Digital Commons Network^™

Post-Diaster Family Resilience: The Use Of Humor As A Coping Strategy, Bridgette Boe O'Connor

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of humor as a coping strategy among Hurricane Katrina survivors. The data for this study were collected in the first wave of a larger project on families and disasters. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by combining Census data with storm damage estimates and purposive sampling, 50 participants affected by Hurricane Katrina from a single suburban community in Southern Louisiana in early spring 2006 were recruited and interviewed. When the interviews were qualitatively analyzed with a focus on humor, it became clear that families used humor even at such a devastating …

Stereotype And Representation Of Near And Middle Eastern Peoples In La Bande Dessinee, Brandon Matthew Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

Representation of social groups in the comics is serious. In 2006, a series of twelve cartoons published in a Danish newspaper sparked a controversy that precipitated the deaths of hundreds of people. The images depicted Mohammed and other images that supposedly mocked Islam. All across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa protesters paraded through the streets, some calling for the death of the cartoonists. Trials in Europe over the publication of these cartoons resulted in several firings. Counter protests have also arisen. These protesters found grievance with the firings, claiming that the freedom of the press was being violated …

Influences On Public Support For Green Infrastructure: An Examination Of Urban Wetland Restoration In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Lynette C. Overholser

LSU Master's Theses

The research examines patterns of likely support for urban wetland restoration in the Greater New Orleans area. Through multi-variate statistical analysis of responses derived from an original survey of homeowners in New Orleans, key factors are identified that explain variation in residents’ willingness to accept such areas and their perceptions of ecological benefits associated with a theoretical wetlands restoration design for the Gentilly area. Further, the analysis determines the extent to which direct experience with Hurricane Katrina may influence public support for this and other green infrastructure projects. The results of the data collected show that many people in New …

Creating Brands Online: Third Party Opinions And Their Effect On Consumers' Trust In Brands And Purchase Intentions, Pavel Mrazek

LSU Master's Theses

Consumer lack of trust in online vendors and brands is identified as one of the biggest obstacles in the growth of e-commerce. This study examined how third-party product reviews help in building consumers’ trust, in consumers’ perception of product quality, their brand attitudes and consumers’ purchase intention. The six cell experimental design tested the effect of consumer and expert online product reviews on fictitious web sites for high-involvement and low-involvement products. The findings indicate that online consumer product reviews perform better than online expert product reviews and no product reviews. Online product reviews affected visitors to a web site with …

A Treatment Components Analysis In Positive Peer Reporting For Socially Withdrawn Children, Jeffrey S. Chenier

LSU Master's Theses

Socially withdrawn children who do not receive intervention are at risk for struggling in their coursework and having trouble with future psychological adjustment. In spite of these facts, children who act out in the classroom have traditionally received much more attention from teachers and from researchers in the literature. In recent years, there have been many replications of Positive Peer Reporting (PPR) as a quick, effective, and accepted method to help these children overcome their withdrawn status. The extant literature supports the efficacy of PPR. However, there remain several important unanswered questions with regard to PPR. For example, do children …

Antidepressants Misrepresented, Steve Rockoff

Quill & Scope

In a January 2010 study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, investigators determined that for patients who had less than “very severe depression”, antidepressants have no measurable effect on de- pressive symptoms when compared to placebo. This resounding statement was widely circulated by every major national media outlet. If true, it has powerful implications for the millions of Americans who are currently prescribed antidepressants. The commentary at hand highlights several glaring flaws in the design and conclusions of these researchers’ meta-analysis, in an attempt to portray their findings in a less alarming and more realistic light.

The Effects Of Lean On Employees' Affective Attitude In A Modular Homebuilding Manufacturer, Digvesh Khot

LSU Master's Theses

Many organizational problems are related to job dissatisfaction, job-related stress, and lack of commitment in workers. Employees’ Affective Attitude (EAA) involves these three factors: job satisfaction, job stress, and commitment. This research is aimed at measuring the impact of Lean concepts on EAA factors. While providing an overview of Lean production and construction, this study focuses on one fundamental Lean concept, Kaizen. This thesis describes a case study showcasing the application of Lean concepts through Kaizen events and its impact on EAA for a modular homebuilder company. Based on previous literature a conceptual model was developed describing the potential links …

Betties And Broads: A Qualitative Examination Of The Maiden And Whore Archetypes In "The Golden Girls," "Designing Women," And "Sex And The City", Crystal Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the maiden and whore characters in “The Golden Girls,” “Designing Women,” and “Sex and the City.” Using a textual analysis and discourse analysis approach, I examined the two characters comparing them to the definitions of archetype and stereotype provided by Jungian theory and feminist film theory. I analyzed ten randomly selected episodes from the second season excluding both the premier and the finale. Three of the research questions were rooted in central ideas found in the shows: outward appearance, language and conversation, and sexual relationships. The last research question determined whether or not the characters were archetypes …

The Unappreciated Inportance, For Small Business Defendants, Of The Duty To Settle, Robert H. Heidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Public Perception And The Oil Industry: An Analysis Of Oil Employees' And Nigerians' Opinions Regarding Exxon Mobil And Shell Oil's Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts, Liana L. Narcisse

LSU Master's Theses

This study looked at oil industry employees’ and Nigerians’ perceptions of Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil as socially responsible corporations and the role the two-step flow model of communication plays in shaping these publics’ impressions of the companies. Measures of participants’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) were developed using Carroll’s 1971 three-dimensional model of CSR and Ketola’s (2008) holistic model of CSR. This study found that for both companies participants had average to less-than-favorable perceptions of the companies’ socially responsible behavior, according to the various categories of CSR. However, employees were more likely to view the companies more favorably …

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Validation Of The Autism Spectrum Disorders - Problem Behavior For Children (Asd-Pbc), Relationship Between Age And Challenging Behaviors, Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders Compared To Typically Developing Controls On The Behavioral Assessment For Children, Second Edition (Basc-2), Sara Rebecca Mahan

LSU Master's Theses

Researchers found that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a predictor for challenging behaviors. Since challenging behaviors are obstacles for social development and learning, it is important to determine if and what challenging behaviors are exhibited and how to best treat them. The Autism Spectrum Disorder – Problem Behavior for Children (ASD-PBC) is an 18 item informant based questionnaire specifically designed to measure challenging behaviors in children with ASD. Convergent and discriminant validity against the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2), demonstrated the preliminary validity for the ASD-PBC for use among children and adolescents with ASD. Study 2 examined …

Globetrotting Law Firms, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Despite the current financial crisis, prestigious American and British law firms continue to maintain a presence in Continental Europe, Latin America, and China. Yet, in one economically fertile, democratic country - India - such global legal powerhouses are scarcely found. This study seeks to understand empirically why there is a general absence of these and other foreign law firms practicing in India. Based on fieldwork and compiled interview data of lawyers, judges, government officials, activists, and clients from India, the United States, and Britain - the latter two being the foreign countries most interested in gaining access to the Indian …

Put The Bunny Down, And Other Short Stories, Jacqueline Mersereau Lincoln

LSU Master's Theses

I have always been interested in stories, and parts of every story I have heard has shaped who I am as an adult. If I’m not telling others an anecdote of a moment turned into an adventure, I am inventing adventures to tell myself. Three characters developed from the mixture of the stories I heard from true life, books and television, and what I made up for myself. Originally I simply intended these characters of a little girl, a rabbit, and a few raccoons to interact with one another and show moments of individual stories—like illustrations in an anthology that …

Recreating The Image Of Women In Mexico: A Genealogy Of Resistance In Mexican Narrative Set During The Revolution, Julia Maria Schneider

LSU Master's Theses

Traditionally, women have been relegated to the margins of society, history, and culture in male-dominated environments. Patriarchal systems have long denied women to play an appropriate role in nation building and to enter the public sphere, as is the case in Mexico. The female participation during one of the country’s most critical periods, the Mexican Revolution, has largely been ignored. Through situating their narratives into the context of the Revolution and describing the obstacles and limiting conditions that women experience, Mexican writers such as Elena Poniatowska and Laura Esquivel criticize the status quo of social and gender politics in Mexico …

Grateful Gifts: Toward An Ethic Of Donativity, Clayton James Monck Alsup

LSU Master's Theses

Much recent work on the philosophical import of gifts comes in the wake of Jacques Derrida’s work Given Time I: Counterfeit Money, in which he claims that the gift is aporetic. This essay is an attempt to work out whether the gift is genuinely aporetic and, if it is not, to explore what this means for the gift. In the first chapter I will give an account of Derrida’s aporia as he presents it in Given Time. This will carefully lay out his reasons for thinking that the gift is im-possible, introduce the models of desire and duty, and explain …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning Structures In Improving Students' Performance, Jonah Njenga

LSU Master's Theses

In a desperate attempt to improve high school classroom performances, recently, schools have begun to move towards incorporating cooperative learning strategies into their classrooms. Generally, cooperative learning strategies can be described as the use of small groups to encourage learners work together and accomplish shared goals and subsequently maximize theirs and others’ potential. In an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy on classroom learning, this study compares the gains in means of scores between a group taught using cooperative learning strategies and another group taught using non-cooperative learning strategies. Fifty-three students taking Algebra I were given a pretest …

Parent Report Of Home Literacy Experiences In Children With And Without Speech And Language Impairments, Amanda Blair Grace

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate caregivers’ perceptions of their children’s literacy experiences and determine if their perceptions differed as a function of whether their children presented with speech and language impairment or with typical language development. Participants were caregivers of children, between the ages of 24 and 54 months. Eleven children presented with speech and language impairments (S/LI) and 14 children presented with typically developing (TD) language. Caregivers’ perceptions about early home literacy experiences were collected through a questionnaire. Results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of caregivers’ responses to the …

The Relationship Among Self-Efficacy, Negative Self-Statements, And Social Anxiety In Children: A Mediation, Brittany Nicole Moree

LSU Master's Theses

Evidence suggests that general self-efficacy, one’s beliefs about his or her global abilities, and social self-efficacy, one’s beliefs in his or her ability to navigate social situations, are strongly connected to levels of social anxiety. Negative self-statements, also known as negative self-referent cognitions, have also been linked with levels of social anxiety. Although self-efficacy and negative self-statements have been shown to be important variables in the phenomenology and maintenance of social anxiety in children, they have yet to be examined in conjunction with one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between negative self-statements and selfefficacy …

Twittering To The Top: A Content Analysis Of Corporate Tweets To Measure Organization-Public Relationships, Haley Edman

LSU Master's Theses

Corporations worldwide are realizing the potential to build relationships with publics using social media. The microblogging site, Twitter, has transformed from a platform in which people merely update the Twitterverse about their daily activities to a communication channel where interpersonal conversations between millions of users thrive. As public relations practitioners, it is important to utilize new media to reach out to publics in order to build mutually beneficial relationships. This study examines how 47 corporations use Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool and works towards developing guidelines for practitioners on using and evaluating their communication efforts on Twitter. Grounded …

Dress, Dialogue, And Gender In The Mary Tyler Moore Show From 1970-1977, Ashley Hayes

LSU Master's Theses

Hayes, Ashley, B.S., Western Kentucky University, 2007. Master of Science, Fall Commencement, 2010. Major: Human Ecology Dress, Dialogue, and Gender in The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970-1977 Thesis directed by Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, Professor Pages in thesis: 78 Words in abstract: 303 ABSTRACT The Mary Tyler Moore Show has been recognized as the first television program to feature a single career oriented female, the lead character Mary Richards. Many aspects of the show have been researched, including whether Mary Richards could be considered a true feminist role model. The show, which aired from 1970-1977, is important as it reflects …

Western Interpretation Of The Other: How The Perpetuation Of Negative Stereotypes Against Blacks Have Shaped Our Culture, Katrina M. Andry

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the history and nature of stereotypes propagated against blacks from the African Exploration to present day. Therefore by understanding the nature of these stereotypes one can better understand the consequences they’ve had on the black community and they’ve helped to maintain racism in America. This thesis further investigates the media’s role in maintaining racist attitudes towards blacks and how separating people in categories ranking from superior which consequentially breeds inferiority is advantageous to the majority rule in America. In conclusion the problem presented in this thesis has no concrete solution other than the viewer’s perspective after engaging …

Agenda Preference Deliberations, David Pulliam

LSU Master's Theses

Currently the public is relegated to the electoral process, surveys and polls, and group participation in order to voice their agenda preferences. Various literatures describe the decreasing influence of the general public within the agenda setting portion of the policymaking process. This thesis assesses the agenda setting and public policy literatures in order to determine how issues become part of the policy agenda, looks to the public opinion literature to determine how capable the public is in being part of the policymaking process, and utilizes the deliberative democracy literature to construct deliberations that make it possible to get the public …

The Rise Of The Surgical Age In The Treatment Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Case Study Of The Mississippi State Sanatorium, Ashley Baggett

LSU Master's Theses

The historiography of tuberculosis, “TB,” covers four periods in the United States. During the Victorian Age, TB was classified as consumption. After Robert Koch’s discovery of the tubercle bacillus in the 1882, the germ theory took precedence. The early 1900s saw the rise of the Sanatorium Age, and finally, the antibiotic revolution of the 1940s and 1950s began the current understanding of the disease. Missing from this periodization is an era in which surgery took precedence as the preferred treatment for tuberculosis. This study corrects the historiography by arguing for a recognizable Surgical Age in the 1930s and 1940s. With …

Effect Of Management Awareness Of Safety Climate Concept On Organizational Safety Climate, Christopher Michael Holzner

LSU Master's Theses

Safety research and practice have shifted focus away from accident rates and accident causal information to a more proactive approach that may predict organizational safety trends. This proactive approach involves the concept of an organizational safety culture and the use of surveys to measure organizational safety climate or „snapshot‟ of the organizational safety culture. Surveys were administered to line workers, supervisors, and managers at a modular home manufacturing company before and after safety climate information was presented to supervisors and managers in an attempt to measure the effect of the supervisors‟ and managers‟ increased awareness of the factors that define …

Framing Jewell: A Discourse Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage In The Aftermath Of The Atlanta Olympics Bombing And Discussion Of Legal And Ethical Standards For Such Practices, Anne L. Songy

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the newspaper coverage of Richard Jewell during the weeks after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. Jewell, a security guard working in the Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, was initially hailed as a hero due to his discovery of a bomb minutes before the explosion. After Jewell’s name was leaked to the press as an FBI person of interest in the case, many reporters began to frame Jewell in a negative light and, in some instances, even implied his guilt. Through a discourse analysis of news stories published between the date of the bombing and the date …

Development And Preliminary Validation Of The Adolescent Homework Inventory, Meghan Burns Geary

LSU Master's Theses

Homework is defined as work assigned to students by teachers that is to be completed outside of school hours (Cooper, 1989). Homework completion has been shown to have both positive and negative effects at school and home (Hoover-Dempsey, Battiato, Walker, Reed, DeJong, & Jones, 2001; Cooper, 1989; Cooper & Valentine, 2001). Given that homework will continue to be assigned, and that positive outcomes may be greater than negative outcomes, it is important to identify and address difficulties students face in homework completion. Measures are available to identify homework problems in elementary school students, but current measures available for middle and …

Evaluating Different Health Communicatioin Theories To Deter College Binge Drinking: A Look At Promising Directions For Future Research, Kristen Meyer Sunde

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

For more than 30 years, college administrators and health communicators have used binge drinking prevention campaigns on university campuses to deter students from this dangerous and life-threatening habit.

Despite the prevalence of such campaigns (Wechsler, Seibring, Liu & Ahl, 2004), binge drinking remains the top public health threat for this population (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995).

In this study, the researcher conducted an experiment using fear appeals to see if these messages were more effective than social norms messages, which are often used in college binge drinking prevention campaigns (Real & Rimal, 2007), at prompting higher message credibility …

The Effect Of Task Difficulty On Preschoolers' Problem-Solving And Emotion-Regulation Strategy Use, Courtney Marie Snyder

LSU Master's Theses

Although there has been a lot of research on problem-solving and emotion-regulation independently, little work has been done on how these constructs are related. The current investigation sought to explore differences in problem-solving, emotion-regulation, emotion-dysregulation and help-seeking based on task difficulty. Preschool children between 3-5 years of age participated in six frustration-inducing problem-solving tasks, three of which were possible (but difficult) and three of which were impossible for them to solve. Problem-solving, emotion-regulation, emotion-dysregulation, and help-seeking behaviors were coded for each task. I hypothesized that children’s behavior in each of these four areas would vary according to task difficulty, as …

Communication Deficits In Babies With Autism And Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (Pdd-Nos), Max Horovitz

LSU Master's Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by pervasive impairments in communication, socialization, and repetitive behaviors or interests. While there is a growing interest in early ASDs, very few studies have looked at the nature of these impairments before age 3. In order to better strengthen early assessment and intervention for ASDs, more knowledge is needed in this area. The current studies aimed to determine if, and in what ways, communication impairments are present in infants and toddlers (17-37 months) diagnosed with autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). In the first study, infants with autism and PDD-NOS …

Extraversion And Oral Proficiency In Esl, Joshua Boyd Howard

LSU Master's Theses

Extraversion has been proposed as an influence on the success of a second language learner, although studies in this area have produced mixed results (Dewaele & Furnham, 1999; Marin-Marin, 2005; Wakamoto, 2007). Through a narrative retell task, the current study investigated the effects of extraversion on the spoken English performance of 25 native speakers of Spanish. Extraversion was measured with a Spanish version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire or EPQ (1975). Narratives were elicited using the wordless picture story Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Drawing on the work of Dewaele (1998), Dewaele and Pavlenko (2002), and Oya, Manalo, and …