Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Prejudice And The New Latino Migration: The Geographic Locus Of Anti-Latino Sentiment, Angela Caraway

LSU Master's Theses

A large body of literature on the relationship between prejudice and discrimination and the size of minority populations suggests that as a minority population increases so will incidents of prejudice and/or discrimination. This school of thought is led by Hubert Blalock who contends that large minority populations generate prejudice among the majority, who view the minority as a threat to their economic and/or political standing. Minority population size has been tested and widely confirmed as a cause of anti-black prejudice and discrimination. But the corresponding research for Latinos has generally produced inconsistent and largely inconclusive findings. The reason for this …

A Comparison Of Public And Private Positive Peer Reporting In General Education Classrooms, Carolyn Barahona

LSU Master's Theses

Positive peer reporting (PPR) and Tootling have shown to be effective classwide interventions in decreasing maladaptive behavior and increasing positive interactions. In the current study, PPR was implemented as a classwide intervention by using an interdependent group contingency to determine if two variations of student praise reports affect classroom disruptive behavior. PPR uses public praise reports to decrease maladaptive behavior and increase prosocial interactions, while Tootling uses private praise reports on index cards to increase reports of prosocial interactions. This study compared students’ public praise reports to private praise reports of fellow students and evaluated how different praise types affect …

Designing Exhibits For Gender Equity, Toni Nicole Dancu

Dissertations and Theses

Gender equity has been a national and global aim for over half a century (Ceci & Williams, 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, 2003; National Science Board, 2008). While gains have been made, one area where inequity remains is spatial reasoning ability, where a large gender gap in favor of males has persisted over the years (Else-Quest, Linn, & Shibley Hyde, 2010; National Science Board, 2008; Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). This gender gap in spatial reasoning has had substantial societal impact on the career interests of females in areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), contributing to the …

The Role Of Old-Fashioned Racism: Disaggregating Symbolic Racism In The United States, Leslie Curtis Cox

LSU Master's Theses

Old-fashioned, biological, or "Jim Crow" racism is viewed by many in the political science and psychology literature to be largely a relic of the past. In the post-segregation era it has been replaced as a political force by symbolic racism, although its residual effect still operates within symbolic racism as negative racial affect. Symbolic racism is thought of as a coherent belief system that describes whites‘ attitudes not only in the United States, but in some European democracies as well. This conceptualization of symbolic racism ignores the differences in the historical legacy of racism across different regional and demographic contexts. …

Factors That Affect Sleep In Adults With Developmental Disability, Megan Sipes

LSU Master's Theses

Sleep problems are a common occurrence in the typically developing population. These problems are even more frequent in those with developmental disabilities; however, sleep disorders are often under diagnosed in this population in clinical populations. Currently, there is a lack of research that examines the rate of sleep problems in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the endorsements of sleep problems between three groups: 71 adults with Autistic Disorder (AD) and intellectual disability (ID), 71 adults with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and ID, and 71 adults with ID …

Psychosocial Responses To Spinal Cord Injury As Predictors Of Pressure Sores, Hanoch Livneh, Samuel T. Gontkovsky, Dobrivoje S. Stokic, Erin Martz

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Pressure sores are a preventable, but common, secondary complication of a spinal cord injury (SCI). Research is limited concerning the influence of psychological factors in the development of pressure sores. The purpose of our ex post facto study was to examine the role that emotional responses and coping strategies play in moderating the relationships between demographic and SCI-related medical variables and the frequency and severity of pressure sores. Ninety-five individuals, who sustained a sudden-onset SCI, completed a self-report questionnaire sent to the population of patients that received post-injury rehabilitation services at a rehabilitation center in the southern U.S. Multiple regression …

Empirically Evaluating And Developing Alarm Rate Standards For Liquid Pipeline Control Room Operators, Glen David Uhack Ii

LSU Master's Theses

The liquid and gas pipeline community has recently been faced with the challenge of new governmental regulations set forth by congress which are being implemented by PHMSA (an arm of the DOT). These new governmental regulations need to understand the role of the human in the loop as part of alarm management systems. To investigate alarm rate standards a repeated measures design was developed that included a series of ten (10) simulated liquid pipeline operator scenarios utilizing high fidelity liquid pipeline simulation software (Stoner Pipeline Simulator). A total of 39 participants volunteered for this study. Participants completed two subsets of …

A New Focus For A University: Designing A Web Site To Feature Community Service, Andrea Louise Clesi

LSU Master's Theses

This research used focus groups and usability testing to determine how a major land-grant university should design a Web site that would feature the community service work of faculty and staff, students and alumni, also referred to as stakeholders. University public relations professionals planned to launch an interactive Web site as part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2010, but had concerns that the Web site would not attract stakeholders. The research sought to answer the following questions based on uses and gratifications and impression management theories: What uses and gratifications, if any, do social networking sites provide stakeholders? Does …

Attention Is Not Required To Maintain Feature Bindings In Visual Working Memory, Amanda Van Lamsweerde

LSU Master's Theses

Attention plays an important role in the formation of accurate feature bindings. However, the role of attention in maintaining feature bindings is not as well established. Some research supports the theory that attention is needed to maintain feature bindings in visual working memory (VWM), while other research suggests that bindings remain intact after the withdrawal of attention. Experiment 1 of current study tested this hypothesis by replicating the findings that feature bindings are more difficult to remember than individual features in a whole report change detection task. Experiment 2 directly measured attention through eye tracking and manipulated whether a change …