Digital Commons Network^™

Charity Begins At Home: Investigating How Culture Shapes In-Group Bias In Altruistic Behavior, Angira Shukla

Master's Theses

The paper builds a structural model of altruistic transfers based on identity matches with another individual and estimates the weights that people place on the characteristic matches. We also take a comparative look at the role of culture in these transfers. The culture here is trying to contrast a traditional society versus a cosmopolitan one. I run an experiment in India to examine these differences. I find that in both the urban and rural samples individuals tend to give more to girls and donate largely on the basis of the need of the receiver. I also find that the rural …

Understanding The Drivers Of Meat Consumption In Norway: An Exploration Of Environmental And Sociocultural Factors, Paul Wilhite

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on meat consumption in Norway and issues needed to be addressed if it is to be reduced. This thesis aims to explore the sociocultural and environmental factors influencing meat consumption in Norway, a country known for its high per capita consumption of meat. By examining the historical, cultural, and economic contexts of meat consumption in Norway as well as the environmental impacts and ethical considerations associated with meat production and consumption, this thesis seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of the drivers of meat consumption in Norway. Following a brief outline of how these issues are to …

Refugee Resettlement: Assessing The Quality Of Reception In The Southeast U.S., Adrian Laudani

Master's Theses

When faced with dire situations, refugees are forced to migrate without choice. As a new reality is forced upon them, many don’t have much say in what their futures hold. One option that only the fortunate bunch are presented with is resettlement in a third country. Addressing complexities within the refugee resettlement system consists of various dynamics including integration processes, cultural transitions, multilingualism, among much more. The purpose of this thesis is to address the quality of the current reception services in the United States in order to more effectively assist refugees throughout this general transition period. My main thesis …

Silent Weapon: A Documentary On Ending Police Corruption In Nigeria With A Nonviolent Social Movement, Damilola Adesanya

Master's Theses

This documentary aims to examine the issue of police corruption in Nigeria and see how a nonviolent movement can be implemented to end this problem. The focus is on nonviolent movements like the #ENDSARS was used to bring change where there seemed to be no hope. There have been many accounts of the experiences of the citizens of Nigeria when it comes to police corruption. Unfortunately, a lot of these situations have gone untold. Some Nigerians believe there is no way to stop the police from being corrupt, as it has been going on for too long. Many citizens feel …

Abolition Ecologies And The Making Of Freedom As A Place In Bayview-Hunters Point, Spencer Daniel O'Hara

Master's Theses

In this paper, I critically explore the subjectivities of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS), part of the largest redevelopment project in San Francisco since 1906. Applying an abolition ecologies framework, I ask what explains the duplicity of the Shipyard as a site of radioactive contamination and capital accumulation, and in the same time-space one that creates the conditions for radical place-making. Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is a former commercial and military shipyard located on a peninsula in southeastern San Francisco. Motivated by its desire for a major shipbuilding and repair facility to project maritime power in the Pacific, the Navy …

Food & Cultural Entrepreneurship: Recipes For Upward Social Mobility Among Emprendedoras Inmigrantes In The Bay Area, Mariel Hernandez

Master's Theses

A qualitative research study explores the experiences of female immigrant entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area including their journey of self-employment and the challenges they have faced based on their sex, migration status and access to social capital and resources. Understanding existing knowledge on migration theory and labor economics, sustainable labor integration, as well as the gendered nature of labor migration, it is determined that female migrants can access upward social mobility through labor markets and entrepreneurship. The study identifies various commonalities between the participants including and their opportunities for social mobility. Based on five interviews with immigrant women, …

The Association Between High Medical Costs & Migration In The United States, Zuriel Sanders

Master's Theses

In the United States, the current medical system has been controversial due to its non-universal design. Typically those who’re employed and middle or upper class have the most access to health care due to this design. Even among those with access to health insurance the amount of out-of-pocket medical expenses that families are exposed to after insurance can cause a burden in itself for staying financially afloat that year, especially when paired with the increasing cost of living in the U.S. from 2009-Present. For the purpose of this paper, we’ll be examining the relationship between migration & high medical expenses …

Child Soldiers & Juveniles In Gangs: Opposite Sides Of The Same Coin With Dissimilar Legal Liabilities In International And American Constitutional Law, Jason Blevins

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Fourthspace: The Role Of Active Social Inclusion In The Workforce Entry Of Syrian Refugees In Scandinavia, Anisa Abeytia

Master's Theses

The 2015 displacement of Syrian refugees into Scandinavian countries provoked a refugee integration policy adjustment that focused on workforce and higher education entry. It is a policy approach that requires attention on barriers to workforce entry to ensure effective policy implementation. This article provides insight into the larger, often overlooked barriers of Eurocentrism and historical biases on refugee labor integration and provides policy solutions to reduce their impact. Active social inclusion (ASI) and Fourthspace are introduced as a framework to reduce biases to workforce entry and integration time barriers faced by Syrian refugees. ASI can provide mechanisms to increase access …

Heating Systems And Households’ Expenditure, Svitlana Holyk

Master's Theses

The heating energy expenditure has been frequently taken to the consideration across different studies of poverty reduction. However, there is an unresolved question related to understanding how households’ expenditures might be distinct due to the heating system characteristics. This research implements matching methods to investigate the causal effect of the heating system on households’ gas and electricity expenditure in Ukraine. The result indicates that there is a significant difference in the utility expenditure between the District heating system (DHS) and the Individual heating system (IHS) households. The inherited from the past the Soviet District heating system Model in Ukraine doesn’t …

An Investigation Of Resistance Training Behavior, Non-Specific Psychological Distress, And Perceived Barriers To Resistance Training In Self-Identifying Female Undergraduate Students, Jody Sobel

Master's Theses

The prevalence and severity of depression symptoms amongst college students, specifically female identifying undergraduate students, is worrisome. There is a great deal of research that suggests a relationship between exercise, specifically resistance training (RT), and mental health. That said, current literature suggests that many female identifying students are not engaging due to perceived barriers. This, perhaps because of the plethora of barriers one can perceive. The purpose of this study was multifold 1) to examine the prevalence and severity of non-specific psychological distress; 2) to determine if there were differences between Kessler 6 Non-Specific Psychological Distress Scale (K6) categories (i.e., …

Nutritional Adequacy Of Dietary Intake Among College Students Who Follow A Veget, Kayanna L. Pulliam

Master's Theses

In recent years, forms of the vegetarian diet have been popularized for various reasons, including health benefits, support of animal rights, and greater sustainability claims. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the diet quality and adequacy and iron status of college students’ diets, and compare eating disorder (ED) risk between self-proclaimed vegetarians and non-vegetarians. The study sample was a convenience sample of students at Louisiana Tech University who were 18 years of age or older (N = 179). Students were recruited via email, flyers, and classroom announcements. Participants completed an online questionnaire with multiple validated tests; The …

Nutritional Adequacy Of Dietary Intake Among College Students Who Follow A Vegetarian Diet As Compared To Non-Vegetarian Students, Kayanna L. Pulliman

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Brazilian Camming: The Monetization Of Intimacy In Online Sex Work, Fernanda Veiverberg

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses a form of online feminized labor in Brazil, which employs digital technology to relieve the urges for intimacy and monetary insecurity. Camming is a genre of online sex work, in which cam models sell their body image and attention online through computer-mediated interactions. It constitutes a profitable activity that employs body performance without physical contact between model and client, typical in most categories of sex work such as prostitution, and where the clients are not mere spectators as within the pornography industry because camming requires authenticity and communication. For that, I explored three conceptual spheres that combined …

Gender Differences In Personality Dysfunction And Aggression In A Sample Of At-Risk Youth, Chloe O'Dell

Master's Theses

Youth with antisocial and borderline traits in adolescence have been found more likely to commit violence and experience negative outcomes later in life. There is evidence for gender differences in the manifestations of dysfunctional personality features (antisocial and borderline traits) and functions of aggression, but little research has sought to assess unique gender differences that may help unravel the sequelae of personality dysfunction in youth. Accordingly, this exploratory study examines gender differences in associations between antisocial features, borderline features, and proactive and reactive functions of aggression in a sample of at-risk youth. Four hundred and sixty-four adolescents (M_age = …

I Was Looking For God: A Study Of Wehrmacht Personnel And Their Personal Relationships With Religion, Christopher Bishop

Master's Theses

The Wehrmacht was Germany’s fighting force in the field during World War II. Its brutality and discriminatory practices rivaled that of the Nazi paramilitary and police units dispatched alongside them in newly conquered areas during this conflict. Coming from a society that was not at all unfamiliar with Christianity, some within the Wehrmacht related to Christianity in some form and attempted to use it to either justify actions or make sense of the world around them.

While considerable scholarship exists on the Nazi Party’s relationship to Christianity as a convenient propaganda tool for both soldier and civilian alike, the historiography …

Finding The Middle Zone; Redefining Spirituality Through Contemporary American Literature, Mickey Mcpoland

Master's Theses

In this essay, I investigate the intersection of post-postmodern literature and postsecular thought. I examine Jonathan Franzen’s novel Crossroads (2022) as a means to examine a religious conception of goodness and how goodness becomes rooted in what we worship. I also look to Infinite Jest and “Good People” by David Foster Wallace. The latter illuminates the conflict between traditional forms of worship and contemporary calls to worship one’s own desires, which results in stagnation, frigidity, and indecisiveness. Characters follow their internal compass, which leads them only further away from a sense of stability. Franzen’s work shows what replaces traditional religious …

Homelessness And Taphonomy: A Multidisciplinary Study, Chloë Angst

Master's Theses

In this thesis, I present multidisciplinary research applicable to deceased unhoused individuals in urban San José, California. I present the problem of homelessness through a “hybrid collectif,” a conceptual framework that encompasses the factors that drive homelessness in life and death. I use taphonomic methodology to examine the problem of homelessness in this urban region by experimentation with porcine carcasses in simulated death scenarios. I utilize total body score (TBS), accumulated degree days (ADD), and predictive entomological species identification to examine decomposition trends. I also introduce “human survival scavenging” as an agent of decomposition, provide an account of ecological succession …

The Debate On Nil: Progress For Female Collegiate Sports?, Stephanie Andrada

Master's Theses

In this study, seven female collegiate athletes from three different women’s sports teams (basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball) from a mid-major, Division-I college were interviewed. The study analyzed the lived experiences that NIL has on these specific female athletes in these particular women’s sports using a qualitative methodology. Three research questions were posed:

1. In what ways does the commercialization of college sports influence the NIL opportunities for these female athletes?
2. Could NIL perpetuate an uneven playing field for these female athletes in competition for limited resources?
3. To what degree do these female college athletes feel that NIL presents opportunities for equitable …

Sustainable Roots: The Environmental Genealogies Of Chicanas And Latinas, Marlene Andrade

Master's Theses

Ingenuity and tending to the land are anything but contemporary to Communities of Color (COC). Even when our communities become targets of environmental racism and experience the brunt of institution-based degradation, COC resist in a multitude of ways. While there is a plethora of documented social movements led by the Chicanx community for civil, educational, and labor rights, there is a paucity of Chicanx presence in environmental discourse. Thus, my scholar-activist commitments are to highlight Chicana/Latina herstories, epistemologies, and praxes that debunk the narrow white-heteropatriarchal male narrative in mainstream environmentalism. This dominant narrative fails to: (a) address the historical and …

Examining The Role Of Echo-Chambers Within Online Incel Communities Using Sentiment Analysis And Group Based Trajectory Modeling, Francesca Florine Fanucchi

Master's Theses

Technological advancements within the last decade have created new opportunities for social movements to meet and communicate online with like-minded individuals. Under this notion, these online communities generate an echo-chamber of information, to which certain individuals only surround themselves with people sharing similar values and opinions. As a result, online platforms (e.g., forums, blogs, websites) form as safe spaces for members to express their views seen as unacceptable offline. Research examining the role of echo-chambers in facilitating extremist rhetoric within online incel communities is limited, despite real-world acts of violence perpetrated by self-proclaimed incels. Therefore, the objective of this thesis …

Crawling The Dark Web: Structural Attributes Of Child Sexual Abuse Websites On The Dark Web, Enrique Guerra

Master's Theses

Inherent encryption and anonymity of the Dark Web has facilitated its use for a variety of illegal activities, including the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Detection of CSAM has increasingly turned to automated tools; however, these tools’ reliance on databases of known CSAM limit their flexibility and ability to identify previously unknown CSAM. Currently, it is unknown whether the lack of countermeasures used by CSAM disseminators on the Surface Web translates to the Dark Web. Therefore, this thesis examines the structural and naming patterns of websites hosting CSAM on the Dark Web, to identify new, complimentary, detection methods. …

Manifestations Of Communicative Resilience In Experiences Of Serial Arguments Among Adult Children Of Harmful Parental Alcohol Use, Brooklyn Willis

Master's Theses

This thesis investigated the ways in which adult children of harmful parental alcohol use manifest resilience through the lens of the Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR). The CTR presents five communication processes by which resilience, which is the ability to overcome hardship, is demonstrated. Serial arguments, the repeated and unresolved conflicts that occur between romantic partners, were utilized as the context to study resilience. Interviews were conducted to learn about perceptions of serial argument resolvability and the ways and frequencies in which resilience manifested. A pre-interview survey gathered information pertaining to relationship satisfaction and perceptions of resilience. A thematic analysis …

The Correlation Between Perceived Maternal Parenting Style And Perceived Emotion Regulation In Seventh-Day Adventists In Southern Brazil, Camila Cardoso Masotti

Master's Theses

Problem.\

One's ability to regulate his/her emotions utilizing coping mechanisms and dissuasive mental strategies is partly attained due to the correct functioning of innate biological systems and to life experiences that promote learning/training in this area (cf., e.g., Matsumoto & Hwang, 2012). The field of emotion regulation studies has extensively elaborated on a multivalent description of human emotional development, in which emotions are part of essential mental strategies for an individual's conscious and unconscious goals in life (cf., e.g., Lang & Bradley, 2010; Levenson, 1999). Therefore, as a partly learned ability, one's emotion regulation skills have been shown as positively …

Building Strength Versus Getting Lean: An Analysis Of The Gendered Nature Of Fitness In Crossfit, Barre, And Personal Training, Margaret M. Jones

Master's Theses

Like many industries in contemporary society, the fitness sector is heavily gendered, andthus needs to be examined as a sector that both creates and reinforces gendered bodies. Building on previous single-method studies, I utilized a multi-methods approach of ethnography and interviews to analyze organizational and individual experiences with gender and fitness. Using West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender,” I analyzed fitness organizations as a setting where gender and inequality are actively reproduced. By analyzing three fitness organizations with different gendered audiences (a barre studio, a CrossFit gym, and a personal training facility) I looked at how gender and fitness …

Engagement With Ethnic Practices: How Ethnic Communities Contribute To Second-Generation Asian American Assimilation, Bảo-Trân T. Nguyễn

Master's Theses

Previous research on spatial assimilation has described ethnic enclaves as places withmany recently arrived immigrants and fewer socioeconomic resources. As immigrants become more assimilated, they move to more affluent neighborhoods in proximity to Anglos. However, recent studies on resurgent ethnicity challenge the idea of the spatial assimilation by suggesting that Asian immigrants and subsequent generations continue to live near co-ethnics, despite gaining socioeconomic status. The transition from traditional ethnic enclaves to resurgent ethnic communities or ‘ethnoburbs’ indicate shifting understandings of what ethnic communities mean to Asian Americans. Although, Asian Americans are, on average, attaining higher socioeconomic status, the emergent importance …

Ecclesiological Sovereignty: Toward An Understanding Of The Sovereignty Of The Pope In The Context Of Luther's Responses, Erik Lee Grayvold

Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to address the contention between the perceived sovereign power of the Papacy and the Protestant Reformers. It will first provide a historical survey of how the Pope came to understand himself through the history of the Church. It will then analyze responses from the Reformers regarding this topic, focusing mainly on confessional documents and responses to these documents from the Roman Catholic Church. It will conclude with a survey of Luther’s specific responses to the situation and how his response to Papal authority and sovereignty impacted this theological development. This survey will also acknowledge situations in which …

Central Americans At A Crossroads: Asylum Seekers’ Testimonios Of Mental Health After Detention And Family Separation, Corie E. Schwabenland Garcia

Master's Theses

Though Central American asylum seekers are presently hypervisible in the U.S. consciousness, this population continues to be inadequately understood or cared for. Discussion of this population often presents them as a helpless and damaged population, in need of saving, fixing, or shelter -- beyond their trauma, they cease to exist. This qualitative study utilizes first-person testimonio methodology to understand the psychological experiences of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States, the stressors they face, and the mental health support that can and should be provided to them. Their stories speak to a space of sociopolitical precarity in the …

Impacts Of The Poultry Industry In Mississippi, Sara Watts

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the impacts of the poultry industry in seven counties in the Piney Woods region of South Mississippi: Wayne, Jones, Forrest, Lamar, Jefferson Davis, Marion, and Pike. Current research indicates that the poultry industry has a significant impact on the cultures and economies of rural towns throughout the United States. There is no current research that examines the effects of the poultry industry on residents of the Piney Woods. This thesis addresses that gap in the research and contributes to current understanding of how the industry molds and impacts the lives of those intimately associated with it.

I …

Drinking Motives As Mediators For The Relationships Between Overparenting And Alcohol Outcomes, Tatum Freeman

Master's Theses

The present study investigated the mediating role of drinking motives in the relationship between overparenting and alcohol outcomes using a sample of 207 traditional age college students (i.e., 18-25 years old; M = 19.8, SD = 1.64). Data on participant demographics, drinking motives, the practices of participants’ primary caregiver, typical weekly drinking, hazardous drinking, and alcohol consequences were collected via SONA (an online participant management software that allows researchers to collect data from a university psychology subject pool). Participants were 89.4% female and 54.1% White. Coping and conformity drinking motives partially mediated the relationships between overparenting, alcohol consequences, and hazardous …