Digital Commons Network^™

Conspiracy Culture In America After World War Ii, Valerie Rose Holliday

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Feminism has all too often been reified as a theoretical category. Specifically, Marxist critical categories fail to account for the integral importance of gender in any sociopolitical critique. This dissertation attempts to dereify gender and demonstrate a theoretical model that seamlessly integrates psychoanalysis, Marxism, and feminism. Conspiracy culture in America since World War II is an ideal aperture through which we may envision such a theoretical approach, and indeed see the critical need for such an approach. This dissertation looks at several post-war American conspiracy narratives, including Oliver Stone’s JFK and Nixon, Don DeLillo’s Libra, Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe, John …

Multicultural Lawyering: Teaching Psychology To Develop Cultural Self-Awareness, Carwina Weng

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Much of the current literature in multicultural lawyering focuses on learning substantive information about clients who are culturally different from the lawyer, such as how the client's culture perceives eye contact or reacts to science-based world views. This article notes that such a focus sidesteps the human reality that every person reacts to people who are different from him- or herself unconsciously in ways that may be culturally insensitive and discriminatory and that this human reaction occurs despite awareness of the general values, attitudes, and beliefs of the client's culture. It therefore suggests that multicultural lawyering training should begin with …

Foreign News Coverage In Selected U.S. Newspapers 1927-1997: A Content Analysis, Cleo Joffrion Allen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This content analysis was designed to examine, in a single longitudinal study, trends in the quantity and kinds of world news coverage in selected U.S. newspapers during times of relative peace. Using complementary proportion and absolute-item frequencies, two constructed weeks in 1927, 1947, 1977, and 1997 in three newspapers, 168 issues in all, were analyzed. The findings indicate that the percentage of foreign news coverage compared to non-foreign coverage in the three newspapers actually increased between 1927 and 1997. The amount of foreign coverage spiked in 1947 and then started to decline. But even with the decline, coverage by proportion …

The Influence Of Presidential Operational Code Beliefs On U.S. Foreign Policy Actions In The Middle East, Samuel Robison

LSU Master's Theses

Empirical research on U.S. foreign policy has largely assumed that the president’s influence is subordinate to global and domestic political constraints. This idea is given further weight by the fact that, even within the political psychology literature, there is scant large-n, quantitative evidence supporting the notion that leaders matter. This study is an attempt to explore the influence of U.S. presidential psychological characteristics on foreign policy actions through assessment of two operational code constructs: “image of the political universe” (P-1), and “strategic preferences” (I-1). This is assessed through an extensive sample of operational code beliefs for every president from Ronald …

Effects Of Spaced Retrieval On Memory And Quality Of Life In Older Adults With Probable Alzheimer's Disease, Karri S. Hawley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was designed to explore the effects of spaced-retrieval training on memory and quality of life in older adults with probable Alzheimer’s disease. A total nineteen older adults with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) participated in these experiments. Experiment one was designed to determine whether the spacing effect is contributing to the success of the spaced-retrieval intervention. Participants were trained to recall a name-face association using either the adjusted spaced-retrieval method or a fixed interval retrieval method. The results showed a more consistent performance profile for the spaced retrieval group in comparison to the fixed interval group, providing evidence that …

After Scotland: Irvine Welsh And The Ethic Of Emergence, Benjamin George Lanier-Nabors

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In “After Scotland: Irvine Welsh and the Ethic of Emergence,” the author’s objective is to mirror what he argues is the Scottish writer Irvine Welsh’s objective: to chart out a future Scotland guided by a generative life ethic. In order to achieve this objective, the author lays open and reengages Scotland’s past, discovers and commits to neglected or submerged materials and energies in its past, demonstrates how Welsh’s work is faithful to those and newly produced materials and energies, and suggests that Welsh’s use of those materials and energies enables readers to envision a new Scotland that will be integral …

Patterns Of Self-Expression And Impression Management In Blogs, Ana Keshelashvili

LSU Master's Theses

The constant process of technology development offers Internet users new tools, allowing them to enjoy their right of free expression. One of the latest popular tools introduced for use by mass audience on the Internet is a weblog (or blog). There are more than 4.12 million blogs on the Internet maintained by different people with different purposes. Some of the bloggers manage to create an image that makes them "celebrities" among the community of bloggers. These are the people whose blogs are among the most well-known and also regularly linked by other bloggers. Besides, media's view of blogging comes directly …

Dragos Tanasescu's Treaties Of Pianistic Technique, Lucian B. Zidaru

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines Dragos Tanasescu's fingering system and technical exercises presented in Treatise of Pianistic Technique. The Treatise contains four books, each one dedicated to a segment of technical problems. Tanasescu's main contribution to the piano technique is the applications of math permutation formulas to create all possible arrangements of fingering patterns. His treatise continues previous technical approaches of A. Kullak, F. Liszt, J. Pischna and E. Dohnanyi. Earlier methods organize the technical material by one principle: fingerings. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the characteristics of Tanasescu's fingering system presented in Treatise of Pianistic Technique, and provide …

"I Cried Out And None But Jesus Heard!" Prophetic Pedagogy: The Spirituality And Religious Lives Of Three Nineteenth Century African-American Women, Elecia Brown Lathon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

African American women represent a long line of prophetic women. Women who fought for space in the religious world of the nineteenth century, and who fought to have their voices heard in America. The lives and experiences of such women have been excluded, ignored, and dismissed from academic discourses. This study adds a new dimension (the spirituality of African-American women) to the field of curriculum theory and builds on the scholarship of literary scholars who have and are currently recovering the lost lives of African American women and their spirituality. Therefore, this research examined the spirituality and rhetorical strategies utilized …

Serotonin And Stress Responding In Animals: Role Of 5-Ht.2a/C Receptors In The Central And Peripheral Nervous Systems, Sarah Mathews Uzelac

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Behavioral responses to stressors can be influenced in different ways by both serotonin (5-HT) agonists and antagonists. Further study, of both different stressors as well as different 5-HT agents, is needed to clarify the place of 5-HT in stress responding. To date, no published report has investigated the influence of centrally and/or peripherally administered 5-HT2A/C agonist DOI or the 5-HT2A/C antagonist ketanserin on behaviors evoked by tail pinch or open field stressors. Five separate, related experiments were conducted to investigate this influence. It was hypothesized that that peripherally (Experiment 1), centrally (Experiment 2), and centrally + peripherally (Experiment 3) injected …

Weight Concern And Smoking In Children, Darla E. Kendzor

LSU Master's Theses

Studies have shown that weight concern is prevalent in children and that many children believe smoking can be used to control appetite and weight. However, little is known about the impact of the combination of these factors on smoking initiation in children. Initial research has indicated that weight concern predicts smoking initiation in adolescents, but these studies have not addressed the role of weight control outcome expectancies. The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate the relationship between weight concern and smoking initiation, and to evaluate weight control outcome expectancies as a moderator of this relationship in children. Cross-sectional …

Martin Heidegger's Phenomenology And The Science Of Mind, Charles Dale Hollingsworth

LSU Master's Theses

Phenomenology and cognitive science present two very different ways of looking at mental activity. Recently, however, there have been some attempts to incorporate phenomenological insights and methods into cognitive science, drawing especially on the works of Martin Heidegger. The purpose of this thesis is to determine if a useful combination of cognitive science with Heidegger’s phenomenology is possible, and to determine the form such a combination might take. This thesis begins with a brief overview of the field of cognitive science, and of some of the problems within the field that might benefit from a phenomenological analysis. It then reviews …

Constructing Resilent Marital Relationships: A Panel Study Of Marriages Under Pressure, Amy Manning

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the past, much of the literature on marital quality and stability has suggested that effective communication, positive affect, and spouses’ emotional support are important to marital quality (Gottman and Levenson, 2000; Gottman and Notarius, 2000 Popenoe, 2004; Sanchez and Ganger, 2000; Whitehead and Popenoe, 2001). Other works have also suggested that “commitment,” that is feelings regarding the permanency of marriage, encourages marital quality. However, to date, few studies have empirically investigated the relationship between commitment and marital quality (Surra and Gray, 2000). This dissertation investigates the relationships between commitment, marital disruption and instability, and marital quality, utilizing the context …

Efficacy Of Modified Parent Training To Facilitate Expressive Language Of Children With An Expressive Language Delay, Marie Henderson

LSU Master's Theses

This study aimed to study the efficacy of a modified parent-training program on parents’ use of language facilitative techniques. The training method employed a handout and discussion of the facilitative techniques and how they could be incorporated into play time with the children. Participants included 4 parent-child dyads recruited from a school for children with language delays. Effectiveness of the training was determined by taking data on parent and child behaviors from tape recordings of parent-child play interactions that occurred in each family’s home. Results showed that parents were able to use the procedures during baseline and maintained relatively stable …

Exile As Severance, Alexandru Boldor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Exile is a phenomenon probably as ancient as humanity itself, and one of the oldest topics in universal literature. The great majority of its variants (political, economical, social,) are founded on the idea of "forced displacement." Consequently, most often exile is reflected in literary creations in discourses dominated by a sentiment of loss. However, in some cases exile is not seen as a tragic event, but rather as an opportunity for intellectual growth - as attested by a number of authors who have chosen voluntarily to exile themselves. The rationale behind this occurrence is a mental process I called "severance." …

Public Relations Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Paul Stuart Lieber

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This two-part study employed 11 qualitative interviews, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and a quantitative version of the five-factor TARES test to complete the first cross-cultural analysis of the ethical decision-making patterns of public relations practitioners. The DIT is an instrument based on Kohlberg’s (1969) moral development theory, the TARES test composed of 14 self-enforced, ethical consideration statements derived from the research of Baker and Martinson (2001). Results indicate no statistically significant difference in levels of moral development and ethical consideration between sampled practitioners in Australia, New Zealand and the United States (Lieber, 2003). This finding argues for a vocational …

Development And Validation Of Child Routines Questionnaire: Preschool, Molly Murphy Wittig

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Experts emphasize routines as a paramount practice in successful child rearing (Fiese, 2002). Only recently, however, has empirical evidence begun to corroborate this theory. While many researchers and clinicians have documented the use of daily child routines in their parenting packages and treatment studies, none has measured the effects of child routines directly. The emergence of The Child Routines Questionnaire offered ample evidence of the importance of child routines in school-age children. Significant findings link a lack of routines to child behavior problems, poor parenting practices, and parental psychopathology (Sytsma et al., 2001; Sytsma-Jordan, Kelley, & Henderson, 2002; Jordan, 2003). …

Exploring Consciousness, Amanda M. Moen

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Time Of Day Alcohol Administration On Prose Recall, Jenny Guido

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Taoism And The Artistic Process, Teresa Mathew

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Influences On Condom Use Among College Students, Margaret Anne Flaget

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Youth And Government : A Proposal For North Dakota, Laura Jane Rabenberg

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Comorbidity Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Low Income Urban Youth, Karen Ann Laslie

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic exposure to violence is becoming increasingly common for urban children, placing them at an increased risk of developing psychopathology. For children exposed to chronic violence, two common diagnoses are Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, symptom overlap between these disorders has made differential diagnosis difficult. Most studies looking at the comorbidity between ADHD and PTSD have focused only on maltreated children. This study is the first to look at comorbid rates of ADHD and PTSD for children exposed to chronic violence, not limited to maltreatment. Specifically, this study evaluated rates of PTSD symptoms in children with …

The Experience Of Anger In Everyday Situations And Its Association With Anxiety And Depression, Bethany J. Roel

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Ability Of College Students To Simulate Adhd On Objective Measure Of Attention, Randee Lee Booksh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complaints of ADHD symptoms in college students are not uncommon and college students frequently self-refer for assessment of ADHD. Some may seek out a diagnosis to obtain academic accommodations and/or stimulant medication. Diagnosing ADHD in college students is largely reliant on self-report measures, and to a lesser extent, objective measures of attention. The typical college student has easy access to information about ADHD, potentially facilitating efforts to simulate self-reported symptoms. The present study examined the ability of college students to effectively simulate ADHD on objective and self-report measures of attention, and examined the relationship between knowledge of ADHD and ability …

Riding Out The Risks: An Ethnographic Study Of Risk Perceptions In A South Louisiana Bayou Community, Susan Camille Manning

LSU Master's Theses

This ethnographic study explores the risk perceptions of a small unincorporated coastal community in southeastern Louisiana. This community has experienced social and environmental change due to events including tropical storms and hurricanes, erosion, subsidence, oil and gas activities, development, and the impact of global seafood markets. Many global risk perception studies have focused on the perception of risk to human health and property connected with natural and technological disasters, but few have explored the issue of minorities and small at-risk communities. To explore this theoretical and methodological gap, this study uses a variety of qualitative ethnographic methods to examine a …

The Accelerating Degradation Of American Criminal Codes, Paul H. Robinson, Michael T. Cahill

UC Law Journal

This Article addresses the ongoing-and, indeed, accelerating process of sporadic, piecemeal, and unnecessary legislation leading to increasing inconsistencies and irrationalities in American criminal law. After a wave of modernization in the I960s and 1970s, the past generation has not witnessed further advances, but rather a serious and growing degradation of most criminal codes.

This Article offers several insights regarding criminal code degradation. First, it provides specific and concrete examples of degradation and its harmful effects. Second, drawing on their experiences as participants in the recent reform efforts of Illinois and Kentucky, the authors offer an insider's view of how the …

Recusal And The Supreme Court, Debra Lyn Bassett

UC Law Journal

From Laird v. Tatum to Bush v. Gore, the refusal of some Supreme Court Justices to recuse themselves in controversial cases has caused reactions ranging from confusion to disgust. The latest "duck hunting" recusal controversy, and the Court's seemingly callous response to the public outcry, seemed to suggest a deliberate indifference to the recusal standard. This Article examines the recusal provisions applicable to the Supreme Court. There is little doubt that Congress drafted the federal recusal statute broadly and intended to encompass Supreme Court Justices within the statute's reach. However, interesting questions surround recusal in the Supreme Court due to …

Arthur Koestler's Hope In The Unseen: Twentieth-Century Efforts To Retrieve The Spirit Of Liberalism, Kirk Michael Steen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The analysis in this dissertation connects Arthur Koestler’s nonfiction and fiction to the political circumstances that defined Europe during the early twentieth century. It draws particular attention to events in the 1930s as representing a paucity of choices that frustrated certain liberal values held by Koestler and others. It shows how after taking sides with the German Communist Party in the early 1930s, he confronted then rejected the politics of the extreme left and right, leading himself toward a dual career as social philosopher and anti-Communist. This paper will explain how Koestler’s reporting of the Spanish Civil War, combined with …

Associations Among Mothers' Reports Of Family Daily Hassles And Family Resources And Children's Cognitive Ability: An Exploratory Study, Troy D. Stuart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among daily hassles, family resources, and children’s cognitive ability. Particular emphasis was placed on examining the relationships among the variables by family structure. A total of 205 children in first-grade and third-grade and their mothers participated in the study. There were 120 children from intact families and 85 children from single mother families in the study. All mothers completed assessments on family level variables and all children completed the BIA test of cognitive ability. Multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine the relationships among the variables. Daily hassles and cohesion …