Digital Commons Network^™

A Softer Side To Men, Michael J. Lenney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

“I am on time. It’s the afternoon of my medical for life-insurance suitability. The AMP building in Sydney is my destination. I arrive with about twenty minutes to spare. I don’t remember the receptionist. I don’t remember the faces of the doctors who attended me that day. All I can remember is that I could see the clouds passing over the glass ceiling as my blood pressure was taken several times. The first doctor took my blood pressure three times before seeking another opinion. The second doctor confirmed his fears. I was in the “too high” risk category. At the …

Indicators Of Community Resilience : A Study Of Communities Facing Impending Natural Disasters, Julie A. Pooley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Disasters are defined as a 'crisis event in which the demands being placed on a human system, by the event, exceed the systems capacity to respond' (Bolin, 1989, p. 62). In the literature the negative consequences of disasters are focused at the individual level and fail to take into account the context In which Individuals live and where the disaster occurred. Few studies utilize residents within a disaster community to define the factors that are relevant to their disaster experience especially in Australian settings. This present studies view of disasters places the individual within an ecological system to understand their …

An Examination Of Fathers' Satisfaction With The Legal System: Exploring The Concept In Relation To Fathers' Experience With The Family Law Court Of Western Australia, Janelle M. Hawes

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Although the importance of fathers' post divorce contact with their children has been linked with a better outcome for the children and is valued by society, studies in the United States and Australia have suggested that up to 30 percent of fathers do not maintain regular contact with their children post divorce. To date, the literature has focused mainly on demographic variables and some personal characteristics of the father. An area, which has been neglected, is the influence of fathers' perception of legal proceedings and rules on their contact with their children post divorce. This study aimed to explore the …

Mental Disorder Labelling As An Extralegal Variable In Mock Jury Deliberations, Kristin B. Wallengren

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Previous research has shown that a number of characteristics of trial participants (extralegal variables) can and do influence juror’s judgements. This is of importance as only the legally relevant facts of the case should be considered during a trial. The present study investigates the influence of victim characteristics on the juror decision making process during deliberation and the judgements made about the victim, crime and defendant in a mock jury setting, as well as investigating mock juror gender differences. A representative sample of people eligible for jury duty in Western Australia viewed a video vignette depicting a trial, in which …

Father Role Identity : An Exploration Of The Construct And Its Measurement, Michelle J. Gobetz

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There is relatively little research in respect of father’s and their post-divorce contact with their children. Preliminary research suggests father’s identification with the parent role may play an influential role in this contact. Though the Self Perceptions of the Parental Role Questionnaire (SPPE) has been utilised to measure father’s identification with the parent role, the psychometric properties of this instrument have yet to be systemically investigated. The lack of psychometric information about the SPPR seriously limits this instruments utility. The aim of the current study was twofold. Firstly, to determine the psychometric properties of a formal measure of parent role …

Experiences Of Anglo-Burmese Migrants In Perth, Western Australia : A Substantive Theory Of Marginalisation, Adaptation And Community, Simon D. Colquhoun

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The experience of migration and adaptation of ethnically mixed migrants; like the Anglo-Burmese migrants, has received little attention. This group began migrating to Australia, in particular Western Australia, in the 1960s due to changing socio-political circumstances in Burma. The examination of cultural issues in psychological research has operated in a number of different perspectives including cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology and more recently, community psychology in Australia. The development of community psychology in Australia has led to the development of a community research approach by Bishop, Sonn, Drew and Contos (2002). This approach requires the exploration of the substantive domain using …

Resources For Forensic Psychology., Ellen A. Sexton

Publications and Research

Libraries supporting a forensic psychology undergraduate and/or graduate level college program need to collect materials from a range of disciplines – psychology, law, psychiatry and criminal justice. In this guide I identify the major reference works, journals, databases and other resources that should be in a good forensic psychology collection.

Using Transcendental Phenomenology To Explore The “Ripple Effect” In A Leadership Mentoring Program, Tammy Moerer-Urdahl, John W. Creswell

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Several approaches exist for organizing and analyzing data in a phenomenological qualitative study. Transcendental phenomenology, based on principles identified by Husserl (1931) and translated into a qualitative method by Moustakas (1994), holds promise as a viable procedure for phenomenological research. However, to best understand the approach to transcendental phenomenology, the procedures need to be illustrated by a qualitative study that employs this approach. This article first discusses the procedures for organizing and analyzing data according to Moustakas (1994). Then it illustrates each step in the data analysis procedure of transcendental phenomenology using a study of reinvestment or the “ripple effect” …

Competition And Success In Secondary School Drama Programs: A Comparative Study, Lisa Lenstra-Norman

Graduate Research Papers

Among the participants in secondary school drama programs, indirect competition, with its emphasis on mastery and personal achievement, may promote the development of successful behaviors such as having the ability to perform tasks skillfully, revealing a commitment to setting and reaching high expectations, showing responsibility, possessing self-esteem and caring for others. Therefore the purpose of this study is to determine an answer to the following question: does indirect competition enhance the success of participants in a secondary school drama program? Because one of the two schools studied does not take part in large group or individual speech contests, this study …

Becoming A Sister: The Socialization Of Women Into A Sorority, Kathleen Hughes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Adult peer groups have become more and more a topic for sociological study. It is a phenomenon that is starting to gain interest. This research focuses on one sorority on the campus of a Midwestern university and how this sorority manages to incorporate the women that they pledge through formal recruitment into the sorority and how these women fully socialize themselves into this group of women who already have bonded with each other. A synthesis of symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory helps to break down the socialization process and shows how the new members move through the stages of …

Barriers To Lesbian Health Care, Paula Bowles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The primary purpose of this research was to examine a sample of sixteen lesbian women regarding the barriers to lesbian health-care. From this information several interpretive findings regarding lesbian health-care are made. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with each individual lesbian. The data suggest that most lesbian women do not reveal their sexual orientation to their primary-care physician for fear of reprisal. Most of the women interviewed do feel they receive adequate health-care from their physician. The women who participated in this project did so confidentially and were assigned pseudonyms. They were asked questions on a variety of topics, …

The Relationship Between Childbirth Experience And Psychological Functioning In The Postpartum Period, Dena Dian Daniel

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between the mother's perception of the birth experience, symptoms of the post-traumatic stress, and symptoms of postpartum depression. Sixty-seven participants ranging from 17 to 40 years of age completed a self-report questionnaire containing items from three instruments including the Perception of Birth Scale, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the Davidson Trauma Scale. The findings reveal a more negative perception of the birth experience is significantly related to a greater frequency and/or. severity of. post- traumatic stress and postpartum depression symptoms following childbirth., These findings support the conclusion that an …

Organizational Factors Contributing To Worker Frustration: The Precursor To Burnout, Cathleen A. Lewandowski

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examined the organizationalf actors that contribute to workers' frustration with their work situation. The sample included 141 service professionals who attended workshops on burnout in 2001. The purpose of the workshops was to increase awareness regarding the organizational factors that could contribute to burnout. Findings indicate that factors most directly affecting clients were predictive of frustration, rather than factors that may indirectly support service quality or factors impacting workers' professional autonomy. A sense of powerlessness and isolation was also predictive of frustration, suggesting that participants viewed workplace problems as a private rather than an organizational concern. To address …

Because A Better World Is Possible: Women Casino Workers, Union Activism And The Creation Of A Just Workplace, Susan Chandler

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Based on a re-analysis of data from a qualitative study of the work experience of 36 women casino workers, this article examines the contributions and personal characteristics of the 13 women in the sample who described themselves as committed union activists. These women, all leaders in the Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees Union, were proud that collectively they had improved wages, benefits, and the conditions of work in Nevada casinos, and had created an environment that reinforced pride in a job well-done, provided job security, and promoted strong families and communities. These women's workplace experience serves as a reminder to the …

Yesterday's Lei Feng And Today's Young People's Liberation Army Soldiers, Che Po Chan

CAPS Working Paper Series

Lei Feng has been propagandized as a model of emulation for the People's Liberation Army soldiers since the 1960s. This paper uses Lei Feng as a yardstick to measure contemporary young soldiers' general behaviors and orientations. We are interested to find out to what extent contemporary young soldiers have accepted the Chinese Communist Party's political education and have followed the norm set by the Party. It is found that the widely publicized Chinese role model has exerted little influence on contemporary young soldiers. Young soldiers today are utilitarian and materialistic, sharing the same youth culture with most Chinese youths of …

How Are Social Identities Linked To Self-Conception And Intergroup Orientation? The Moderating Effect Of Implicit Theories, Ying-Yi Hong, Gloria Chan, Chi-Yue Chiu, Rosanna Y. M. Wong, Ian G. Hansen, Sau-Lai Lee, Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong, Ho-Ying Fu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social identity approaches assume that social identification affects both self-conception and intergroup orientation. The authors contend that such social identification effects are accentuated when people hold a fixed view of human character and attribute immutable dispositions to social groups. To these individuals, social identities are immutable, concrete entities capable of guiding self-conception and intergroup orientation. Social identification effects are attenuated when people hold a malleable view of human character and thus do not view social identities as fixed, concrete entities. The authors tested and found support for this contention in three studies that were conducted in the context of the …

Shift Work And Negative Work-To-Family Spillover, Blanche Grosswald

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A representative sample of the U.S. workforce from 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data (Families & Work Institute, 1999) was examined to study the relationship between shift work and negative workto- family spillover. Negative spillover was measured by Likert-scale frequency responses to questions concerning mood, energy, and time for family as functions of one's job. Statistical analyses comprised t-tests, ANOVAs, and multiple regressions. Among wage earners with families (n = 2,429), shift work showed a significant, strong, positive relationship to high negative work-to-family spillover when controlling for standard demographic characteristics as well as education and occupation. Distinctions among …

Resiliency Factors Related To Substance Use/Resistance: Perceptions Of Native Adolescents Of The Southwest, Margaret A. Waller, Scott K. Okamoto, Bart Miles, Donna E. Hurdle

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This exploratory, qualitative study examined risk and protective factors influencing drug and alcohol use and/or resistance of Native youth in the Southwest. Thirty-two Native middle school students participated in 10 focus groups that explored their experiences with alcohol and drugs in their school and reservation communities. The findings indicate a complex interaction of both risk and protective factors related to substance use. Respondents' cousins and siblings, in particular, played a key role in their decisions to use or resist drugs. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

The Situation: An Introduction To The Situational Character, Critical Realism, Power Economics, And Deep Capture, Jon Hanson, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

Throughout most of this introductory Article, we will focus our arguments primarily on economics and law and economics. We believe, however, that the implications of our inquiry extend far beyond those domains. The tendencies we hope to elucidate find their origins in the human animal, not in any particular legal theoretic perspective. It happens that these tendencies are especially prominent in law and economics, currently the dominant theoretical paradigm for creating and analyzing legal policy. But the relevance of our thesis is not confined to one approach , or even to legal-political questions. All humans are more or less implicated, …

Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response Of Law Enforcement., Janis Wolak, Kimberly J. Mitchell, David Finkelhor

Crimes Against Children Research Center

The Internet1 and computers have come to play a growing role in sex crimes that are committed against children and youth.2 Since the mid-1990s these developing technologies have posed challenges for law enforcement requiring them to confront situations not anticipated in criminal statutes, master technical advances, develop new investigative techniques, and handle criminal cases that often span multiple jurisdictions. To assist, legislators have acted on a number of fronts creating new statutes that encompass Internet offenses, stiffening penalties, and creating a national clearinghouse for reports of Internet-related crimes against children and the CyberTipline® operated by the National Center for Missing …

College Students And Problematic Drinking: A Review Of The Literature, Lindsay S. Ham, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Problem drinking during the college years is a significant public health concern. The goal of the current review was to examine the primary psychosocial factors that predict problem drinking in college students. Variables examined included demographic variables, personality, drinking history, alcohol expectancies, drinking motives, stress and coping, activity involvement, and peer and family influence. Evidence from studies of college drinking indicated that the variables associated with college drinking seem to vary at levels dealing with one’s personality and coping mechanisms, one’s thought processes about drinking, and the environment. It seems that expectancies and drinking motives may serve as explanations for …

Elaboration Versus Fragmentation: Distinguishing Between Self-Complexity And Self-Concept Differentiation, Catherine Lutz, Scott R. Ross

Psychology Faculty Publications

While theorists have argued that self-concept differentiation (SCD) (i.e., the lack of interrelatedness of roles) is an important precursor to mental health problems (Donahue et al., 1993), self-complexity (i.e., having more self-aspects and maintaining greater distinction among self-aspects) is seen as a cognitive buffer against the deleterious effects of stress (Linville, 1985, 1987). Using a sample of 260 college students, the current study was designed to empirically validate the distinction between these seemingly similar constructs. As predicted, SCD and self-complexity demonstrated opposite relationships with indices of psychological distress. Whereas SCD was positively related to depression, loneliness, and dissociation, and negatively …

Multi-Player Computer Gaming: 'Better Than Playing (Pc Games) With Yourself', Melanie Swalwell

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In the August 2002 issue of Business 2.0, Geoff Keighley sketches the profits that companies such as Sony, Disney, Microsoft and others hope to make, as they enter into, or expand their existing, online multiplayer gaming ventures. With Everquest attracting some 150,000 players within six months of launching, each of whom was prepared to pay $10 a month to participate in online multiplay, it is easy to see why those in the industry are excited at having discovered such an apparently reliable revenue stream, with Keighley citing Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment President, Yair Landau's claim that This is …

On Katherine Frank's G-Strings And Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars And Male Desire, Kristen Schilt

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Katherine Frank's book, G-Strings and Sympathy, provides an anthropological look into the fantasies of male strip club regulars in a Southern City she calls Laurelton. Turning the gaze onto the gazers, a group left unstudied in the majority of literature on sex work, Frank unpacks how trips to the strip club are closely linked with discourses about sexuality, consumption and masculinity. Through six years of participant observation at a variety of clubs in Laurelton and in-depth interviews with thirty self-professed strip club regulars, Frank delves into not only why these men attend strip clubs but how these visits …

Parental Use Of Corporal Punishment As Related To Family Environment, Psychological Well-Being, And Personality In College Students, Corrine E. Leary

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The association between use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary technique and specific aspects of the family environment was examined through surveying undergraduate students enrolled in psychology classes at Old Dominion University. Also investigated was the relationship between corporal punishment and certain affective and personality variables. The Conflict Tactics Scale CTSPC-CA was utilized to measure the level of corporal punishment experienced by all 274 participants. However, only those respondents with the 75 highest and 75 lowest corporal punishment scores were compared in statistical analyses. Results indicated a significant difference between the higher and lower corporal punishment groups on the variables …

Trends. Psychology Of The Alienated And Political Violence, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses alienation and the psychology of the alienated in literature (Camus and Dostoevsky) and society.

Ecological Influences On Adolescent Behavior, Michelle Moon

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study examined the ecological influences, outlined by Bronfenbrenner (1994), to understand adolescent behavior. It was hypothesized that proximal ecological influences would be significantly related to behavioral outcomes. Participants (N= 244) were students attending traditional and continuation high schools in a Southern California school district. They completed a 15-page questionnaire that included scales used to assess the ecological domains of Family Process, Peers, Community (school climate), Personal Characteristics, and the criterion measures of Drug and Alcohol Use, School Performance and Gang and Criminal Activity.

Principal axis factor extraction with oblique rotation was performed on predictor variables related to the ecological …

Review Of The Making Of The Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution And Labor Management. Mark W. Frazier. Reviewed By M. K. Lee., M. K. Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Mark W. Frazier, The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution and Labor Management. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. $60.00 hardcover.

Gender, Spatial Learning Trials, And Object Recall., Tifani R. Hite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous researchers have reported women doing better than men in object recall. The current study tested for gender differences in object recall over three memorization trials using gender neutral stimuli. Fifty men and 53 women viewed pictures of 60 objects (15 in each of four quadrants) for one minute, and then had three minutes to recall as many objects and locations as they could. This procedure was followed over three trials. Women performed better than men, and the difference increased across trials. Training was successful as participants recalled significantly more objects and locations on trial 3 than on trial 1. …

Predictors That Affect The Caregiver's Health Status And The Role Of Social Support On The Caregiver's Health Status, Hong Wang

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines whether the caregiver's self-rated health status is affected by the caregiver's demographic characteristics (age, education level, and income), caregiver's stressor (the number of ADL and IADL), mediating variables of the caregiver's appraisal (willingness to help non-family members, level satisfaction with life, and financial burden), of and mediating variable of social support (information and/or advice from other family members or friends). Data were drawn from Chronic Illness and Caregiving, a national telephone survey conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. on behalf of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, and Partnership for Solutions. The sample size of caregivers …