Digital Commons Network^™

Board Diversity And Proxy Disclosure, Thomas Lee Hazen, Lissa Lamkin Broome

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Communication Breakdown: Reviving The Role Of Discourse In The Regulation Of Employee Collective Action, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In Or Out Of Mortgage Trouble? A Study Of Bankrupt Homeowners, Melissa B. Jacoby, Daniel T. Mccue, Eric M. Belsky

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grounding Conversations On Sexuality And Asian Law, Holning S. Lau

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Factors Associated With Tobacco Use Among Rural And Urban Pregnant Women, Whitney Jeanne Katirai

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of smoking on rural and urban pregnant women. More specifically, the variables of the knowledge of health effects, health provider recommendations, subscores from the Health Belief Model (HBM), and social support were explored in relation to the smoking behavior of pregnant women. A secondary purpose was to investigate the accuracy of self-reported smoking during pregnancy using biochemical validation. Pregnant women (N=71) completed an anonymous questionnaire, designed by the researcher, to identify variables that predicted smoking for urban and rural women. Participants also gave a saliva sample for cotinine testing.

Approximately …

Aggressive Reactions To Abusive Supervision: The Role Of Interactional Injustice And Narcissism, James P. Burton, Jenny M. Hoobler

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

In this study, we explore personality and situational conditions in which negative leadership—specifically, abusive supervision—is associated with aggressive behavior in subordinates. That is, we examine the role that interactional justice and narcissism play in an employee’s decision to respond aggressively to an abusive supervisor. We demonstrate that interactional justice mediates the relationship between perceptions of abusive supervision and subsequent employee aggression. In addition, we demonstrate that narcissism interacts with interactional justice perceptions to predict workplace aggression. We find that individuals with high levels of narcissism are the employees who are most likely to respond aggressively when they interpret their leader’s …

Pornography Addiction: A Cognitive Approach In Combating The Lies Christian Males Believe, Farid Awad

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Pornography addiction has grown in epidemic numbers. Its bondage is evident within and outside the church walls. While sex and sexually explicit images saturate our daily lives, God continues to call His people to be holy as He is holy. Freedom from pornography addiction can be achieved only through intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and by accepting the atoning work of His cross for all believers. This thesis will redefine pornography through the lens of the Scripture and primarily focus on cognitive lies regarding oneself and others, which are crippling and ensnaring men into the trap of pornography. This study …

Preservice Teachers: Investigations In Early Fieldwork And Mathematics Efficacy Beliefs, Heidi Lynn Hunt-Ruiz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In this quasi-experimental study, 127 preservice teachers from two community colleges enrolled in a mathematics for teachers two-course sequence. Control and experimental groups were used to investigate the effect that fieldwork had on efficacy beliefs. The Mathematics for Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (MATHEMATICS TEACHING EFFICACY BELIEFS INSTRUMENT) was used to gather data. Fieldwork was determined not to be a significant factor of personal mathematics efficacy or outcome expectancy. Personal mathematics teaching efficacy did significantly increase for both experimental and control groups; however, mathematics teaching outcome expectancy significantly increased only for the experimental group. Results also showed that length of term …

Regarding Westernization In Central Africa: Hybridity In The Works Of Three Chadian Playwrights, Enoch Reounodji

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The second half of the nineteenth century played a determining role in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres of Africa. The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 witnessed European interests bargaining over the territories of Africa and arbitrarily dividing much of the continent into different countries under European control. This historical moment may be regarded as the height of Western influence over Africa, though it only continued the colonial tradition of viewing Africa as a land without culture, theatre, literature, or history (prior to the advent of the white man). The legacy of this outlook has placed African intellectuals and literary …

Threat, Violence, And Voters: Race And Context In The 2008 Presidential Election, Matthew Fowler

LSU Master's Theses

The 2008 Presidential Election brought into office the first African-American president in U.S. history. This paper analyzes variations in White support for Barack Obama based on a number of county-level contextual factors, which are hypothesized to influence aggregate White voter support for the Democratic candidate. Based on the well-known racial threat theory, this paper will explore how racial composition and income inequality effect White support for Barack Obama. Another key explanatory variable, violence, is thought to influence White voter support because of the preconceptions some of these voters hold about African-Americans. Violence helps shape the stereotypes White voters hold, and …

Does School Context Matter For The Low Ses Student? Investigating The Causal Effects Of School Context On College Enrollment, Aaryn Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on school context and the whether or not “good schools” matter for low SES students. Existing research and theory do not provide consistent expectations regarding the performance of low SES students in middle/high SES school environments. To untangle the relationship among socioeconomic background, the school setting, and educational outcomes, I use a large, longitudinal, nationally-representative dataset, The Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 (ELS:2002) to analyze enrollment in postsecondary institutions, institutional selectivity, and future educational expectations. Models use weighted regression with causal effect estimators to assess a potential causal effect of “good schools” for low SES students. While …

Auditor Tenure And Audit Quality, Li Zheng Brooks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I propose that audit quality is likely to increase with audit firm tenure due to a Learning Effect and decrease with audit firm tenure due to a Bonding Effect. The net impact of these two countervailing forces over audit firm tenure dictates whether the relationship between audit firm tenure and audit quality is a concave, convex, or linear function of audit firm tenure. When the Bonding Effect dominates the Learning Effect in the later (earlier) years of tenure, then audit quality is a concave (convex) function of audit firm tenure. Adopting the quadratic model to empirically estimate the audit firm …

The Role Of Task-Appropriate Processing, Context, And Attention Allocation In Prospective Memory: A Multinomial Modeling Approach, Benjamin Anderson Martin, Ii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the influences of attention and retrospective memory processes on prospective memory. In Experiment 1, participants who processed prospective memory cues under conditions that did not coincide with the processes required for making judgments in an ongoing task showed greater levels of performance at the expense of the attentional resources needed to complete the ongoing task. This differed compared to participants who processed cues under conditions that required the same processes needed to performance the ongoing task. In Experiment 2, the reinstatement of contextual features associated with prospective memory cues from the time of intention formation, or encoding, …

Philosophical Legal Ethics: Ethics, Morals, And Jurisprudence, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

The authors and moderator David Luban participated in a plenary session of the International Legal Ethics Conference IV, held at Stanford. Each author answered and discussed questions arising from short papers they had written about the principal concern of legal ethics was the morality of lawyers, the morality of clients, or the morality of laws.

Comorbid Psychopathology In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders - Cut-Off Scores For The Autism Specturm Disorders-Comorbidity For Children (Asd-Cc), Ryan Thomas Thorson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Once considered rare, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are increasingly becoming viewed as common disorders. Prevalence rates of ASD have increased drastically in recent years. Recent studies suggest comorbid psychopathology within ASD to be more common than previously thought. Though these deficits exist, specific instruments to diagnose psychopathology in this population do not yet exist. This highlights the underlying need for instruments to identify psychopathology in individuals with ASD. The aim of this study was to establish cut-off scores for the Autism Spectrum Disorder – Comorbidity for Children, an instrument designed to assess for comorbid psychopathology within individuals with ASD.

Assessing Social Support In Children: Development And Initial Validation Of The Social Support Questionnaire For Children, Arlene Tayag Gordon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research examining risk and protective factors associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in children has established social support as one of the strongest predictors of psychological health and overall adjustment post-traumatic event (Vigil & Geary, 2008). Greater perceived social support, generally, has been related to more positive outcomes in children (Borja & Callahan, 2008; Cryder, Kilmer, Tedeschi, & Calhoun, 2006; Pina, Villalta, Ortiz, Gottschall, Costa, & Weems, 2008). Understanding the impact of social support on coping with traumatic events such as natural disasters or exposure to community violence is limited by the lack of psychometrically sound measures. The current study …

Celebrity Versus Non-Celebrity: Parasocial Relationships With Characters In Reality-Based Television Programs, Nicole Webb Henry

LSU Master's Theses

Research of parasocial relationships suggests that audiences engage in one-sided relationships with their favorite personae in the media. This study attempts to explore two types of reality stars: those who had fame before being on reality television and those who have fame because of the show. Using the PSR-Processing Scale, I compared levels of parasocial interactions for each, as well how moral disengagement might play a role for each type of reality star. I also explored whether these parasocial relationships are influenced by the frequency with which respondents watch various types of sub-genres of reality-based programs (i.e. game docs, dating …

Institutional Accreditation Liaisons In The Southern Association Of Colleges And Schools Region: Characteristics, Responsibilities, And Force Field Analysis, Tracy W. Molidor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges’ role of Accreditation Liaison to (a) explore the characteristics of the professionals who fill the Accreditation Liaison role and (b) understand factors that support or challenge liaisons. Within the theoretical framework of Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory, a sequential mixed-methods research design was employed to collect data in two phases. The quantitative method in the first phase was an on-line survey. The instrument focused on respondents’ educational, professional, and demographic characteristics, as well as their roles, responsibilities, and practices as Accreditation Liaisons. The …

A Computer-Based Instructional Program To Teach Braille Reading To Sighted Individuals, Mindy Scheithauer

LSU Master's Theses

There is a need for efficient braille training methods for instructors of the visually impaired. This study evaluated the use of a computer-based program intended to train the relation of braille characters to English letters using a matching-to-sample procedure with 4 sighted college students. Each participant mastered matching visual depictions of the braille alphabet to their text counterparts. Further, each participant demonstrated the ability to read a braille passage following this exposure. These gains maintained at variable levels at a follow-up probe 2 to 4 weeks following training.

Improving Intelligence In A Counterinsurgency Or Counterterrorism Environment Through The Application Of A Critical Thinking-Based Framework, James Henry Hess

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The intelligence community is responsible for providing competent analysis and assessments pertaining to the many significant geo-political situations that may potentially or do effect the nation’s interests. The intelligence community has always experienced challenges living up to that charge, and while it may merely be a case of the nature of the profession, there are always lessons that can be learned and processes that may improve the analytical processes. Critical thinking is a cognitive process that may be able to provide that improvement to the analytical processes, and when an analytical framework is built by applying these cognitive skills, the …

Landscape, Mobilities, And Performance: An Autoethnographic And Visual Engagement With Public Protests In Washington, Dc, Paul Ronald Watts

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how geography’s traditional approach to studying cultural landscapes, which has been largely reliant upon vision, should also include the embodied practices: the customary and habitual actions that inform human engagement. Using public protests in Washington, DC as an extended case study, I reveal an underlying tension between protest participants’ embodied practices and material objects in the built environment. I accomplish this by drawing from over one year’s fieldwork in Washington, where I used qualitative approaches, including—but not limited to—participant observation and autoethnography, to engage in public protests as an embodied participant. To support my empirical data, I …

Salazar V. Buono: Sacred Symbolism And The Secular State, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

This Colloquy piece comments on some doctrinal and theoretical implications of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Salazar v. Buono.

Test-Driving Interventions To Increase Treatment Integrity And Student Outcomes, Evan Henry Dart

LSU Master's Theses

Behavioral Consultation is typically an effective way for school psychologists to work with teachers to find an appropriate intervention for implementation in the classroom. While some teachers have no difficulty implementing suggested interventions with high integrity, this is not always the case. The present study attempted to develop a “test-drive” procedure by which resistant teachers were able to implement several interventions briefly in the hope that they found one to their liking and implement it with high levels of integrity. The results indicate that teachers resistant to traditional Behavioral Consultation were able to implement their preferred intervention with high rates …

Crisis Management Post Hurricane Katrina: A Qualitative Study Of A Higher Education Institution's Administrators' Response To Crisis Management, Steven Lee Mccullar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

From campus shootings to mass prolonged campus closures in the Gulf Coast due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the past decade has seen an increase in high profile crises at higher education institutions. Louisiana State University was one of the institutions impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. After the experience, university administrators created an Emergency Operation Center and a new plan for how to handle campus crises. In 2008, LSU administrators had an opportunity to test their full scale plan with the landfall of Hurricane Gustav. In this study, university administrators from LSU were interviewed about their experiences …

Assessing Attentional Bias And Cerebral Laterality In Specific Phobia Using A Dichotic Listening Paradigm, Whitney Shay Jenkins

LSU Master's Theses

Researchers have found fear to impact a variety of cognitive variables in individuals with specific phobia. Attentional bias is a cognitive variable that has received considerable attention in the specific phobia literature; however, the existing literature follows only one line of attentional bias—bias as encoded through images, words, or other content presented visually. This study aimed to expand on this area by assessing attention and cerebral laterality in individuals with specific phobia using a dichotic listening paradigm (i.e., via auditory means). Results indicated that participants with specific phobias do not significantly differ from controls in terms of the number of …

The Lady, Or The Tiger? A Field Guide To Metaphor & Narrative, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Metaphor and narrative reassure us that things hang together, providing a sense of coherence to the patterns and paths we employ for perception and expression. In this field guide, I hope to illustrate - with images and stories when possible - how better understanding of metaphor and narrative can guide those engaged in legal rhetoric and persuasion.

The article briefly summarizes cognitive theory relating to metaphor and narrative, provides snapshots of their use in the field, in real-life legal persuasion, and suggests ways to adapt metaphor and narrative to a specific example of legal persuasion. In the field guide section, …

An Exploration Of The Paradigm Of Kinship Caregiving And Caregivers' Experiences With Child Welfare And Public Welfare Systems Using Critical Theory Analysis, Tara Valinchus Dejohn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Kinship caregiving as a paradigm in the United States (US) is historically linked to slavery subcultural practices. Over time, dominant US systems have vacillated in demonstrating formal acknowledgement of kinship as an acceptable family unit and in availing resources to support kinship caregiving. The patterns and practices of these variations pertaining to kinship caregiving as a paradigm has received little attention despite documentation of its increased utilization in public child welfare and welfare systems. This exploratory case study responds to the paucity of knowledge regarding the systemic shifts towards the kinship caregiving paradigm and the perspectives of kinship caregivers who …

Death Is Not So Different After All: Graham V. Florida And The Court's "Kids Are Different" Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

In Graham v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court declared that life sentences without the possibility of parole for non-homicides are off limits for all juveniles. Following its lead in Roper v. Simmons, the landmark decision in which the Court abolished the juvenile death penalty, the Court expanded on its Eighth Amendment juvenile jurisprudence by ruling that locking up juveniles for life based on crimes other than homicides is cruel and unusual and, therefore, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. With that ruling, the Court erected a categorical bar to incarcerating forever those not yet adults at the time …

Relationships Among The Behavioral Inhibition System, Response Inhibition, Heart Rate Variability, And Anxiety Sensitivity Between Older Adolescents With And Without Significant Anxiety, Erin Tarcza Reuther

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Differences in the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS; Gray, 1982), response inhibition, and cardiac vagal control are evident between individuals with anxiety and nonclinical control participants. In this study, the role of inhibition in anxiety was examined, as well as relationships between the primary indexes of inhibition including the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), response inhibition, and cardiac vagal tone (or heart rate variability) at rest and during tasks of response inhibition. Additionally, anxiety sensitivity, an established risk factor for developing anxiety disorders, was examined and how it relates to indexes of inhibition. As expected, inhibition and anxiety sensitivity were found to …

Investigating The Use Of Graphic Organizers For Writing, Laura Nicole Delrose

LSU Master's Theses

Students are placed under increasing demands for more complex syntax and discourse structure in oral and written language as they age. Children with language and learning disabilities struggle to grasp the organization and relationships between the facts of the topic, making writing an increasingly daunting task. In addition, these students must also master conventions such as vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and syntax to produce a written essay (Schumaker & Deshler, 2003). This study explored the efficacy of graphic organizers as a strategy to facilitate higher complexity of syntactic and discourse structures in sentence and story formation. After seven weeks of intervention, …