acquisition system and constituent programs have been critiqued and examined from multiple perspectives, they have never been the subject of exploration from Systems Theory. Recent advances in Systems Theory have identified 83 different potential system pathologies that can result in degraded system performance or outright …