Digital Commons Network^™

Altering The Motivational Function Of Nicotine Through Conditioning Processes, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The collection of chapters in this 55th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation Volume clearly highlights that effective strategies for reducing compulsive tobacco use will require a multifaceted approach in which genetic, neurobiological, individual, and cultural factors are considered. It is difficult, if not impossible, to predict where the next important breakthrough will come from (Bevins & Bardo, 2004; Dethier, 1966; Laidler, 1998). Accordingly, further research that extends and challenges current theory and practice at each of these levels of analysis is needed. The continuing focus of our research program, and the topic of the present chapter, is on the role of …

The “Point” Of Positive Organizational Behavior, Fred Luthans, Bruce Avolio

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Perhaps the most important “Point” we would like to make in this “Point-Counterpoint” on positive organizational behavior is the role that research must play in this evolving area of study. We follow this point on the importance of research by drawing from recent findings that indicate in discussions such as this point and counterpoint, that taking a positive approach leads to more in-depth inquiry, whereas a negative perspective leads to advocacy and in our view less learning potential. Thus, the positive perspective we take in this “Point” piece is to identify and make a deep inquiry into the major issues …

Disaster Mental Health, Denise Bulling, Tarik Abdel-Monem

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

People have always given aid and comfort to each other during times of disaster. However, attempts to structure and professionalize this assistance are fairly recent developments. Disaster mental health, as an evolving field of practice and study, is a collection of interventions and practices that are designed to address incident-specific stress reactions, rather than ongoing or developmental mental health needs. Traditional mental health practice is based on a medical model, with a clinician seeing a patient in an office setting. Disaster mental health introduces a paradigm shift, requiring that practitioners (clinicians and indigenous helpers) work with individuals and whole communities …

September 2009 - Staff Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Colorblind Nonaccommodative Denial: Implications For Teachers’ Meaning Perspectives Toward Their Mexican-American English Learners, Socorro Herrera, Amanda Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Many parts of the United States are facing an increasing number of immigrant students. Focusing on mostly White teachers at a junior high school, which enrolls predominantly Mexican immigrant students, Socorro Herrera and Amanda R. Morales examine these teachers’ belief system. The authors identify the perspective of colorblind nonaccommodative denial among these teachers. • What is a colorblind perspective? How does it affect everyday teaching practices? • How would teachers justify their not accommodating minority students? What are the educational consequences of nonaccommodation?

Improving the learning experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse Mexican-American students in the United States is a …

You Can Take It With You? Student Library Employees, Eportfolios, And “Edentity” Construction, Gabriella Reznowski, Brian Mcmanus

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

ePortfolios have become an important tool for assessing and tracking employee development. In 2008, the Washington State University Libraries became involved in the institution’s ePortfolio initiative. Library supervisors hoped that as a dynamic online tool, the ePortfolio concept would provide an effective method for assessing the library’s body of student employees. Collaborating with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTLT), the Center for Advising & Career Development (CACD), and Student Computing Services (SCS), the WSU Libraries explored the possibility of using ePortfolios to drive employee assessment. The Access Services unit, with the assistance of the Library Instruction, Library Systems, …

Jumping Onto The Bandwagon: New Librarians Navigating The Science/Technology Librarianship, Nedelina Tchangalova

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

The terminology of engineering is daunting to the novice librarian without any science background. Library information school (LIS) students without training in scientific disciplines express concerns about pursuing a career in engineering librarianship. Why don’t they get onto the science/technology (sci/tech) bandwagon? What information and inspiration are necessary to sail toward the science and engineering horizons of our profession? A successful transition from graduate student to practicing engineering librarian requires a complex combination of knowledge and skills. The support and assistance of colleagues is critical and the establishment of support groups for various research needs can provide a mechanism …

Documentary Editing: Journal Of The Association For Documentary Editing, Volume 30, Fall And Winter, Numbers 3 And 4

Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979–2011)

No abstract provided.

Documentary Editing: Journal Of The Association For Documentary Editing, Volume 30, Fall And Winter, Numbers 3 And 4: 2008-2009-Front Matter

Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979–2011)

Front matter -- Officers -- Publication Committee -- Editorial Staff -- Table of Contents -- Contributors

Meeting New Faculty At The Intersection: Personal And Professional Support Points The Way, Ann Riley

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty developers can play a significant role in increasing the retention of new faculty. This chapter presents a study conducted at a public research university that reveals that first-year faculty need personal, relational, and professional support. However, the importance of each type of support shifts during this first year, suggesting that faculty development efforts aimed toward new faculty should adjust accordingly. This study uses a sequential mixed-method design and is grounded in adult development theory, which views new faculty as adult learners in a career-life transition and faculty developers as adult educators.

Separate But Equal: Will It Work For Professional Honors Programs?, Beata M. Jones, Peggy W. Watson

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Developing honors opportunities for students in professional schools can be difficult, as noted by, for example, Giazzoni (2007), Bishop and Sittason (2007) and Noble and Dowling (2007) and also as demonstrated by honors program statistics at Texas Christian University (TCU). Despite the difficulty, high achieving students in professional schools should have the opportunity to benefit from an honors education. According to Bruce (2008), “honors education looks different from other types of education. . . . Honors pushes our comfort zones . . . [and] . . . challenges us to . . . be open to new ideas” (19–29). This …

Problem Solving And Prevention By General-Jurisdiction Judges ©, Thomas D. Barton

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

State court systems have done much in recent years to deepen their “problem-solving” qualities. Across the country, courts have adopted court-annexed mediation programs and developed a variety of specialty courts tailored to drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, mental health, homelessness, and sexual offenders. These innovations have broadened the scope in which legal problems are understood and deepened the level of engagement between legal system personnel and claimants/defendants. They have spawned thoughtful reflections by judges and lawyers about the impact and effectiveness of legal institutions and methods as exemplified by the Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Comprehensive Law movements.

“Preventive Law” could …

Recruiting And Selecting Child Welfare Staff, Michelle Graef, Megan Paul, Tara L. Myers

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

In this chapter, the focus is on recruiting and selecting new staff and on the steps agencies can take to ensure that they are doing the best possible job to attract and hire a high-performing, committed workforce. This chapter reviews a number of strategies for improving recruitment and selection processes and provides case examples from the authors' work with child protection agencies in several states. These projects have been accomplished by a team of researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL). Some of the techniques described here will be familiar, whereas others are …

Emotional Reactivity Across Individuals With Varying Trauma And Substance Dependence Histories, Alicia K. Klanecky, Dennis E. Mcchargue

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background—Research has reported a high rate of substance dependence in traumatized individuals who do not develop PTSD (TWP). While past studies have failed to consistently demonstrate that TWP individuals experience PTSD symptoms, findings have indicated that TWP and a history of substance dependence aside from nicotine dependence (SDH) are linked to affect disruption.

Aims—The present study explored positive and negative affective mechanisms across four groups with varying SDH and TWP including TWP + SDH, TWP only, SDH only, or no history. Researchers hypothesized that adults (n = 78) would be more emotionally reactive to an experimentally-induced negative mood compared to …

Depressed Affect And Historical Loss Among North American Indigenous Adolescents, Les B. Whitbeck, Melissa L. Walls, Kurt D. Johnson, Allan D. Morrisseau, Cindy M. Mcdougall

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This study reports on the prevalence and correlates of perceived historical loss among 459 North American Indigenous adolescents aged 11–13 years from the northern Midwest of the United States and central Canada. The adolescents reported daily or more thoughts of historical loss at rates similar to their female caretakers. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that our measure of perceived historical loss and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale were separate but related constructs. Regression analysis indicated that, even when controlling for family factors, perceived discrimination, and proximal negative life events, perceived historical loss had independent effects on adolescent’s depressive symptoms. …

Comparison Of Fuzzy Clustering Methods And Their Applications To Geophysics Data, David J. Miller, Carl A. Nelson, Molly Boeka Cannon, Kenneth P. Cannon

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Fuzzy clustering algorithms are helpful when there exists a dataset with subgroupings of points having indistinct boundaries and overlap between the clusters. Traditional methods have been extensively studied and used on real-world data, but require users to have some knowledge of the outcome a priori in order to determine howmany clusters to look for. Additionally, iterative algorithms choose the optimal number of clusters based on one of several performance measures. In this study, the authors compare the performance of three algorithms (fuzzy c-means, Gustafson-Kessel, and an iterative version of Gustafson-Kessel) when clustering a traditional data set as well as real-world …

Service-Learning Is… How Faculty Explain Their Practice, Kerryann O’Meara, Elizabeth K. Niehaus

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Many researchers have explored faculty engagement in service-learning. However, scholarship rarely considers ways in which the discourses used by faculty to describe service-learning—the stories they tell about what it is they are doing and why—construct images of subject positions, problems, and solutions that inform our beliefs about service-learning and our practice. The purpose of this study was to understand the dominant discourses used by faculty to explain service-learning. The nomination files of 109 exemplary faculty nominated for the Thomas Ehrlich Award were analyzed. Findings indicate that faculty use four dominant discourses regarding the purposes and significance of service-learning: (a) a …

Attention Shaping: A Reward-Based Learning Method To Enhance Skills Training Outcomes In Schizophrenia, Steven . M. Silverstein, William D. Spaulding, Anthony A. Menditto, Adam Savitz, Robert P. Liberman, Sarah Berten, Hannah Starobin

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Disturbances in sustained attention commonly interfere with the ability of persons with schizophrenia to benefit from evidence-based psychosocial treatments. Cognitive remediation interventions have thus far demonstrated minimal effects on attention, as have medications. There is thus a gap between the existence of effective psychosocial treatments and patients’ ability to effectively engage in and benefit from them. We report on the results of a multisite study of attention shaping (AS), a behavioral intervention for improving attentiveness and learning of social skills among highly distractible schizophrenia patients. Patients with chronic schizophrenia who were refractory to skills training were assigned to receive either …

A Pilot Study Of The Feasibility And Efficacy Of The Strategies To Enhance Positive Parenting (Stepp) Program For Single Mothers Of Children With Adhd, Anil Chacko, Brian T. Wymbs, Lizette M. Flammer-Rivera, William E. Pelham, Kathryn S. Walker, Fran W. Arnold, Hema Visweswaraiah, Michelle Swanger-Gagne, Erin L. Girio, Lauma L. Pirvics, Laura Herbst

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective: The Strategies to Enhance Positive Parenting (STEPP) program was developed to address putative factors related to poor engagement in and outcomes following traditional behavioral parent training (BPT) for single mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD.
Method: Twelve single mothers of children with ADHD were enrolled in an initial investigation of the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the 9-week STEPP program.
Results: Results indicated that the STEPP program was effective in reducing problematic child behavior and improving parental stress and psychopathology at posttreatment. The STEPP program resulted in high rates of treatment attendance and completion and consumer satisfaction with the …

Punishing My Parents: Juveniles’ Perspectives On Parental Responsibility, Eve M. Brank, Jodi Lane

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Interviews of 147 juveniles in postadjudication residential facilities revealed that the juveniles generally did not believe their parents were responsible for the illegal activities of the juvenile. A vast majority of juveniles said that their parents were not responsible at all and also said that if they had known that their parents would also be punished for their crimes, they would have been less likely to commit the crimes. No patterns emerged for these questions based on the demographic or social characteristics of the juveniles. Implications of the juveniles’ perspective are considered, focusing particularly on the juveniles’ lack of willingness …

Exposure To Domestic Violence: A Meta-Analysis Of Child And Adolescent Outcomes, Corrie A. Davies, Sarah E. Evans, David K. Dilillo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study used meta-analysis to examine the relationship between childhood exposure to domestic violence and children’s internalizing, externalizing, and trauma symptoms. Results from 60 reviewed studies revealed mean weighted effect size d­values of .48 and .47 for the relationship between exposure to domestic violence and childhood internalizing and externalizing symptoms, respectively, indicating moderate effects. A larger mean weighted effect size d-value of 1.54 was obtained for the relationship between exposure to domestic violence and childhood trauma symptoms, though this figure was based on only six studies. Moderator analyses for gender showed that the relationship between exposure to domestic …

Priority Lincoln: We’Re Listening A Community Conversation On The City Budget

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

This is a background document to prepare you for the Priority Lincoln: We’re Listening discussion on the Lincoln City Budget on April 12. This discussion guide is intended to serve as a jumping-off point for our upcoming conversation. The discussion is not a test of facts, but rather a chance to offer your perspectives on the issues with other Lincoln residents.

Role-Play: An Often Misused Active Learning Strategy, Stephanie Nickerson

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Role-play is a special kind of case study, in which there is an explicit situation established with students playing specific roles, spontaneously saying and doing what they understand their “character” would, in that situation. Role-plays differ from other case studies in the immediacy of the experience. Students find themselves in the role-play. In a case study, they read about situations and characters. One of the reasons role-play can work so well is because of the power of placing oneself in another’s shoes. This provides opportunities for learning in both the affective domain, where emotions and values are involved, as well …

Priority Lincoln: Budgeting For Outcomes

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

As a centerpiece to its 2008-09 budget determination process, the City of Lincoln invited the community to provide input about how the City should prioritize budget items. Several thousand residents provided input over a period of approximately 90 days, starting in February 2008 and ending in May 2008. This Report presents the results from the City’s public participation process.

Investigating Racial Disparity At The Detention Decision: The Role Of Respectability, Don L. Kurtz, Tavis Linnemann, Ryan Spohn

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

A concern over inequity and the existence of racial disparity of youth served by the juvenile justice system has long been a topic of considerable interest among scholars, policymakers, and court officials. Numerous empirical studies undertaken by academics and various public and private organizations have attempted to shed some light on this phenomenon. Research findings on disproportionate minority contact have hardly been uniform, leaving much of this practice unexplained. This study uses data obtained at the detention decision point over a three-year period examining variance in juvenile case processing related to race. Findings suggest that extra-legal factors influencing the decision …

Assessing Risk Of Reoffending In Adolescents Who Have Committed A Sexual Offense: The Accuracy Of Clinical Judgments After Completion Of Risk Assessment Instruments, Natasha Elkovitch, Jodi L. Viljoen, Mario J. Scalora, Daniel Ullman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

As courts often rely on clinicians when differentiating between sexually abusive youth at a low versus high risk of reoffense, understanding factors that contribute to accuracy in assessment of risk is imperative. The present study built on existing research by examining (1) the accuracy of clinical judgments of risk made after completing risk assessment instruments, (2) whether instrument- informed clinical judgments made with a high degree of confidence are associated with greater accuracy, and (3) the risk assessment instruments and subscales most predictive of clinical judgments. Raters assessed each youth’s (n = 166) risk of reoffending after completing the SAVRY …

Ebsco’S Communication & Mass Media Complete: An Appreciable Improvement Over Previous Communication Studies Indexing?, David C. Tyler, Signe Boudreau, Katharine C. Potter, Misty Redinbaugh

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

In a prior edition of this study, we examined whether the established online communication studies indexes—Communication Abstracts, ComIndex, and ComAbstracts—provided a good avenue of access to the journal literature that researchers in the field cite and whether, where the current journal literature was concerned, that avenue of access might be equal or superior to that provided by large, multisubject online indexes. In this iteration of the study, we similarly address EBSCO’s new product for communication studies, Communication & Mass Media Complete.

Documentary Editing: Journal Of The Association For Documentary Editing--Front Matter

Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing (1979–2011)

Front matter: Table of Contents--Contributors

Mentoring Honors Thesis Students: A Lawyer’S Perspective, Linda Vila

Honors in Practice Online Archive

As a mentor of thesis students in an honors program, I find that students acquire tremendously helpful substantive knowledge through courses they take during college but rarely develop a honed skill set necessary to succeed in graduate or professional education or employment in the real world. These skills range from problem solving to effective communication to analytical thinking. To address these weaknesses, I constructed an approach, borrowed from my law school days, for engaging students in an active, student-centered learning process during the thesis stage of their honors curriculum. My purpose is to provide them the opportunity to cultivate, if …

Using External Review In The Honors Project Process, Joyce W. Fields

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Understanding the competitive nature of applications to graduate programs, Ferrari and Davis (2000) surveyed psychology faculty to discover their level of awareness of resources for undergraduate research publication. They found that most of the psychology faculty members they surveyed were unaware of such resources. Their finding made me curious about how many honors directors, faculty, and advisors are aware of such resources for their students not only in psychology but in all disciplines across the curriculum. Most of us realize the importance of helping our students become competitive for graduate work, and we know that publication and/or presentation of research …