Digital Commons Network^™

Dialectal And Developmental Influences On Real Word And Non-Word Spelling Tasks, Stephanie Joy Dickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spelling development is a linguistic process which involves the interaction of phonological, orthographic, and morphological knowledge (Bahr, Silliman, & Berninger, in press). It is also clear these linguistic factors are influenced by a person's dialect. Previous research has indicated that use of African American English (AAE) does influence spelling performance (Kohler, Bahr, Silliman, Bryant, Apel, & Wilkinson, 2007); however, few studies have considered how dialect use influences spelling as a function of spelling task (i.e., real vs. non-word tasks), error category (phonological, orthographic, or morphological) or grade. A secondary goal was to note if dialectal or developmental errors predominated in …

The Impact Of Wearable Weights On The Cardiovascular And Metabolic Responses To Treadmill Walking, Kristine M. Fallon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing public health burden associated with insufficient physical activity has resulted in the development of numerous health initiatives and products aimed at stabilizing and reversing the negative trends reported in epidemiological literature. A relatively novel product that has only recently made its way to the market are wearable weights called Body Togs®. These products are designed to be worn on the lower legs and arms along with regular clothing as a means to increase caloric expenditure. However, no research to date has tested the efficacy of this product. PURPOSE: Compare the physiological responses within bouts of aerobic exercise that …

Statistical And Data Mining Methodologies For Behavioral Analysis In Transgenic Mouse Models Of Alzheimer’S Disease: Parallels With Human Ad Evaluation, Ralph E. Leighty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and the leading cause of human senile dementia. Alzheimer’s represents a significant public health concern, having widespread social and economic implications. Consequently, protocols for early detection and therapeutic intervention (both behavioral and pharmacologic) constitute important targets for medical investigation. Furthermore, contemporary research depends upon comprehensive neurobehavioral assessment and advanced statistical and computational analytic methodologies for characterizing AD-associated sensorimotor and cognitive impairment, as well as evaluating therapeutic efficacy. This dissertation introduces data mining-based techniques (decision trees, neural networks, support vector machines) for behavioral analysis in both nontransgenic and Alzheimer’s transgenic mice, to evaluate …

Theology, Spirituality, And The Academic Study Of Religion In Public Universities, Don Saunders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines whether the secular institutions of American higher education should address students questions of meaning, purpose, wisdom, and human destiny. That is, it investigates the place of the normative analysis of religious experience and behavior within the public university. I use the work of Ninian Smart, Russell T. McCutcheon and Ivan Strenski to illustrate the case against the inclusion of theology and spirituality in the academic study of religion. In their view, theology is at best an artifact, like ritual or religious art and not an academic discipline. Conversely, I use the work of Paul Tillich, John Dunne, …

Broadening The Spectrum: The Religious Dimensions Of The Rainbow Gatherings, Seth M. Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to specifically address the religious dimensions of the Rainbow Gatherings. The fundamental question directing this analysis is: "Are the Rainbow Gatherings religious in character?" This thesis specifically asks whether or not the Rainbow Gatherings satisfy certain identifiable features of religion, and if doing so, do they qualify as a form of religion? I engage this question by analyzing the Rainbow Gatherings in terms of two particular definitions of religion: Clifford Geertz's "functional" definition and Bryan R. Wilson's "substantive" definition. This allows me to analyze the Rainbow Gatherings from the perspective of the two major …

Testing The Plausibility Of A Series Of Causal Minor Cyberloafing Models, Kevin Askew

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cyberloafing is the nonsanctioned recreational use of the computers/internet during work hours. Although research is increasing, the processes related to cyberloafing are not well understood. In the current studies, I developed, tested, and evaluated a series of causal minor-cyberloafing models. In Study 1, I empirically compared four minor-cyberloafing taxonomies and selected two of these models as my working taxonomies for minor cyberloafing. In Study 2, I tested and evaluated eight causal minor-cyberloafing models using structural equation modeling techniques and various model-data fit indices. Results of Study 2 indicated that the models were not plausible, bringing into question the value of …

Mitigating Escalation Of Commitment: An Investigation Of The Effects Of Priming And Decision-Making Setting In Capital Project Continuation Decisions, Ann C. Dzuranin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines escalation of commitment in capital investment decisions and the extent to which it can be mitigated using a cognitive prime. Specifically, I examine the use of a cognitive prime as a way to mitigate escalation in three decision-making settings: (1) individual, (2) face-to-face team, and (3) computer-mediated team. Continued investment in failing projects is costly for firms. The use of a cognitive prime to reduce escalation would provide a low cost way to mitigate escalation. In this study, participants are primed to think about sunk costs. The expectation is that priming individuals to think about sunk costs …

Perspectives On Reclaimed Water Among Urban Residents In Tampa, Florida, Jonathan Max Bloch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization coupled with increased domestic and industrial uses of water has made water conservation an important aspect of environmental management. Reclamation of wastewater is one way in which such conservation can proceed, and the aim of this thesis is to provide a case study about the perspectives of residents and officials involved in the use of reclaimed water in an urban development in Tampa, Florida. Using semi-structured interviews, it seeks to understand the range of opinions on the safety of reclaimed water, its potential prospects as an alternative drinking water supply, and its contribution to the sustainable use of …

Aggression And Its Consequences In Nursing: A More Complete Story By Adding Its Social Context, Liu-Qin Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using a 471-case nursing sample, the current study examined the direct and indirect relationships between workplace aggression (including physical and psychological) against nurses and their health and safety consequences. Specifically, physical and psychological aggression nurses experienced were related to their job dissatisfaction, turnover intention, physical symptoms, injuries and exposure to contagious disease directly and/or indirectly through their emotional strain (irritation, anxiety, and depression). In addition, my findings demonstrated that stronger violence prevention climate (i.e., good prevention practices/response and low pressure for unsafe practices) was related to less frequent violence and psychological aggression incidents nurses experienced. Also, my results indicated significant …

Politics, Journalism And Web 2.0 In The 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections, Wayne Scott Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The explosion of new political speech in digital formats in the 2008 elections, especially those involving social networking, offered new opportunities and challenges for political journalists, campaign participants and voters alike. This review of new political media in 2008 examines how these new methods of political organizing and communications work and provides insights to further understand how media can best cover and participate in them. The thesis details how 2008 was the first fully Web 2.0 election, exhibiting its characteristics of interactivity, use of databases and the "long tail" of microniche Internet websites. Three new media uses - online, database-driven …

A Course-Based Model Of Transfer Effectiveness Of Community College Students Transferring To A Large, Urban University, Elizabeth Steinhardt Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida's undergraduate organization of higher education is a 2 + 2 system in which students are encouraged to complete freshmen and sophomore years at a community college and then transfer to a state university. Florida statutes provide for a highly articulated educational system to facilitate seamless transition from one public institution to another. The researcher investigated the transfer function's effectiveness among community college students subsequent to enrollment at a large, urban, doctoral/research extensive university in Florida using a course-based model of transfer success. The research explored whether differences existed in academic performance in targeted upper-division undergraduate courses between native and …

Are All Good Soldiers Created Equal? Examining The "Why" That Underlies Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Development Of An Ocb Motives Scale, Anna Lissa Tolentino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditionally, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been conceptualized within a social exchange framework, implying that individuals perform citizenship behaviors in response to fair treatment by the organization (Zellars & Tepper, 2003). In accordance with this social exchange framework, researchers have identified a number of OCB antecedents, like perceived organizational support (Moorman, Blakely, & Niehoff, 1998; Settoon, Bennet, & Liden, 1996), job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational justice (LePine, Erez, & Johnson, 2002; Organ & Ryan, 1995), and leader-member exchange (Connell, 2005; Settoon, Bennett, & Liden, 1996; Wayne & Greene, 1993). Recently, however, research has shifted from viewing OCB as a reactionary …

An Exploration Of The Relationships Between The Quality Of The Sport, Social, And Academic Experiences Of College Student-Athletes And Their Adjustment To College: A Qualitative Analysis, Susan L. Freeman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intercollegiate athletics at major universities provide a variety of opportunities and challenges for student-athletes who choose to participate. This qualitative project studies the quality of interactions in the sport, the social, and the academic experiences for freshman football and male soccer student-athletes and their adjustment to college. The five research questions under review were as follows:

• Is there a relationship between the quality of the sport experience and adjustment to college as reported by freshman football and male soccer student-athletes attending a NCAA Division I-A institution?
• Is there a relationship between the quality of the social experience and adjustment to …

Employee Commitment: The Combined Effects Of Bases And Foci, Meng Uoy Taing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies indicate that employees distinguish between commitments to interpersonal foci within the organization, such as supervisors and coworkers. Often, these commitments account for variance in outcomes incremental to organizational commitment (e.g., Becker, 1992). Unfortunately, research has tended to focus on affective forms of commitment to foci, while ignoring normative and continuance commitment. To address this gap, the current study proposed and tested models of commitment to foci which incorporate normative and continuance commitment in addition to affective commitment. Results showed some parallels with findings concerning organizational commitment. Much like organizational commitment, support from a focus relates to affective commitment …

Work-Family Conflict, Eating Behaviors, And The Role Of Coping, Ashley G. Walvoord

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There were two primary aims of the present study. The first aim was to examine the relationships between work-interference-with-family (WIF) and specific eating behaviors (eating vegetables, fruits, snack foods) reported by employed mothers, as it relates to health criteria such as BMI. Related to this first aim, household coping strategies were proposed as playing a significant role in the relationship between WIF and eating behaviors. The second aim was to investigate the crossover of WIF to specific child eating behaviors via mother feeding practices or mother eating behaviors.

Self-report and other-report survey data were collected from working mothers and their …

The Participation Of Ngos In Healthcare: The Case Of Pediatric Cancer Treatment In Argentina, Cecilia Vindrola Padros

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The deterioration of the Argentine public health system has lead to an increase in non-governmental involvement in the provision of health services. The emerging relationship between these sectors is filled with tensions, contradictions, and negotiations, reflecting the historical trajectory of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the transformations of the public health system. These problems are specifically evident in programs that focus on pediatric oncology treatment due to the fact that ideas about childhood, chronic disease, and mortality construct an unusual collaborative framework between governmental and non-governmental healthcare professionals. Pediatric cancer contradicts traditional notions of childhood; it points out the ambivalences associated …

Multimodal Text Designers: A Case Study Of Literacy Events In A Multicultural Context, Mary-Virginia Feger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The erasure of Latino/a adolescents' multiliteracies in school settings affects both their views of education and their entry into the community outside of school. Framed by literacy-as-social-practices perspectives and communities of practice theory, this case study explored what happened when a group of 13 Latino/a adolescents and their Latina teacher engaged in a six-week play production in an after-school program and performed the play for parents. It examined the relationship between the participants' discourse practices and their performance, and determined how they validated their performances. Data collected included observations, interviews, students' written reflective responses, a fieldwork journal, and a DVD …

Semantic And Phonological Priming Effects On N400 Activation In People Who Stutter, Jessica Lauren Huffman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To date, research on mechanistic aspects of fluency disorders has focused heavily on motor contributions to stuttering. Only recently have researchers begun to explore psycholinguistic contributions to stuttering. Psycholinguistic planning for speech heavily involves the activation and processing of lexical information. We used a neuroscience approach to compare word activation in mental lexicon while completing a picture naming task in people who stutter (PWS) versus fluent individuals (PWNS).

Twenty-eight individuals ranging in age from 19 - 52 years old participated in a picture-word priming task adopted from Jescheniak et al. (2002). Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while participants saw black and …

Personality And Work-Family Conflict: The Mediational Role Of Coping Styles, Rebecca H. Bryant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although an extensive body of literature exists on the consequences of work-family conflict (WFC), comparatively little research has examined the construct's antecedents. Research on two sets of antecedent variables, personality and coping style, is particularly scarce. Thus, the present study expands the literature by examining four personality variables (conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and locus of control) and five coping styles (problem solving, support seeking, positive cognitive restructuring, rumination, and escape) in relation to work-interference-with-family (WIF) and family-interference-with-work (FIW) conflict. Additionally, coping style, which was assessed separately for managing work stressors and for managing family stressors, was examined as a potential mediator …

Child Psychopathology, Parental Problem Perception, And Help-Seeking Behaviors, Jessica Curley Hankinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Service underutilization is a major problem facing children with emotional and behavioral problems. In addition, parents are often the ones most responsible for seeking help for their children. However, many children do not receive adequate help because parents do not perceive a problem or do not recognize that a child is in need. The present study examined parental thresholds for problem perception and subsequent help-seeking decisions based on children's behaviors presented in a vignette. It was hypothesized that the type of child behavior, child and parent gender, and other parental characteristics would be associated with different thresholds for problem perception …

Beyond Orthographic Segmentation: Neurophysiological Evidence That Pseudo-Derived Word Stems Are Processed Semantically, Theresa Herbert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Morphological segmentation while reading is essential for new vocabulary learning. The study's aim was to investigate semantic-level morphological segmentation using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in typical young adult readers. Past research has suggested that, because semantically opaque words prime their stems (e.g., corner/corn) similarly to transparent words (e.g., farmer/farm), readers recognize complex words from their constituent morphemes without regard to semantic information. However, this priming effect may be due to orthographic and phonological overlap between prime and target words. The research presented here addressed this possibility by creating five conditions in which orthographic, phonological, and semantic relationships between …

Risk Communication: An Analysis Of Message Source And Function In Hurricane Mitigation/Preparedness Communication, Andrew M. Gallo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In September 2008, the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that Hurricane Ike would make landfall on Galveston Island as a strong category three storm. This led the NWS to release a statement of 'certain death' if people did not adhere to the emergency evacuation messages. Millions of people fled the Texas coast. Using Hazleton and Long's (1993) taxonomy of public relations strategies, experimental methods were conducted with various evacuation messages to test emergency communication. Grunig's (1997) situational theory of publics was used to determine strategy influence. Problem recognition, constraint recognition, and level of involvement were tested. In addition, tests were …

Terror Management And Self-Enhancement: The Moderating Role Of Self-Esteem And Need For Closure, Nathan A. Heflick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terror management theory posits that self-esteem ultimately protects people from death anxiety. Much research has demonstrated that individuals reminded of death tend to self-enhance. However, more recent research suggests that need for closure and self-esteem might moderate these findings, but no research has directly tested this. It was hypothesized that for people high in self-esteem, mortality salience will not affect self-enhancement. However, for individuals low in self-esteem, it will either increase enhancement (if low in closure) or increase verification (if high in closure). These hypotheses were fully supported using Christian's perceptions of God's love as the dependent variable. Implications for …

Transformational Processes And Learner Outcomes For Online Learning: An Activity Theory Case Study Of Spanish Students, Joseph M. Terantino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the actions of online language learners from an activity theoretical perspective. It also attempted to explain how the students' learning outcomes evolved from their online learning experiences. This explanation placed an emphasis on the learners' previous experiences, defining their activity systems, the use of mediational tools, and the resolution of contradictions. Within this activity theoretical case study a background survey, four interviews, and three field observations were conducted with seven foreign language students of an online Spanish course. The students' on-screen actions were recorded and subsequently documented in a video episode …

A Study Of Transformational Change At Three Schools Of Nursing Implementing Healthcare Informatics, Revonda Leota Cornell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality (IOM, 2003) proposed strategies for higher education leaders and faculty to transform their institutions in ways that address the healthcare problems. This study provides higher education leaders and faculty with empirical data about the processes of change involved to implement the core competency of healthcare informatics. I chose the core competency of health care informatics as a base from which to conduct semi-structured interviews with faculty and college leaders at three schools of nursing intending to capture their stories about how healthcare informatics has been implemented, what strategies were used, and why …

Roots And Role Of The Imagination In Kant: Imagination At The Core, Michael Thompson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kant's critical philosophy promises to overturn both Empiricism and Rationalism by arguing for the necessity of a passive faculty, sensibility, and an active faculty, understanding, in order for cognition to obtain. Kant argues in favor of sense impression found in standard empirical philosophies while advocating conceptual necessities like those found in rational philosophies. It is only in the synthesis of these two elements that cognition and knowledge claims are possible. However, by affirming such a dualism, Kant has created yet another problem familiar to the history of philosophy, one of faculty interaction. By affirming two separate and exclusive capacities necessary …

The Impact Of Situational Context On Children's Social Information Processing: The Proximal Influence Of Friends, Heather L. Smith-Schrant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is increasing recognition that contextual aspects of social situations are important determinants of children's social information processing. While it is generally accepted that friends influence children's social behavior, the immediate influence of a friend in specific conflict situations is less understood. Contextualized vignettes depicting hypothetical peer conflict situations were developed to examine the impact of situational context, namely a friend's suggested attribution and an antagonist action cue, on students' social information processing. A repeated measures design examined the proximal influence of situational context on 4^th and 5^th grade students' (N=367) own intent attributions, emotional reactions, and response …

Teachers’ Sense Of Efficacy And Use Of Behavioral Interventions: Consultation Effects And Sustainability, Brandi L. Tanner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The amount of services delivered by school psychologists through consultation is increasing as is the number of students with challenging behaviors in the classroom. In this type of delivery model, the school psychologist works as a consultant to the teacher who will actually deliver the intervention to the student.

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between participation in a tertiary level behavior intervention program and teacher efficacy, confidence in dealing with challenging behavior, and implementation of behavior interventions. Two studies were conducted to examine a series of research questions. Study 1 used archival data to examine …

Does Goal Generation Vary As A Function Of Depressive Status?, Lindsay Brauer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although many theories attempt to explain the manner in which deficits in goal generation may lead to an episode of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), few studies have actually described how persons with depression vulnerability generate goals for themselves. The current project used a multi-dimensional approach to examine the types, numbers, and domains in which goals are generated, comparing individuals with MDD with individuals with remitted depression, and never-depressed controls. In addition, we examined possible mechanisms that may mediate the relationship between depressive status and goal generation. Surprisingly, results suggested little group difference in the types of goals or subjective ratings …

How Personality And Self-Identity Impact The Effects Of Leader Member Exchange On Role Stressors And Organizational Outcomes, Edward Rickamer Hoover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated how followers' personality and self-identity moderated their leader's ability to influence organizational outcomes through management of role stressors experienced by the follower. Data was obtained through large group testing, sample size equaled 232, with performance measures being provided by supervisors (43% return rate). Results demonstrated that while Leader Member Exchange (LMX) had a linear relationship with role ambiguity and role conflict, it had a curvilinear relationship with role overload. Thus providing evidence that under certain conditions leadership can lead to negative outcomes. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that LMX indirectly influences both affective and cognitive variables through role …