Digital Commons Network^™

Marx's Democratic Critique Of Capitalism And Its Implications For A Viable Socialism, C. David Schweickart

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper argues that Marx’s critique of capitalism is not, as commonly believed, a critique of the “free market.” I argue that the “market” under capitalism should be understood as a three-fold market—for goods and services, for labor and for capital. I argue that Marx’s critique is essentially a critique of the latter two markets, and not the first. Hence theoretical space opens up for “market socialism.” I proceed to elaborate briefly what specific institutions might comprise an economically viable socialism that would not be vulnerable to Marx’s critique.

The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Habermas claims that an inclusive public sphere is the only deliberative forum for generating public opinion that satisfies the epistemic and normative conditions underlying legitimate decision-making. He adds that digital technologies and other mass media need not undermine – but can extend – rational deliberation when properly instituted. This paper draws from social epistemology and technology studies to demonstrate the epistemic and normative limitations of this extension. We argue that current online communication structures fall short of satisfying the required epistemic and normative conditions. Furthermore, the extent to which Internet-based communications contribute to legitimate democratic opinion and will formation depends …

The Role Of Market-Mediated Milestones In Negotiating Adolescent Identity Tensions, Jenna M. Drenten

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Purpose

This chapter explores the symbolic connections between coming of age liminality and identity-oriented consumption practices in postmodern American culture, specifically among adolescent girls. Methodology/approach

Forty-two female participants (ages 20–23) participants were asked to answer the general question of “Who am I?” through creating identity collages and writing accompanying narrative summaries for each of three discrete life stages: early adolescence (past-self), late adolescence (present-self), and adulthood (future-self). Data were analyzed using a hermeneutical approach. Findings

Coming of age in postmodern American consumer culture involves negotiating paradoxical identity tensions through consumption-oriented benchmarks, termed “market-mediated milestones.” Market-mediated milestones represent achievable criteria by …

Child Abuse Reporting: When Given The Option, Do Youth Choose To Report?, Michelle L. Vos

Master's Theses

Christensen and Prout (2002) explain, "The task of the social scientist is to work for the right of people to have a voice and to be heard. In the case of children, `age' is perhaps one of the most dominant factors used to discriminate against children being heard and listened to" (p. 483). And in the case of children experiencing neglect or abuse, the opportunity for them to be heard is even more limited. This project analyzes data from the National Runway Safeline - one place where children's voice can be heard. NRS, established in 1971, offers confidential and anonymous …

Culture Wars: A Quest For Justice In Arizona, Crystal Lynne Pfeiffer

Master's Theses

The Southwest is the location of an ongoing culture clash between proponents of a unified "American" culture and Mexican-American culture. The significance of the debate is not just about Mexican-American studies; it reflects a broader debate about individual and collective identity in the United States. The two cultures have historically had a contentious relationship that is further intensified by their geographical proximity to one another. Some of the tensions have culminated in a conflict within the school system between supporters and opponents of Mexican-American studies. One side of the debate sees the program as a means to help students succeed …

Philosophical Approaches To Qualitative Research, Julia Pryce, Renée Spencer, Jill Walsh

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter reviews some of the major overarching philosophical approaches to qualitative inquiry and includes some historical background for each. Taking a “big picture” view, the chapter discusses post-positivism, constructivism, critical theory, feminism, and queer theory and offers a brief history of these approaches; considers the ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions on which they rest; and details some of their distinguishing features. In the last section, attention is turned to the future, identifying three overarching, interrelated, and contested issues with which the field is being confronted and will be compelled to address as it moves forward:retaining the rich diversity that …

Consequences And Peer Influence As Proximal And Contextual Factors In Alcohol Consumption, Shweta Singh, Susan Grossman, Diane C. Asaro

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The present study examines the role of positive and negative consequences and peer influence as proximal and contextual variables that influence drinking in college students. Data from a sample of 1482 students who completed the CORE survey in 2006 and 2007 were utilized to test three models predicting the likelihood of alcohol use in the 30 days prior to survey completion. The final model reflected the best fit of the data and indicated that both positive and negative consequences were positively associated with a greater likelihood of drinking while freshman standing and being a racial and ethnic minority were negatively …

Clients’ Hope Arises From Social Workers’ Compassion: Young Clients’ Perspectives On Surmounting The Obstacles Of Disadvantage, Deanna D’Amico Guthrie, Victoria Smith Ellison, King Sami, Katherine Tyson Mccrea

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

While social workers strive to build disadvantaged African American youths’ resilience by improving services, rarely are those youths’ perspectives included in research. In a previous evaluation of an after-school program, disadvantaged African American youths prioritized instructors’ compassion and said compassion engendered hope. This study explores their connection between compassion and hope more deeply. Focusing on Snyder’s hope theory, this study examines the connection between compassion and hope as individual traits (using standardized scales) and as relational, action-based experiences (using qualitative analysis of interview data). Instructor actions that youths identified as compassionate and as engendering hope were encouragement, problem solving, responsive …

A Summer Reading Enrichment Experience: One District's Effort To Prevent Summer Reading Loss, Angela R. Sopko

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into effective literacy practices and key factors that promote reading achievement for elementary age students during summer break. More specifically, the study examined the effectiveness of a summer reading enrichment experience offered to children from low-income families in an effort to prevent summer reading loss. The students involved in this study were considered to have average reading skills.

The particular focus of this study led to the formation of the following question to guide this research: To what extent is a student's reading achievement impacted by extended literacy instruction or enrichment? …

Science Youth Action Research: Promoting Critical Science Literacy Through Relevance And Agency, Elizabeth Coleman

Dissertations

This three-article dissertation presents complementary perspectives on Science Youth Action Research (Sci-YAR), a K-12 curriculum designed to emphasize relevance and agency to promote youth's science learning. In Sci-YAR, youth conduct action research projects to better understand science-related issues in their lives, schools, or communities, while they simultaneously document, analyze, and reflect upon their own practices as researchers. The first article defines Sci-YAR and argues for its potential to enhance youth's participation as citizens in a democratic society. The second article details findings from a case study of youth engaged in Sci-YAR, describing how the curriculum enabled and constrained youth's identity …

Sorority Women & Eating Pathology: Communities Of Unhealthy Body Standards?, Ashley Marie Rolnik

Dissertations

The present study examines disordered eating, sorority social norms regarding the body and thinness, personal values regarding the body and thinness, body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, fat talk, negative affect, and positive affect among sorority and non-sorority women. The aims of this study are to discern the underlying factor structures of the sorority/group social norms questionnaires and the personal values regarding the body and thinness questionnaire, investigate disordered eating among sorority and non-sorority women over time, and further examine the impact of social norms on sorority women's body and eating attitudes and behaviors. The results of this research illustrated three …

Eq, Not Just Iq: The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And The Success Of High School Principals Who Have Been Awarded The Illinois Principals Association's High School Principal Of The Year Award, Rowena Mak

Dissertations

As educational reforms become more complex, the role of the principal as a change agent also becomes more challenging and dynamic. To confront the leadership demands of schools, principals require focus, passion, wisdom, courage, and integrity.

An underlying assumption of these traits is the principal's emotional fortitude. Emotional intelligence is as complicated as it is organic, in that its foundation rests on an individual's awareness of himself/herself and how these emotions drive his/her ability to relate with others. With this comes the question, what makes a successful principal? The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between a …

The Ethics Of Vision And Black Theology And Experience, Angelo Sylvester Riley

Dissertations

To this day, philosophical ethics and dominant discussions in Christian ethics have paid insufficient attention to how vision shapes the moral life. Too much focus is given to moral decision-making and action, while too little focus is given to the way vision and patterns of attentiveness ground our capacities for genuine morally responsible action. Therefore, in this study, I draw on important works in philosophical and Christian ethics to examine both the ethics of responsibility and the central role that an ethics of vision plays in our attempts to live responsibly. I use the "ethics of vision" as method and …

The Role Of Spirituality/Religion As A Coping Mechanism During Treatment For Disordered Eating, David Franczyk

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of spirituality/religion used as a coping mechanism during treatment for disordered eating. Given the mixed outcome results of current therapeutic and pharmacological treatment methods for disordered eating, it is important to investigate other factors which may influence the treatment process. This study evaluated the role of spirituality/religion used as a coping mechanism among 61 patients who were admitted into an eating disorder treatment program and then discharged over a period of 15 months. In this quantitative study, the Brief RCOPE measure was self-administered at admission to determine the levels of …

Relating Preschool Class Size To Classroom Life And Student Achievement, Jessica Francis

Dissertations

There is an ongoing debate regarding the importance of smaller classes in elementary school, and a lack of solid research to support class size policies in preschool. State spending on preschool has nearly doubled in the last five years and currently more than 80 percent of American 4-year olds go to some kind of preschool. Increasing enrollments in preschool coupled with the high costs of reducing the size of classes creates the need to decide how many children should be placed in a preschool classroom.

The majority of states require that programs implement class sizes of 20 and teacher-child ratios …

Psychometric Evaluation Of The Neonatal Pain, Agitation, And Sedation Scale (N-Pass) Tool In Infants And Children Age One To Thirty-Six Months In The Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, Patricia A. Hummel

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Neonatal Pain, Agitation, and Sedation Scale (N-PASS) tool for evidence of validity and reliability in infants and children aged one to thirty-six months in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). This study design was a prospective, non-experimental psychometric evaluation of the N-PASS tool.

The research was conducted at a Midwestern Medical Center. The sample analyzed comprised forty subjects aged one to thirty-six months.

Data collection involved the evaluation of participants every five minutes, utilizing the N-PASS sedation subscale along with the University of Michigan Sedation Scale (UMSS) and the N-PASS pain/agitation subscale …

Effects Of Cultural Awareness Training In Conjunction With An Established Bullying Prevention Program, Megan Kallie Polanin

Dissertations

While many school bullying prevention programs have been designed to thwart school bullying perpetration, victimization, and physical aggression, empirical support is limited. To date, few researchers have addressed bullying within the context of children's cultural systems, and cultural awareness training has not yet been utilized as a mechanism to decrease bullying behaviors in the context of school bullying prevention programs.

This study examined the utility of incorporating multicultural training aimed at reducing prejudice within the context of school bullying prevention programming efforts within a diverse educational setting. This researcher hypothesized that the addition of meaningful culture curriculum would further reduce …

The Restorative Justice Talking Circle Process With Probation Officers: A Phenomenological Approach, Constance Marie Sheehan

Dissertations

Restorative justice seeks to bring together stakeholders in the justice system by acknowledging harm caused by offending behavior and finding ways to repair that harm. The activities associated with restorative justice create the potential for meaningful and positive outcomes for all stakeholders within the system. Restorative justice asks, what is the harm?, who are the stakeholders?, and, how can the harm best be repaired? A particular restorative practice - the talking circle - is a common practice of restorative justice efforts. The potential for restorative justice practices, like the talking circle, is developing of a new way of understanding for …

Evaluation Of A Conceptual Model Of Student Retention At A Public Urban Commuter University, Hoa Khuong

Dissertations

A new conceptual model of student retention was developed and evaluated for first-year retention and for second-year retention of students at an urban, mid-western commuter university. The model captured the joint effects of academic engagement and environmental factors on academic performance and persistence of commuter students in their first two years of college attendance. The academic engagement and environmental factors incorporated into the model included: pre-college academic achievement, Deep Learning, Study Time per Week, College Math Readiness, Major Selection, Hours of Employment, receiving (or not receiving) a Pell Grant Award and Financial Concerns. Structural equation modeling techniques were utilized to …

Juvenile Crisis Intervention Teams (Cits): A Qualitative Description Of Current Programs, Annabelle V. Douglas, Arthur J. Lurigio

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article describes one of the newest, most specialised law enforcement programmes in the United States: Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs) for youth with mental illness. In response to the fragmentation of behavioural healthcare services in the educational, juvenile justice and mental health systems, JuvenileCITs (J-CITs) have been implemented in a handful of jurisdictions to serve as an intervention for troubled and troublesome adolescents in need of mental health care. Information about J-CITs is limited; little has been written about such programmes, and no published studies have examined their effectiveness. Hence the present study was undertaken to identify all of the …

A Closer Look At Self-Esteem, Perceived Social Support, And Coping Strategy: A Prospective Study Of Depressive Symptomatology Across The Transition To College, Catherine Lee, Daniel A. Dickson, Colleen S. Conley, Grayson N. Holmbeck

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The first year of college is a significant life transition, which is often characterized by stress and may contribute to the development or exacerbation of depressive symptoms. Due to the considerable negative outcomes that are associated with depressive symptoms across the lifespan, it is important to understand the mechanisms and pathways through which depressive symptoms arise. This prospective study examines the mediating and moderating roles of perceived social support and disengagement coping on the association between self-esteem and depressive symptomatology in a sample of 1,118 first-year college students. Results of longitudinal cross-lagged path analyses indicate that self-esteem predicts depressive symptomatology …

How Are Asian Americans Seen And Evaluated? Examining Ethnic Stereotypes And Their Cultural Complexity, Yueh-Ting Lee, Victor C. Ottati, Canchun Lin, Sydney Xinni Chan

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Human stereotypes are more complicated and subtle than scholars or lay people often think. Based on the EPA (i.e., evaluation, potency and accuracy) theory of stereotypes (Lee, 2011; Lee, B., W. & Luo, 2007; Lee, J., & McCauley, 2013; Lee, McCauley & Jussim, 2013; Lee, V. S., & Ma, 2007), it was hypothesized and found that stereotypes of Asian Americans are derived on the basis of both evaluative considerations (prejudice) and a realistic assessment of group characteristics. This produces a pattern of stereotypic judgments that contains both agreement and disagreement when comparing stereotypes of Asian Americans among different perceiver groups …

A Cognitive-Developmental Approach To Emotion Processing In Children, Denise Davidson, Sandra Beatriz Vanegas, Elizabeth Ann Hilvert

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although cogmttve development and emotional development are often viewed as separate components in the development of the child, the two are intricately related to each other. The purpose of this chapter is to review and examine how cognitive development is related to emotional development, and how traditional and current theories of cognitive development provide us with a framework for understanding the development of emotion processing in children. Topics explored in this chapter include the role of executive functioning, language development and cognitive concepts of self on the development of emotional competence. Moreover, three theories of cognitive development: Theory of Mind, …

Type A Behavior And Savoring Among College Undergraduates: Enjoy Achievements Now—Not Later, Fred B. Bryant, Paul R. Yarnold

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Recent research tested the a priori hypothesis that Type A Behavior (TAB) undermines enjoyment of leisure time, and that this effect is mediated by savoring responses which hamper enjoyment.1 Findings suggested that the hypothesized A-B differences in savoring reflect differences in perfectionism rather than in time urgency. The present study uses the same sample to compare 117 extreme Type A and 131 extreme B undergraduates on ten dimensions of savoring assessed for a performance-related stimulus. Findings revealed Type As focus on how proud they are and impressed others are, but are only moderately to weakly involved in actively storing positive …

Drinking To Belong: The Effects Of Friendship Interactions On College Student Drinking, Hannah R. Hamilton

Master's Theses

Previous research shows that college students consume large quantities of alcohol (Fillmore & Jude, 2011; Wechsler et al., 2002). One theory suggests that this may be a means of regulating negative emotions (Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995), which may include unmet belongingness needs. However, implicit self-esteem has also been found to affect how people respond to relationship interactions (Longua Peterson & DeHart, 2013). Therefore, the current study examines the moderating influence of implicit self-esteem on the relation between belongingness needs and alcohol consumption among college students. A 2 (belongingness threat condition: threat or control) by continuous (implicit self-esteem) between-participants …

A Structural Model Of Leadership Self-Efficacy For Asian American Students: Examining Influences Of Collective Racial Esteem And Resilience, Corinne Maekawa Kodama

Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between racial identity, using the constructs of collective racial esteem (CRE), and resilience on LSE for a diverse sample of 2,223 Asian American college students, using data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, a national survey of college outcomes. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the relationship between CRE and Resilience, as well as Non-Discriminatory Climate and Identity-based Experiences, on LSE. The model was tested for invariance for gender as well as for five Asian American ethnic groups (Chinese, Indian/Pakistani, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese).

Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the 4-item CRE subscales were …

Impact Of First Disclosure Experience And Internalized Stigma On Disclosure Patterns In The Hiv+ Community, Mary Elizabeth Talbot

Dissertations

The present study examined possible antecedent factors that contribute to the type of discloser (HIV status) one becomes as well as the relation between discloser type, social support, and CD4 count. This study builds off previous research by Stutterheim et al. (2011) that examined differences between disclosure groups on a variety of variables, but the study did not examine variables that may contribute to the type of discloser a person becomes. The present study examined two variables that previous research suggests may influence the type of discloser (relative non-discloser, selective discloser, full discloser) a person becomes, first-disclosure experience, and internalized …

Empowering Homeless Youth In Transitional Living Programs: A Transformative Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Their Transition To Adulthood, Ashley Etzel Ausikaitis

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to gain insight into the journeys of homeless youth residing in transitional living programs in the Chicago area. There are multiple factors that can lead youth to homelessness as well as various risks made greater by living on the street that can lead to negative life outcomes. There is a dearth of research on outcomes of youth in transitional living programs, particularly research that includes the perspectives of those receiving services. This researcher partnered with three transitional living sites that serve homeless youth ages 18 to 24. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods, the …

Reporting Methods And Analyses In Higher Education Research: Hierarchical Linear And Ols Regression Models, Kimberly Quandt Fath

Dissertations

This study examined the reporting practices used by higher education scholars to communicate the methods and analyses of studies using hierarchical linear and OLS regression models. The study consisted of three parts: (a) a citation analysis of sources associated with methods of hierarchical linear models, (b) a content analysis of reporting practices associated with studies that used hierarchical linear models, and (c) a content analysis of the arguments and corrections used by scholars who have used OLS regression techniques on nested data. When possible, results were compared to similar research. The data for this research was drawn from Journal of …

Urban Agriculture And Sustainability In Chicago, Matthew Hoffmann

Dissertations

Sustainability is increasingly informing the organization of urban life. In the past 15 years, cities have sought to alleviate the dual effects of environmental degradation and a changing economy by introducing sustainable development initiatives. Policy makers and environmental activists have often praised these efforts, pointing to the enhancement of quality of life, the mitigation of industrial pollution, and these initiatives' capacity to address poverty in a post-welfare state. Most popular depictions of the experiences of sustainability come from the perspective of white, middle class, college-educated volunteers and, increasingly, social entrepreneurs such as artisans, farmers, and other producers connected to "local" …