Digital Commons Network^™

The Potential Of Solidarity In Existential Feminist Discursive Methods, Bella Brown

University Honors Theses

The following paper will be dissecting the ways in which Simone de Beauvoir’s examination of the intertwined nature of selfhood and freedom regarding the body offer a facet of liberation around the construction of womanhood. I will consider the extent to which Beauvoir’s concept of the politicized essentialless body in contemporary feminist scholarship (existentialist, phenomenologist, and post-structuralist) is incomplete in that there are many contemporary scholars who expand her idea of essentialless properties and their effects on identity. The importance of the individual and their freedom in discourse is to work towards solidarity through difference with others in order to …

The Role Of Marketing Education In Reactions To Advocacy Advertising, Tobin Carlberg

University Honors Theses

The present research aims to explore whether marketing education creates a positive or negative reaction towards advocacy advertising in general. To test this, consumers with varying levels of marketing education were either interviewed or surveyed to gauge their level of persuasion knowledge, advertising appreciation, and overall reactions to advocacy advertising. Thus, a combination of qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (survey) methods were employed. Interview results suggested that those with greater marketing education held more favorable attitudes toward advocacy advertising, and survey results illustrated a strong correlation between those with more marketing education and one’s appreciation for advocacy advertising, which influenced positive …

Emergence In The Strengths And Love Of My People To Counter Invisibility For Liberation In The White Academy, Emily D. Carrillo-Casares

University Honors Theses

Through a literature review and personal reflection, my thesis will focus on the strengths and love of my people to counter invisibility for liberation in the white academy. More importantly, my aim in this paper is to illustrate the strengths, courage, and will-power I came across to dismantle the concealed barriers in a system that misperceived my values. I will speak from the first person to express my feelings and experiences. When I use the words, my people, I mean people who identify themselves as Hispanic/Latino or non-white. The goal of this paper is to explicate how I remained strong …

Autistic Representation In Television, Sarah E. Audley

University Honors Theses

Little research has been done on how these characters affect perception and understanding of individuals on the autism spectrum and whether these characters are accurate portrayals of autism. The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between an individual’s relationship with the autistic community and their knowledge of autism, and how that relationship might influence their perception of authentic autistic representation in television. This survey was aimed at individuals on the autism spectrum (e.g., autistic, Asperger, neurodivergent), professionals and students who work with the autism community, family and friends of the individuals in the autism community, and individuals …

A Colorless Nature: Exploring The Mental Health (Help-Seeking) Experiences Of Pre-Adolescent Black American Children, Christopher Ashley Burkett

Dissertations and Theses

Black American children and adults seeking help for mental health concerns face countless obstacles rooted in systematic oppression, institutional inequalities, and structural disparities; consequently, accessing essential services at much lower rates than their White American counterparts. The unidentified and untreated mental health issues of Black American children and youth can have catastrophic life outcomes for them. Some researchers cite barriers such as stigmatization, negative attitudes toward mental health services, and a lack of culturally relevant treatment models as explanations for these impediments to mental health (help-seeking). It is my contention that these analyses are arguably incomplete, despite having accurate elements. …

Investigating The Mental Health And Well-Being Effects Of Neo-Pagan Spiritual Practice, Emma Ritter

University Honors Theses

Paganism, or Neo-paganism, is an umbrella term for a variety of different religions and spirituals, generally marked by a non-authoritarian structure and the reclamation of ancient spiritual practices. Over the course of my work, I looked at articles pertaining to spiritual connection to nature, spiritual ritual, and rejection on the basis of religion in order to fully understand Neo-pagan experience.

Working Around Political Divides: A Multidisciplinary Examination Of Political Identity As A Factor Of Organizational Diversity, Blake D. Horner

University Honors Theses

In an age of targeted rhetoric and extreme polarization, the political has trespassed into the personal. As a result of this obtrusive integration, disagreements in the workplace are on the rise. Friction caused by inter-employee political diversity has been shown to cause several harmful organizational outcomes including job dissatisfaction, turnover, burnout, and psychological distress. Although this issue is common and harmful, few studies have been published on the subject. In this literature review, I attempt to contribute to the scholarly knowledge on this under-researched concept of workplace political diversity by employing a multidisciplinary approach. To illustrate the components of this …

Centering Children In Co-Parenting, Kristen L. Wiidanen

University Honors Theses

Comprehensive systems theory identifies several associated risk factors and consequences of separation but, research suggests that legal divorce itself has few direct effects on children. While there is diversity in children’s responses to separation, generally associated risk factors are behavioral disruptions, emotional upheaval, anger, resentment, anxiety, guilt and depression. Parents abilities to cope with their divorce are critical to the child’s adjustment and, if parents are able to control their feelings toward their ex-spouse, cooperate in parenting, negotiate differences, and settle their quarrels in privacy, their children will show fewer social and emotional problems. It is expected that the curriculum …

The Lasting Effects Of U.S. Intervention In Guatemala, Katherine A. Gaffey

University Honors Theses

Guatemala today faces a national femicide, exceedingly high rates of human trafficking and drug trafficking, as well an increase in migration to the U.S. This paper attempts to understand the current situation in Guatemala through a historical analysis of Guatemala’s tumultuous relationship with the U.S. Specifically, it looks at the role of the 1954 CIA backed coup and the United Fruit Company as key causal factors in fostering the Guatemalan Civil War and the implications of that war for ongoing crime and instability in Guatemala today.

Increasing Organizational Commitment: Empowering Employees In The Workplace, Kathryn Davidson

University Honors Theses

Attaining organizational commitment from employees plays a vital role in the success of a business. This is because commitment ensures loyalty and stability within an environment. Employee empowerment is also another critical element of business as it ensures motivation and engagement from the organization’s workforce. By using Natalie Allen and John Meyer’s three types of commitment as a major lens, this paper analyzes appropriate literature related to empowerment leadership. The correlation between organizational commitment and employee empowerment is discussed and it indicates that empowerment can positively impact an employee’s commitment to their work organization. Employees can experience burnout if their …

Survivor Perceptions Of Well-Being After Working With Domestic Violence Advocates In Healthcare, Passion Donais

University Honors Theses

Domestic violence services are typically short term and crisis-oriented, leaving survivors unsupported when outcomes of abuse are long term or chronic; In combination with the nature of disclosure laws, this short term approach to services reduces survivor autonomy and options. Research on alternatives to partitioned services such as integrated approaches or co-located advocates present in shelters and healthcare settings is limited. This study explores the survivor-perceived effects of working with such an advocate on physical, mental, and emotional health. Findings suggest integrated approaches are valuable across all health domains to survivors, including, importantly, those living with difficult to treat conditions …

Investigating Sexual Fantasy And Sexual Behavior In Adolescent Offenders, Hayley Lauren Tews

Dissertations and Theses

Juvenile sexual offenders (SOs) have been found to account for a significant proportion of sexual offenses. A critical gap has been identified in our knowledge regarding the role of sexual fantasy and sexual behavior in juvenile sexual offending, even though these variables have been identified as an important treatment target for this population. Specifically, it is not clear if SOs differ significantly from juvenile non-sexual offenders (NSOs) in their sexual fantasies and sexual behavior and as such, if reports of fantasies and past sexual behaviors should be used as a target for sex offender specific treatment. This study explored differences …

Sense Of Belonging From A Distance: How Online Students Describe, Perceive, And Experience Belonging To The Institution, Marleigh Luster Perez

Dissertations and Theses

The availability and ease of access to online bachelor's degree programs has led to a dynamic shift in the world of higher education. While overall, there has been a decrease in student enrollments, distance student enrollment has been growing. According to a report by the Babson Survey Research Group, between the fall of 2012 and the fall of 2016 students pursuing higher education at all levels across degree-granting institutions fell by 3.8%. During the same four-year period, the percentage of those students choosing to take all or some of their courses at a distance increased from 25.9% to 29.7%. Among …

Hearing The Voices Of Bicultural And Bilingual Teachers: Using A Case Study Approach To Explain The Professional Identity Development Of Early Career Native Chinese Mandarin Teachers, Jing Chen

Dissertations and Theses

Increasingly, Native Chinese Mandarin teachers have been migrating to the United States and taking positions as Mandarin teachers in U.S. schools. Many have needed support for professional identity development as bicultural and bilingual teachers given their new social cultural context. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the experiences and professional identity development of early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers in one Northwest Pacific city. Using a theoretical framework of social cultural theory in education and the bicultural identity integration construct, I conducted a multiple case study of four early-career Native Chinese Mandarin teachers in four different school …

Perceptions Of Students Of Color About Their Experience In An Alternative High School: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Massene Mboup

Dissertations and Theses

Public schools in Oregon have been struggling to include students of color and teachers of color for so long. Students of color represent more than one third of the school population, yet remain underserved, underrepresented, and over disciplined. Most of their teachers and support staff are White; the teachers of color represent less than 8% of the teaching staff. The students of color attend comprehensive high schools that generally ignore them--or push them out. Some students of color end up in alternative schools.

My problem of practice was the oppression of students of color in urban schools. Specifically, my research …

Residence Life As Learning Organizations: An Inquiry Into Organizational Elements That Support Integration Of The Residential Curriculum, Heather Kropf

Dissertations and Theses

Student learning and success is tied to the learning goals and mission of each institution, including environments outside of the classroom. Students are more diverse than ever in terms of their lived experience and their culture, identity, and how they engage in learning. Research has indicated that students spend the majority of their time outside the classroom, where they are learning through informal and formal environments. This has significance and opportunities for student affairs practitioners who desire to create student learning environments. In fact, residence life curricular approaches have demonstrated positive learning experiences for students.

However, implementing a learning-based curricular …

Ethics And True Crime: Setting A Standard For The Genre, Hazel Wright

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

True crime is a genre that has existed for centuries, adapting to social and literary trends as they come and go. The 21st century, particularly in the last five years, has seen true crime explode in popularity across different forms of media. As the omnipresence of true crime grows, so to do the ethical dilemmas presented by this often controversial genre. This paper examines what readers perceive to be the common ethical problems with true crime and uses this information to create a preliminary ethical standard for true-crime literature.

A comparison of the ethical concerns raised in scholarly sources with …

Racial Justice Is Climate Justice: Racial Capitalism And The Fossil Economy, Julius Mcgee, Patrick Trent Greiner

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The narrative of oppression moves through dialectical pressures. Capitalism evolved from the feudal order that preceded it, creating new forms of racial oppression that benefited an emerging ruling class [1]. Racial tensions evolve alongside economic oppression that subjugates labor to capital. The preceding racial order molds to emerging mechanisms of expropriation and exploitation by way of force and resistance. Beneath the surface of these tensions lies the interconnected threads of ecological and human expropriation. At the heart of all oppression, lies the manipulation of reproduction. The social processes necessary to reproduce black and brown communities, the ecological processes necessary to …

An Examination Of Daily Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors, Perceived Supervisor Responsiveness And Job Satisfaction, Luke Daniel Mahoney

Dissertations and Theses

Balancing both work and non-work life is increasingly recognized as a challenge for employees, and supervisors are in a position to support employees in their efforts to do so. Supervisors who exhibit family-supportive behaviors in support of employees who juggle work and family roles show benefits for employees in terms of well-being and job outcomes. The purpose of this study was to take a more fine-grained look at family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) using daily surveys in order to advance understanding of how family-supportive behaviors work within-person. Another aim of the study was to examine perceived supervisor responsiveness (PSR) for the …

Mitigating The Impact Of The Covid-19 Outbreak: A Review Of International Measures To Support Community-Based Care, Walter D. Dawson, Elizabeth C. Ashcroft, Klara Lorenz-Dant, Adelina Comas-Herrera

Institute on Aging Publications

Key findings

• Community-based care faces unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other parts of the long-term care continuum.
• Several countries have taken steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections in community-based care including the closure of adult day centres and other service providers.
• Continuity of care is of upmost importance. A disruption of care and support could have serious negative impacts on individual health and well-being due to increased risk of loneliness and social isolation.
• The dispersed nature of community based care suggests that direct governmental action and oversight may be more difficult to provide than for …

Addressing Diversity And Inclusion Through Group Comparisons: A Primer On Measurement Invariance Testing, Guizella A. Rocabado, Regis Komperda, Jennifer E. Lewis, Jack Barbera

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the field of chemistry education moves toward greater inclusion and increased participation by underrepresented minorities, standards for investigating the differential impacts and outcomes of learning environments have to be considered. While quantitative methods may not be capable of generating the in-depth nuances of qualitative methods, they can provide meaningful insights when applied at the group level. Thus, when we conduct quantitative studies in which we aim to learn about the similarities or differences of groups within the same learning environment, we must raise our standards of measurement and safeguard against threats to the validity of inferences that might favor …

Raps Sheet, May 2020, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Roses From Concrete: A Walkability Plan For The Rosewood Neighborhood, Timothy Martinez, Shreya Jain, Matthew Cramer, Gwynn Mackellan, Sarah Bermudez, Walle Brown

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Roses from Concrete is a walkability plan for Portland Metro’s Rosewood neighborhood, created by Walk & Roll Consulting (W&R). This plan seeks to address the challenges of being a pedestrian - emphasizing youth and older adults, in the historically disinvested Rosewood neighborhood. This is accomplished by providing tools for analyzing existing infrastructural deficiencies, research-based recommendations for contextualized capital improvements, and compiled perspectives from local residents and professionals, in order to catalyze improving the lives of people who live, walk, and roll within the Rosewood neighborhood.

Proposal: Dreamers Success Resource Center (Dsrc), Liliana Angelica Luna Olalade, Jhoana Monroy-Espinoza, Cesar Santiago Perez, Vania Lucio-Mancilla, Maria Sorcia Sandoval, Óscar Fernández

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Proposal to create a DREAMers Success Resource Center at Portland State University.

A Qualitative Evaluation Of The Impacts Of A Strength-Based And Youth-Driven Approach To Suicide Prevention In Rural And Minority Communities In Hawai‘I, Mapuana C.K. Antonio, Jane J. Chung-Do, Deborah A. Goebert, Kris Bifulco, Antonia R.G. Alvarez

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Suicide is a serious public health issue, particularly for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islander youth living in rural communities in Hawai‘i. The Hawai‘i’s Caring Communities Initiative (HCCI) for Youth Suicide Prevention was implemented to address these concerns and used a strength-based, youthleadership approach to suicide prevention. A qualitative study was completed with youth leaders and adult community coordinators to evaluate the impacts of participating in HCCI. Participants included 9 adult community coordinators and 17 youth leaders ages 13-18 years. Coordinator interviews took place at a location of the interviewee’s convenience, and youth leader focus groups were conducted at 1 …

You Don’T Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows: The Prison Break Of Timothy Leary, Phoebe N. Holman

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines the revolutionary merit of the Weather Underground Organization’s prison break of LSD guru Timothy Leary. Was Leary truly an activist willing to risk everything to introduce the public to the healing powers of psychedelics? Or was he an unprofessional mad scientist using his students to further his own agenda? It also provides an explanation of how the WUO and other anti-war organizations like it brought the United States to the brink of a massive societal shift—and then disappeared.

The Creative Philosophies Of Leonardo Da Vinci: Nature As The Perfect Creator, Julia M. Swanson

Young Historians Conference

Leonardo da Vinci is highly regarded for his many contributions to the arts and sciences, though not much is known of his philosophical work. This paper focuses on his creative methodologies and their formation, as influenced by his Italian roots and the presence of Aristotlean philosophy within the Renaissance. The combination of philosophy and his environment produced unique naturalistic creativity.

Sodomy Laws In France: How The 1791 French Penal Code Decriminalized Sodomy Without The Will Of The People, Serena Johnson

Young Historians Conference

In 1791, homosexual acts became legal between two consenting adults in France. To understand how progressive this legislation was, it is important to consider how much later other Western countries decriminalized same-sex sexual acts, termed sodomy: Italy in 1890, Denmark in 1933, the United Kingdom in 1982, and the United States in 2003. Generally speaking, Western countries generated very little legislative acceptance of homosexuality until the twentieth century, when changes in the law mirrored the broadening social acceptance towards the gay community. So one must ask: Why was France so ahead of the curve in terms of acceptance towards homosexuality? …

The Use Of The Birth Control Movement As A Eugenics Weapon, 1920'S-1960'S, Peyton P. Holstein

Young Historians Conference

While Margaret Sanger made great strides in the crusade for legalization and open access to birth control for women, groups paired her work with ideologies such as Social Darwinism to arm the eugenics movement throughout the Twentieth-century. The eugenics movement was a culmination of racism and newly found scientific theories which led a crusade to purify the American population through reproductive cherry-picking on the basis of race. One of the primary ways that this group attempted to weed out “undesirable” races within the American population was through birth control as well as sterilization. These two movements - birth control and …

A Secret Plague: How The Decline Of Mental Health During The Great Plague Created An Undetected Epidemic, Erin A. Carty

Young Historians Conference

Following the Black Plague in the 1300s, all of Europe slowly began to return to its previous state, that is, until being struck by another plague in the 1500s. The bubonic plague was back again, and this time it was doing more than killing the population, it was leaving survivors with the disadvantage of extremely poor mental health. Reexamining the mental state of civilians reveals that this disadvantage may have been more destructive than the population decline.