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2009

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Riding The Winds Of Their Interest: Exploring The Teachable Moment In College Classrooms, Nancy Fosdick Mills Jan 2009

Riding The Winds Of Their Interest: Exploring The Teachable Moment In College Classrooms, Nancy Fosdick Mills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The phrase "teachable moment" has a taken-for-granted connotation of readiness to learn, but has been rarely defined and researched in the literature of higher education. This study described faculty members' experiences of teachable moments in their undergraduate classrooms. This included the conditions in which they emerge, and the decision-making processes used by faculty members to determine if and how to pursue such moments. If professors have opportunities to clarify their understandings of such moments, the ability to capitalize on otherwise unplanned teaching opportunities may be enhanced. Seventeen experienced social science and humanities faculty members teaching undergraduate classes at a large …


Giving Birth In A Different Country: Bangladeshi Immigrant Women’S Childbirth Experiences In The U.S., Mst Khadija Mitu Jan 2009

Giving Birth In A Different Country: Bangladeshi Immigrant Women’S Childbirth Experiences In The U.S., Mst Khadija Mitu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immigrant women often lack the social support and help from extended family and other social relationships, which is very significant during the pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal period. This research was conducted among Bangladeshi immigrant women living in the United States, in order to understand their experiences during pregnancy and childbirth: how they coped with the settings of a different country during that period, and how they felt about this situation. While there are several studies on immigrant women and maternal health issues in anthropology, to my knowledge, there have been none that focused specifically on the childbirth experiences of Bangladeshi …


Facilitating Youth Participatory Action Research: Reflections, Strategies, And Applications At The Institute For Community Research, Aki Nakanishi Jan 2009

Facilitating Youth Participatory Action Research: Reflections, Strategies, And Applications At The Institute For Community Research, Aki Nakanishi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigates the instructional and organizational strategies used by participatory action research (PAR) facilitators at the Summer Youth Research Institute of the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut (US), a six-week program that engages urban multi-ethnic teenagers in youth participatory action research (YPAR) for social change. During the last three decades, PAR has proven to be a very effective methodology for creating sustainable solutions to social problems by involving community members in the process of identifying, investigating, and collectively resolving them. In particular, YPAR provides young people with the opportunity to study social problems that affect themselves …


The Examination Of The Implementation Of The Second Step Program In A Public School System, Lynn Pedraza Jan 2009

The Examination Of The Implementation Of The Second Step Program In A Public School System, Lynn Pedraza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As school districts integrate evidence-based prevention programs into their daily regime, they may struggle with implementing these programs with fidelity. This is a multi-method, multi-source, retrospective explanatory study of the implementation factors associated with program installation and partial implementation of an evidence-based violence prevention program, Second Step, in six elementary schools within a large urban school district. The goals of this study were to provide a better understanding of (a) the factors that support implementation of evidence-based programs in K-12 public schools, (b) the factors that constrain implementation, and (c) how developers and researchers might facilitate the application of research …


Visualizing Sound: A Musical Composition Of Aural Architecture, James Pendley Jan 2009

Visualizing Sound: A Musical Composition Of Aural Architecture, James Pendley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We depend on our collective senses in order to rationalize and negotiate space. Unfortunately, sound and acoustics has become a secondary concern to that of the visual perception in architecture. The initial design intent for many modern performance spaces and music education space, for about the past one-hundred years, has not been driven by sound or acoustics, as a consequence the visual perception has become the major infl uence. Prior to modern acoustical applications, performance spaces have been designed for the essence of sound and the form and function had no divisible lines, but with amplifi cation of sound and …


Cultural Visualization Through Architecture, Fernando Pizarro Jan 2009

Cultural Visualization Through Architecture, Fernando Pizarro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As an important part of our lives, stories help us to form both our personal identities and the identities of the social groups that make up our society. They facilitate us to be in contact with our beliefs, our feelings, our knowledge, our perception, and what is significant to us. Similarly, we understand those very things from the stories of others. These stories are obtained through different ways: family, friends, literature, poetry, religion, teachers, movies, art, and so on. Through these, our culture is born and sustained. There is no doubt that architecture is an important defining element of our …


Nature, Daylight And Sound: A Sensible Environment For The Families, Staff And Patients Of Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Ana Praskach Jan 2009

Nature, Daylight And Sound: A Sensible Environment For The Families, Staff And Patients Of Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Ana Praskach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In healthcare environments, elements like nature, daylight and sound have been found to significantly influence the healing process of patients, by enhancing the quality of their recovery, shortening their hospital stay and consequently reducing hospital costs. For instance, it has been shown that exposure to nature triggers positive responses in people, daylight affects human psychology, and different sounds have varying behavioral effects on different groups of people. But, while these effects have been carefully studied in adult patients, leading to clear design standards, less is known about their impact on premature infants. Interestingly, the care that many newborns receive in …


From The Academy To The Streets: Documenting The Healing Power Of Black Feminist Creative Expression, Tunisia L. Riley Jan 2009

From The Academy To The Streets: Documenting The Healing Power Of Black Feminist Creative Expression, Tunisia L. Riley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I explore through feminist content analysis how poetry, blogging, political narrative, and music are employed by Black women as a means of personal and political empowerment, healing, activism and feminist practice. I theorize the emergence of a new manifestation Black feminism represented in poetry, blogs, political narrative, and popular music-exploring its ties to the history of Black feminism. I seek to demonstrate how gender conscious Black women create poetry, blogs, political narratives, and music as the catalyst to spark anti-sexist activism in contemporary Black women who may or may not call themselves feminists.


Agriculture And Tampa Bay News: How Do Local News Media Frame Agribusiness?, Alex R. Ritzheimer Jan 2009

Agriculture And Tampa Bay News: How Do Local News Media Frame Agribusiness?, Alex R. Ritzheimer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for this thesis was to explore a dynamic between the news media, their subjects, and their audience. I investigate whether everyday news media frame the information they deliver in such a way as to potentially direct the audience on how to respond to news stories. The setting for this research question is in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and the subject matter deals specifically with agriculture, its practitioners, how they do business, and how the local news media report about it. The issue will be explored from an applied anthropological perspective, basing conclusions on field research and …


Predictors Of Cancer Caregiver Depression Symptomatology, Henry R. Rivera Jan 2009

Predictors Of Cancer Caregiver Depression Symptomatology, Henry R. Rivera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the duration of the cancer illness may be shorter than that of other serious diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer caregivers provide many more hours of care during a week. Research directed at the intensive experience of caregiving of hospice cancer patients is needed as there is limited research of predictors of hospice cancer caregiver depression symptomatology. The purpose of the study was to examine predictors of depression symptomatology in caregivers of hospice cancer patients. A secondary analysis was conducted using baseline assessment data of patients and caregivers from a larger study of patient/caregiver dyads from two large hospices …


An Experimental Investigation Into The Impact Of Crisis Response Strategies And Relationship History On Relationship Quality And Corporate Credibility, Camille Roberts Jan 2009

An Experimental Investigation Into The Impact Of Crisis Response Strategies And Relationship History On Relationship Quality And Corporate Credibility, Camille Roberts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of different crisis response strategies and relationship history on corporate credibility and the dimensions of the organizational-public relationship. The relationship dimensions examined were trust, commitment, satisfaction and control mutuality. An experiment was conducted among undergraduate students drawn from an introductory mass communication class. Results indicate that when an organization's relationship history with its publics is positive, the public is more likely to view the post-crisis relationship quality and organizational credibility as positive than negative. Additionally, more accommodative crisis response strategies have a greater impact on relationship quality than less accommodative strategies. Crisis response strategy does …


Psychosocial Outcomes Of Weight Stigma Among College Students, Sabrina Joann Robinson Jan 2009

Psychosocial Outcomes Of Weight Stigma Among College Students, Sabrina Joann Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Overweight and obesity are important public health issues in the United States with more than 60% of US adults overweight or obese. The social consequences of being overweight and obese are serious and pervasive. Individuals who are overweight and obese are often the targets of bias and stigma and thus susceptible to negative attitudes. Obesity and weight stigma have been linked to low self-esteem, higher rates of depressive symptoms, body dissatisfaction and poor psychological adjustment. Although weight stigma is a problem in the general population, it is more consequential among adolescents due to mental and physical developmental changes. Therefore college …


The Role Of Proactivity During Organizational Entry: Proactive Socialization Tactics, Citizenship And Counterproductive Work Behaviors, Ozgun Burcu Rodopman Jan 2009

The Role Of Proactivity During Organizational Entry: Proactive Socialization Tactics, Citizenship And Counterproductive Work Behaviors, Ozgun Burcu Rodopman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Newcomers engage in proactive behaviors during organizational entry to increase their adjustment to the organization and to successfully complete their socialization. The present study investigated the links between proactive socialization tactics (i.e., positive framing, sense making and relationship building) and organizational outcomes. Specifically, organizational citizenship behaviors (e.g., assisting coworkers) and counterproductive work behaviors (e.g., verbal abuse) were investigated. The sample included 216 employees from various industries and organizations with an average organizational tenure of 9 months. The results indicated that all proactive socialization behaviors were associated with high levels of citizenship behaviors (i.e., OCB). Only positive framing was associated with …


Transdiscursive Cosmopolitanism: Foucauldian Freedom, Subjectivity, And The Power Of Resistance, Joanna Rozpedowski Jan 2009

Transdiscursive Cosmopolitanism: Foucauldian Freedom, Subjectivity, And The Power Of Resistance, Joanna Rozpedowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following project will consist in the study and examination of the concepts and theories that lie in the domain of political theory. The enquiry into the dimensions and complexities of the socio-political organization and the political substance of individual human agents will be conducted with the intellectual assistance of the postmodernist turn of thought. I will interrogate and develop a specifically Foucauldian reading of international politics and the emerging global world order as well as situate Foucault's insights and theorizing in a cosmopolitan framework, which calls for a progressive re-conceptualization of the dimensions of power and the modalities of …


School Work Environment: Transition From Education To Practice, Shane Ross Jan 2009

School Work Environment: Transition From Education To Practice, Shane Ross

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Learning how to learn as opposed to obtaining the experience to practice any field of professionalism creates a great disconnect between education and careers. Many educational programs do not have the curriculum or a building to transition students into a work atmosphere. When the design of a building and its program creates an environment that bridges the gap between school and work, the psychology and standard of an average graduate greatly increases. Students learn from being taught and personal experience. There are programs that require an internship or similar practice as a mandatory factor of the degree. Apprenticeships connect the …


Seeing It, Knowing It, Elizabeth M. Glazer Jan 2009

Seeing It, Knowing It, Elizabeth M. Glazer

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

In When Obscenity Discriminates, I argued that the First Amendment's obscenity doctrine has generated discriminatory collateral effects against gays and lesbians, and that those collateral effects generate a need to refine the obscenity doctrine in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas. In his response, If Obscenity Were to Discriminate, Professor Barry McDonald agrees with my essay's "core insight--that the Miller obscenity test should be applied in a manner that is neutral as to the sexual orientation of the pertinent actors," and notes that this insight "appears to have substantial support in basic principles of the Court's …


Contemporary Perspectives On Spirituality And Mental Health, Pulkit Sharma, Ruby Charak, Vibha Sharma Jan 2009

Contemporary Perspectives On Spirituality And Mental Health, Pulkit Sharma, Ruby Charak, Vibha Sharma

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The paper strives to elucidate the complex yet intimate relation between spirituality and mental health from contemporary perspectives. The diverse and constantly evolving views that spiritualists and mental health professionals have held toward each other over last century are discussed with special accent on the transpersonal spiritual framework within psychology. The role of spirituality in promoting mental health and alleviating mental illness is highlighted. The paper is concluded with an increasing need to integrate spirituality within the mental health field albeit there are several impediments in achieving the same, which need to be worked through circumspectly.


Trust On The Internet: A Virtual Reality?, Adam Clark, '09 Jan 2009

Trust On The Internet: A Virtual Reality?, Adam Clark, '09

Honors Projects

Social capital has recently gained popularity, but it is not a new topic. The relationship between civic engagement and trust has been well tested, and it has been used in the past to help diagnose the well being of a society. Unfortunately with evolving technology, some of this research may be now obsolete. The Internet has changed the way that people communicate and learn. Since the Internet has reached such high proliferation rates, especially among the younger generations, it is likely to have an effect on the relationship between civic engagement and trust. Using NES survey data from 1996 to …


Why Can't We Be Friends?: The Effects Of Disclosure And Severity On Typical Students' Attitudes Toward Peers With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jacqueline M. Dowjotas, '09 Jan 2009

Why Can't We Be Friends?: The Effects Of Disclosure And Severity On Typical Students' Attitudes Toward Peers With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jacqueline M. Dowjotas, '09

Honors Projects

The autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by deficits in social interaction, communication, and restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests. Although many children with autism desire social interaction, they tend to have a difficult time mastering conversation skills and socially appropriate behavior. In addition, they have fewer and lower quality friendships when compared to typical peers, and they often face negative stigma from their typical peers. The current study was used to investigate typical students' attitudes toward hypothetical peers with varying degrees of ASDs. Participants (N = 61) read and responded to vignettes that depicted adolescents, in which severity of …


The Effects Of Coaching Feedback On Perfectionism And Disordered Eating In College Athletes, Natalie E. Chase, '09 Jan 2009

The Effects Of Coaching Feedback On Perfectionism And Disordered Eating In College Athletes, Natalie E. Chase, '09

Honors Projects

Feedback given to athletes by their coaches is a topic that has not been extensively researched in terms of its effect on perfectionist tendencies and disordered eating in athletes. It is important to reduce factors that are associated with disordered eating before the overt disordered eating behaviors can develop into a more severe clinical-level eating disorder. In investigating these links, parallels were drawn between research that has shown negative effects from harsh parental feedback to hypothesize about the effects of coaching feedback. The hypotheses examined include: I. Feedback from coaches that is interpreted by athletes as harsh, ego-involved, or highly …


The Effects Of Medial Septal Modification On The Theta Rhythm Of The Amygdala, Colleen E. Mcshane, '09 Jan 2009

The Effects Of Medial Septal Modification On The Theta Rhythm Of The Amygdala, Colleen E. Mcshane, '09

Honors Projects

The theta rhythm is a 3- 1 2 Hz electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillatory phenomenon that has been recorded from the hippocampus of small animals during large motor movements, periods of arousal, and memory tasks. Theta denotes the amount of brain synchrony occurring, with higher theta amplitude corresponding to more synchrony among individual neurons. The proposed pacemaker of the hippocampal theta rhythm is the medial septal area (MSA), which consists of neurons that fire rhythmically in frequencies corresponding to the theta rhythm. Despite the proven physical connection between the MSA and the amygdala, there is uncertainty as to whether the MSA serves …


A Campaign For Male Beauty: The Influence Of Advertisement On Dimensions Of Male Body, Michelle Meehan, '09 Jan 2009

A Campaign For Male Beauty: The Influence Of Advertisement On Dimensions Of Male Body, Michelle Meehan, '09

Honors Projects

Distorted body image perception is a growing problem in today' s society, with advertisements that display a "thin-ideal" having a significant effect on the issue. Recent advertising campaigns have been designed to improve self perceptions of body image and are now the fo cus of research. Dremonas (2008) concluded from her research of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, that such a campaign actually decreased self perceptions of body esteem in females. Adding to the research of Dremonas (2008), the present study utilized 50 male, undergraduate students to examine the effects of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty on men. …


A Comparative Study Of Organisational Commitment Of Bank Employees In Ireland And China, Helen Chen Jan 2009

A Comparative Study Of Organisational Commitment Of Bank Employees In Ireland And China, Helen Chen

Conference papers

Organisational commitment has been extensively researched in the Western and non-Western contexts. However, little has been conducted to approach it from a cross-cultural perspective. This paper sets out to fill in the gap by examining bank employees’ organisational commitment in Ireland and China. Data was collected in two American banks, one in Ireland and the other one in China in June 2008. Research results showed interesting and dynamic differences of the three dimensions of the Irish and Chinese bank employees’ organisational commitment with regards to the effects of income, gender and tenure. Implications for managers in Ireland and China are …


Exploratory Study Investigating The Opinions Of Russian-Speaking Parents On Maintaining Their Children's Use Of The Russian Language, Sue Kraftsoff, Sarah Quinn Jan 2009

Exploratory Study Investigating The Opinions Of Russian-Speaking Parents On Maintaining Their Children's Use Of The Russian Language, Sue Kraftsoff, Sarah Quinn

Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies

This study explored why and how Russian speaking parents in an Irish context maintained the Russian language in their school-age children. Using a self-administered unstandardised questionnaire, the opinions of 16 Russian-speaking parents, reporting on 24 children, were surveyed. Of this sample, five parents were then interviewed using focus group methodology. The main findings revealed that Russian-speaking parents living in Ireland strongly supported Russian language maintenance in their families and wanted their children to be as fluent as possible in the Russian language. The reasons for the support of Russian language were: cultural preservation, general knowledge of languages in addition to …


The Community Life Of Older People In Ireland (Gallager, C., 2008): Book Review, Eleanor Bantry White, Jacqui O'Riordan Jan 2009

The Community Life Of Older People In Ireland (Gallager, C., 2008): Book Review, Eleanor Bantry White, Jacqui O'Riordan

Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies

No abstract provided.


Internal Branding And Brand Commitment: A Quantitative Investigation Into Corporate Brand Building In A Retail Store Network, Edmund O'Callaghan Jan 2009

Internal Branding And Brand Commitment: A Quantitative Investigation Into Corporate Brand Building In A Retail Store Network, Edmund O'Callaghan

Conference proceedings

The aim of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived effectiveness of internal branding activities on brand commitment among owner managers within a retail store network of previously independent retailers. Brand commitment was hypothesized as essential for coherent and consistent corporate brand building within this context. Two new scales were developed and tested to measure internal branding and brand commitment. Perceived clarity of vision, core values and brand communications were highly correlated with strong brand commitment, while lack of perceived business supports and adequate reward systems were potential inhibitors. Interalia, findings validate the significance of internal …


Developing Subsidiary Contribution To The Mnc:Subsidiary Entrepreneurship And Strategy Creativity, Pamela Sharkey Scott, P. T. Gibbons Prof, Joseph Coughlan Jan 2009

Developing Subsidiary Contribution To The Mnc:Subsidiary Entrepreneurship And Strategy Creativity, Pamela Sharkey Scott, P. T. Gibbons Prof, Joseph Coughlan

Conference Papers

Despite its theoretical and managerial significance, subsidiary entrepreneurship and its effects on subsidiary contribution remain underexplored in the literature. We propose that subsidiary entrepreneurship encourages more creative strategic responses to escalating environmental change. We explore the direct and mediating effects of subsidiary entrepreneurship on subsidiary contribution to the MNC, particularly subsidiary strategy creativity. We use structural equation modelling to test our propositions on data generated from surveying the population of Irish subsidiaries of foreign MNCs, and find strong support for our theoretical predictions. The managerial implications of subsidiary entrepreneurship in generating creative strategy, prompting strategic initiatives and improving performance are …


Explaining Ethnic Peace: The Importance Of Institutions, Rebecca Tong, '09 Jan 2009

Explaining Ethnic Peace: The Importance Of Institutions, Rebecca Tong, '09

Honors Projects

This paper examines the cause of ethnic peace, and subsequently, the cause of ethnic violence. Varying theories explain ethnic violence: primordialism, instrumentalism, and constructivism. The question central to this study is how master narratives, scarce resources, and democratic institutions have influenced the occurrence of ethnic violence. Small n comparison is used to analyze two pairs of sub-Saharan African nations in order to control for other explanatory variables: (1) Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, and (2) Kenya and Tanzania. In each pair, one nation is relatively peaceful and the other relatively violent. Drawing from ethnographic research papers, and news sources this paper …


Experiencing Interaction Design: A Pragmatic Theory, Ronald Lengkong Wakkary Jan 2009

Experiencing Interaction Design: A Pragmatic Theory, Ronald Lengkong Wakkary

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis contributes a theory for the field of interaction design based on philosophical pragmatism. The theory frames interaction design as a pragmatic experience shaped by the inquiries of designers. The contributions of the theory are that it positions the designer at the centre of a theory, describes interaction design practice to be more than a collection of methods and strategies, and provides a sound basis for generating and verifying new knowledge through design. The thesis describes and analyzes two interaction design research projects through self-reflexive accounts that illustrate the proposed theory. The projects are a tangible museum guide and …


Introduction: Approaches To Qualitative Research, John Hogan, Paddy Dolan, Paul Donnelly Jan 2009

Introduction: Approaches To Qualitative Research, John Hogan, Paddy Dolan, Paul Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

Undertaking a dissertation can be a daunting prospect, irrespective of whether a student is an undergraduate or a postgraduate. The idea of having to start with a blank sheet of paper and finish with anything between 15,000 words for an undergraduate dissertation, and 100,000 words of a PhD dissertation, is an arresting thought. But, even these coarse figures fail to capture the true extent of the work involved, as a finished dissertation is usually only a distillation of volumes of work and words that far exceed the finished product ultimately presented. The various chapters present examples for dissertation students in …