Digital Commons Network^™

Singing Motherhood: First Time Mothers' Experiences Singing To Their Infants, Margaret Mia Pixley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mothers have sung to their children for centuries. Because singing provides an opportunity for self-expression and connection with others, understanding how first time mothers experience this age old practice might help us understand how singing facilitates a woman's developing relationship with herself as a mother and with her new infant. To date, little research exists on this particular function and experience of first time maternal singing. In this qualitative phenomenological study, 16 first time mothers with infants one year and under were interviewed about their experiences singing to their babies and were also asked to write a one-time diary entry …

Tales Of Language Loss And Language Maintenance: Elicited Ancestral Language Use In Lazuri-Turkish And Turkish-German Caregiver-Child Dyads During Structured Play, Peri Ozlem Yuksel-Sokmen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In language contact situations parents who grew up acquiring their ancestral language (AL) often have to make choices about the fate of AL transmission by negotiating resources and beliefs about what is best for their children's future. Their language practices contribute to AL loss or maintenance, affecting developmental pathways for bilingualism. The situation faced by speakers of Lazuri -- a Grade 2, severely endangered South Caucasian language that is no longer used in child-directed speech illustrates a global phenomenon of rapid language loss within indigenous communities due to linguistic assimilation to a dominant language (DL). AL loss is associated with …

The 'In-Group Advantage' For Perceiving Emotion Across Demographic Groups And Communication Channels, Thomas Myers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ability to perceive emotions in others is critical to successful social interaction. While much research has been conducted on some of the factors affecting emotion perception, other areas have received relatively little attention and, thus, are not well understood. There is growing evidence to suggest that various demographic factors, as well as their interactions, impact the accuracy of emotion perception. The impact of these factors seems to vary as a function of the particular channel (e.g., facial, prosodic, and lexical) through which emotions are perceived and may even be influenced by the presence of an 'in-group advantage' (IGA; Elfenbein …

Positive And Holistic Couple Relationship Development, The Soul Mates Model, And Select Pictograms Of Alchemy: A Visual Autoethnography, Luisa De La Lama

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To help contemporary couples successfully navigate the 21st Century’s individualistic, diverse, multicultural, global, postmodern relationship environment, individual, couple, and family counselors, marriage therapists, couple therapists, family psychologists, relationship coaches, marriage educators, counselor educators, and other helping professionals need to understand and promote the positive, strengths-based, holistic, and wellbeing development of couple relationships to help them succeed and flourish in the long- term.

This qualitative, narrative, visual autoethnography explores the researcher’s own experience of the culture of her 27-year long soul mate relationship with her partner through the lens of Positive and Holistic Couple Relationship Development Theory (PHRDT), its 7- phase …

Extending The Jd-R Approach To Predicting Work/Study Engagement And Creative Performance : Evidences From Chinese Employees And Students, Mengyuan Wu

Lingnan Theses

Although innovation and creativity play an increasingly important role in helping organizations survive in today’s highly competitive environment, less is known about the antecedents and mechanisms of creative performance in the Chinese context. To bridge the gap of knowledge, this thesis adopted and extended Bakker (2011)’s Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R model) to exploring four antecedents of creative performance, namely, creative requirement (job demand), creative self-efficacy (personal resource), perceived support for creativity (job resource), and work/study engagement. It was hypothesized that engagement would mediate the positive effect of creative self-efficacy, perceived support for creativity and creative requirement on creative performance. Creative …

Neighborhood Diversity And The Creative Class In Chicago, Bradley Bereitschaft, Rex G. Cammack

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

Richard Florida's creative class theory posits that highly skilled workers with creative- or knowledge-intensive occupations are particularly sensitive to ‘quality of place’, a key component of which is an open and tolerant attitude toward different peoples, cultures, and lifestyles. While diversity, as a proxy for tolerance, has proven to be a relatively weak pull-factor at the inter-metropolitan level, the potential role of neighborhood-level diversity in the residential location of creative class workers has yet to be explored empirically. In this study we use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR) to test the hypothesis that there exists …

Synesthesia And Memory: An Exploratory Analysis, Caleb Robinson

Modern Psychological Studies

Few studies have measured how the memory of individuals with synesthesia, a perceptual phenomenon in which a stimulus triggers a separate sensory experience, is affected because of their novel perceptual experiences. The studies that have examined synesthesia and enhanced memory have been inconclusive, as some have found those with synesthesia exhibit superior memory capabilities, while other studies have not. This study sought to replicate previous studies that have found effects of color congruency. The participant M.P., a female with grapheme-color synesthesia, was given lists of words that were either congruent to her synesthetic experience, random colors, or words in black …

From Mirroring To World-Making: Research As Future Forming, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

After decades of acrimonious debate on the nature of scientific knowledge, researchers in the human or social sciences are reaching a state of relative equanimity, a condition that may be characterized as a reflective pragmatism. Yet, even while the context has favored the development of new forms of research, the longstanding ocular metaphor of inquiry remains pervasive. That is, researchers continue the practice of observing what is the case, with the intent to illuminate, understand, report on, or furnish insight into given states of affairs. And, while selectively useful, such an orientation is not only limited in potential but subject …

Understanding The Building Blocks Of Selection Procedures: Effects Of Response Fidelity On Performance And Validity, Filip Lievens, Wilfried De Corte, Lena Westerveld

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study aims to advance our conceptual understanding of selection procedures by exploring the effect of response fidelity (i.e., written constructed response vs. behavioral constructed response) on test performance, validity, and applicant perceptions. Stimulus fidelity (multimedia stimulus) was kept constant. In a field experiment, 208 applicants for entry-level police officer jobs completed a multimedia situational judgment test with written constructed responses and behavioral responses. We hypothesized the behavioral response mode (a) to be a better predictor of police trainee performance one year later, (b) to be less cognitively saturated, (c) to exhibit higher personality (extraversion) saturation, and (d) to be …

The Impact Of Ethnicity On Executive Functioning In Youth, Silvia M. Henriquez Gerken

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Executive function can be defined as a group of processes that guide and direct cognitive functions (Isquith, Roth & Gioia, 2013). Relatively little is known about executive function in ethnic minority children. This dissertation examined whether ethnicity predicts performance and parent rating scores on three executive function processes. To date, no study has teased apart the effects of ethnic minority status and its confounding variables in executive function. A total of 134 Caucasian and African American youth between the ages of 11-17 were included in the study. Of those 134 youth, 116 had complete data (both performance-based scores and rating …

The Effects Of Turkish Vowel Harmony In Word Recognition, Ece Kilic

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the effects of Turkish vowel harmony in visual word recognition. Turkish is among a few languages with vowel harmony, which is a process in which words contain vowels only from one specific vowel category. These categories are defined by the vowel’s phonological qualities (i.e., similar mouth and lip movement in pronunciation). In Turkish, categories depend on the vowel’s roundness/flatness, backness/frontness and whether the vowel’s pitch. Vowel harmony occurs naturally in language and is not taught formally. Instead, it is believed to occur due to decreased effort of words with vowel harmony in speech production (Khalilzadeh, 2010). Vowel …

Examining The Relationship Between Bicultural Stress, Mental Well-Being, Perceived Social Support, And Education Among People Of African Descent, Zemed Beraki Berhe

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Studies investigating the bicultural experiences of people of African descent are significantly underrepresented in the literature. The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between experiences of bicultural stress and mental well-being. In investigating this relationship, perceived social support and education were examined as protective factors, and its relationship to bicultural stress for this population. With the ultimate goal of this information contributing to the understanding of bicultural processes within this population and the relationship to mental health outcomes. A non-experimental (non-randomized) research design was utilized to examine the study research questions and hypotheses. The participants …

Comparing Outcomes From An Online Substance Abuse Treatment Program And Residential Treatment Programs For Consumers Who Are Deaf: A Pilot Study, Josphine Wilson Ph.D., Deb Guthmann Ed.D., Jared Embree, Susan Fraker

JADARA

Numerous barriers exist when attempting to provide culturally appropriate substance use disorder (SUD) treatment to persons who are Deaf, including a lack of accessible community-based treatment providers. To address these barriers, the Deaf Off Drugs and Alcohol (DODA) Program has provided culturally and linguistically appropriate cessation and recovery support services via a telemedicine program to Deaf individuals who are clinically diagnosed with a SUD. This study was conducted to assess whether an online SUD treatment program, such as DODA, is an effective way to serve the Deaf population, which is underserved due to communication and other cultural barriers. DODA’s effectiveness …

Is Big Brother Playing Fair? Exploring Effects Of Perceived Nepotism In Public Institutions On Trust In Strangers, David Amon Neequaye

Lingnan Theses

Trust has proven to be a vital social capital. It has been implicated in a myriad of socially beneficial initiatives. While trust vested in familiar others remain important, trust extended to strangers is crucial to the continued development of social capital. This is because such interaction, though risky at times, forms a springboard to untapped opportunities. Using a multi-round trust game and self-report assessments the present study explored explanations for observed cultural differences in trust in strangers. Data was drawn from university students in Ghana and Hong Kong. Factor analysis showed that self-report trust in strangers was associated with trust …

Mental Health Clinical Managers And Their Multicultural Leadership Practices, Christie Marie Melonson

Theses & Dissertations

There is a general recognition that the United States has historically failed to provide adequate mental health services to ethnic minorities. The American Counseling Association has mandated multicultural competence of counseling professionals in today’s context of dramatic demographic change. Despite numerous studies on practitioners, organizations, models, and interventions geared toward minorities, disparities in access, usage, and outcomes in still exist. Simultaneously, counseling fields have emphasized leadership development as a key factor in improving services, yet training or research on leadership remains scarce. In response to these conditions, this basic interpretive qualitative study focused on exploring clinical managers’ perceptions of their …

A Brief Overview Of Amblyaudia, Raelynn Lamminen, Daniel Houlihan

Psychology Department Publications

Amblyaudia, a recent subcategory of auditory processing disorder, is characterized by asymmetrical auditory processing of an individual’s ears. Amblyaudia can result in speech comprehension difficulties, reading difficulties, information processing deficits, and inattention. These difficulties can be mistakenly attributed to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), depression, anxiety disorders, and communication disorders. Unfortunately, traditional hearing tests do not place the two ears in competition and cannot detect asymmetry. Therefore, students who exhibit these difficulties and have normal performance on traditional hearing tests should be also evaluated for amblyaudia with dichotic listening tests. Amblyaudia can be addressed through dichotic …

Pedagogical Approaches To Multicultural Education Within Teacher Preparation Programs, Mark Steven Barajas

Dissertations

Despite national standards established in 1979, U.S. teacher preparation programs have struggled to incorporate comprehensive, multicultural teacher education into existing curriculum (Sleeter, 2008). The weakness of multicultural training in most teacher preparation programs is theorized as a major contributor to the persistent achievement gap between students of color and White students (Ferguson, 2003). Furthermore, literature indicates White teachers frequently hold lower expectations for racial and ethnic minority students compared to White students and these lowered expectations often manifest as lower academic achievement (McKown & Weinstein, 2007).

This study provides empirical data regarding multicultural education within teacher preparation programs. Individual course …

Ostracism And Antisocial Behavior: The Role Of Perceived Justice, Entitlement, And Anger, Christopher Jeffrey Nathanael Lustgraaf

Master's Theses

Recent research has demonstrated that antisocial behavior following a general ostracism experience is mediated by increased feelings of entitlement (Poon, Chen, & DeWall, 2013) and anger (Chow, Tiedens, & Govan, 2008). However, this prior research has failed to determine whether ostracism in general leads to antisocial behavior, or only ostracism that is perceived of as unfair or unjust. The purpose of the current study was to manipulate the perceived fairness of the ostracism experience (fair or unfair) and assess participants’ antisocial behavioral intentions (i.e., dishonest intentions). It was hypothesized that an unfair ostracism experience (compared to a fair ostracism or …

The Development Of Language And Identity: A Sociocultural Study Of Five International Graduate Students Living In The U.S., Alexandra Dema

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this sociocultural study was to analyze the longitudinal process of identity development of international graduate students as their lives unfolded across time and experience in the second languaculture. Furthermore, it was aimed at exploring what role is attributed to second language in this process. The study relied on the mainstream sociocultural perspectives on individual development that originated from Vygotsky’s work and were further elaborated by his followers to address the issues of identity and language development of second language learners. As part of such perspectives, it integrated the unit of perezhivanie into the examination of individual experiences …

Do Stress Levels Differ Between First Semester Nursing Student Early In The Semester Vs. The End Of The Semester?, Alissy Heisey

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study intends to determine how stress levels change over time in nursing students in the Baccalaureate program at East Tennessee State University. The instrument utilized for this survey was the Perceived Stress Scale by Mind Garden, Inc. This survey was passed at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. There was no-significant difference found between the two time spots, leading us to conclude that the level of stress perceived by nursing students is a steady factor during their school semester.

The Effect Of Altruistic Tendency On Fairness In Third-Party Punishment, Lu Sun, Peishan Tan, You Cheng, Jingwei Chen, Chen Qu

Dartmouth Scholarship

Third-party punishment, as an altruistic behavior, was found to relate to inequity aversion in previous research. Previous researchers have found that altruistic tendencies, as an individual difference, can affect resource division. Here, using the event-related potential (ERP) technique and a third-party punishment of dictator game paradigm, we explored third-party punishments in high and low altruists and recorded their EEG data. Behavioral results showed high altruists (vs. low altruists) were more likely to punish the dictators in unfair offers. ERP results revealed that patterns of medial frontal negativity (MFN) were modulated by unfairness. For high altruists, high unfair offers (90:10) elicited …

Impact Of A Teacher Training Program To Increase Cognitively Stimulating Talk: Pretest And Immediate Post-Test Results, Laura E. Fisher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The literacy skills that students develop in preschool are an imperative aspect of school readiness and later academic success. Research has established that some students begin their educational experience at a disadvantage due to the low socioeconomic status (SES) of their family and, as a result, low levels of conversation between parents and children, restricted access to books, and low values placed on literacy. Past research supports that shared book reading is one of the most beneficial activities in which teachers can partake in order to optimize their students’ language development. The Head Start program is intended to alleviate the …

The Relationship Between Bilingualism, Cognitive Control, And Mind Wandering, Leah J. Shulley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The unique linguistic experience of bilingualism purportedly produces cognitive control advantages. Although there is a significant body of evidence supporting this view, there are also several recently published research studies that failed to replicate bilingual advantages. Furthermore, there is some evidence of a publication bias that favors findings supporting a bilingual advantage. The purpose of this study was to address this discrepancy in the literature by examining performance of bilinguals and monolinguals on a variety of cognitive control tasks. A second purpose was to determine how bilinguals are able to achieve better performance if they do indeed have an advantage. …

The Electrophysiology Of Written Informal Language, Taylor S. Blaetz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Language is an essential component of human behavior. It is ubiquitous, but more importantly, it is malleable and it is constantly changing. Part of the dynamic nature of informal communication is the introduction and adoption of new linguistic elements. Online communication provides a window into this informal public discourse; therefore, it may be useful for testing hypotheses about the processes underlying the acquisition and use of new words. The comprehension of informal language may lead to an understanding of how these new informal words are integrated into our mental lexicon. The current study was an electroencephalographic (EEG) investigation of the …

Impact Of A Teacher Training Program To Increase Informative Praise And Decrease Commands And Negative Comments, Lauren A. Binford

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has found that many children who come from a low socioeconomic background often begin their schooling careers behind most students. Head Start programs around the nation are utilized to close the gap in achievement, by providing those students with the educational support necessary to prepare them for future schooling. However, when assessed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), Head Start programs have been found to be weaker in the area of Instructional Support. As a result, teachers are falling short in the way they provide feedback, incorporate higher thinking skills, and foster language development. In order to strengthen …

Crystallized Intelligence And Openness To Experience: Drawing On Intellectual-Investment Theories To Predict Job Performance Longitudinally, Christopher B. Patton

Doctoral Dissertations

Various approaches to conceptualizing and measuring intelligence have been utilized throughout history. Despite the plethora of intelligence theories, the field of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology has been largely dominated by the psychometric tradition of intelligence and Spearman's general factor theory of intelligence (g). Moreover, other approaches to intelligence (e.g., the developmental perspective) have generally been ignored by I-O psychology. This is puzzling given the widespread acceptance among I-O psychologists of intelligence's substantial and increasing importance in the modern workplace.

Supported by a vast amount of research, g has often been recognized as the single best predictor of …

A Mexican Woman's Journey In Becoming A Successful American Educator, Lucy Ordaz Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations

This self-study explores the question of "What factors in my life shaped my journey in earning an American college degree and becoming a successful educator in the U.S.?" This question is explored in the context of my own lived experiences. Results contribute to the field of immigrant studies and may encourage others who wish to transition from first generation immigrant to successful professional educator in the U.S. This study employed hermeneutic phenomenology to answer the research question. It used in-depth narrative interviews to elicit my responses to lived experiences from growing up in Mexico to my current teaching position. Thematic …

Toward A Relational Humanism, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

Humanist conceptions of the person evolve across history. Whereas humanism has served a pivotal role in the caregiving professions, its individualist emphasis now stands as an impediment to its future. Proposed is a relational reconceptualization of the person, placing relational as opposed to individual well-being at the forefront of humanists' concerns.

Hostile Attributional Bias And Aggressive Behavior In Global Context, Kenneth A. Dodge, Patrick S. Malone, Jennifer E. Lansford, Ann T. Skinner, Sombat Tapanya, Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Arnaldo Zelli, Liane Peña Alampay, Dario Bacchini, Anna Silvia Bombi, Marc H. Bornstein, Lei Chang, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Laura Di Giunta, Paul Oburu, Concetta Pastorelli

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

We tested a model that children’s tendency to attribute hostile intent to others in response to provocation is a key psychological process that statistically accounts for individual differences in reactive aggressive behavior and that this mechanism contributes to global group differences in children’s chronic aggressive behavior problems. Participants were 1,299 children (mean age at year 1 = 8.3 y; 51% girls) from 12 diverse ecological-context groups in nine countries worldwide, followed across 4 y. In year 3, each child was presented with each of 10 hypothetical vignettes depicting an ambiguous provocation toward the child and was asked to attribute the …

Executive Function Predictors Of Children's Talk, Jacqlyne D. Weber

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and language development, and even fewer have researched hot and cool EF as a predictor language development. This study is an investigation into the relationship between EF and language development in preschool aged children. More specifically, the ability for hot or cool EF to predict language, this will be the focus of the study. It was found that hot EF was a better predictor of language development in preschool aged children.