Digital Commons Network^™

"I'M Absolutely Ordinary": Bella And Her Perception Of Gender Within Twilight, Jaid M. Eichmiller

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores Bella's perceptions of femininity, virtue, and gender roles within Twilight, with a focus on the feminist stance that Bella takes as the narrator. Through a close reading, I explore traditional gender roles, the internalized maternal roles of wife and mother, and the externalized judgements that Bella expresses. Her relationships with those around her, and most importantly Edward, are judged by her internalized concepts of gender politics. Through the examination of previous literature and the close reading of the core text, I argue that Bella both embodies and rejects traditional femininity.

Healthy Birth Initiatives: The Road Toward Reproductive Justice, Roberta Hunte, Susanne Klawetter, Sherly Paul

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study concerns racialized experiences of reproductive oppression among Black women and the efforts of one organization - Multnomah County’s Healthy Birth Initiatives (HBI) - to combat this oppression and move towards Reproductive Justice. This study explores how Black women experience and respond to racism-related stress and its impacts on their health during and after pregnancy and subsequent parenting. The project was informed by a pilot focus group conducted in 2016 by Drs. Jenna Ramaker and Roberta Hunte in partnership with HBI, which asked HBI clients about the role of toxic stress and racism-related stress in their lives. The current …

Predicting Vaginal Birth After Previous Cesareavn: Using Machine-Learning Models And A Population-Based Cohort In Sweden, Charlotte Wollmann, Kyle D. Hart, Can Liu, Aaron B. Caughey, Olof Stephansson, Jonathan M. Snowden

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: Predicting a woman’s probability of vaginal birth after cesarean could facilitate the antenatal decision-making process. Having a previous vaginal birth strongly predicts vaginal birth after cesarean. Delivery outcome in women with only a cesarean delivery is more unpredictable. Therefore, to better predict vaginal birth in women with only one prior cesarean delivery and no vaginal deliveries would greatly benefit clinical practice and fill a key evidence gap in research. Our aim was to predict vaginal birth in women with one prior cesarean and no vaginal deliveries using machine-learning methods, and compare with a US prediction model and its further …

Why Is Dishonesty Difficult To Mitigate? The Interaction Between Descriptive Norm And Monetary Incentive, Arnab Mitra, Quazi Shahriar

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examine whether changes in perceived norm of dishonesty can offset the effects of changes in benefit from the dishonest action. We find partial support for the hypothesis in laboratory experiments on lying behavior in a cheap-talk sender-receiver game, conducted in two countries. In the experiments, we vary benefit from lying and shift senders’ norm perception by providing them information on lying from prior sessions. The findings suggest that senders adjust their perceived norm as expected, but they respond to norm in a somewhat self-serving manner. Specifically, when benefit from lying is lowered but senders are induced to believe in …

Eco-Publishing In The Book Industry: An Interdisciplinary Case Study With Patagonia Books, Julie A. Collins

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The purpose of this study is to explore eco-publishing in the book industry with an interdisciplinary approach: I will address eco-trends in human movements and essential industries; provide an overview of the book industry’s recent efforts to determine their environmental impact; and explore eco-publishing in practice by presenting findings from a case study of Patagonia Books featuring an interview with their publisher Karla Olson. This analysis of environmentalism on a broad scale gives us the ability to see how trends outside the industry may affect how we define the goals of publishing, and of particular publishing houses. Patagonia Books is …

Disrupting The Deficit Gaze: Equity Work With University Supervisors, Maika J. Yeigh

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teacher candidates commonly experience tensions within their clinical field placement classroom. Recently, candidates have brought forward tensions around the use of a deficit gaze (Dudley-Marling, 2007) on students and their families by their mentor teachers. Where candidates of the past would ignore negative framing, current candidates want to disrupt the status quo. This conceptual article describes one EPPs attempt to support teacher candidates “disruption” of instances where a mentor teacher used a deficit-lens toward students and/or their families. Clinical supervisors were offered professional development to support teacher candidates and guide them to disrupt in ways that maintained the professional relationship …

Disney's Reign Over Independent Cinema: How Mega-Corporations Are Commercializing Creativity, Hannah Z. Dawson

University Honors Theses

The Walt Disney Company is undoubtedly a monopoly in the media industry space. Their impressive acquisitions have expanded their portfolio to corner the market in nearly every genre. Most recently, the company has hired independent directors in hopes of re-invigorating and creating variety between multiple brands and franchises. But the directors' authoritative voices are lost under the Disney brand, which I argue overshadows independent autonomy and potentially envelopes the rest of the media market. Brandishing this massive media force, Disney (and its other subsidiary branches) promotes palatable, conservative leaning "family friendly" content that leads to a wider chance of profit. …

Exploratory Study Of Obesogenic Commercial School Food Environments In The Portland Metropolitan Area, Sruthi Eapen

University Honors Theses

Objective

The purpose of this exploratory research was to study commercial food environments around high schools in the Portland metropolitan area to explore the question: How do the economic, geographic, and racial demographics of public high schools in the Portland metropolitan area affect the prevalence and make-up of obesogenic commercial food environments surrounding these schools?

Methods

Commercial food environments within a 1 km radius of 35 public high schools in the Portland metropolitan area were surveyed. The “healthiness” of the environment was calculated by establishing a “Food Environment Score.” This score was correlated with economic, geographic, and racial demographics obtained …

A Dyadic Examination Of Drinking Behaviors Within Military-Connected Couples, James D. Lee, Annamarie Sophia O'Neill, Emily Catherine Denning, Cynthia Mohr, Leslie Hammer

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

High rates of alcohol use have been documented within military personnel and spouses. However, scant research has investigated alcohol consumption behaviors in matched couples or nonclinical veteran samples. The manner in which couples influence one another’s drinking remains unclear. The current study examined hazardous drinking scores and drinking behaviors in a sample of post-9/11 separated service members (most of whom were veterans) and active duty reservists and their spouse/partners; 260 military-connected couples participated in the Study for Employment Retention of Veterans (SERVe) and were recruited from 35 workplace organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Participants completed baseline and daily surveys on …

An Investigation Of The Temporal Relationship Between Agitation And Sleep Disturbances, Emily Catherine Denning

Dissertations and Theses

Suicide rates in the United States have increased almost 30% since 1999, making it the tenth leading cause of death in the country. This problem is especially prominent for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, as veterans comprise 8.5% of the U.S. population, yet they account for 18% of all deaths by suicide. These increasing rates have spurred the need for a better understanding of suicide risk, especially for this high-risk group. Previous research has focused mostly on chronic risk factors, which are useful for identifying who from a population may be more likely to engage in suicidal behaviors, but …

A Daily Examination Of Anger And Alcohol Use Among Post-9/11 Veterans, James David Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Anger problems have been commonly reported among military service-connected individuals. Current estimates of self-reported anger issues among post-9/11 veterans are around 57%. Alarmingly, it's been reported that anger does not decrease over the course of the post-deployment period; left unmanaged, it has been associated with a higher risk for suicide, post-traumatic stress, and hazardous alcohol use. Heavy drinking within military-connected samples has also been a well-documented phenomenon. Recent findings suggest that service-connected individuals may cope with adversity and regulate emotions through alcohol use, which may put them at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. While some evidence has observed a …

Nurse Can't Even: The Immediate Impact Of Incivility On Affect, Well-Being, And Behavior, Katharine Lucille Mcmahon

Dissertations and Theses

Interest in researching incivility has increased over the past two decades, as it is recognized as a pervasive issue in the workplace. Certain industries, such as healthcare, pose a higher risk for the aggressive encounters. Low intensity aggression, namely incivility, has a dangerous combination of high prevalence and invisibility that demands an understanding of the target's subsequent reaction process. Following rationale based on the Personality Systems Interaction (PSI) theory, this study proposes that the affective shift directly mediates the relationships between incivility exposure by coworkers and presumed behavioral and well-being outcomes at the day level in a daily diary design. …

Evaluating The Self-Determination Model For Older Youth In Foster Care: Establishing Efficacy And Exploring Moderation Of Response To Intervention, Jennifer E. Blakeslee, Laurie E. Powers, Sarah Geenen, Jessica Schmidt, May Nelson, Ann Fullerton, Kevin George, Elizabeth Mchugh, Mary Bryant

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Limited rigorous research has been conducted to evaluate the impact of interventions designed to promote the successful transitions of young people exiting foster care. The current study builds on previous experimental evaluations of the Model (MLM) for self-determination enhancement, which demonstrated effectiveness in improving educational and transition-to-adulthood outcomes for youth in foster care with disabilities, including those with mental health challenges. The model features one-on-one youth-directed coaching and near-peer mentoring to increase self-determination and goal achievement. The current study was the first to test the impact of the model with a diverse population-based cohort of youth aged 16.5-18.5 in foster …

Transitioning Into Conventional Housing: Narratives Of Houseless Individuals, Joyce La Belle Mcnair

Dissertations and Theses

Past research has shown that it is possible for individuals to exit houselessness. However, it does little to provide insights into the types of experiences and events that facilitate these moves towards housing stability. This study explores indepth interviews, utilizing an interview guide with 12 individuals who exited houselessness in Portland, Oregon. This research project seeks to understand the conditions that influence successful exits out of houselessness from the perspective of the lived experiences of once houseless individuals. This study utilizes two theoretical frameworks, the theory of Habitus (Bourdieu, 1977 & Wacquant, 1998) and the networking theory of Strong and …

Literary Form And Analysis: Instructional Materials For English 300, Josh Epstein

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This OER packet comprises instructional materials used for ENG 300: Literary Forms and Analysis, a "gateway" course for the English major and minor at Portland State University. It includes handouts, exercises, and a sample syllabus for this course, emphasizing skills of "close reading" and formal analysis, as well as the scholarly study of genre (poetry, fiction, drama, and film). The syllabus and handouts offered in this packet represent only one of many possible approaches to ENG 300. These open access, freely available resources that can be readily adjusted to suit different pedagogical methods. They can also be usefully complemented with …

Outsiders Within Inequality Regimes: A Sociological Framework To Advance The Lives Of Women Veterans, Sarah Louise Aktepy

Dissertations and Theses

This three-paper dissertation examines pervasive gender inequalities across two institutions: the US military and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The first paper, "'Don't Rock the Boat:' Experiences and Perceptions of Gender-Based Violence in the U.S. Military" uses qualitative interviews to better understand the experiences of gendered harassment and violence of women veterans in the US military. The second paper, "First Do No Harm: Assessing Veterans Affairs Screening for Military Sexual Abuse among our Nations Veterans" uses survey data and qualitative interviews to identify factors that contribute to inaccurate results of clinical screening for veterans with military sexual violence histories within …

Social Media Use, Social Comparison, And Loneliness, Jordan Elena Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Since its invention, the use of Instagram and its psychological effect on users has been a topic of conversation for researchers. To achieve a better understanding of Instagram's effect on loneliness, it's important to isolate different behaviors on Instagram because of its different attributes as a social media app. Drawing on literature on the emotional effects of social media use and social comparison orientation (SCO), this study takes a closer look at specific Instagram behaviors: broadcasting, interacting, and browsing as well as SCO's relationship with loneliness. A total of 147 undergraduate students attending a university in the Pacific Northwest completed …

Housing And Food Insecurity At Portland State University, Greg Townley, Katricia Stewart, Jacen Greene, Marta Pettini

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This report presents findings from Portland State University’s first housing and food insecurity survey of students and employees. It was conducted by The Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC), a center formed to help address homelessness and its negative impact on individuals, families, and communities, with an emphasis on communities of color. Reducing homelessness in the PSU community was one of the foundational goals of the center, and this survey is an important step in that work.

This report examines the rates of housing insecurity, homelessness, and food insecurity among students and employees disaggregated by race and additional factors to …

Community-Derived Recommendations For Healthcare Systems And Medical Students To Support People Who Are Houseless In Portland, Oregon: A Mixed-Methods Study, Caroline King, Cameron Fisher, Jacob Johnson, Arum Chun, David Bangsberg, Paula C. Carder

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: People who are houseless (also referred to as homeless) perceive high stigma in healthcare settings, and face disproportionate disparities in morbidity and mortality versus people who are housed. Medical students and the training institutions they are a part of play important roles in advocating for the needs of this community. The objective of this study was to understand perceptions of how medical students and institutions can meet needs of the self-identified needs of the houseless community.

Methods: Between February and May 2018, medical students conducted mixed-methods surveys with semi-structured qualitative interview guides at two community-based organizations that …

An Intersectional Mixed Methods Approach To Understand American Indian Men’S Health, Ka‘Imi Sinclair, Kelly L. Gonzales, Claire Woosley, Tish Rivera Cree, Celina M. Garza, Dedra Buchwald

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study used a parallel, convergent, mixed-methods design with TribalCrit theory and intersectionality as analytical frameworks to identify how the identities of American Indian men intersect with broader structures and systems in shaping their eating and physical activity choices and behaviors, and in eliciting recommendations for a men’s lifestyle intervention. American Indian men were recruited in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon, between March and December 2017, and in Phoenix, Arizona, in December 2019 to participate in a survey and focus groups. The survey included questions on demographics and physical and cultural activities men engage in, perceived social support for lifestyle …

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Defined by the pandemic that surprised the world, this spring’s resilient graduates offer a window into extraordinary times; alumni on the November ballot all want a chance to “Let Knowledge Serve”; a 500-year-old codex gives students an unusual glimpse into the past; Alex Hunt’s robotics lab has pioneered a new field inspired by the adaptability of animals; the Center for Public Interest Design’s inventive mobile structures put services on wheels; Cameron Whitten raised more than $1.9 million in emergency assistance for Black Portlanders; and more.

Understanding Evangelical Support For, And Opposition To Donald Trump In The 2016 Presidential Election, Joseph Thomas Zichterman

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis addressed the conundrum that 81 percent of evangelicals supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, despite the fact that his character and comportment commonly did not exemplify the values and ideals that they professed. This was particularly perplexing to many outside (and within) evangelical circles, because as leaders of America's "Moral Majority" for almost four decades, prior to Trump's campaign, evangelicals had insisted that only candidates who set a high standard for personal integrity and civic decency, were qualified to serve as president.

In order to deal with this problem, I conducted a qualitative study, which followed …

From Theory To Practice: Gathering Evidence For The Validity Of Data Collected With The Interdisciplinary Science Rubric (Idsr)., Brie Tripp, Erin E. Shortlidge

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a world of burgeoning societal issues, future scientists must be equipped to work inter-disciplinarily to address real-world problems. To train undergraduate students toward this end, practitioners must also have quality assessment tools to measure students' ability to think within an interdisciplinary system. There is, however, a dearth of instruments that accurately measure this competency. Using a theoretically and empirically based model, we developed an instrument, the Interdisciplinary Science Rubric (IDSR), to measure undergraduate students' interdisciplinary science thinking. An essay assignment was administered to 102 students across five courses at three different institutions. Students' work was scored with the newly …

Trailblazing Transformation: Pioneering Transformative Peacebuilding In Academic Labor Conflicts, Sam Frazier Hediger

Dissertations and Theses

Unionized contingent faculty in the United States face an increasingly difficult economic landscape in their labor-management conflicts with university administrations. These unions, comprised of graduate student employees and adjunct instructors, won significant victories for their members but have failed to shift the broader patterns of casualization, unsustainable compensation, and job precarity, stemming from the systemic debasement of higher education institutions and the American labor movement, both of which pose significant challenges to conventional conflict resolution strategies. To find a path forward, this thesis explores the nature and possibility of transforming of the academic labor conflict, using a transformative peacebuilding approach …

Adherence To Hiv Antiretroviral Therapy Among Pregnant And Postpartum Women During The Option B+ Era: 12-Month Cohort Study In Urban South Africa And Rural Uganda, Lynn T. Matthews, Catherine Orrell, Mwebesa B. Bwana, Alexander C. Tsai, Christina A. Psaros, Stephen Asiimwe, Gideon Amanyire, Nicholas Musinguzi, Kathleen Bell, David Bangsberg, Jessica E. Haberer

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: We conducted a cohort study to understand patterns of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) adherence during pregnancy, postpartum and non-pregnancy follow-up among women initiating ART in public clinics offering Option B+ in rural Uganda and urban South Africa. Methods: We collected survey data, continuously monitored ART adherence (Wisepill), HIV-RNA and pregnancy tests at zero, six and twelve months from women initiating ART in Uganda and South Africa, 2015 to 2017. The primary predictor of interest was follow-up time categorized as pregnant (pregnancy diagnosis to pregnancy end), postpartum (pregnancy end to study exit) or non-pregnancy-related (neither pregnant nor postpartum). Fractional regression …

Impact And Mortality Of Covid-19 On People Living With Dementia: Cross-Country Report, Aida Suárez-González, Gill Livingston, Lee Fay Low, Suzanne Cahill, Niamh Hennelly, Walter D. Dawson, Wendy Weidner, Martina Bocchetta, Cleusa P. Ferri, Jordi A. Matias-Guiu, Multiple Additional Authors

Institute on Aging Publications

This report brings together international evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with dementia and an overview of international policy and practice measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 among people living with dementia.

Key Findings

• We have collected data on impact and mortality of COVID-19 in people living with dementia in 9 countries: The United Kingdom (UK), Spain, Ireland, Italy, Australia, the United States (US), India, Kenya and Brazil.
• The share of people whose deaths were linked to COVID-19 in care homes who had dementia ranges from 29% to 75% across those countries. Within countries, …

Late-Night Political Comedy's Impact On Audience Political Attentiveness, Public Opinion, And Civic Engagement, Molly J. Olmstead

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between late-night comedy news shows and their audiences, in terms of how they impact public opinion, political attentiveness and civic engagement. It looks at how the genre of late night political comedy is not a monolith, and neither is its audiences, and addresses the different ways these two interact with one another. Through an in-depth literature review, this thesis finds that late night political comedy has the most impact on politically inattentive audiences who end up learning about politics inadvertently, and that the jokes featured on these shows actively primes these viewers to hold certain …

A New Perspective On Blue-Collar Work: Examining The Relevance Of Common Career Development Theories For Blue-Collar Workers In Manufacturing, Sarah J. Barber

University Honors Theses

Blue-collar career development has been overlooked in academia. This study investigates blue-collar career development based on four career development theories including: Holland's theory of vocational types, social cognitive career theory, Super's developmental self-concept theory, and crystallization of vocational self-concept.

Multicourse Comparative Study Of The Core Aspects For Flipped Learning: Investigating In-Class Structure And Student Use Of Video Resources, Nicole Naibert, Emryse Geye, Michael M. Phillips, Jack Barbera

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since 2013, the number of publications on flipped learning within chemistry have steadily increased. However, most of these studies focus on flipped course reforms within individual institutions, while the outcomes of any learning environment are dependent on how the environment is structured and the degree to which students interact with its elements. In this study, we apply a coordinated set of assessment practices to investigate similarities among flipped chemistry courses at five institutions in the United States. All courses in the study followed the two basic tenets of flipped learning: (1) foundational information was delivered through preclass materials (PCMs), and …

Examining The Effect Of Case And Trial Factors On Defense Attorneys' Plea Decision-Making, Kelsey S. Henderson

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Defense attorneys are attuned to the defendant’s likelihood of conviction at trial, based on the strength of the evidence, in forming their plea decisions. A higher threshold for conviction (i.e. unanimous jury verdict rule versus majority rule), could affect defense attorneys’ willingness to take cases to trial. In this study, we examined defense attorney decision-making by presenting defense attorneys with a hypothetical case summary in which the jury verdict rule was unanimous versus majority rule (experiment one, N = 82), and the strength of the evidence was weak versus strong (experiment two, N = 81). In experiment one, there was …