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[Introduction To] For The Greater Good Of All: Perspectives On Individualism, Society, And Leadership, Donelson R. Forsyth, Crystal L. Hoyt

Bookshelf

At every turn the variations in individual perspectives on human rights and potentials, contrasting philosophies on social justice and political structure, and even debates over the best solutions to pressing social problems reflect the vital tension between the one and the many. Are humans, as a species, motivated more by selfish desires or by a commitment to helping others? Can society require that individuals contribute to a common good, even when they will not personally benefit from it? Is a commitment to a common good that will benefit generations to come more morally laudable than working diligently to achieve personal …

Maturation, Peer Context, And Indigenous Girls' Early-Onset Substance Use, Melissa L. Walls, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines a biosocial model of the impact of puberty on Indigenous girls' early-onset substance use by considering the potential mediating role of peer context (i.e. mixed-sex peer groups and substance use prototypes) on the puberty and substance use relationship. Data include responses from 360 girls of a common Indigenous cultural group residing on reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the statistically significant relationship between girls' pubertal development and early-onset substance use was mediated by both mixed-sex/romantic peer groups and favorable social definitions of substance use. Implications for substance use prevention …

Risk Factors For Running Away Among A General Population Sample Of Males And Females, Kimberly A. Tyler, Kellie J. Hagewen, Lisa A. Melander

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The present study examines risk factors for running away and homelessness among a sample of more than 7,000 currently housed youth using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Structural equation modeling results revealed that those with greater levels of family instability and those who ran away at Wave 2 were significantly more likely to run away and/or become homeless 5 years later at Wave 3. Family instability also had a significant indirect effect on running away and/or being homeless at Wave 3 through greater levels of problem behaviors and running away at Wave 2. Running away at …

The Importance Of Fatherhood To U.S. Married And Cohabiting Men, Veronica Tichenor, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Raleigh Contreras, Karina M. Shreffler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Using a non-hierarchical approach to identity theory, we construct a scale to analyze the characteristics associated with the importance of fatherhood in a national sample of male partners (N = 932) of U.S. women of reproductive age, including fathers and non-fathers. OLS multiple regression shows that economic situation is not associated with importance of fatherhood, but valuing career success, higher education, higher religiosity and non-egalitarian gender attitudes (compared to egalitarian) are associated with higher importance of fatherhood scores. Leisure, age, fertility problems, and non-egalitarian gender attitudes are associated with importance of fatherhood scores differently for fathers and non-fathers. Although fathers …

The Human-Environment Dialog In Award-Winning Children’S Picture Books, J. Allen Williams, Christopher Podeschi, Nathan Palmer, Philip Schwadel, Deanna Meyler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Picture books often play an important role in childhood socialization. Given the seriousness of environmental problems, we ask how natural, modified, and built environments have been portrayed in children’s books. To answer this question, we analyze the 296 books receiving Caldecott awards from 1938 to 2008. Two possibilities are explored with respect to content change. Growing concern about critical environmental problems, such as decline in biodiversity and deforestation, may have led to an increase in illustrations and stories about wild animals and the natural environment. Alternatively, the increasing isolation of people from the natural world may have resulted in a …

Heterogeneity And Its Impact On Thermal Robustness And Attractor Density, Yuri Cantor, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

There is considerable research relating the structure of Boolean networks to their state space dynamics. In this paper, we extend the standard model to include the effects of thermal noise, which has the potential to deflect the trajectory of a dynamical system within its state space, sending it from one stable attractor to another. We introduce a new “thermal robustness” measure, which quantifies a Boolean network’s resilience to such deflections. In particular, we investigate the impact of structural homogeneity on two dynamical properties: thermal robustness and attractor density. Through computational experiments on cyclic Boolean networks, we ascertain that as a …

Era[C]Ing Diversity: A Critical Rhetorical Approach To Race And The New Citizen, Theresa Donovan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Era[c]ing Diversity is guided by a broad question of inquiry regarding the formation and reformation of subjectivity through the filling out of "blank" forms such as the application for naturalization. This dissertation examines how the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service uses and distributes race, and how subjects participate in the social reproduction of the dominant ideology to create a society where individuals think: I am White; He/she is Black, or Asian, or Native American etc. Era[c]ing Diversity examines how the N-400 constructs the new citizen and the ways that permanent legal residents of Mexican origin disrupt or reify this construct. …

Studying Rape Through A Theorectical Lens: The Development Of A Serial Rape Model Using Fbi Data, Brooke Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current study assessed whether there is an empirical foundation for different theories of rape including the feminist, evolutionary, social disorganization, psychopathy, and rapist type theories. Using a data set from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on serial rapists collected in the early 1990's, the study included two phases. The first phase assessed whether FBI data supported the previously mentioned theories of rape by analyzing associations between individual variables that are thought to support each theory. Support was demonstrated for the evolutionary and psychopathy theories. Using MPlus statistical software to accommodate the multi-level nature of the data, the second …

Sustaining Voice Through Leadership: How Do Deaf Leaders Sustain Voice In Challenging Dominant Systems, Darlene Goncz Zangara

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The vehicle in communicating cultural identity, recognition, and justice is voice. Reclaiming or sustaining one's voice is to stand up for what one believes in, or to preserve one's identity and place in society. The deaf individual or any other marginalized individual is expected to proceed through a series of deliberations to determine favorable actions that will be persuasive, with the goal of embracing the voice of the marginalized. The deaf individual's voice or meaningful intentions will need to be effectively interpreted into mainstream American society's language and paradigms. This requires one to reconstruct the meanings and mediate the facts …

Urban League Of Central Carolinas – Civil Rights Organizations In A New Era: An Action Research Study Of One Organization’S Pursuit Of New Strategies, Harry L. Alston

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

What leadership approaches and operational strategies should traditional civil rights organizations, like the Urban League, undertake to in this post-civil rights era? Specifically at the local level, what expectations must the Urban League of Central Carolinas satisfy to reassert its leadership in Charlotte? In recent years, an increasing array of social enterprises across different sectors has emerged to address failures in civil society. Civil rights organizations have long served a niche in the battle for an equitable society. However, the role of civil rights organizations in community revitalization has been diffuse and subject to fundraising constraints. I undertook this action …

Life Experiences That Contributed To The Independence And Success In The Lives Of Foster Care Alumni, Dawn Elizabeth Montgomery

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the factors which helped these foster care alumni to persevere and to succeed. The intent was to provide a framework for equipping youth in foster care more effectively by building on their strengths and the resources available in foster care. The study’s method incorporated the interviewing of ten ethnically diverse individuals who had experienced the foster care system. Based on their insights and the themes which emerged, the WARRIORS Model was created. This acronym represents the key themes derived from the interviews: Wounded, Advocacy, Reality of Belonging, Resources, Inspired to Succeed, …

The Effects Of Tai Chi On Balance And Peripheral Somatosensation In Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Elisabeth Inge Cavegn

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in older adults is a major health concern, as older adults with diabetes have a two- to threefold risk of injurious falls and physical disability. Although studies on the effects of Tai Chi on balance and fall prevention have increased over the last two decades, the benefits for older adults with diabetes, specifically for those with impaired somatosensation in the lower extremities, are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Tai Chi exercise on balance, peripheral somatosensation, and fitness in older adults with type 2 diabetes. The …

Is Silence Golden? Experiences Of Silence, Stigma And Cultural Violence Among Lgb People In El Paso, Tx., Elias Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stigma not only affects how one is treated within a society; it is also one of the factors influencing social identity and sexual behavior. LGB individuals, as part of a stigmatized group, form their sexual identities in a culture and society that is hostile to or ignorant of them. This project synthesizes 14 ethnographic interviews with LGB individuals in El Paso, TX. The interviews focus on the formative years of the individual's life on the U.S.-Mexico Border, namely their school years and early formation through family socialization. They also focus on LGBT individuals' perceptions of their community and the city …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Amongst The Tarahumara In Northern Mexico, Carolyn Raynor Trussell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research focuses on the perceptions of disability amongst the Tarahumara, known amongst themselves as the Rarámuri, in the Sierra Madre region of Northern Chihuahua. This population of individuals has typically lived in isolated areas in communities in the Sierra Madre where medical and specialized educational services were rare. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, knowledge and beliefs related to disabilities, as well as the access and beliefs related to educational and medical services.

The study focused on the individual and the society to examine how bodily conceptions influence perceptions of others. The target group for …

First Elderly Client In Therapy: Factors That Influence Student Interest In Geropsychology, Cristina E. M. Filippelli

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the coming decades, the elderly population in United States (U.S) is expected to grow significantly (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996). Consequently, the number of older individuals seeking mental health services will be greater than at any other time in the history of the U.S. The field of clinical psychology, however, is unable to meet the mental health needs of the current elderly population, and this gap is expected to widen in coming years. There is an ongoing discussion within the field of professional psychology as to how to train more clinicians to work with the elderly population (Gatz …

Collective Efficacy And Intimate Partner Violence: Community Context, Catherine B. Cowling

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Intimate partner violence is a very serious issue in the United States. In spite of improvements, there is still much work to be done. Policies focusing on formal controls such as arrest, orders of protection, and prosecution have questionable potential. However, collective efficacy and the examination of community context have much to offer the field of intimate partner violence. Collective efficacy, comprised of social cohesion, social capital, and informal social control, may be more effective in reducing intimate partner violence than use of traditional formal social controls alone. These community context variables may also be of great assistance in improving …

Constructing Credibility: Using Technoscience To Legitimate Strategies In Agrifood Governance, Carmen Bain, Elizabeth Ransom, Michelle R. Worosz

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Agrifood scholars working within a political economy framework increasingly draw upon the concept of governance to analyze the regulation of global agricultural and food systems. An important limitation of this approach is that it fails to explain how governance strategies are legitimated. Drawing on three diverse cases that span three continents, our paper examines how standards makers appeal to technoscientific norms and values to establish both credibility for their standards and their authority in constructing them. These cases explore the development and implementation of a standard requiring complete elimination of a tart cherry insect pest in the United States; the …

Technoscience In Agriculture: Reflections On The Contributions Of The Msu School Of Sociology Of Food And Agriculture, Keiko Tanaka, Arunsa Juska

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This paper argues that one of the most important contributions of the MSU School of Agrifood Governance and Technoscience (MSU-SAGT) was its focus on previously less explored and analyzed roles of technoscience in agriculture.The notion of technoscience was derived from the broader field of Science and Technology Studies, especially from Actor Network Theory.Studies conducted under Lawrence Busch’s direction conceptualized this notion to indicate networks/collectives of human and nonhuman actors implicated in production, distribution and consumption of food. While these studies analyzed the role of technoscience in transforming agriculture, they also examined ethical issues (e.g.,social justice and democracy)that arise from the …

An Interview With Dr. Lawrence Busch Of The Michigan State University School Of Agrifood Governance And Technoscience, Jason Konefal, Maki Hatanaka

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

An Interview with Dr. Lawrence Busch of the Michigan State University School of Agrifood Governance and Technoscience

An Analysis Of Monitoring The Future: A Look At The Relationship Between Juvenile Delinquency And Involvement In School., Thomas Theodore Zawisza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between juvenile delinquency and involvement with various school activities. In order to do so data from the Monitoring the Future survey of high school seniors in 2008 were used. Univariate measures included descriptive statistics of the variables, while bivariate analysis determined if a relationship exists between the dependent and independent variables. Results of the analysis suggested mixed support for the relationship between adolescent delinquency and involvement in school activities.

A Study Of The Effects Of The Length Of Student-Teaching Experiences On New Teacher Efficacy., Alan Wayne Addison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between the length of student-teaching experiences and new teacher efficacy. Each year thousands of prospective new teachers endure the interview processes to be hired, complete induction programs, and begin their careers only to determine that the teaching profession is not what they assumed it would be. Local school districts spend thousands of dollars each year on orientation for these new teachers only to find them resigning within the first 5 years of service. Increasing new teacher efficacy is imperative to reducing new teacher attrition rates. The more student-teaching experiences an individual collects before entering the …

Costs Of Treating Depression With Individual Versus Family Therapy, Sareta Dobbs Head

Theses and Dissertations

Marital discord contributes to the development and continuation of depression and to the recurrence of depressive episodes for those in troubled relationships. Early research suggests that family therapy may reduce the severity and frequency of depressive episodes through modification of family interactional patterns. This would result in a reduction in the cost of treating depression. This study summarizes the literature linking family dynamics with depression. Then,using a sample taken from a large health maintenance organization, data was statistically analyzed to measure the effectiveness of both individual and family therapy as delivered by different types of mental health professionals. Results indicated …

Conformation Dependent Monoclonal Antibodies Distinguish Different Replicating Strains Or Conformers Of Prefibrillar Aβ Oligomers, Rakez Kayed, Isabel Canto, Leonid Breydo, Suhail Rasool, Tamas Lukacsovich, Jessica Wu, Ricardo Albay, Anna Pensalfini, Stephen Yeung, Elizabeth Head, J. Lawrence Marsh, Charles Glabe

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Age-related neurodegenerative diseases share a number of important pathological features, such as accumulation of misfolded proteins as amyloid oligomers and fibrils. Recent evidence suggests that soluble amyloid oligomers and not the insoluble amyloid fibrils may represent the primary pathological species of protein aggregates.

RESULTS: We have produced several monoclonal antibodies that specifically recognize prefibrillar oligomers and do not recognize amyloid fibrils, monomer or natively folded proteins. Like the polyclonal antisera, the individual monoclonals recognize generic epitopes that do not depend on a specific linear amino acid sequence, but they display distinct preferences for different subsets of prefibrillar oligomers. Immunological …

Ua3/4/1 President's Office-Downing Subject/Correspondence File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Subject file regarding the Dero Downing administration.

Clarifying The Effects Of Neighborhood Context On Violence “Behind Closed Doors”, Emily M. Wright, Michael L. Benson

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Research on neighborhood-level effects on intimate partner violence (IPV) has expanded significantly in the past two decades. However, to date, studies have been unable to disentangle compositional and contextual effects on IPV and have rarely considered the social mechanisms that might link neighborhood conditions to IPV. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this study considers individual and contextual influences on violence between partners, and examines the effects of disadvantage and collective efficacy on this type of behavior. Results indicate that neighborhood disadvantage significantly increases and collective efficacy significantly decreases IPV after controlling for individual-level correlates. …

Ua1b2/1 Anniversaries - Wku, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding anniversaries celebrated by the university, includes 75th and centennial celebrations.

A Study Of The Characteristics Of Female Delinquent Youth Within The Virginia Department Of Juvenile Justice, Stephanie Meehan

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

From Reproduction To Consumption: The Economic Deterioration Of Families In The United States After World War Ii, Michael David Gillespie

Dissertations

The United State's “great recession,” beginning in December 2007, is the latest indicator of the economic decline of middle- and working-class families. This research questions why the economic condition of U.S. families deteriorated after World War II. To address this research question, social structure of accumulation theory is used to examine the changing role of the family as an institution in capitalist society.

First, a qualitative institutional analysis of federal welfare, labor, and financial regulatory policies from the New Deal to the present is conducted. This analysis shows that, initially, the family was vital to the capitalist economy as the …

The Interface Of Breastfeeding And Work: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Experiences Of White Low-Income Women, Jessica A. Kerby

Dissertations

Vocational psychologists have been called to expand the traditional discourses related to work and career to address the actual work experiences of individuals, especially those of the working class. Breastfeeding rates are on the rise among employed women and mothers of low-income, but little is known about women of low income who seek to concurrently work and breastfeed. Work-family interface theories suggest employed mothers of low-income may experience conflict and/or enhancement through multiple roles. The purpose of this research was to answer the call to vocational psychologists, give voice to the narratives around breastfeeding and work among lowincome mothers, and …

The Physical Activity Patterns And Constraints Of Diverse Female College Students, Kathleen Victoria Minkel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Diverse college aged females from a public university in the southwest were asked to participate in an online survey to determine their constraints to physical activity, as well as their current activity level. The groups were compared to establish the differences among the minority groups. Raymore, Crawford, and Godbey’s Hierarchical Model of Constraints was used as a framework when creating the survey. Data analysis showed only one significant difference among the racial/ethnic groups, when looking specifically at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints categories. Hispanic women differed significantly from Caucasian women in their perception of interpersonal constraints on their physical …