Digital Commons Network^™

Serotonergic Modulation Of Glutamate Neurotransmission As A Strategy For Treating Depression And Cognitive Dysfunction, Alan Pehrson, Connie Sanchez

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Monoamine-based treatments for depression have evolved greatly over the past several years, but shortcomings such as suboptimal efficacy, treatment lag, and residual cognitive dysfunction are still significant. Preclinical and clinical studies using compounds directly targeting glutamatergic neurotransmission present new opportunities for antidepressant treatment, with ketamine having a surprisingly rapid and sustained antidepressant effect that is presumably mediated through glutamate-dependent mechanisms. While direct modulation of glutamate transmission for antidepressant and cognition-enhancing actions may be hampered by nonspecific effects, indirect modulation through the serotonin (5-HT) system may be a viable alternative approach. Based on localization and function, 5-HT can modulate glutamate neurotransmission …

Female Factor And Team Projects: A Social Sensitivity Perspective, Sourabh Khosla

Computer Science

Software Development is a complex, time-consuming task wherein a team must collaborate effectively over a long period of time. Achieving maximum productivity and quality requires commitment. A recent MIT study concluded that teams with greater Social Sensitivity perform better on collaborative tasks, with Social Sensitivity defined as a measurable empathic ability to grasp others' feelings and perspectives. However, this study was based on generic tasks (solving visual puzzles, agreeing on moral judgments, and negotiating over limited resources) that were completed in a matter of hours. In contrast, software development projects require teams to work on more complex tasks of longer …

Mainstreaming Critical Disability Studies Towards Undoing The Last Prejudice, Colleen Ann Mcdonald-Morken

Education

According to critical disability studies scholars, disablism may be the fundamental system of unearned advantaging and disadvantaging upon which all other notions of difference-as-deviance are constructed. If so, a deeply critical and intersectional investigation of enabled privilege/disablism prepares a grounding from which seeds of novel and effective approaches to social and educational justice may be cultivated. Whether or not disablism holds this pivotal position, the costs to us all in terms of personal, ethical, professional, and financial losses are too steep, have always been too steep. In this disquisition I begin by arguing for the prioritizing and centering of a …

Italian Immigration In The United States, Giuseppe Piccoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a historical research that used content analysis of secondary sources (newspapers, magazines, literature, movies and sociological studies) in order to describe Italian immigration in America. The research is focused on Italian-American communities in the areas of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

Between 1880 and 1920, Italian-Americans became one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States. For a long period, they faced discrimination and lived at the edge of the American society. Education, immigration and urban policies influenced the social structure of the Italian communities. Later, second generation immigrants started writing books and making …

Examination Of The Influence Of Instructional Coaching On Teacher And Principal Behavior, Attitudes, And The Resultant Learning Environment, Cynthia Pulkowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, stakeholders in education have placed significant emphasis on student achievement. Educational reform in the United States and internationally has set ambitious goals for student learning. Additionally, educational reform demands transformations in classroom practices for teachers to become agents of change. As such, teacher professionalism is at a threshold; moral purpose and change agentry are implicit in good teaching and effective change (Fullan, 1993). Systems do not change themselves; rather, they change through the actions of individuals and small groups (Fullan, 1993). In light of this notion, and in the face of educational reform and accountability, …

An Examination Of The Utility And Acceptability Of Strength-Based Assessment In The Schools, Kaleigh Bantum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current literature on strength-based assessment in the field of school psychology is limited. Although arguments have been made for its use, research on the applicability of strength-based data in schools is needed. The present study chose to focus on the perceived acceptability and utility of strength-based data by teachers. Data was collected from general and special education teachers in both urban and suburban school districts in western Pennsylvania through the use of surveys and focus group interviews. Quantitative analyses revealed that teachers, regardless of their individual characteristics, found strength-based data acceptable for potential use in the classroom practices. Qualitative …

Graduate Students' Perception Of Curriculum-Based Efficacy Of The Acquisition Of Multicultural Counseling Skills, Demond Ethridge Bledsoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States is undergoing a period in which the demographics of the population are shifting drastically. The profession of counseling is tasked with providing services to diverse groups of clients, many of whom may have experienced racism, prejudice, and oppression as a result of their cultural or ethnic identity. Literature suggests that cultural and ethnic minority clients have poorer outcomes than their majority counterparts, and a significant factor in gaining positive treatment outcomes is the multicultural skill development in the clinician; however, little research focusing on effective delivery methods for multicultural skill development in counselor trainees has been conducted. …

Sojourning In The Margin: Living As Wives Of International Students, Mengchun Chiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Whereas concerns for international students frequently appear in existing literature, little attention is paid to wives of international students (WoIS). This study aims at describing and understanding lives of WoIS in the United States as sojourners in the margin. The research begins with a literature review and an examination of theoretical frames: from the cultural shock literature, acculturative stress literature, to atheoretical studies; and from cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, to indigenous psychology. Methodologically, this study is qualitative in nature, utilizing interview data from WoIS. In addition to a description and interpretation of the WoIS's narratives, the study also wrestles with …

The A Priori Nature Of The Political: Democracy And Scientific Method In Thomas Hobbes, Patrick Craig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation provides a treatment of Hobbes's politics in light of his conception of scientific method. The scholarship devoted to these two components of Hobbes's thought, that is his account of scientific method and his political philosophy, have largely existed in isolation from one another. Reading his politics through the lens of his account of scientific method, I bring two bodies of research on Hobbes together, and in so doing, offer a unique account of his political philosophy. When Hobbes's political philosophy is approached in the way I suggest, what one finds is not a simple defense of authoritarian absolutism, …

Investigating Variability In Teaching Performance...Seeking Pathways To Excellence, Francine Endler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teacher learning is critical to student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2002, 2010). The work documented here is driven by an investigation of a long-standing and complex problem of educational practice: the inequitable learning opportunities for students that result from variability in the selection, learning and placement of practicing and aspiring teachers. A multidisciplinary perspective is used to situate the problem of practice theoretically, within a body of empirical research, and within a context of educational practice. Among the perspectives used to examine the problem of practice are theoretical frameworks that support the claim that the problem is a matter of social justice. …

The New Endangered Species: Community-Anchoring Public Schools, Karen Ferrick-Roman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Often, school closures are seen as a "natural order" of events in communities with extreme economic struggles. My work challenges this premise.

In Pennsylvania, communities where schools selected for closure are often composed of rural, largely white or urban, largely minority, populations living at the margins amid the persistent yet growing economic divide. Within this milieu, communities and people at the margins are swept up in general educational trends, such as the risk of charter schools, siphoning students and funding from traditional, community-anchoring public schools and perpetuating systematic power and economic inequities, driven by political and philanthropic initiatives. The economic …

Disconnects: Expectation And Experience In Intimate Interpersonal Relationships, Kristen Jenkins Hark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century, egalitarian views regarding gender communication have been dominant in the theory and practice of intimate interpersonal communication (IPC). During the same period research continued to report that the healthiest and most satisfying relationships fit within patterns of traditional marriage. Traditional intimate relationships tend to enact complementarian practices regarding gender roles in intimate IPC. This raises the question how might an exploration of a minimalist complementarian view that informs traditional relationships assist in sustaining healthy intimate IPC today? In the literature concerning the health of intimate relationships, namely marriage …

Treatment-Related Decisional Conflict, Quality Of Life, And Comorbid Illness In Older Adults With Cancer, Jeannette Kates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the aging population the nation increases, cancer diagnoses in this age group will also increase. The many chronic medical conditions associated with older adults will be confounded by a diagnosis of cancer. Older adults with cancer are at risk for physical, psychological, and functional decline as a result of not only the cancer, but also the cancer treatment. This study utilized a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study design to explore the relationships between and among treatment-related decisional conflict, quality of life and comorbidity in older adults with cancer. An anonymous survey method was employed. The criteria for inclusion in this …

Crisis Clinician's Lived Experience Of Clinical Supervision, Elizabeth A. Sysak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Crisis intervention first responders experience both small and large-scale disasters that can leave lasting negative impacts on crisis clinicians. However, little is known about how clinicians receive support for their personal and professional well being in clinical supervision. This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored the lived experience of crisis clinicians to understand how and if they receive support through clinical supervision in their work in crisis intervention. This study found that crisis clinicians struggle to manage the complex emotions that accompany the unique work of crisis intervention. This study also found that crisis clinicians are not receiving the support they need …

A Decentralized Approach To Confront The Debasement Of Black Male Student Athletes Who Attend Pwi's, Ronald William Whitaker Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The debasement and "niggering " of Black male student athletes who attend PWI's is an issue that has been well documented since the mid to late sixties (Edwards, 1969, Olson, 1968). This population has been negatively stereotyped as being superior athletically, but inferior intellectually (Edwards, 1984). Both scholars and practitioners have focused on other pervasive issues including: (1) the academic achievement gap that exist between Black male student athletes and their White counterparts (Harper, 2013), (2) the commercialization of college athletics (Beamon, 2008; Donnor, 2005), and (3) negative stereotypes that continue to plague Black male student athletes (Hodge, Burden, Robinson, …

A Follow-Up Study To Determine The Effectiveness Of A Faculty Development Program Designed To Transition To A Student-Centered Approach At Xi'an Eurasia University In China, Huixiang Yuan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effectiveness of a two-year faculty development program designed to assist faculty in making transition from a teacher-centered to a student-centered approach to instruction at a private university in China. One hundred full-time faculty participated in the program and ultimately 52 participants who attended entire two-year workshops were involved in the research. Seven point Likert Scale survey including open-ended questions as well as live classroom observation techniques were used to examine how the participants perceived the faculty program, whether they made improvement of their learning of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and whether the participants used what they …

A Qualitative Exploration Of First-Generation Student Experiences At A Large Diverse Research Institution, Donald Michael Stansberry

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

College enrollment among first-generation students is on the rise (Choy, 2001) at both two-year and four-year institutions (Engle & Tinto, 2008; McCarron & Inkelas, 2006; Stayhorn, 2006). As this student population continues to grow, it is important to learn more about them and the factors that contribute to their success or failure. Through the use of focus groups, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of first-generation college students that impact their academic and nonacademic success. The research questions that guided this study were: What experiences do first-generation college students perceive impact their academic success? What …

At The College Gates: A Phenomenological Study Of Stem Identity Formation At A Stem Program At A Historical Black University, Maria O'Hearn

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Melguizo and Wolniak (2011) contend that increasing the success of underrepresented minority students in STEM fields is a significant national and state policy issue given the data showing gaps in gender and racial/ethnic bachelors degree completion rates in these fields (Rask, 2010). Recommendations made by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE, 2013) highlight the importance of school structures as being fundamental for improving the STEM pipeline from high school to college for underrepresented minority students. Thus, the purposes of this study were to describe the lived experiences of African American students attending a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and …

Development Of The Profession Of Counseling In Kenya, Uganda, And Tanzania: A Grounded Theory Study, Mueni Joy Maweu Mwendwa

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The positive mental health of a country's population has a direct correlation to that country's economic and social advancement. As a result, the development of the counseling profession is critical. Even though fewer than half of African member states have an existing mental health policy in place, initiatives to establish mental health policies and develop the counseling profession are underway across the African continent. In general, there is a significant deficit of counseling literature, and specifically, research on the development of the counseling profession in Africa. This grounded theory study sought to explore the experiences of counseling leaders related to …

Hits, Misses, And False Alarms In Blind And Sequential Administration Of Lineups, Roger C. Park

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Group To Individual (G2i) Inference In Scientific Expert Testimony, David L. Faigman, John Monahan, Christopher Slobogin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law And Neuroscience Recommendations Submitted To The President's Bioethics Commission, David L. Faigman, Jones D. Owen, Richard J. Bonnie, B.J. Casey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Humanistic Psychology In Selected Plays By Lorraine Hansberry: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Shaimaa M. Saeed

English Language and Literature

Psychoanalysis has long been a breakthrough in the field of literary criticism. This book celebrates the intermarriage between two fields: psychology and literature. It provides a thorough analysis of selected dramatic texts authored by the Afro-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Such analysis is achieved through employing the humanistic psychology theories of the leading humanistic psychologists: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Rollo May to emphasize that features of humanistic psychology are detected in Hansberry's plays. The interdisciplinary nature of the book calls for psychology and literature readers who have a passion for deduction & induction and a desire to navigate through different …

The Philosophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination And The Soul's Logical Life, Stanton Marlan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alchemy has been viewed within the context of the history of natural science as a precursor to and a primitive form of chemistry. The enigmatic goal of the alchemical process, the Philosophers' Stone, is the focus of this dissertation. A natural scientific approach has shed little light on the mythical, esoteric and symbolic attributes of the Stone, which are intrinsic parts of the alchemical imagination. From the larger perspective of the history of the human spirit, these neglected aspects of the Philosophers' Stone can be seen as vital dimensions of an ancient religious and spiritual philosophy, the goal of which …

Investigating Balanced Time Perspective In Adults Across The Life Span, Nipat Bock Pichayayothin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The current study investigated balanced time perspective (BTP) in adults across the life span (N = 400, 43.3% males). Boniwell and Zimbardo (2004) defined BTP as the flow and flexibility of connecting to the past, living in the present, and looking forward to the future and argued that is an optimal time perspective associated with happiness and well-being. Using Time Attitude Scale (Mello & Worrell, 2012), younger (M = 26.09 years), middle-aged (M = 46.72 years), and older (M = 64.25 years) adults subjective ratings of their positive and negative attitudes towards the past, present, and future were used to …

Mothers' Adaptation To Caring For A New Baby, Darcey N. Powell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

To date, most research on parents' adjustment after adding a new baby to their family unit has focused on mothers' initial transition to parenthood. This past research has examined changes in mothers' marital satisfaction and perceived well-being across the transition, and has compared their prenatal expectations to their postnatal experiences. This project assessed first-time and experienced mothers' stress and satisfaction associated with parenting, their adjustment to competing demands, and their perceived well-being longitudinally before and after the birth of a baby. Additionally, how maternal and child-related variables influenced the trajectory of mothers' postnatal adaptation was assessed. These variables included mothers' …

The Development And Psychometric Analysis Of An Instrument To Measure A Woman's Experience Of Childbirth, Elizabeth Viens Rini

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This paper describes the development and testing of the Women's Experience in Childbirth Survey (WECS). Although many qualitative and quantitative studies of the childbirth experience have been published, there is no comprehensive instrument that measures the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social aspects of the experience. Forty nine Likert-type items were generated from review of the literature and feedback from mothers participating in two pilot studies. Content validity was analyzed with both pilot studies. For this study, the WECS was administered to 305 inpatient post-partum women at two community hospitals. A sub sample of women completed the WECS at least two …

On The Network To Damascus: Emerging Adulthood, Social Networks, And Conversion In American Religion, Andrew Donald Pritchard

Communication

Competing social networks are central to the process of conversion from one religious or spiritual orientation to another. Although numerous sociological, psychological, quasi-economic, and theological forces have been explored as components of an individual’s network ties to a religion, the characteristics of the communication that occurs through those ties have been ignored in most research into conversion. This omission hinders a fuller explanation of the conversion process, because the means and manners of communication are the mechanisms through which other social network forces must operate. This disquisition studies communication at the crucial, initial “preaffiliation” stage of the conversion process (Gooren, …

Work Group Identification And Communication Competence In The Use Of E-Mail, Miwa Ito

Communication

Among the various communication technologies that are used in organizations, e-mail has been a dominant communication medium in the modern workplace. The purpose of the current study is to examine how individuals' work group identification influences their perceptions of e-mail use in organizations based on social identity theory. This project examines how individuals' work group identification predicts their perception of an organizational worker's communication competence. Independent-samples t test and multiple regression analysis were adopted to examine the hypotheses and research question. Data was collected using an online questionnaire to report participant perception of communicator competence in hypothetical e-mails, in regard …

“I Signed Up For Twitter. Reason? Flood News.”: An Analysis Of Pre-Crisis Tweets Made By Decision-Makers, Media, And The Public, Jenna Lee Currie-Mueller

Communication

This study examines the use of Twitter by decision-makers, the media, and the public during the pre-crisis stage of the 2013 Fargo-Moorhead flood. Three research questions guide this study in order to gain understanding of the content and assumed motives that drive users to utilize Twitter prior to a crisis. Data analysis revealed that decision-makers and the media active in tweeting were consistent with what would have been expected in a crisis situation. Additionally, the public were driven by the assumed motive of sharing and seeking information during the pre-crisis stage, consistent with previous research regarding the crisis stage.