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2010

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In Search Of The Reasonable Woman: Anti-Discrimination Rhetoric In The United States, Francis J. Mootz Iii Jan 2010

In Search Of The Reasonable Woman: Anti-Discrimination Rhetoric In The United States, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

This article emerged from my participation in a Symposium addressing global perspectives on the topic, "Anti-Discrimination Discourse and Practices," sponsored by The Jean Monnet Chair of European Law at Cagliari University, Sardinia. The article examines the rhetorical development of the "reasonable woman" standard of hostile work environment sexual harassment under Title VII. I argue that the rhetorical framing of the standard has unnecessarily limited its impact, perhaps to the point of undermining its potential to radically revise our understanding of gender discrimination. I suggest how the rhetorical power of the standard might be recovered.

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The Impact Of Hurricanes Katrina And Rita On The Louisiana Judicial System, Charles Simon Mccowan, Iii Jan 2010

The Impact Of Hurricanes Katrina And Rita On The Louisiana Judicial System, Charles Simon Mccowan, Iii

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is a case study of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Louisiana court system and the response of the court system to the aftermath of these two hurricanes. Although this thesis focuses on one state’s court system’s response to two natural disasters, the research, conclusions and recommendations are transferable to other states. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 devastating large areas in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. Millions of people, including judges and attorneys, were forced to evacuate their homes, courts and law offices. The Hurricanes caused interruptions to both federal …

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Similarities And Differences In Self-Disclosure And Friendship Development Between Fact-To-Face Communication And Facebook, Pavica Sheldon Jan 2010

Similarities And Differences In Self-Disclosure And Friendship Development Between Fact-To-Face Communication And Facebook, Pavica Sheldon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research identified the patterns of self-disclosure between face-to-face and Facebook friends’ interactions. A survey of 317 participants was conducted to compare the hypothesized relationships among social attraction, self-disclosure, predictability and trust in three types of relationships: recently added Facebook friend, exclusive Facebook friend, and an exclusive face-to-face friend. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), t-tests and correlations. Results indicated that individuals reporting high levels of social attraction also reported having greater self-disclosure with their latest added Facebook friend, exclusive Facebook friend and an exclusive face-to-face friend. This supports a theorem of Uncertainty …

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In Sickness And In Health: Experiencing Medical Spaces In Mbarara (Uganda), Kara E. Miller Jan 2010

In Sickness And In Health: Experiencing Medical Spaces In Mbarara (Uganda), Kara E. Miller

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is a contribution to cross-cultural studies on health and medicine explored through the material and symbolic facets of health care in a region of Southwest Uganda. Research conducted in the healing spaces of Mbarara reflects traditions in the anthropology of the body and brings a lived perspective to conditions of sickness and wellness. By tracing the biographies of treatment spaces, the medical landscape is evaluated in terms of participants’ perceptions, convictions, and knowledge sets. Phenomenological methodology is employed in this exploration of ill states and curative places, which braids concepts and academic work in the areas of medicine, …

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Commonality, Competition, And Stereotypes: Can Whites, Blacks, And Latinos Play Politics Together In The United States, Betina Cutaia Wilkinson Jan 2010

Commonality, Competition, And Stereotypes: Can Whites, Blacks, And Latinos Play Politics Together In The United States, Betina Cutaia Wilkinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The literature on racial attitudes and coalition formation has focused on Latinos and African Americans in the U.S. In this project, I present a theoretical framework exploring what whites, blacks and Latinos think of each other specifically examining perceptions of commonality, competition and stereotypes. The two major theories that I test are contact theory and the racial threat hypothesis. This project is unique in its comprehensive analysis of the precursors of coalition formation regarding African Americans, Latinos and whites and its adoption of quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer the main research questions. Moreover, very little research has explored the …

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Experiential Learning Of U.S. Presidents In The Foreign Policy Decision-Making Context, Samuel Berwyn Robison Jan 2010

Experiential Learning Of U.S. Presidents In The Foreign Policy Decision-Making Context, Samuel Berwyn Robison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines U.S. presidential learning—defined as a change in presidential operational code beliefs due to their experiences in office—in the foreign policy decision-making context. These beliefs are teased out from presidents’ representations of power relationships via verb usage in their speeches. A database of more than 4,000 foreign policy-related speeches obtained by the author was employed for this project, and with this data, I examine several potential dynamics of and influences on learning.

I look at trends in belief change over time, and examine the relative stability and interconnectedness of “core” versus “peripheral” beliefs. I then test the influence …

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"To Liberate Communication": The Realist And Paul Krassner's 1960s, Terry Joel Wagner Jan 2010

"To Liberate Communication": The Realist And Paul Krassner's 1960s, Terry Joel Wagner

LSU Master's Theses

Paul Krassner began publishing a small-circulation magazine called The Realist in New York City in 1958 because he believed there existed excessive restraints on speech in American culture. The publication began with a combination of earnest critiques and good-humored satires on such topics as organized religion, sexual mores, Cold War paranoia, and civil rights. By the mid-sixties, the magazine was enlarging the space not just for what opinions could be expressed but also for the way those opinions were expressed and, in the process, testing the boundaries of obscenity. As Krassner became a bitter opponent of the Vietnam War and …

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Caring Attitudes Among Child Welfare Caseworkers: Associations With Client Participation In Services, Karen Faulk Jan 2010

Caring Attitudes Among Child Welfare Caseworkers: Associations With Client Participation In Services, Karen Faulk

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between the caring attitudes and commitment toward clients of child welfare workers and their clients’ completion of a parenting education program. This line of inquiry is intended to expand the scope of research on caring attitudes associated with child welfare workers intent to remain employed. A logical extension of identifying characteristics associated with child welfare workforce retention is to determine if those characteristics are also associated with positive client outcomes. Part of the examination of worker caring attitudes involved testing the Child Welfare Inventory (CWI), a modified …

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Fraction Competency And Algebra Success, Coretta Thomas Jan 2010

Fraction Competency And Algebra Success, Coretta Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract In this thesis, I investigated the importance of fraction competence to success in algebra. I studied 107 of the students whom I teach. These students were all enrolled in Algebra I. A fraction pretest and an algebra pretest were given at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. A comparison was done to study the connection between the fraction pretest score and the semester grade as well as the algebra pretest score and the semester grade. The strongest correlation was between the fraction pretest and the semester grade. This supported the theory that fraction competence is a strong predictor …

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Knowledge Gap And Cable Music Television: A Survey Of Mtv, Bet, And H1 Target Audience Members, Katharine Claire Gavin Jan 2010

Knowledge Gap And Cable Music Television: A Survey Of Mtv, Bet, And H1 Target Audience Members, Katharine Claire Gavin

LSU Master's Theses

American youth and adolescents have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in the industrialized world. Entertainment media, the preferred genre of today’s adolescents, depicts sex, drugs, and alcohol use at a greater rate than any other genre of programming. What are health communication strategists doing to counter the widespread, inaccurate portrayals often depicted in this type of programming? With previous knowledge gap and health communication research failing to examine youth oriented and racial targeted entertainment programming, this study utilizes a survey to analyze BET, MTV, and VH1 audiences’ health knowledge, recall, and attitude toward PSAs to …

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Cooling-Off And Secondary Markets: Consumer Choice In The Digital Domain, Michael Mattioli Jan 2010

Cooling-Off And Secondary Markets: Consumer Choice In The Digital Domain, Michael Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article studies the law and economics of cooling-off periods and secondary markets for online media. The discussion is fueled by a current debate: In July 2009, the online retail juggernaut, Amazon.com, remotely deleted literary classics from consumers’ portable “Kindle” reading devices. The public outcry and class-action lawsuit that followed have reinvigorated an ongoing debate about how much control digital media distributors should wield. Pundits and plaintiffs argue that too often, digital distributors like Amazon impair consumer freedom by misusing Digital Rights Management (DRM) software systems. However, these same systems could also provide significant benefits that have largely gone ignored. …

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The Legal Challenge Of Protecting Animal Migrations As Phenomena Of Abundance, Robert L. Fischman, Jeffrey B. Hyman Jan 2010

The Legal Challenge Of Protecting Animal Migrations As Phenomena Of Abundance, Robert L. Fischman, Jeffrey B. Hyman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Animal migrations are as familiar as geese in the sky on a fall afternoon and as mysterious as the peregrinations of sea turtles across thousands of miles of open ocean. This article discusses the distinguishing attributes of animal migrations, why they are important to biodiversity conservation, and the legal challenges posed by migration conservation. In particular, the article focuses on those aspects of migration conservation that existing law, dominated by imperiled species protection, fails to address. It consequently suggests law reforms that would better conserve animal migrations. A step toward serious legal efforts to protect the process and function of …

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Invisible Links, Abject Chains: Habit In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Daniel R. Mangiavellano Jan 2010

Invisible Links, Abject Chains: Habit In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Daniel R. Mangiavellano

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Invisible Links, Abject Chains: Habit in Nineteenth-Century British Literature” argues that habit is a central characteristic of both Romantic and Victorian theories of imagination, originality, literary production, and subjectivity. Certainly, nineteenth-century culture often treats habit with suspicion, invoking language of bondage, slavery, and dangerous unconscious imitation to apply to everything from reading habits to opium use. However, by tracing a discourse of habit from association theory to pragmatism and drawing from philosophical, educational, medical, and psychological texts, I foreground how Romantic and Victorian texts redeploy habit as a paradoxical form of imaginative agency. In nineteenth-century culture, habit makes possible what …

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The Interactions Between Sentence Complexity, Working Memory, And Additional Working Memory Load: An On-Line Measure, Christy Seidel Jan 2010

The Interactions Between Sentence Complexity, Working Memory, And Additional Working Memory Load: An On-Line Measure, Christy Seidel

LSU Master's Theses

This experiment takes an on-line look at syntactical complexity, external loads, and working memory, and how the three influence one another. Based on off-line data looking at the interactions between these three factors, we have discovered that syntactic complexity and span have main effects, while the effect of load is most interestingly seen in a three way interaction representing the hardest possible combination of factors. Through this new design, we were able to see whether the off-line results of sentence processing are replicated with an on-line measure. Our new off-line findings replicate past results, which show that working memory impacts …

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The Potential Contribution Of Adr To An Integrated Curriculum: Preparing Law Students For Real World Lawyering, Jean R. Sternlight Jan 2010

The Potential Contribution Of Adr To An Integrated Curriculum: Preparing Law Students For Real World Lawyering, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

This Article briefly reviews the long history of critiques of legal education that highlight the failure to adequately prepare students for what they will and should do as attorneys. It takes a sober look at the hurdles reformers face when trying to make significant curricular changes and proposes a modest menu of reforms that interested faculty and law schools can largely achieve without investing substantial additional resources. This Article emphasizes the special contributions that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) can provide to legal education more generally. ADR instruction is an important corrective to a curriculum that routinely conveys the erroneous implication …

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A Performance Guide To Lori Laitman's Living In The Body, Kathryn Mary Drake Jan 2010

A Performance Guide To Lori Laitman's Living In The Body, Kathryn Mary Drake

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this document is to provide a complete performer’s guide to American composer Lori Laitman’s Living in the Body, a song cycle consisting of six songs for soprano and saxophone set to the poetry of Joyce Sutphen. Living in the Body is one of very few cycles written for soprano and saxophone, and the combination is both unusual and interesting to investigate. The cycle explores letting go of the past and focusing on what will happen in the second half of life. The text is set expertly for soprano, bringing important words to the listener’s attention while keeping …

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Post-Diaster Family Resilience: The Use Of Humor As A Coping Strategy, Bridgette Boe O'Connor Jan 2010

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 …

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Gender Differences And Cultural Contexts: Psychological Well-Being In Cross-National Perspective, Makiko Hori Jan 2010

Gender Differences And Cultural Contexts: Psychological Well-Being In Cross-National Perspective, Makiko Hori

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines gender differences in psychological well-being and its causal factors in 33 countries. Previous studies documented women’s vulnerability in mental health, and according to social role explanations, gender differences in mental health are attributed to gendered socialization and gender roles assigned to men and women. Gender differences in mental health thus should disappear when we see gender-neutral socialization and social roles. I incorporate contextual factors, such as the country-level gender equality and gender norms, and argue that the effects of gender and family-related factors at the individual-level on psychological well-being are conditional on societal-level factors in each country. …

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Stereotype And Representation Of Near And Middle Eastern Peoples In La Bande Dessinee, Brandon Matthew Thomas Jan 2010

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 …

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Influences On Public Support For Green Infrastructure: An Examination Of Urban Wetland Restoration In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Lynette C. Overholser Jan 2010

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 …

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Cold Looks And Hot Tempers: Individual-Level Effects Of Incivility In The Workplace, Shannon G. Taylor Jan 2010

Cold Looks And Hot Tempers: Individual-Level Effects Of Incivility In The Workplace, Shannon G. Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The deleterious effects of workplace incivility have been widely decried by practitioners and the popular press, but empirical evidence in this regard has only recently begun to accrue in the academic literature. As such, the present study examines the empirical validity of theoretically relevant attitudinal, health-related, and performance outcomes affected by workplace incivility. Hypotheses were tested with data obtained from individuals employed in a diverse range of for-profit and not-for-profit industries, organizations, and occupations and their supervisors. Results demonstrate that experiences of workplace incivility adversely affect employee attitudes and well-being; that workplace incivility experiences may indirectly affect feelings of burnout …

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Creating Brands Online: Third Party Opinions And Their Effect On Consumers' Trust In Brands And Purchase Intentions, Pavel Mrazek Jan 2010

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 …

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A Treatment Components Analysis In Positive Peer Reporting For Socially Withdrawn Children, Jeffrey S. Chenier Jan 2010

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 …

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Ricci V. Destefano: A Masculinities Theory Analysis, Ann C. Mcginley Jan 2010

Ricci V. Destefano: A Masculinities Theory Analysis, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This Article applies masculinity theory to explore the aspects Ricci v. Destefano and its political reverberations. Empirical evidence showed that virtually all written tests have a disparate impact on minorities, that a neighboring city had reached less discriminatory results using a different weighting system, and that other fire departments used assessment centers to judge firefighters' qualifications for promotions. While the black male and all female firefighters were made invisible by the case and the testimony, the fact that Ricci's and Vargas' testimony lionized a particularly traditional form of heterosexual masculinity was also invisible. While the command presence required of a …

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Reliability And Validity Study Of The Motiviation For Fear (Motif) Survey, Marie S. Nebel-Schwalm Jan 2010

Reliability And Validity Study Of The Motiviation For Fear (Motif) Survey, Marie S. Nebel-Schwalm

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study was to determine psychometric properties of a newly created, 24-item functional measure of fear and anxiety for typically-developing adults (the Motivation for Fear; MOTIF). Participants initially included 1,277 college students ranging in age from 18-35. Participants were asked to complete the MOTIF, the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF), the Sensation Seeking Scale- Form V, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS). Analyses were conducted on those scoring above a minimum threshold on a well-normed measure of anxiety (the DASS). An exploratory factory analysis, using scree plot and parallel analysis, as well as oblique rotation was …

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Community College Success: A Multi-Site Program Evaluation Of Postsecondary Career And Technical Education, Kimberly Tynes Jan 2010

Community College Success: A Multi-Site Program Evaluation Of Postsecondary Career And Technical Education, Kimberly Tynes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Postsecondary career and technical institutions are required to follow a set list of performance indicators in order to receive federal Carl Perkins funding (Perkins IV Accountability, 2009). Within those indicators includes measuring technical skills attainment, which the state of Mississippi chooses to utilize program-specific standardized assessments known as the MS- CPAS2 assessment. The purpose of this multi-site program evaluation was to determine which programs are meeting the assessment passing requirements and to determine how they are achieving success. The rationale for this study was to evaluate the components inherent in successful programs in order to aid other programs who may …

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Conceivable Changes: Effectuating Infertile Couples' Emotional Ties To Frozen Embryos Through New Disposition Options, Jody L. Madeira Jan 2010

Conceivable Changes: Effectuating Infertile Couples' Emotional Ties To Frozen Embryos Through New Disposition Options, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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Antidepressants Misrepresented, Steve Rockoff Jan 2010

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.

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The Effects Of Lean On Employees' Affective Attitude In A Modular Homebuilding Manufacturer, Digvesh Khot Jan 2010

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 …

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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 Jan 2010

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 …

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