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Book Review: Making Chastity Sexy: The Rhetoric Of Evangelical Abstinence Campaigns, By Christine J. Gardner, Kelsy Burke

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Evangelical messages about adolescent sexuality appear straight-forward: unless they are married (and heterosexual), teens should not have sex. However, as communications scholar Christine J. Gardner shows in her book, Making Chastity Sexy: The Rhetoric of Evangelical Abstinence Campaigns, how evangelicals go about promoting abstinence is both complicated and unexpected. Gardner focuses on how social meanings about religion and sexuality are constructed in evangelical abstinence campaign by examining the rhetoric of three U.S. campaigns (the primary focus of the book) and one African campaign. One of her most surprising findings—and the one for which the book’s title is based—is that U.S. …

Does The Reason Matter? Variations In Childlessness Concerns Among U.S. Women, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Patricia Wonch Hill, Kari C. Gentzler, John D. Hathcoat

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Does the reason why women have no children matter with regard to level of childlessness concerns? Reasons include biomedical barriers, situational barriers, delaying motherhood, and choosing to be childfree. The concept of ‘‘childlessness concerns’’ captures the idea that holidays and family gatherings are difficult because of not having children or feeling left out or sad that others have children. Life course and identity theories guided the structural equation model analyses of a representative sample of 1,180 U.S. women without children from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. The results indicated that women with the least control over pregnancy, those with …

The Effects Of Item Saliency And Question Design On Measurement Error In A Self-Administered Survey, Michael J. Stern, Jolene D. Smyth, Jeanette Mendez

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Recent survey design research has shown that small changes in the structure and visual layout of questions can affect respondents’ answers, but the results are not always consistent across studies. One possible reason for some of the inconsistency may be differences in the item saliency of the questions used in the experiments. In this article, the authors examine how item saliency might influence visual design effects. The authors report the results of three experimental alterations in question format and visual design using data from a 2005 random sample mail survey of 1,315 households. The results suggest that the saliency of …

Tipping Points Among Social Learners: Tools From Varied Disciplines, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

There is a long and rich tradition in the social sciences of using models of collective behavior in animals as jumping-off points for the study of human behavior, including collective human behavior. Here, we come at the problem in a slightly different fashion. We ask whether models of collective human behavior have anything to offer those who study animal behavior. Our brief example of tipping points, a model first developed in the physical sciences and later used in the social sciences, suggests that the analysis of human collective behavior does indeed have considerable to offer.

Cultural Evolutionary Tipping Points In The Storage And Transmission Of Information, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Human culture has evolved through a series of major tipping points in information storage and communication. The first was the appearance of language, which enabled communication between brains and allowed humans to specialize in what they do and to participate in complex mating games. The second was information storage outside the brain, most obviously expressed in the "Upper Paleolithic Revolution" - the sudden proliferation of cave art, personal adornment, and ritual in Europe some 35,000-45,000 years ago. More recently, this storage has taken the form of writing, mass media, and now the Internet, which is arguably overwhelming humans' ability to …

Adult Learners In A Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning, C. Atkisson, Michael J. O'Brien, A. A. Mesoudi

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary theory is prestige bias, which allows a learner in a novel environment to quickly and inexpensively gather information as to the potentially best teachers, thus maximizing his or her chances of acquiring adaptive behavior. Learners provide deference to high-status individuals in order to ingratiate themselves with, and gain extended exposure to, that individual. We examined prestige-biased social transmission in a laboratory experiment in which participants designed …

Our Celebrities Our Selves: Reconstructing Ourselves As Online Personalities, Arne Baruca

Marketing Faculty Publications (Archived)

Celebrity influence on consumer behavior at the online macro level is the motivation for this study that addresses the nature of celebrity consumption and how consumers apply that consumption to develop their online self-presentation.

The sample for this study is limited to consumers with active accounts at online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Methodology is a three-part design. A multi-factor qualitative exploratory study (n=73) reveals four celebrity-consumer relationships whose proposed measurement scales are tested in a quantitative pilot study (n=85). Finally, a large sample study (n=593) is used to test the measurement model and to test the proposed …

Predictors Of Juvenile Court Dispositions In A First-Time Offender Population, Karen C. Kalmbach, Phillip M. Lyons

Psychology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Scholars and policy makers have long been troubled by the potential for some youth to receive disparate sanctioning as a function of extralegal factors, especially against the backdrop of ethnic/racial minority group overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system as a whole. Beginning in the late 1990s, many states began to adopt a graduated sanctions model in response to the emerging ‘get tough’ zeitgeist of the day. Originally intended by the federal government to reinforce juvenile accountability and to ensure equitable treatment of all youth in custody, some stakeholders began to note concerns about uneven outcomes in the use of graduated …

Undergraduate Catalog, Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

My Sister, Our Stories: Exploring The Lived Experience Of School Leavers Through Narrative And Poetics, C. Amelia Davis, Jennifer L. Pepperell

Curriculum, Foundations & Reading: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to explore the educational experiences of two adult female siblings who are both school leavers. Through the use of thematic narrative analysis, sibling narratives and poetic re-presentations, their stories were developed. These stories represent the participants’ experiences of prior schooling and their current commitments to education. While each story conveyed a profound similarity in terms of prior schooling, contrasting narratives were illustrated through description of transitional moments and sibling relationship. The analysis also explored the intersections of race, gender,and social class within educative moments of the life experiences of the participants.

The Influence Of Phenotypic Variation On Criminal Judgement, Jacque-Corey Cormier

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of phenotypic variation on criminal judgment. This study had two phases. In the first phase, participants rated multiple headshot photographs on the degree to which African American men possess pronounced Afrocentric features (fuller lips, broader nose, curlier hair, darker skin, etc.). The race of the participants predicted 34.2% of the variance in average skin color ratings above all other variables. White participants rated the Black faces as darker than any other participants rated the same faces. Researchers used the faces rated least, average, and most prototypical of Blacks as the …

African American Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren In Rural Areas: A Phenomenological Investigation In South Georgia, Emmanuel Nii Okai Clottey

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Grandparents are increasingly raising their grandchildren in the United States of America. Those grandparents who live in rural areas face limited resources to help them raise their grandchildren. This phenomenological study is an investigation of the phenomenon of African American grandparents raising their grandchildren in Southeastern rural Georgia and the resources available to them. It looked at what it will take to start a faith-based or community-based support group for these Africa American grandparents raising their grandchildren in a rural setting. The concept of phenomenology served as the theoretical foundation for the study with social ecological model and social support …

Mindfulness And The Art Of Living Creatively: Cultivating A Creative Life By Minding Our Mind, Satinder Dhiman

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This paper studies the role of mindful creativity in life and at work. It explores the relationship between mindfulness as a creative process and the concept of flow, suggesting that the Buddhist meditative practice of mindfulness contributes to the successful attainment of both of these experiences. It utilizes the Buddhist construct of mindfulness as a framework to approach the works of Langer, a Harvard psychologist, and Csikszentmihalyi, who popularized the concept of flow. This author had the privilege of interviewing Csikszentmihalyi and Langer recently. For Langer, total engagement and immersion in everything done is the key to mindful creativity, which …

Service Learning In Higher Education Exercise Science Programs, Wendy Bjerke Ph.D.

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Service Learning in Higher Education Exercise Science Programs

ABSTRACT

Research Category

INTRODUCTION: Service Learning (SL) describes teaching methods that incorporate student service activities with specific learning objectives. SL has been applied to allied health higher education programs.

PURPOSE: To determine the applicability of SL to exercise science courses. SL data associated with an undergraduate course in exercise physiology serving a local fire department is examined.

METHODS: Among 90 firefighters, resting heart rate, blood pressure, estimated relative VO2 max, body composition, lower extremity power, upper body strength, flexibility, and perceived stress was assessed pre and post an education and physical …

Exploring The Relationships Of Perceived Discrimination, Anger, And Aggression Among North American Indigenous Adolescents, Kelley J. Sittner Hartshorn, Les B. Whitbeck, Dan R. Hoyt

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

A growing body of research has documented associations between discrimination, anger, and delinquency, but the exact nature of these associations remains unclear. Specifically, do aggressive behaviors emerge over time as a consequence of perceived discrimination and anger? Or do adolescents who engage in aggressive behavior perceive that they are being discriminated against and become angry? We use autoregressive cross-lagged path analysis on a sample of 692 Indigenous adolescents (mean age = 12 years) from the Northern Midwest and Canada to answer these research questions. Results showed that the direction of effects went only one way; both perceived discrimination and anger …

A Cluster Analysis Of Service Utilization And Incarceration Among Homeless Youth, Lisa A. Kort-Butler, Kimberly A. Tyler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Our paper examines service usage (e.g., shelter) as well as a typology of individuals who are most likely to use groupings of services among 249 homeless youth. Our results revealed that the majority of homeless young people have used food programs (66%) and street outreach (65%) on at least one occasion within the past year. Cluster analysis of services revealed four distinct groups: (1) basic survival service use, characterized by above average shelter, food, and outreach service use, but below average on counseling, substance abuse/ mental health services, and incarceration; (2) multiple service use, which included above average use of …

Adolescent Violent Victimization And Precocious Union Formation, Danielle C. Kuhl, David F. Warner, Andrew Wilczak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This article bridges scholarship in criminology and family sociology by extending arguments about “precocious exits” from adolescence to consider early union formation as a salient outcome of violent victimization for youths. Research indicates that early union formation is associated with several negative outcomes; yet the absence of attention to union formation as a consequence of violent victimization is noteworthy. We address this gap by drawing on life course theory and data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the effect of violent victimization (“street” violence) on the timing of first coresidential union formation—differentiating between marriage …

Estimating The Size Of The Methamphetamine-Using Population In New York City Using Network Sampling Techniques, Kirk Dombrowski, Bilal Khan, Travis Wendel, Katherine Mclean, Evan Misshula, Ric Curtis

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

As part of a recent study of the dynamics of the retail market for methamphetamine use in New York City, we used network sampling methods to estimate the size of the total networked population. This process involved sampling from respondents’ list of co-use contacts, which in turn became the basis for cap-ture-recapture estimation. Recapture sampling was based on links to other respondents derived from demographic and “telefunken” matching procedures–the latter being an anonymized version of telephone number matching. This paper describes the matching process used to discover the links between the solic-ited contacts and project respondents, the capture-recapture calculation, the …

Marriage Fraud, Kerry Abrams

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the astonishing array of doctrines used to determine what constitutes marriage fraud. It begins by locating the traditional nineteenth-century annulment-by-fraud doctrine within the realm of contract fraud, observing that in the family law context fraudulent marriages were voidable solely at the option of the injured party. The Article then explains how, in the twentieth century, a massive expansion of public benefits tied to marriage prompted new marriage fraud doctrines to develop in various areas of the law, shifting the concept of the injured party from the defrauded spouse to the public at large. It proposes a framework …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership Tendencies And Safety Outcomes In Selected Manufacturing Settings, Barbara J. Boroughf

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Each year about 6 to 8 percent of the U.S. workforce sustains a work related injury of which 3 to 4 percent of the injured population ends up losing time from work due to the severity of the injury (National Safety Council [NSC], 2011). According to the NSC Injury Facts (2011), every 147 minutes in the United States, a worker will be fatally injured, and every six seconds a worker will sustain an injury that is serious enough to require medical treatment. There is a wide variability in safety performance among organizations. Studies have found there is a relationship between …

Bullying, Cyberbullying, Incivility, And Sexual Harassment: A Spectrum Of Interpersonal Mistreatment, Christine D. Love

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the growing occurrence of deadly shootings on college campuses (Jenson, 2007), campus administrators have placed emphasis on early detection of potentially dangerous students. One indicator of possible violence is perpetration of uncivil or aggressive behaviors (Clark, 2008a; Kolanko et al., 2006). Placing behaviors on a spectrum of interpersonal mistreatment can provide cues to behaviors that could escalate into greater violence. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether bullying, cyberbullying, incivility, and sexual harassment directed at faculty members occurs on such a spectrum and as separate or overlapping constructs. Factor analyses were conducted on frequency of occurrence …

Effects Of Message Interactivity Upon Relational Maintenance Strategy In Digital Communications Between Organizations And The Public, Zhan-Qing Liu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital communication between organizations and the public is strategically important in shaping mutual understanding and long term relationship. The primary focus of this project was to investigate the relationship between message interactivity and relational maintenance strategy in the email communication process on organization websites. At issue is to what extent message interactivity and relational maintenance strategy is purposefully incorporated in email responses to public inquiries and consequently, to what extent such interactivity is potentially related to the quality of communication in terms of relationship maintenance. An experimental approach was used to exchange emails with randomly selected 2011 Fortune 500 companies …

Examining The Impact Parental Educational Attainment Has On Students' Perceptions Of Residence Hall Living, Joshua D. Lawrie

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study sought to examine the impact parentalEducational attainment had on how students perceived their residence hall environment. This multi-campus study utilized the University Residence Environment Scale, along with a demographic form to gather data. The study occurred on three campuses during the Spring 2012 semester and had 347 participants. The findings suggest there were no differences in how parentalEducational attainment impacted participants' perspectives of the residence hall. ParentalEducational attainment was a significant factor when coded only as two options (i.e. college degree, no college degree). Additional results were that gender and ethnicity played a role in how students …

Internship Design And Its Impact On Intrinsic Motivation And Student Career Choice., Paul Stansbie

Plymouth Business School Theses

This study examines the role experiential education, in the form of internships, plays in the professional development of Hospitality and Tourism Management students. Through an appraisal of the literature, it outlines the many benefits available to direct and indirect stakeholders through the facilitation of a structured, work based learning experience. In particular, it analyses the internship through an evaluation of job design by applying both Hackman and Oldham’s (1975a) Job Characteristics Model (JCM) and developing a proposed intern’s version of that model. The outcomes demonstrate that dimensions of the work undertaken do contribute significantly to an individual’s satisfaction and intrinsic …

An Empirical Study Into Uk Customer Expectations Of Dining Out In Relation To Meal Cost, Christina Westhead

Plymouth Business School Theses

The continued growth of the UK dining out industry, and the unceasing trend in popularity for customers to spend time and money eating outside the home, has led to an increase in the number of dining out establishments, and competition between businesses. Although there have been studies examining aspects of the restaurant industry and food consumption outside the home, very little research has looked specifically at customer expectations. Therefore, this thesis examines customer expectations associated with the meal experience in relation to the varying costs of dining out opportunities. In addition, the study reflects on customers’ socio-economic characteristics combined with …

Resources And Instructional Strategies Effective Middle School Science Teachers Use To Improve Content Area Reading Skills, Melanie S. Beaver

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the resources and instructional strategies effective middle school science teachers use to improve content area reading skills. Reading instruction in the middle school years should follow the natural cognitive progression that occurs in the adolescent brain from learning to read to reading to learn. Scientific reading is a different type of reading than most middle school students are accustomed to. It is important to understand that students will continue to be expected to read non-fiction critically for success in the 21st century. Effective teachers know this, and they perceive themselves as teachers of reading regardless of the …

Factors Affecting The Governance Of Innovation Commercialization: A Theoretical Model, Datta Avimanyu, Richard Reed, Len Jessup

Business Faculty Publications

The ability to commercialize innovations is central to firm survival and success and despite research on parts of the process, there is no overarching framework. Successful commercialization can include retaining ownership of the innovation and bringing it to market, sharing it by licensing or developing it with partners, or by selling it. A firm-level model is constructed that goes from innovation sourcing, through assessment of viability, to selection of the optimum form of governance. External networks and absorptive capacity at the meso level, plus micro- and macro-level factors, as moderators affecting the strength of the relationship between viability and governance …

Nyar Savannah Program 2012, National Youth-At-Risk Conference, Savannah

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

N/A

Art Therapy In A Bereavement Camp Setting To Aid In Emotional Expression And Processing Of Loss, Rebecca Snyder

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the effects of art therapy on children ages six to eight who have experienced the loss of a loved one. Children experience death in ways that are different from adults due to their level of development. Research indicates that children benefit from creative approaches to processing the death of a loved one as they can rely on symbolic language rather than the use of words. Within this study, art therapy sessions were implemented at a weekend long bereavement camp in order to increase knowledge about the effects of art …

Empowering Equity In Postsecondary Transition For Marginalized Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students With Disabilities By Implementing A Culturally Responsive Summary Of Performance Teacher Training And Support Program, Rebekka Joanne Jez

Doctoral Dissertations

Marginalized culturally and linguistically diverse students with special needs often struggle after high school. Many special educators are unaware of legal mandates and best practice in postsecondary transition, especially the intricate needs when working this group. The culturally responsive Summary of Performance (CRSOP) training and support program was designed to inform and support teachers in self-determination and culturally responsive practices while transitioning students from high school. Five teachers and seven students in a large urban district were interviewed and surveyed before and after the CRSOP training and support program to evaluate the effectiveness of the CRSOP teacher training. Teachers reported …