Digital Commons Network^™

Lego And How It Represents Concepts Of Psychology, Adam Skousen

A with Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Strengths-Based Case Management With Military Veterans: Building Protective Factors Against Suicide, Meredith Wingard Lange

DSW Capstone Projects

Abstract

Veteran suicide deaths remain between 16 and 18 daily despite over two decades of research and programming focused on suicide risk identification, therapeutic intervention, and suicide prevention. As research on suicidality among veterans and active-duty military continues, so do the efforts to develop new suicide prevention plans, interventions, and programs. When does one admit that suicide prevention strategies alone are not working? This paper introduces the application of a strengths-based case management approach to mitigating suicidality using a veteran’s inherent and communal protective factors. A new approach to mitigating suicidality emerges through the in-depth analysis of existing literature, a …

Engaging Predominantly White Churches In Racial Justice Work, Christopher B. Rakestraw

DSW Capstone Projects

Over the past three years, the tragic deaths of many people of color have renewed nationwide discourse on racial injustices and racism. White churches seeking to become anti-racist are confronted with a number of obstacles. This capstone project addresses the topic of Engaging Predominantly White Churches in Racial Justice Work through three interconnected scholarly products. Each product draws from the research of sociology, psychology, social work, education, and religion to investigate a different aspect of the overarching subject.

The Systematic Literature Review examines the impact of white racial identity on the racial attitudes of Predominantly White Church (PWC) congregants. Evidence …

Treatment Of Borderline Personality Disorder: Re-Envisioned To Mitigate Stigma And Enhance Treatment Effectiveness, Abigail Lorraine Steinkamp

DSW Capstone Projects

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and the characteristics that define it are often viewed negatively by therapists and other mental health providers. Terms to describe these clients commonly include “manipulative”, “attention-seeking”, and “always in crisis.” Because of this jargon, there is a deep-set stigma that surrounds the disorder. Therapists and treating clinicians base their decisions and treatment protocol on hearsay of the disorder and already have an image of their prospective BPD client before the client enters their office. This capstone project seeks to inform clinicians about the present stigma and provides tools that are proposed to reduce stigmatizing beliefs within …

Leadership Strategies For New Supervisors On Leading A Diverse Workforce, Christie L. Watson

DSW Capstone Projects

The title leader, supervisor, or manager, alone does not describe the qualities it takes to develop a workforce that is engaged, empowered, inclusive, diverse, and psychologically safe. To retain employees, one must understand these qualities and learn how to put them into action. It is said that people spend more time at work than they do at home. According to a study completed by Andrew Naber (2021) at Gettysburg College says, on average, people spend one-third of their life at work (p. 1). Having a poor experience in the workplace leads to turnover, decreased productivity, disengaged employees, and poor customer …

Social Media Advertising: The Persuasive And Invasive Fundamentals, Madison Falvey

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Over the past century, consumption of commodities and material goods has drastically increased. Americans today appear to consume more than they ever did in the past. This poses the question, why? What has caused society to consume habitually? Many researchers have discussed the persuasive methods used in advertising and the psychology behind consumer behavior. These researchers have primarily focused on TV commercials and newspaper advertisements. However, research has yet to dive deep into social media's role regarding conspicuous consumption. This thesis will explore how the fundamentals of social media have created the most persuasive advertising modality ever seen. This thesis …

Veteran Status Affecting Health, Brittney Landry

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

No abstract provided.

Insights On Motivation Of Tiktok Users Over 18-Years-Old Post-Completion Of Dangerous Challenges, Christine Wong

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

TikTok is known for 15 second to 10-minute videos instead of text posts with limited characters, characteristic of Twitter, and users have used the platform to share dangerous challenges or their attempts. Much research has been done on why children and adolescents participate in these challenges with few studies focusing on young adults. Here, a survey was created and advertised on well-known social media sites, seeking TikTok users over 18-years-old who participated in one or more dangerous challenge. The goal was to gain insight into the motivations for participating, so the questions regarded their experience in attempting the challenge(s). While …

Just Because We Are Black: Exploring The Impact Of Racial Trauma On African American Adults And Introducing An Approach To Assessment, Charessa L. Mcintosh

DSW Capstone Projects

Racial trauma, also referred to as race-based traumatic Stress (RBTS), is a significant problem that African Americans experience. Racial trauma refers to people of Color and Indigenous individuals' (POCI) reactions to dangerous and threatening events and real or perceived experiences of and exposure to racial discrimination. RBTS can be experienced by other racial minorities, but it is the most frequently experienced by African Americans. The origins of racial trauma include racism, exposure to racism, experiencing and witnessing physical violence, the threat of injury, and numerous other emotionally traumatic events involving race. It is not uncommon for secondary traumatic stress disorder …

Sexual Reproductive Healthcare: Reproductive Autonomy, Access Inequity And The Call For Service Expansion, Elizabeth Johnson

DSW Capstone Projects

Sexual Reproductive Healthcare (SRH) is a key component of not only women’s healthcare but healthcare for every one of every age. SRH impacts not only physical health and social emotional well-being but foundations of families, communities and society including the economic impacts and the challenges of inequity. By examining the history of sexual reproductive health care, including advances in access and subsequent barriers, funding and lack thereof, the impact bias in obtaining care and the ever-changing law, policies and regulations impacting care this Capstone highlights the current yet ever changing status of sexual reproductive health care in the United States. …

Eliminating The Stigma Surrounding Mental Illness In Healthcare Settings: Examining Provider Training Using Anti-Oppressive Instruction And Contact (Aoic) Training, Janice M. Knapp

DSW Capstone Projects

Disparities in healthcare settings for individuals with mental illness is a pervasive issue that can create dire circumstances for one’s health. However, research into ways in which to eliminate the biases and stigma that lead to these disparities has not yet been thoroughly studied. Innovative interventions using effective strategies combined with a theory such as the anti-oppressive approach are poised to address the biases and stigma that surround mental illness, thereby reducing or eliminating entirely the disparities that exist in healthcare today.

The first product is a systematic literature review that focused on primary research that evaluated the effectiveness of …

Body-Image Distress In Breast Cancer Survivors And Their Evaluation Of Medical Tattooing Following Surgery, Miranda Proctor

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

A review of the literature reveals a high incidence of body-image distress among breast cancer survivors who have undergone surgery, which is a natural response to the significant changes in their appearance. Reconstructive surgery, utilizing implants or flaps, may be employed to restore breast size and shape. Medical tattooing can simulate the nipple-areola complex and decorative appliques can conceal scars and skin color variations. Both reconstructive surgery and medical tattoos are associated with patient-reported satisfaction, yet further research is necessary to understand their combined impact on body-image distress. To investigate this, a survey was distributed among national breast cancer support …

Locating The Attentional Template Using Theta-Gamma Coupling, Michael Miuccio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

A significant amount of research has investigated the underlying neural mechanisms that enable the direction of attention throughout a search array. The biased competition model (Desimone & Duncan, 1995) proposes that an attentional template (the neural instantiation of the search target) is created when the target representation in visual working memory (VWM) is communicated to frontal regions which then bias early visual areas to attend to target features. Despite this, much of the current work focuses solely on the target representation in VWM, which is only one small part of the attentional template according to biased competition. Thus, I used …

Aadej Comm 9 1 2023

AADEJ - The Communicator

The Communicator is the official journal of the American Association of Dental Editors and Journalists (AADEJ). It is published quarterly, distributed digitally via email to members, and posted on the Association's website, AADEJ.org. Each issue includes regular updates from the editorial team and AADEJ board, as well as feature articles on current issues in the field.

Aadej Comm 9 3 2023

AADEJ - The Communicator

The Communicator is the official journal of the American Association of Dental Editors and Journalists (AADEJ). It is published quarterly, distributed digitally via email to members, and posted on the Association's website, AADEJ.org. Each issue includes regular updates from the editorial team and AADEJ board, as well as feature articles on current issues in the field.

Not Just Women: Trans Representation In Print News Media Following The Overturn Of Roe V. Wade, Tl Jordan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

2022 and 2023 have seen continually increasing attacks on both transgender rights and reproductive rights, which have escalated since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Not only have these movements experienced recent attacks in the social and political realm, but trans rights and reproductive rights both share related, but distinct, questions of bodily autonomy. Despite their similarities, the reproductive rights movement has only recently begun to incorporate transgender people within their frameworks to varying degrees of success. With inclusion of transgender people in the reproductive rights movement being a new phenomenon, representation of trans people in media …

"It Feels Like I Don't Exist": An Intersectional Feminist Analysis Of The Ace Citizen, Maya Wenzel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Sexual citizenship is often used to enforce gender and sexual norms, to help construct the “Other,” and as a tool for national security. Because of the invisibility and invalidation of asexuality in the U.S., there is a lack of research on sexual citizenship discourses and a need for more research that utilizes intersectional feminism in asexuality studies. This master’s thesis uses an intersectional, transnational feminist, and queer lens to analyze how people who identify on the asexuality spectrum currently living in the U.S. are impacted by the concept of sexual citizenship. This research uses a qualitative survey, which 124 people, …

The Creation Of Choreography For Disney's High School Musical, John Greer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre. It is a detailed account of author John Greer’s artistic process of creating the choreography for Disney’s High School Musical as a part of Minnesota State University, Mankato’s mainstage theatre season in the fall of 2022. The thesis chronicles the choreographer’s artistic process from pre-production through performance in five chapters: a preproduction analysis, an historical and critical perspective, a rehearsal journal, a post-production analysis and a process development analysis. Appendices and works cited are included.

Intellect Does Not Have An Accent: The Lived Experiences Of Women Native Speakers Of Spanish With Professional Leadership Positions In United States And Have An Accented English Speech, Isabel E. Rodriguez-Mendoza

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This qualitative study examined the experiences of eleven multilingual professional women between the ages of 35 and 65 who share the following characteristics: Spanish is their first language; they speak English with an accent and migrated to the United States as adults and are required to engage in public speaking in their professional leadership careers in the United States. The study’s interview process provided participants with a platform to share their voices and stories. The findings discussed how their accents have shaped their leadership careers as well as the social-emotional aspect of their lives through a phenomenological approach.

The emergent …

Bibliography, Austin G. Griffiths

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Austin Griffiths.

Healthcare Access And Experiences Among Transgender University Students, Micah Reisner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Background

As transgender identification rises in younger generations, it is imperative that colleges and universities account for the health and wellbeing of this growing subset of the student body. Previous research indicates that transgender populations experience unique barriers to accessing healthcare, including socioeconomic barriers and a lack of healthcare providers experienced in transgender medicine. These barriers contribute to low rates of healthcare utilization and significant health disparities in transgender populations.

Methods

A community health assessment of transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) students at the University of Central Florida was conducted in order to assess: (1) students' access to and experiences with …

The Perfect Storm: Motherhood, Intimate Partner Violence, And Covid-19, Kelly Blauschild

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an insidious societal problem with potentially lethal ramifications. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread conditions and virus risk mitigation procedures like social distancing and stay-at-home orders exacerbated factors that contribute to IPV such as poverty and substance use. Though anyone can experience IPV, mothers carried unparalleled burdens in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic such as increasing childcare responsibilities, growing financial difficulties, and worsening mental health, and many of these factors have been linked to experiencing IPV. The growing body of literature indicates a rise in IPV during COVID-19, but little has …

Becoming Racially Aware: A Social Process Of (Re)Constructing An Alternative White Identity, Ashley Sobke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Structural and systemic mechanisms reinforce institutionalized racism, whiteness, and white supremacy in the United States. These mechanisms prove adaptable and resilient, shifting and changing to continuously restructure and reinforce the material reality that people experience within a racialized social order. White people's incomprehension of complicity in racism and privilege, along with color-blind ideologies, perpetuate racialized disparities resulting from this social order and render white superiority as "normal" and "universal." This underlies an often internalized sense of normative, white American identity interconnected with racism and white supremacy. In a society where many white Americans remain sheltered from and/or resistant to acknowledging …

Christian Perspectives On Natural Disasters Using A Religious Systems Approach, Lakelyn Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study investigated how Christian beliefs and the perceived importance of practice at each level of the religious systems model may impact Protestant Christian beliefs about natural disasters and natural disaster responses. This study was conducted to address diverging trends in religious interpretations of and reactions to risk and crisis events. Participants answered a series of close- and open-ended questions via on online survey about religious beliefs and practices and their personal experiences with natural disasters and responses. Qualitative findings demonstrated an overarching Christian ethic underlying participants' experiences and responses. Most comments from participants mentioned individual and micro level actions …

Student Reactions To Trauma-Related Course Content, Jessica D. Cless, Briana S. Nelson Goff

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Higher education courses frequently utilize trauma-related content material as part of the curriculum. To reduce the potential for secondary traumatic stress, it has been recommended that instructors be purposeful and cautious with the use of trauma-related materials in the classroom. Most recommendations for implementation of these materials are based on theory, as few empirical studies examine actual student reactions to this content. This study, guided by Hill's ABC-X Model, presents mixed methods survey data from undergraduate students enrolled in a trauma course across three semesters to measure trauma exposure and subjective reactions to course materials. Qualitative results indicated a range …

Beyond Employment: Lower-Income Participants’ Experiences In A Healthcare Training Program For Medical Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians, And Certified Nursing Assistants, Skye N. Leedahl, Emma Pascuzzi, Karen Mccurdy, Nilton Porto

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of participant experiences in a healthcare training program for medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, and certified nursing assistants in areas beyond employment procurement or retention. During the year 2020, employment rates decreased and the cost of living increased. Those changes ultimately put lower-income populations at risk for not meeting the basic needs of life, as it became increasingly more difficult to obtain an adequately paying job. Healthcare training programs for lower income individuals allow for participants to gain the appropriate knowledge and experience required for working in the healthcare …

Informing The Development Of School-Based Strategies To Promote Children's Executive Function Skills: Considerations, Challenges, And Future Directions, Jennie K. Grammer, Sammy Ahmed

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

In recent years awareness of the importance of executive function (EF) skills for students' academic growth has increased. Research suggests that experience in school promotes EF development; however, recommendations regarding evidence-based practices that educators can use to support EF in their classrooms are limited. Here we outline two main reasons that this may be the case. First, there are significant challenges in the measurement of EF, which have implications for our understanding of how children use EF skills in support of learning in the moment and in real-world settings like the classroom. Second, there is limited direct research on the …

Financial Inclusion, Financial Capability, And Financial Fragility During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kyoung Tae Kim, Jing Jian Xiao, Nilton Porto

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: Financial inclusion can be proxied by banking status. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential effects of financial capability on the financial fragility of U.S. adults with various banking statuses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach: This study utilized the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) dataset to investigate the relationship between financial capability and financial fragility among consumers with different banking statuses. The analysis controlled for employment shocks, health shocks, and other consumer characteristics. Banking statuses included fully banked, under-banked (utilizing both banking and alternative financial services), and unbanked individuals. Logistic regression analyses were …

Feasibility Of Earthships As Sustainable Homes In Brookings County, South Dakota, Whitney Sunkwah Yeboah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Addressing the issue of housing deficit while providing affordable and sustainable homes is a significant problem in the United States today. This has prompted architects to design homes with less adverse environmental impacts despite their affordability, hence the birth of sustainable housing. Earthships are sustainable homes built from recycled materials, utilize solar or wind energy, and function as self-sufficient units. The study's main aim is to assess residents' perceptions of earthships and their willingness to adopt earthships in Brookings County, South Dakota. The research employs online surveys to garner data from residents, and data are analyzed using mixed methods. Results …

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Pck) Change And Professional Development For Educators: An Assessment Of A Master’S In Chemistry Program For High School Science Teachers, Mary Charlotte Bautista

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The M.S. Chemistry – Chemical Education Specialization program at South Dakota State University provides in-depth general chemistry coursework to in-service high school science teachers in a virtual format. The goal of the program is for the teachers enrolled to become more effective teachers while gaining content knowledge in chemistry; in essence, to increase their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The aim of this study is to follow participants through their experience in this program in order to understand how the program’s requirements enhance its participants’ teaching and learning. A narrative framework follows one participant through their two-year experience in the program, …