Digital Commons Network^™

Social Loafing Construct Validity In Higher Education: How Well Do Three Measures Of Social Loafing Stand Up To Scrutiny?, Jacquelyn Deleau

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of social loafing using convergent and discriminant validity principles. Three instruments that purport to measure social loafing were factor analyzed: A ten-item instrument by George (1992), a 13-item instrument by Mulvey and Klein (1998), and a 22-item instrument by Jassawalla, Sashittal, and Malshe (2009) for a total of 45 items that were compiled into a single instrument with which data were collected, correlated, and factor analyzed.

One hundred and sixty graduate and undergraduates enrolled in management courses at a small private Northern California university were surveyed. Thirteen classes were …

The Role Of Self-Determination And Co-Construction To Support Meaningful Student Participation In An Individualized Education Program Meeting In High School, Trudy Ruth Gross

Doctoral Dissertations

By participating within the educational setting in making decisions about their lives that reach beyond choice-making, students with disabilities who acquire the skills of self-determination may express interests and goals through their own authentic voice. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the experiences and participation of two high-school students labeled with intellectual disability or autism at their Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings following participation in the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI). Student participation in the IEP process provides an avenue through which self-determined qualities emerge, and verbal and nonverbal participation can occur in a meaningful …

Queens Speak - A Youth Participatory Action Research Project: Exploring Critical Post-Traumatic Growth Among Black Girls Within The School To Prison Pipeline, Stacey Michelle Ault

Doctoral Dissertations

A gap exists in both research and practice when it comes to issues related to girls within the school-to-prison pipeline. Girls are also often ignored in the educational literature about trauma. Educators tend to take a deficit approach toward youth experiencing trauma and often reinforce trauma through discriminatory and exclusionary disciplinary practices. Using a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) methodology centered in the lives of Black girls, with an intentional focus on their agency and growth, this study educated, coached, and supported a research team called Queens Speak. The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to elevate the voices …

Navigating Conflict In Inclusive Education: Autoethnography From An Elementary School Principal, Kimberly Christine Adams

Doctoral Dissertations

Practitioners and researchers have interpreted and debated the concept of the least restrictive environment creating the operational practices of mainstreaming and inclusion to adhere to the laws of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Despite the laws to ensure equal access to general education classrooms, and the vast body of literature on the technical implementation of inclusive practices, students with disabilities continue to be segregated and educated in a separate and unequal system of special education.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the competing tensions and conflict in inclusive education that elementary school principals navigate on a …

There Is A Monster In My House, Cultura Cura Uncovering 11 Milliones De Sueños: Understanding The Emotional And Psychological Experiences Of Undocumented And Mixed-Status Youth And Finding Healing Spaces, Belinda Marie Hernandez-Arriaga

Doctoral Dissertations

This research gives voice to the emotional experiences of mixed-status and undocumented youth, and explores the Mexican cultural arts as a healing space for this community of children. This research expands our mental health understanding of undocumented and mixed status children, capturing the undocu-trauma these participants describe in narrating the chronic fear they live with. Their stories speak to the monster of fear, la migra, witches in the field, Trump, racism, societal violence and trauma that is invisible in their home but alive in their daily lives. The participants in this study narrate the power of the cultural arts to …

A Phenomenological Study Of Lesbian And Gay People In Leadership Roles: How Perspectives And Priorities Shift In The Workplace As Sexual Orientation Evolves Through Social Constructs, Justin Moore

Doctoral Dissertations

The queer community's presence continues to increase in the United States, while more individuals become visible throughout workplaces. An increasingly diverse workforce leaves organizations struggling to leverage the knowledge and experience lesbian and gay leaders bring to discussions. Limited research informs organizations of the strategies lesbian and gay people in leadership roles use to navigate their ascension into their positions, while managing the disclosure of their sexual orientation and professional identity. This qualitative, phenomenological study involved recruiting 15 participants through purposeful, homogeneous sampling processes and snowball sampling, identifying cisgender lesbian or gay people in leadership or managerial roles, with a …

Epistemology, Wisdom, And Social Transformation: Strategies At The Forefront Of The Contemplative Movement In Higher Education, Nicola Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

American society is currently experiencing a surging interest in contemplative practices. The secularization and professionalization of contemplative practices can be seen in the adoption of mindfulness-based approaches in sectors as wide-ranging as technology, nonprofit, and higher education. Amongst all these fields, institutions of higher education play a unique role within the contemplative movement in that the academy lays claim to the powerful social roles of producing and disseminating knowledge and, subsequently, of shaping societal values and behaviors.

In conducting this qualitative study, the researcher analyzed 1) what the academics in the contemplative movement expressed through their speech regarding the activities …

More Than A Silhouette: African American Women’S Graduate Student Experience, Bridget Holly Love

Doctoral Dissertations

African American women have been silhouetted. They have been reduced to a one dimensional version of themselves and defined by societies White – male hegemonic background. Currently, limited research exists on the experiences of African American (AA) women graduate students from an Afrocentric perspective. Despite the increase enrollment of AA women in higher education, barriers to degree completion still persist as evidenced by the lower rates of graduation. The lack of AA women in higher education demonstrates that the literature holds a minority position not unlike that of AA women in society. Subsequently, the accomplishments, challenges and overall experiences of …

Understanding Translanguaging And Identity Among Korean Bilingual Adults, Nancy Ryoo

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study, conducted at a Northern California university, explored how six Korean bilingual adults expressed their unique identities while utilizing both Korean and English in their daily and academic lives. The six study participants shared their journeys as bilingual adults who migrated to the United States from South Korea to attend graduate school. Several will return to South Korea at the conclusion of their graduate studies. Research data included narratives from in-depth personal interviews as well as focus group discussions.

This qualitative study postulated that translanguaging is commonly observed within bilingual/multilingual populations and can be utilized as a source …

Relative Importance Of Anxiety And Motivational Variables In Predicting Language Achievement For College Learners Of Chinese, Qi Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

The growing worldwide enthusiasm in learning Chinese calls for more research on learner characteristics in Chinese classrooms to better inform teaching practice. Language anxiety, which falls under the umbrella of learner’s affect, is considered an important affective aspect that negatively influences language learning and acquisition. As research on language anxiety mainly focused on the learning of Western languages, this study constitutes an initial attempt to investigate anxiety in the learning of Chinese through the testing of a structural model. The purpose of the study was to examine the relative importance of language anxiety in predicting Chinese achievement when motivation, integrativeness, …

Think Twice Before Hitting 'Send': The Strategic Uses Of Information In Marketing Channels, Pui Ying Tong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines the growing problem of information overload in the context of marketing channels. Information overload occurs when shared information requires more mental resources to process than the mental resources available to the receiver. This research offers strategies to attenuate information overload and examines the impact of information overload on channel outcomes. Strategic uses of information are proposed and conceptualized as a sender's alteration of information volume, content, and/or timing to assist a receiver in processing information. Hypotheses are developed based on the normative perspective of communication from the organizational communication literature. Data from 244 salespeople are analyzed using …

Cannabinoid Withdrawal Produces Altered Somatic And Emotionality-Related Behavior In Mice, Kristen R. Trexler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Cannabis sativa is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States. An estimated 9 percent of those who use cannabis will develop some level of cannabinoid use disorder (CUD). Although behavioral therapy has some success in treating CUD, many users still relapse. Moreover, there are no FDA approved pharmacological treatments available to complement behavioral therapy. The need for appropriate treatments highlights the need for nonhuman animal models to test target compounds. The current study aimed to (1) evaluate the MAGL inhibitor JZL184 as a possible treatment for cannabinoid withdrawal, and (2) to develop a spontaneous model of cannabinoid …

War On The Mind: Trauma And Coping Among Union Soldiers And Veterans, Kathleen Anneliese Logothetis Thompson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

"War on the Mind: Trauma and Coping in the Union Army," is a work of social, cultural, and military history and examines experiences of mental trauma in the Union Army during the war and among veterans in the post-war period. Without our modern definition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Civil War soldiers had a very different view of how they were mentally experiencing the war. By looking at soldier accounts and the records of insane asylums it is clear that soldiers did have experiences of trauma and insanity during or related to their wartime service. However, those same asylum records, as …

Assessing The Alignment Of Preparatory Year Program Vision, Mission, And Goals Statements With First-Year Student Success Principles, Atiyah A. Alghamdi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study used the nine steps of Content Analysis (CA) developed by Neuendorf (2002) to assess the alignment of the Preparatory Year Program's vision, mission, and goals statements with the Seven Central Principles of Student Success advanced by Cuseo (2014), and to also explore universities trends in developing the Preparatory Year Programs' students. The nonrandom sampling process, purposive sampling, was utilized for all 28 Saudi public universities. The Unit of Thoughts (UT) extracted from the vision, mission, and goals statements was counted, coded, and used to assess the alignment extent. A pilot study was conducted on seven Preparatory Year Program's …

Civil Religion And Ontological Threat, Matthew R. Arp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Dyadic conflict research within international relations is largely reliant on the analysis of differences in regime or leadership characteristics as a catalyst for conflict. This dissertation challenges traditional scholarship through the introduction of a unique approach that examines more fundamental differences between states. These fundamental historical and cultural differences, which are enshrined in a states' civil religion, offer insights into the behavior of states during crisis. The three primary questions of this dissertation are the following: What role does societal norms and cultural values have in threat perception? Why do states practice restraint in some crises and escalation of belligerence …

Associations Between Sleep, Infant Feeding Methods, Brain Development And Behavior: A Multimodal Approach To Assess Plasticity In The Brain, Christopher Edward Bauer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Purpose: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a spectrum disorder that is estimated to effect a significant proportion of the pediatric population (1-3% in USA). SDB is able to disrupt and fragment sleep through frequent arousals and intermittent hypoxia. In addition, the long term effects of SDB in pediatrics have been well-documented; decreases in intelligence quotient (IQ), executive function, school performance, and alertness have all been observed. Although surgical treatments can be quite effective, there are no widely accepted prophylactic measures to prevent SDB development. Recently, breastfeeding duration in infancy has been demonstrated to be correlated with reduced SDB (lower AHI, RAI, …

Influence Of Sex And Blood Collection Method On Innate Immune Response Following Lipopolysaccharide Administration In Sheep, Hoda Nikpour

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Wethers and ewes were used to study the effect of catheter or repeated venipuncture on circulating cortisol and leukocyte concentrations and physical behaviors following administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a gram-negative bacteria cell wall component. Animals were injected with LPS or saline, as a control, to induce an innate immune system response. In addition, blood leukocytes and cortisol levels were studied to determine the effect of sex on immunological and stress responses. Thirty-eight mature Dorset and Suffolk wethers and ewes were assigned into one of four treatment groups: 1.) no-catheter + LPS treated ewes (n=5) and wethers (n=4) that were restrainted …

The Effects Of Signaled Reinforcer Duration On Preference, Anthony C. Oliver

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

It has been suggested that reinforcers of different durations can be made more discriminable by pairing specific stimulus conditions with different durations (Bonem & Crossman, 1988). The purpose of the current experiment was to assess the effects of signaling reinforcer duration prior to reinforcer onset on initial-link responding under a concurrent-chains schedule of reinforcement. Initial-link responding was assessed across two sets of reinforcer durations (2- vs. 6-s hopper access and 6- vs. 10-s hopper access) and conditions in which terminal-link stimuli were the same (e.g., both red) and different (e.g., white, blue, or yellow). Preference was defined as the key …

Fear Of Pain And Dental Care-Related Fear: Associations With The Mc1r Gene, Cameron L. Randall

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Fear of pain is experienced in acute and chronic pain populations, as well as generally, and impacts numerous aspects of the pain experience, including pain intensity, pain-related disability, and pain behavior (e.g., avoidance). A related but separate construct, dental care-related fear, also is experienced in the general population, and impacts dental treatment-seeking behavior and oral and systemic health. Very minimal work has addressed the role of genetics in the etiologies of fear of pain and dental care-related fear. Limited available data suggest that variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene may predict greater levels of dental care-related fear. The MC1R …

Iconologia, Heather Ruth Rios

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The ideas and images presented in this paper, and the accompanying exhibition represent a portion of my research in the subjects of the Female Nude in Art History, as well as my exploration of related subjects including female self portraits, the male gaze in art, and the psychological impact of self-made, self-representations by women both in art history, and in contemporary American social media (i.e."selfies").

Where The Earth Breathes Inside: The Attitudes Of Lakota People Toward Wind Cave National Park, Adam Rossi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Wind Cave National Park, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has a long and complex history concerning local indigenous peoples, including the Lakotas. Wind Cave is the location of the Lakotas' traditional origin story, and is now protected by a park that represents a federal government that many indigenous peoples of this country view negatively. Despite this, no study has attempted to characterize attitudes of local indigenous people towards the park. Recommendations from an earlier study encourage the park to collaborate closely with local indigenous tribes, and it would be beneficial for the park to have an understanding …

The Potential Impact Of Art Therapy Approaches In An Alternative Learning School Setting In Urban West Virginia, Brianna Saddler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Now more than ever American adolescents are suffering from severe anxiety (Lewis, 2017). In the past, over-achieving students were those parents least worried about when it came to experiencing anxiety but now studies show these students are just as likely to experience anxiety as those learners considered to be underachievers. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader how art therapy approaches embedded into daily lesson plans could be used in alternative learning school settings to help students deal with anxiety. Through my own experiences as a practicing art teacher in both general education art classrooms and alternative …

Effect Of The Cpap-Saver Intervention On Adherence Among Adults With Newly Diagnosed Obstructive Sleep Apnea, April L. Shapiro

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects 25 million adults in the United States. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the treatment of choice, but adherence is poor. Many previous CPAP adherence interventions were not theory based, tended to impose time and cost burden, and did not focus on OSA airway-brain mechanism education or OSA-CPAP performance feedback. A new, multidimensional intervention, known as CPAP-SAVER, was developed, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), knowledge of CPAP facilitators and barriers, characteristics of CPAP adherers and nonadherers, and behavior change techniques. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of …

Approaches To Supervision In Sport Psychology And Their Influences On Initial Supervisees' Professional Development, Janaina Lima Fogaca

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Supervision is important to foster supervisees' development, protect their clients from harm, and ensure competence. Sport psychology graduate programs in the United States offer a variety of supervision approaches, but there are few official guidelines on how to supervise. This dissertation had the aim of investigating the supervision approaches being used with novice supervisees in applied sport psychology in the United States, and how these approaches relate to supervisees' development of service-delivery competence. Nine supervisor-supervisee dyads were interviewed before and after the academic term in which the supervisees had their first applied experiences. Supervisees completed two journal entries regarding their …

Investigating Social Perceptions Associated With Water Quality In Morgantown, West Virginia, Jonas G. Leveque

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation investigates public perceptions of water quality in Morgantown, West Virginia. In recent years, water has become an increasingly critical issue in terms of quantity worldwide, and also in terms of quality. In developed countries such as the United States, water quality is often taken for granted by the general public. Nonetheless, recent water crises in Flint, Michigan and Charleston, West Virginia, are examples showing there are environmental risks associated with human activities. This dissertation explores the context of West Virginia, with coal mining that is decreasing and non-conventional oil and gas drilling that is increasing in the Appalachia …

A Strain Theory Of Prosocial Behavior, Mallory Slusser

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Agnew's General Strain Theory proposes that strain leads to negative emotions, which in turn lead to crime and delinquency. However, there has been a lack of research on what happens when the negative emotions that result from externally experienced strains lead to responses other than crime. The psychology literature on "feeling bad, doing good" indicates that internally experienced negative emotions can lead to helping behaviors. The purpose of this research is to examine if externally generated negative emotions can also lead to helping or prosocial behaviors. Particular attention is given to the type of negative emotion that is experienced -- …

Time Perspective, Health Behaviors, And Wellbeing In Adults, Jonathan J. K. Stoltman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An important component of health behavior engagement is time perspective. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with a more expansive temporal perspective tend to engage in more positive and fewer negative health behaviors. Depression, the leading mood disorder, has diverse symptomatology and is associated with reduced positive future thinking. This study seeks to identify whether positive or negative health behaviors differentially effect the association between time perspective and depressive symptomatology. Participants (n = 106; Mage = 35.2, SD = 12.7, range 18-65; 71.7% female; 87.7% white) were drawn from a community sample recruited via digital message boards. The study took …

Attracting A New Generation Of Participants To The Elderly Nutrition Program, Christa Ann Stangl

Health Nutrition and Exercise Science

The purpose of this study was to explore the types of services, programs, and activities needed and/or desired by older adults. The secondary purpose of this study is to explore what prompts and/or influences older adults, to participate in programs related to their health and wellbeing. This study is needed, because the population of older adults has increased, due to the baby boomer generation. Even though there is a large population increase there is a decrease in the use of senior centers. The study used qualitative methods by the means of eight focus group locations in the state of North …

Experiential Learning And Assessment In The Era Of Donald Trump, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Law teaching is turning a critical corner with the implementation of new ABA accreditation standards requiring greater skills development, experiential learning, and student assessment. Years of debate and discourse preceded the adoption of these ABA Standards, followed by a surge in programming, conferencing, and list-serv activity to prepare to implement these standards effectively. Missing from the dialogue about effective implementation of standards has been thoughtful consideration of how implementing these requirements will intersect with the challenges, realities, opportunities, and complexities of political divisiveness and polarization so prevalent in society and university campuses today.

Law schools are notably implementing these pedagogical …

Teenage Pregnancy, Parenting, And Abortion: Legal Limits On Adolescents' Reproductive Rights, Maya Manian

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

As numerous scholars have noted, the law takes a strikingly incoherent approach to adolescent reproduction. States overwhelmingly allow a teenage girl to independently consent to pregnancy care and medical treatment for her child, and even to give up her child for adoption, all without notice to her parents, but require parental notice or consent for abortion. This chapter argues that this oft-noted contradiction in the law on teenage reproductive decision-making is in fact not as contradictory as it first appears. A closer look at the law's apparently conflicting approaches to teenage abortion and teenage childbirth exposes common ground that scholars …