Digital Commons Network^™

Hatred Simmering In The Melting Pot: Hate Crime In New York City, 1995-2010, Colleen E. Mills

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Hate crime proves prevalent in American society, inflicting a variety of harms on victims as well as society at large. Scholars have long sought to understand the motivations and conditions behind hate crime offending. Green and his colleagues conducted the classic neighborhood studies examining the conditions that foster hate crime (Green, Glaser, & Rich, 1998; Green, Strolovich, & Wong, 1998; Green, Strolovitch, Wong, & Bailey). Using data from the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, the current study replicates and extends Green's neighborhood studies by investigating hate crime in New York City from 1995 to 2010. This study …

The Role Of Glutamate Neurotransmission In The Ventral Tegmental Area In The Expression Of Conditioned Approach Learning, Priscila Hachimine-Merli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Conditioned stimuli (CSs) come to function as CSs by acquiring the capacity to activate the same mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) neurons activated by primary rewards, producing conditioned activation of these neurons and their associated motivational states. This model stipulates that CSs activate mesocorticolimbic DA systems through the activation of glutamate receptors on DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). We tested the hypothesis that glutamate receptor stimulation in the VTA is necessary for the expression of conditioned approach. Rats were tested in a conditioned approach protocol that consisted of 7 consecutive conditioning sessions (light presentations and food were paired), one …

Musicalization: Early Childhood Music Access, Discourse, And Praxis In Nyc Charter Schools, 2014-2015, Andrew Aprile

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past two decades, charter schools have become a hallmark of education reform in the United States. Concurrent with this movement is the increasing prominence of high stakes testing. While much research has sought to compare the effectiveness of charter schools and traditional public schools in terms of standardized assessments, scant attention has been paid to the role of arts and music in charter schools, and little has been done to distinguish the distinct strands of the charter school movement. Given what we know about the importance of music education and the growth of charter schools, it was the …

Syntax And Semantics Of Perceptual Representation, James K. Quilty-Dunn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a defense of perceptual pluralism, the thesis that perceptual systems deliver multiple types of representations including those used in thought. In particular, it argues that perceptual systems output iconic (i.e., image-like, analog) representations as well as discursive (i.e., language-like, digital) states. A central thesis is that perceptual representations of objects are propositional and composed of concepts. It also develops a compositional syntax of iconic representation called the coordination model, according to which icons are sets of primitive parts, each of which determines values along multiple analog feature dimensions simultaneously. The dissertation supports the conclusion that perceptual …

Shame, Darwin, And Other Victorian Writers, Aaron Khai Han Ho

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dissertation explores shame and how shame shapes identities in the nineteenth century. While many scholars examine Darwin in terms of narrativity, how he attempts to counter the theological language in Victorian evolutionary discourses, and the influences he has on his contemporary writers, I argue that his writing on shame, which is part of his long argument on evolution, secularizes the concept of shame, opposing the notions of many Victorians that shame is God-given. Both God-given shame and secular shame are rooted in sexuality, as this dissertation will show, and thus shame, sexuality, and identity are interconnected. Using Darwin as …

Cortical Thickness Abnormalities Within The Salience And Reward Networks In Older Depressed Adults With Apathy, Monique A. Pimontel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background and Significance: Apathy is a common comorbidity in late-life depression. Among older depressed adults, apathy is associated with a number of adverse outcomes, including increased disability, comorbid illness, and mortality. The etiological substrates of apathy in late-life depression nonetheless remain poorly understood, and little is known about its optimal treatment. To this end, the aim of the current study was to examine cortical abnormalities within the salience (SN) and reward networks (RN), two brain systems involved in the processing of incentive salience that may underlie the syndrome of apathy in older depressed adults.

Methods: We examined the association between …

Preventing Sexual Violence Where It Most Often Occurs: An Investigation Of The Situational And Structural Components Of Child Sexual Abuse In Residential Settings, Nicole Colombino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given that sex offenders tend to perpetrate crimes against people they know (e.g., Greenfield, 1997) and first encounter victims in residential locations (Colombino, Mercado, Levenson, & Jeglic, 2011), it is important that research examine the circumstances of sexual offenses within residential settings. Although previous research has examined the perpetration patterns of sexual offenses against children, especially related to grooming tactics (e.g., Conte, Wolf, & Smith, 1989) and situational factors (e.g., Wortley & Smallbone, 2006), there are few studies that specifically examine the correlates of child sexual abuse within residential settings. This type of data would allow for the development of …

Butch Between The Wars: A Pre-History Of Butch Style In Twentieth-Century Literature, Music, And Film, Karen Allison Hammer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Butch Between the Wars is a pre-history of “butch,” a twentieth-century masculine style that became an identity category for lesbians in the 1940s and ’50s. Between the two world wars and in the early postwar period, women used the energy of butch to create literature, music, and character on film. Butch-styled artists expressed a muscular orientation to the world, one with close associations to lower and working class black and white masculinities. Those who were recognizably lesbian and those with less clearly defined sexualities challenged the idea that strength, authority, and independence are qualities “naturally” bound to the male body. …

Creating An Unbroken Line Of Becoming In Live Music Performance, Bonnie B. Mcalvin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dissertation provides an approach to the pedagogy of musical expression in applied music study. Exercises are provided which support a student’s mastery of the mechanics of grouping, and this mastery is put to work in an adaptation of the work of the great Russian acting teacher, Constantine Stanislavski. Mapping of embodiment schema in the manner of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) is asserted as a useful interface between grouped pitch objects and meaning; mappings are utilized by the instrumental music performer in the same manner as Stanislavski taught his acting students to utilize given circumstances. The discourse situates all of …

Women’S Sexual Fantasies In Context: The Emotional Content Of Sexual Fantasies, Psychological And Interpersonal Distress, And Satisfaction In Romantic Relationships, Sarah Constantine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Psychoanalytic thinkers propose that aspects of an individual’s sexual fantasies are related to her psychological and interpersonal functioning. The present study aims to elucidate the significance of sexual fantasies with respect to women’s emotional and interpersonal lives. The study evaluated a model, which hypothesized that internal representations of self and others (e.g. attachment security, maturity of object relations) along with psychological and interpersonal factors would predict both the emotional content (guilt, fear, affection) of written sexual fantasy narratives, and overall romantic satisfaction in heterosexual women. Methods: Five hundred and thirty four women completed self-report questionnaires online. Subsequently, the sexual …

Motivating Morphological Constituents: A Learning-Based Analysis Of Hebrew, Navajo, And Spanish, Ignacio Lorenzo Montoya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In both description and theory, a variety of linguistic structures have been posited to account for a multitude of linguistic patterns. In the sub-field of morphology, such units include roots, stems, and morphemes. Previous research that has explored the motivation for linguistic structures and constructs in phonology and syntax has raised questions about the nature of these linguistic structures and constructs. Such work, however, has not focused on morphological constituent structure, a gap which the present dissertation addresses through a focused examination of the evidence motivating morphological constituents in Hebrew, Navajo, and Spanish.

The theoretical framework of this dissertation follows …

The Relationships Among Different Traits Of Masculinity And Intimate Partner Violence, Jennifer E. Loveland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has shown that distinct yet overlapping concepts of dominance, hostility towards women, and sexism—all indices of masculinity—influence the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV), although the mechanisms are unclear. This paper seeks to explore the relationship between these individual-level trait measures of masculinity and two aspects of IPV, physical violence and coercive control. With inconsistent findings and the limited study of clinical populations, further examination of these concepts may provide increased understanding of the mechanisms behind IPV perpetration. Results will provide a greater understanding of the complexity of this violence in order to better assist individuals experiencing IPV.

The Effects Of Childhood Irritability On Adolescent Outcomes And Treatment Response In Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Estrella Heber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Childhood irritability has received considerable attention in recent research due in part to the highly impairing consequences of severe irritability and its association with poor long-term outcomes (Leibenluft, Cohen, Gorrindo, Brook, & Pine, 2006; Stringaris, Cohen, Pine, & Leibenluft, 2009; Stringaris & Goodman, 2009a). While the frequency and severity of irritability typically declines with age, there are individuals who continue to display irritability at stable or increasing levels (Wiggins, Mitchell, Stringaris, & Leibenluft, 2014). Regardless of whether it persists or remits, the effects of childhood irritability resonate for many years and it remains a potent predictor of poor outcomes across …

Mental Illness Stigma And Community Integration: Linking Perceived Experiences With Reported Behavior, Lauren L. Gonzales

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the relationship between individual and neighborhood characteristics, stigmatizing experiences, and measures of community integration among individuals with mental illness. Surveys were administered to two samples: 608 community member participants and 343 participants with mental health diagnoses. Participants in both samples were recruited from 3 community sites in the New York City metropolitan area: East/Central Harlem in Manhattan, Crown Heights/East Flatbush in Brooklyn, and Yonkers and Mt. Vernon in Southern Westchester. Negative symptoms and perceived level of community microaggressions were strong predictors of community integration for participants with mental illness. Prior contact with mental illness predicted less stigmatizing …

An Examination Of Therapeutic Alliance During Prolonged Exposure In The Treatment Of A Comorbid Ptsd And Sud Population, Annelisa Pedersen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prolonged exposure has emerged as a highly effective method of treating PTSD (Foa, Hembree, & Rothbaum, 2007; Ruzek et al., 2014), yet for some individuals it has proven to be anxiety-arousing to the point of being contraindicated (Morris, 2015). As a treatment, prolonged exposure can be a challenging procedure to implement given the high levels of avoidance, fear, and resistance that often accompany a diagnosis of PTSD (Arntz, Tiesema, & Kindt, 2007; Hoffart et al., 2013; McLaughlin et al., 2014). When it is used to treat individuals who carry an additional diagnosis of SUD, further complications may arise with respect …

Minding The Baby®: Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences And Treatment Outcomes In A Mother-Infant Home Visiting Program, Jessica G. Albertson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in a sample of women participating in Minding the Baby® (MTB), a mother-infant home-visiting intervention known to have positive effects on mother-infant attachment. In addition to documenting maternal childhood trauma exposure within the sample, this study explored whether such exposure affected the intervention outcome or service delivery. We looked specifically at whether maternal childhood trauma exposure affected mother-child attachment or frequency of contact with home-visitors. We also examined the relationship between maternal early childhood trauma exposure and reflective functioning capacity (RF), a potential resiliency-promoting factor.

Methods: The study’s participants were 29 first-time …

A Conceptualization Of The Body In Psychodynamic And Body-Based Psychotherapies: Areas Of Overlap And Possibilities For Integration, Aleksandra Rayska

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The distinction between verbal and nonverbal psychotherapies is clearly visible in theory and clinical practice. Moreover, this duality of approaches promotes a split between the body and the mind, defining them as separate from each other. This dissertation helps bridge the divide between the literature in body-based therapies and verbally-based psychotherapy by (i) exploring the conceptual frame used to understand the body in psychodynamic therapy (ii) identifying the areas of overlap between psychodynamic theory and theories that underlie body-based psychotherapies, and (iii) proposing ways in which psychodynamic and body-based theories can inform one another. A clinical case was used to …

The Conceptualization Of A Crime Event As A Process To Analyze Crime Commission And Behavioral Consistency In Serial Sexual Assaults, Kimberley R. Schanz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examined the two main questions of why and when behaviors change. In the course of five studies, four aims were addressed. The first aim examined why behaviors change by examining whether the behavioral subtypes of control, sex, and violence could differentiate offenses within the elements of a crime (e.g. the offender, victim, and situation. The second aim addressed when behaviors change by examining whether the behavioral subtypes of control, sex, and violence could differentiate offenses within the temporal phases of a crime (e.g. before, during, and after the crime). The third aim examined which behaviors to use as …

Smita Patil: Fiercely Feminine, Lakshmi Ramanathan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Smita Patil is an Indian actress who worked in films for a twelve year period between 1974 and 1986, during which time she established herself as one of the powerhouses of the Parallel Cinema movement in the country. She was discovered by none other than Shyam Benegal, a pioneering film-maker himself. She started with a supporting role in Nishant, and never looked back, growing into her own from one remarkable performance to the next. She quickly became the go-to actress for most of the film-makers working in Parallel Cinema at the time. Patil was soon critically acclaimed both within …

Who Influences Your Outcomes? The Effect Of Culture And Ethnic Origin, Neighborhood And Peers On Personal Income: A Spatial Econometric Analysis Of New York City, Anna Arakelyan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Being a “social animal”, each person is inherently embedded into a complex structure of social relations. He has role models to aspire to, conformity rules to follow, and expectations to meet. This paper explores the different social influences each person experiences in life. Specifically, I consider how a person’s ethnic community, age reference group, occupational and industry group peers, and residential area neighbors affect his total income. I introduce a novel model of multiple social networks and discuss various identification implications. I apply the model empirically to New York City, which naturally is a very favorable environment to test for …

Scientifically Responsible Metaphysics: A Program For The Naturalization Of Metaphysics, Amanda Bryant

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There has been much recent work calling for the naturalization of metaphysics, including most famously James Ladyman and Don Ross’ polemic, Every Thing Must Go. But much work remains to adequately articulate and motivate the call to naturalize metaphysics. My dissertation contributes to that work. Its central questions are: What relationship should metaphysics have to current science? Must good metaphysics be responsive to current science, and if so, how? Why should metaphysics be naturalized and what should its naturalization consist in?

I argue, first, that for that for epistemic purposes, as opposed to heuristic or pragmatic purposes, theories should …

The Effects Of Presession Attention On The Acquisition Of Tacts And Intraverbals, Mirela Cengher

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined the effects of presession attention on the acquisition of tacts (Experiment 1) and intraverbals (Experiment 2) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. There were 3 conditions in each experiment. In the first 2 conditions, the experimenter first exposed the participants to a 15-min interval of either presession attention (PA) or no presession attention (NPA), then immediately conducted a teaching session. The third condition was a control condition, which involved no pressession interval or teaching procedures. The consequence for emitting tacts and intraverbals consisted of different forms of attention (e.g., praise and clapping). Across experiments, all participants acquired …

Physiological Correlates Of Affective Decision-Making In Anxiety And Depression, Louisa I. Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Improving our understanding of cognitive and physiological profiles in anxiety and depression has the potential to reveal novel ways to target and improve treatments for these prevalent mental health conditions. The present study examined the impact of self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms on three established decision-making measures, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART; Lejuez et al., 2002), and Game of Dice Task (GDT; Brand et al., 2005), in a diverse sample of 100 college students (age 18 to 35). Physiological measures of tonic heart rate variability and galvanic skin response …

The Transgenerational Transmission Of Emotion Regulation: The Effect Of Maternal Coping On Child Executive Functioning, Devon J. Harrison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a recognized link between maternal trauma history and adverse child outcomes, however the mechanisms underlying this intergenerational relationship are less clearly understood. Maternal emotion regulation, as measured by coping style, may help explain this cross-generational transmission, implicating the role of a mother’s coping in her child’s capacity to plan, attend, and self-inhibit. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the association between maternal coping style and child executive functioning (EF) in a sample of 188 urban mothers and their pre-adolescent and adolescent children. Data was analyzed from a larger cross-sectional and cross-generational study of maternal difficulties …

Cognitive And Affective Control Deficits In Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Melissa-Ann Mackie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cognitive control constrains mental operations to prioritize information that reaches conscious awareness and is essential to flexible, adaptive behavior under conditions of uncertainty. However, cognitive control can be compromised by neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is characterized by the presence of social and communicative deficits, and restricted interests/repetitive behaviors. Although prior investigations have attempted to elucidate the nature of cognitive control deficits in ASD, whether there is an underlying deficit in cognitive and affective control associated with the symptom domains of ASD remains unclear. The present series of eight experiments presents an information theoretic framework for …

Examining The Concurrent And Predictive Relations Of Working Memory In Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Ashley N. Simone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity which lead to impairment in multiple settings (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Childhood ADHD has been concurrently associated with various neurocognitive deficits and one in particular that has been under examination over the past several years is working memory (WM). WM is a temporary storage system that is responsible for maintenance and/or manipulation of information in order to complete complex cognitive and behavioral tasks. Researchers have postulated that WM is one of several potential endophenotypes of ADHD (Castellanos & Tannock, 2002) and/or that WM is …

Is It All Relative? Relative Pitch And L2 Lexical Tone Perception/Tone Language Comprehension By Adult Tone And Non-Tone Language Speakers, Sloane C. Von Wertz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Languages generally use musical pitch variation of the voice as part of their sound systems (Maddieson, 2011)—pitch variations that can be somewhat reminiscent of music. Music ability and/or training may influence language processing (e.g., Bidelman et al, 2011; Delogue et al, 2010). In particular, studies have concluded that there may be a relationship between absolute pitch and tone language acquisition (e.g., Lee, Lee, and Shi, 2011; Tillmann et al., 2011; Pfordresher and Brown, 2009). Other research has shown that fundamental frequency (F0) and F0 slope are crucial elements upon which native tone language speakers rely in tone perception (Guion and …

Community, Identity, And Tradition Within A Progressive Christian Congregation, James W. Skinner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Trends towards religious individualism, the de-institutionalization of religion, and the decline of denominational affiliations potentially impact religious congregations in a range of different ways. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and historical perspectives, this study examines these issues through a qualitative case study of a progressive Christian congregation in Brooklyn, New York. The case study explores the history, worship practices, and culture of the congregation in detail, focusing on the formation of religious identity and community within the context of congregational life. This close examination of the culture of the congregation reveals the ways in which the tensions between religious …

Perceptions Of Asian American And Female Leadership Candidates: The Impact Of Descriptive And Prescriptive Stereotyping, Jane I. Lim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although Asian Americans and women tend to be relatively well represented in professional roles, they continue to be underrepresented in executive-level leadership positions. This paper examined a combination of factors believed to contribute to the shortage of Asian American and female leaders in organizations – in particular, descriptive and prescriptive stereotyping. Thus, the current study examined how participants responded to an Asian American or White, male or female applicant being considered for a leadership role. All targets were qualified, but varied on levels of warmth and/or dominance. Overall, it was hypothesized that the Asian American and female candidates behaving counterstereotypically …

The New American Slavery: Capitalism And The Ghettoization Of American Prisons As A Profitable Corporate Business, David A. Liburd

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The labor of enslaved Africans and Black Americans played a large part in the history of colonial America, with the American plantation being the epicenter for all that was to be produced. While the two have never been completely tied together, capitalism and modern day slavery have been linked with one another. Some analysis sees slavery as a remote form of capitalism, a substitute, to an antiquated form of labor in the modern world.

Slave plantations adopted a new concentration in size and management, referred to by W.E. DuBois as a change "from a family institution to an industrial system."1 …