Digital Commons Network^™

A Qualitative Investigation Of The Strategies Used By A Sample Of Native American Older Adults To Cope With Race-Related Stressors, Rita Haidle Billow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The present study explored how racism-related stress was characterized by respondents and investigated the ways in which these respondents coped with this type of stress. Using content analysis, four broad themes of race-related stress emerged: 1) Institutional, 2) Intergroup, 3) Bicultural, and 4) Intragroup. Race-related coping strategies, which included the cognitive, emotional and behavioral strategies respondents used to reduce and/or manage their experiences of racism, were also explored. Eight overarching coping strategies were described: 1) Taking action, 2) Acceptance, 3) Escaping, 4) Collective coping, 5) Meaning making, 6) Affective coping, 7) "Returning to what Indians did before", and 8) Creative …

Aesthetic Appreciation Of The Natural Environment: Scientific Knowledge & The Extension From Aesthetics To Ethics, John K. Hays

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Aesthetics has played an influential role in how we ascribe value to the environment. Yet, it seems that if we are to take the beauty of the natural world seriously, certain aesthetics judgments must be better than others. The scientific cognitive model posits that the natural world must be interpreted through an understanding of biological and geological categories, which are provided by scientific knowledge and common sense. While there are clearly merits to this model, it is not without its own set of problems and limitations. These problems exist in both the model itself and with its extension to environmental …

Towards Sentence Compliance: Examining Pfma Offender Pathways Through Missoula Municipal And Justice Courts, Sara Justine Shapiro

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent years, there has been great concern among those who work in the criminal justice system, in Missoula, Montana, about the processing of domestic violence offenders. Many of these people believe that domestic violence defendants are not being consistently prosecuted, and that convicted offenders are not completing their mandated anger management program. To address these concerns, this analysis examines the adjudication, from arrest to sentencing, of a cohort of defendants appearing in Missoula Municipal Court and Missoula County Justice Court. The sample includes defendants whose final charge between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 was Partner/Family Member Assault …

The Dwellers Between: Yup'ik Shamans And Cultural Change In Western Alaska, Ahnie Litecky

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper examines the history of the Yup'ik Eskimos of western Alaska and explores how their shamans shaped the response to introduced epidemic disease. As in the experiences of so many other Native American groups, disease epidemics played an important role in the history of relations between the Yup'ik Eskimos and white settlers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I argue here that while the Yup'ik Eskimos grappled with the devastating effects of introduced diseases, they did not repudiate their shamans and traditional faith, which sets the Yup'ik people apart from other Native Americans. Before contact with Europeans, the Yup'ik …

In The Game Of Love, Play By The Rules: Implications Of Relationship Rule Consensus Over Honesty And Deception In Romantic Relationships, Katlyn Elise Roggensack

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the implications of relationship rule consensus over the meanings of honesty and deception in romantic relationships. Relationship rules are implicit understandings developed over time that guide individuals’ behavior in relationships, but they are often ambiguous and unspoken. Honesty and deception rules are particularly vulnerable to different interpretations given that honesty is held to such high esteem, yet deception is common in relationships. Since deception becomes a salient source of conflict when discovered, coordination of these rules should be linked to relational quality. In part one of the study, in-depth interviews helped identify …

A Comparative Analysis Between Knowledge And Bear Safety Information Utilization By Day Hikers In Glacier National Park, Phillip Wayne Zumstein

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to identify Glacier National Park backcountry day users’ bear safety information source utilization, obtain their knowledge level of bear safety, and identify any differences in knowledge level when compared to sources used. The results of this study were intended to provide park managers with a means to more effectively implement the park’s bear safety information program. The study was conducted within Glacier National Park in Montana during the summer of 2011. A survey was given to 540 backcountry day users during their day hikes within the park. A bear safety quiz section was included …

Environmental Documentary Film: A Contemporary Tool For Social Movement, Rachel Gregg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Building a 21st century movement capable of inspiring social and structural change requires creative education, resourceful collaboration, and civic engagement. The U.S. environmental movement is in need of strategies that bring a wide spectrum of people together, facilitate appropriate interpretation of problems, and prompt innovative, forward-thinking solutions. Environmental documentary film has the ability to dramatize the reality of environmental issues and empower audiences to become an active part of the change necessary to address environmental crises. Utilizing a specific genre of environmental documentary film in novel and inventive ways, people can be gathered, educated, and inspired to become active participants …

Teaching Mindfulness To Individuals With Schizophrenia, Jennifer Leah Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mindfulness practice as a treatment intervention has mitigated psychopathological symptoms and improved aspects of quality of life for many individuals. Studies of mindfulness-based training interventions for individuals with Schizophrenia disorders have been limited. These have targeted psychosis only or addressed anxiety co-occurring with schizophrenia; there has not been a mindfulness intervention tailored to particular treatable experience(s) of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In this exploratory treatment development research, 10 individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were individually trained in a tailored mindfulness intervention. Predictions were that as a result of participating in the intervention, participants would report less distress in relation to positive …

Communal Empathy In Native American Older Adults, Heather Lynn Dorlando

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recently it has been posited that resilience is a dynamic process that develops, fluctuates, and is embedded in social context. With a dynamic systems approach it is possible to investigate resilience within a Native American community, which includes addressing the concept of cultural resilience and empathy. A secondary qualitative data analysis of 28 interviews with Native American older adults was conducted. Research questions addressed the context in which empathy was demonstrated, what dimensions of empathy were utilized, if empathy was used as an emotion-focused or communal coping strategy, and what outcomes were described when using empathy as a coping strategy. …

Bernard Williams On Coercion And Reasons For Action, Joseph Stephenson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding the nature of reasons for action and, specifically, how one can come to understand and criticize another’s reasons for action can help us to better understand what possible outcomes we can hope for when engaging another agent. Understanding reasons for action may even give us some insight into what shared ground ethical theory can offer. Bernard Williams’ treatment of reasons for action informs much of the contemporary discussion. Williams argues that there are generally two classes of statements about reasons: internal and external. An internal reason, according to Williams, is a reason which depends entirely on an agent’s motivations …

A Model Of Successful Adaptation To Online Learning For College-Bound Native American High School Students, Collier Kaler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The primary purpose of this grounded theory study was to shed light on the personal online learning experiences of Native American high school students in Montana. The overarching research question was: What are the conditions for college-bound Native American high school students that result in a successful adaptation to an online learning environment?

Eight Native American students attending high schools on the Flathead and Blackfeet Reservations, and one small urban city, were interviewed two separate times for approximately 45 minutes. All participants had passed online coursework with a grade of C or better, taken through Montana Digital Academy. One hundred …

Gaze Toward The City They Won't Enter Again, Mehgan Mckenna

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fiction thesis.

The Worst, Molly Laich

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Literature Meets Biology: An Evolutionary Approach To Literary Studies, Samantha Reneé Dwyer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following thesis engages with the relatively young development in literary studies, called evocriticism, which uses scientific perspectives to look at literature. It first gives an overview of the current state of English departments and their decline in numbers, budgets, and cultural relevancy, mostly due to outdated modes of literary criticism and theory. It then introduces evocriticism as a new paradigm for studying literature. Literature and the arts are studied as human behaviors with possible adaptive benefits. Individual texts are interpreted through a scientific lens, using the theory of evolution to find cultural and biological human universals that can help …

No Star Galore, Zachary Cody Lee Carlsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Not you, me shadows of stainedglass on normal glass, where nothing moves not even if we say an owl can sing nothing changes.

Orphanhood And The Search For Home In L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz" And Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago", Amanda Marie Peterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Defining home is not an easy task. Protagonists Dorothy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Yuri of Doctor Zhivago are alike in their search for home. They journey through the texts learning what home means to them, which leads to their own discoveries of home. Through these discoveries, they also learn about finding place within space, and how attachments to and love for other people can help to transform the enormity of space into a place of comfort.

The Seen And Unseen: Religion And Identity In The Chicago American Indian Community, Eli Steven Suzukovich Iii

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following dissertation is an ethnographic community study focusing on religiosity and its relationship in maintaining tribal identity among urban Indians living in Chicago, Illinois. The research examines spirituality and religious practice in an urban Indian community and illuminates and examines how people conceptualize the sacred and how it applies to their sense of tribal, familial, and individual identities and its development through a lifetime. The goals of this research are to: 1) provide an overview of religiosity as it currently exists within the American Indian community of Chicago; and 2) examine religion and spirituality as is develops over time …

Rural Community Vitality; The Cases Of Fort Benton, Montana And Watford City, North Dakota, Joseph Micheal Husar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There are many rural towns in the United States that are struggling economically. While many suffer population loss through out-migration, others continue to thrive. This project focuses on two rural communities: Fort Benton in central Montana and Watford City in western North Dakota. The research sets out to provide an understanding of how these towns prosper while maintaining their rural lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to explore and identify the efforts carried out by these rural communities to secure the power to live and grow; in other words to remain vital as a rural places. Both communities are …

Empowerment Through Voice: A Case Study In The Leadership Of Restorative Justice, Kim Dalene Harding

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative case study identified shared leadership as a necessary component in the sustenance of restorative justice, a reform justice model used at Ada County Juvenile Court Services located in Boise, Idaho. Within each of its divisions, ACJCS utilizes this shared leadership model. At this court, leadership capacity was built though encouraging team members to take initiative and show innovation. Community capacity was built by the creation of networks with other private and county agencies, providing both leadership opportunities and community service hours for offending youth. Shared leadership sustains this reform justice model by allowing leaders to become followers and …

Different Challenges And Different Blessings: Life Experiences Of Young Mothers Of Children With Down Syndrome, Janice Driscoll Nugent

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Life experiences of young mothers of preschool aged children with Down syndrome were explored in this qualitative narrative study. Intensive interviews of four purposefully chosen young women were conducted. The findings of this study illustrate the impact of a preschool aged child with Down syndrome on the life of a young woman.

A variety of themes were identified. The primary themes were the background of the woman, including her public school experience, learning of the diagnosis of Down syndrome, supports, the child's medical complications, learning to cope and the impact of that disability on their day-to-day lives.

Child care and …

The Impact Of Nclb Reforms In The Elementary Schools Comparing Perceptions/Practices From 2002 To 2011, Judith L. Gosnell-Lamb

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

With the advent of No Child Left behind in 2002, public education in the United States entered into a reform movement with mounting consequences and ramifications. This unprecedented federal in-road into public education became the umbrella regulator over programs, staff, budgets and students. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine to what extent NCLB had impacted educational leadership and classroom practices as educators have strived to serve their students and the federal mandates at the same time.

A request for participants went out over the internet to over 1000 elementary principals. Asking if they had been in the …

Under The Bridge: A Qualitative Investigation Of Homeless Persons' Perspectives On Substance Abuse And Its Treatment, Amanda Beth Taylor

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although homelessness is generally thought of as an urban problem, it is also a growing problem in rural areas, such as Missoula, Montana (Jacobson 2010). Studies of urban homelessness indicate that substance abuse is a part of life for many homeless individuals, and the barriers to substance abuse treatment are exacerbated by being homeless (Snow and Anderson 1993; Morrell 2007). “Prevalence studies estimate that the percentage of homeless people with alcohol use disorders to be at 30%-40% and drug abuse at 10%-15%” (Fisk, Raakfeldt, and McCormack 2006: 480). Substance abuse is also common among homeless individuals in rural areas, including …

Wolves And Livestock: A Review Of Tools To Deter Livestock Predation And A Case Study Of A Proactive Wolf Conflict Mitigation Program Developed In The Blackfoot Valley, Montana, Peter Douglas Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The recent recovery of wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM) was met with opposition from the ranching communities throughout Montana. This was not surprising, due to the fact that wolves are feared as a predator of livestock and therefore represent a direct economic loss for ranchers that experience depredations by wolves. Wolves are also revered as a native predator that have top down effects upon natural prey species. This in turn affects the web of plants and animals that make up natural ecosystems. This fact, as well as the strong emotional connection that some stakeholders have to wolves creates …

Assessing The Balance: Burkean Frames And Lil' Bush, Elizabeth Anne Sills

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In light of former president George W. Bush’s remarkably low approval ratings during the later years of his administration, the Comedy Central program Lil’ Bush seemed to be a satiric outlet for societal angst. A closer examination of the show, however, reveals that its content is funny, but does more to entertain than it does to criticize. Using the dichotomy of Burke’s comedic and humorous frames as a standard for analysis, this thesis probes the program to determine the nature of its humor. Although the show does include some critiques of George W. Bush and the federal executive branch as …

An Assessment Of The Hiv Prevention Needs Of Men Who Have Sex With Men In Montana, Kelly A. Hart

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to collect information about the HIV prevention needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) living in Montana. Prevention needs were explored by identifying the environmental factors and behaviors that put MSM at risk for HIV infection, describing the demographic and contextual factors that influence those behaviors, and comparing current prevention needs to existing resources and services. To evaluate the prevention needs, primary qualitative data was collected in the form of four focus groups and nine key informant interviews. Supporting secondary quantitative and qualitative data in the form of an online survey and …

Debt Structure In The West: Money And Gift, And The Influence On Community, James A. Becker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Debt structures all relationships in America as well as all of our economic material exchanges. Historically debt has always been seen thus with our religious texts being written both in the terminology of the metaphysical and the economical combining them together in an attempt to understand the social and economic systems that individuals live in. At the core of the social and economic systems is community. In America the myth of the gift is a dominant catalyst that uses debt to make community through time. In order to study the structure of debt within America I will be using an …

Informal Mathematics Activities And The Beliefs Of Elementary Teacher Candidates, Matt B. Roscoe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study sought to determine the relationship between participation in informal mathematics activities and the formal-to-informal beliefs of university teacher candidates in elementary education. Three classes of preservice teachers participated in the study through their enrollment in a content mathematics course for elementary education majors. Four informal mathematics activities were employed as part of the course requirements. Pre and post formal-to-informal beliefs about mathematics and mathematics instruction were measured using a Likert-scale beliefs assessment instrument used by Collier (1972) and Seaman et al. (2005). Changes in beliefs about mathematics and mathematics instruction were compared to a control group. Student reflection …

Multifactorial Screening For Fall Risk In Community-Dwelling Older Adults In The Primary Care Office: Development And Validation Of The Fall Risk Assessment & Screening Tool (Frast), Mindy Oxman Renfro

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: Unintentional falls are an increasing public health problem as incidence of falls rises and the population ages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 3 adults aged 65 years and older will experience a fall this year; 20% to 30% of those who fall will sustain a moderate to severe injury. Physical therapists (PTs) and other primary care practitioners (PCPs) caring for older adults are usually engaged with these patients after the first injury fall and may have little opportunity to abate fall risk before the injuries occur.

Purpose: This manuscript describes the content selection, …

The Heart Of The Matter: The Function And Relational Effects Of Humor For Cardiovascular Patients, Nicholas Lee Lockwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined the possibility that cardiovascular patient health is enhanced by the intentional communication of humor and associated increases in relationship satisfaction. In an effort to study the relationship between these variables it was predicted that relationship satisfaction mediates the effects between humor functions and health. Questionnaire data was collected from members of two national support groups for patients of cardiovascular disease. Findings support humor functions distinguished in previous studies and support the hypothesis that relationship satisfaction mediates health. Specifically, distancing humor negatively predicted relationship satisfaction and health. These findings offer new insight into the variability of humor effects.

The Tribal College Movement: Ensuring That Native American Students Successfully Complete An Associate Degree And Persist To Earn A Four-Year Degree, Cheri Lynn Kicking Woman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This mixed method study examined the utilization of educational resources available to 44 Native American students. One-half initially attended a tribal college, and one-half Native American students who initially attended a non-tribal college. The qualitative process involved face-to-face interviews with the participants at the seven Montana tribal colleges. The resources included: mentoring programs, library services, financial aid assistance, distance learning programs, disability services, scholarships' applications process assistance, assistance in use of computers and the skills needed, tutors, student organizations, and academic counselors.

The data from the first phase of the study were illustrated by the use of tables and descriptive …