Digital Commons Network^™

Emotional Intelligence And Racial Identity's Impact On Academic Achievement In American Multiracial High School Students, Mary Ann Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

Minorities reached 50.4% of the American population, representing a majority for the first time, and those self-reporting as multiracial grew by a larger percentage than those reporting a single race (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Millennials born after 1980 are the most racially diverse generation (Pew Research Center, 2014). This study investigated how racial identity and emotional intelligence might impact academic achievement among U.S. Millennial multiracial adolescents of African descent. Research suggests a student's racial identification has a significant impact on academic performance (Herman, 2009) and minority youth struggle academically (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014). The theoretical framework included the construct …

Characteristics Of Effective Communication About Mental Health In An African American Urban Community: A Qualitative Analysis, Jeannette Porter

Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown African Americans experience mental health issues at the same rate as the general population but seek treatment at only one-third that rate. Eleven African American low-income urban community leaders with basic training in mental health issues were interviewed about their perceptions of African American patterns of communication on mental health issues. Findings included a general consensus that the topic is generally not discussed, although passing references to a party’s perceived mental illness may be made using humor. When such discussion does take place, it happens only in a “safe space” with a trusted dialogue partner. Non-verbal cues …

Dīpaṅkara Buddha And The Patan Samyak Mahādāna In Nepal: Performing The Sacred In Newar Buddhist Art, Kerry Lucinda Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Every four years, in the middle of a cold winter night, devotees bearing images of 126 Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and other important deities assemble in the Nepalese city of Patan for an elaborate gift giving festival known as Samyak Mahādāna (“The Perfect Great Gift”). Celebrated by Nepal’s Newar Buddhist community, Samyak honors one of the Buddhas of the historical past called Dīpaṅkara. Dīpaṅkara’s importance in Buddhism is rooted in ancient textual and visual narratives that promote the cultivation of generosity through religious acts of giving (Skt. dāna). During Samyak, large images of Dīpaṅkara Buddha ceremoniously walk in procession to the …

Determining The Effects Of Employee Trust On Organizational Commitment, Ron Freund

Theses and Dissertations

An employee's trust in their leadership is an important antecedent to organizational commitment. It is commonly believed that committed employees will work harder to achieve organizational objectives, so organizations often try to foster commitment in their employees to achieve improved organizational performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the relationship between trust and organizational commitment. The population consisted of 31 employees from 3 high-technology organizations in the United States. The study consisted of 2 research instruments and 5 demographic questions that were administered to employees of 3 high-technology organizations. The survey instrument used to measure trust was …

Playing At History: Resurrection Man And Historiographic Game Design, Jessica Ethel Tompkins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates historical representation in video games and argues that two types dominate: 1) a semantic approach that engages players with the past via visual expressions; and 2) a cause and effect simulation approach that positions players in the context of historically situated possibilities. However, The author posits that the expressive power of video game worlds and mechanics afford deeper potentials for historical engagements. The author pursues a game design approach that takes seriously representations of the past and player inquiry at the forefront of the experience.

The historically contextualized video game is frequently discussed in the context of …

John Pecham On Life And Mind, Caleb G. Colley

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Culture & Ethnicity On The Counseling Process: Perspectives Of Genetic Counselors From Minority Ethnic Groups, Brittanie Morris

Theses and Dissertations

In the genetic counseling profession, discussions about cross-cultural counseling and cultural competence emphasize the importance of patient culture as well as counselor culture in a counseling session. A culturally competent counselor should be aware of the influence of her own cultural values on interactions with patients and peers (Weil, 2000; & Uhlmann, Schuette, & Yashar, 2011). Focusing specifically on counselors from cultural/ethnic minorities, this mixed-methods study sought to empirically evaluate the influence of a counselor's cultural values and ethnic identity on the genetic counseling process. 162 genetic counselors, 58 of whom self-identified as being from an ethnic minority group, completed …

Development And Preliminary Validation Of The Youth Therapist Observational Cultural Competence Scale, Carrie Tully

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing diversity of the United States creates a pressing public health need to investigate methods to increase the engagement, retention, and efficacy of mental health services for racial/ethnic minority (REM) youth. Evidence from the adult psychotherapy treatment literature suggests that enhancing therapist cultural competence leads to increases in client satisfaction, alliance, and retention (Constantine, 2002; Sodowsky, Kuo-Jackson, Richardson, & Corey, 1998; Worthington, Soth-McNett, & Moreno, 2007). However, this relationship has not been adequately explored in youth mental health services, due in part, to a lack of valid and reliable measurement. This research project included measure development and initial validation …

Theorizing When User Reaction To It Implementation Is Neither Resistance Nor Acceptance, But Constructive Behavior: A Case Study Of Healthcare It Implementation, Kaveh Mohajeri

Theses and Dissertations

The prevailing discourse of “resistance vs. acceptance” in IT implementation research mostly personalizes the issue as “users” versus IT implementers (e.g., managers, CIOs, CMIOs, etc.). This kind of discourse has created an IT-implementer-centric attitude among IS scholars and practitioners. The IT-implementer-centric attitude, while embraces “acceptance” as a desirable reaction almost unconditionally, frequently holds for minimizing or more conservatively suppressing “resistance” to IT implementation. In other words, the mainstream IT implementation research, almost completely, treats “users” as passive recipients whose choices, as they face pre-developed/pre-designed/pre-rolled-out technology being implemented, can only be defined on a spectrum from “acceptance” to “resistance.” The current …

Vintage Anxiety, Bradford Pearce

Theses and Dissertations

Poems

Common Core State Standards: Beware The Trojan Horse, Yee Han Chu

Theses and Dissertations

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent a promise by general education that all students can be college and career ready through the acquisition of essential knowledge, skills, and abilities. These essential elements will be rigorous, supporting the higher-order and independent thinking skills typically associated with the achievement of excellence. CCSS, in short, promises excellence in all students. The needs of those students who demonstrate high ability do not receive any separate mention: (1) how has the concept of excellence been incorporated into the CCSS; and (2) what is the potential impact on high ability students?

These questions are examined …

An Analysis Of Abortion Demand In Pennsylvania 2000 - 2010, Guido Giuntini

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I expand on previous research of the determinants of abortion demand to examine the demand for abortion in the specific case of Pennsylvania, where precise statistics are available for each county. The data considered is for the years 2000 and 2010, and allows for cross sectional and panel data analysis, specifically, first-difference permitting to look at the effect of changes over time of specific explanatory variables. Careful attention is placed on variable selection techniques to avoid the use of low significance variables. The analysis allows controlling for price, as it is considered to be constant across the …

Impact Of Cultural Identity On Mmpi-2 Profiles In Northern Plains American Indians, Colleen Kagan

Theses and Dissertations

American Indian populations experience high rates of psychological distress with 44.5% percent of Northern Plains American Indians reporting experiencing some depressive, anxiety, or substance use disorder over their lifetime. The MMPI-2 is a commonly used psychodiagnostic tool that has become widely used in the mental health treatment of different racial and ethnic groups. Research on the MMPI-2 with minority populations, and American Indian populations in particular, fails to account for the impact of level of acculturation. This study examined the impact of cultural identity on MMPI-2 profiles in Northern Plains American Indians and comparison Caucasian samples. Participants were administered a …

Some Versions Of Timon's Epitaph: Performance, Text, And Gift In Shakespeare And Middleton's Timon Of Athens, Silas Frederick Pera

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how notions of textuality influence the production of William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton's Timon of Athens in both scholarly, print editions and in theatrical performances of the play. It focuses specifically on the scenes involving Timon's epitaph, which have proven difficult to handle both editorially and theatrically, and seeks to show how changing views of the nature of textuality has significantly altered the way that different readers and audiences encounter this play. These issues regarding the idea of textuality begin with the play itself, which enacts its own ideas about the power of texts to intervene in …

Fred Kabotie, Elizabeth Willis Dehuff, And The Genesis Of The Santa Fe Style, Jessica W. Welton

Theses and Dissertations

Those scholars who have overlooked the relevance of Fred Kabotie and the Santa Fe Style he developed have missed an important historical segment of early Native American painting. This dissertation underscores the convergence of diverse intellectual, artistic and cultural backgrounds, especially those of Kabotie and Elizabeth Willis DeHuff, his first art teacher, which led to the formation of the Santa Fe Style in 1918. This style was formative for Dorothy Dunn’s later Studio School at the Santa Fe Indian Boarding School.

This first generation of the Santa Fe Style of watercolor painting was empowered by highly educated men and women, …

Old To New And New To Old: A Study Of Dematerializing Transitions Between Old And New Architecture, Jane Ellen T. Moss

Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the juxtaposition of classical and contemporary architectural forms as they coexist within Richmond City’s urban fabric. It is an assessment and understanding of how the built environment can reinforce transitions between old and new in ways that both integrate architectural differences and embrace historical identity.

Richmond, and a large part of Virginia in general, has been shaped by the historical events of its existence. The sights of the city reveal a clash of the old and new. It is a city where newer developments and traditional elements have been trying to co-mingle.

The design incorporates a contemporary …

Designing Connection, Laurie K. Culshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Social connection is an essential human need. Personal connections exist at a variety of depths and within different types of relationships. Small daily choices determine the strength of those connections and their impact on our well-being as individuals and as a community. Modern society and technology have altered the speed and channels of connection, increasing communication but decreasing meaningful connection. It is critical to understand how the methods of communication affect the depth of connections. Through a series of participatory graphic design projects, I analyze the strengths and weaknesses of one-on-one, small group and community connections within an established taxonomy …

Evaluation Of Selected Spectral Vegetation Indices In Senescent Rangeland Canopy Using Landsat Imagery, Marla Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Grassland birds are diminishing more steadily and rapidly than other North American birds in general. The nesting success of some grassland bird species depends on the amount of nonproductive vegetation (NPV). To estimate NPV land managers are currently using the Robel pole visual obstruction reading methods. Researchers with the USDA Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory in Mandan, ND, recently established statistical relationships between photosynthetic vegetation (PV), NPV and spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) derived from more sensitive and more detailed, but less accessible and more costly hyperspectral aerial imagery. This study is an extension of this previous …

Deflating Rural North Dakota: Mechanization, Industrialization, And Depopulation In The Small Community, Alyson Leas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis serves to examine the continued decline of population in rural North Dakota. In the face of a large oil boom in the state's western third, agricultural communities in the central third of the state continue to struggle. Through an examination of United States Department of Agriculture yearly agricultural censuses, experiment station notes, personal correspondence, local histories, and the United States decennial census from the first fifty years of the twentieth century, information regarding the rise and fall of communities in northern Towner County, North Dakota, has been tabulated. Results show that the better agriculture did in terms of …

Coalescence In Confinement: Cultural Synthesis And Identity In Michi Tanaka's Community Life, Kimberly L. Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

Community Life by Michi Tanaka was one of eight government commissioned murals created by students at Rohwer Relocation Center in 1944 illustrating the Japanese American evacuation and relocation. The final versions of these works no longer exist. The preparatory drafts, however, remain intact and provide valuable information regarding the artists' experiences at Rohwer. Through an iconographic analysis of Tanaka's mural draft and an exploration of themes and principal elements in her life at camp such as religion, fashion and socialization, this thesis suggests that Community Life illustrates a cultural synthesis between two disparate cultures. This synthesis influenced the development of …

Tattoo Stigma And Job Discrimination, Phil Drazewski

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research (Madera & Hebl, 2011) has found that visible stigmas can lead to discrimination against stigmatized individuals in the form of lower job applicant ratings. Tattooed individuals may be one group that faces such discrimination. People with tattoos are perceived less positively than non-tattooed people (Martin & Dula, 2010; Resenhoeft, Villa, & Wiseman, 2008), which may be the result of a tattoo stigma. Pryor & Reeder (2011) suggested that one hallmark of stigmas is that they evoke implicit negative attitudes. In a pilot study, participants implicitly and explicitly evaluated tattooed and non-tattooed individuals, and a tattoo stigma was supported. …

Urban Fringe And Transportation Corridor Convection-Diffusion Model For Anthropogenically-Initiated Wildfire Ignition Prediction, Ravi Raj Sadasivuni

Theses and Dissertations

A novel approach for modeling anthropogenically-initiated wildfire ignition was developed that significantly advances the theoretical knowledge of human-wildfire interactions. Gravity interaction models that are commonly used for economic analyses associated with business competition were combined with fluid dynamics models that mimic human movement patterns to predict the probability of anthropogenically-initiated wildfire. Herein, a combined gravity interaction and fluid dynamics models is developed and validated for wildfire potential prediction against historic and current wildfire data. The study identified population centers and transportation corridors, in particular: proximity to railroads and roads; traffic volume; and density of the corridors as the most influential …

Developing A Multistage Model For Treponemal Disease Susceptibility, Sarah A (Sarah Ann) Mathena

Theses and Dissertations

Despite numerous studies, little is known about the influential factors impacting treponemal disease susceptibility. Yet, forms of treponemal disease, specifically yaws, are a major source of morbidity in the developing world. Bioarchaeological materials may assist with deficit by testing full ranges of disease expression. This study explores the relationship between treponemal disease ecology, specifically yaws, and susceptibility through six southeastern United States archaeological samples. Results show early life health experiences have a relationship to later life disease expression. However, influences of climate may only be seen at a cross-regional level. Finally, although nutrition, as evidenced by subsistence strategy, may play …

The Importance Of Choice: Natural Birth And Midwifery In Northeast Mississippi, Colleen Elmer

Theses and Dissertations

For many American women, insurance restrictions and lack of access restrict women’s options when choosing birth experiences. This research uses a biocultural approach and cognitive anthropological methods to explore the ways and the degree to which alternative birthing practices, such as home-, clinic-, and hospital-based natural births, and midwifery services, physically and emotionally affect the women and infants who experience them. This research explores the reasons women pursue natural or alternative births. These topics are explored through interviews with women who have had natural births, who have used midwifery services, and who have had highly medicalized, OBGYN-attended births. Findings indicate …

Analysis Of Humeral And Femoral Cross-Sectional Properties At Morton Shell Mound (16ib3), Sarah Marie Zaleski

Theses and Dissertations

Using the concept of bone functional adaptation, this study analyzes femoral and humeral cross-sectional properties of human skeletal materials from Morton Shell Mound on the Louisiana coast. This work helps fill a gap in such analyses in the southern U.S. and contributes to an understanding of the functional adaptation of the human skeleton. Properties were compared to those of other prehistoric Southeastern fisher-hunter-gatherers from Gold Mine, Plash Island, and several Georgia coast sites to assess mobility and activity patterns among inland and coastal groups. Less sexual dimorphism of femoral midshaft shape among coastal Morton and Plash, compared to inland Gold …

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’S Multivalent Tower Of Faces, Grace Astrove

Theses and Dissertations

Holocaust survivor Dr. Yaffa Eliach collected over 6,000 photographs depicting residents of Eishyshok, a small Jewish settlement in Eastern Europe, taken between 1890 and 1941. Eliach survived the Nazi-led massacre in 1941 that killed nearly the entire Jewish population of Eishyshok. As a way to commemorate the destroyed town of her youth she began to collect photographs from other survivors and residents who fled Europe prior to the Holocaust. She subsequently selected 1,032 photographs from the Yaffa Eliach Shtetl Collection for display in The Tower of Faces, a permanent exhibition in The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, located in Washington, …

Shaping This Space Between Us: Using A Reflexive Journaling Process To Explore The Complex And Malleable Space In Which Identity Exists, Lina Mahusain

Theses and Dissertations

While some parts of identity remain constant throughout one’s life, many aspects of a person’s identity are subject to rapid and constant change and negotiation. Using theories regarding the role possessions play in the construction, reinforcement, and manifestation of a person’s identity, this thesis project explores the potential to facilitate meaningful insights and awareness into one’s own identity. This will be achieved by designing a reflexive journaling process. A qualitative evaluation of this prototype journal process used by a pilot group of young creative individuals will generate an assessment of the proposed process

Izapa Group B: Excavations, Burials, And Offerings, Rosemary Lieske

Theses and Dissertations

Izapa, a Late Preclassic regional center located in southern Mexico, was heavily excavated by the New World Archaeological Foundation from 1961-1965. However, much remains unclear regarding the details of those excavations, specifically in regards to Group B. In this thesis I hope to present important details derived from those excavations in a way that is meaningful and useful. The purpose of this thesis project is to: (1) reconstruct the excavation history of Izapa Group B, (2) to provide a reconstruction of Group B's architectural history as revealed through the excavations, and (3) to identify and present descriptions of the contents …

Citizens Without A Nation: The Construction Of Haitian Illegality And Deportability In The Dominican Republic, Sasha Miranda

Theses and Dissertations

Migrant "illegality" has increasingly become a popular topic in political debates around the world, but illegal populations are not random or self-generating, they are created and patterned (DeGenova 2002:422). Through the recent enforcement of new and existing immigration laws, the Dominican State has begun to move large populations of Haitian immigrants and their descendants into irregular or "illegal" immigration status.

A historical analysis of the relationship between the Dominican State and Haitian immigrants presents a paradox: the Dominican economy has become increasingly dependent on Haitian migrant labor, yet the Dominican State has persistently worked to force Haitians and their descendants …

“The Flow Of Blood In Nature” Franz Marc’S Animal Theory, Morgan Rinehart

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues for a coherent theory of the animal in the written and visual works of the German Expressionist painter, Franz Marc. By contextualizing Marc’s animal theory within the history of animal studies, this thesis will analyze how Marc’s animal theory corresponds with several central concepts within this field. One of these concepts—a theory of animal death—is central to the artist’s greater theory of the animal and to the analysis this thesis provides. In examining Marc’s theory of animal death, the following work will propose that the artist’s theory of animal spirituality is his greatest legacy within the field …