Digital Commons Network^™

Diversity Within Asian Americans: Barriers To The Public Discussion Of Discrimination, Samantha I. Ing

University Honors Theses

This purpose of this thesis is to discuss barriers to the public discussion of discrimination against Asian-Americans. The literature addresses three major barriers: model minority status, portrayal in media, and cultural desire to assimilate. This thesis discusses how Asian-Americans contain generational, ethnic, and immigration-based diversity that complicates these barriers, while also positing that diversity itself presents a barrier. This project concludes with a brief discussion of "intra-ethnic othering," the discrimination that occurs between Asian subgroups, as another barrier to public discussion of Asian-American discrimination.

Unequal Medicine: The Impact Of Patient Mistrust On The Racial Differences In Reproductive Health Outcomes, Ashley Lenherr

University Honors Theses

Despite impressive medical advancements the gap in health and the quality of health care between blacks and whites has remained consistent or even increased in the past several decades in America, and reproductive health outcomes reveal similar trends. Black infants have a mortality rate that is 2.4 times higher than whites in the first year, and black mothers are 3 times more likely to die when giving birth when compared to white women (MacDorman et al. 2011 & Paxton and Wardlaw, 2011). In regards to the current and historically poor birth outcomes for black women and infants compared to whites …

Understanding Patterns Of Localized Poverty In The United States: Identifying Strengths And Weaknesses In Contemporary Statistical Analysis, Gregory Dyck

University Honors Theses

The localization and concentration of poverty causes many problems throughout the world, and is linked to multiple adverse effects on individuals, households, and society at large. However, determining the relationship between poverty and these affects is limited by the current state of affairs regarding how theory does and does not fit with the indicator variables being used or available. I will attempt to evaluate the current usage of variables and strategies, both how they succeed, and how they fall short in the analysis of concentrated poverty. The results of this analysis should open holes for the development of better indicators …

Organizational Culture Change Resulting From Human Resources Outsourcing, Emily Murrell

University Honors Theses

Human Resources outsourcing has become a way for businesses to save money, but has also become a problem in keeping organizational environments the same (Cook, 2000; Cobb 2009; Mol, 2007). Outsourcing includes work that can be done by employees, but services can also be provided by an outside vendor for a lower price (Cook, 2000), and can affect an organizations performance (Mol, 2007). There are parts of Human Resources functions such as staffing, recruiting, training, succession planning and organizational development, and benefit planning that can be outsourced (Cook, 2000). Studies have looked at the difference between organizations that have outsourced …

References To Gendered Grief In Children's Media: A Content Analysis Of Grief Picture Books, Machaila Budgeon

University Honors Theses

Gender stereotypes, gender roles and the underrepresentation of women permeate modern American culture. These forms of sexism limit the socially acceptable ways that children are able to express difficult emotion as they move through the grief process. This study focuses on these forms of sexism as they influence the creation and continuation of gendered grief by coding seventeen children’s grief picture books. Findings support the hypotheses that, not only are gender stereotypes, roles and the underrepresentation of both men and women present in grief picture books, but that they contribute to gendered grief. Suggestions for future research include a larger …

A Paradigm Shift: From A Categorical To Dimensional Diagnostic Model Of Personality Disorder, Jessica Green

University Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the possibility of a paradigm shift in the conceptualization of personality disorders (PDs), and eventually all psychological disorders, from categorical to dimensional. It examines the three main types of models utilized for diagnosing PDs. These main types are: the categorical model, where symptoms are organized in a check list based on categories; the dimensional model, where symptoms are organized on a spectrum rather than in a list; and the hybrid model, which is a combination of the two. It focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of each model and how they are used to define and diagnose …

Promotion Of Thriving In Youth: The Intersections Of The Positive Youth Development Perspective And Challenge Course Programming, Zachary H. Snyder

University Honors Theses

This paper’s intent is to explore the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective, its applications, and the growing research topics pertaining to it. I will demonstrate the importance of developmental assets and PYD centered programs in the human journey towards "Thriving," which is understood as the ultimate state of being achieved by the systematic promotion of positive development across time in a youth’s life (Lerner et al, 2005). My paper also explains challenge course programming and its relationship to the Positive Youth Development perspective. Upon demonstrating this relationship, I offer a few ideas for future challenge course programming that would foster …

On The Role Of Probability In Hume's Imagination And Associationism: A Bayesian Response To Fodor's Hume Variations, Jason Krivo Flores

University Honors Theses

In his 2003 book Hume Variations, Jerry Fodor argues the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) has obviated the need for Hume's associationism and faculty of imagination. Contrary to Fodor, in this paper I argue that contemporary Bayesian models of cognitive science suggest that Hume’s account continues to comprise a viable theory of mental operations. I propose a Bayesian interpretation of Hume's associationism wherein the "liberty of the imagination to transpose and change its ideas" is accounted for by the contributions of randomness, noise, or stochasticity--i.e., probability.

If my analysis is on track, Fodor has misconstrued the Humean mind by interpreting …

Diagnosis Of Mental Illness Today And Tomorrow: A Literary Review Of The Current Methods, Drawbacks, And Sociological Components Of Mental Health With Regard To The Diagnosis Of Mental Illness, Sova Novak

University Honors Theses

The diagnosis of mental illness has sometimes been a controversial issue due to concerns about reliability and validity of diagnosis. Current methods focus on the categorical assessment of presented symptoms, however, the assessment of the factors leading up to and correlated with mental illness could be a more helpful tool for identifying mental illness itself. The position of this paper is that an analysis of these factors and in particular the integration of the sociological perspective could lead to a better method of diagnosis and understanding of mental illness. A brief overview of the three primary models of mental illness …

Compassion Fatigue, The Wellness Of Care Providers, And The Quality Of Patient Care, Merna Labib

University Honors Theses

Working with traumatized patients in the Emergency Department can compromise the well-being of the provider and the quality of patient care. Compassion Fatigue and burnout are two terms used to describe provider inability to cope with stress at work. However, compassion fatigue is a term specific to care providers and describes the emotional and psychological effects consequent to caring for traumatized patients, which leads to a reduced capacity to show compassionate care. Burnout, on the other hand, is consequent to cumulative stress and lack of accomplishment at work. This thesis seeks to focus on compassion fatigue and considers burnout to …

The Use Of Psychological Defense Mechanisms – By Librarians And The Public – In Response To Traditional And Binary Librarian Stereotypes, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

Images of librarians in popular culture include the traditional stereotype - of a mousy spinster who cares more for protecting books than for helping people - as well as several contrasting or binary images - such as librarians who are wild by night (although quiet by day), know-it-alls (rather than know-nothings), or high-tech (instead of old-fashioned.) In response to the anxiety provoked by the more pernicious aspects of these images, both librarians and the public may employ a variety of common unconscious defense mechanisms. This chapter examines some of those used by the public - including stereotyping, and splitting or …

Imperatives In Informal Organizational Resource Exchange In Central Europe, David Jancsics

Publications and Research

This paper challenges the mainstream social scientific approach that emphasizes “moral inferiority” in corruption and bribery in Central and Eastern Europe. We argue that in many cases, people participate in informal organizational resource exchanges not because of immorality or greed but rather because of powerful external forces. By using the case of contemporary Hungary to support this argument, this paper provides a systematic analysis of such imperatives. The findings of 50 in-depth qualitative interviews suggest that two main imperatives can be distinguished; macro-level social and meso-level organizational forces. Macro-level forces may be linked to historical paths, Hungary's socialist and pre- …

A Qualitative Study Of Stress In Individuals Self-Employed In Solo Businesses, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Joseph J. Mazzola

Publications and Research

This qualitative study involved 54 individuals who were self-employed in a variety of solo businesses. All participants were administered a semistructured interview that inquired into various aspects of their work experience with the data subject to reliability and validity checks. The study identified stressful incidents, coping strategies, and emotional strains arising from those stressful incidents. Uncertainty about income was a common background stressor. Recent specific stressors included dramatic slowdowns in business, reputational threat, betrayal, unreasonable customers, and medical problems. Commonly occurring strains included apprehension/anxiety, frustration, anger, and sadness/depression. The self-employed used problem-focused coping much more often than emotion-focused coping. We …

Paintings Of Home, Alix Ryan

University Honors Theses

During my childhood years, our family relocated to three countries, passing through seven homes along the way. Establishing a space that provided comfort and emotional safety was always a top priority as we nestled into each location. Regardless of the place we were residing, the walls of the living room were recognizable as nothing other than the living room walls by the Zion National Park poster hung near a window, the wooden bowls situated on an unfamiliar coffee table, the rug rooting our new couch, all in the company of many other trinkets and hangings: emblems of home. The walls …

Person First Planet: A Comprehensive Review Of Person First Language, James Kirszenbaum

University Honors Theses

Person First Language has been around for thirty years yet remains confined to the borders of government agencies, special education classrooms, and professional psychology. Beginning here in Salem, Oregon as an offshoot of the People First Movement (Wehmeyer, Bersani, & Gagne, 2000), a self-advocacy group for persons with disabilities at Fairview Rehabilitation Center. It has since grown from an isolated appeal into an international movement and is the current accepted terminology in the APA and reflects in the language of all pertinent government acts (ADA, IDEA, etc.). Despite all these well intended improvements everyday use of PFL by non-laypersons has …

Learning Intercultural Competency Through International Immersion Travel, Jessica Patching-Bunch

University Honors Theses

Growing informational technology and international business alongside the speed of travel, have facilitated intercultural contact and increased the need for intercultural competency. As the world shrinks there are less defined lines between "us" and "them" and there is an increased need to look beyond our differences and focus on genuine human similarities. Intercultural competency is the ability to interact and communicate with another culture without violating valued social norms. Intercultural competency is preceded by a process of exposure and adaptation to new environments. Intercultural exposure is easily facilitated by international travel. Experiences abroad can be divided into two categories, quality …

Insomnia And Exacerbation Of Anxiety Associated With High-Epa Fish Oil Supplements After Successful Treatment Of Depression, Lauren B. Blanchard, Gordon C. Mccarter

Faculty Publications & Research of the TUC College of Pharmacy

A 54-year-old male consulted his general practitioner for increasing general anxiety and mild panic attacks despite effective treatment for recurrent major depressive disorder, which included a fish oil supplement enriched in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The patient would awaken suddenly at night with shortness of breath and overwhelming worry. During the daytime, he felt a general, nonspecific anxiety and frequently experienced sympathetic activation upon confronting routine challenges. He also experienced dyspnea-induced feelings of panic. He reported that he stopped taking the fish oil supplements after several more months of symptoms, and his anxiety and insomnia then largely disappeared. Several weeks later, …

Race In The Life Sciences: An Empirical Assessment, 1950 - 2000, Osagie K. Obasogie

Faculty Scholarship

The mainstream narrative regarding the evolution of race as an idea in the scientific community is that biological understandings of race dominated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries up until World War II, after which a social constructionist approach is thought to have taken hold. Many believe that the horrific outcomes of the most notorious applications of biological race-eugenics and the Holocaust-moved scientists away from thinking that race reflects inherent differences and toward an understanding that race is a largely social, cultural, and political phenomenon. This understanding of the evolution of race as a scientific idea informed the way that …

Connecting Curriculum To Community Research: Professional Services, Research, And Teaching, W. Barry Messer, Peter J. Collier

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University’s Community Environmental Services (CES) has helped shape the Portland metropolitan region’s sustainable materials management practices for more than twenty-five years. CES’s research and program development services have benefited community partners that in turn have provided hundreds of students with rich educational experiences. PSU faculty members also advance their pedagogical and research agendas through the development of CES-affiliated capstone courses. This article explores the CES co-production model from the perspectives of students, faculty members, and community partners.

Revisiting Rajneeshpuram: Oregon's Largest Utopian Community As Western History, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Between 1981 and 1985, the intentional community of Rajneeshpuram near Antelope, Oregon, hosted up to 15,000 followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a spiritual leader from Pune, India. In this essay, Carl Abbott examines the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram within the context of western history, which “centers on the processes of migration, settlement, displacement, and rearrangement.” Drawing parallels to earlier religious closed communities, such nineteenth century Mormon settlements, Abbott describes how Rajneeshees fit into the “overarching storylines of frontier utopias and the…narrative of settler colonialism.” Unlike Mormon communities, however, Abbott concludes that Rajneeshpuram ultimately failed because its leaders were not …

Sustaining Change: Successes, Challenges, And Lessons Learned From Twenty Years Of Empowering Students Through Community-Based Learning Capstones, Seanna M. Kerrigan

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

More than four thousand students engage in the community-based learning capstone program every year by enrolling in one of 240 senior-level courses that culminate their undergraduate education. In this article, the author shares the context and history of the program, its foundational principles and processes, and the nuts-and-bolts details of the ongoing operation of the largest community-based learning capstone program in the United States.

Freedom As A Natural Phenomenon, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

"Freedom" is a phenomenon in the natural world. This phenomenon - and indirectly the question of free will - is explored using a variety of systems-theoretic ideas. It is argued that freedom can emerge only in systems that are partially detennined and partially random, and that freedom is a matter of degree. The paper considers types of freedom and their conditions of possibility in simple living systems and in complex living systems that have modeling (cognitive) subsystems. In simple living systems, types of freedom include independence from fixed materiality, internal rather than external detennination, activeness that is unblocked and holistic, …

Integrating Information Literacy, The Pogil Method, And Ipads Into A Foundational Studies Program, Carrie Moore, Jennifer Black, Barbara C. Glackin, Margie Ruppel, Elaine Watson

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This article provides an overview of the design, implementation, revision and informal assessment of an information literacy curriculum embedded in a new University Foundations (UF) program at a mid‐sized public university. The library information literacy sessions incorporated teambased learning and Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) elements using iPads. Each session provided students an opportunity to develop and apply information literacy skills, and included critical thinking questions which led students to think about underlying concepts. A focus group with the librarians assessed the UF library curriculum, its impact on student engagement, and the training activities for librarian teaching preparation.

Psychometric Evaluation Of Lexical Diversity Indices: Assessing Length Effects, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Heather Harris Wright, Samuel B. Green

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose—Several novel techniques have been developed recently to assess the breadth of speaker’s vocabulary exhibited in a language sample. The specific aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the validity of the scores generated by different lexical diversity (LD) estimation techniques. Four techniques were explored: D, Maas, Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD), and the Moving Average Type Token Ratio (MATTR).

Method—Four LD indices were estimated for language samples on four discourse tasks (procedures, eventcasts, story retell, and recounts) from 442 neurologically intact adults. The resulting data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results—The scores on the …

Topic Team Feedback From The Strategic Ice Cream Social, Strategic Planning Development Team

Resource Archive

The Strategic Planning Development Team held an ice cream social event where they solicited feedback regarding the mission, vision and values of the university. Topic teams used the information gathered from the university community to help inform their decisions in the strategic planning development process.

Notices

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Epistemic Function And Ontology Of Analog And Digital Images, Aleksandra Lukaszewicz Alcarez

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The important epistemic function of photographic images is their active role in construction and reconstruction of our beliefs concerning the world and human identity, since we often consider photographs as presenting reality or even the Real itself. Because photography can convince people of how different social and ethnic groups and even they themselves look, documentary projects and the dissemination of photographic practices supported the transition from disciplinary society to the present-day society of control. While both analog and digital images are formed from the same basic materia, the ways in which this matter appears are distinctive. In the case of …

Yellowism And Ontology: A Skeptical Analysis, Wesley D. Cray

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

When Vladimir Umanets entered the Tate Modern on October 7, 2012 and defaced Rothko's Black on Maroon, he was operating, not as an artist or a vandal, but as a Yellowist. Yellowism is neither art nor anti-art but is instead a supposedly new cultural element that exists for its own sake and is about nothing but the color yellow. It might be tempting to write Yellowism and the Rothko defacement off as a mere prank or as pseudo-intellectual fraud, but I argue that, intentionally or not, the Yellowists have raised issues salient to those invested in both the ontology of …

Norms Of Cultivation, Kevin Melchionne

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this paper I identify a new group of aesthetic norms, which I call norms of cultivation. Judgments of taste are often accompanied by forecasts or expectations about future aesthetic satisfaction. When we find something beautiful, we expect to find it beautiful in the future. Forecasting is at play in all sorts of aesthetically motivated behavior. Yet psychologists have observed an unreliability in such forecasts. As a result of forecasting error, what we take as our taste can be an unreliable guide in our aesthetic lives. Compensating for the unreliability of taste are norms of cultivation, implicit rules for engaging …

On The Causes Of Effects Response To Pearl, David Faigman, Philip A. Dawid, Steven E. Feinberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.