Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Cultural Competence In Financial Counseling And Planning: Understanding Why Families Make Religious Contributions, Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite, Jeffrey P. Dew

Faculty Publications

Some highly religious individuals contribute a relatively high percent of their income (e.g., 10-15% or more) to their faith communities. This study used a racially and religiously diverse sample and employed qualitative methods to investigate why these individuals give. Five themes emerged from the grounded-theory analysis. Four themes concerned why families gave: a) out of a sense of obedience/duty, b) to express thanksgiving and feel joy, c) because they feel that it is a wise investment, and d) to promote social justice and charity. The final theme that emerged was that they give despite their financial challenges. Based on these …

Acoustic And Spectral Patterns In Young Children’S Stop Consonant Productions, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was to examine the acoustic and spectral patterns of stop articulation in the speech of pre-pubescent children. A set of voiceless stop consonants, /ptk/, produced by a group of adults and typically developing children 3–5 years of age were examined in terms of multiple acoustic and spectral parameters. Findings indicated that, with the exception of spectral kurtosis, the acoustic and spectral characteristics of the stop productions varied significantly as a function of place of articulation and vowel context. Sex-specific differences in spectral slope, mean, and skewness were found for the 5-year-old and adult speakers. Such …

Cultural Competence: Developing And Assessing Multicultural Proficiency For Teachers And School Personnel In Hawaii, Caryl H. Hitchcock, Mary Anne Prater, Chuan Chang

Faculty Publications

Teachers were recruited from the mainland of the United States to work in rural areas in the State of Hawaii to meet the high demand for personnel. But often there is a mismatch between the culture of the island residents and that of the new teachers. To alleviate this mismatch, a workshop was developed to promote multicultural proficiency of school personnel focusing on Asian/Pacific cultures. One hundred teachers, administrators and staff (including custodians and cafeteria workers) from four rural elementary schools participated in a three hour workshop. The workshop consisted of three activities: (a) self-awareness, (b) awareness of Asian/Pacific Island …

Insights From Research On Distance Education Learners, Learning, And Learner Support, Richard E. West

Faculty Publications

This article reviews the key ideas related to increasing student learning and support described in selected chapters from the second edition of the Handbook of Distance Education (Moore 2007). These chapters described research findings related to the impact of distance education on learners in general (student autonomy, cognition, social learning, and satisfaction), as well as specific subgroups of distance students and instructors (K-12, female, and disabled students as well as academic advising and library services). This article concludes with brief recommendations for future research in each of these areas.

Synthesizing Correlated Rss News Articles Based On A Fuzzy Equivalence Relation, Yiu-Kai D. Ng, Maria Soledad Pera

Faculty Publications

Tens of thousands of news articles are posted on-line each day, covering topics from politics to science to current events. To better cope with this overwhelming volume of information, RSS (news) feeds are used to categorize newly posted articles. Nonetheless, most RSS users must filter through many articles within the same or different RSS feeds to locate articles pertaining to their particular interests. Due to the large number of news articles in individual RSS feeds, there is a need for further organizing articles to aid users in locating non-redundant, informative, and related articles of interest quickly. In this paper, we …

The Short-Term Effect Of Whole Body Vibration Training On Sprint Start Performance In Collegiate Athletes, J. Brent Feland, J. Ty Hopkins, Iain Hunter, Brad Roberts

Faculty Publications

Whole body vibration (WBV) is characterized by a vibratory stimulus emitted throughout the body through the use of a vibrating platform on which the subject stands. Studies have shown over 30% increases in maximal explosive strength such as maximal speed biceps curl as well as increases in maximum dynamic force such as maximal sitting bench pull as the result of vibration. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of short term whole-body vibration on sprint starts among collegiate track athletes. On the first day eleven subjects were randomly assigned to either a non-vibration or vibration group for …

‘Preflections’ From The Class Of 2008 Aect Conference Interns, Richard E. West, Jeongmin Lee, Raymond Pastore, Mengqiao Xu, Cindy S. York

Faculty Publications

In 1978, Earl F. Strohbehn, professor of education at San Jose State University, established a trust fund through the ECT Foundation to help support a deserving graduate student's attendance at the Lake Okoboji [Iowa] Leadership presentation. His mentor and friend, Lee Cochran inspired the Okoboji presentation to develop leaders in the field of educational communications and technology. Earl Strohbehn began his profession in the audiovisual field in 1945 as Director of Audiovisual Services in the Cedar Falls, Iowa Public Schools. It was his wish that in the event the Lake Okoboji presentation was discontinued, his donation would be used to …

Investigating The Effects Of Marriage And Relationship Education On Couples' Communication Skills: A Meta-Analytic Study, Victoria L. Blanchard, Alan J. Hawkins, Scott A. Baldwin, Elizabeth B. Fawcett

Faculty Publications

This meta-analysis probes into previous research substantiating the positive effects of marriage and relationship education (MRE) on couples' communication skills. We reviewed 97 MRE research reports that yielded 143 distinct evaluation studies. We found modest evidence that MRE functions both as a universal prevention and as a selective or indicated prevention. That is, MRE demonstrates program effects at longer term follow-ups for more distressed couples. In addition, we found that observational assessments produced larger effects than self-report assessments, although interpreting the meaning of this difference is difficult.

Robert Schultz, Willis Kern

Interviews for WGLT

Robert Schultz talks about the new book he is writing that analyzes the depiction of male roles in American culture through book and film.

Impact Of Heavy Metals On Childhood Behaviors And Development: A Uae Study, Said Yousef Ahmad Abdel Razeq

Theses

BACKGROUND: Environmental toxic metal exposure is well known to adversely affect children's development and behavior. To our knowledge, there are no studies that carefully examined this potential hazard in UAE and Gulf countries.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this case-control study was to determine blood concentrations of 12 heavy metals in school-age children in Al Ain City. The other aim was to correlate the blood levels with developmental (e.g., learning disability) and behavioral (e.g., Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) problems in children.

METHODS: One hundred and forty seven subjects (73 with developmental and/or behavioral disorders and 74 controls) participated in the study. The …

Politics Of Knowledge Dissemination: Corporate Reporting, Shareholder Voice, And Human Rights, Aaron A. Dhir

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article considers the relationship between social disclosure and corporate accountability in Canada. It focuses on the potential benefits social disclosure can provide in terms of the overall human rights project. I explore this issue with reference to the broader theoretical frameworks of new governance and reflexive law. White I ground my analysis in these analytical approaches. I distance myself slightly from particular arguments in the literature to date: specifically, the argument that the disclosure process will result in self-correcting behaviour on the part of corporate decision makers. Rather, I argue that the value of social disclosure may lie more …

Agent Based Modeling In Computer Graphics And Games, Brian Macnamee

Books/Book Chapters

As graphics technology has improved in recent years, more and more importance has been placed on the behavior of virtual characters in applications set in virtual worlds in areas such as games, movies and simulations. The behavior of virtual characters should be believable in order to create the illusion that these virtual worlds are populated with living characters. This has led to the application of agent-based modeling to the control of these virtual characters. There are a number of advantages of using agent-based modeling techniques which include the fact that they remove the requirement for hand controlling all agents in …

Alchoholism And Intimate Partner Violence: Effects On Children's Psychosocial Adjustment, Keith Klostermann, Michelle L. Kelley

Psychology Faculty Publications

It is widely recognized that alcoholism and relationship violence often have serious consequences for adults; however, children living with alcoholic parents are susceptible to the deleterious familial environments these caregivers frequently create. Given the prevalence of IPV among patients entering substance abuse treatment, coupled with the negative familial consequences associated with these types of behavior, this review explores what have been, to this point, two divergent lines of research: (a) the effects of parental alcoholism on children, and (b) the effects of children's exposure to intimate partner violence. In this article, the interrelationship between alcoholism and IPV is examined, with …

Multiple Imputation To Correct For Measurement Error In Admixture Estimates In Genetic Structured Association Testing, Miguel A. Padilla, Jamin Divers, Laura K. Vaughan, David B. Allison, Hemant K. Tiwari

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objectives: Structured association tests ( SAT), like any statistical model, assumes that all variables are measured without error. Measurement error can bias parameter estimates and confound residual variance in linear models. It has been shown that admixture estimates can be contaminated with measurement error causing SAT models to suffer from the same afflictions. Multiple imputation (MI) is presented as a viable tool for correcting measurement error problems in SAT linear models with emphasis on correcting measurement error contaminated admixture estimates. Methods: Several MI methods are presented and compared, via simulation, in terms of controlling Type I error rates for both …

Obstacles In Investigating The Role Of Restructuring In Insightful Problem Solving, Ivan K. Ash, Patrick J. Cushen, Jennifer Wiley

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the present article, we articulate three assumptions underlying theories proposing that restructuring processes play a key role in insightful problem solving: representational difficulty, representational change, and discontinuity in solution processes. We argue that these assumptions need empirical validation to justify the proposition of restructuring mechanisms that are unique from those involved in classic information-processing theories of problem solving. To this end, we review some theoretical and methodological obstacles that are inherent in the investigation of the existence and nature of restructuring processes. We then offer some recommendations on how to overcome or avoid these obstacles in future studies. Finally, …

Behavioral Couple Therapy: Partner-Involved Treatment For Substance-Abusing Women, William Fals-Stewart, Wendy K.K. Lam, Michelle L. Kelley

Psychology Faculty Publications

Among the various psychosocial interventions presently available to treat alcohol and drug abuse, it could be argued that partner-involved treatments are the most broadly efficacious. There is not only substantial empirical support for the use of couple-based treatments in terms of improvements in primary targeted outcomes, such as substance use and relationship adjustment, but also in other areas that are of clear public health significance, including intimate partner violence (IPV), children's adjustment, and cost-benefit ratio and cost-effectiveness. During the last few decades, programmatic research on the application of partner-involved therapies for substance abuse has been among the most active and …

See That Ye Do Them, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

A young man went to institute the day before Thanksgiving. During the class, the teacher used several different methods to teach the topic of gratitude. At the end of the class the teacher challenged the students to take something from the class and teach it to their families or friends the following day. Although this young man was not living at home, he taught a lesson to the people he was living with. He later reported, “My Thanksgiving lesson was awesome! Everybody loved it!”

World War I And The Mobilization Of Maternal Sacrifice: Considerations For Peace Politics, Ana C. Garner, Karen L. Slattery

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Family Law - Wyoming Courts Continue To Struggle With Termination Of Parental Rights Cases: The Problem With Reasonable Efforts; In Re Fm, 163 P.3d 844 (Wyo. 2007), Wendy S. Ross

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining The Use Of Psychological Autopsy Interviews In A Case Of Suspected Youth Suicide, Kevin Ward

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Suicide is the thirteenth leading manner of death worldwide and eleventh in the United States. Approximately one percent of the U.S. population dies by suicidal means. On average, more than 30,000 people will kill themselves each year. This qualitative research study sought to explore and describe the experiences of how one family suffered and survived the unexpected loss of their thirteen-year-old son suspected of dying by suicidal means and how psychological autopsies might help survivors in dealing with this loss. Secondarily, the results also examined death investigation practices in one county of Washington State that uses psychological autopsies and how …

Change In Intimate Partner Violence: The Domestic Couple's Perspective On Perpetrator Change, Troy Fenlason

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Recent meta-analytic studies, looking at outcome research of perpetrator intervention programs for intimate partner violence, have concluded that treatment has little to no effect on recidivism. There is a lot of skepticism about the effectiveness of treatment for perpetrators of intimate partner violence, and some are even skeptical that these perpetrators are capable of change. There is a need for a new, more-in-depth approach to the study of change in intimate partner violence. To get a better picture of change, this research study breaks with the prevailing quantitative approach focused on recidivism, and returns to a qualitative, grounded-theory approach focused …

How Hospital Environmental Managers Learn Compliance: A Learning Process Model, Victoria Anne Jas

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Recent national media coverage of hospital mismanagement of hazardous materialsand waste has brought the practices of all hospitals into public scrutiny. Many people are amazed to learn that there is no national training or accreditation program for environmental management in hospitals. Hospitals are held to the same standards for hazardous materials management as are corporations in the industrial sector. Rural hospitals are particularly challenged because they have few resources. Overall, small hospitals need much improvement, but there are also examples of where individuals have done exemplary innovative work in improving environmental management. In this study I investigated the challenge rural …

Seeing Shifts: Ecologists' Lived Experiences Of Climate Change In Mountains Of The American West, Kimberly Ford Langmaid

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explores the lived experiences of field ecologists who research the effects of global climate change on mountain species and ecosystems in the American West. The purpose is to generate narrative descriptions of ecologists’ experiences in order to communicate about both the scientific ecology and human ecology of climate change. Twenty prominent field ecologists participated in this study. Interviews with ecologists were transcribed and analyzed using a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. Eight experiential themes emerged through the process of data analysis, and these themes provide the structure for presenting narratives of ecologists’ experiences. The eight themes are: thinking ecologically, the …

An Examination Of Environmental Collective Identity Development Across Three Life-Stages: The Contribution Of Social Public Experiences At Zoos, John Robert Fraser

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research breaks ground toward a revised theory of how collective environmental identity is associated with pro-environmental behaviors. My research comprises three activities that examined the experiences of three groups of people who claim zoo visiting as an important part of their life-story. The three studied groups were; conservation biologists who describe zoo experiences as having significant formative role in their childhood development of environmental values; parents who prioritize zoo visits as an important cultural experiences for their children; and a active zoo volunteers. This research also investigated whether the group experiences these participants had at zoos contributed to the …

A Search For Meaning: The Family’S Response To Serious Mental Illness, Katherine Marie Burrelsman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

It is a commonly held belief that it is inherent in human nature to strive for coherence and meaning in the midst of adversity. Whether this is short or long term, for immediate or prolonged functioning, we all strive to put experiences within events into a framework that enables us to develop a sense of order leading to acceptance and resolution. Therefore, each individual within a family system may develop a hypothesis in order to make a modicum of sense of what can appear to be an impossible situation. The participants involved in this study were individuals with relatives suffering …

Identity Development Of Latino Gay Men, Manuel Montoya Tajon

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Much has been written on gay identity development and ethnic identity, but research conducted that examines the cross-section of both identities is very limited. Several theories have been proposed which detail gay and lesbian identity development, which involve a conversion of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavior from a dominant heterosexual culture to those of the minority gay and lesbian culture. Likewise, ethnic identity models propose similar stage sequential processes and conversion from a dominant Anglo culture to those of a minority ethnic culture. Both the ethnic and gay identity development models function and are based on two dichotomous variables (e.g., …

Contextual Leadership: The Social Construction Of Leadership In A Comprehensive Healthcare System, Mark J. Moir

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Healthcare is a complex and dynamic environment containing a plurality of social forces and perspectives that shape the organizational culture and the nature of the leadership. As leadership is a social phenomenon, it is important to understand the complex social processes that mediate our perceptions and that in turn influence processes of leader attribution. The central purpose of this study has been to illuminate the nature of culturally specific processes that emerge within a specific organizational setting and that fuel leader attribution and the social construction of leadership. Accordingly, this qualitative study has developed a Grounded Theory utilizing Situational Analysis …

Holographic Leadership: Leading As A Way Of Being, Janet L. Byars

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Holographic Leadership integrates values-based leadership into an understanding of an energetic holographic world. It is a world where the unseen is the primary influencer, where the smaller is more powerful (Bohm, 1994). I will synthesize many diverse ideas into an exploratory theory that will suggest new insights into sustainable leadership. I will propose a new model of practice from which to work. I suggest that it is through an internal state of physiological coherence and psychological balance that a leader can truly learn to “hold steady” (Heifetz, 1994), creating an intentional holding environment, a coherent group dynamic, which draws forth …

The Leader's Experience Of Relational Leadership: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Leadership As Friendship, Deborah A. Fredericks

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There are many ways to lead others, all of which involve a relationship among parties. However, the heartbeat of leadership may be a leader's relational sensibility. This research explored the leader's experience of relational leadership and the extent to which the metaphor of leadership as friendship described its qualities. It also explored whether actual friendship between leaders and followers was possible with this form of leadership. The topic of relational leadership was approached through a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology to explore the lived experiences of six women leaders. Their experience of relational leadership and the degree to which the metaphor of …

Making The Value Of Development Visible: A Sequential Mixed Methodology Study Of The Integral Impact Of Post-Classroom Leader And Leadership Development, Laura Curnutt Santana

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In a time of increasing complexity, many organizations invest in leadership development programs to prepare those who will assume the role of leader. Although many studies have evaluated programs’ impact, the questions remain: does development happen in leadership development program? If so, what kind of development? And what is the participant’s experience of personal or organizational impact? The purpose of this sequential mixed methodology study is to address these three questions utilizing an online follow-through platform as a lens on 248 participants in the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) who reported completing their LDP goals. Those who …