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Shaping Attitudes About Homosexuality: The Role Of Religion And Cultural Context, Amy Adamczyk, Pitt Cassidy

Publications and Research

Across the globe, the debate over homosexuality continues, with great variation in public opinion about the acceptability of homosexuality, laws regulating same-sex unions and penalties for homosexual sex behaviors. Religion is often seen as an important predictor of attitudes about homosexuality. However, cross-national differences in cultural orientations suggest that the role religion has in explaining homosexual attitudes may depend on a nation’s cultural context. In this study, we merge ideas from cultural sociology and religious contextual effects to explain cross-national variation in public opinion about homosexuality. Using data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey and Hierarchical Modeling …

The Display Of The Animal Body In The Art Of Angela Singer, Ashley Lynn Allison

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.

“I Talk To God But The Sky Is Empty:” W.B. Yeats’S Influence On Sylvia Plath’S Renunciation Of Christianity, Rachel Leigh Anderson

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine In Physical Therapy, Kayla Anne Lahr

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Alcohol As A Discriminative Stimulus On Gambling Behavior, Ellen Meier

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

What's For Lunch? : Summer Lunch Program 2008, Brieanna Siefken

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Study Of Male Body Image And Factors In The Development Of Eating Disorders In Fraternity And Non-Fraternity Males, Kylee K. Ferris

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Using Dogs For Emotional Support Of Testifying Victims Of Crime, Marianne Dellinger

Animal Law Review

Courts and prosecutorial offices around the nation have started using service dogs to support emotionally frail child witnesses who are unwilling to testify but for the calming presence of a dog. Proponents claim that this new type of therapeutic jurisprudence helps bring criminal defendants to justice in cases where the testimony of the complaining witness is crucial to the prosecution’s case. Opponents fear the infringement of the defendants’ rights to a fair trial because of the dogs’ potential to prejudice a jury to come out in favor of the witnesses.

This article analyzes the legal foundations supporting the use of …

Caring For Dolphins, Otters, And Octopuses: Speciesism In The Regulation Of Zoos And Aquariums, Marla K. Conley

Animal Law Review

Current regulations for zoos and aquariums rely heavily on standards established by industry associations, and the government increasingly expects public display facilities to self-monitor. Unfortunately, the industry associations charged with policing zoos and aquariums lack the enforcement authority necessary to ensure that animals kept in these facilities receive adequate attention or resources. This article argues that marine animals kept in public display facilities, such as zoos and aquariums, should benefit from the same level of regulatory protection as their land-bound counterparts. Even though marine animals demonstrate intellectual abilities equivalent or superior to those of land-bound animals, federal regulations allow facilities …

2007-2008 Legislative Review, Nancy R. Hoffman, Robin C. Mcginnis

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ringling Brothers On Trial: Circus Elephants And The Endangered Species Act, Mark Eichelman

Animal Law Review

In February 2009, the case of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, et al. v. Feld Entertainment, Inc. was heard in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs, four animal rights organizations and one former elephant handler for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, brought a citizen suit against Feld Entertainment, Inc. (FEI), owner of Ringling Brothers, alleging that the Circus’ use of bullhooks and leg tethers on its endangered Asian elephants constituted illegal “takings” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). FEI argued that the plaintiffs did not have standing to …

Son Of Sam And Dog Of Sam: Regulating Depictions Of Animal Cruelty Through The Use Of Criminal Anti-Profit Statutes, Emma Ricaurte

Animal Law Review

In 1991, Congress enacted 18 U.S.C. § 48, which prohibits the interstate sale and distribution of depictions of animal cruelty, in response to the proliferation of animal “crush videos” on the Internet. In 2008, the Third Circuit, in United States v. Stevens, a case involving dog fighting, held that the law was an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. In April of 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari. Discussions about the regulation of depictions of animal cruelty have largely focused on whether the child pornography or obscenity exceptions to the First Amendment should be extended to include …

Values And Value Creation In Public-Private Transactions , Nestor M. Davidson

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars have developed a significant body of literature exploring the work of deal lawyers with the essential insight that attorneys acting as transaction-cost engineers have unique potential to add to the overall value of deals. This value-creation literature has traditionally made two foundational assumptions about the role of the state in transactional law. First, scholars have assumed that regulation is essentially irrelevant to transacting-that from the deal lawyer's perspective, the government is a factor only to the extent that the state will enforce private agreements. Second, scholars have assumed that private parties uniformly view public policy as a constraint in …

The Warp And Woof Of Statutory Interpretation: Comparing Supreme Court Approaches In Tax Law And Workplace Law, James J. Brudney, Corey Distlear

Faculty Scholarship

Debates about statutory interpretation-and especially about the role of the canons of construction and legislative history-are generally framed in one-size-fits-all terms. Yet federal judges including most Supreme Court Justices-have not approached statutory interpretation from a methodologically uniform perspective. This Article presents the first in-depth examination of interpretive approaches taken in two distinct subject areas over an extended period of time. Professors Brudney and Ditslear compare how the Supreme Court has relied on legislative history and the canons of construction when construing tax statutes and workplace statutes from 1969 to 2008. The authors conclude that the Justices tend to rely on …

Familial Norms And Normality Colloquium Celebrating 25th Anniversary Of Feminism And Legal Theory Project, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

Social norms exert a powerful influence on families. They shape major life decisions, such as whether to marry and how many children to have, as well as everyday decisions, such as how to discipline children and divide household labor. Emotion is a defining feature of these familial social norms, giving force and content to norms in contexts as varied as reproductive choice, parenting, and same-sex relationships. These emotion-laden norms do not stand apart from the law. Falling along a continuum of involvement that ranges from direct regulation to choice architecture, state sway over social norms through their emotional valence is …

Dissident Citizen, The Symposium: Sexuality & Gender Law: Assessing The Field, Envisioning The Future, Sonia K. Katyal

Faculty Scholarship

We have arrived at a crossroads in terms of the intersection between law, sexuality, and globalization. Historically, and even today, the majority of accounts of GLBT migration tend to remain focused on “a narrative of movement from repression to freedom, or a heroic journey undertaken in search of liberation.” Within this narrative, the United States is usually cast as a land of opportunity and liberation, a place that represents freedom from discrimination and economic opportunity. But this narrative also elides the complexity that erupts from grappling with the reality that many other jurisdictions outside of the United States can be …

Making Sense Of Drug Regulation: A Theory Of Law For Drug Control Policy , Kimani Paul-Emile

Faculty Scholarship

This article advances a new theory of drug regulation that addresses two previously unexamined questions: how law-makers are able to regulate drugs differently irrespective of the dangers the drugs may pose and independent of their health effects, and the process followed to achieve this phenomenon. For example, although tobacco products are the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. they can be bought and sold legally by adults, while marijuana, a substantially safer drug, is subject to the highest level of drug control. This article posits a conceptual model for making sense of this dissonance and applies this model …

Exploring The Factors That Influence Attitudes And Achievement When Students Take Computerized Tests, Jessie E. Kilgore Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Currently, a problem exists in K-12 education related to the use of technology for the assessment of student learning. Specifically, due to the lack of access to and infrequent use of computers for middle school students, the rise in the use of high stakes computer-based tests may negatively impact student test scores in poor, urban schools. The conceptual framework of this study was informed by Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, the work of The National Center for Fair and Open Testing regarding ending the misuses and flaws of standardized testing, and James Popham's research on quality assessment. The central research …

Personality Traits, Self -Efficacy Of Job Performance, And Susceptibility To Stress As Predictors Of Academic Performance Of Nurse Education Programs, Nancy Wilson-Soga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States is experiencing a shortage of registered nurses, and institutions of higher education are unable to graduate enough prepared nurses to reduce this employment shortage. A significant relationship between personality traits and academic performance has been found; however, how personality traits combine with students' self-efficacy of job performance and stress susceptibility to impact nursing students' academic performance has yet to be demonstrated. This study, grounded in the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits, self-efficacy, and stress theories, sought to determine whether self-assessments of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, the Nursing Practice Self-Efficacy survey, and the Susceptibility Under Stress Survey …

Social Construction Of Knowledge In A Semiformal, Long -Term Learning Environment: A Qualitative Study, Alycia Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social learning plays a critical role in cognitive apprenticeship, community of practice, and knowledge production theories. Gunawardena's interaction analysis model, which provides a means of evaluating discourse for social construction of knowledge, is comprised of five phases: (a) sharing and comparing, (b) disagreement, (c) negotiation and co-construction of new knowledge, (d) testing of knew knowledge, and (e) use or phrasing of new knowledge. There is a paucity of research that has empirically explored social construction of knowledge, especially in an extended semiformal asynchronous graduate learning experience. This study explored two research questions: whether social construction of knowledge took place, and …

The Impact Of A First -Year Learning Community On Student Persistence: Perceptions Of Community College Students, David Gerkin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This descriptive case study explored the perceptions of former community college first year learning community participants on aspects of their learning community experience that affected their persistence in college using Astin's student involvement theory and Tinto's student persistence model as a conceptual framework. Learning communities have been shown to increase student persistence, but little is known about how they do so. A better understanding of how learning communities contribute to increased student persistence would improve learning community practice and gain administrative support for learning communities. This study used a mixed methods research design utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative …

Intrapersonal And Community-Related Influences Of Rural Adolescent Pregnancy: A Mixed-Method Approach, Kimberly Becknel Brodie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The majority of data on adolescent pregnancy pertains to urban communities, therefore, the individual and social influences associated with adolescent pregnancy in rural communities have not been extensively explored. The pregnancy rate among adolescent women aged 15 to 19 in rural Vance County, North Carolina, is 113.7 per 1,000, nearly twice the state average. This sequential mixed-method study used the social ecological model to evaluate the intrapersonal and community-related factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in this rural area. A quantitative survey assessed intrapersonal factors, namely sexual health knowledge, sex-related attitudes, and self-esteem in pregnant or parenting and nonpregnant or nonparenting …

Personal And Professional Spirituality: Muslim Social Workers' Perspectives, Cheryl W. El-Amin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research in the area of religion and spirituality in social work practice is lacking minority practitioner representation. This phenomenological study explored the questions of how American Muslim social workers define and experience the religious/spiritual, and perceive the propriety of integrating either, in practice. Ibn Khaldun and Durkheim, early social theorists, suggested that group feeling and affiliation impact personal and professional perception and decision making. American societal views of Muslims are often negative and uninformed. A group of 15 Muslim practitioners with bachelor's or more advanced degrees in social work were recruited through a survey administered via an Internet survey site. …

The Effects Of An Integrated Behavioral Health Initiative On The Behavior Of Providers In An Ob/Gyn Primary Care Clinic, Dean Moritz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The separation between behavioral services and traditional medicine is increasingly being seen as counterproductive on personal and societal levels. Despite this, there has been little research examining how integrated models blending mental and physical health services could be implemented. The literature revealed that behavioral interventions have been incorporated into traditional medical treatments, but this often has been piecemeal in nature and has yielded equivocal results. This study examined the assertion that effective integration between behavioral and medical services will increase the standard of care for the patient. Integration in this study was accomplished by colocating a psychologist on the primary …

Job Design Factors In The Workplace That Support Successful Aging For Older Workers, Martha J. Sanders

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Increasing numbers of older adults are expected to return to the labor force to reap both the financial and social rewards of paid employment. However, little is known about how the workplace supports older workers' successful aging process. The purpose of this study was to examine how the design of a job (opportunities for decision making, use of a variety of skills, coworker support, and supervisor support) influences successful aging (having a sense of control over life, social networks, emotional support, and opportunities for generativity) in older workers (aged 55 and older) in the home building industry. The study explored …

The Relationship Between Religious And Spiritual Factors And The Perpetration Of Intimate Personal Violence, Robbin G. Todhunter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a multifaceted social issue that affects the Christian faith community as it does the secular community. Though the literature reflects some understanding of general correlates and possible antecedents to IPV within the Christian community, the impact of religious and spiritual factors tends to be homogenized and is often misjudged. Allport's theory of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation provided a platform for investigating Christian male-perpetrated IPV. This quantitative study utilized survey design and measured the impact of 10 select religious and spiritual factors on the probability of physical or sexual IPV perpetration. Archival data from Wave …

Cognitive Preference And Ethnic Identity Among Anglo And Native American High School Students, Chad Martin Novak

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the Office of Educational Research and Improvement: A Project of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research, graduation rates for Native Americans from both secondary and post secondary institutions are dismally low at 58% and 7%, respectively. Some research addresses cognitive preference and other ethnic identity, but research animating the cognitive preference---ethnic identity interplay for high school students is absent. These limitations in access to educational opportunities lead to abbreviated quality life experiences and a restriction in individual efficacy and collective agency. The following project assessed ethnic identity using Phinney's Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure and cognitive preference using …

Andragogy: Does One Size Fit All? A Study To Determine The Applicability Of Andragogical Principles To Adult Learners Of All Ages, Wendy Conaway

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to Knowles's theory of andragogy, the principles of adult learning are the need to know, self-directedness, the role of experience, intrinsic motivation, and readiness to learn. Whereas references in the andragogical literature have assumed that the principles uniformly apply to adults of all ages, differences between adult age groups may influence the effectiveness of the principles on adult learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which adult age group was most accepting of the principles so that more effective teaching may occur. Three adult age groups, emerging adults (18-25), young adults (26-39), and mature adults (40-59) …

The Phenomenology Of Self -Injurious Behavior, William Hosmer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Self-injurious behavior (SIB; e.g., wrist-cutting, burning) is a pervasive coping phenomenon that may be indicative of dysfunctional affect regulation and complex developmental trauma. Previous research findings identify the incidence rate of SIB to be approximately 10% to 15% of the general population with 5% to 10% of those engaging in repetitive or recurring SIB. Other sources identify approximately 2 million individuals active in this behavior within the United States; 70% of those individuals are female. However, limited research has used internet technology as a data gathering tool to access individuals who have engaged in SIB and are apprehensive to participate …

Spiritual And Religious Diversity: Implications For Counselor Education Programs, Sharon R. Gough

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVC) identifies 9 core competencies for integrating spirituality/religion into practice. Previous research indicates that some mental health professionals have experienced discomfort when considering the balance between religious ideology (RI) and scientific orientation (SO) in their practice. However, no research exists assessing this potential for cognitive dissonance among mental health professionals nor has there been a test of the relative influence of RI/SO on approval of ASERVC competency integration into counselor training. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was first to assess RI/SO cognitive dissonance and, second, to test RI/SO …