Digital Commons Network^™

The Strains Of Confessional Poetry: The Burdens, Blunders, And Blights Of Self-Disclosure, Lara Rossana Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When a provocative style of autobiographical verse had emerged in postwar America, literary critics christened the new genre “confessional poetry.” Confessional poets of the 1960s and ’70s are often characterized by scholars of contemporary poetry as a cohort of writers who, unlike previous generations before them, dared to explore in their work the personal and inherited traumas of mental illness, family suicides, failed marriages, and crushing addictions. As a result, the body of work these writers produced is often experienced as a collection of stylized, literary self-portraits. What can these self-portraits reveal to us about the connection between confessional poetry …

Identity In Sociocultural Context: Life Stories Of Korean Youth In New York City, Hannah Hyunkyung Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the increasing number of Korean immigrants and children of Korean parents in the United States, there has been a dearth of research on these youth. The identity of Korean American youth has gained even less attention despite of its developmental importance. This research started from a recognition that the identity of Korean American youth has never been studied through their life stories. Thus, the goal of this research was to understand the identity of Korean youth in New York City through their life stories. I investigated how their life stories developed and what influences affected their identities while growing …

The Remembrance Of Things Past: Does Self-Report Moderate The Impact Of Childhood Sexual Abuse On Long-Term Psychiatric Consequences?, Christina N. Massey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has shown that the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and psychiatric symptoms is quite varied, with some victims experiencing severe and lasting symptoms and others appearing well-adjusted. Disclosure of childhood sexual abuse has been associated with reduced psychiatric symptoms. Thus, the current study sought to examine the potential moderating effects of disclosure. It was hypothesized that disclosure of childhood maltreatment would be associated with fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and alcohol- and drug-related disorders and that this relationship between disclosure and psychiatric symptoms would remain consistent over time. In addition, it was hypothesized that the moderating effects …

Mandated Anger Management From The Perspective Of Violent Offenders, Cory M. Feldman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anger management is a mandated treatment for violent offenders (VOs) in Harlem, New York returning from prison under parole supervision. This dissertation asks VOs to describe their experiences with parole-mandated anger management (AM). The objectives of this research are to help illuminate the reasons why anger management is mandated for VOs and why, for some, mandated AM may be potentially harmful to their reintegration. To date, there have not been any studies exploring the role of AM for people on parole charged with violent offenses; the extant literature on AM provides neither formal evaluations nor long-term follow-up to indicate what …

The Versatile Singer: A Guide To Vibrato & Straight Tone, Danya Katok

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Straight tone is a valuable tool that can be used by singers of any style to both improve technical ideals, such as resonance and focus, and provide a starting point for transforming the voice to meet the stylistic demands of any genre. By employing a resonant, minimally vibrated, balanced sound as the core of the voice, the versatile singer can stylistically unbalance the voice by layering colors and effects in ways appropriate for many types of singing. In order to fully understand the inner workings of vibrato and how it can be healthily minimized, my discussion of vibrato and straight …

Dialogic Faiths: Multi-Genre Expression In Religious Narrative, Rosemary L. Demos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As persuasive or expository texts, religious conversion narratives tend towards monologic language, and texts that advocate one particular creed or institution often reflect the unity of faith through linguistically totalizing methods. This study, however, examines the dialogic interactions found in certain religious narratives. The texts included in this analysis recount unusual conversion outcomes: not to formally established church institutions, but rather to a heightened religious experience and in some cases a call to leadership in establishing new social orders. In these texts, the dynamic between personal and communal religious experience is tense, sometimes precarious; the difficulties of engaging in social …

Genres Of Feminist Lives: Autobiography, Archives, And Community, 1970-1983, Meredith A. Benjamin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The desire to record lives and the conviction that such recordings would serve an important purpose for other women were the motivations behind much of the autobiographical writing in U.S. feminist writing of the 1970s and 80s. In Genres of Feminist Lives: Autobiography, Archives, and Community, 1970-1983, I argue that feminist writers in this period used autobiographical writing to create a sense of community among their readers: a new feminist public. Realizing the inadequacy of a sense of identification, these writers encouraged their audiences, in the words of Audre Lorde, to transform silence into language and action. While scholars …

Possible Underlying Mechanisms Of Hyperactivity In Children With Adhd, Nicole Feirsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Conceptualizations of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have evolved significantly over the years. Historically, early conceptualizations of ADHD described hyperactivity as the core symptom of the disorder. However, when the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was published (1980), hyperactivity became a specific qualifier of the disorder and was no longer necessary for a diagnosis. Despite this shift in conceptualization of the disorder, there is an abundance of empirical evidence, both recent and historical, supporting the fact that hyperactivity is an enduring and clinically impairing symptom domain in ADHD. Despite having numerous validated instruments available to …

Normalization Policies With Cuba: Implications For Political And Economic Reform, Ramona N. Khan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For longer than the past half century, the relationship between the United States and Cuba has been one of antagonism, mistrust, betrayal, hostility and defiance. Decades of mutual hostility arising from Cuba’s post revolution adoption of an economic system that emulated that of the Soviet Union, along with the long history of U.S. interference in Cuba’s domestic and international affairs that predated the Castro revolution and continued afterward, have resulted in this rancorous relationship. Cuba’s move to communism shortly after the Castro regime came to power was regarded as a threat to both democracy and capitalism by the United States, …

Cognitive And Affective Aspects Of Personality And Academic Procrastination: The Role Of Personal Agency, Flow, And Executive Function, Marc Graff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic procrastination is a prevalent issue that affects school-related and other experiences of many students, with some studies identifying as many as a third of college students sampled as‘severe’ procrastinators. This study investigated some of the factors previous studies have identified as potential contributors to procrastinating in the academic arena. In defining procrastination as a self-regulation issue, it is proposed that distinct executive function processes play a role in one’s efforts at academic task engagement and completion and resisting the tendency to procrastinate on these tasks. It is also proposed that the frequency with which one experiences ‘flow’, a state …

Ten Etudes For Solo Cello By Sofia Gubaidulina, Julia A. Biber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sofia Gubaidulina is regarded as one of the most original and highly respected voices in contemporary music today. Her use of the Fibonacci and its related series to structure her compositions has become a defining feature of her music and, therefore, most analysis has focused on pieces that incorporate this method, which she calls “rhythm of form.” Consequently, works written prior to her adoption of this method have garnered much less analytical attention. However, in her earlier works­––from the late 1960s through the early 80s––Gubaidulina not only explores new sounds and colors, but also found creative ways to structure these …

The Effects Of Alpha Oscillations On Touch Perception And Visuo-Tactile Integration, Lei Ai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous studies have shown that touch perception and visuo-tactile integration have large inter-subject/intra-subject variations. For example, touch perception varies across trials and the temporal binding windows of visuo-tactile integration varies across subjects. I hypothesized that the variations might be due to the change of power, phase and peak frequency of brain alpha oscillations. In the first set of experiments, I examined whether the power and phase of alpha oscillations predict successful conscious touch perception. Near-threshold tactile stimuli were applied to the left hand while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity and fast signal optical imaging were recorded over the somatosensory cortex. Alpha power …

Thiscollegestory.Com: How Interactive Writing Media Influenced The Way First-Year Students Made Sense Of Their College Transition, Philip Kreniske

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing on insights from Bakhtin (1986) that demonstrated the significance of writing as an interaction, and building on recent developments in narrative analysis that offer insights into narrator’s sense making processes (Daiute, 2014; Lucic, 2013); this research explores how freshmen in an educational opportunity program used interactive writing media to make sense of their transition to college. The exploration involved three main questions and each question concerns students’ development over time:

• First, did college students’ writing in two different media (blogs and word-processed text) differ and did these differences change over time?
• Second, how did the narrators and audience interact …

A Convenient Myopia: Seek, Shaughnessy, And The Rise Of High-Stakes Testing At Cuny, Sean Molloy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A great struggle for racial justice was fought at City College and CUNY from 1964 to 1978. In this archival history, supplemented with thirteen oral histories of students and teachers, and grounded in the larger context of racial segregation and exclusion within American public education and American higher education through 1970, I argue that this larger struggle for justice should be seen as two distinct but intertwined struggles that had very different results. Throughout this history, I focus on individual teachers and students who either played key roles or whose experiences illustrate aspects of the larger issues. Some of their …

Radical Interiorities, Aesthetic Selves: Charlotte Brontë, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Miciah Hussey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In her essay “On Being Ill” (1926), Virginia Woolf writes “We do not know our own souls, let alone the souls of others…There is a virgin forest in each; a snowfield where even the print of birds' feet is unknown.” My dissertation explores how the novel’s attempts to represent this inherently intimate and estranging “virgin forest” also test its formal limitations. From free indirect discourse to stream of consciousness, the development of the novel is marked by different modes of reproducing inner life that push beyond the boundaries of historical, social, and physiognomic indices. I argue that these narrative and …

Early Relational Experiences And Poor Psychological And Social Outcomes As Mediated By Internalized Heterosexism In Sexual Minority Women: Illustration Of A Theoretical Model, Katharine Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has indicated that LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) individuals are at elevated risk for psychopathology when compared with their heterosexual peers, a finding that was highlighted in the Institute of Medicine’s report on The Health of LGBT People (Cochran & Mays, 2000; Cochran et al., 2003; IOM, 2011; King et al., 2008). Sexual minorities and sexual minority couples also have been found to have greater romantic relationship difficulties than heterosexual peers (Balsam & Szymanski, 2005; Frost & Meyer, 2009; Mays, Cochran, & Roeder, 2003; Meyer & Dean, 1998; Otis et al., 2006; Spencer & Brown, 2007). Therefore, this study targeted …

Transactive Knowledge Systems, Shared Leadership Style, And Team Effectiveness, Christine L. Baker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines relationships between transactive memory and transactive knowledge systems, shared leadership style, and team effectiveness. Transactive memory as mediator, perspective-taking and motivation as moderators, and temporal development of transactive memory are also examined. Two studies tested an IMOI model of relationships in a longitudinal field study of students in teams and in an on-line cross-sectional sample of working adults in the United States. Study 1 and 2 provided support for shared leadership style as predictive of transactive memory, and for shared leadership style and transactive memory as predictive of team effectiveness. Both studies support transactive memory and transactive …

The Critical Social Ecology Of Student Success In Higher Education: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study Of Undergraduates' Experiences And Outcomes At The City University Of New York (Cuny), Leigh Shebanie Mccallen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ensuring success in higher education among historically underserved students is integral to social equity and mobility in the United States today. Scholars have called for research examining the complexity of factors determining educational pathways of students encountering circumstances that hinder progress toward a college degree in the context of broad-access public four-year universities and two-year community colleges, institutions most affected by declining federal and state support for higher education. The current research proposed a multidisciplinary applied model of underserved college student success to examine factors constraining and promoting the educational outcomes and social opportunities of undergraduate low-income, first in family …

Physiological Regulation, Psychosocial Adversity, And Proactive Versus Reactive Aggression: A Longitudinal Study, Wei Zhang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Two types of aggression in children and adolescents have been identified: reactive aggression (RA) and proactive aggression (PA). Despite the accumulating evidence suggesting differential temperamental, behavioral, cognitive, social-environmental, and neurobiological correlates in relation to the two types of aggression, no study has examined emotion regulation in children with RA vs. PA using psychophysiological approaches. In this study a sample of eight to 10 years old children participated in an emotion regulation task in which they were required to either induce or inhibit their emotions. They also reported their aggressive behavior using the Reactive-Proactive Aggression questionnaire (RPQ; Raine et al., 2006). …

Puccini’S Love Duets And The Unfolding Of Time, Kae Fujisawa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the twenty love duets of Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). It analyzes the ways in which Puccini manipulates poetic-dramatic and musical elements to represent the naturalistic ebb and flow of emotions, reflecting changing cultural approaches to time and the closely related moral controversy between “respectability” and “free passion.” My analysis draws upon two models: the solita forma de’ duetti and Henri Bergson’s philosophy of time. The solita forma principles provide the structural framework for assessing Puccini’s creativity in historical context. Bergson’s philosophy of time provides an aesthetic and experiential framework for illuminating Puccini’s constant quest for a naturalistic emotional …

An Erp Study Of Sensory-Linguistic Processing In The Context Of Asd Research, Larissa R. Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis considers the questions of what is hindering the language development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Tomasello’s (2003) theory of language development by use necessitates adequate pattern recognition, intention reading and use for language development. Within these areas there are many variables where language acquisition could become derailed, from basic attention, perception and memory to higher cognitive functions, as well as processing speed and synchronization. Although there is a wide range of language abilities for children on the autism spectrum, the one consistently under developed area is pragmatics. One of the key aspects of pragmatic processing is …

The Effects Of Goal Orientation And Learning Strategies On Managerial Job Performance, Raphael Y. Prager

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model of the role of informal managerial learning processes in predicting job performance. Using Goal Orientation (GO) as a framework, this study tested the relationships between dispositional GO, learning strategies, and organizational and managerial support in relation to job performance. Participants were 143 employees across several global regions in an insurance firm. Overall, path analyses indicated that dispositional mastery GO was positively associated with learning strategies and job performance. Contrary to hypotheses, the learning strategies did not positively predict job performance. Differential effects were found for the influence of organizational …

An Analysis Of The Organizational Structures Of New Types Of Children's Associations In Relation To Changing Views Of Children's Capacities As Citizens, Bijan Kimiagar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this study is to learn how new types of children’s associations around the world are organizing themselves and how their organizational structures reflect contemporary understandings of children’s capacities as citizens. The purpose is to identify different types and qualities of participatory children’s associations and how each affords opportunities for children to exercise their right to freedom of association, develop capacities for self-governance in groups, and promote the principles of inclusion (non-discrimination) and equity (fairness). To this end, I document and analyze diagrams of organizational structures that members of different children’s associations created during the Article 15 Project …

Falling Forward: Continuity And Change In The Poetics Of Eden, Julie L. Gafney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation suggests that late fourteenth century vernacular poetry in Middle English takes up the idea of a secular Eden by which various non-normative theorizations of time and self are made possible. The invocation of a rich and multifarious Eden may be effectively understood through its relationship to the psychoanalytic theorization of origins by which Eden’s powerful potentiality for therapeutic or at least revelatory growth is inherent in its availability for processes of cyclical return. The present study will attempt to redress the tendency to treat Eden only as a fall and thereby gain a better understanding of the modes …

Negotiating And Navigating Invisible Food Deserts: An Exploratory Study On Foodways Of Adults On The Autism Spectrum, Jungja Park Cardoso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I explored foodways of adults on the autism spectrum in order to understand how they negotiate and navigate their food environments. Foodways are beliefs and practices involved in food production, preparation, distribution and consumption (Counihan 2008). In an effort to hear marginalized voices in autism discourse, I conducted an online survey and interviews in modes chosen by participants to accommodate the communication needs of a wide range of autistic adults. The primary participants were highly educated adults with a formal autism diagnosis (n = 23) and self-diagnosed adults (n = 6). Out of the 29 autistic participants who …

Educational Histories Of Newcomer Immigrant Youth: From Countries Of Origin To The United States, Joanna Yip

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation details the educational histories and linguistic portraits of newcomer immigrant youth in their countries of origin, and provided accounts of their academic trajectories after arrival in the United States. The data provide evidence of poor quality instruction, particularly in literacy, and educational environments in low-income sending countries. The study shows that prior schooling experiences in the country of origin have an impact on school readiness, the degree to which immigrant youth are prepared for education in secondary classrooms in the U.S. The dissertation also provides an analysis of how pre-migration education interacts with educational performance after immigration, leading …

Sounds In The Marketplace: Consumer Reactions To Ambient And Product Sounds, Lauren Mayor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The presence of sounds in the marketplace can be an important driver of customer behavior. To date, the academic literature on sounds in the marketplace has typically focused on how properties of ambient sound, such as volume, pitch, and tempo affect consumer response in terms of consumption speed, quantity, and evaluations. With my research, I fill a gap in the literature on marketplace sounds by exploring how the presence (versus absence) of sound, both in ambient retail environments and embedded in products themselves, can influence spatial estimates, which in turn affects purchase intent and consumption. Specifically, I demonstrate that ambient …

Feminine Ideology, Relational Self-Concept, And Internalizing Symptoms In Women, Anjali George

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Investigators have theorized that women may experience internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety more frequently than men in part because of unique socialization processes that women undergo. One aspect of early socialization thought to contribute to women’s propensity for depression and anxiety is the way women are brought up to relate to themselves in relation to others, often placing greater importance on the needs, desires, and value of others, at times at a psychological cost to themselves. This study attempts to elucidate the relationship between gender socialization, relational self-concept, and internalizing symptoms in women.

Methods: Two hundred and …

Integral Theory, Positive Psychology, And Sacred Texts Of The World: A New Philosophy Of Education For The 21st Century, Muhammad Naeem

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis puts into sharp focus the nature of war, violence, and conflict in contemporary societies through interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, contextual, textual, political and historical prisms. Echoing my existential angst, as a meaning-seeking student of life, the thesis also examines the predicaments, quandaries and the resultant miasma in order to understand the fundamental causes behind violence in the human condition. The thesis also attempts to demonstrate the paradoxical and deeply humane scope for peace along with the pursuit of what is true, good, and beautiful, and a realization of a higher order consciousness, knowing and being, and moral thinking, with an …

La Quebrada Y La Costa Peruanas En Voces Narrativas A Mediados Del Siglo Xx: María Rosa Macedo Y Sara María Larrabure, Ricardo N. Fernández

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Each of the two female writers at the crux of this dissertation, María Rosa Macedo (1909-1991) and Sara María Larrabure (1921-1962), wrote an unparalleled novel: respectively, Rastrojo (1944) and Rioancho (1949). Their primary and complementary narratives overlap in the sociocultural, historical and political context of the first half of 20^th-century Peru. This study proposes to demonstrate how the given premise of their link, particularly in portraying the coastal region they both know intimately, is in line with what Antonio Cornejo Polar (1989) calls "La totalidad literaria como totalidad social". To what extent these two authors contribute to such …