Digital Commons Network^™

How The News Media Tell The Story Of The Yanomami: A Qualitative Study Of Narrative Coherence And The Ideal Audience, Tania H. Cantrell

Theses and Dissertations

The news media link anthropological discovery and the communications discipline. In this study, press stories about the Yanomami Indians of northern Brazil and neighboring Venezuela have been studied and narratively analyzed according to Narrative Paradigm Theory. While not an audience study, plausible interpretations of ideal audience member values and insights into the question of human identity are presented. It is argued that the media are storytellers who tell the audience about itself by telling it about others recursively.

Press coverage of the Yanomami is divided into eight general categories. These include the environment, effects of "civilization," warfare/violence, massacre, gold miners, …

An Intelligent User Interface To Support Air Force Weather Product Generation And Automated Metrics, Darryl N. Leon

Theses and Dissertations

Air Force pilots require dependable weather reports so they may avoid unsafe flying conditions. In order to better gauge the accuracy of its weather products, Air Force Weather has established the requirement for an Air Force-wide automated weather metrics program. Under the guidelines for this program, forecasts will automatically be compared to observed weather to determine their accuracy. Statistics will be collected in the hopes of determining forecast error trends that can be corrected through education and training. In order for the statistical data produced by such a program to draw reliable conclusions about forecast accuracy, however, the correct format …

An Examination Of The Landscape History Of The Northwoods : Human Management Effects On The Landscape At Itasca State Park, Minnesota, Gordon Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Roles, Acceptance And Utilization Of Nurse Practitioners In Urban And Rural North Dakota, Rhonda Fay Sand

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Cultural Adjustment Factors Of Senior Missionaries On Assignment In The South Pacific For The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Jonathan W. Shute

Theses and Dissertations

The number of senior missionaries serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has increased in recent years. Many of these volunteers travel overseas and are therefore immersed in a different culture. Some of them adjust successfully and others do not. The purpose of this research was to assess senior missionaries' perceptions of the type of preparation they made and training they received before departure, the expectations they had of their assignment, the people and way of life in the islands, and the accuracy of those expectations, the challenges they faced, the factors that they felt helped …

Representing Culture: Reflexivity And Mormon Folklore Scholarship, David A. Allred

Theses and Dissertations

When writing about a culture, ethnographers can convey important insights about society. However, ethnography can also misrepresent culture. To address this fact, reflexive ethnography attempts to influence both the methodology and the rhetoric of writing about culture. Reflexivity seeks to acknowledge the bias of the researcher. To include the voice of the cultural insiders, and to more closely represent the dynamics of cultures that always have an element of hybridity. However, reflexive ethnographies can also be unwieldy and impractical. Therefore, one must find a pragmatic application of reflexivity.

Reflexivity can have application to Mormon folklore studies. The most important Mormon …

An Environmental History Of The 19th Century Marquette Iron Range, Doug Ottke

Theses and Dissertations

The history of the Marquette Iron Range in the upper peninsula of Michigan is integrally linked to the environment. The natural features of the Marquette Range defined the mode of production on the Range, and conversely, as human systems became more adept in these modes of production they became the most important modifiers of the natural systems.

Settlement on the Marquette Iron Range was closely related to two factors of natural environment: the iron ore formations and the hardwood forest. The distribution of three iron ore formations—principally the Negaunee, but also the Bijiki and other Iron- formations within the Michigamme …

Take My Thesis…Please! The Art Of Stand-Up Comedy, Kyle J. Dukart

Theses and Dissertations

In my thesis, I explore the artistry of stand-up comedy primarily by concentrating on five aspects of the genre that one generally uses to discuss literature: theme, persona, language, narrative structure, and audience. My purpose is to critically analyze a mode of artistic expression that is rarely given serious academic consideration

To accomplish this purpose I researched various theories of comedy and then proceeded to listen to and read about dozens of stand-up comedians. Using my own and other's knowledge of comedy and literature, I then closely analyze parts of routines from ten of the comedians I studied, including Lenny …

Use Of Humor And Relationship Intimacy, Laura Warrenchuk

Theses and Dissertations

Humor is a unique social interaction that is ubiquitous in everyday life. Humor can serve a number of functions, including ones that may either enhance or detract from social intimacy. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between different uses of humor and intimacy in relationships. It was hypothesized that positive and expressive uses of humor would lead to increases in intimacy within the relationship, whereas negative uses of humor would lead to decreased levels of intimacy.

Undergraduate college students (N = 93) completed the Functional Uses of Humor Scale and the Miller Social Intimacy Scale. Analyses focused …

The Twelve-Penny Chronicle: The Origins Of The Pequot War, Rod Guttormson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Two Methods For Teaching Art And Their Influences On Students' Creativity, Marilyn Ross Isaacs

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, the Getty Center for Education in the Arts initiated a program called Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE), which offered new criteria for teaching art. The basic aim of DBAE was to introduce additional disciplines into an art education program, with an emphasis placed on the teaching of art history, art criticism and aesthetics. To date, no true supportive data has been found substantiating the effectiveness of the DBAE program.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine two different methods of teaching art and their impact on students' artistic learning. Two intact fifth grade classes participated in a …

Attitudes Toward Higher Education And Acculturation Amongst Native American College Students, Darlene Marie Wilcox

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate attitudes and acculturation levels at a tribal community college to see if they differ from those at a four year state institution. In this study, the NACSAS (Native American College Student Attitudes Scale), and the NPBI (Northern Plains Bicultural Inventory) were administered to Native American college students at both types of colleges.

Results show that there were significant differences between the schools on the subscale of the NPBI, in the “European American Cultural Identification” (EACI) category, and on the NACSAS, on the “Perceived Racism” category. There were more students classified in EACI subscale at …

The Effects Of Professional Development On Student Performance Of At-Risk Students, Carol Mizrahi

Theses and Dissertations

The study focused on effective instructional strategies that could be used to improve student performance in the classroom and result in a classroom failure rate of less than 25%. The effects of a professional development workshop presented on instructional strategies were examined as they related to student performance.

The sample of this research consisted of eleven teachers who were required to attend a district-developed instructional strategies workshop based on a midterm failure rate more than 24% during the 1997-98 school year. Four methods of data collection were used: evaluation form, participant observations, interviews, and review of students' grades. The data …

Cultural Influences On Body Image Perception Of Native American Women., Melody Lafriniere

Theses and Dissertations

Although cultural influences are gaining increased recognition in research in many areas, few studies have considered cultural influences on body image perception. Similarly, literature addressing the issues of American Indian women is lacking. Very little research considers the cultural influence on body image perception of American Indian women.This project considers the influences of culture as it relates to an American Indian woman's perception of her body image. Eighty-four American Indian women, enrolled as students at a small Midwestern university participated in this study to determine their body image perception according to Cash's Multidimensional Body-Self Questionnaire, and the influences of their …

Predictors Of Success On The National Council Licensure Examination For Registered Nurses For Graduates From A Small Mid-Western Liberal Arts College, Victoria A. Sand

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Attitudes Toward Diversity, Value Of Diversity In The Work Place, And Preparedness For Cultural Competence Training Of Healthcare Providers In A Northern Canadian Rural Setting, Brenda L. Halabisky

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Precepts Of Zion And Joseph Smith's City Of Zion Plan: Major Influences For The Planning Of Nauvoo, Marjorie E. Eddy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the archaeological question of the relationship between city planning and belief systems. It examines the extent to which the city plan of Nauvoo, Illinois, was influenced by the four precepts of Zion as outlined by Joseph Smith, the first President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These precepts are considered as unity, order, economic equality, and leadership. The City of Zion plan as developed by Joseph Smith was the basis for many cities, including Nauvoo. The Zion plan is examined to determine the influences of the four precepts of Zion on city planning. Specifically, …

The Influence Of Religiosity In The Construction Of Meaning From Advertising Messages Intended To Promote Lifestyle Values, Lillian Billing

Theses and Dissertations

Religiosity has largely been ignored by consumer research as a factor in the negotiation of meaning from magazine advertisements containing lifestyle messages. A meaning based study was undertaken to seek to identify its presence and emergence within a religious audience. A qualitative methodology employing in-depth, phenomenological interviewing was designed. Six members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, three men and three women, were invited to give their interpretations, thoughts, and feelings towards four magazine advertisements. A second in-depth phenomenological interview was conducted with each participant to provide individual lifeworld contexts. Analysis employed a previously tested conceptual construct, …

Creating High-Quality Marriages: A Qualitative Study Of Religious Couples, Jerry Lyman Redd

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with thirty-two couples who have been married for eight years. Although the couples in this sample have similar religious, economic, and cultural backgrounds, the quality of each marriage is quite different. Ten couples have exceptionally high-quality marriages, eighteen have average-quality marriages, three are struggling, and one couple has been divorced. The purpose of this study was to better understand what the ten couples with high-quality marriages are doing to create successful relationships. I conclude that high-quality marriages are created by a couple's participation in a particular process with a specific paradigm …

Meaning In Family Mealtime, Ardyth Gunnell Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

This project asks families what mealtime together means to them. The topic of family mealtime appears comparatively infrequently in academic literature, and any meaning that families associate with mealtime has seldom been studied directly. This particular research investigates meanings of the understudied mealtime event by interviewing three or four generations of family members from five different families. Attention is paid to emerging standards of rigor for qualitative research, namely applicability through the selection of families who have a history of practicing a family mealtime tradition, truth value in faithfully representing the interviewees perceptions, and auditability by including detail of the …

A Study Of The Correlation Between Internal Communication Programs And Employee Morale, Gary L. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the relationship between internal communication programs and employee morale. Fifty-three communication professionals were contacted to determine:

• whether their company had an internal communication policy
• whether supervisory staff were trained to communicate effectively
• whether supervisory staff were held accountable for communicating with their subordinates
• the perceived benefits to internal communication programs.

Telephone interviews and mailed surveys yielded the following major conclusions:

• Ninety-five percent of the respondents felt there is a direct correlation between internal communication and employee morale.
• Five percent of the respondents felt there is an indirect correlation between internal communication and employee morale.
• Seventy-seven percent of …

A Study Of The Formal Operational Thought Ability Of College Students, Justin J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

This study was undertaken to measure the formal operational thought capacity of the college student and unveil any gender differences regarding this ability. Formal operational thought is important to the success of every student because it implies the ability of humans to reason scientifically and analytically and to think abstractly.

34 male and 40 female college students were selected from an on-campus apartment facility to be part of the study. The sample ranged in age from 17 to 21 and represented class standings from the freshman to senior level. The subjects included 45 Caucasians, 9 Hispanics, 17 African-Americans, and 3 …

Factors That Influence Academic Achievement, Leah Georgene Shaffer

Theses and Dissertations

Does environment affect academic achievement? The dispute over environmental influences has been the topic of numerous debates. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between academic achievement and the following environmental factors: family structure, ethnic background, socioeconomic circumstances and family size. The 1,500 participants of this study were collected from a large, extremely diverse elementary school population. From this general population, 134 students were selected for the control group based on participation in the Basic Skills Program. Data was collected using teacher surveys and parent contact information. State and federal guidelines were used when identifying children for Basic Skills …

The Effect Of Higher Education On Attitudes And Values: Gender And The Academic Environment, Gayle Robbins

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of exposure to a post-secondary educational environment on attitudes and values was assessed utilizing a cross-sectional research design. Four hundred sixty-two participants completed the Schwartz Value Survey and a social distance scale. Of these, 56 were first and second year undergraduates, 57 were third and fourth year undergraduates, 85 were masters level graduate students, 77 were doctoral level graduate students, 96 were non-tenured faculty and 91 were tenured faculty. It was hypothesized that students and entry level faculty would undergo a socialization processes which would include changes in attitudes and values consistent with established tenured faculty. Oneway ANOVAs …

Oral Performances As Ritual: Animating The Invisible In Mormon Women's Miscarriage Stories, Kristin Leifson Ballif

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is comprised of ten Mormon women's miscarriage stories and it is their stories that are used as the text for my analysis. The purpose of the study is to provide a space for these women to share their experiences and to reveal their cultural values and beliefs. Because the women are all Mormon, there are some distinctive cultural and religious values that are shared within their stories and it is these aspects that are analyzed and discussed within the text.

Women need to be able to share their miscarriage stories so as to alleviate feelings of isolation and …

Employment Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation In Institutions Of Higher Education: A Survey Of Faculty Opinions, Catherine Ann Christie

Theses and Dissertations

Federal law does not prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. As is the case for other professionals, an educator who is a gay male or lesbian has had no protection from this form of discrimination unless it is specifically prohibited by a state or local law, or an institutional policy. Because they have been legally prohibited from marrying, domestic partners of gay and lesbian educators have not been entitled to share the employment benefits of their partners. This study examined opinions of faculty in four-year colleges and universities in Arkansas regarding employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in institutions …

Crossing The Line Between Church And State, Barbara Honeyman Pierce

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Levels Of Cultural Competence Among Rural And Urban Nursing Graduate Students, Beth S. Sanford

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mormon Mortuary Patterns At The Block 49 And Seccombe Lake Cemeteries, Howard S. Irvine

Theses and Dissertations

Death customs perform a socially restorative function among cultures and are a meaningful expression of the value system of any particular culture. Death studies allow the examination of the values considered most significant by the studied culture. This thesis will examine and interpret the material culture recovered at two small cemeteries: Block 49, Utah, and Seccombe Lake, California. One result will show the material manifestation of Mormon religious beliefs in their mortuary practices. The final goal is to suggest that a more thorough examination of a religious sect's beliefs can create a general model of mortuary practices for that religious …

Utopian Marriage In Nineteenth-Century America: Public And Private Discourse, Brenda Olsen Andrus

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of utopian discourse about marriage in mid-nineteenth-century America. Although utopian communities are usually approached within the fields of history and sociology, a rhetorical analysis adds to the discussion by uncovering the discursive complexity of marriage beliefs within a rapidly changing culture. Discursive features of the Shaker, Oneida Community and Latter-day Saint texts are outlined and compared according to the following format:

Chapter One examines the textures of conflict within the dominant culture's views of marriage and gender roles in nineteenth-century America, with a brief overview of reform efforts of the day. This chapter provides …