Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Louisiana State University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 2461 - 2490 of 6232

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

The Refusal Speech Acts Of Two Generations Of Korean Women : Mother-In-Law And Daughter-In-Law In Interaction, Saem Han Jan 2013

The Refusal Speech Acts Of Two Generations Of Korean Women : Mother-In-Law And Daughter-In-Law In Interaction, Saem Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study is to analyze and interpretate the refusal speech acts of two generations of Korean women: mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. To be specific, it examines if daughters-in-law’s use of strategies were dependent on the age difference/ hierarchies and to see if there was any difference in the type of strategies used by daughters-in-law depending on whether mothers-in-law have social power or not. The data were collected from three soap operas. Compared with previous data collection methods, such as discourse completion tests or role-plays, this data collection method has advantages for a pragmatics study. The results indicated that …

Go to article

Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Symptom Structure For Autism Spectrum Disorders Using The Baby And The Infant Screen For Children With Autism Traits, Megan Sipes Jan 2013

Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Symptom Structure For Autism Spectrum Disorders Using The Baby And The Infant Screen For Children With Autism Traits, Megan Sipes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were first identified, the diagnostic criteria and conceptualization of symptom structure have undergone many revisions. Currently, under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2000), ASD is defined by three symptom categories: impairments in socialization, deficits in communication, and repetitive/restricted behaviors. With the publication of the DSM-5 (APA, 2011), however, ASD will be defined by a two symptom cluster structure in which the main impairments are in the areas of social communication and restricted/repetitive behaviors. With these changes, many assessment measures will need to be re-examined to …

Go to article

Memory For Elements Of A Complex Scene : Binding And The Influence Of Attention, Stephanie L. Martin Jan 2013

Memory For Elements Of A Complex Scene : Binding And The Influence Of Attention, Stephanie L. Martin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Memory of a complex event includes a multitude of features (e.g., objects, people, and actions) as well as the overall context (e.g., going to a picnic). To recall a complex event you must bind together these features and context into an episodic memory representation. This process of binding creates the subjective experience that certain details belong together. In two experiments, I examined whether particular types of information are bound together (object-to-object, object-to-context) within a memory representation of a scene and how attention may influence this process. Participants viewed a series of scenes and their attention was drawn to some objects …

Go to article

Examining The Benefits And Detriments Of Being A Member Of An Active Postvention Team For Survivors Of Suicide, Brittany Buquoi Jan 2013

Examining The Benefits And Detriments Of Being A Member Of An Active Postvention Team For Survivors Of Suicide, Brittany Buquoi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative research study was to examine in great detail the experiences of members of an active postvention team for survivors of suicide. This team is referred to as the Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors (LOSS) team in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This study also assesses potential benefits and detriments of being an active member of this team. In this phenomenological research study, seven participants meeting the following criteria were interviewed: 1) Participant is a survivor of suicide 2) Participant’s loss by suicide was at least one year prior to the beginning of this study 3) Participant …

Go to article

Time Of Day Preferences And Resource Allocation, Alicia Marie Briganti Jan 2013

Time Of Day Preferences And Resource Allocation, Alicia Marie Briganti

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Previous studies have shown that circadian rhythms can have a significant impact on cognitive task performance (Bodenhausen, 1990; May, Hasher, & Stoltzfus, 1993), and that performance is better during participants’ optimal time of day for explicit memory tasks and for tasks where inhibition of responses is required. Researchers have concluded that deficits during one’s non-optimal time of day are due to inefficient inhibition (e.g., May & Hasher, 1998). However, previous studies have not sufficiently addressed possible changes in resource allocation, or the amount of resources that are allocated to the primary task versus the amount of resources used to actively …

Go to article

The Relationship Between Forgiveness, Imagined Interactions, Empathy And Relational Satisfaction Among Long-Distance Romantic Couples, Christopher Michael Mapp Jan 2013

The Relationship Between Forgiveness, Imagined Interactions, Empathy And Relational Satisfaction Among Long-Distance Romantic Couples, Christopher Michael Mapp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Forgiveness is viewed as a major factor in maintaining healthy romantic relationships. But couples involved in long-distance relationships experience a different set of challenges than geographically-close couples when it comes to maintaining and enjoying satisfying and stable relationships. Many long-distance couples rely on increased empathy and intrapersonal communication – in the form of imagined interactions – to release tension, rehearse conversations, and review and analyze conflicts. While forgiveness has been studied extensively in a variety of interpersonal settings, it has not been explicitly studied in relation to the usage of imagined interactions or in maintaining long-distance relationships. Moreover, even though …

Go to article

How Native American Women Perceive Their Unique Lived Experiences : Three Women Tell Their Stories, Marjorie Larson Kopacsi Jan 2013

How Native American Women Perceive Their Unique Lived Experiences : Three Women Tell Their Stories, Marjorie Larson Kopacsi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Qualitative research that explores and further examines the lived experiences of Native American women is an important, yet a frequently neglected, part of the history of the United States (US). This is an important avenue of investigation, as historians have traditionally marginalized many groups within U.S. society, including women and groups that can be viewed as part of the fabric of U.S. culture, yet exist as subcultures. Native Americans (indigenous peoples, ‘Indians’) should share a special place within U.S. society as First Americans; however, qualitative studies of Native American women, offered through a feminist lens as keepers of tradition …

Go to article

Improving Routines : Self-Monitoring By Adolescents Diagnosed With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Meghan Ann Geary Jan 2013

Improving Routines : Self-Monitoring By Adolescents Diagnosed With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Meghan Ann Geary

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), though commonly diagnosed in childhood, continues to present with problematic symptoms through adolescence and adulthood (Barkley, Fischer, Edelbrock, & Smallish, 1990; Young & Amarasinghe, 2010). Despite the number of adolescents suffering from ADHD and the detrimental effects the symptoms can have on their lives, there is a paucity of research in interventions tailored to this population (Young & Amarasinghe, 2010). Additionally, an even smaller portion of this research addresses daily routines for adolescents, despite findings that maintaining routines are often very difficult for adolescents with ADHD (Bloomquist, 2005; Coghill et al., 2008; Pfiffner et al. 2007; Robin, …

Go to article

Explaining Strategic Firm Responsiveness To Institutional Processes In The Evolution Of Corporate Governance Systems : The Reform Of Director Remuneration Reporting In Germany, Mario Krenn Jan 2013

Explaining Strategic Firm Responsiveness To Institutional Processes In The Evolution Of Corporate Governance Systems : The Reform Of Director Remuneration Reporting In Germany, Mario Krenn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to economic and social globalization processes, the boundaries of national systems of corporate governance have become more permeable for the transfer of ideas and practices from other institutional contexts. I derive hypotheses from a multitheoretical framework to explain strategic firm responsiveness to national level pressures for corporate governance reform. This framework integrates institutional, resource dependence, social network, upper echelon, and organizational learning perspectives and portrays corporate governance reform as institutional change. I test hypotheses derived from this framework in the context of the issuance of the German corporate governance code. The code provision of interest recommends that German firms …

Go to article

Toward Digitizing The Human Experience : A New Resource For Natural Language Processing, Jerry Scott Weltman Jan 2013

Toward Digitizing The Human Experience : A New Resource For Natural Language Processing, Jerry Scott Weltman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A long-standing goal of Artificial Intelligence is to program computers that understand natural language. A basic obstacle is that computers lack the common sense that even small children acquire simply by experiencing life, and no one has devised a way to program this experience into a computer. This dissertation presents a methodology and proof-of-concept software system that enables non-experts, with some training, to create simple experiences. For the purposes of this dissertation, an experience is a series of time-ordered comic frames, annotated with the changing intentional and physical states of the characters and objects in each frame. Each frame represents …

Go to article

Fulcrum Of The Union: The Border South And The Secession Crisis, 1859-1861, Michael Dudley Robinson Jan 2013

Fulcrum Of The Union: The Border South And The Secession Crisis, 1859-1861, Michael Dudley Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Border South states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri spurned secession in 1860-61, which has led scholars to conclude that these four slaveholding states were safely ensconced in the Union column from the beginning of the crisis that drew the other slaveholding states into the Confederacy. Historians have often simplified the secession crisis in the Border South, minimizing the likelihood that these states with smaller concentrations of enslaved persons and a more diversified economy and society than the Upper and Lower South would ever leave the Union. This work seeks to add contingency to the story of the Border …

Go to article

Effects Of A Brief Mindfulness Intervention On Negative Affect And Urge To Drink Among College Student Drinkers, Christine Vinci Jan 2013

Effects Of A Brief Mindfulness Intervention On Negative Affect And Urge To Drink Among College Student Drinkers, Christine Vinci

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Problematic college student drinking can predict the subsequent development of severe alcohol use patterns. Several theories have proposed that negative affect (NA) plays a large role in the maintenance of substance use behaviors – a phenomenon supported in laboratory-based and clinical studies. It has been demonstrated that mindfulness meditation can improve the regulation of NA, suggesting that mindfulness may be very beneficial in treating problematic substance use behavior. The present study utilized a brief mindfulness intervention, followed by a NA mood induction in a sample of college student problematic drinkers (N = 207). A three by two by three factorial …

Go to article

Melancholic Epistolarity : Letters And Traumatic Exile In The Novels Of Three Francophone Women, Rosemary Harrington Courville Jan 2013

Melancholic Epistolarity : Letters And Traumatic Exile In The Novels Of Three Francophone Women, Rosemary Harrington Courville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In her 1982 groundbreaking work on the epistolary form in novels, Janet Gurkin Altman gives a working definition of epistolarity which will be a guiding concept for this project; she defines it simply as: “the use of the letter’s formal properties to create meaning…” (Altman 4). Of course, to create meaning is a complicated endeavor. How does one create meaning from the letter’s formal properties? The contemporary authors who engage with epistolarity do so on several levels from the thematic to the structural. From novels that have several characters engaging in letter dialogues to one-sided exchanges that bear more resemblance …

Go to article

Nonprofit Organizations In The Making Of Civic Community : Exploring How The Structure Of Nonprofit Sectors Matters For Community Wellbeing, Sarah Prater Walsh Jan 2013

Nonprofit Organizations In The Making Of Civic Community : Exploring How The Structure Of Nonprofit Sectors Matters For Community Wellbeing, Sarah Prater Walsh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, through the lens of the civic community perspective, I examine the role of nonprofit organizations in enhancing community wellbeing. The primary contribution of this dissertation to existing literature on civic communities is the theoretical development of the concept of civically engaging institutions. I take a multifaceted approach to the understanding and investigation of civically engaged institutions, in which I expand the concept beyond civic congregations and associations, to include all organizations categorized as nonprofit. Synthesizing literatures on nonprofit organizations and civic communities, I argue that nonprofits can be considered locally oriented and civically engaged as they are …

Go to article

Creating An Sli Performance Profile With Load, Christy Marie Seidel Jan 2013

Creating An Sli Performance Profile With Load, Christy Marie Seidel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this body of work was to gain a clearer understanding of the potential cognitive factors that may contribute to Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This study attempted to simulate a performance profile of SLI in typically developing children within a grammaticality judgment task, featuring structures historically difficult (third person singular –S and auxiliary BE) and easy (plural –S and progressive –ING) for individuals with SLI. Cognitive load was manipulated through the length of the sentences to be judged, and individual differences in phonological short term memory (PSTM) and working memory were measured (WM). For a successful simulation to …

Go to article

In Spite Of Yourself : The Asignifying Force Of Humor And Laughter, Kevin Michael Casper Jan 2013

In Spite Of Yourself : The Asignifying Force Of Humor And Laughter, Kevin Michael Casper

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Spite of Yourself: The Asignifying Force of Humor and Laughter calls upon the interruptive moments of uncontrollable laughter to challenge rhetoric’s historical treatment of humor and laughter. Anyone who has ever suffered a fit of hysterical laughter at precisely the wrong moment, or has begun to laugh spontaneously at an inappropriate joke before stopping short, can attest to laughter’s uniquely uncontrollable force. Beyond all reason and control, laughter interrupts us and reminds us of the limits of the human subject. Because laughter does not signify meaning in the traditional communicative sense, it exerts an asignifying force irreducible to the …

Go to article

Measuring Safety Climate As An Indicator Of Effective Safety And Health Programs In The Construction Industry, Charles Francis Pecquet Jan 2013

Measuring Safety Climate As An Indicator Of Effective Safety And Health Programs In The Construction Industry, Charles Francis Pecquet

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure the safety climate, safe behaviors, and EMR, of construction companies in southeastern Louisiana, and to measure selected demographic variables of construction workers employed at these companies. Two hundred and eight workers from twenty nine construction companies agreed to participate in the study. The Safety Climate Survey (SCS) was utilized to measure the safety climate level and safe behaviors of participants and collect selected demographic variables. Additionally, companies were asked to provide their Experience Modification Rates and North American Industry Classification System codes. A six-item Likert-type scale was utilized to measure safety climate …

Go to article

An Exploration Of The Lived Experiences Of Returned Mormon Missionaries, Errol Douglas Bordelon Jan 2013

An Exploration Of The Lived Experiences Of Returned Mormon Missionaries, Errol Douglas Bordelon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mormon missionaries face numerous challenges throughout the course of their mission. They serve in multiple capacities; they provide numerous types of services; and they work an average of 12 hours a day, six days a week. Missionaries encounter nearly constant rejection and hostility. In most cases, these missionaries serve in areas that are unfamiliar to them and they have limited contact with their family and friends. Despite these challenges, most missionaries not only successfully complete their mission, but they also have a positive view of their mission. According to Bjorck and Kim (2009), not much research has been conducted in …

Go to article

Perception, Practice, And Theory : A Case Study Of Leadership In An Urban Middle School, Marcia Lynette Speed Jan 2013

Perception, Practice, And Theory : A Case Study Of Leadership In An Urban Middle School, Marcia Lynette Speed

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Explaining the complex nature of how leadership works within the school has proven difficult; consequently, many studies have shown little or no effects of leadership on student outcomes and school performance (Leithwood & Jantzi, 1999; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Furthermore, researchers acknowledge that a gap exists in the literature between explaining models of leadership and describing the effective actions of leadership (Grissom & Loeb, 2011; Kruger et al, 2007; Robinson, 2006; Robinson et al 2008; Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004). Of the research that does link leadership practices to student outcomes and school performance, the assumed indicators of …

Go to article

Psychological Biases Affect Hedonic Ratings, Wannita Jirangrat Jan 2013

Psychological Biases Affect Hedonic Ratings, Wannita Jirangrat

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Psychological biases in consumer testing may lead to misinterpretation of results and lower experimental power. Reports on various hedonic scales associated with psychological biases induced by sample presentation are limited in the literature. An appropriate experimental protocol could enable sensory scientists to accurately determine if a product is more or less liked. Overall, in this study some drawbacks of hedonic scales were revealed and some recommendations were made under specific circumstances. A more powerful design (SPRCBD) helped minimize positional and First Serving Order (FSO) biases in consumer tests by extracting more explained variances, resulting in decreased Type-II error in the …

Go to article

Comparing Social Skills In Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorders According To The Dsm-Iv-Tr And The Proposed Dsm-5, Jennifer Susan Beighley Jan 2013

Comparing Social Skills In Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorders According To The Dsm-Iv-Tr And The Proposed Dsm-5, Jennifer Susan Beighley

LSU Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is currently defined using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). With the fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-5) forthcoming, one change the American Psychiatric Association has proposed is an increase in the number of overall symptoms necessary to meet criteria for ASD. Because social skills is well established as a core symptom of autism, the present study explores differences in social functioning using the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills in Youngsters-II (MESSY-II) in three groups of children ages 3-16 years including those diagnosed with ASD using the …

Go to article

Government Spending And Child Well-Being : A Correlational Study Of The Organization For Economic Co-Operation And Development (Oecd) Countries, Rachel Suzanna Foretich Jan 2013

Government Spending And Child Well-Being : A Correlational Study Of The Organization For Economic Co-Operation And Development (Oecd) Countries, Rachel Suzanna Foretich

LSU Master's Theses

Children who live in poverty are more likely to suffer from avoidable illnesses, become teenaged parents, be involved in the criminal justice system, and mature into adults who live in poverty (Isaacs et al., 2011). This study examines the relationship between government spending as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 21 child well-being indicators. The samples in this study were collected from 30 Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries for the years 2009 and 2012. The major finding of this study reveals that there is a statistically significant relationship between government spending as a percent of …

Go to article

An Analysis Of Femininity : How Popular Female Characters In The Media Portray Contemporary Womanhood, Stephanie Ortego Roussell Jan 2013

An Analysis Of Femininity : How Popular Female Characters In The Media Portray Contemporary Womanhood, Stephanie Ortego Roussell

LSU Master's Theses

The impact of the media on adolescent girls has received greater theoretical, legal and societal focus over the last few decades. Several studies link the development of women’s gendered identities, healthy sexual activity and self-efficacy to how the media portray women. Restrictive or unrealistic themes of womanhood or femininity in the media can impact a young girl’s social construction of identity and provide limited examples of what it means to be a woman in today’s society. This study qualitatively examines femininity in contemporary media by analyzing—via textual analysis and focus groups—how popular female characters embody, portray and promote different conceptualizations …

Go to article

Louisiana Department Of Children And Family Services : A Case Study Of Child Welfare Workers' Burnout, Crystal Ward Jan 2013

Louisiana Department Of Children And Family Services : A Case Study Of Child Welfare Workers' Burnout, Crystal Ward

LSU Master's Theses

Social work can be an extremely gratifying profession. However, social workers who are exposed to graphic realities related to vulnerable and traumatized individuals and families may experience challenging workload demands and increased levels of burnout. To best understand and support these key human service workers, it is important to investigate variables influencing levels of burnout. In this study, the author examined whether specific individual worker characteristics contribute to burnout among child welfare workers in Louisiana. Characteristics were compared to individual variables such as job tenure, agency department, supervisor/front line worker, and educational background. The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) was completed …

Go to article

Corporate Use Of Social Media, Viktorya Mirzoyan Jan 2013

Corporate Use Of Social Media, Viktorya Mirzoyan

LSU Master's Theses

Despite significant and constantly increasing volume of social media use by both individuals and corporate entities, scarce scholastic attention has been paid to practices undertaken by companies and organizations in creating presence on social media, managing social media accounts and communicating with constituents on social media. New social media platforms appear regularly, attracting millions of daily visitors, however, this new type of communication media still lacks in-depth analysis, which would provide guidelines to be used by corporate entities to make their presence on social media most effective. This study makes the first step to analyze possible relationships between companies’ practices …

Go to article

The Effects Of Parent Factors On Children's Separation Anxiety, Anna Catherine May Jan 2013

The Effects Of Parent Factors On Children's Separation Anxiety, Anna Catherine May

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Parental anxiety is a well-known factor that contributes to the development of anxiety in children. However, little is known about how specific parental factors influence the development and trajectory of childhood anxiety. There is also a paucity of research on separation anxiety disorder specifically. Complicating matters, children who suffer from clinically significant separation anxiety tend to be younger and thus it is harder to obtain accurate information from this age group. The purpose of the present study was to determine the mechanism through which parental factors such as somatization, anxiety sensitivity, and separation anxious behaviors might influence the development of …

Go to article

Unconscious Awareness Of A Branded Life: Consumer Disillusionment And The Cultivated Commercialization Of Public Health, Laura H. Crosswell Jan 2013

Unconscious Awareness Of A Branded Life: Consumer Disillusionment And The Cultivated Commercialization Of Public Health, Laura H. Crosswell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

By unraveling the intricately powerful influences of pharmaceutical funding, this project examines ways in which product marketing infiltrates and contaminates public awareness efforts in the healthcare industry. Specifically, the following work deconstructs ways in which Merck Pharmaceuticals & Co. crafted a product endorsement through social marketing and nationwide lobbying efforts to most efficiently profit from the company’s Gardasil vaccination. Through means of textual analysis, interviews, focus groups, and eyetracking experimentation, I use Merck’s product endorsement efforts to illuminate the complex dynamics muddling direct-to-consumer marketing and social marketing campaigns. Social cognitive theory (SCT) offers a strong supportive foundation from which to …

Go to article

Minding The Gap : A Rhetorical History Of The Achievement Gap, Laura Elizabeth Jones Jan 2013

Minding The Gap : A Rhetorical History Of The Achievement Gap, Laura Elizabeth Jones

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Minding the Gap: A Rhetorical History of the Achievement Gap arose as an inquiry into the rhetorical congestion around the phrase achievement gap in public discourse. Having been used in support of multiple, often competing, education agendas, the phrase seems versatile almost to the point of emptiness, and yet it seemingly retains its persuasive power. Examining the history of the phrase, I reveal that the notion of the achievement gap is rooted in the logic of segregation and the rhetoric of disability, and serves to construct students in ways that paradoxically undermine efforts to expand access to educational opportunity. Although …

Go to article

Three From The Bottom : Examining Racial And Ethnic Identity Among Italian Americans In Bossier City, Jamie Rene Digilormo Jan 2013

Three From The Bottom : Examining Racial And Ethnic Identity Among Italian Americans In Bossier City, Jamie Rene Digilormo

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the use of ethnic and racial labels as they are used in the construction of social identity among Italian Americans in Bossier City, Louisiana. In particular, the researcher is interested in how racial and ethnic identities are constructed through linguistic features, such as labels, and how these labels can often reflect the beliefs, values, or ideologies that influence the speaker. By examining which labels are used and how, it is possible to better understand what it means for each participant to be an Italian American today. The researcher relies heavily on Foucault’s notion of knowledge/power and the …

Go to article

Medical Issue Or Policy? A Framing Analysis Of The Medical Marijuana Issue In U.S. Newspapers, Christopher Lee Kaiser Jan 2013

Medical Issue Or Policy? A Framing Analysis Of The Medical Marijuana Issue In U.S. Newspapers, Christopher Lee Kaiser

LSU Master's Theses

This study conducted a framing analysis of the medical marijuana issue in United States print media. In addition, this analysis investigated whether the medical marijuana issue was portrayed as a policy issue or a medical issue, and based the inquiry in public opinion and health communication literature. This analysis extracted a sample (N=240) from newspaper stories that reported the issue within the past five years in states that have enacted medical marijuana legislation. The framing analysis measured the occurrence of frames in three different categories: gain vs. loss, types of frames, and policy vs. medical. Furthermore, this analysis determined if …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last