Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Political Ideology On The Persuasiveness Of Gainvs. Loss-Framed Climate Change Messages: Testing Competing Hypotheses, Sada Rice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Motivating climate change mitigation is a critical priority. This study examined how message framing (gain vs. loss) interacts with political ideology to influence persuasion. Two competing hypotheses were tested. The Regulatory Focus Fit Hypothesis predicted that liberals (promotion-oriented) would prefer gain-framed messages, while conservatives (prevention-oriented) would prefer loss-framed ones. The Differential Context Hypothesis predicted the opposite: liberals would respond better to loss frames due to alignment with threat-based media narratives, while conservatives would prefer gain frames due to lower reactance and perceived novelty. Messages were also tailored to match individual regulatory focus or the broader political context. Results did not …

The Meaning Of Spiritual Practices For Caregivers Of Children With Cancer In Thailand: A Heideggerian Phenomenological Study, Wipawee Ponkaew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Caring for children with cancer may bring short and long-term challenges to families due to added healthcare activities focused on the ill child or adolescent. Among available resources and support strategies, religiosity/ spirituality (R/S) have been increasingly identified as a source of comfort.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience and interpret the findings of spiritual practices for caregivers of children with cancer in Thailand. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit participants, with semi-structured interviews. Swanson’s Theory of Caring provided the theoretical underpinning of the study, and Deikelmann’s seven-stage process was adapted for …

The Changing Roles Of Elementary School Principals, Ernie Lozano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The role of the elementary school principal has changed throughout its history. The role has shifted from primarily a managerial role to an instructional leadership role, to the more current role of a multi-faceted operational leader. Recent events, from the Covid-19 pandemic to highly publicized school shootings, has added additional responsibilities to the current role of the principal. The current high-stakes accountability to ensure all students are learning has also added an increased amount of pressure on elementary school principals. The ability to effectively manage both the operational and instructional roles has created stress and anxiety on elementary school principals. …

Best Friends And Popular Peers As Sources Of Influence During Late Childhood And Early Adolescence, Mary Page James

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Across the transition into adolescence, changes in the child’s social world give rise to growing peer influence. As adult supervision declines and time with peers increases, children and adolescents become increasingly susceptible to influence from friends and popular peers. Unclear, however, is the relative magnitude of each and whether the scope of their influence varies across different domain behavior. Friends dominate private settings, where behaviors that promote reciprocity are particularly salient. Popular peers dominate public settings, where behaviors that promote hierarchy are particularly salient. The present study concerns the unique hypothesis that peer influence is domain specific, such that best …

Joy In Teaching: Examining Teachers’ Perceived Experiences Of Choice, Self-Efficacy, And Sense Of Belonging, Shellie Hennings-Donow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Teacher joy is a critical yet often overlooked factor influencing teacher retention, instructional effectiveness, and student outcomes. This study explores how teachers describe their experiences of joy in the workplace, focusing on the roles of choice, self-efficacy, and belonging. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory and Attribution Theory, this research examines the extent to which teachers’ perceived autonomy, competence, and relational support contribute to teachers’ professional fulfillment. Through qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, this study captures the perceptions of educators across diverse school settings. Findings reveal that teachers experience the highest levels of joy when they have meaningful autonomy …

The Interaction Of Temporal And Structural Abstractions And Their Influence On Behavior, Ryan Gallagher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in complex behaviors such as planning, decision-making, and adaptive problem-solving, which require integrating new information over time. Research has shown that information related to these behaviors is organized along a hierarchical rostro-caudal abstraction gradient in PFC, with abstract information represented in rostral (anterior) regions and concrete relationships in caudal (posterior) regions. Abstraction involves generalizing information by emphasizing broader concepts over specific details and can be understood more specifically by the context its applied to. However, past studies often confound different forms of abstraction, making it unclear how these different types of abstraction …

Is Infant Fear Related To An Increase In Maternal Stress?, Janairis F. Munoz-Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The impact of infant fear responses on mother stress throughout the first year of life was investigated in this study. Between six and fourteen months, thirty mother-infant pairs were examined at three different time intervals. Maternal responses from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) and behavioral observations made during standardized lab tasks were used to evaluate infant fear. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to measure maternal stress at all time points, and behavioral stress was coded during the first session. The findings showed no overall significant correlation between the mother's subjective stress and the behavioral fear of her infant. …

Top Management Team Composition And Financial Reporting Quality: A Faultline Perspective, Tyler Ricco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This study examines whether faultlines within top management teams (TMT) influence financial reporting quality (FRQ). Faultlines reflect hypothetical divisions within a group based on team members’ unique demographic characteristics and experiences. Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2003 to 2020, I construct a faultline measure based on executive gender, age, tenure, education, and board experience. I test whether faultlines negatively associate with FRQ, proxied by measures of restatements and accruals quality. I further investigate faultline type, based on the demographic (gender and age) and task-related (tenure, education, and board experience) components. The main results do not support the …

Personalized Persuasion In The Digital Age: A Data-Driven Approach To Effective Communication, Annye Braca

Doctoral

This thesis investigates the potential of Machine Learning (ML) to personalize persuasive marketing messages. It explores the identification of individuals receptive to specific persuasion techniques based on their psychometric profiles. By developing ML models that incorporate these profiles, the thesis aims to predict the impact of tailored messages and improve the effectiveness of marketing communication.

Decreasing Food Waste In Home Kitchens By Increasing Food Literacy, Thao Rich

Student Publications

In a world that produces enough food for all of its occupants, a staggering amount of it bypasses empty stomachs and goes into landfills every day. There it sits in a plastic bag, which delays decomposition and increases the harmful greenhouse gas emissions. There are numerous reasons for the inequitable distribution of food ranging from politics to logistics, but the fact is that each person can make a dent in reducing their carbon footprint by simply reducing the amount of food they place in the trash each week. Food waste reduction is a small goal that requires no additional spending, …

"We'll Never Get This Opportunity Again": Lived Experiences Of Platform-Based Gig Workers, Catey Hoehn

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Platform-based gig work has rapidly expanded in the United States, leading to growing concerns about economic precarity, algorithmic management, and the sustainability of labor performed through apps. Gig work has been accused of fostering exploitative conditions, masking control through the language of flexibility, and deepening cycles of debt and insecurity for workers. However, the lived experiences of gig workers often reveal complexities that differ from public narratives and company portrayals. This thesis builds on sociological studies of labor precarity to examine how platform-based gig workers experience, internalize, and resist algorithmic control. Utilizing qualitative semi-structured interviews, fifteen rideshare and delivery drivers …

Twice-Exceptionalism And The Complexity Of Supporting Students Who Are Both Gifted And Disabled, River Johnathon Taylor

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Drawing on ideas from disabilities studies about compulsory able-bodiedness as well as experiences of disability being fluid and context dependent, this study posits that giftedness, just like disability, is a complex multidimensional form of identity that is both context and temporally dependent. Twice-exceptionalism is defined as an identity in which an individual is gifted in at least one domain of human productivity and manifests at least one disability. Students with unique learning needs (students with disabilities, students with giftedness, and students with twice-exceptionalism) face many complex challenges within Humboldt County, California. Twenty-five educators from Humboldt County working across all grade …

"Gen Z Climate Being": Podcast Series On Youth, Climate Emotions, And Affective Climate Justice, Rachel Wynne Moszkowicz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

My project is a co-created 6 part podcast series with youth and the program lead from the Climate Mental Health Network’s Gen Z Advisory Board informed by affective climate justice, youth, mental health and education. This work foregrounds the embodied climate knowing and being of youth climate activists, offers ideas for a different relationship to climate change and climate education futures. In this podcast, Gen Zers speak to the youth mental health crisis as it relates to climate. My thesis project engages with and invites conversations that reflect the climate itself, which is non-linear, complex, porous, creative, expansive, and woven …

Resource Guide To Evidence Based Practices For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Guadalupe Cruz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project seeks to support new teachers who are in their first five years of teaching in the special education field using engaging and visually stimulating infographic tools. Through the analysis and review of evidence-based practices literature and NPDC training. This series of teacher-accessible resources compiles introductory information about 10 most commonly seen Evidence Based practices in the elementary special education settings. Through these resources, the goal is to increase informed decision-making among the IEP team, strengthen teacher confidence, and facilitate EBP implementation in the real-world setting.

Comparison Of The Division And Fairness Of Household Labor Between The 1980s And Early 2000s, Madeline Rose Provins

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The purpose of this thesis is to examine change in the gendered division of household labor between the 1980s and early 2000s. The division of household labor has historically been inequitable reflecting parallel social hierarchies, power imbalances, and systemic inequalities outside the home.

I used a cohort sample of 1,157 respondents combined from the 1988 Wave 1 of the National Survey of Family and Households (NSFH) and the 2003 Wave 3 to test four hypotheses related to gender and household labor. I found that between 1988 and 2003, the gender gap closed in mean hours a week devoted to indoor …

All Red Inside: Embodied Metaphor In Clive Barker's Books Of Blood, Ian Vargas

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The collection Books of Blood is an anthology series of short stories written between 1984 and 1985. Only two, the very first and last, have any unifying story. For our purposes we will be looking at stories in particular that exemplify the themes I am speaking about. Barker's writing often heavily focuses on the ways that the body stands outside the control of the individual, something that a person resides in and must always rely upon, but is not actually in their control in most senses. His horror explores the ways in which the human body is both the first …

Housing Cal Poly Humboldt Students, Andrea Santamaria

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Student Housing & Residence Life at Cal Poly Humboldt has been consistently critiqued for the shortage of spaces available and unsuitable student placements. Student input from a 2024 survey is used to call for affordable and equity-based housing accommodations. Results showed that the first factor students consider when selecting between housing options is Cost. More incentives are needed to recruit a higher number of students living on campus. 33.88% (41 students) prefer to live on campus regardless of obstacles or challenges. 66.12% (80 students) would rather live off-campus. Improving housing experiences can decrease low retention, graduation, and recruitment rates, as …

Grieving In Doorways: A Critical Autoethnographic Exploration Of Embodied Knowledge Amid Shifting Reality And Radical Possibility, Holly Rae

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis is a critical autoethnographic exploration of embodied knowledge amid shifting reality and radical possibility. Beginning and ending with my own body, I explore how grief, as an embodied companion, offers wisdom and power in moments of profound change. Rooted in a methodology of slowness, rest, walking, and active listening, this work resists the extractive pace of modernity and instead invites building a relationship with grief and discomfort. This research is an experiment in co-creating knowledge with bodies and their intersectionality within systems that would keep us separate from knowing our embodied knowledge. As a location of research for …

Investigating The Role Of Motivation In Open-Label Placebo Responses, Joshua Worthington

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Placebo effects occur when an individual receives an inactive treatment that should be unable to provide therapeutic benefits but still demonstrates meaningful improvements in health. Open-label placebos extend this phenomenon by providing full disclosure to individuals that they are receiving a placebo, as opposed to traditional placebo treatments that utilize deception. The role of expectancy as a mechanism of change in placebo has received some mixed results in open-label placebo studies. To the author’s knowledge, motivation for change has not been examined in open-label placebo. The current study examined the role of motivation as a mechanism of placebo responses. To …

Multi-Grade Classroom Professional Development And Curated Resources, Angie Marshall

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project aims to provide educators and administrators with a comprehensive compendium of resources for effectively designing and implementing instruction in multi-grade classrooms. Limited research exists to support teachers who may struggle with the complexities of teaching multiple grade levels within a single classroom setting. Traditionally, educators obtain their teaching credentials, secure employment, and are expected to effectively instruct the students. However, when assigned to a multi-grade classroom, the instructional demands become significantly more intricate and potentially overwhelming.

The objective of this professional development and resource guide is to equip teachers and administrators with a structured resource to enhance the …

Empowering Former Hispanic Student-Athletes To Become Leaders In College Athletics: An Identity-Specific And Assets-Based Leadership Training Program For Career Advancement, Raquel Orozco

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This work examines the complexities of navigating dual identities as emerging Hispanic women leaders in the spectrum of college athletes, and how Hispanic women can face personal and societal challenges when it comes to transitioning from college and then into the professional world.

By examining multiple assets that are rooted in Hispanic women’s culture, this project presents a leadership workshop by utilizing the ADDIE instructional design model. Each module of the workshop is clearly described, offering community building activities, self-reflections, and the opportunity to complete a leadership profile portfolio.

First-Year College Transition: The Role Of Psychosocial Resources In Student Motivation, Hayley Weatherill

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

First-year students transitioning to college culture have various areas of concern during this developmental period. Adolescents and young adults focus on creating and maintaining social connections while navigating a new environment and keeping up with their academics. With rising tuition costs, economic uncertainty, and pressing social challenges, many students enter college under significant stress. Navigating these challenges successfully requires motivation and support to persist through the first year and beyond. This project explored how college institutions support first-year students’ transition to higher education by helping students fulfill the three basic psychological needs of self-determination theory: autonomy, competency, and relatedness. When …

Uncertainty Reduction As An Underlying Motive For Optimal Distinctiveness, Chad Hinojosa

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Uncertainty-identity theory and optimal distinctiveness theory posit separate but related motives for social identity. Whereas there has been evidence supporting each theory, little research has investigated the overlap between the two. More specifically, the needs for assimilation (belonging) and differentiation (uniqueness) as postulated by the optimal distinctiveness model may be understood as derivatives of the desire to reduce uncertainty in one’s self and future. In this study, I investigated the overlap between these three motives for social identity by experimentally testing the mediating effect of self-uncertainty on the relationship between the needs posited by optimal distinctiveness and social identity. Participants …

Can Dyslexia Diagnosis Induce A Stereotype Threat Effect? A Literature Review And Research Proposal, David H. Harris

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Dyslexia is a recognized psychiatric diagnosis in the DSM-5, categorized as a specific language disorder. Dyslexia is a hidden disability that affects how individuals process auditory and visual information. Many people have heard of dyslexia but it is largely misunderstood, even by educational professionals, and its general association with learning disability can be the basis for negative stereotyping and discrimination of people with dyslexia. The ‘Stereotype threat effect’ is a term from social psychology research referring to situations where one’s performance on a task is influenced by their identification with a social group that has a well-known stereotype about their …

The Menstrual Cycle, Dual-Hormone Hypothesis, And Competition: Implications For Athletic Performance, Camille Burns

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Female athletes perceive that the fluctuating hormones of the menstrual cycle affect their performance. However, research on objective performance is inconclusive, partly due to a lack of studies conducted in real-world competitive contexts. Testosterone is often seen to be elevated near ovulation and is related to social competitiveness. Under the dual-hormone hypothesis, testosterone only predicts competitive behavior when cortisol is low. The current study had two goals: (1) to test whether the dual-hormone hypothesis applied to competitive drive and objective athletic performance, and (2) to examine whether competitiveness and the intensity of one’s response to competition varied across the menstrual …

Testosterone Reactivity And Parental Care Motivation In Men As A Function Of Parental Status, Nathan Boone

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Paternal investment and caregiving quality have lasting impacts on children's well-being. Children with sensitive, involved fathers typically develop more secure attachments and have fewer behavioral and psychological problems than children with less sensitive and involved fathers. While the importance of fathers’ engagement with their children is well established, the biological mechanisms that underpin paternal behavior are not fully understood. Previous research has found that baseline testosterone levels and testosterone reactivity to infant stimuli are both relevant predictors of paternal sensitivity. Short-term decreases in testosterone in nurturant contexts, and short-term increases in testosterone in challenging contexts have both been linked to …

The Effects Of A Yoga Intervention On Flexibility And Stress Of High School Students, Paige Mccollum

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study examines the effect of a four-week school-based yoga intervention on the flexibility and stress/anxiety levels of high school students. Eighteen freshman students, aged 13-15, participated in two 30-minute yoga sessions per week. Students’ physical flexibility was measured using the sit-and-reach and shoulder stretch tests from the FitnessGram. Stress and anxiety levels were assessed using the SCARED survey and Perceived Stress Scale surveys. Results showed a statistically significant reduction in school avoidance anxiety (p = 0.025) and slight improvements in lower-body flexibility among students with initially low flexibility. Other subscales from the SCARED survey and flexibility testing did not …

Goal Setting In Sleep And Nutrition To Improve Perceived Performance In Active College Students, Cameron F. Timmons

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study looked at goal setting in sleep and nutrition on healthy active college students aimed to improve their perceived performance, resting metabolic rate, body composition, and overall well-being. The six-week-long intervention had two groups: a control (n=5) and intervention group (n=6). Both groups received an initial coaching session and guidance for self-motivated online goal setting, completed weekly check-ins asking about their sleep and nutrition quality and quantity, and perceived performance, then they would set small goals aimed at improving their sleep and nutrition. The control group set their own goals every week with their online weekly check-ins, and the …

True Crime Podcasts As A Scene Of Feminist Reckoning: A Comparative Analysis Of My Favorite Murder And Sistas Who Kill, Rachel C.C. Matteri

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This research examines the cultural impact and ethical implications of true crime podcasts (TCPs). In recent years, TCPs have become a powerful cultural force, with White women often emerging as the primary storytellers and most visible participants in the genre. Their dominance in this space is not neutral and it carries representational weight. It explores the potential for feminist activity made possible by the auditory, self-publishing genre of podcasting. This work focuses on the buddy-comedy subgenre of TCPs. The concerns of this text are that TCPs are dominated by White feminist values and are not an intersectional feminist project. Textual …

Effects Of Teacher Reinforcements On Student Outcomes In Adapted Physical Education: A Meta-Analysis, Yaxeny Moreno

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The primary goal is to review the influence of reinforcement strategies in Physical Education (PE) and Adapted Physical Education (APE) settings, focusing on students with disabilities with the ages of 3-22. Reinforcement strategies, such as positive reinforcement/feedback, token economies, verbal praise, tangible rewards, and additional strategies are essential for fostering engagement and skill development. Literature has provided evidence and results to highlight the importance of applying evidence-based reinforcement strategies to which support the behavioral, social, and physical development of students in both Physical Education and Adapted P.E. settings. The purpose of this study was to review and analyze existing literature …