Digital Commons Network^™

Training For Diversity In Journalism: Tracking The Columbia Summer Program Graduates, 1968-1974., Mary Alice Basconi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Columbia University's Summer Program, created by Fred Friendly, was the first enduring effort to prepare non-whites for jobs in the news media. It operated from 1968 to 1974 at the Graduate School of Journalism, training 223 journalists for print and broadcast jobs. Three decades after the closing of this elite program, 110 graduates responded to a telephone survey on attitudes toward first employers, careers, and their experiences at Columbia. Results from this exploratory study show respondents spent an average 17.6 years in news media after the Summer Program, and 30.9 percent of respondents spent thirty years or more in journalism. …

Romantic Attachment Styles, Gender, And Reasons For Living., Niles Adrian Cruz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine reasons for living in people with secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent romantic attachment styles. Romantic attachment style was assessed by use of the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ). Reasons for living were assessed using the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL). The independent variables were gender and romantic attachment style. The dependent variable was the RFL score.

Participants included 235 male and female students from a southeastern university. A brief demographic questionnaire, the RFL (Linehan,M., Goodstein, J., Neilson, S., & Chiles J., 1983), and the AAQ (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), were administered in electronic format …

An Investigation Of Gender Differences In Motivation Of Senior Administrators In Virginia Community Colleges Using Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory., Jewell Bevins Worley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences regarding motivation in the individuals who serve in senior administrative positions in Virginia's community colleges. Institutional morale can be damaged by administrators who become dissatisfied with their positions. Institutions use millions of dollars yearly to conduct searches for individuals to replace senior administrators who leave their positions because of lack of job satisfaction or high job dissatisfaction. This study also addressed the possibility of differences between male senior administrators and female senior administrators regarding job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction.

Frederick Herzberg' 2-factory theory of motivation regarding job satisfaction and …

A Perceptual Study Of The Impact Of Athletic Programs In Selected Community Colleges In The State Of Tennessee., Lee Martin Cigliano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the economic, institutional, and human impact of athletic programs at community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents community college system to determine how the athletic programs affects the benefits, or lack of benefits, for students, the institutions, and the communities.

Sixteen participants were interviewed: two presidents, two athletic directors, four coaches, and eight student-athletes. The student-athletes represented four different sports and came from a variety of educational backgrounds and academic standing. The primary benefits perceived for the institutions and the student-athletes were the impact on missions, enrollment, educational and athletic opportunities, …

The Perceived Impact Of No Child Left Behind On Third- Through Fifth-Grade Elementary Science Classrooms., Angela V. Kinsler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived impact of No Child Left Behind on elementary science classrooms in 3 Northeast Tennessee school districts. Quantitative descriptive methodology was used to document how No Child Left Behind impacts instructional methodology, professional development, administrative support, materials and resources, and assessment in 3rd through 5th grades.

Data were collected using a survey developed by the researcher. The survey consisted of a demographic section, 28 statements, and 2 open-ended questions. The 51 participants included elementary-school science teachers in 8 schools in 3 upper East Tennessee school districts.

Data analysis was based on …

Perceived Teacher Self-Efficacy In Early Childhood Settings: Differences Between Early Childhood And Elementary Education Candidates., Bradley Carroll Billheimer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the degree of perceived teacher self-efficacy between early childhood preservice teachers and elementary education pre-service teachers. There were 88 participants: 44 elementary education pre-service teachers and 40 early childhood pre-service teachers. Participants were mostly white, female pre-service teachers enrolled at East Tennessee State University. Using Bandura's 30-item "Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale" pre-service teachers rated their perceived self-efficacy on 7 subscales: decision-making, influence on school resources, instructional efficacy, disciplinary efficacy, enlisting parent involvement, enlisting community involvement, and creating a positive school climate. Significant differences were found between groups for 3 of the 7 subscales. Early childhood education pre-service teachers …

Rap Music And Hegemony : A Historical Analysis Of Rap's Narrative., Jamar Montez Wheeler 1981-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a historical analysis of the narratives of rap music and their relationship to hegemony. I view the trends outlined in this thesis as a microcosm of large-scale social trends in the world of popular culture. A world dominated and distributed by a small collection of huge media conglomerates. The central questions of this thesis are "has rap music's relationship to hegemony changed?" and if so, "how has it changed?" After collecting my data using random sampling techniques and analyzing it utilizing verifiable statistical tests, I answer these two questions. The evidence supports the conclusion that rap music's …

Identity Theft And Routine Activities : A Test Of Victimization Using College Students., Brian Dean Fell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the link between routine activity theory and identity theft victimization using college students. Using data collected from 308 undergraduate students attending a southeastern university, this study seeks to present the likelihood that college students will become a victim to identity theft in the future. In doing so, the study also seeks to present the college student's perception that they could become a victim of identity theft in the future. Overall, this study has the main objective of determining if a link exists between college student's routine activities and the risk of them becoming victims of identity theft. …

Childhood Reflections Of Adult Male Incarcerated Child Sexual Abusers., Linda H. Garrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Child sexual abuse has existed since earliest recorded history. It is believed that one in three females and one in five males are sexually abused before their 18^th birthday, and many researchers believe this is a gross underestimation of the problem. Child sexual abuse has been studied extensively from the perspective of the victim. Child sexual abusers have been studied over the last few decades but with inconsistent definitions and methods applied among studies. This qualitative study explored the childhood reflections of 8 incarcerated child sexual abusers in a southern Appalachian prison. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted at the …

The Influence Om Mentoring On Goal Attainment And Role Satisfaction For Registered Nurses In Acute Care., Christine Benz Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring has been suggested as a means to assist with role transition, career planning, and retention in the profession by providing opportunities for personal and professional growth lead to satisfaction. Satisfaction is especially crucial for the retention of Registered Nurses in a time when the profession has been experiencing a critical shortage. This quantitative study examined the influence of mentoring for RNs who have been employed in acute care facilities for the first time for less than 2 years. Using Bouquillon's mentoring instrument and based in the frameworks of King and Kram, the study suggests mentoring is occurring among new …

Exploring The Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence And Hiv Risk Propensity In African American Women, Lauren Lois Josephs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Risk-Propensity in African-American women. Current literature on HIV reveals that one of the groups most seriously impacted by the continued scourge of HIV is African-American heterosexual women. An anonymous questionnaire was completed by a community based sample of 200 African American women with a varied history of intimate partner violence to (1) explore whether a relationship exists between Intimate Partner Violence and sexual coercion in African-American women (2) determine whether a relationship exists between sexual coercion and HIV Risk in African-American women (3) determine if the frequency of intimate …

Identifying Factors That Influence Gender Disparities In Physician Income: Implications For Public Policy, Wendy Bolyard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that female physicians continue to earn less than their male counterparts. From both social justice and feminist perspectives, laws requiring equal pay should provide just income for females as compared to males. However, the literature continues to indicate that in general females earn less than males, a trend that is also true for physicians. Theoretically informed postulates are measured here with structural equation modeling to test the influence of the unique latent construct "specialization" on the income gap while controlling for demographic and contextual variables. The analysis tests the assumption that the influence of specialization is the …

Property Rights As A Precondition To Development: A Case Study Of Jamaica, Leah Kral

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emerging research suggests that property rights play a significant role in the economic and social development of nations. To test this proposition, this study examines the case of Jamaica and whether there is a relationship between property rights and development. In order to carry out this investigation, this study gathers and analyzes existing research to:

1. define the extent that Jamaicans lack property rights and how this affects their everyday quality of life and vulnerability to poverty;

2. examine the relationship between the absence of property rights and underdevelopment; and

3. explore how the current international and local Jamaican policy …

Portraits Through The Lens Of Historicity: The American Family As Portrayed In Ladies Home Journal 1950-1959, Nancy Patton Mills

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problems associated with communication and the American family have often been the subject of academic research projects. The 1950s family is unique and offers the researcher a complex web of interwoven narratives and situational hermeneutics that have affected the American family. In an attempt to understand what was happening in the 1950s, it is imperative that an understanding of the historical moment and its significance be explored.

This dissertation examines the American family through the lens of several interpersonal communication paradigms and theories to generate a conceptual framework for understanding the "story" of the family told through its communicative …

The Adjudication Of Presidential Power In The U.S. Supreme Court:A Predictive Model Of Individual Justice Voting, Todd Curry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The interaction between the President and Congress is many times quite public and well documented (Cronin 1980; Covington et al. 1995; Fisher 1994; Schlesinger 2004). Similarly, relations between the Congress and the Supreme Court are well documented; Congress makes law and, if requested, the Court interprets it. The interaction between the president and the Court, however, is not nearly as well defined, and certainly not as public. Supreme Court cases involving the president directly are fairly rare. King and Meernik (1995) identify 347 cases involving the foreign policy powers of the president, decided from 1790 to 1996, which is roughly …

College Drinking, Greek Affiliation And The Need To Fit In: An Analysis Of Social Norms And Motivations Associated With Fraternity And Sorority Binge Drinking, Chantel Dufrene

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes that members of Greek social organizations have higher rates of binge drinking as compared to other college students due to their greater acceptance of norms and motives that support binge drinking. The College Alcohol Study, a survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Heath, was administered to 10, 904 university students. The survey measured various aspects of students' experiences at their respective universities including experiences with and perceptions of alcohol use. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine normative and motivational predictors of binge drinking for Greek and non-Greek students. The results show that Greek members …

Community And The Meal: A Rhetorical Investigation, Richard J. Mills Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From ancient Greece to post modernity, the meal as a focal point of community life and a cultural practice, and the meaning of eating, have been the focus for numerous scholarly studies and their rhetorical significance. This dissertation will define how interpersonal communication and the enactment of the meal are rhetorical partners within a community. Cultural differences, communication style, and values affect one's perception of the culture's narrative structure, inclusion and exclusion, private and public space, and civility and incivility practices in relationship to the community. These differences impact the meal, food choices, tastes, and communication style and ultimately shape …

Won't You Be My Neighbor?: Child Abuse In A Community Context, Gabrielle Rebottini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project quantitatively and spatially examines child abuse reports in a neighborhood context based on the analysis of Allegheny County in Southwestern Pennsylvania that is divided into 98 zip codes. Based on data on child abuse reports obtained from ChildLine from 1994 to 2004, this research tests a relationship between variables traditionally associated with child abuse rates and reporting rates. Next, neighborhood assets are compared to determine their relevance. They include grocery stores, parks, libraries, hospitals, schools and religious institutions. Results include significant relationships between reporting rates and unemployment, vacancy rates, marital status, the elderly population, and the location of …

User-Centered Virtual Environment Assessment And Design For Cognitive Rehabilitation Applications, Cali Fidopiastis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtual environment (VE) design for cognitive rehabilitation necessitates a new methodology to ensure the validity of the resulting rehabilitation assessment. We propose that benchmarking the VE system technology utilizing a user-centered approach should precede the VE construction. Further, user performance baselines should be measured throughout testing as a control for adaptive effects that may confound the metrics chosen to evaluate the rehabilitation treatment. To support these claims we present data obtained from two modules of a user-centered head-mounted display (HMD) assessment battery, specifically resolution visual acuity and stereoacuity. Resolution visual acuity and stereoacuity assessments provide information about the image quality …

Using The Software Adapter To Connect Legacy Simulation Models To The Rti, Deepak Kumar Rachapalli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The establishment of a network of persistent shared simulations depends on the presence of a robust standard for communicating state information between those simulations. The High Level Architecture (HLA) can serve as the basis for such a standard. While the HLA is architecture, not software, use of Run Time Infrastructure (RTI) software is required to support operations of a federation execution. The integration of RTI with existing simulation models is complex and requires a lot of expertise. This thesis implements a less complex and effective interaction between a legacy simulation model and RTI using a middleware tool known as Distributed …

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining: Positive Effects Of Deviant Coworkers, Gergana Markova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to recognize and explore the reactions of employees to a deviant coworker. Specifically, I focused on the potential positive effects for employees who are in the presence of a coworker perceived as deviant, dysfunctional, or negative. Consistent with a labeling perspective on deviance, I argued that an employee may become a deviant as a result of social construction, fostered either by observed norm violations or the perceived dissimilarity of this person. Drawing on diverse theories from social psychology and sociology, I hypothesized that in the presence of a deviant coworker, other employees may have …

Kantian Meadows: A Just Nursing Home Grounded In The Categorical Imperative, Faith Bjalobok

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the structures of contemporary nursing homes and argues that the structure is conducive to the objectification (treatment of a human being as a non-person) of nursing home residents. In order to eliminate the potential for objectification, this project employs the Kantian categorical imperative as its theoretical framework. Based on that framework Kantian Meadows is created as an example of a just nursing home.

The Role Of Christian Faith In Public Moral Discourse: A Comparison Of Selected Works From H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Stanley Hauerwas, And Richard A. Mccormick, Andrew William Getz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation asks, "What is the proper role of the Christian and the Christian community in the ethical arena of a pluralistic society?" The inherently social nature of human beings means that all ethical judgments regarding right and wrong and the good of the human person have social implications. This is also true of ethical judgments of a religious or theological nature. This dissertation examines how faith "in-formed" ethical judgments function in a society of diverse faith commitments by examining some of the different understandings of the role of faith in the ethics H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Stanley Hauerwas, and …

Modeling Autonomous Agents In Military Simulations, Varol Kaptan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Simulation is an important tool for prediction and assessment of the behavior of complex systems and situations. The importance of simulation has increased tremendously during the last few decades, mainly because the rapid pace of development in the field of electronics has turned the computer from a costly and obscure piece of equipment to a cheap ubiquitous tool which is now an integral part of our daily lives. While such technological improvements make it easier to analyze well-understood deterministic systems, increase in speed and storage capacity alone are not enough when simulating situations where human beings and their behavior are …

Characterization Of Critical Network Components Of Coupled Oscillators, Gregory Holifield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the fundamental limits for the determination of the network structure of loosely coupled oscillators based on observing the behavior of the network, specifically, node synchronization. The determination of the requisite characteristics and underlying behaviors necessary for the application of a theoretical mechanism for determining the underlying network topology in a network of loosely coupled natural oscillators are the desired outcome. To that end, this effort defines an analytical framework where key components of networks of coupled oscillators are isolated in order to determine the relationships between the various components. The relationship between the number of nodes in …

A Comparative Study Of Speech Acts Between Japanese Efl College Students And American College Students In The Case Of Offering Help, Saori Nozaki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Disenfranchising The Black Other: A Critique Of American Drug Laws, Heather Dorsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Presently, approximately 4.7 million Americans are unable to vote, a population which is disproportionately black and stripped of their civic rights because of their status as present or former felons. I propose that unequal drug laws which provide different sentences for crack cocaine, used more often by poor blacks because of its cheapness and availability in poor neighborhoods, and powder cocaine, used more often by upper class whites, punish blacks for their status as Other. Disproportionately punishing them for a habit in which people of all races participate has created a class without the ability to participate in the system …

College Choice And Persistence At A Small Private Catholic College: Why Do Students Leave?, James Theeuwes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's world a college education is very important in terms of both a person's cultural and human capital. A college education can increase a person's human capital and either replicate or enhance one's cultural capital. The purpose of this study was to focus on the variables of net college price, institutional grant aid, a family's adjusted gross income, if a student was a first generation college student and a student's high school preparedness and their relationship to persistence. Students are making decisions that impact their future each and every day, when they pick the "right" college to attend. Colleges …

Hope Vi: A Case Study Of Pittsburgh And New Orleans, Amy Ingram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HOPE VI is a housing policy that attempts to revitalize distressed public housing communities to create mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhoods. This research examined the application of HOPE VI in two neighborhoods, one in Pittsburgh and one in New Orleans, to determine policy success or failure. The research hypothesis is that HOPE VI was successful in revitalizing these communities. The method of research utilizes population projections and descriptive social indicators from data collected by the US Census for 1990 and 2000. Evaluation of ten social indicators derived from HOPE VI goals generally indicates that HOPE VI failed to achieve its objectives in …

Teacher-School Board Member Trust Relationships And Their Perceived Influence On School Effectiveness, Pamela A. Lenz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the attention devoted to school reform in the past century, mandated initiatives enacted by policymakers have wrought few long lasting improvements in education. Throughout the last six decades of reform, federal and state lawmakers have exercised unparalleled sway on student learning, with political agendas taking precedence over breakthroughs in educational pedagogy. Taking a different approach, recent research suggests that systemic reform is more likely to occur at the local level, with schools whose culture fosters positive trust relationships being more effective than their lower trust counterparts. This collective instrumental case study expands upon extant research by examining the perceived …