Digital Commons Network^™

Visual Recognition Difficulties: Identifying Primary School Students' Directional Confusion In Writing Letters And Numbers, Janet E. Richmond, Myra F. Taylor

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Occupational therapists often assess primary school learners for letter and number reversal tendencies using scales which require recognition of reversed letters and numbers; however, these scales do not generally look at learners’ written production of letters and numbers to measure their reversal tendencies. This study aimed to determine whether learners reverse the same letters and numbers in reading and in writing. Method: This study utilised the Richmond Reversal Rating (RRR) Scale to identify which language symbols 118 primary school learners found difficult to recognise as being reversed when reading a series of letters and numbers and writing 20 letters …

Toward A New, Musical Paradigm Of Place: The Port River Symphonic Of Chester Schultz, Robin Ryan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In privileging music as a focus for applied ecology, the goal of this essay is to deepen perspectives on the musical representation of land in an age of complex environmental challenge. As the metaphor driving public narration of environmental crises, the notion of Earth as our home—signified by the prefix “eco”—brings with it a critical expectation for the musical academy to retreat from bland talk about a “sense of place.” Based on the premise that damaged ecologies are a matter of concern to many people, Indigenous and Settler; and building on the late Val Plumwood’s theory of “shadow” or “denied” …

The 'Oldest Tricks In The Book' Do Not Work! Reports Of Burglary By Duma Detainees In Western Australia, Natalie J. Gately, Jennifer Fleming, Nathalie Mcginty, Anthony M. Scott

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Foreword : Research investigating the methods and motivations of burglars has typically focused on incarcerated offenders. The Australian Institute of Criminology’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program provided an opportunity for the authors to explore the methods and motivations of those actively involved in committing burglaries, whether or not they had actually been caught or detained for that offence. The findings support Routine Activity Theory, indicating that offenders consider a number of factors in determining whether a property will be targeted for a break and enter offence. As might be expected, opportunistic burglars choose easy to access properties, stay …

Beyond Madness: Ways To Foster Nonviolence In Human Systems, Marilyn J. Palmer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Positioned as an epilogue to the themed edition of Social Alternatives on the nature and politics of madness in contemporary Australian society, this article has been inspired by the narratives and analyses of the contributors to this edition. It aims to go beyond madness to explore _strategies of resistance to the violence of marginalisation, humiliation and incarceration which often comes before and after a diagnosis of madness. Proposed strategies for resistance include studying up and speaking back to the oppressors; improving the capacity of bystanders to intervene; holding a structural analysis of power and resistance to support social change work; …

Tracing The Maddening Effects Of Abuses Of Authority: Rationalities Gone Violent In Mental Health Services And Universities, Marilyn J. Palmer, Dyann Ross

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Organisations such as mental health systems and universities can be places where violence is part of the business as usual and hence taken-for-granted functionality of the workplaces. The paper challenges dominant perceptions of who is mad and what is dangerous to unsettle the largely unquestioned legitimacy of indirect and mainly, but not always, non-coercive forms of organisational power. To enable this analysis the research and language of domestic violence is presented to help anchor the nature of organisational violence so that it doesn’t get ignored or deferred as non-problematic, as something that just happens somehow separate from peoples’ actions or …

Violent Video Games And Symptoms Of Distress And Trauma, Brendan J. Mccollum

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Much of the research involving detrimental effects of violent video games has focused primarily on aggression and desensitization of pain. To date there is no known research that examines whether video games can cause traumatic symptoms. However, there is research that suggests horror movies cause traumatic symptoms (Carleton et al., 2011). Given that video games can immerse people far more than a movie in terms of active participation, one could infer that traumatic symptoms would be even greater when playing a violent video game. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether violent video games could elicit symptoms …

Preventing Childhood Obesity: A Mixed Methods Study Into The Perceptions Of African Americans In A Rural Community, Dayna S. Alexander

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Preventing childhood obesity is a global priority due to adverse health risks and financial burdens. With childhood obesity rates stabilizing it is difficult to determine which factors alone (i.e., genetic, environmental, behavioral, or demographic) increase susceptibility to childhood obesity. Parents influence childhood obesity risk factors through their parenting styles and behaviors. Social behavioral theories and public health evidence demonstrate including parents in childhood obesity efforts could assist in reducing childhood obesity rates. The objective of this study was to assess perceptions of childhood obesity among African Americans with children enrolled in a rural elementary school in the Deep South. The …

Risk Factors And Psychological Outcomes For Lgb Individuals Residing In Rural Areas, Amanda M. Rickard

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Most research involving lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals residing in rural areas is either qualitative or restricted in geographic area. Consequently, the purpose of the current study was to determine if differences exist between rural and non-rural LGB individuals in risk factors and psychological outcomes. Seven hundred forty-seven LGB individuals completed self-report surveys examining risk factors and psychological outcomes. Results indicated that LGB individuals residing in rural areas reported higher levels of negative psychological outcomes as well as higher levels of some risk factors than their non-rural counterparts. Specifically, perceived social support, experiences of victimization/discrimination, and comfort disclosing sexual …

Exercise Behavior Patterns In Emerging Adulthood: An Exploration Of Predictor Variables From Self-Determination Theory And Transtheoretical Model, Chad R. Johnson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

During the transition from childhood to adulthood, young people establish patterns of behavior and make lifestyle choices that affect both their current and future health (NCHS, 2010). Emerging adulthood – a new conception of development for the period from the late teens through the twenties – focuses on individuals ages 18-25 who did not have a child, own a home, or have sufficient income to be fully independent (Arnett, 2000). Very little is known about social influence, motivational mediators, and motivation on exercise behavior within this developmental period. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Merit Pay In Georgia, Jessica Edenfield

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the perceptions of implementing a merit pay plan as reported by elementary teachers in three rural Georgia school districts, one of which was participating in the Race to the Top (RT3) initiative. The study examined the perceptions of 109 elementary teachers in regard to merit pay implementation, models of merit pay, factors worthy of reward, and the impact that perceptions of school culture has on attitudes towards merit pay. The study employed a descriptive survey approach to address the research questions. An amended version of the Teacher Survey on Performance Pay was employed to explore the perceptions …

Sustainability Strategies In Supply Chain Management, Amit Arora

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Managers no longer view sustainability of organizations only in terms of profitability and economic growth of shareholders. Various competitive pressures are forcing managers to broaden the scope of sustainability to include explicit environmental and societal objectives too. These pressures are emanating from various sources such as depleting natural resources, regulatory policies from governments, erratic weather cycles, demanding customers and brand damage due to exposure about poor working conditions in supplier factories located in other countries. This dissertation consists of three essays that contribute to the practice and literature of strategic sustainable supply chain management by examining its four aspects: measure, …

An Examination Of The Correlation Between The Seven Critical Leadership Functions And Middle School African-American And Hispanic Student Achievement, Shannon A. Flounnory

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This quantitative study examined possible correlations between each of the seven critical leadership functions and achievement in the areas of mathematics for eighth grade African-American and Hispanic students. The 117 participants included school leaders and students from 12 of the 19 middle schools in a metropolitan school district in the southeastern region of the United States. Principals from the middle schools in the district distributed the Critical Leadership Functions Questionnaire to members of their leadership team (e.g., assistant principals, school counselors, department chairs, etc.). CRCT scores measured student achievement. The researcher conducted a correlation study, using Pearson’s multivariable correlation data …

Concussion Reporting Rates At The Conclusion Of A Collegiate Athletic Career, Frances C. Gilbert

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Context: Concussions are common sports-related head injuries, with an estimated 1.6-3.8 million sport-related traumatic brain injuries occurring each year. Proper diagnosis of a concussion often lies in self-reporting symptoms, however, an estimated 50-80% of concussions remain unreported. More than half of college athletes indicate they have no head injury knowledge including potential consequences, however, more than 80% would have reported a head injury if they had understood the potential risks. This lack of knowledge may create the potential for unrecognized concussive injury, therefore causing vast underreporting. Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current reported …

Does The Preparticipation Examination Aid In Identifying Future Risk Of Concussion?, Kassandra E. Johns

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Context: A pre-participation examination (PPE) has become standard practice among the athletic community. This examination commonly includes a multifaceted baseline concussion assessment and an injury history survey. Recent evidence suggests that neuropsychological testing can aid in predicting individuals at an increased risk of lower extremity injury. However, no known previous study has investigated the relationship between neuropsychological function and potential risk of sustaining a concussion.

Objective: This study sought to identify a relationship between components of a standard PPE and an elevated risk of concussion.

Design: All data was extracted from the institution concussion database.

Setting: A large university in …

It Staff Turnover Intentions, Job Modification, And The Effects Of Work Recognition At Large Public Higher Education Institutions, Steven C. Burrell

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Information Technology (IT) leaders in public higher education are under increased pressures to leverage innovations in technology to address their institution’s strategic imperatives. CIOs modify jobs by increasing responsibilities or changing the tasks that IT workers perform. IT staff who experience job modification are susceptible to lower job satisfaction and increased turnover intentions. IT leaders in other industries have successfully used work recognition to improve job satisfaction but there is limited research pertaining to these conditions among higher education institutions. This study sought to determine the perceptions and effects of work recognition and job modification on the turnover intentions of …

Retention Pathways For African American Males, Thaddeus L. Shubert

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a dropout prevention intervention on attitudes toward education among African American males in a rural alternative school in southeast Georgia as a means of understanding retention pathways for this population of students. The researcher approach to retention personified the slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally” by examining the nationwide dropout rate in the United States and implementing a dropout prevention program in a rural Georgia county. African American males have an alarmingly high attrition rate at the middle school, high school, and college levels and so research on how to …

An Examination Of Behavioral And Temporal Consistency Of Pre-Performance Routines In Ncaa Division I Basketball Free Throw Shooting – A Naturalist Observational Investigation, Jacob Blumberg

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Research has shown that pre-performance routines positively influence performance of closed and self-paced skills (Boutcher & Crews, 1987; Cohn, 1990; Otto et al., 2011). Boutcher and Crews (1987) suggested that pre-performance routines improve performance by helping reduce anxiety along with helping athletes’ retain mental sharpness and focus. Furthermore, several quantitative studies have examined the influence of both behavioral and temporal consistency of pre-performance routines on the success of a skill, yielding inconsistent results (Boutcher & Crews, 1987; Lobmeyer & Wasserman, 1986; Lonsdale & Tam, 2008; Jackson, 2003). However, research examining this phenomenon from a qualitative and naturalistic observational perspective is …

Afraid To Be A Nerd: Effects Of Nerd Stereotypes On Women’S Math Performance, Jennifer Chau

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine whether nerd stigma affects math performance. Specifically, it was hypothesized that women exposed to the nerd stigma would perform worse on a mathematics test than women not exposed to the nerd stigma. The current study also aimed to compare the effects of the nerd stigma on women’s math performance with the effects of gender stereotype threat. Gender identity, nerd identity, and fear of social exclusion were examined as possible mediating and moderating variables. Results did not support that nerd stigma affected math performance in either men or women, thus mediational analyses were …

Temporal Patterns Of Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Communities And Organic Matter Standing Stock Availability In A Coastal Floodplain (Altamaha River, Georgia), Erica L. Johnson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

River floodplain habitats of the Southeastern United States are sites of high biological productivity that rely on a predictable flooding event as a keystone process. This study took place in a river-floodplain area of the Altamaha River, an unimpounded large-order river in the Coastal Plains region of the US. This study aims to investigate how aquatic macroinvertebrate communities changed over the course of the annual flood pulse. I predicted that the communities would be different and that the differences would be driven by hydrology at the main stem and organic matter standing stock availability. I took quantitative samples of benthic …

Folklore For A New Generation: Charles Chesnutt's Updated Trickster Figure, Peter Mccollum

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Amidst a surge of plantation fiction writing during the era of American Realism, Charles Chesnutt was arguably one of the most controversial yet prolific authors to address the recent advent of slavery. The Conjure Woman was a publication of seven frame narratives that employed the traditional style of a former slave telling tales of “the old days,” and though Chesnutt's work may have mirrored such authors as Thomas Nelson Page, the tales broke from tradition with surprisingly stark accounts that are clearly based on Chesnutt's own conversations with former slaves. Much like another contemporary, Joel Chandler Harris, Chesnutt looks backward …

Kids Playing For Keeps: A Feasibility Study Of Coronary Heart Disease Intervention In A Rural African American Community, Carla Allen Noah

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The prevalence of Coronary heart disease (CHD) and the associated modifiable risk factors, combined with the known health disparities that exist in the African American (AA) community, increases the significance of prevention exponentially. Theories involving genetic and environmental factors and their interaction are gaining popularity as relevant influences on both modifiable and fixed risk factors for CHD. Innovative and targeted strategies of health promotion and preventative measures are needed to combat the growing trend of modifiable risk factors for heart disease within the southern rural AA population. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness …

Antecedents Of Athletes’ Achievement Goal Orientations, Matthew Lachman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Theorized by Nicholls (1984), achievement goal theory describes the interaction of one’s perceived ability and two goal orientations, known as “task” and “ego,” that an athlete employs when setting goals. These goal orientations are what athletes employ when playing their sport. The result of this interaction is an athlete’s achievement behavior. Previous research has examined this theory extensively (Newton & Duda, 1999; Chin, Khoo, & Low, 2012; Smoll, Smith, & Cumming, 2007; White & Zellner, 1996). However, few studies have solely looked at factors that predict one’s achievement goal orientations. The purpose of this study is to address which demographic …

Curiosity Killed The Cat: Investigating A Link Between Curiosity And Risk-Taking Propensity, Carolyn E. Gibson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Curiosity, or the drive for information and experiences that motivates exploration, plays a role in intellectual development. Curiosity is perhaps essential to education and intellectual achievement, but curiosity research is limited. Curiosity has been thought a motivation for learning and a cause of non-sanctioned behaviors and behavioral disorders. This prompts a connection with decision-making, specifically risky decision-making, perhaps with curiosity as a motivating force. In Experiment 1, college students were primed with curiosity, then participated in a lab-based behavioral measure of risk-taking, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, and answered self-report inventories concerning risk-taking and curiosity. In Experiment 2, 4th and …

Design And Analysis Of Circularly Polarized Electrically Small Antennas, Jesse R. Ludwig

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

A growing need for efficient wireless communication is prevalent in the world in which we live. From cell phones to television to GPS applications, wireless communications are vital in consumer electronics and military applications. In these applications, a miniaturized antenna is sometimes necessary for reducing overall size of the communication system. For many satellite based communication applications, circular polarization in antennas is needed for efficient communication. In this thesis, the miniaturization technique known as T-top loading is utilized on two novel antenna designs. One design is an electrically small, circularly polarized planar cross dipole and the other design is a …

A Constructive Proof Of The Borel-Weil Theorem For Classical Groups, Kostiantyn Timchenko

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Borel-Weil theorem is usually understood as a realization theorem for representations that have already been shown to exist by other means (``Theorem of the Highest Weight''). In this thesis we turn the tables and show that, at least in the case of the classical groups $G = U(n)$, $SO(n)$ and $Sp(2n)$, the Borel-Weil construction can be used to quite explicitly prove existence of an irreducible representation having highest weight $\lambda$, for each dominant integral form $\lambda$ on the Lie algebra of a maximal torus of $G$.

The Relationship Between Social Media And Empathy, Franklin M. Collins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The relationship between social media and empathy has not been explored extensively. Research on the expression of emotion and the association with empathy displayed on social media websites have been minimally explored. This study sought to support findings that chatting online leads to expressions of empathy (Rosen, 2012) and a positive relationship exists between conversing with others online and empathic expression (Ivcevic & Ambady, 2012. Empathic concern was hypothesized to show a positive relationship with one’s likelihood to chat, time on Facebook, and emotional connection to Facebook or Facebook usage. Empathic concern also was predicted to be greater among computer …

A Mixed Methods Case Study Exploring The Outcomes Of Implementing A Digital Learning Management System In A Fourth Grade Language Arts Classroom, Sarah C. Mayberry

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Classrooms of today are in continual flux and state and local mandates are constantly reforming the curriculum in order to help prepare students to compete in a global society; in addition, advancements in technology have greatly impacted today’s students and how they learn as well as the way teachers instruct. As educators, we need to recognize what our students need to become successful citizens in today’s society, which often requires students to be critical evaluators of various types of information and requires them to become literate across a wide range of literacies. Not only is it critical that classroom teachers …

The Screen Speaks: Disability, Media & Schooling, Alicia S. Campbell

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As society becomes more technological on a daily basis, we are heavily influenced by the steady influx of information we receive from various types of media. This dissertation will investigate the relationship between our investments with popular media, particularly film, and with teachers’ perceptions of students with disabilities in secondary schools. I will first look at how disability is viewed in society, discussing both the more traditional models that are moral, medical and rehabilitative in nature and the more contemporary social model. I will explore the history of disability in society, schooling, and film and uncover patterns that illustrate the …

The Council Of The Indies And Religion In The Spanish New World, Ashley D. Ellington

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Council of the Indies was responsible for the governing of the Spanish Empire, including issues of religion. During the reign of Philip II, the Council gained independence from the Council of Castile and was able to take more control of the Spanish territories. In response to outside factors, the Council codified its laws regarding the spread of the Catholic faith, which became the basis for Council control of religion under the authority of the king. A review of the Council during this time led to many changes in an effort to make the Council less corrupt and more efficient. …

Development And Support Of Dual Language Policies, Hollis Derek Cone

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Teaching a second language is not a new idea. Bilingual education has gone through a metamorphosis over the years. The most current bilingual program is the two-way or dual language program. Dual language programs educate students that speak a different language in the same classroom. The idea is that one group is strengthened in its native language; the other group acquires the second language.

Each local school board must implement its own policies to create a dual language program; unfortunately, few, if any, research studies exist that identify how local school boards can implement a dual language program. School districts …