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An Analysis Of The Amount Of Sleep And The Effects It Has On Athletic Capabilities And Routine Tasks In College Athletes, Carly Simonian, Kira Sheahan, Kylie Christensen, Darice Haywood

Concordia Journal of Communication Research

College student athletes are under a lot of pressure to accomplish all that is expected of them which may lead to other areas of their lives being neglected, including sleep. The amount of sleep a student athlete gets is crucial in their accomplishments both off and on the field. The researchers chose to investigate how the amount of sleep an athlete gets affects their day to day life. Specifically, the researchers explored the correlation between the amount of sleep an athlete got and how positively they rated their day through an online daily survey throughout a two week span of …

Use Of Intentional Play On Emotional Self-Regulation In Children With Trauma Histories, Erin Sullivan

OT Student Capstones

The purpose of this Capstone research project was to examine the impact of intentional play as a means to increase emotional self-regulation skills in children with traumatic histories and explore how Occupational therapists (OTs) can use such strategies while working with this population. The research was conducted at an emergency children’s shelter and consisted of an educational component for staff and direct contact with the children. Eight staff members participated, and data was gathered on 22 children (N=22) over a span of five weeks. An outcome measurement adapted from the Short Child Occupational Profile (citation needed) was used to obtain …

Creating A Social Communication Module For Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Erin Walton

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Research (Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden, 2017) shows that those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience poorer physical health and fewer opportunities for social interactions than typically developing peers. As the prevalence of ASD increases, it is essential to consider effective interventions that target multiple skill areas for individuals seeking therapy. Youth ages 9 to 17 with ASD may experience physical health and social communication benefits from the implementation of a social communication curriculum module that could potentially be incorporated with Bingocize®, an online application that incorporates bingo with physical exercise, as well as educational content. Social communication educational …

Expectation Versus Reality: Star Trek, Nyota Uhura, And The Female Role, Cecelia Otto-Griffiths

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In a media saturated world, there is an abundance of stereotypes perpetuated for women. Since the late 1960’s, however, Star Trek has been one example of how television and film can challenge stereotypes and what is considered normal. This study sought to understand the extent of change in how women’s physical and role representations are presented through the artifact of Lt. Uhura in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the 2016 film Star Trek: Beyond. Using feminist theory as a lens to conduct a content analysis of these films, this study used frequently identified “feminine” characteristics in …

Understanding Communication Dynamics In Group Home Setting, Jacinta O. Anyanwu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Purpose: Limited research has examined the communicative interaction patterns within group home settings between adults with developmental disabilities and their non-disabled direct care staff. There is evidence from studies that improving the communication pattern of caregivers will eventually lead to better interaction with residents. An approach that might clarify this issue is to have direct care staff who currently work in group homes describe their interaction with their residents. This study evaluated the communication pattern of direct care staff and their residents in group home settings by looking at the types of instructions that direct care staff use on a …

Group Involvement: Cohesion & Tensions Through Collaboration, Edwin Hernandez

Communication Senior Capstones

The importance of teamwork and group involvement is essential not only in school to complete a common goal, but employers need to know that you have cooperation skills and the ability to collaborate with others in a diverse setting effectively. As my roommates and I arrived from different parts of California into a rural small county called Humboldt, we all came for the environment, but perhaps for distinctively altered reasons. We looked to develop improved relationships as well as group communication within the confines of our living space. Additionally, the goal was to maintain and manage a clean environment within …

Post-Tonal Postcards: Communicating Analysis And Reflection Through Prose Writing, Angela Ripley

Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy

Postcard assignments provide a concise alternative to the traditional analysis paper. In this article, I outline a series of four postcard assignments developed for an undergraduate post-tonal theory course, discuss connections to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (particularly to Self-Determination Theory), and examine student responses and pedagogical benefits. Synthesizing analysis and reflection, each postcard includes a 300- to 500-word essay as its message and a single page of annotated musical examples as its picture. Students analyze complete compositions through the lenses of specific themes; for example, students discuss pentatonic collections and pitch centricity in Debussy’s “La fille aux cheveux …

Examining Communication Patterns And Identity In Families With Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Amber L. Alvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Deafness in the context of the hearing family attacks the backbone of the family structure, namely communication” (Ahlert & Greeff, 2012, p. 402). There is a link between communication and identity, specifically the role of communication on identity (Jung & Hecht, 2004). The purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing by investigating the relationship between family communication patterns and identity. In this study, I conducted in-depth interviews with the parents of children who are hard of hearing to investigate family communication patterns and identity. Using Family …

Parental Practices And Maternal Warmth As Protective Factors For Problem Behaviors In Mexican Preadolescents, Jaime Fuentes-Balderrama, Cinthia Cruz Del Castillo, Jose Ruben Parra-Cardona, Bernardo Turnbull Plaza, Angélica Ojeda García, Rolando Díaz-Loving

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Epidemiological estimates indicate that approximately 12% of children and adolescents in Mexico are in clinical ranges for psychological disorders. Low-income families in need of psychological support generally encounter understaffed and sometimes inefficient public health services and thus, families frequently constitute the primary source of support for individuals affected by mental health disorders. Empirical studies in the Mexican context have demonstrated that positive parental practices are associated with positive developmental outcomes and low levels of problem behaviors for both children and adolescents. This study aims to identify if such practices act as protective factors for problem behaviors in 306 Mexican students …

Communication Of Professional Readiness In Dietetics And Human Nutrition Undergraduates: A Pilot Study, Heather Norman-Burgdolf, Emily M. Dewitt, Nathan L. Vanderford, Julie Plasencia

Dietetics and Human Nutrition Faculty Publications

Learning experiences within the dietetics and human nutrition undergraduate curricula develop knowledge and skills pertinent to student career goals. Core competency requirements are extensively assessed in these programs, yet the communication of transferable skills gained and student professional readiness are rarely examined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate undergraduate students' perceived professional readiness following six professional development workshops on transferable skills and career preparedness communicated through resumes and personal statements. In this pilot study, twelve upper-level dietetics and human nutrition students self-assessed their resumes and personal statements with rubrics and completed surveys before and after the intervention. Following …

Information, Politics And Government Communication : Discourse Analyses Of The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency On Twitter, Nicolau Depaula

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Government communication is an important activity for society, during times of calm and times of crises. Moreover, social media have become widespread information and communication technologies for government agencies around the world. In the U.S. federal government alone, there are thousands of accounts on various platforms broadcasting multiple messages a day. However, there seems to be few analyses of government discourse on social media. Although content analyses of the posts of various types of government agencies around the world abound, the categories are narrow to specific events or are agnostic about details of semantics and language structure. In this study …

Does Common-Sense Communication And The Interpersonal Relationship Predict Oral Health Self-Management?, Kieran J. Maestro

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study sought to understand how patients’ perceptions of the nature and manner of communication with dental health professionals may impact their health self-management quality and habits in the context of preventable illness. Specifically, this study investigated the distinct and overlapping impacts of (a) communication based in the Common Sense Self-Regulation Model (CSM; Leventhal et al., 1980), and (b) the interpersonal relationship between the patient and the dental health professional provider on patients’ oral hygiene quality and habits. It was hypothesized that the interpersonal relationship would positively moderate a positive relation between CSM-based communication and patients' oral health self-management and …

A Randomized Control Trial Of Intensive Aphasia Therapy After Acute Stroke: The Very Early Rehabilitation For Speech (Verse) Study, Erin Godecke, Elizabeth Armstrong, Tapan Rai, Natalie Ciccone, Miranda L. Rose, Sandy Middleton, Anne Whitworth, Audrey Holland, Fiona Ellery, Graeme J. Hankey, Dominic A. Cadilhac, Julie Bernhardt, Verse Collaborative Group

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

Effectiveness of early intensive aphasia rehabilitation after stroke is unknown. The Very Early Rehabilitation for SpEech trial (VERSE) aimed to determine whether intensive aphasia therapy, beginning within 14 days after stroke, improved communication recovery compared to usual care.

Methods

Prospective, randomized, single-blinded trial conducted at 17 acute-care hospitals across Australia/New Zealand from 2014 to 2018. Participants with aphasia following acute stroke were randomized to receive usual care (direct usual care aphasia therapy), or one of two higher intensity regimens (20 sessions of either non-prescribed (usual care-plus or prescribed (VERSE) direct aphasia therapy). The primary outcome was improvement of communication …

Qualitative Analysis Of Occupational Therapists’ Reflective Notes On Practicing Their Skills In Building And Maintaining Therapeutic Relationships, Farzaneh Yazdani, Amy Stringer, Laya Nobakht, Tore Bonsaksen, Kellie Tune

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Previous research has shown that occupational therapists have increased their self-efficacy for using self intentionally in therapeutic encounters. However, experiences related to such changes have not yet been explored. The authors developed a therapeutic use-of-self training workshop to support the confidence and competence of practicing occupational therapists in using the Intentional Relationship Model and possibly enhancing their self-efficacy for therapeutic use-of-self. The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of practicing occupational therapists in transferring learning from a training workshop focused on the therapeutic use-of-self into real world practice. Thirteen occupational therapists participated in the workshop and subsequently …

Strategies For Increasing Workforce Engagement, Joanne White Hayes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The existence of disengaged employees can reduce productivity and increase organizations’ costs. Engaged employees are vital to many organizations and the success of organizational leaders. Grounded in Herzberg's two factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies managers used to increase employee engagement in the nonprofit industry. Participants were 3 managers in South Carolina who successfully implemented strategies to increase employee engagement. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using Yin’s 5-step method of analysis, and 3 themes emerged: providing clear and concise communication, recognition and …

When We Can’T Say Goodbye — Loss, Grief, And Dying During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Holly Nelson-Becker, Ann Callahan

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

How do we understand and manage our thoughts about death? How can we prepare for our own and the deaths of others for whom we care deeply? How can we communicate at times when our clients, significant others, or friends are dying? Finally, how do we say goodbye in haste or cope when we cannot?

This article addresses three complementary aspects of death and grief: death and loss for the one who is dying, death and loss for the person mourning, and death and loss for communities. Each section is informed by public health guidelines, statements by professional organizations, and …

Apart Yet Still Together: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of How Coparents Navigate Conflict Post-Divorce, Rebecca Anderson

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the experiences of parents choosing to coparent after divorce in an effort to understand the challenges and conflicts they encountered and how they managed those conflicts. The qualitative study included the experiences of 18 individuals, 9 mothers and 9 fathers through semi-structured interviews. Participants ranged in age from 31 to 52 years old. While all shared custody, they varied in custody arrangements. The number of years divorced ranged from one year to fifteen years. Parents had anywhere from one to four children between them. At the time of the divorce, children ranged in age from seven months …

“Rape Is A Four-Letter Word”: Psychosis, Sexual Assault, And Abortion In The 2012 Election, Sarah Stone Watt

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Republican candidates made headlines during the 2012 election for their offensive statements regarding rape when defending a comprehensive ban on abortion. Using Lacan’s theory of psychosis, this article exposes unconscious rhetorical structures that may have contributed to the repetition of those gaffes even after the Party advised all comments, during and after candidates’ attempts to retract their inaccurate statements, was the result of a foreclosure in the minds of some candidates. The discursive structure of their comments provides evidence that some candidates were unable to reconcile white patriarchal subjectivity with the inability to protect against rape.

Confronting Students’ Personal And Interpersonal Communication Anxieties And Needs Through Constitutive, Experiential Communication Pedagogy, Lawrence R. Frey, Emily Loker

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Today’s college students are experiencing unprecedented high levels of anxiety, resulting in devastating effects. This essay challenges communication educators to respond directly to this significant issue by employing an experiential pedagogy that offers students constitutive opportunities to initiate, experiment with, and receive feedback about new communicative behaviors that will enable them to interact well and achieve positive outcomes in high anxiety-inducing interactions. The essay explicates how that constitutive, experiential pedagogy informs the course “Communication and Human Relations,” enabling students to acquire communication competencies to reduce their anxiety about and to manage effectively their personal and interpersonal communication difficulties.

Communicating In Crisis Situations, Rick Gorvett, Chris Morse, Julie Volkman

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Communicating technical information, especially in a crisis situation and particularly when the audience does not share the technical background, is a challenge that actuaries frequently face. This essay describes the dynamics and issues involved in crisis communications and provides some recommendations for actuaries confronting such a situation.

Building Change Agility Within Teams, Tiffany N. Bersos

Theses and Dissertations

Change is necessary for an organization to be successful. However, poorly executed change, with ill-equipped leaders and unprepared teams, often result in failed efforts. Leaders can have a direct impact on their team's change agility and successful change initiatives. This study looked at team leaders and individual contributors across a variety of industries and explored ways that team leaders can build change agility. This study addressed three research questions: how participants defined the role of a leader, what individuals observed about themselves when at their best during a change, and what practices they believed would aid in building change agility …

A Look At Vision: Perspectives Throughout The Organizational Hierarchy Of The Christian University Context, William Kyle Brantley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research supports vision as a central tenet to leadership. Just as important as the content of vision is how it is communicated. However, once a vision is cast, far less is known about how it is communicated throughout the organization and how it influences members throughout the organizational hierarchy. For faith-based organizations like Christian colleges and universities, vision is particularly important as it serves to steer the institution toward a greater realization of its faith-based identity. This study contributes to the empirical research on vision, its communication, and its effect, as both the nature and impact of vision communication within …

Evaluating The Impact Of Marriage Renewal Workshop On Marital Satisfaction, Communication, Conflict Management, And Forgiveness: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Hien T. Kim Nguyen

Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of the Marriage Renewal Workshop (MRW) program for relationship satisfaction, communication skills, conflict resolution skills and levels of forgiveness among Vietnamese American married couple participants and their perceptions of the program's impact regarding these outcome variables. This evaluation mixed-method study employed a group of 64 participants who participated in before, after (using 4 closed-ended and open-ended questions) and six-week follow-up surveys and a group of 11 program participants who volunteered for in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were examined by using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann-Whitney U Test, whereas qualitative …

'Take 10 To Talk About It': Use Of A Scripted, Post-Event Debriefing Tool In A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Anastasi Gougoulis, Rory Trawber, Kathryn Hird, Greg Sweetman

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Aim: This study assessed the impact of a scripted, post-event debriefing tool in identifying logistical, procedural, personnel and performance obstacles and successes in a clinical setting. It was predicted that the debriefing tool would highlight the importance of routine debriefing following challenging clinical events.

Method: The study was conducted in a 22 bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a tertiary hospital and involved all staff members in the perinatal service. The debriefing tool, a two-page form providing a structured, scripted approach, was used at the earliest opportunity after acute clinical deteriorations, emergency caesarean sections and any other critical events as …

Supporting Safety Culture In Academia: Giving A Voice To Faculty, Emily K. Faulconer, Chelsea A. Lenoble

Publications

In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “The difference between mere management and true leadership is communication.” Department leaders have a vital role to play at all institutional levels when it comes to achieving an optimal safety culture that promotes safety voice behavior.

At the university level, this role is to help the university develop a solid foundation that will support a strong safety culture. At this level, it can be a challenge to mobilize and sustain the necessary resources to effectively develop and communicate a clear, consistent message that is aligned with implicit and explicit reward structures.

Conflict In Communication: Evaluating Potential Predictors For Pro-Social Communication Outcomes, Paul Javier Villa

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The importance of communication in every aspect of our lives cannot be understated, in many ways it is the foundation upon which society rests. As a result of communication being ubiquitous in nature, it becomes inevitable that at some point conflict will occur as competing ideas, world views, or beliefs are exchanged. This inevitability, therefore, necessitates researchers make attempts to better understand the role conflict tendencies can play in influencing communication variables that are generally understood to be pro-social. The researcher administered a questionnaire to 226 college students from one private university and three community colleges on the west coast …

Investigating Communicative Dissonance Within Relationships Of Adults With Asperger’S Syndrome (Asd Level 1), Bronwyn Maree Wilson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The key features of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) include marked and lifelong impairments in social interaction. Social interaction is a fundamental component of relationships. Despite the momentum of worldwide research on ASC, there is insufficient empirical study on adults with ASC and their relationships. Therefore, numerous myths, misunderstandings and confusion exist, especially in the area of adults with ASC, and autism-based impacts on the adults with ASC themselves, their relationships, and on the people who are in relationship with them.

Relationships that involve people with an ASC are often described as neurodiverse. Neurodiverse relationships that include one person with an …

Dentists’ Communication Skills As Determinants Of Patient Initiation Of Treatment, Nojoud Omar A Balubaid

Student Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In the medical field literature, studies allude to the importance of interpersonal relationships between the caregiver and the patient. Communication has been highlighted as a key factor that mediates the doctor to patient relationship. This study investigated the relationship between patient initiation of treatment with the patients’ perceptions of the quality of the dentist-patient communication. A cross-sectional study that solicited from patients seeking services at Nova Southeastern University Post-Graduate Dental Programs responses to a questionnaire that measured patient’s perception of the quality of communication of the attending dentist. The participants of the study were patients of the NSU Post-graduate dental …

Narrative Of The Wild: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Protected Areas Within The United States Of America, Isaac S. Reimer

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As conditions for the global environment continue to degrade and the climate crisis deepens, wilderness and protected areas (PAs) serve as a bulwark for sustainability goals. As much of the protections and strengths of PAs stem from the public’s opinion of them, this research seeks to further understand the communicative underpinnings of PAs. Utilizing autoethnography and applying it to a rhetorical framework, this study explores the constitutive qualities narrative in conjunction with the wilderness can possess. The results offer suggestions for future communication scholars and advocates to employ while discussing and communicating about the wilderness.

Was That In An Email? An Electronic Tool To Improve Nursing Communication Satisfaction, Jennifer A. Morgan

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Practice Innovation Projects

Background: Nursing communication satisfaction impacts engagement and turnover as well as patient care which affects organizational profits. Although direct care nurses report dissatisfaction with nurse manager communication methods, organizations and nurse managers do not utilize best practice strategies. In addition, there is a lack of high-quality implementation studies of best practice communication methods, specifically on obstetrics units, to assist managers in improving communication methods. Methods: An electronic communication tool was implemented on an inpatient obstetrics unit at a large tertiary hospital in the Upper Midwest. The tool was accessible on all unit computers on the SharePoint site. The project leader …