Digital Commons Network^™

Knowledge, Perceptions, And Outcomes Of Agricultural Communications Curriculum In Arkansas Secondary Agricultural Classrooms, Carley Payne Calico

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed method study was to assess the effectiveness of agricultural communications curriculum developed and incorporated into a semester-long agricultural leadership and communications course for secondary agricultural education programs in Arkansas. This study was comprised of three parts including a pilot test, teacher training assessment, and a descriptive field test over a two-year period. For the pilot test portion of the study, students (N = 297) participated in newly developed instructional modules (careers, writing, design, and multimedia) predetermined by a committee of agricultural education and communications faculty at the University of Arkansas. The pilot test indicated students' …

The Impact Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty On International Students' Intercultural And Intracultural Conflict Management, Yekaterina Syrtsova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the role of intolerance of uncertainty in international students' conflict management in intracultural and intercultural settings. International students at a large U.S. university were surveyed and their responses were analyzed using quantitative methods. Analyses indicated that the higher the intolerance of uncertainty scores, the higher the use of dominating and avoiding strategies. The results in this study also revealed that when controlling for sex, the higher the individuals' intolerance of uncertainty score, the lower their preference for integrating-compromising strategy. Finally, there were limited differences between the ways international students handle conflict with conflict partners from their own …

Violations Of Protection Orders: Characteristics Of Offenders And Criminal Justice Responses, Kelly Eileen Henderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Criminal justice research often finds gender-based differences with regard to both perpetration and responses to offending. These data indicate that, overall, women's crime rates are far below those of their male counterparts and that women commit less serious offenses. That is there are distinct patterns of offending across sex. In addition, justice responses tend to favor women, in that female offenders fare better than men particular in areas of arrest, prosecution, and sentencing. While previous research explores patterns of crime between male and female offenders, focusing primarily on drug or violent crimes such as homicide, there has been very little …

Impact Of Healthy Lifestyle Choices On Smoking Behavior Among College Students Who Smoke Cigarettes, Mitchell Jenkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the impact certain healthy lifestyle choices had on smoking behavior among college students who smoke cigarettes. Even with continued reduction in prevalence, cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in America. With that in mind, it is important to continue to identify factors that relate to decreased tobacco usage. Secondary data from the American College Health Association's bi-yearly National College Health Assessment was used for this study. This assessment/survey encompasses college students' habits, behaviors, and perceptions regarding prevalent health topics. The sample for this study consisted of 14,515 college students who identified themselves as …

The Effects Of Maternal Information Transmission On Daughters' Responding To A Voluntary Hyperventilation Challenge, Ashley Arehart Knapp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary models of panic etiology would benefit from additional tests of how fear of internal cues is acquired. Drawing from literature suggesting parent-to-child verbal information transmission is one pathway by which fear of external stimuli is learned, the current study is designed to address the effects of this pathway on fearful responding to internal cues (i.e., somatic perturbation produced by a voluntary hyperventilation challenge). Specifically, 53 mothers of adolescent females between the ages of 10 and 14 years were randomly assigned to either share negative or positive information regarding their experience with a voluntary hyperventilation challenge prior to their daughters …

Rape Myths And Consent In College-Aged Southern Students, Amy Leanne Cofer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rape and sexual assault are problematic issues for women on college campuses. Internal and external consent play a role in understanding sexual assault because sexual assault is defined as "nonconsensual sexual activity obtained through force, threats, intoxication, or intimidation." Factors related to understanding consent may include attitudes regarding sexual assault and rape, known as rape myths, which are defined as attitudes and false statements concerning rape that are widely known and accepted, mainly served to justify male sexual aggression towards women. The southeastern United States is known for being religiously and politically conservative, where gender roles are intertwined with a …

21st Century Radicalization: The Role Of The Internet User And Nonuser In Terrorist Outcomes, David Wayne Woodring

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines differences between users and nonusers of information communication technologies (ICTs) within the pre-incident planning processes for domestic terrorist movements operating within the United States. In addition, this study is the first quantitative exploration of the prevalence, types, and purposes of ICT use within terrorist movements, specifically environmental, far-right, and Islamic extremist movements. Using "officially designated" federal terrorism investigations from the American Terrorism Study (ATS), we analyzed extracted evidence of ICT usage among individuals (n =331) engaged in the pre-incident planning processes as members of terrorist movements between 1995-2011. While we find significant differences in terrorist ICT use …

Differential Extinction Of Disgust And Anxiety Among Victims Of Sexual Traumatization, Christal Badour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emerging evidence suggests that in addition to fear, traumatic event-related disgust reactions may be integral to understanding the sequelae of sexual traumatization. Importantly, evidence broadly suggests compared to fear, disgust may be resistant to extinction. As such, conditioned disgust reactions may not evidence the same pattern of extinction observed with fear-based reactions. This may have important implications for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As such, the current study sought to fill an important gap in the existing literature by examining specific processes and mechanisms that are likely to affect outcomes of exposure-based interventions following sexual traumatization. Specifically, 72 …

The Effects Of Social Contextual Factors On Rater Motivation And Performance Ratings, Emilija Djurdjevic

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Performance appraisal research (e.g., Longenecker, Sims, & Gioia, 1987; Wang, Wong, & Kwong, 2010) suggests that inaccuracies in performance ratings are largely a result of intentional rating distortion, or rater motivation. Researchers have noted that raters sometimes have multiple and conflicting goals when providing performance ratings (e.g., Murphy, Cleveland, Kinney, Skattebo, Newman, & Sin, 2003). According to rater goal theory (e.g., Cleveland & Murphy, 1992), rater goals are influenced by the performance appraisal context, mediating the relationship between the context of performance appraisal and performance ratings. Studies suggest that the context affects performance ratings, but conceptualizations of the performance appraisal …

Environmental Literacy Of Sixth Grade Students In Arkansas: Implications For Environmental Education Reform, Lisa Suzanne Wood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental education must be better integrated into K-12 curriculum to advance environmental literacy. Producing a citizenry that can understand and address the complex environmental issues facing the world today and in the future is essential to sustainable life on this planet.

Using the Middle School Environmental Literacy Survey, 6th grade students across Arkansas were surveyed to obtain a baseline measure of environmental literacy based on the four domains of environmental literacy included in the survey; ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. Individual domain scores were combined into a composite environmental literacy score. Results were then compared to the …

Congruent And Incongruent Effects Of Ethnic Music On Ethnic Menu Item Selection, Ryan David Muniz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated what impact ethnic music had on ethnic menu item selection. College students were randomly divided into three groups and listened to one randomly assigned sound treatment in sensory booths. Three hundred and five participants completed the questionnaire with measures of expected price value and willingness to pay value. One of the groups listened to an Italian folk music, the second group listened to a Thai folk music, and the third group listened to a restaurant background noise in order to examine if the music will impact each participant menu items selection and perceived price values. The result …

Contributing Factors That Affect The Achievement Of African-American Females Taught By Caucasian Teachers On The Arkansas Literacy Exam: A Case Study, Felicia Renee Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative intrinsic case study was designed to assist Caucasian educators with the researched academic skills and behaviors to engage African-American females in the learning environment. The study provided strategies and recommendations to promote self-worth, self-motivation, self-efficacy, and morale in African-American females when they did not perform as well as or higher than their Caucasian peers in a high school English classroom on the state literacy examination instructed by a Caucasian teacher. The research site was a low socioeconomic urban high school with a majority of minorities with several native based home languages. The study took an in-depth approach to …

The Relationships Between `Push' And `Pull' Factors Of Millennial Generation Tourists To Heritage Tourism Destinations: Antebellum And Civil War Sites In The State Of Arkansas, Kayla Diane Kesterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated `push' and `pull' motivational factors which influence Millennial Generation tourists' decisions to visit heritage tourism destinations and their knowledge of Civil War and Antebellum heritage sites within the state of Arkansas. A descriptive, six-section survey was distributed to Millennial students from varying degree fields at three universities within Arkansas. Four hundred twenty-four participants completed the questionnaire with measures of demographic information, visitation and frequency to heritage tourism sites, push factors, pull factors, heritage tourism sites in Arkansas, and historic preservation participation.

The results of this study showed that although Millennial students do not visit heritage sites frequently, …

Dropping Out In Southeast Kansas: Why Students Leave School Early, Garon Kent Wire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study takes a deeper look into the lived experiences of students in southeast Kansas who have dropped out of high school. As a result, school and community leaders are better informed to create effective strategy, policy, and practice in dropout prevention.

Framed as a phenomenology, data was collected by conducting in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 12 participants and a focus-group interview with four participants. The researcher administered a survey/questionnaire to an additional 15 participants. Utilizing the Streamlined Codes-To-Theory Model (Saldana, 2009); organizational, structural, and elaborative coding techniques were implemented to reduce the data into categories, which led to the …

Lunch Buddy Mentoring For Bullied Children: Four Case Studies And A Thematic Analysis, Samantha Gregus

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lunch Buddy (LB) mentoring, a type of school-based mentoring, holds promise as a selective intervention for children who are chronically bullied (Elledge, Cavell, Ogle, & Newgent, 2010). This study expanded upon previous research (Elledge et al., 2010) by utilizing a case-study approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods to gain more evidence about the palatability of the intervention and to uncover possible mechanisms by which the intervention is working. Participants were four elementary school children in grades four and five who had been identified as bullied based on child and teacher reports. Quantitative data were collected at multiple points during the …

Sexual Pleasure And Enhancement: Implications For College Sexuality Education, Jessica Maureen Harris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine what sexual activities and behaviors college students are participating in, including the use of sexual enhancement products during both partnered and solo sexual activities. Pleasure and sexual satisfaction remain largely absent from today's sexuality education curricula, resulting in most young adults not being aware of the importance of "sexual pleasure, including autoeroticism, as a source of physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual well-being" (WAS, 1994).This study looked at college students and their the use of sexual enhancement products during partnered and solo sexual activities, in order to provide a set of baseline measures …

Love, Reason, And Romantic Relationships, Justin Leonard Clardy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The capacity to love is without a doubt one of the most prized features of our existence. However, love offers us a wide range of complex questions with very few answers. Yet, it is important that we get an accurate view of love because knowing what to love and how to live aids us in trying to manage our lives sensibly. In this paper, I plan to present a reasons-responsive account of romantic love that involves the valuing of qualities that the beloved has as well as the valuing of the relationship shared with the beloved. I will also show …

Attitudes And Behaviors In Online Communities: Empirical Studies Of The Effects Of Social, Community, And Individual Characteristics, Richard Kumi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online communities and communities of practice bring people together to promote and support shared goals and exchange information. Personal interactions are important to many of these communities and one of the important outcomes of personal interactions in online communities and communities of practice is user-generated content. The three essays in the current study examines behavior motivation in online communities and communities of practice to understand how Social and personal psychological factors, and user-generated influence attitudes, intentions and behaviors in online communities.

The first essay addresses two research questions. First, how does Social capital influence exchange and combination behaviors in online …

Perceptions Of Equality And National Identity Amongst Young British South Asian Muslims In Bradford, England, Simon J. Reid

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of urban riots and terror attacks in the United Kingdom, British public debate and policy have focused on the nation's immigrant communities. These debates have commonly called into question whether immigrant communities in Britain are sufficiently integrated into "mainstream" society and included in the nation. These questions have been particularly focused on the country's immigrant Muslim communities because they have, over the years, been accused of segregating themselves from, and within, British society. This study explored the local and national identities of young British South Asian Muslims in Bradford, which is one of the largest Muslim communities …

Preservice Candidates' Rating Of Effectiveness In Agricultural Education Through Structured Communication With Cooperating Teachers, Christopher Lee Hunt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between cooperating teacher and student has been found as one of the key elements that affect the overall teaching efficacy of student teachers and their decision to enter the teaching field after graduation (Edgar, 2007; Edgar, Roberts, & Murphy, 2011,2008; Kasperbauer et al., 2007a; Roberts, Greiman, Murphy, Ricketts, Harlin, & Briers 2009; Roberts, Harlin, & Briers, 2007, Roberts, Harlin, & Ricketts, 2006; Roberts Mowen, Edgar, Harlin & Briers, 2007, Stripling, Ricketts, Roberts & Harlin, 2008; Wolf, 2011; Wolf et al., 2010). Therefore, determining impacts towards teaching efficacy during the student teaching experience could play a vital role in …

Understanding Faculty And Non-Traditional Student Perceptions Of Self-Directed Learning In A Practical Nursing Program, Carmen Marie Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to identify and investigate nursing faculty and student perspectives of self-directed learning in a practical nursing program. It also explored the degree to which student's perceptions of self-directed learning exhibited factors consistent with that of critical thinking. This study is important because self-directed learning and its critical thinking elements are essential in providing safe, competent, effective, and efficient nursing care within practice and education. Using an explanatory case study design the practice of self-directed learning within a practical nursing program was examined through the use of: classroom observations, interviews with nursing faculty, nursing students, and document …

The Mechanisms Of Interpersonal Privacy In Social Networking Websites: A Study Of Subconscious Processes, Social Network Analysis, And Fear Of Social Exclusion, Bryan I. Hammer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing usage of Social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as e-commerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy policies, website mechanisms) enables the relationship between a user and business, focusing on the institutional privacy concern and trust; however, architectural privacy mechanisms that enables relationships between and among users is lacking. This leaves users the responsibility to manage privacy for their interpersonal relationships. This research focuses on the following …

The Development Of A Traumatic Brain Injury Bioreactor, Zachery Heller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1.7 million Americans experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. Concussive injuries are a subset of TBI in which blows to the head cause the brain to collide against the interior of the skull. Damage to the neurons, supporting cells, and surrounding extra cellular matrix resulting from these collisions can lead to permanent physical, cognitive, and psychological impairment. We believe the prevalence and clinical significance of concussive injures warrants research investment. To study brain injury following TBI, in vivo models have been the gold standard for TBI experiments. Although a valuable research alternative, animals are expensive, raise ethical …

Criteria For Initial Appointment In Rank And Subsequent Promotion For Faculty In Two-Year Public Colleges, Michael Aaron Orf

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growth of community colleges over the last five decades has not been met with a commensurate expansion of knowledge about policy development. In order to address this gap in knowledge, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of rank among two-year colleges in the United States; to identify the criteria used to determine rank upon hire for transfer and vocational faculty; to identify the criteria used to determine promotion for transfer and vocational faculty; and to determine if there are differences in criteria between transfer faculty and vocational faculty at initial appointment and subsequent promotion. Additionally, the study sought …

The Impact Of Cognitive Behavior Techniques On The Vocational Identity Of Persons With Disabilities Receiving Ssi/Ssdi Benefits, James Joseph Quinn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) on the vocational identity, self-efficacy, and vocational satisfaction of persons with disabilities receiving SSI/SSDI. This study was carefully planned to help persons with disabilities obtain employment. A review of the relevant literature was used to determine the need for the study and to support the study. Forty participants, all were enrolled into a vocational rehabilitation program were selected for the study. Threats to internal and external validity were taken into consideration and controlled for. They received CBT as a treatment intervention to change their beliefs and irrational thoughts about the …

Workforce Preparedness Of Information Systems Students: Perceptions Of Students, Alumni, And Employers, Susan Bristow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employers of newly hired higher education graduates report their new workforce is not prepared. Further research was required to discover insights to the workforce readiness gap. This concurrent mixed methods study explored what competencies influenced employer's perceptions of the work-readiness of Information Systems (ISYS) undergraduate students and discovered ISYS graduates' and current ISYS students' perceptions of their work-readiness. Participants consisted of a convenience sample including 69 ISYS program upperclassmen, 20 ISYS program alumni, and 8 employers of the ISYS program graduates. ISYS program alumni completed an online Qualtrics survey to measure the participants' perception of their workforce preparedness. ISYS program …

The Effect Of Music Training On Emotion Perception In Childhood, Emese Maroti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies found evidence that music training can enhance cognitive abilities both for children and adults. However, no evidence was found yet, whether music training can enhance abilities in emotion perception. I tested 8-9 year-old children on emotion perception in visual and musical contexts. The tests did not show significant difference between the musically trained and non-trained group neither in visual nor in musical context, however, when emotion scores were analyzed separately for each piece of music, musically trained children's responses reflected stereotypical modes of approaching emotional meanings in music, moreover, musically trained children's judgments were more uniform as there …

Analysis Of Social Networks In A Virtual World, Gregory Thomas Stafford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As three-dimensional virtual environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, studying how users are connected via their avatars and how they benefit from the virtual world community has become a significant area of research. An in-depth analysis of virtual world Social networks is needed to evaluate how users interact in virtual worlds, to better understand the impact of avatar Social networks on the virtual worlds, and to improve future online Social networks.

Our current efforts are focused on building and exploring the Social network aspects of virtual worlds. In this thesis, we build a Social network of avatars based …

Examining The Relations Among Trauma, Distress, Resilience, And Physical Health, Kathryn Elizabeth Chaisson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of traumatic distress as a mediator in the relation between trauma exposure and somatic malaise and healthcare utilization. Resilience was examined as a moderator between trauma exposure and somatic malaise and healthcare utilization, then between trauma exposure and traumatic distress. A total of 206 female participants recruited from an obstetrics and gynecology specialty practice completed measures of trauma exposure, traumatic distress, resilience, somatic malaise, and healthcare utilization. Multiple hierarchical regressions were performed to test the hypothesized relations. Results indicated that trauma exposure was a significant predictor of traumatic distress and resilience, and of somatic malaise …

The Impact Of Counselor Level Of Spiritual Well-Being On The Morale, Global Symptoms, And Global Impairment Of Adolescents Receiving Treatment For Substance Use And/Or Other Mental Health Disorders: A Pilot Study, Michael William Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years there has been a movement towards a holistic perspective of human nature in the counseling leading to increased interest in the nature and role of spirituality in counseling and the counseling process. In the present study multiple regression analysis is used to determine whether Counselor Level of Spiritual Well-Being, or aspects thereof, namely, Counselor Level of Existential Well-Being and/or Counselor Level of Religious Well-Being, as measured by the Spiritual Well-Being Scale significantly impacts client outcomes, namely, Morale, Global Symptoms, and Global Impairment as measured by the Health Dynamics Inventory for adolescents receiving treatment for substance use and/or …