Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of The Effect Of Socio-Cultural Demographics, Health Status, And Use Of Music On Music Preferences, Kaitlin Mckinley

Masters Theses

There have been varying studies seeking to find links between a wide range of individuals’ personality, gender, age, or well-being on one’s musical preferences. These studies have brief suggestions of some characteristics, however, the amount of studies are scarce and have limited results to show substantial influence of specific demographics on music preferences. The present study aimed to explore possible similarities between one’s music preferences and the sociocultural background, their use of music in daily life, and their health status. 173 respondents participated in a brief online survey which consisted of rating seven music samples and then followed by 12 …

Exploring The Relevance Of Art Therapy In Public Education, Brandy A. Jarrell

Masters Theses

This thesis will explore art education as a therapeutic tool in a public education system. This topic will serve as a continuation of research that I conducted previously but will bring more focus upon bringing a certified art therapist into public school districts in West Virginia. Data will be collected through student surveys, interviews of professional art therapists, and administrative officials. Data will also be collected through a review of the literature surrounding the benefits of art therapy to children and adolescents. Through these sources I will explore the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of educational professionals, art therapists, administrators and …

Professional Preparedness: A Satisfaction Survey For Music Therapists In The United States, Xueyan Hua

Masters Theses

This study investigates the satisfaction level among undergraduate or equivalency students, who have completed their degree program, in regards to their professional education and preparedness for professional practice in the United States. Out of a sample of 7,183 Board- Certified Music Therapists (MT-BC) invited to complete an online research survey, 777 (n=777) MT-BCs completed the survey. Due to time limitations, qualitative data was not analyzed.

Major findings include: (1) 8.79% of respondents completed no more than two preinternship clinical practica; (2) 88.46% of respondents were satisfied with their clinical practicum settings; (3) 92.72% of respondents were satisfied with the relevancy …

A Survey Of Perceptions And Professional Boundaries Between Music Therapy And Speech-Language Pathology, Jennifer Rose Fromius

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between music therapists and speech-language pathologists in order to gain a better understanding of professional boundaries within each profession, frequency of co-treatment between the two professions, and perceptions of referral in clinical practice. Data for this research were collected through two online questionnaires with parallel sets of questions, which were distributed to a sample of boardcertified music therapists (MT-BC) and speech-language pathologists (CCC-SLP). Quantitative and qualitative data collected from the survey (N= 283; n = 45 MT-BC, n = 238 CCC-SLP) are analyzed to determine if there are correlations and …

Spectral Discrimination Of Phragmites Australis At Different Phenological Stages In Saginaw Bay, Michigan, Trenton Benedict

Masters Theses

Michigan Great Lakes wetlands are among Michigan’s most significant bio-diversified ecosystems. One threat to this ecosystem is invasive species. Phragmites australis is one of these invasive species creating problems in the wetlands. Identifying Phragmites through satellite imagery creates difficulties in discriminating Phragmites from other vegetation accurately. This study used an ASD HandHeld 2 field spectroradiometer to identify the phenological spectral properties between Phragmites and cattails. The Euclidean distance was analyzed the spectral curves from the spectroradiometer to determine the separability between Phragmites and cattails. The largest Euclidean distance determined the best month to separate the spectral signatures of Phragmites and …

The Role Of Arts Education In Closing The Achievement Gap In High Poverty Schools, Deanne Basse

Masters Theses

This paper will review research that identifies different types of poverty and how brain development may be affected as a result of living in poverty. Although research reflects support and understanding by the American people that arts education is important to the well roundedness of youth and, in fact, correlates with higher standardized test scores, arts programs continue to be cut especially in areas of poverty. There is an achievement gap in educational success when it comes to students that live in poverty and that of students in higher socioeconomic situations. Students of poverty are working with increased internal and …

Access To Higher Education Through Community-Based Organizations, Irma Y. Ramirez

Masters Theses

Although low-income students of color share similar desires as their White, affluent counterparts to attend college, studies indicate that they are at a disadvantage in accumulating the dominant social capital needed to access higher education. Research has yet to explore the accumulation of social capital through community-based organizations to help students access higher education. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to identify the strategies community-based organizations use to help low-income students of color access higher education, using a social capital framework. Nine participants from three different types of community-based organizations participated in this study, including staff, students, and …

Effect Of Social Feedback On Emotions And Preferences In Music, Megan Dillon

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research project was to investigate whether social feedback had an effect on individuals’ emotional ratings of and preferences in music. The current study recruited 173 participants and was based on a study by Egermann, Grewe, Kopiez, and Altenmüller (2009a) that surveyed individuals on their reactions to music when presented with falsified social feedback. The research hypothesis was that participants who were exposed to manipulated social feedback would report emotional ratings and preferences more closely aligned with the social feedback than when not exposed to the feedback. Results showed significant differences in participants’ reported ratings of music …

Reframing Identity In The Age Of Authenticity, Daphne Edmonston

Masters Theses

Many in American culture have either actively or passively adopted the idea that authenticity is one of the highest virtues, if not the highest. The cultural ideal of authenticity states that personal identity and meaning are found within oneself. Being true to ‘the real you’ is the path to meaning, pleasure, and flourishing. This way of framing personal identity proves to be insecure, unstable, and leads to a lack of flourishing. In contrast, a Christian view of authenticity provides stability and security and leads to the possibility of flourishing in this life as well as for eternity. There is a …

Cold Careers And Occupational Hazards: The Occupational Preferences Of Canadian Serial Killers, Christina E. Ledezma

Masters Theses

Serial killing is a dark and complex phenomenon. As researchers have begun to recognize that serial killing exists and interacts within a broad modern context, how these factors affect its occurrence has received more attention. This includes serial killers’ occupational preferences and the influence that occupations have on their offending. However, studies on serial killers’ occupational preferences have been limited to the United States and the United Kingdom. This thesis sought to classify the occupational preferences of 36 Canadian serial killers and subsequently analyze how these occupations may have influenced their offending, both instrumentally and psychologically. According to Canada’s 2016 …

Linguistic Features Of Medical English For Curricular And Instructional Purposes, Yi Shi

Masters Theses

In China, medical English as a specific target language use domain has been of high need to Chinese doctors and college medical students. It is mainly used for publishing research articles in international medical journals and presenting at international medical conferences. For this reason, the study of linguistic characteristics of medical English will benefit Chinese doctors and medical students in their efforts to learn English in the field of medicine. Nevertheless, “medical English” is recognized as a concentration of study as part of the English major at some universities in China while in other colleges, medical students just learn generic …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Use Of Counseling Services And Emotional Resiliency Development, Chelse M. Hawkins

Masters Theses

Mental health services remain underutilized and stigmatized within the culture of higher education despite the important role that they play in the development of one’s emotional resiliency competence (ERC). Data suggest that mental health disorders account for nearly 50% of the total burden of disease for young adults in the United States. Students who struggle with mental health concerns in college tend to have lower grade point averages and are at greater risk for dropout than those students who do not struggle with these concerns. Counseling services are able to alleviate the symptoms of mental health concerns through the development …

Intergenerational Incarceration And Inmate Adjustment, Sarah C. Light

Masters Theses

Current research has found the impact of incarceration to be far reaching. Families, especially children, often experience the most strain and disadvantage as a result of a parent’s incarceration. This effect can carry into the adult years and influence economic, educational, and behavioral health outcomes. The present study investigates the effect of having a parent or stepparent incarcerated on behavioral and psychological inmate adjustment to the prison environment. Using secondary data from a national data sample of 14,499 inmates, behavioral and psychological adjustment to the prison environment was measured. Results showed no significant effect of second generation prison status on …

The Breast Kind Of Tattoos: A Study Of Tattoos On Mastectomy Scars, Kaitlin Sarah Reed

Masters Theses

Mastectomy surgeries often leave surgical scarring in the place of the effected breast tissue. The purpose of this study is to investigate cisgender women who underwent a single or double mastectomy in the United States to learn how they came to their decision to cover their mastectomy scars with tattoos. Additionally, the research seeks to uncover the impact of mastectomy tattoos on mental and emotional well-being. The research used a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of the participants. Fourteen participants were contacted through breast cancer groups on social media and participated in semi-structured interviews via webcam. The …

Incidence, Clinical Manifestations And Risk Factors Of Acute Rheumatic Fever: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of The Global Perspective, Jessica Fritzler

Masters Theses

Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) is a system-wide disease in which chronic, wide spread inflammatory changes occur in response to a group A streptococcal (GAS) infection that most often affects children and adolescents and those from developing countries. The aim of this study is to calculate the global incidence of ARF and identify the frequencies of major and clinical manifestations and risk factors globally to provide a better indication of the burden of disease and additional information on the dispersion of manifestations and risk factors. A meta-analysis was conducted by pooling cross-sectional and cohort studies, and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports …

Impact Of Probable And Guaranteed Monetary Value On Cybersecurity Behavior Of Users, Santhosh Kumar Ravindran

Masters Theses

"This research examines the impact of probable and guaranteed monetary gains and losses on users' cybersecurity behavior. It also examines perceptual outcomes such as threat severity, trust, and fear that are associated with users' cybersecurity behavior. Drawing on Prospect Theory in the behavioral economics and decision-making literature, hypotheses were generated for the research. The hypotheses state that: (i) users are more willing to engage in risky computer security behavior to avoid a loss than to receive a gain, (ii) users exhibit a higher tipping point of expected monetary value to receive a gain than to avoid a loss for engaging …

Loss Of Trust: The Negative Effects Of Leader Discrimination And The Mitigating Effects Of Organizational Response, Andrew Wade Pepper

Masters Theses

"This thesis focuses on how perceptions of leader discriminatory behavior influence trust in the leader and, subsequently, attitudes about the organization which the leader represents. This study builds on previous research findings by creating a 2 (discriminatory interaction) X 2 (procedural response) X 2 (distributive response) experimental design model with vignettes that focused a leader's discriminatory or non-discriminatory behaviors and how the organization responds to accusations of such behavior. Participants (N = 293) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and randomly assigned to read one of the two vignettes describing a supervisor's discriminatory or non-discriminatory behavior. After reporting perceptions shaped …

A Profile Of Policy Discussions Regarding Gender-Inclusive Housing Amongst Four-Year Public Institutions In The Midwest: A Qualitative Approach, Alexis Hill

Masters Theses

This study utilized a qualitative approach to analyze gender-inclusive policies amongst four-year public institutions in the Midwest. This study focused primarily on residence life administrators, who are responsible for the creation and implementation of such policies on their campuses. 40 institutions completed a survey inquiring about their policies or practices, and four institutions were interviewed as a follow-up. Several themes emerged from the study, which included: 1) even if an institution did not have a policy, they more than likely have a practice; 2) change in trends are inevitable and professionals must be willing to change with them; and 3) …

Provisional Admission Impact On College Self-Efficacy: A Qualitative Approach, Carolyn A. Davis

Masters Theses

This qualitative study examined how a provisional admission program (Gateway) at a mid-sized institution in the rural Midwest impacts students' college self-efficacy. Participants were five students who were successfully released from the Gateway Program at the end of the 2016 - 2017 academic year, and were in their sophomore year at time of study. Data was collected from one-on-one semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that the program's services, with a high emphasis on intrusive advising by program advisors, positively impact students' college self-efficacy. The researcher concludes that students are more efficacious in their abilities after being provided the structure of …

The Biopolitical Elements In Yan Lianke's Fiction Worlds, Xiaoyu Gao

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Serial Killers: A Grounded Theory Study, Meher Sharma

Masters Theses

The worldview that portrays a serial killer as being a white male, an evil monster with unusual appearance, having dysfunctional relationships (Yaksic, 2015), engaging in animal torture or being sexually or physical abused in childhood, and therefore, sadistically killing for sexual gratification should be challenged (Beasley, 2004). Leyton (1996) and Skrapec (2001) suggested researchers should approach with open minds while searching for knowledge relating to this phenomenon without preconceived assumptions or hypotheses. Furthermore, every serial killers' drive to kill multiple victims may be unique, dependent on his/her history and experiences, and is therefore difficult to quantify (Yaksic, 2015). The current …

The Effects Of Music Therapy Techniques On Clients In A Substance Abuse Group, Moyosore Fabiyi

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of music therapy on clients with substance abuse history attending group sessions in a behavioral health facility. Specifically, the mechanism by which lyric analysis or the musical component may lead to positive therapeutic outcomes was examined. In order to assess the effectiveness of music therapy techniques, a comparison was made between conditions of music alone, lyric analysis alone and music with lyric analysis. One may be able to argue that the mechanism by which music therapy affects clients may lay within the music itself and clients listening to that music. …

The Impact Of Faith Development On College Student Decision Making, Kaitlyn Christine Noah

Masters Theses

Utilizing qualitative methodology, participants' process of faith development was analyzed to determine the impact that development has on their decision making processes in college. To accomplish this, individual interviews were conducted with four participants who came from a faith-based background and it was determined that faith development plays a significant role in each of their decision making processes while in college. Participants all adapted their faith in college to better align with their adult lifestyle. Recommendations were made to better help student affairs professionals understand the process of faith development and comprehend the ways this can affect their students' identity …

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Prevalence And Correlates, Sarah Wood

Masters Theses

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is a behavior done with the intent of harming oneself without the intent to commit suicide. NSSI includes many different behaviors including cutting, hitting, and burning oneself. NSSI has been associated with anxiety, depression, and emotion focused coping styles. This study aimed to learn more about the prevalence of NSSI among adults and to learn more about the relationship between NSSI, locus of control, anxiety, depression, and coping styles. Results found that lifetime prevalence of NSSI was high (54.8%). This is significantly larger than previous studies have found. Possible reasons for this discrepancy include: an increase in …

Students Perspective Of Healthy Living In College, Andrea Coxey

Masters Theses

Using qualitative methodology, the researcher studied what participants definition of a healthy lifestyle as compared to how they actually live. Through conducting six one on one interviews with participants, it was found that physical health was the most widely recognized aspect of health, and that each participant had a unique definition of health. Mental health was not initially recognized by participants but was shown to be an important connection to all aspects of health including physical health, emotional health, sleep and nutrition. Participants recognized the importance of involvement and their transition to college as impacting their definition of health and …

Race, Identity, And Communication: Experiences Of College Students From Underrepresented Groups, Raya D. Petty

Masters Theses

There is a significant difference of the completion of college between minority students and white students. The achievement gap is influenced by race and socioeconomic status of the students. The purpose of my study was to examine the relationship between academic performance and achievement and sociocultural factors including race and socioeconomic status. My thesis will affirm previous research that recognizes a need for resources specifically dedicated to assist marginalized groups in higher education. It will bring attention to minority students, first-generation college students and students with a low socioeconomic status. The project includes a literature review that explores identity, intersectionality, …

Biotransformation Of Oxo-Bile Acids Derivatives By Human Gut Bacteria, Laina Sallam

Masters Theses

Bile acids are one group of steroids that can be metabolically transformed by human gut anaerobes. One of these transformations is the conversion of primary bile acids to secondary bile acids by 7α-dehydroxylating gut bacteria such as Clostridium scindens, Clostridium hylemonae, and Clostridium hiranonis. These anaerobes metabolize bile acid derivatives via 3α- and 7α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (HSDH). Studies to date have not reported if these organisms are capable of converting 12-oxolithocholic acid (12-oxoLCA) to deoxycholic acid (DCA). The emphasis of this study was to determine the ability of C. scindens ATCC 35704, C. hiranonis DSM 13275, and C. …

Development And Implementation Of A Program For Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities At One Four-Year Institution: A Case Study, Katelyn Reinke

Masters Theses

Using a qualitative case study approach, the development of a program for students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at a four-year institution was researched. Interviews and existing documents were used to understand how the program started and how it has changed to meet the needs of its students, giving meaning to the programs current curriculum and practices. Participants gave insight into the development and implementation of the program, the role they play in the program, and insight on aspects they believe to be important when starting a new program. The research found that when starting a program the people and …

Blurring The Spectrum: Exploring Queer Conservatism, Austin P. Mejdrich

Masters Theses

Running parallel to the groundbreaking and historic advancement of LGBTQ rights over the past decade has been the rise in the prominence and public discourse of queer conservative thinking. From the Log Cabin Republicans to far-right nationalistic politics, queer conservatives underscore both diverging ideologies within the modern American conservative tradition and the increase of far-right politics in Western societies. This study argues that queer conservatism, while traditionally less explored in the broader context of sexuality politics, is consequential to an understanding of the LGBTQ community and queer politics. Thus, an exploration of queer conservatism as a political ideology is explored, …

Medicinal Properties Of Cyperus Species (Sedge Family, Cyperaceae), Lata Maishaya Udari

Masters Theses

The grasses that yield therapeutically important products are among the least studied in the Cyperaceae family. Herb-based medicine from ancient times have played a vital role in ailments of various disease and nowadays it has been a particular area of interest in medicine. Phytochemicals are inherent compounds derived from plants that are biologically active, non-nutritive chemicals that act as a defensive or prophylactic medicine in humans. Their extracts have proven to show inhibition properties against different microbes. Despite the prevalence of Cyperus species and their traditional use in medicine, the chemical components responsible for their attributes remain largely unknown. This …