Digital Commons Network^™

Contexts Of Reception And Constructions Of Islam: Second Generation Muslim Immigrants In Post-9/11 America, Shahriyar Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001 fundamentally transformed the context of reception for Muslim immigrants in the U.S., shifting it from neutral to negative while also brightening previously blurred boundaries between established residents and the Muslim minority. This study explores how second-generation Muslim immigrants have experienced and reacted to post-9/11 contexts of reception. It is based on an analysis of ten semi-structured in-depth interviews that were conducted throughout the Portland Metropolitan Area from January to April of 2016. It finds experiences of discrimination to be primarily affected by two factors: public institutions and gender. It also finds, …

Combat Experiences, Iso-Strain, And Sleep Quality Affect Symptoms Of Posttraumatic Stress Among Working Post-9/11 Veterans, Gilbert Patrick Brady Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

Despite the growing need, prior research on how the civilian work domain may affect posttraumatic stress is scarce. Moreover, few if any studies have investigated how perceptions of one's job and insomnia may shape traumatic stress symptoms, post-combat. Presently, about 4 million Americans have served in the "Global War on Terrorism," including nearly 1 million reservists. By contrast, 8.7 million Americans served in the Vietnam War: over twice the number of U.S. military personnel who have fought since 9/11. Surprisingly, combat experiences alone do not explain the majority of posttraumatic stress disorder cases, even after multiple deployments, suggesting the presence …

Music And Race In The American West, William Steven Schneider

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the complexities of race relations in the nineteenth century American West. The groups considered here are African Americans, Anglo Americans, Chinese, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans. In recent decades historians of the West have begun to tell the narratives of racial minorities. This study adopts the aims of these scholars through a new lens--music. Ultimately, this thesis argues that historians can use music, both individual songs and broader conceptions about music, to understand the complex and contradictory race relations of the nineteenth century west.

Proceeding thematically, the first chapter explores the ways Anglo Americans used music to …

Belonging Abq, Christine Wong Yap

Belonging ABQ

Belonging is an Albuquerque, NM-based, community-engagement and participatory project, by Christine Wong Yap, artist-in-residence at the Sanitary Tortilla Factory. There are three components: Story collection about places of belonging in Albuquerque via an open call and workshops with community organizations; 13 hand-painted signs installed on location at places of belonging, and a zine.

Stereotype Threat And Effects Of Students' Perception Of Their Math Teacher's Fairness On Their Math Self-Efficacy, Alexis Jocelyn Devigal

Dissertations and Theses

Gender inequalities perpetuated by educational and occupational segregation may be exacerbated in part by socialization processes that occur in the years leading up to when high school students typically begin considering postsecondary options. Students’ feelings of self-efficacy in certain subjects can be an important factor that informs their decisions to pursue coursework and programs. This study used stereotype theory to understand how students' perceptions of their 9th grade math teacher's fairness affected their 11th grade math efficacy and how this relationship was moderated by the gender of the student and their math teacher. Using the High School Longitudinal Study of …

The Influence Of Sense Of Community On The Relationship Between Community Participation And Recovery For Individuals With Serious Mental Illnesses, Rachel Elizabeth Terry

Dissertations and Theses

The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 launched the deinstitutionalization movement, whereby individuals with serious mental illnesses were released from psychiatric hospitals and began living and receiving mental health care in the community (Carling, 1995). However, these actions have not necessarily integrated those individuals into all aspects of community life (Dewees, Pulice, & McCormick, 1996). This is unfortunate because people with serious mental illnesses frequently report that community integration is not only important to them, but that it also aids in reducing symptoms and promoting recovery (Townley, 2015). Although past research suggests that receiving mental health care in the community …

Animals Coupling: Stories, Corey Robert Millard

Dissertations and Theses

We find ourselves at a unique place in American history: language is losing its value; decency--or "political correctness"--is becoming taboo; and our future is legislated by those who feel they have been left behind. The stories in Animals Coupling don't attempt to explain contemporary America, but they do attempt to demonstrate (through language, character, style, and circumstance) an expressive rendering of what it looks and feels like to live in the here and now. There is a sense of detachment threading through these works, along with absurdity, loneliness, humor and anomie. But though a minor key may ring loudest, Animals …

When You Aren't Who Your Friends Are: The Moderating Influence Of Racial Similarity On The Association Between Friendships And Mental Well-Being, Philip Tostado

Dissertations and Theses

Friendships are a mental health resource for adolescents. Their availability and strength have been shown to predict lower levels of depression, higher self-esteem, and higher life satisfaction. They can also alleviate the stress that often leads to negative mental health outcomes. However, studies examining the stress process rarely consider the fact that social networks like friendship groups are not a static resource that effects all people the same way. Rather, demographic characteristics of both the individual and their friends could change the role of friendship networks within the stress process.

In this thesis, I investigate the importance of one such …

Patients And Nurses And Doctors Oh My!: Nurse Retention From A Multi-Foci Aggression Perspective, Kevin Oliver Novak

Dissertations and Theses

Attrition is a serious issue in the nursing industry. One factor influencing rates of attrition in nursing is aggression victimization at work (Estryn-Behar et al., 2010). However, there is little research in the aggression literature that examines how aggression from different sources affects attrition (both job and career turnover) differently. This study attempts to better understand the linkages between aggression victimization and nursing attrition; specifically how aggression from different sources (i.e. patients/patients’ families, coworkers, and licensed independent practitioners) differentially affects retention factors (i.e. job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and career commitment). This study also attempts to understand the role that prosocial …

Embracing Challenges In Times Of Change: A Survey Of The Readiness Of Academic Librarians In New Jersey For Transition To The Acrl Framework, Leslin H. Charles

Communications in Information Literacy

Many academic librarians in the state of New Jersey (NJ) have successfully integrated information literacy (IL) into the curriculum using the ACRL IL Competency Standards for Higher Education (Standards). These Standards formed the underpinnings of IL curriculum mapping and assessment plans, and have been adopted by administrators in higher education institutions across the state. The advent of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework) prompted the author to survey IL coordinators to investigate how their institutions are embracing the opportunities presented by the challenge of looking at IL through this new lens. This paper presents a snapshot …

Using The Acrl Framework To Develop A Student-Centered Model For Program-Level Assessment, Rachel Wilder Gammons, Lindsay Taylor Inge

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy instruction presents a difficult balance between quantity and quality, particularly for large-scale general education courses. This paper discusses the overhaul of the freshman composition instruction program at the University of Maryland Libraries, focusing on the transition from survey assessments to a student-centered and mixed-methods approach using qualitative reflections, rubrics, and the evaluation of student artifacts. The article discusses the progression from a pilot assessment program using Twitter as a data collection model to the implementation of a robust and multi-layered assessment using both qualitative feedback from students and the evaluation of student artifacts. Each assessment includes detailed collection …

Frame Works: Using Metaphor In Theory And Practice In Information Literacy, Wendy Holliday

Communications in Information Literacy

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education generated a large amount of discourse during its development and adoption. All of this discourse is rich in metaphoric language that can be used as a tool for critical reflection on teaching and learning, information literacy, and the nature and role of theory in the practice of teaching librarians. This article explores the metaphoric entailments of the Framework as a way to deepen our understandings and practices of information literacy.

Revisiting Metacognition And Metaliteracy In The Acrl Framework, Diane M. Fulkerson, Susan Andriette Ariew, Trudi E. Jacobson

Communications in Information Literacy

In the early drafts of the Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education, metaliteracy and metacognition contributed several guiding principles in recognition of the fact that information literacy concepts need to reflect students' roles as creators and participants in research and scholarship. The authors contend that diminution of metaliteracy and metacognition occurred during later revisions of the Framework and thus diminished the document's usefulness as a teaching tool. This article highlights the value of metaliteracy and metacognition in order to support the argument that these concepts are critical to information literacy today, and that the language of these concepts should be …

Creative Approaches To Information Literacy For Creative Arts Students, Leo Appleton, Gustavo Grandal Montero, Abigail Jones

Communications in Information Literacy

This paper discusses the information literacy requirements of art and design students, and how traditional approaches to information literacy education are not always appropriate for these particular students. The paper argues that different, creative, and innovative approaches to information literacy training need to be developed with the specific learning styles of this group of students in mind and that using a radical information literacy approach, incorporating the specific nature of the art and design information landscape, enables this. Using the University of the Arts London (UAL) as a specific art and design higher education institution, the paper shares three separate …

Exploring The Positive Utility Of Travel And Mode Choice, Patrick Allen Singleton

Dissertations and Theses

Why do people travel? Underlying most travel behavior research is the derived-demand paradigm of travel analysis, which assumes that travel demand is derived from the demand for spatially separated activities, traveling is a means to an end (reaching destinations), and travel time is a disutility to be minimized. In contrast, the "positive utility of travel" (PUT) concept suggests that travel may not be inherently disliked and could instead provide benefits or be motivated by desires for travel-based multitasking, positive emotions, or fulfillment. The PUT idea assembles several concepts relevant to travel behavior: utility maximization, motivation theory, multitasking, and subjective well-being. …

Capturing Peers', Teachers', And Parents' Joint Contributions To Students' Engagement: An Exploration Of Models, Justin William Vollet

Dissertations and Theses

Building on research that has focused on understanding how peers contribute to students' engagement, this dissertation explores the extent to which peer group influences on students' engagement may add to and be contextualized by qualities of the relationships they maintain with their teachers and their parents. To focus on how each of these adult contexts work in concert with peer groups to jointly contribute to changes in students' engagement, the two studies used data on 366 sixth graders which were collected at two time points during their first year of middle school: Peer groups were identified using socio-cognitive mapping; students …

Socioeconomic Determinants Of Health Disparities By Race And Ethnicity: The Mediating Role Of Social, Psychological And Behavioral Factors, Amanuel Zimam Melekin

Dissertations and Theses

Socioeconomic status (SES) is inversely related to health status. Disparities in health status among races and ethnic groups are partly attributable to differences in SES, but the indirect pathways by which SES may influence health status are not widely studied.

Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data, this dissertation examined the pathways by which SES, via social, psychological, and behavioral factors predicted physical impairment and overnight hospitalization, and asked whether these indirect relationships differed by race/ethnicity. The HRS is a nationally representative multistage area probability sample administered biennially to respondents over the age of 51 and their spouses. Data …

A Simulator-Based Analysis Of Engineering Treatments For Right-Hook Bicycle Crashes At Signalized Intersections, Jennifer Warner, David S. Hurwitz, Christopher M. Monsere, Kayla Fleskes

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A right-hook crash is a crash between a right-turning motor vehicle and an adjacent through-moving bicycle. At signalized intersections, these crashes can occur during any portion of the green interval when conflicting bicycles and vehicles are moving concurrently. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of four types of engineering countermeasures – regulatory signage, intersection pavement marking, smaller curb radius, and protected intersection design – at modifying driver behaviors that are known contributing factors in these crashes. This research focused on right-hook crashes that occur during the latter stage of the circular green indication at signalized intersections …

Focal Point, Volume 31, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Research demonstrates that the prevalence of mental health conditions among justice system involved youth is alarmingly high, coupled with a strong likelihood of multiple traumatic exposures. Unfortunately, while the need for appropriate and timely treatment is acute, the juvenile justice system seems challenged in meeting it. The authors of this issue of Focal Point identify and propose solutions to these challenges with new research findings.

Mobile Augmented Reality: Hyper Contextualization And Situated Language Usage Events, Steven L. Thorne, John Hellermann

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Language use, second-language development, and technology mediated human activity are complex processes situated in, and in some cases demonstrably interwoven with, specific material and social contexts. Our presentation describes a project that focuses on the contextually embedded nature of communicative action. Building upon recent research on ethnomethodological analyses of talk-in-interaction while walking (Haddington et al., 2013), analyses of how communicative activity mediates our understanding of objects and environments (Nevile et al., 2014; Latour, 2005), principles of extended and embodied cognition (Atkinson, 2010), and existing research on the use of mobile place-based augmented reality (AR) techniques for language learning (Holden & …

In Peer Matters, Teachers Matter: Peer Group Influences On Students' Engagement Depend On Teacher Involvement, Justin W. Vollet, Thomas A. Kindermann, Ellen A. Skinner

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study focused on the joint effects of teachers and peer groups as predictors of change in students’ engagement during the first year of middle school, when the importance of peer relationships normatively increases and the quality of teacher–student relationships typically declines. To explore cumulative and contextualized joint effects, the study utilized 3 sources of information about an entire cohort of 366 sixth graders in a small town: Peer groups were identified using sociocognitive mapping; students reported on teacher involvement; and teachers reported on each student’s engagement. Consistent with models of cumulative effects, peer group engagement and teacher involvement each …

C-Safe: A Computer-Delivered Sexual Health Promotion Program For Latinas, Charles H. Klein, Tamara Kuhn, Midori Altamirano, Carmela Lomonaco

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article describes the development and evaluation of C-SAFE (Sexual Awareness for Everyone), a computer-delivered sexual health promotion program for Latinas. We first describe the process of adapting an evidence-based, group-level intervention into an individually administered computer-delivered program. We then present the methods and results of a randomized control trial with 321 Latinas in California and Florida to test C-SAFE's preliminary efficacy in reducing sexual health risk. We found no statistically significant differences between the two conditions at a six-month follow-up in terms of sexual behaviors or attitudes toward sexually transmitted infections and condoms, although C-SAFE women reported fewer days …

Psu President’S African American, African, And Black Student Success Task Force Report, Shirley A. Jackson, Yves Labissiere, Lisa K. Bates, Tom Bull, Shanice Clarke, Steven Christian, Tara Cooper, Abel De La Cruz, Noni Causey, Alex Herrrerra, Rene Ingram, Vanelda Hopes, Vandy Kanyako, Marlon Dewayne Marion, Taremeredzwa Mutepfa, Marshawna Williams, Ebony Oldham, Tiffany Ganir

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This report is in response to the President’s Charge to the Task Force on African American/African/Black Student Success at Portland State University. As included in the charge, the report assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for PSU in continuing to serve the African American/African/Black community at PSU. In conducting its work, the Task Force reviewed a variety of reports and databases from various offices at PSU. Based on its findings, the Task Force provides recommendations under five main areas:
1) Student recruitment and retention
2) Student Experiences
3) Courses and Programming
4) Faculty and Staff at PSU
5) Best Practices …

Toward A Critical Philosophy For Children, James Funston

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

I explore the role of Philosophy for Children (P4C) and critical pedagogy in pre-college education--what is the purpose of engaging with children on philosophical questions and how ought teachers ask such questions? This paper examines the current and past approaches of P4C through the work Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, and attempts to situate P4C within the framework of critical pedagogy, resulting in a synthesis I call "critical P4C." Implementing critical P4C has the capacity to create communities of inquiry around questions of agency and freedom that are central to critical pedagogy. Critical P4C offers strategies for engaging students in discussions …

"Neither Of The Boxes": Accounting For Non-Binary Gender Identities, Erin Patricia Savoia

Dissertations and Theses

This research examines the ways in which individuals who identify with nonbinary gender identities 1) understand and perform their gender identities and 2) navigate the workplace, intimate partner relationships, friendships, and the LGBTQ+ community. Prevailing understandings of gender rely on a gender binary; identification with a binary gender is compulsory. Individuals are assigned a gender at birth and are expected to identify fully with that gender for their entire lives. However, despite significant social pressures to identify as man or woman, there exist individuals whose identities bring into question the stability of the gender binary. Non-binary is sometimes used to …

2017 Commencement Program (Afternoon Ceremony), Earl Blumenauer

Commencement Archives 2010-19

The program for the Portland State University 2017 Commencement (Afternoon Ceremony: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences).

U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer received an honorary doctorate and delivered the commencement address.

Ethanol-Nicotine Combinations Induces C-Fos Expression Within Stress And Reward-Related Circuitry, Jacob J. Schoen

University Honors Theses

The use and abuse of alcohol and nicotine are intimately related, with co-use of alcohol among adult cigarette smokers higher (>65%) than non-smokers (>45%), and smoking rates among alcoholics above 75%. Smoking is associated with an accelerated progression to alcohol dependence, suggesting that nicotine and alcohol act in a synergistic manner to promote co-abuse. While recent work has begun to identify discrete ‘neuronal ensembles’ within stress and reward circuitry components that underlie nicotine’s contribution to escalations in alcohol self-administration, the neurobiological mechanisms facilitating alcohol-nicotine interactions following chronic drug exposure remain understudied. The goal of the current work was …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Professional Development Providers' Epistemological And Nature Of Science Beliefs And Their Professional Development Programs, Alfonso Garcia Arriola

Dissertations and Theses

In the last twenty years in US science education, professional development has emphasized the need to change science instruction from a direct instruction model to a more participatory and constructivist learning model. The result of these reform efforts has seen an increase in science education professional development that is focused on providing teaching strategies that promote inquiry learning to learn science content. Given these reform efforts and teacher responses to professional development, research seems to indicate that whether teachers actually change their practice may depend on the teachers' basic epistemological beliefs about the nature of science. The person who builds …

The Voices Of Special Educators: How Do Special Educators Teach English Language Learners Who Are Receiving Special Education Services?, Elizabeth Ann Dubois

Dissertations and Theses

Disproportionality in special education has been examined from various perspectives over a 50-year period. English Language Learner (ELL) students have been included in the discussion among researchers in the past two decades as a disproportionate number of ELL students are referred to special education. Though the problem of disproportionality has been acknowledged, documented and discussed over a period of decades, there is a lack of research from the voices of special educators. The purpose of this study was to describe special education teachers' experiences teaching students currently or previously enrolled in an English language learner program who are receiving special …

Drivers' Attitudes And Behaviors Toward Bicyclists: Intermodal Interactions And Implications For Road Safety, Tara Beth Goddard

Dissertations and Theses

Road safety concerns are a legitimate concern when promoting increased bicycle use. Currently, the share of bicyclist traffic fatalities and injuries is not proportional to its mode share, and presents both a public health concern and a disincentive to people taking up or continuing to bicycle for transportation. Bicycling is not an inherently dangerous activity; automobile drivers pose the most risk of harm in crashes with bicyclists. Despite that, drivers' attitudes and behaviors toward bicyclists have not enjoyed much systematic study, particularly in the United States. This research explored the dimensions of drivers' attitudes toward bicyclists, including implicit bias and …