Digital Commons Network^™

The Use Of Re-Authoring To Reconcile Fundamentalist Religious Beliefs With Sexual Orientation: A Narrative Study, Karen Parker

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A narrative qualitative research design was used to understand the journeys of three lesbians with Oneness Pentecostal backgrounds who have reconciled their religious beliefs with their sexual orientation. Three participants were selected who met the following criteria: (a) the participant is a lesbian female who (b) grew up in a Oneness Pentecostal church and (c) has reconciled being a lesbian with her religious beliefs, and who is (d) willing to discuss her outing process. These participants were interviewed. The interview questions were submitted to participants prior to the scheduled interviews. The interviews began with an open-ended inquiry. In answer to …

An Examination Of A Process Model Of Physical Child Abuse: Considering Direct, Indirect, And Interactive Effects Of Cumulative Socio-Contextual Risk On Markers Of Physical Child Abuse In Mothers Of Young Children, Kathleen Mcgoron

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Understanding pathways to physical child abuse may aid in creating and implementing abuse prevention services. Yet studying child abuse in community samples of parents is fraught with challenges. One solution to these challenges is to examine markers of physical child abuse, rather than asking about abuse directly. The goal of the current investigation is to test a theoretical model of processes that increase the presence of four proximal risk factors, or markers, which have been linked to increased risk for physical child abuse in mothers of young children. The four markers of physical child abuse include: child abuse potential, over-reactive …

“'They Was Things Past The Tellin’: A Reconsideration Of Sexuality And Memory In The Ex-Slave Narratives Of The Federal Writers’ Project", Lynn Cowles Wartberg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 1936, Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) employees began interviewing formerly enslaved men and women, allowing them to speak publicly of their experiences under slavery. Defying racism and the repressions of Jim Crow, ex-slaves discussed intimate details of their lives. Many researchers considered these interviews unreliable, but if viewed through the lens of gender and analyzed using recent scholarship on slavery and sexuality, FWP interviews offer new insights into the lives of enslaved men and women. Using a small number of ex-slave interviews, most of them drawn from Louisiana, this thesis demonstrates the value of these oral histories for understanding the …

Death By Design: Giving Life To Mark Twain’S Posthumous Success, Is He Dead?, Mignon Charvet

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The following thesis documents the costume design process and execution for the staged production of Mark Twain’s Is He Dead? as adapted by David Ives. It was produced at the University of New Orleans as part of the Film, Theatre, and Communication Arts Department 2011-2012 season in collaboration with New Orleans theatre company, The NOLA Project.

In conjunction with the director and the design team, it is the role of the costume designer to support the overall concept of the production. The documentation of this process begins with the textual, historical, and visual research pertaining to the design concept. …

Metamorphosis: An Original Theatrical, Virtual, And Psychological Experience., Kristin E. Goins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Everyday we find ourselves making hundreds of decisions, often without noticing the relevance of even the most miniscule choice that can grow and form into a life altering state of mind. The human brain is the most elaborately complex structure in existence, enabling us to be able to function and comprehend our surroundings. With complexity, also comes malfunctions, which will inevitably occur occasionally ranging in a wide variety of defects from mental illnesses, to super genius abilities. What a certain individual may see as reality, may be completely opposite of the reality you or I see. This poses the question, …

Education, Employment, And Coastal Carolina University: What Are Ccu Students' Plans After Graduation?, Thomas M. Fernandez

Honors Theses

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown that while unemployment amongst young college graduates is high, joblessness decreases as students pursue post-baccalaureate degrees. And with national unemployment near 8 percent, it is important for college students to consider what obstacles they may face when entering the workforce. Challenges may include sociohistorical (parent educational attainment) and socioeconomic factors as well as obstacles surrounding various forms of human capital. Using some of these challenges youth face when entering college and/or the workforce, this study predicts the decisions Coastal Carolina University (CCU) students will make post-graduation based upon four elements: parental education, academic …

Perceptions Of Peer Leadership Among Honors Students, Christy M. Culbreth

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

My Capstone Experience/Thesis project seeks to explore and compare the perceptions of peer leadership among freshmen honors students who have received formal leadership training and freshmen honors students who have received no formal leadership training. Peer leadership plays an important role in all aspects of life. If students who have had formal leadership training have a more positive perception of their peer leaders, educators may want to put more peer leadership curriculum into their programs. This study tests the hypothesis that freshmen honors students who have received formal leadership training will have a more positive perception of their peer leaders. …

An Exploration Of Counseling Practicum Students' Experiences In Department-Based And Community-Based Settings, Corrie Delorge Minges

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Counselor educators are continually improving the quality of their training programs. The purpose of the present study was to investigate counseling students’ practicum experiences and development in community-based and department-based settings. The framework for this study was based on Stoltenberg’s integrated developmental model, which describes stages of counselor development and supervision conditions needed for a learning environment (Stoltenberg & Delworth, 1987; Stoltenberg & McNeill, 2010; Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Delworth, 1998)

A nation-wide study was conducted utilizing counselor education practicum students enrolled in programs listed in the CACREP program directory (2008) and Counselor Preparation: Programs, Faculty, Trends (12^th ed.; …

Adolescents With Callous Unemotional Traits And Their Roles In Group Crime, Laura C. Thornton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and self-reported leadership characteristics during group crimes among 614 first-time offenders participating in a large multi-site study. Resistance to peer influence (RPI) and self-esteem (SE) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between CU traits and leadership during group crime. The results indicated that youth with CU traits were more likely to commit crimes with others. Further, although youth with CU traits reported they came up with the idea for crimes and were leaders during group crimes, these relationships were not mediated by RPI and SE. Future research on youth with …

Evaluating The Role Of Environmental Stressors And Sensitive Parenting On The Emergence Of Behavior Problems During Early Childhood, Brenna Sapotichne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Repeatedly, parenting quality has been shown to affect children’s level of behavior problems during early childhood (e.g., Bayer, Sanson, & Hemphill, 2006; Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, 2003). However, the parent-child relationship exists within a broader social context (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). Therefore, social contextual stressors such as financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding may affect children’s adjustment through parenting. Based on The Family Stress model (Conger & Elder, 1994), the current study tests the theory that sensitive parenting mediates the relationship between these three environmental stressors (i.e., financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding) and children’s behavior problems from ages …

Autonomic And Behavioral Reactivity To An Acute Laboratory Stressor, Jeremy C. Peres

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the …

The Practical Side Of Culinary Arts Education: The Role Of Social Ability And Durable Knowledge In Culinary Arts Externships, William R. Thibodeaux

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

As externships evolved from their vocational education roots into the university setting, both the course purposes and the expectations of student changed toward deeper learning. While the students’ responsibility for gaining knowledge has increased, teaching methods designed by educators to prepare students for more critically evaluated outcomes has not evolved at the same pace. Educators still grapple over how educational design can combine the structured teacher-centered learning strategy used in university classrooms with the learner-centered approach students typically utilize in for-profit culinary workplaces.

This dissertation is about culinary externships in the urban environment. The study examined the roles, reasoning, and …

Factors That Shape Environmental Perceptions: The Role Of Health And Place, Elizabeth Langlois

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Risk perception is the judgment people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk. Numerous theories and models exist which have identified the factors that influence risk perception. Among these factors, location, health status, and demographic characteristics are known to shape risk perception. To measure the influence of these factors on environmental perception, a series of surveys conducted in four Louisiana communities between 2004 and 2005 describe community perceptions about environmental issues and health status. The objective of the study was to characterize and compare environmental concerns relative to location, health status, and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that location …

Examining The Bifactor Irt Model For Vertical Scaling In K-12 Assessment, James Koepfler

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Over the past decade, educational policy trends have shifted to a focus on examining students’ growth from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). One way states can track students’ growth is with a vertical scale. Presently, every state that uses a vertical scale bases the scale on a unidimensional IRT model. These models make a strong but implausible assumption that a single construct is measured, in the same way, across grades. Additionally, research has found that variations of psychometric methods within the same model can result in different vertical scales. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of …

The Effect Of Participation In A Community Gardening Program On Mood Of College Students, Alicia Fay Mau

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this study was to find the effect of gardening in a community setting on mood and affect of college students. Participants of the study included sixteen students attending James Madison University. There were eight controls and eight gardening participants in the six-week experiment. All participants took a pre and posttest based on the Positive and Negative Affect Scale-X (PANAS-X). Gardening groups also took the Affect Balance Scale (ABS) after an hour-long gardening session each week. Statistical analysis showed significant changes in several of the items examined by the PANAS-X. Among gardeners, negative affect went down significantly (t=0.019) …

One Art With Two Sides: Theatre And Performance Art, Jacob Watts

Honors Theses

Theatre is typically a scripted performance, performed by actors within a "Theatre space" and observed by an audience. When capitalized, "Theatre" refers to a field of art and study. It is produced to tell a story, or create meaning. Theatre contains elements of plot and characters, often using the characters to tell a story. Visual performance art is art that focuses on live human performance and defines itself in terms of "visual art" and not in terms of "Theatre performance." Performance art does not always occupy a specific place or use a specific kind of script. It often lacks character, …

The Effects Of Gestalt Principles On Diagram Comprehension: An Empirical Approach, Krystle Dianne Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

In the software engineering process some tasks of software engineers are to design software documents, analyze the documents, and comprehend component relationships within software diagrams. Those diagrams represent the software architecture which models the structure, behavior, relationships, and constraints among system components while ignoring implementation detail. In the software lifecycle, the system is implemented from the software architecture and errors and mistakes caused from a lack of comprehension or incorrect comprehension could cause engineers to incorrectly design the system. These errors can be defined as lapses, slips, or lack of understanding and fall into three categories: skill, rule, and knowledge …

Strategies Used By Hospitals In A Southeastern State To Reduce Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections: Comparing The Outcomes By Hospital Structure And Processes, Furnell Rife

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections are considered a clinical indicator of quality of care. A descriptive research study was conducted to identify the strategies used by hospitals to reduce or eliminate CAUTIs. Infection Control Preventionists were surveyed. In a predominately rural southeastern state, this study demonstrated that about 40% of hospitals surveyed are implementing CAUTI prevention processes.

Jewish Cultural Aspirations, Ruth Weisberg

The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review

In the late nineteenth century in Europe and to some extent in the United States, the Jewish upper middle class—particularly the more affluent families—began to enter the cultural spheres of public life, especially in major cities such as Vienna, Berlin, Paris, New York, and London. While many aspects of society were closed to them, theater, the visual arts, music, and art publication were far more inviting, especially if they involved challenging aspects of modernity that might be less attractive to Gentile society. Jews had far less to lose in embracing new forms of expression, and they were very attracted to …

Effectiveness Of A Pilot Gerontological Nursing Certification Preparation Support Program For Registered Nurses Working In Long Term Care, Gail B. Sprigler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Between 2000 and 2025 there will be a 30% increase in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Indiana (Alzheimer’s Association, 2010). Many individuals with AD and related dementia are cared for in long term care communities. Adequate knowledge and expertise of nurses caring for older adults, particularly those with dementia, is important for the delivery of quality care and the promotion of quality of life for residents living in long term care. This pilot project examined the benefit of a resource support program to encourage Gerontological Nursing certification for registered nurses in the long term care setting.

Workplace Lactation Support: Project Development And Implementation, Peggy Rinehart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Objective: A pilot project establishing a lactation support program for staff, faculty, and students at Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) was introduced in September 2012. The lactation support program is intended to promote and support breastfeeding and decrease barriers to continued breastfeeding for mothers who are employed or attending classes. The purpose of this paper is to report on the: (1) development and implementation of a lactation support program in a regional multi-campus community college; and (2) plans for evaluation of the effectiveness of the new program. Setting: The program was implemented at a community college with campus sites …

Experiences Of Success By Minority Students Attending A Predominantly Caucasian Nursing Program, Staci M. Boruff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nursing educators have struggled for many years with the problem of student attrition in the minority population. Because there are so few minority students who choose nursing as a profession, educators strive to retain these students to graduation. Unfortunately, attrition rates of minority students continue to rise despite years of research into the problem. The majority of this research approaches the issue from the viewpoint of the failing student. What might happen if nursing research took a positive approach to the issue? The purpose of this study was to describe the influencing factors that led minority nursing students to be …

The Influences Of Caregiver-Child Interactions And Temperament On Cortisol Concentrations Of Toddlers In Full-Day Childcare, Helen Morris Lane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of caregiver-child interaction and temperament on cortisol concentrations of toddlers in full-day childcare. Sensitive and responsive caregiving is critical to the quality of children's early experiences. Caregivers who are attuned to unique needs of young children can support and guide child growth and development. In the context of relationships the child grows, develops, and learns to biologically respond to events in his or her world that he or she may perceive as threatening, with the production of cortisol. Studies show that regulation of cortisol release later in life may be …

Evaluation Of Heat Stress In Migrant Farmworkers, Stephen L. Mcqueen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rate of heat-related fatalities in crop production workers is almost 20 times that of other industries. Heat stress was investigated in migrant tomato workers in July, 2012, using measurements of body temperature, heart rates, body weight loss, evaluation of the thermal environment, and survey data. Using occupational safety criteria, these workers were found to work in an environment that should require protective measures to prevent heat strain. Increases in body temperature, heart rate, and physiological strain correlated with heat exposure. One third of workers had body weight percentage losses that indicated dehydration. However, working in hot environments appears to …

Public Perceptions Regarding Sex Offenders And Sex Offender Management, Jessica Duncan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was an observation of the public's knowledge and perceptions on sex offenders, sex offenses, and sex offender management policies. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 282 students at East Tennessee State University. Along with the basic demographic variables, respondent's field of study was measured as a main independent variable. For example, it was hypothesized that students studying within the criminal justice field would hold more accurate beliefs concerning the sex offender population. Overall, the study proved to be statistically insignificant. Multivariate analysis did show, however, that certain demographic variables were more predictive in determining an …

An Assessment Of Campus Police Departments Across Mississippi's Public Community And Junior Colleges, Brad D. Boggs

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to provide an assessment of campus police departments throughout the 15 public community and junior colleges in Mississippi. This research could provide Mississippi community and junior college administrators the opportunity to observe and appraise the overall safety of their respective campuses in comparison to safety practices of the other campus police departments in the state. This study will lay the foundation for further research of campus police departments and can assist administrators and boards of trustees of Mississippi’s public community and junior colleges with annual and long-range planning efforts. This study included campus police/security …

A Dramatic Interpretation Of Jake's Women Thesis In An Educational Setting, Douglas William Reiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The area of investigation in the Jake's Women's thesis resides with the actor's preparation in the portrayal of a character who struggles with the pain of loss and betrayal. The acting technique explored centers around the psychology behind the emotional and physical aspects of acting. The results rely on the thoughts and feelings of sensitivity in the actor's body. Development of an actor's inner technique and outer instrument is explored and implemented. An actor's belief in the body to produce effective imaginary people or place within a scene rests in the actor's ability to allow his or her instrument to …

Leadership Traits Of School Health Coordinators In Tennessee, Katherine Andrea Strickland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the leadership traits of the school health coordinators (SHCs) for the state of Tennessee and to determine if self-perceptions of the SHC leadership traits coincide with supervisor and colleague perceptions of SHC leadership traits. The health challenges facing young Americans today are different from those of past decades and child health is a major federal and state policy platform. SHCs work at the nexus of 2 highly regulated and political entities: healthcare and education. Thus, it is critical for SHCs to possess strong leadership traits to navigate through the issues and …

Organizationally Mandated Diversity Training: Participants’ Perceptions At A Southeastern State University, Michelle Lynn Hurley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An amplified emphasis on global competency and a projected demographic shift toward an increasingly diverse population necessitates that businesses and organizations prepare adequately to remain competitive and effective. Training to enhance employees' multicultural competence is often used by organizations to address these impending changes; however, there is little research documenting the degree to which these trainings are effective. Using archival training evaluation data, the purpose of this study was to examine participant estimations of the effectiveness of one such training and also to determine if participant demographic variables including gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and employee classification (faculty or staff) …

The Council On Appalachian Women: Short Lived But Long Lasting, Julie Marie Blevins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In October 1976, approximately 200 women from seven states met in Boone, North Carolina, at the National Advisory Council on Women's Education. In December 1976, thirty-five of these women met again at Mars Hill College and created a non-profit organization, the Council on Appalachian Women, advocating the advancement of women's education, services, and research to benefit women in the Appalachian region. During its four-year existence, the Council held a total of 71 public forums on Appalachian women's issues. Members worked to promote child development, maternal and infant health care, employment training, and education for women. The Council on Appalachian Women …