Digital Commons Network^™

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Teachers' Attributional Tendencies And Gender Bias Towards Failing Students With Learning Disabilities, Polly Chalette

Dissertations and Theses

Student characteristics, such as sex, race, and socioeconomic status, have been found to influence teachers' perceptions of students and their patterns of interaction with them in the classroom. Behavior and achievement also has been shown to influence a teacher's perceptions. When teachers have been asked for evaluative comments and their expectations for future performance of a student, they have stated ability and effort as their explanations. This study will use the principles of Weiner's attribution theory dealing with success and failure in order to examine teachers' attributional tendencies towards a hypothetical student.

This study intends to examine the degree to …

The Antiquities Act Of 1906: The Public Response To The Use Of Presidential Power In Managing Public Lands, Barbara L. Grover

Dissertations and Theses

President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on September 17, 1996. The Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the president power to establish national monuments on public lands through presidential proclamation. The Act has been used to create national monuments in places such as Muir Woods, Grand Canyon, Mount Olympus, Jackson Hole, and the 1978 Alaskan d-2 lands. Its use has also produced negative public response, manifested as demonstrations, lawsuits, and congressional bills.

In spite of significant legal and legislative challenges, the Antiquities Act and most of the monuments established through its use remain. The negative public response to the Act …

Returning Women's Workshop And Retention Of Returning Women Students, Kimberly E. Lamb

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis investigates the retention of returning adult women students by examining: 1) demographic and motivational backgrounds of women who attend a university Returning Women's Workshop and women who do not; 2) retention, bonding, and support measures for the two groups of women; 3) student evaluations of the various Workshop components. The thesis also describes the history of the Workshop and the Women's Study Program.

A telephone survey was conducted of women who either participated in the Returning Women's Workshop or attended the University during the same selected years. All the women surveyed were over the age of 24 and …

Illegal Drug Use During Pregnancy: The Effects Of Defendant Race And Type Of Defense On Juror Judgments Of Guilt, Anita Rotondo

Dissertations and Theses

Since the early 1980s fetal harm "caused" by women's illegal drug use during pregnancy has garnered public attention and legal scrutiny. Motivated by concerns over fetal health, the cost of caring for drug-addicted infants, and public support for get tough on crime policies, various states have employed statutes on child abuse, neglect or endangerment, delivering a controlled substance to a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor to criminally inculpate maternal drug users.

Utilizing a written hypothetical trial summary in which a woman was charged with child abuse for using cocaine while pregnant, this research explored the effects …

An Evaluation Of A Staff Mentor Program For At-Risk Students In An Oregon High School: Cake (Caring About Kids Effectively), Gail Lenore Hayes

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the effect of a staff-mentoring program with students identified as at-risk of becoming early leavers. This mentoring program, Caring About Kids Effectively (CAKE), was implemented at a suburban secondary school in Oregon serving grades 9 through 12.

The study of the CAKE program had four research components: (a) indicators of school success (GPA, attendance, and attitudes toward school) were compared between at-risk students and those not at-risk; (b) indicators of school success were analyzed over the time at-risk students were mentored to find any significant change; (c) indicators of school success and enrollment status at graduation was …

Technology-Enhanced Presentations In Large Classrooms : Effects On Adult Academic Achievement And Computer Attitudes, Pamela Rae Hilberg

Dissertations and Theses

Rising enrollments and budget restrictions are resulting in larger class sizes which can lead to difficulties with learning. Computer technology has been suggested as a tool that may help overcome some of these difficulties. Research on outcomes is important to find ways that technology may be used by instructors to help students with information processing (Gagne & Driscoll, 1988), and to see if the financial commitment required for integrating educational technology is warranted.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the academic achievement and computer attitudes of students in courses taught with traditional presentations and technology-enhanced presentations taught …

The Stigma Of Obesity : Beliefs About And Attitudes Toward Fat/Obese Persons, Sally Jean Clute

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the relationship between beliefs about and attitudes toward fat/obese persons, specifically in regard to issues of attribution and perceived responsibility for the physical condition. The purpose of the research is to assess the extent to which fat/obese persons are derogated, given whether or not they are perceived to be held responsible for their fatness/obesity. It utilizes attribution theory (Heider, 1958; Jones & Davis, 1965; Kelley, 1967; Weiner, 1986), in particular, internal locus of control and issues of consensus and distinctiveness (Kelley, 1967) and controllability (Weiner, 1986). The main hypothesis is that fat/obese people will be viewed more …

Enculturing Nature, William Lloyd Cornett

Dissertations and Theses

Human activity is embedded within a myriad of seldom-acknowledged ecological relationships. Anthropology and ecology, two holistic disciplines concerned with these activities, struggle with the topic of human/nature relationships because both are grounded within larger western discourses separating human behaviors from those of the natural world. This thesis examines the histories of anthropology and ecology in the 20th Century, and the effect these disciplines have had upon the formulation of contemporary urban worldviews that are based upon the separation of humans from nature.

Gender Socialization Of Preschoolers : The Influence Of Parental Orientation And Preschool Environment, Alice Blackwell Passannante

Dissertations and Theses

Because there are different sets of attitudes and standards that are applied to girls and boys, and because society is permeated with messages delineating the differences between females and males, there is a rapid accumulation of knowledge by children about those differences. There is a need for further examination of the overall impact of different facets of gender socialization.

The purpose of the present study was to clarify the ways in which parental beliefs and practices as well as daycare environment affect the gender-typing of preschoolers. Seventy-nine children from three different preschools were interviewed using Likert, forced-choice, and open-ended items. …

Portland’S Prostitution-Free Zone Ordinance : The Social Construction Of Prostitution As A Social Problem, Kristin Aman Christophersen

Dissertations and Theses

This study explored the process and the nature of the claims and claimsmaking activities in the most recent presentation of prostitution as a social problem calling for a specific response, the prostitution-free zone ordinance. Integrating the conceptual framework of Best's (1995) constructionist approach to social problems with Strauss and Corbin's (1990) grounded theory approach, this study examined 1) the role and influence of different claimsmakers and their claims in the passage and implementation of the prostitution-free zone ordinance, and 2) how three perspectives (social control, moral reform and radical feminism) are differentially reflected in claimsmakers' framing of prostitution, as well …

Abstract Art And Controversy: A Case Study Of Louis Bunce’S Airport Mural And Other Portland Art Controversies, Michael P. Craven

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines a series of controversies in Portland, Oregon during the 1950s triggered by the placement of modem art in strategic public locations. This study examines the controversy surrounding the installation of Louis Bunce's mural at the Portland International Airport and the series of modern art controversies that followed the mural incident.

A Longitudinal Study Of The Career Maturity Patterns Of Individuals With Clefts, Joyce Johnson Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

This longitudinal study sought to examine career maturity, and the variables thought to influence career maturity, in a sample of individuals with the congenital craniofacial anomaly of clefting by following them from adolescence (ages 14 to 18) into young adulthood (ages 22 to 26).

Sixteen subjects (6 males, 10 females) during adolescence and in young adulthood completed (a) a biographical questionnaire which provided educational and occupational information, (b) the Career Development Inventory, (c) the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, (d) the Shipley Institute of Living Scale, and (e) self-ratings of speech and facial appearance acceptability to provide information concerning career maturity, mental …

The Juice Is Loose?: A Qualitative Study Of Employees' Perceptions Of Informal And Formal Communication Channels, Warren Jerome Brown

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine how employees perceive formal and informal communication channels within their organizational experiences. This study sought to answer two questions: One, what are employees' perceptions of formal and informal communication channels? Two, what similar or dissimilar perceptions of formal and informal communication channels emerge from interview and observational data?

I selected eight respondents from the greater Olympia, Washington and Seattle, Washington areas. Each respondent was purposely selected based upon their rich experiences across different sizes of and public/private structures of organizations. Additionally, I conducted seven observations within a medium-sized (50 -75 employee) public …

Grandmothers Laughing: Intergenerational Transmission Of Cultural Beliefs About Pregnancy And Childbirth Among Native American Women, Claudia Robin Long

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation reports findings from a qualitative study of intergenerational transmission of pregnancy and childbirth information among Native American women. Proposed is a theory of intergenerational transmission that explains four pathways used by Indian women to gain information about pregnancy and childbirth. Antecedent, consequent, and core elements are associated with the transmission process.

Discriminant sampling was used to identify the middle generation of Indian mothers and grandmothers, between 36 and 65 years of age, residing on or near the reservation, with experience of assimilation policies that had moved off-reservation temporarily. The researcher used the grounded theory method to analyze responses …

Collective Intervention In Internal Conflicts: An Examination Of Why States Participate, Andrew L. Blum

Dissertations and Theses

There is a longstanding debate in the international relations discipline over the relative influence of self-interest and norms on the behavior of states. This study will seek to contribute to this debate by investigating what motivates states to engage in a specific type of behavior, which I will call collective intervention. The multinational operations, which have attempted to resolve internal conflict in places like the Congo, Lebanon, El Salvador, Cambodia, Somalia and Bosnia, are the result of this behavior. Dozens of states, of diverse economic standing, military capability, geographic region, and political ideology have participated in these operations. This study …

The Language Of Transformation In A "Conversation For Possibility": A Metaphor Analysis, Deborah Jean Gabbert

Dissertations and Theses

Metaphor allows us to understand and experience "relatively abstract or unstructured subject matter in terms of more concrete, or at least more highly structured subject matter". Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) and Lakoff's (1993) contemporary theory of metaphor contends that: metaphor is fundamentally conceptual; metaphoric structuring is the basis for the organization and functioning of much of the ordinary human conceptual system; and metaphorical language found in everyday speech is a surface manifestation of underlying conceptual metaphors. The metaphors most salient in a culture's discourse will reveal something about what is thinkable, knowable, and doable in that culture. Metaphors have the …

Korean-American Elders In Independent Living Arrangements, Shinok Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Many Korean-American elders in America are new immigrants who are faced with cultural change and adjustment problems. In recent years, these Korean-American elders have been undergoing a change in their living situation by moving away from their adult children into independent living arrangements. This study draws on a sample of 50 Korean-American elders in subsidized housing who are over the age of sixty and live in the Portland, Oregon Metropolitan area to investigate factors involved in their choice of and their well-being in independent living arrangements. Through interviews, the study specifically gives attention to why the elders moved, whether they …

Wealth For Everybody - Semantics And Structure Of The Capitalist Metanarrative, Sylvia Hendel

Dissertations and Theses

In 1979 Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard defined postmodemism as "incredulity toward metanarratives." One of six narratives Lyotard saw in decline was the capitalist one, which promised wealth for everybody. According to Lyotard this narrative was refuted by recurrent economic crises in the 20th century. This thesis examines Lyotard's statement about the decline of the capitalist metanarrative by taking the approach of the sociology of knowledge, a branch of sociology that attempts to relate ideas to the socio-historical settings in which they are produced and received. The idea of general abundance, or the semantics, is described in othodox economic theory. Four distinct, successive …

Ethnic Conflict In Southern Kyrgyzstan, Jennifer Jane O'Donnell

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis focuses on the interethnic relations between ethnic groups in Southern Kyrgyzstan using survey data collected from 500 students at Osh State University. This study examines the nature of attitudes of students and faculty regarding homogeneity, exclusionary attitudes, satisfaction with current living situation, and interethnic relations.

Research on interethnic conflict suggests that interethnic relations will depend on several variables, including the size and strength of the various ethnic groups, their political opportunities, their economic situation, and their communal ties. This line of research would suggest that the Kyrgyz would be in the strongest position among the ethnic groups in …

Images Of Women In Abdelhak Serhane's Le Soliel Des Obscurs, Wendy Grace Cook

Dissertations and Theses

Current trends in North African francophone literature include a movement towards the exploration of alienation and exile, most often in the form of novels written about Maghrebian immigrants in Europe. Yet this alienation exists within the North African context as well, and it is possible to feel alienated and exiled, as well as marginalized, within one's homeland. This question is explored by Moroccan francophone author Abdelhak Serhane in his novel, Le Soleil des obscurs, which is the focus of this study.

The purpose of the research is to examine the four principle female characters in the novel and relate …

Evaluating Modernization And Dependency Explanations Of The Unequal Distribution Of Income In Developing Countries, Paul Timothy Shattuck

Dissertations and Theses

This paper tests two different theoretical explanations of the causes of the unequal distribution of income in less developed countries using data from circa 1990. There are several reasons for examining this much-studied topic. First, as described in the previous research findings chapter below, there is no consensus in the literature regarding the relative effects of modernization and dependency variables on income inequality. Determining the independent effects of the two models is still an open ended question. Second, the availability of more recent data provides us with an opportunity to check the possibility that previous findings were partly due to …

Public Transportation For The Elderly: A Neighborhood-Area Fixed-Route Alternative, Richard James Burke

Dissertations and Theses

As the elderly population of the United States grows in coming decades, providing personal mobility will be increasingly challenging. The dispersed suburban residential pattern of most metropolitan areas ensures that the personal automobile will continue to be the dominant mode of transportation. Those who voluntarily or involuntarily stop driving will encounter serious constraints in meeting their transportation needs.

Conventional public transit in most cities is tailored to the needs of urban commuters, and is, at best, barely adequate for elderly riders. Supplemental demand-response or subscription "special-needs" services are often inconvenient, sometimes unreliable, and inefficient. Eligibility criteria restrict many non-disabled elderly …

Declining Total Fertility Rates In Bangladesh And Indonesia From 1970 To 1996 : Causes, Implications, And Analysis, William Bruce Aronson

Dissertations and Theses

Many Asian countries have recently undergone dramatic fertility rate reductions, in what has been labeled the "Asian Fertility Revolution." The purpose of this study was to discover what factors led to declining total fertility rates from 1970 to 1996 in Bangladesh and Indonesia, two Asian countries with relatively low total development levels. Because of these low levels, it was hypothesized that factors outside of economic development have contributed to these countries' successes with fertility reduction. This is especially true for Bangladesh, which remains an undeveloped country; Indonesia is partially industrialized, and has made economic gains during this 26-year period. Theoretical …

An Ethnographic Study Of Chinese Adolescent Identity In Taipei, Taiwan : Franchise Hangouts, Jui-Fang Ruby Chen

Dissertations and Theses

One of the discriminating changes that Taiwan is experiencing is a shift in young people's view of "self," manifested in and through their daily activities within its cultural context (Yang, 1981). The question arises, how do Taiwan's adolescents shape their view of "self' within this contemporary context at the intersection of Eastern and Western cultures? This thesis examined on how Chinese adolescent identity was constituted symbolically in and through their speech practices within a public social context, a typical Westernized dining place--McDonald's, a U.S. fast food restaurant, and how such a locale both served and made sense by these urban …

"Blame It On Intake” : A Critical Ethnography Of The Negotiation Of Access To Shelter Services In A Shelter For Homeless And Battered Women, Kathleen Marie Drew

Dissertations and Theses

Even though the number of homeless women has increased among a population viewed as typically male (Merves 1992), there is still little research focused on women. This study investigated the communicative practices in and through which gendered identity was constructed, negotiated and performed at a point of rupture when the norms for judging a "good woman:"--that is woman as wife, as mother, and as homemaker appear to have been violated. The negotiation of access into an urban shelter for homeless and/or battered women provided a rich site for the study. The research was grounded in the assumptions of symbolic interaction …

Urban Sprawl, Media Monopoly, And Citizen Participation : A Longitudinal Case Study Of Daily Newspapers In Portland, Oregon, Andrew David Butz

Dissertations and Theses

The process and consequences of global economic expansion are the subject of increasing scholarly and popular attention. Emerging patterns of globalization are of particular interest from a sociological standpoint. This study establishes a theoretical and methodological approach for examining, within a framework of competing values, locally observable effects of the widely recognized global trend -- of increasingly concentrated news media ownership. Recent patterns of development in Portland, Oregon provide the specific context for this study. As in most American cities within the past generation, Portland experienced a shift from having independent, competing daily newspapers to having one conglomerate-owned monopolistic daily. …

Measure 9: Oregon’S 1992 Anti-Gay Initiative, Patricia Jean Young

Dissertations and Theses

In 1992 Oregon voters rejected Measure 9, an anti-gay initiative sponsored by the Oregon Citizens Alliance, a conservative, religious organization. Measure 9 sought to amend the Oregon Constitution to prohibit the state from establishing civil rights protections based on sexual orientation. Its passage also would have required government agencies and schools to set a standard that declared homosexuality as abnormal and perverse.

The Measure 9 campaign was emotional and divisive. Rhetoric was at an all-time high as the issue of gay-rights made front-page news, and Oregonians from all walks of life were forced to examine their beliefs about homosexuality, religion, …

Sexual Intercourse : A Feminist Reading Of Strip Joint Discourse, Regina Marie Howard Yaroch

Dissertations and Theses

The discursively-constructed stereotype of stripper plays an important role in the ideology that sustains our system of sexual relations. This construction also interacts with and constrains the lived reality of actual women who earn their living in the stripping industry. This research attempts to examine this interaction by exploring the discourse that is generated by stripping industry participants. A long interview transcript is analyzed as a text to develop a feminist reading that focuses on the socio-cultural forces that make a particular story possible as well as necessary to tell. This story emerges, through the first-person account of a dancer-informant, …

Video Self-Monitoring As An Alternative To Traditional Methods Of Pronunciation Instruction, P. C. Noble

Dissertations and Theses

Japanese students of English have difficulty pronouncing /f/, Ir/, /1/, /v/ and "th", sounds that are either not present in their language, or as in the case of /r/, articulated in Japanese more like an English /di. Their difficulty with these sounds seems to affect their comprehensibility in English to native-speakers of English.

The purpose of this partial replication of a 1994 study by MacDonald, Yule and Powers was to test three different methods of pronunciation instruction ( and a control) to determine which promoted the greatest improvement in the pronunciation of the five target sounds among Japanese speakers. The …

The Relationship Between Self-Monitoring And Organizational Training Effectiveness And Satisfaction, Joanna Wulbert

Dissertations and Theses

The present research explored the relationship between self-monitoring and training. It was hypothesized that high self-monitors' sens ivity to social cues would improve training satisfaction and learning. This study was divided into 2 parts; a field and a laboratory study. Nine trainees and 8 peer trainers participated in the field study and 75 undergraduate psychology students participated in the laboratory study. Due to the extremely small sample size of the field study, the results were not conclusive. In the laboratory study, trainers' that were categorized as high self-monitors were associated with higher satisfaction levels among trainees. However, self-monitoring was not …