Digital Commons Network^™

Another Day In The Oil Patch: Narratives Of Probation Work In Montana, Ally Guldborg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Job stress has been linked to several negative outcomes for workers in human service professions. Despite a wealth of knowledge on job stress in social service occupations, relatively little is known about the job stress of probation officers. In eastern Montana and western North Dakota’s Bakken region, a recent oil extraction boom and bust cycle has caused rapid socio-demographic change. Researchers have found that oil extraction in the Bakken region has led to several challenges for social service and police agencies in the area. In this study, I use qualitative interview methods to examine the stresses and challenges involved in …

Gender Nonconformity, Psychosocial Stressors, And Psychopathology: Looking Beyond Sexual Orientation, Kathryn M. Oost

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

LGBT individuals experience disproportionately more victimization than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Within these populations, perceived gender nonconformity predicts even higher rates of victimization. The current investigation examined relationships between gender nonconformity, experiences with victimization, and psychopathology among 671 students from the University of Montana, including 64 LGBT-identified individuals, who took part in an online study as part of course requirements. Hierarchical regressions were calculated to examine the relationships between gender expression, victimization, and psychopathology while controlling for sexual orientation, gender identity, and ethnicity. Gender nonconformity was a significant predictor of reported victimization, beyond sexual orientation and ethnicity (ΔR …

Issues Of Ethics Training In Turkish Counselor Education As Associated With Accreditation, Certification, And Licensure, Umut Arslan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to investigate qualifications of ethics training in counselor education programs in Turkey associated with accreditation, certification, and licensure. The survey data were collected from 251 Turkish counseling students to examine differences in ethical judgments between freshmen and seniors. This survey was based on the counselor ethical practice and belief survey by Gibson and Pope (1993) regarding Turkish counseling ethical codes and sources of ethics information. I used chi-square analyses to analyze the Turkish data. Statistically significant differences were found between university seniors and freshmen in items that related to dual relationships, multicultural counseling, competency, …

Purposefully Planning For Mathematics Discourse: A Study Of Teacher Learning And Lesson Enactment, Andria Rae Disney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mathematics discourse plays a crucial role in students’ learning of mathematics, yet facilitating productive mathematics discourse is a complex task for teachers. This embedded single-case study sought to explore teacher learning around planning for and facilitating mathematics discourse and capture any changes in the nature of classroom discourse as a result of teacher learning. Teacher learning was facilitated through a professional learning community (PLC). The PLC was designed to honor, build upon, and develop teachers’ expertise in purposefully planning opportunities for student talk during mathematics instruction. It also attended to the teachers’ contexts by asking teachers to incorporate math talk …

Effectiveness Of Mary Ainsworth's Maternal Sensitivity Scale With Four-Week-Old Infants, Laurel Anne T. Yorgason

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The attachment relationship between a mother and her infant provides a foundation for future development (Bowlby, 1951; Sroufe, 2005). A high level of maternal sensitivity has been deemed one of the most important antecedents to a secure attachment (van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2004). Although Mary Ainsworth originally developed a measure of maternal sensitivity other researchers developed measures to determine a mother’s level of sensitivity (Mesman & Emmen, 2013). The Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) was developed to determine the classification of the attachment relationship (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1974). Currently these measures focus predominantly on dyads that include an infant at …

A 'Paradox Of Expression': Bertolt Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt In Performance, Cohen L. Ambrose Mr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Williams' "Plastic Theater" A Formulation Of Dramaturgy For "The American Method" Theater, Peter A. Philips

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Discovering The Chinese Mining Child: The Archaeology Of Children And Childhood In Multicultural American Mining Communities, Nicole A. Lane

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Children made up roughly one-quarter of the population of industrial boomtowns in the

North American West, underscoring the connections of family to places commonly

thought to be bachelor communities. By comparing artifacts and historical contexts from

three mining communities (Butte, Montana; Deadwood, South Dakota; and Sandpoint,

Idaho) established in the late 19th century, this thesis will contribute to archaeologies of

children, childhood, and socialization, examining material remains as a line of evidence

to study the ways in which relationships, gender, race, and class pervaded the lives of

children in these industrial settings. The methods employed here integrate information

from historical …

Improving Mechanical And Neuromuscular Deficits Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, Audrey Rose Campbell Elias

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite consistent resolution of knee laxity and return to physical activity following ACL reconstruction, a growing body of evidence implicates impaired weight acceptance strategies as frequent primary drivers in a host of poor long-term outcomes. Most egregiously, the majority of the people with ACL reconstruction will show radiographic evidence of knee osteoarthritis within 15 years of surgery. Abnormal compression of the knee joint due to impaired knee flexion during weight acceptance is exacerbated by a tendency toward concomitant co-contraction of the knee musculature. Despite a plethora of proposed training paradigms, performance deficits after ACL reconstruction prove particularly resistant to enduring …

Social Impact Of Traumatic Brain Injury In Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Study With A Focus On Rural Adolescents, Brandon Jared Rennie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a serious public health concern in the United States. The least studied populations are those at the highest risk to sustain a TBI, specifically, youth, and especially those living in rural areas. Despite the documented negative impact on social outcomes and relative importance of social functioning in youth, research is sparse with regard to how various injury and non-injury factors interact to influence social outcomes and how best to assess this population for intervention planning and monitoring. Participants are four adolescents who have had TBIs of mild or moderate severity and their mothers (three …

Investigating The Influence Of Airborne Particulate Matter Source And Size On Health Outcomes, Matthew Darryl Ferguson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Air pollution is an environmental health concern throughout the world, and is responsible for an estimated 1 out of 8 deaths. As a common component of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) is one of six criteria air pollutants regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with existing ambient standards for both PM2.5 and PM10. Currently there are no health-based regulations for the size fraction between 2.5 and 10 μm, commonly known as the coarse fraction (PMc). Previous studies show that PMc can induce health effects such as increased inflammation, and may be more detrimental to susceptible populations when directly compared …

Socialization And Volunteers: A Training Program For Volunteer Managers, Allison M. Sullivan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this project was to construct a training program for volunteer managers in nonprofit organizations that will aim to increase the retention of volunteers through better socialization practices. The training was developed using Beebe, Mottet, and Roach’s (2013) Needs-Centered Training Model, and volunteer manager and volunteer focus groups served as the needs assessment. The main topics that arose from the needs assessment included fostering a positive and supportive volunteer relational environment, helping volunteers see that they are needed, useful, and making an impact, and clearly communicating volunteer expectations. The need for better volunteer socialization can be seen from …

"Why Wait Until They Commit A Crime?": Moral Imbecility And The Problem Of Knowledge In Progressive America, 1880-1920, Chelsea D. Chamberlain

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Focusing on the forty-year period from 1880 to 1920, this thesis explores moral imbecility--the lack of a moral sense at birth--as a contested medical diagnosis that embodied many of modernizing America's greatest fears. It argues that moral imbecility played a pivotal role in facilitating the emergence of several hallmarks of modern America. The diagnosis legitimated medical experts’ far-reaching cultural authority, encouraged the rise of a surveillance society, and secured the growth of a medicalized bureaucratic state responsible for institutionalizing hundreds of thousands of people. As a potent medico-cultural threat based upon new and disputed knowledge claims, it became an important …

On The Map, But Off The Grid: Perceptions Of Authenticity In Polebridge, Montana, William Klaczynski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Victims' Perspectives Of Their Roles In Unwanted Sexual Experiences When Alcohol Is Consumed, Lindsey C. Grove

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sexual violence among college students is recognized as a serious public health concern in the United States. Among college students, sexual violence is associated with high levels of PTSD symptoms and psychological consequences (Frazier et al., 2009). For ages 18 to 25 sexual violence is the only crime that is found to occur more frequently among college students than the same age group not attending college and is at its highest rate during the first year of attendance(Baum & Klaus, 2005) Research has already uncovered increased risk of victimization for young college students including heavy alcohol consumption (Messman-Moore, Coates, Gaffey, …

An Assessment Of The Health Needs Of The Transgender Community In Montana, Karishma Chainani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Transgender individuals face a unique set of challenges in their day to day lives. While issues regarding stigma and discrimination are well documented in the literature, most of the information about transgender people has been gathered in urban settings. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore factors that influence quality of life and risk of infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis C (HCV), Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s) among transgender people living in Montana. A questionnaire was developed after a thorough review of the literature as well as a review of existing assessments. The questionnaire was reviewed by …

Politicized Climate Change Communication: An Integrative Complexity Analysis, Meredith A. Repke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The vast majority of scientists agree that anthropogenic activities have caused the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere to rise at an unprecedented rate, and that the consequences of such a rise may very well be extreme. Despite these warnings, the American people do not possess, on average, the same level of concern towards climate change as scientists. The polarization of media in recent decades, the prevalence of selective exposure, and the general position on climate change of the two major political parties have led to liberals and conservatives consuming different information relevant to climate science. While evidence exists …

Instituting Collaborative Conservation In Federal Land Management: The Blm's Resource Advisory Councils As An Example, Benjamin D. Donatelle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Collaborative Conservation is one type of Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR) that, since the 1970’s, has proliferated throughout public land and natural resource management, especially in the Western United States. As the notion of collaboration has risen in the collective consciousness of public land management professionals, various efforts to capitalize on its use have been instituted through regulatory reforms and legislation. For twenty years the Resource Advisory Councils have fulfilled their regulatory responsibilities and exemplify policy mandated collaborative consensus-building process, yet little research has been conducted to understand what contributes to their effectiveness. This study investigates the effect of instituting or …

An Investigation Of Domestic Tourists' Loyalty To A Nature-Based Tourist Setting From A Relational And Transactional Perspective At The Victoria Falls World Heritage Site, Jane Musole Kwenye

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

It is a common belief that Zambian citizens would prefer to vacation in other countries rather than visiting their own natural tourist settings. The primary goal of this study was to understand how to foster loyal relationships between Zambian domestic tourists and a natural setting by investigating factors that influence domestic tourists' loyalty to the Victoria Falls World Heritage site. Destination loyalty was the central concept employed in this study and was examined from both a relational and transactional perspective. Place attachment constituted the relational variable, while satisfaction, service quality and perceived value were the transactional variables.

Video Prompts For Self-Regulated Learning: Metacognition And Reflection Activity, Janet Sedgley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study explored video metacognitive prompts as a method of engaging students in self-regulated learning. The study was completed in the naturalistic setting of fully online learning. Such learning environments imply a distance between faculty and students that makes student self-direction vital to success. However students are only infrequently practicing self-regulated learning skills.

Insight Dialogue: Investigation Of A Relational Meditation Practice, Zed David Kramer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Contemporary psychology has shown a strong and growing interest in Buddhist psychological (BP) theory and practice, which has informed numerous clinical interventions, influenced psychotherapeutic approach, and increasingly been the subject of empirical investigation (Goyal et al., 2014, Keng, Smoski, & Robins, 2011, Neff & Germer, 2012). This widespread adoption and adaptation of BP concepts, including mindfulness, self-compassion, and compassion, has primarily focused on the development of individual skills and internal change. However, despite the critical role relationship plays in human development, in the experience of distress, and in healing, the development of these skills and qualities in an explicitly relational …

“I Need A Hand-Up, Not A Hand-Out:” Spoiled Identities And Identity Maintenance Among Single Mothers Experiencing Homelessness, Laura Obernesser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research project explores the processes of impression management and identity maintenance through participant observation, informal interviews, and existing documents for an organization that provides services to mothers who are homeless in the Rocky Mountain West. The observations take place in a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for women in the community and region at three different locations. This project focuses on the complex ways in which mothers who experience severe poverty manage and negotiate their identities when confronted with the often unattainable and contradictory expectations of the cultural ideal of motherhood. These women engage in identity maintenance and emotion …

Behavioral Effects Of Fluoxetine On Aggression And Associative Learning In Betta Splendens, Benjamin Eisenreich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

While the link between serotonin and the behaviors of aggression and learning has been elucidated, few studies have examined the impact serotonin has on learning for aggressive rewards. In particular, the SSRI fluoxetine has been demonstrated to reduce aggression as well the acquisition of instrumental responding for rewards indicating that this drugs behavioral effect may be related to motivational processes important for learning. To examine the relationship between fluoxetine and motivational process important for learning, two experiments were conducted using Betta splendens, a species well known for their robust aggressive response and drive to engage in aggressive behaviors, to examine …

The Cognitive Dissonance Theory Of Torture Perceptions, Shannon Houck

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Torture is commonly perceived as fundamentally wrong, yet sometimes justified. To examine these competing perceptions within a cognitive dissonance theory framework, participants were primed with either (1) a gray spectrum visual cue designed to produce a more flexible, nuanced mindset, (2) a black and white visual cue designed to elicit a dichotomous mindset, or (3) not primed in a control condition. Participants (N= 226) evaluated a torture scenario involving a terrorist perpetrator. Scenarios also varied in the degree of personal closeness to victims in the crisis. Contrary to expectations, participants primed with a gray spectrum cue were not significantly more …

The Impact Of Detention On Juvenile Recidivism In Montana: Is The Impact Of Detention Influenced By Other Factors?, Daniel N. Acton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect detention has on recidivism risk as well as to identify the degree to which the effect of detention on recidivism is influenced by other variables. The data for this analysis were collected by probation officers across Montana, using the Back on Track risk assessment instrument (N=840). Although detention was the topic of interest, this analysis also tested aspects of three popular criminological theories: social bond theory, self-control theory, and life-course persistent theory. Using logistic regression, the effects of detention and a variety of other risk factors are identified. Hypothesis one …

The Effect Of Community Service Participation On Team Cohesiveness In Ncaa Division I Women's Volleyball Teams, Cara Jo Cocchiarella

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite the efforts of many to determine the best means for constructing and maintaining unified sports teams, leaders in the field continue to seek additional methods. This non-experimental quantitative analysis of NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball teams examined the value of community service participation as a team building activity. The purpose of this study was to determine the difference, if any, that exists between the amounts of cohesiveness on teams that employ different grouping strategies in community service work. Participants representing 74 different teams included a coach and a total of 442 players from those schools across the country. Mann …

A Public Revolt Against Spitting: Education And Politics In The Progressive Era, Patrick J. O'Connor

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Tower Of Hanoi In Dynamic Creative Problem Solving, Lia Harrington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Creativity and emotions are well-studied constructs, and there is much work on their interrelations. However the empirical application of dynamical systems analysis to them is still relatively rare. For these reasons, a study was conducted on the dynamics and interrelationships of creativity, emotion, and psychopathology using state space grids (SSG) in 33 young adult participants assessed for autism spectrum and negative schizotypy traits, using a computerized Tower of Hanoi (ToH) creative problem-solving task. An overview of the dual importance of convergent and divergent thinking styles to creativity is provided as a context for the experiment. The hypothesis that participants with …

The Occurrence Of Place-Based Narrative In U.S. Senatorial Campaign Advertisements, Brian K. Munis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Narratives have been increasingly subject to study within social science disciplines. However, research pertaining to narrative within political campaigns is incomplete. For example, there has been a relative lack of attention in the literature to the symbolic discourse and imagery in many political campaign advertisements that—seemingly—exists in order to link candidates to specific geographic “places” within their constituencies. A more complete understanding of the association between narratives of place and political campaigns will allow us to more effective and accurately gauge how, when, and why candidates use this potential strategy; as well as its possible effectiveness in election outcomes. This …

An Analysis Of Socioeconomic Influences On Health Care Seeking Behavior In Humla, Nepal, Hannah Kuehl

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mobile medical camps (MMCs) are common in Nepal, as well as other parts of the world. MMCs in Nepal provide health care resources that are not available through the government health system, due to Nepal’s weak health infrastructure. Although MMCs are problematic for a variety of reasons, they continue to play a role in health care delivery in remote settings the world over. Despite the fact that MMCs are increasingly common in many countries around the world, their patient populations and their health outcomes are poorly understood. This thesis is an analysis of socioeconomic influences within a select group of …