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Intimate Partner Violence, Supervisor Support And Work Outcomes For Low-Wage Workers, Nanette Lucia Yragui

Dissertations and Theses

The workplace is a setting where women in abusive relationships can potentially access information and support to resolve the violence in their lives. This study addresses a critical need for data-based knowledge about how supervisors can effectively support employees experiencing intimate partner violence. The dissertation study examines supervisor support congruency (i.e., the match between support wanted and received) and work outcomes for Latina and non-Latina, abused women. Specifically, I examine which supervisor support measures best predict work outcomes for abused, low-wage, employees. In addition, I evaluate the criterion validity and reliability of a behavioral measure of wanted and received supervisor …

Work-Related Outcomes Of Financial Stress: Relating Perceived Income Adequacy And Financial Strain To Job Performance And Worker Well-Being, Lindsay Ellen Sears

Dissertations and Theses

With the onset of globalization, the economic contexts and working conditions within many countries are changing, presenting new challenges' for governments, organizations, and workers. Amid these challenges, concerns about personal finances are prevalent among employees and detrimental to workers' health, well-being, and families. Research on how this financial stress affects employees at work is lacking.

In this thesis, I propose an appraisal-based model of financial stress whereby actual income and expenses are related to perceptions of income adequacy to afford wants and needs. These adequacy perceptions are, in turn, related to financial strain, representing a heightened negative affective state regarding …

Benchmarking Community Investments In Green Building And Green Buying Programs In Five U.S. Cities, Shanna Nicole Eller

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study of what can be learned from leading U.S. cities about their work on environmental sustainability program efforts and what that information suggests for other cities considering a move into the environmental sustainability arena. The study focuses on green building and buying programs.

This is an exploratory study aimed at determining if detailed information, recommended for pursuit by Portney (2003), is available regarding: (a) how individual city sustainability programs got started; (b) how they maintain or fail to maintain themselves; (c) what they have been able to achieve programmatically; and (d) how effectively they have accomplished environmental …

A Grounded Agent Model Of The Consumer Technology Adoption Process, Brent Alan Zenobia

Dissertations and Theses

Adoption is one of the most important concepts in the diffusion of innovations (DOI) literature, yet certain aspects of it are poorly understood. In particular, causal adoption process theory (CAPT) has been stagnant for decades and seldom subjected to critical scrutiny. In consequence, DOI research is unstable – different studies identify different factors as important.

This dissertation introduces grounded agent modeling, a hybrid methodology drawing on existing software engineering and social science techniques to construct a step-by-step explanation of how consumers make technology adoption decisions. Inductive case studies, grounded theory, and sequence analysis are used to investigate transportation mode adoption …

Physicians Providing Alternative Medicine: Boundary Crossing And The Emergence Of Integrative Medicine, Richard Scott Lockwood

Dissertations and Theses

Integrative medicine (IM) has organized as a new area of specialization in mainstream healthcare. The development of IM is widely attributed to popular demand for the range of therapies known collectively as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). During the 1990's the rate of acceptance of CAM accelerated among consumers, professions, financing and education. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) measured CAM utilization and professional service provision during the years 1996 and 1998, but never since. These surveys were unique because they specifically inquired as to whether CAM was provided by a physician, among other types of professionals. This dissertation defines …

Sustainability From The Perspectives Of Indigenous Leaders In The Bioregion Defined By The Pacific Salmon Runs Of North America, David Edward Hall

Dissertations and Theses

Extensive research suggests that the collective behavior of humanity is on an unsustainable path. As the evidence mounts and more people awaken to this reality, increased attention is being dedicated to the pursuit of answers for a just and sustainable future. This dissertation grew from the premise that effectively moving towards sustainability requires change at all levels of the dominant Western culture, including deeply held worldviews. The worldviews of many indigenous cultures offer alternative values and beliefs that can contribute to addressing the root causes of problems related to sustainability. In the bioregion defined by the Pacific Salmon runs of …

Pre-Service Science Teacher Sense Of Self In Developing Multicultural Practice, Yuki Marie Monteith

Dissertations and Theses

The development of multicultural science teaching practices is becoming more crucial as the student population in public schools becomes more diverse. Multicultural teaching practices are even more important when disparities in science achievement can be delimited by racial, ethnic or cultural affiliation. Using a phenomenological perspective, this study explored science pre-service teachers' sense of self after a year of teacher education. Content analysis of themes arising from the study identified three areas specific to their sense of self: (a) the unconscious influence of beliefs about science culture, (b) the fundamental beliefs of the U.S. middle class, and (c) superficial beliefs …

Attributes Of Effective Head Start Mental Health Consultants : A Mixed Method Study Of Rural And Urban Programs, Mary Dallas Allen

Dissertations and Theses

Early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) is the primary strategy implemented by Head Start programs to address the social and emotional needs of children and their families, but little is known about the attributes of early childhood mental health consultants (MHCs) that contribute to consultants' relationships with Head Start staff and to consultation outcomes. The present study examined how attributes of MHCs contribute to positive relationships between the MHCs and Head Start staff and to improved consultation outcomes. Seven attributes of rural and urban mental health consultants were examined: MHC training, supervision, and support; MHC understanding of consultant role; MHC …

Creating A Theoretical Framework For Understanding Homeland Security Using Multiple Frame Analysis, Linda Ann Kiltz

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to begin the effort to build a theoretical foundation for homeland security policy by analyzing the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack using multiple frame analysis (MFA). MFA consisted of three conceptual lenses: (I)-Homeland Security as a Criminal Justice Problem/Terrorism as Crime, (II)-Homeland Security as a International Relations Problem/Terrorism as War, and (III)-Homeland Security as an Organization Design Problem/Terrorism as a Network. These lenses were applied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing using a case study methodology, thus creating a framework to analyze a singular critical event from multiple perspectives.

This research was …

Children With Incarcerated Parents : A Longitudinal Study Of The Effect Of Parental Incarceration On Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors, Jean Mollenkamp Kjellstrand

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past two decades, the number of imprisoned adults in the United States has quadrupled. Mirroring this trend is the rapidly increasing population of children with incarcerated parents. The initial findings of research on the effects of parental incarceration on children are disturbing, indicating a vulnerable group of children at risk for poor outcomes. Yet, research on these children remains limited. Several studies have focused on the description of these children, yet few have analyzed the relationship between parental incarceration and child outcomes in conjunction with other risk and protective factors. Understanding these relationships is crucial to the development …

George Lakoff"S Theory Of Worldview : A Case Study Of The Oregon Legislature, Catherine Law

Dissertations and Theses

George Lakoff's theory of worldview presented in Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (2002) has been a topic of interest and discussion in certain political and academic circles. To date, however, it appears that no empirical test of his theory exists. In this dissertation, Lakoff's theory of worldview is explored, using the Oregon Legislature as a case study. A survey instrument to test his theory was created and administered to members of the 2005-2006 Oregon House of Representatives. Cluster analysis and chi-square analysis were used in the data analysis to examine how well Lakoff's theory explains politics. It was …

Lost In Translation : Ideas Of Population Health Determinants In The American Policy Arena, Maria Gilson Sistrom

Dissertations and Theses

A growing body of research reveals the determinants of population health to be social, political and economic, yet health policy in the United States remains largely individualistic (Evans, Barer, & Marmor, 1994). At the same time research is revealing these structural determinants of health, measures of population health in the United States are worsening in comparison to other developed countries (Bezruchka, 2001). Explanations for this include the influence of culture, medical, public health and governmental institutions and historic development and processes on health policy. Researchers hold to a view of the policy process that is informed by science, yet policy …

"Railcars Loaded With Crisp Fresh Vegetables" A Study Of Agriculture At The Tule Lake Relocation Center 1942-1946, Michael David Schmidli

Dissertations and Theses

In the Spring and Summer of 1942, the population of West Coast Japanese were rounded up and forcibly moved from their homes to temporary camps and soon after to ten permanent relocation camps in the interior Western United States. This thesis traces the history of one such camp, the Tule Lake Relocation Center. In this thesis I argue that from its inception the Tule Lake Center was unique among the ten camps. The decision to build a permanent center at Tule Lake was based upon the unique potential the area provided for agriculture on a huge scale. The other permanent …

Immigrant Students And The College Classroom Climate In Higher Education, Becky Appley Boesch

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, the immigrant population in the U.S. has increased dramatically. This increase has caused educational institutions to try to understand this population and their needs in order to aid in their academic success. While this awareness has surfaced in K-12 education, higher education continues, partly because of a lack of research on these students, to render these students and their needs insignificant. While this paper cannot begin to explore all the questions needed to be answered in terms of this population, it can provide an initial glimpse into one important aspect of education for the immigrant, the university …

Organizational Change In Corrections Organizations : The Effect Of Probation And Parole Officer Culture On Change In Community Corrections, Shea Brackin Marshman

Dissertations and Theses

Current trends in the field of community corrections make it necessary for administrators to consider innovative organizational change strategies to increase public safety. However, criminal justice administrators face pressure to maintain the status quo even as they are expected to produce successful outcomes through innovative practices. The broader implication is that administrators will have to develop proficiencies in the interpretation of theoretical concepts to make meaningful decisions about how best to use scarce resources to measure organizational variables. This research uses a case study of one community corrections organization to demonstrate how administrators in community corrections might make use of …

Long Form Improvisation - Creating Spontaneous Communities Through Collaborative Comedic Performance, Brad Fortier

Dissertations and Theses

Improvisational theater can tell us much about the driving social and cultural forces behind collaboration and collective constructions of reality, as well as the sorts of behaviors and practices that bolster their efficacy. The collaboration of the performers on generating a comedic piece of theater spontaneously from audience suggestions in a long improvisation creates a sense of what Victor Turner called communitas for the performers. That phenomenon can create a larger sense of socio-emotional unity between the audience and performers. Turning an anthropological lens on comedy theater, this presentation explores the performer-audience dynamic and its impact on the success of …

The Use And Interpretation Of The Batería Iii With U.S. Bilinguals, Julie Esparza Brown

Dissertations and Theses

Within each classroom, many children excel academically while others struggle. Some students' difficulties are such that they require placement into educational programs different from grade level core and perhaps delivered outside of general education classrooms. For many, special education programs are the lifeline to reach their innate potential. For others misplaced into special education, their opportunities may be truncated. For the past 40 years (Dunn, 1968), disproportionate representation of minority children in some disability categories has been a problem. Educators commonly ask "Is a child's difficulties due to language differences or a learning disability?" One key area of confusion relates …

James Abbott Mcneill Whistler: Photographs Of His Paintings And The Art Of Photography, Hiroko Suda

Dissertations and Theses

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) is an important figure in the development of art photography. His lyrical and atmospheric images were not only admired by modernist painters, but also influenced many photographers who aspired to be artists. His treatment of the subject matter, careful selection of paper, and arduous printing process gave profound inspiration to many of the early twentieth century photographers.

Nonetheless, Whistler's own attitude towards the medium of photography was quite elusive. He never took the camera seriously as a tool of his artistic expression and photography was never included in his oeuvre. The artist never explained his …

Buried : Unearthing The Secrets Of Oregon Truffles, Lucy Burningham

Dissertations and Theses

Heady, rich and mood-altering, truffles have inspired quixotic legends, bizarre crimes and gluttonous consumption for hundreds, even thousands of years. For as long as humans have known about the strange, bulbous fungi that grow underground, they have found truffles fascinating, mysterious and persuasive. Expert at the art of luring people and animals through scent alone, truffles beg to be found.

Heady, rich and mood-altering, truffles have inspired quixotic legends, bizarre crimes and gluttonous consumption for hundreds, even thousands of years. For as long as humans have known about the strange, bulbous fungi that grow underground, they have found truffles fascinating, …

Psychological Detachment As A Moderator In Work-Family Conflict Relationships, Lauren Ann Murphy

Dissertations and Theses

Psychological detachment from work during off-job time has great significance in the field of Occupational Health Psychology because it affects the process of work recovery. Recovery from work helps people to achieve a work-life balance that leads to psychological health and general well-being.

Staying Within The Margins: The Educational Stories Of First-Generation, Low-Income College Students, Diane Lyn Cole

Dissertations and Theses

his research addressed educational persistence among first-generation, low-income college students. The educational paths of 22 first-generation, low-income undergraduate students attending a large, urban university in the Northwest region of the United States were examined through a narrative framework. Half of the participants had persisted from year one to year two, and the other half left the university after their first year. Analytic procedures consisted of thematic qualitative coding, an analysis of student trajectories over educational histories, and the reconstruction of narrative stories. Data were used to examine: (1) How first-generation, low-income students understood and described their journey through their first …

Islamophobia And The U.S. Media, Michelle Maria Nichole Diamond

Dissertations and Theses

The following paper examines the growing fear and discrimination currently projected towards Islam and Muslims in the United States. This thesis will specifically focus on what role the U.S. mainstream media has played in either increasing or decreasing Islamophobia amongst the American public post September 11, 2001. The research collected to conduct this study came from theories of political science, conflict resolution, international affairs, psychology, sociology, and personal interviews. I conclude that Islamophobia has increased in the United States since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and that Islamophobia, due to the mainstream media, is more pervasive in the U.S. …

Prediction Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis From Psychosocial Questionnaires, Scott David Mist

Dissertations and Theses

Astonishingly, most Traditional Chinese Medicine (CM) research in the West proceeds without CM diagnoses, perhaps because CM diagnosis is time consuming or not considered relevant. One way to improve the feasibility of incorporating CM diagnosis would be to prescreen participants using questionnaires. This would allow cost savings in recruitment, and balancing of treatments by CM diagnosis. Consequently, the hypothesis of this research was that pre-treatment questionnaires can predict CM diagnosis.

Baseline questionnaires from 195 participants with temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) were examined to test the hypothesis. Two methods, logistic regression (LR) and reconstructability analysis (RA), were used in conjunction to …

"Creative Interpretation And Fluidity In A Rights Framework": The Intersection Of Domestic Violence And Human Rights In The United States, Karen Lynn Morgaine

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the manner in which leaders working in the domestic violence field in the US have or have not adopted a human rights framework and what impact this has had on domestic violence policy and intervention. Participants included leaders from national domestic violence and human rights organizations. These organizations are instrumental in developing policy and in framing the issues of domestic violence and human rights, many of which also work with specific racial and ethnic populations. Some of the primary research questions included: If the human rights discourse is being put to practical use within the US, how …

"Questions About Stuff You Don't Normally See On A Map:" A Study Of Sixth-Graders' Abilities To Understand Quantitative Thematic Maps, Stephanie Lynn Gaspers

Dissertations and Theses

Middle school students work with many types of maps in school, however most maps they use are qualitative thematic maps that only show differences in kind as compared to quantitative thematic maps that show differences in amounts. This thesis investigates sixth-grade students' abilities to analyze three types of thematic maps: dot maps, choropleth maps, and graduated circle maps. Two hundred and two Oregon sixth-graders were tested on their abilities to interpret map symbology, make inferences from the data, categorize values into regions, and ask geographic questions concerning data distributions. The results indicate that students can understand these three quantitative thematic …

Workplace Cognitive Failure As A Mediator Between Work-Family Conflict And Safety Performance, Rachel Jane Daniels

Dissertations and Theses

The main goal of this thesis was to examine the effects of family-to-work conflict on safety performance. Data were collected from a sample of 134 employees, consisting primarily of construction workers. Results found that levels of conflict from the family role to the work role negatively affected participants' workplace cognitive failure, or cognitively based errors that occur during the performance of a task that the person is normally successful in executing. Workplace cognitive failure, in turn, was a significant predictor of levels ofsafety performance, both employees' compliance with safety procedures and the extent to which they participated in discretionary safety-related …

Shift Work In The Long-Termcare Industry : An Examination Of Organizational And Individual Factors That Influence Employee Outcomes, Kristin Elizabeth Charles

Dissertations and Theses

The long-term care (LTC) industry provides medical and social services in facility-based settings to the elderly, chronically ill, and disabled. With the aging of the United States population, the need for LTC workers is expected to drastically increase in the next decade. However, the industry faces a significant staffing shortage. One potential cause of staffing problems in LTC is working non-standard work schedules. Because of the need to provide around the clock care, LTC employees often work non-standard shifts, long hours, night work, and over weekends and holidays. Although many studies have examined health and sleep-related outcomes associated with non-standard …

Perspectives On An Arts Magnet School : The Voices Of Elementary School Children, Denise Robles-Torres

Dissertations and Theses

Since the beginning of public school as a social institution early in the nineteenth century, the voices of children have been missing from the discussion about school. From the progressive era to the current standards based movement, structures of education have been premised on the ideas of what adults think are the best ways for children to learn. But educators and other adults are recognizing the importance of student perspectives by providing children opportunities to participate in critical reflection about school. By including children of all ages in this discussion, educators, policy makers and researchers may begin to examine their …

Family-Friendly Workplace Culture, Flexibility, And Workplace Support For Dependent Care : The Perspectives Of Human Resource Professionals, Katherine June Huffstutter

Dissertations and Theses

Integration of family responsibilities and employment demands is challenging for all families, but particularly for those families with extraordinary care requirements of children with mental health disabilities. Utilization of workplace supports, such as flexible work arrangements, has been identified in the work-family literature as an important indicator of organizational responsiveness to employee's family needs (Allen, 2001; Eaton, 2003; Hammer, Neal, Newsom, Brockwood, & Colton, 2005; Secret, 2000). A better understanding of which organizational conditions may improve utilization of available family-friendly supports by employees caring for children with mental health disorders can improve work-life integration for these families. This study examines …

From Prison To The Community : The Role Of Citizen Participation In Female Prisoner Reentry, Dana Roderick Torrey

Dissertations and Theses

Growing attention is being given to the design of programs for female prisoners to assist their successful reentry into the community upon the completion of their incarceration. However, current programs have been largely designed and implemented with the goal of seeking parolee compliance through mandatory rules and practices. Little emphasis is placed on preparing inmates to assume their duties as citizens and active participants in the lives of their community. In short, existing programs pay little attention to the importance of creating what I call for purposes of this study, “citizen participation”.

This study tests the importance of developing a …