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Exploring Psychological Factors Behind Consideration Of Cosmetic Surgery Through The Lens Of Social Comparison Theory, Noriene Verma

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Cosmetic surgery refers to an extreme form of appearance modification whose sole purpose is to improve the appearance of the chosen area. Despite psychological concerns associated with repeated perform of cosmetic surgery, rates of cosmetic procedures are likely to increase in the coming years (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2020) and it warrants the need to study the potential motivators that encourage someone to opt for such procedures. Motivators of cosmetic surgery explored in this study are social media usage and self-esteem through the lens of Social Comparison Theory. Social comparison theory can explain the mechanisms behind one’s desire to …

The Role Of Shopping Orientations And Intrinsic Experiential Value In Consumer's Willingness To Follow Embodied-Ai's Advice In Fashion Shoe Stores, Christina Soyoung Song, Ji Young Lee, Dooyoung Choi

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study employs a synthesis of Intrinsic Motivation Theory with three shopping orientations, namely “adventure,” “idea,” and “personalized” shopping, in order to examine their potential influence on individuals' motivation towards shopping. We proposed that consumers’ experiential value of intrinsic enjoyment is an indispensable mediator that affects their willingness to follow EAI’s advice. The study offers novel insights into the way that consumers’ characteristics of influencing others’ clothing consumption affect their shopping motivations to find adventure and stimulation, keep up with new fashion trends and products information, and their preference to patronize stores and interact with store staff on a personal …

Higher Education Faculty Perceptions Of Chatgpt And The Influencing Factors: A Sentiment Analysis Of X, Yoseph Mamo, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke, Christine E. Nickel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, was released in November 2022, sparking a significant surge in global awareness and utilization of generative AI across various domains. Although recent studies have acknowledged the significance of ChatGPT in the education sector, they have yet to focus on exploring faculty attitudes toward ChatGPT. We gathered a comprehensive corpus of tweets containing “#ChatGPT” and “#highered” between November 30th, 2022, and April 30th, 2023. We analyzed data by triangulating VADER, NRC lexicon, and ground coding. Findings suggest that 40% of the expressed sentiments were positive, 51% were neutral, and 9% were negative. The study …

The Physiological And Behavioral Effects Of A Centrally Administered Oxytocin Receptor Antagonist On Maternal Buffering In Infant Guinea Pigs, Kendra A. Carter

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the role of endogenous oxytocin (OT) in maternal buffering of infant stress responses in guinea pigs. Infants received intracerebroventricular infusion of an oxytocin receptor antagonist (OTA) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) immediately before being placed with the mother in a novel environment for 60 minutes. Blood cortisol levels and behavioral responses, including vocalizations and crouching, were measured throughout the testing period. Results indicate only a significant effect of time, with cortisol levels increasing with time spent in the novel environment. Otherwise, no significant differences were observed either physiologically or behaviorally between aCSF and OTA conditions. This study …

Peer-Assisted Learning In Miller Analogies Tasks, Preston S. Menke

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to investigate the role of peer-assisted learning (PAL) on individual performance using a relatively complex Miller Analogies Task (MAT). I found that low-ability learners benefitted from PAL. Furthermore, this may be explained by a significant trust mechanism indicating that learners who correctly identified trustworthy peers had greater performance. I did not find support for a significant difference between PAL and individual learning conditions. This study provides evidence for the role of scaffolding, where low-ability learners may benefit from identifying who to guide them when engaging in a social peer-learning task.

Underuse Of Pragmatic Markers Among Non-Native English Speakers: Causes And Suggestions For Interventions, Arwa Abdullah S. Alqahtani

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Pragmatic markers (PMs)—those optional markers used in conversations to facilitate communication—have been gaining attention among researchers in the field of pragmatics in the past three decades or so. Proper use of PMs contributes to the success of any interaction in real-life conversations. However, they are often underused by non-native English speakers (NNSs). This paper critically reviews the existing research literature to investigate the causes of the underuse of PMs among NNSs, focusing on linguistic and extralinguistic factors that might contribute to the limited use of PMs. The findings of this study show that the distinctive nature of pragmatic development in …

Retracing Their Tracks: The Rediscovery And Memorialization Efforts Of The National Orphan Train Project, Joanna Lockwood

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Between 1854 and 1929, the placement system that became known as the orphan trains in modern scholarship, removed neglected and orphaned children from the dangerous streets of New York City and attempted to place them into homes across America that would benefit their futures. While this charity-run program was well-intentioned, the estimated two hundred fifty thousand children of the orphan trains experienced a mix of encounters upon their placements. Although many homes provided a caring environment for these children, others did not. After years of struggle during their early childhood, numerous children had not only lost their parents and were …

Examining The Relationship Between Toddlers’ Sleep Patterns, Negative Parenting, And Executive Function, Morgan Elizabeth Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Negative parenting can often be described as having three domains (i.e., laxness, verbosity, and over-reactivity, Arnold et al., 1993; Rhoades & O’Leary, 2007), which may have relations to toddlers’ behaviors, like executive function (EF) and sleep. However, this field is understudied, especially in early childhood development. One possible explanation for the lack of research in this field is that it can be difficult to study executive function in toddlers due to variability in the stability of regulatory behaviors and emerging regulatory abilities at this age range. Although positive sleep patterns (e.g., quality and quantity) have been linked to executive function, …

Detecting Cognitive Decline In High-Functioning Older Adults: The Relationship Between Subjective Cognitive Concerns, Frequency Of High Neuropsychological Test Scores, And The Frontoparietal Control Network, Justin E. Karr, Jonathan G. Hakun, Daniel B. Elbich, Cristina N. Pinheiro, Frederick A. Schmitt

Neurology Faculty Publications

Objective: Neuropsychologists have difficulty detecting cognitive decline in high-functioning older adults because greater neurological change must occur before cognitive performances are low enough to indicate decline or impairment. For high-functioning older adults, early neurological changes may correspond with subjective cognitive concerns and an absence of high scores. This study compared high- functioning older adults with and without subjective cognitive concerns, hypothesizing those with cognitive concerns would have fewer high scores on neuropsychological testing and lower frontoparietal network volume, thickness, and connectivity.

Method: Participants had high estimated premorbid functioning (e.g., estimated intelligence ≥75th percentile or college-educated) and were divided based on …

The Impact Of Poverty On Educational Achievement: Understanding Socio-Economic Barriers And Opportunities For Change, Amanda Sanz

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how poverty impacts education from preschool through high school and looks at factors such as home environment, early childhood education access, and mental health issues that contribute to the achievement gap. It draws attention to the ways that problems like food insecurity, unstable housing, and a lack of parental participation impact students' academic, emotional, and cognitive growth. The effectiveness and limitations of current programs, such as Head Start and Title I, in filling these gaps are reviewed. The study further emphasizes the need for equitable policies regarding education, school-based mental health resources, and early interventions in helping …

Brief Observation Of Social Communication Change To Evaluate Change In Autism Symptoms As A Treatment Response In A Semistructured Play Assessment, Camilla Woodard

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Measuring changes in autism symptoms as a result of treatment is a known gap in autism research and intervention. The Brief Observation of Social Communication Change-Minimally Verbal (BOSCC-MV) was designed to capture changes in social communication behaviors and other autism-related behaviors as a treatment response. In this study, the BOSCC-MV coding scheme was applied across different play observations from the BOSCC-MV and the Communication Play Protocol to compare the effect of semistructured play contexts with a familiar play administrator over time to determine if differences in social communication behaviors and autism symptoms would be observed. This research examined the impact …

The Effect Of State Anxiety On Working Memory Updating, Alexandra L. Mastrangelo

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Anxiety impairs cognition by operating to alter processing efficiency. When anxiety impairs efficiency, the capacity of working memory (WM) is confined especially for individuals who concurrently experience higher levels of anxiety (Yang et al., 2018). The updating function is a crucial process that operates within WM to replace and modify older with novel information to carry out complex cognitive tasks. However, if interference accrues from previously learned information (known as proactive interference, or PI), removing information from WM becomes more difficult. Because the relationship between state anxiety (SA) and WM is less understood compared to trait anxiety (TA), this study …

2024-2025 Lynn University Academic Catalog, Lynn University

Academic Catalogs

The 2024-2025 Academic Catalog initially published as a web-only document.

This is a PDF version, created by the Department of Marketing and Communication.

Ruling In The Shadows: Analysis Of The Supreme Court’S Use Of The ‘Shadow Docket’ And Its Effects, Emilee Smart

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The recent increased use of the shadow docket has left the public and scholars with unanswered questions about how procedures influence outcomes and behavior. Many of these shadow docket cases have been petitioned to the justices as emergencies in very important policy areas such as immigration, abortion, elections, and transgender rights. I collect a large dataset of all outcomes of the Supreme Court's shadow docket from 2010-2022. I examine the language the justices use to justify their decisions made using alternate procedures. I find unique differences in the justifying behavior of the justices as well as significant differences in the …

Regulating Producers By Randomizing Consumers, Michael B. Abramowicz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Consumer law aims to empower consumers with accurate information and to protect them from misinformation. For complex goods and services, however, mandated disclosure laws and other consumer law tools have had only limited success in helping consumers project their satisfaction and costs. Market responses, such as ratings, have limitations that have prevented them from compensating adequately for consumer law’s shortcomings. This Article describes how regulators could improve measurements of quality and cost by borrowing a tool from drug law: randomization. In designated markets, consumers who accept an incentive to volunteer would be randomized among two or more choices, and the …

Mandated Reporting And The Legal Educator's Duty, Cori Alonso-Yoder, Eve Rips

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

As lawyers and educators, law teachers often navigate systems that have failed to account for the needs of the communities that are subject to regulation. These same systems generally fail to appreciate the hybrid role exercised by lawyers who face competing demands as educators. A key example is the tension that exists for legal educators who engage students in clinical and other forms of experiential learning where questions of abuse or maltreatment of vulnerable community members may trigger mandated reporting to government officials. These laws can place legal faculty in the fraught position of needing to reconcile statutory reporting mandates, …

Value-Centered Lawyering: Reshaping The Law School Curriculum To Promote Well-Being, Quality Client Representation, And A Thriving Legal Field, Katya S. Cronin

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

For three long and harrowing years in law school, students learn to think like lawyers, to put their clients first, to interpret the law as it stands, to deftly advocate for positions they do not believe in, and to strive for successful and prestigious careers. These lessons help them develop analytical and advocacy skills, creativity and perseverance, a strong work ethic, and ambition. But there is a darker side to these learning objectives. What law students often take away from their time in law school is that their own personal beliefs, values, and experiences are irrelevant to the practice of …

The Relationship Between Self-Reported Depressive Symptoms At 3 Timepoints And Infant Sleep Practices At 6-Month Follow-Up In A Population Of Mothers In Santo Domingo, Ecuador, Kassidy Lane

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Abstract

Background

Previous studies have linked maternal depression with poor infant sleep (e.g., waking up at night and infants having trouble settling to sleep). This study examined the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms at three time points and safe infant sleep at 6-month follow-up.

Methods

Data was collected from a randomized clinical trial including 100 women recruited from a health center in Santo Domingo, Ecuador during their third trimester of pregnancy. Log-binomial regression was used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of safe infant sleeping at 6 months among mothers who reported depressive symptoms at 3 …

Empirical Insights Into Survivorship Care: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Coc Accredited Hospitals In Kentucky, Amanda M. Beckett

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

ABSTRACT

Background:

Cancer survivorship care programs play a vital role in supporting cancer survivors and improving their quality of life. Understanding the landscape of survivorship and the potential barriers is key to optimizing care delivery.

Methods:

The primary purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore existing cancer survivorship care programs offered by Commission on Cancer (CoC) accredited hospitals in Kentucky. Data from the Markey Cancer Affiliate Network (MCCAN) from 2022 through 2023 was analyzed. Variables included hospital characteristics such as rural code, types of survivorship services offered, and reported barriers to these services.

Results:

Analysis of n=19 CoC facilities …

Novel Cannabinoid Use Among Young Adults In Lexington, Kentucky, Victoria A. Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to implement a survey to estimate the prevalence of novel cannabinoid use among young adults in Lexington, Kentucky, and to examine modes of use and motivations for novel cannabinoid use. The primary hypothesis of this study was that many respondents would indicate medical reasons for using novel cannabinoids.

Methods: A cross-sectional primary data analysis of 101 young adults in Lexington, Kentucky to determine prevalence of lifetime novel cannabinoid use, past 30-day novel cannabinoid use, mode of use, motivation for use, and related demographic characteristics. Univariate and bivariate analysis were produced using the PROC …

Mccovid Campaign – A Social Media Implementation To Decrease Vaccine Hesitancy In Rural Counties, Harper Ford

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

This capstone will explore the challenges of vaccine hesitancy, a continuously rising problem in the public health field. The focus is primarily on rural millennials in McCracken County, Kentucky. The study identifies key factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy including misinformation, trust issues, and the rapid development of the covid-19 vaccine. To address the above concerns the study proposes a targeted social media campaign using the health belief model to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake through Facebook ads targeting millennials. The campaigns utilize the leverage of local insights and real-time data to enhance engagement and reduce hesitancy, focusing on adapting strategies based …

How Important Is Parental Involvement And Engagement In Preschool, Emilee M. Dixon

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to evaluate preschool classrooms’ parental engagement throughout the school year. Specifically, the study aims to assess if parents felt they received information to support their child's development, if the school offered engagement opportunities, and if the parents believed that engagement impacted their child. Research studies have shown or indicated that parental engagement is a key component to a child’s success. This study highlights the importance of parental involvement and engagement for children in preschool. The study involves reviewing a survey to gain a better understanding of when, how, and why parental involvement and engagement …

Group Vs. Individual Video Modeling For Acquisition Of Pilates For Individuals With Disabilities, Brittany Rounce

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This study presents findings from an alternating treatment design investigation into the efficacy of group versus individual video modeling in facilitating the acquisition of Pilates techniques among individuals with disabilities. The study aimed to assess how these different instructional modalities influenced participants' learning outcomes. The research involved a detailed analysis of two participants, with a focus on observing any variations in their response patterns during the acquisition phase. Through systematic data collection and analysis, the study evaluated the effectiveness of group versus individual Pilates video modeling. The results revealed distinct responses within the participant group, with one individual exhibiting differential …

Child Language And Happiness Behaviors: Evaluating The Effects Of Caregiver Coaching, Ashlen Grubbs

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Caregivers of young children who have or are at risk for disabilities may struggle supporting their child’s language development. This study used a tailored rapid coaching intervention to teach a caregiver different naturalistic language interventions that can be used with their child during play. Evidence-based naturalistic skills for increasing child communication were chosen to teach the caregiver based on baseline levels of skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a tailored RCI (training and coaching) with caregivers of children with developmental disabilities. Like other studies, this study involved evaluating child-level communication but extended child measures …

Pixels Or People: A Comparison Of The Differenital Effects Of Animated And Human Video Models On Exercise Behaviors For Hgh School Students With Intellectual Disability, Jade Alexis Fulkerson

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Individuals with intellectual disabilities, with or without autism spectrum disorder, often require structured programming to facilitate acquisition of skills. Video modeling, an evidence-based strategy, offers a promising avenue for skill instruction. While research has demonstrated the effectiveness of human-modeled video interventions, limited research has been conducted into the efficacy of animated models. Addressing this gap, the present study employed an alternating treatments design to compare the effectiveness of human and animated models in teaching exercise behaviors to high school students with intellectual disabilities, with or without autism spectrum disorder. Results revealed variability among participants: one individual exhibited superior performance with …

Multi-Tiered Professional Development System To Increase Paraprofessional Use Of Behavior Specific Praise, Lauren Phillips

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

To further support learning in self-contained settings, it is crucial for both teachers and paraprofessionals to implement effective classroom and behavior management strategies. Behavior specific praise (BSP) is one strategy that has been taught to teachers and used in general education classrooms to increase positive student outcomes (Gage et al., 2017) In this study, we used a multi-tiered system for professional development to increase paraprofessionals’ rate of BSP in a self-contained special education setting during one-to-one instructional activities. The results of this study indicated that Tier 1 professional development was sufficient for the paraprofessionals, and it not only increased paraprofessionals’ …

Trauma And Parenting: Are There Unintentional Effects?, A'Tora Hill

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The goal in conducting this study was to explore the effects of trauma across generations, if any were to be confirmed. This study, specifically, aimed to investigate whether parents reported having dealt with trauma and if their trauma had any impact on the way they parent their children. Research has shown that parents who have endured trauma take on different parenting styles and techniques than those who have not endured trauma. This study highlights the effects of trauma on those who encounter it as well as how it may transcend through generations through a survey. A key outcome of this …

The Effects Of Hierarchical Training On The Emergence Of Emotion-Related Metaphors In Autistic Children, Katherine Lynch

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Recently, research on derived relational responding has increased in volume, along with the publication of assessments, curricula, and textbooks on this topic. The allure of engineering derived relations due to purported accelerated learning makes this topic interesting to researchers and practitioners. Recent reviews have examined types of verbal operants, and specific relational frames studied in this body of literature, but there is scarcity in terms of the instructional procedures and variations thereof, and there is little available to focus on single case design (SCD) evaluations of these procedures. Hierarchical training (HT) to produce derived relations between arbitrary stimuli has shown …

Mapping Cooperation: Insights Into Colombia's Humanitarian Response To Migration From Venezuela, Liss Dayana Romero, Jose J. Padilla, Katherine Palacio, Erika Frydenlund

VMASC Publications

Introduction: Since 2015, Colombia has faced a significant humanitarian challenge, receiving 2.9 million displaced Venezuelans. This study examines organizational cooperation in the humanitarian response to this migration crisis, aiming to understand the coordination dynamics among key organizations and actors.

Methods: Our research combined interviews and web scraping to gather data on key actors and their relationships in the humanitarian response. We employed Social Network Analysis (SNA) to examine these relationships and the collaborative strategies among entities, focusing on how they address the migration challenges.

Results: The results indicate that cooperation occurred through mediated channels, where established NGOs collaborated via coordination …

Automated Classification Of Elementary Instructional Activities: Analyzing The Consistency Of Human Annotations, Jonathan K. Foster, Peter Youngs, Rachel Van Aswegen, Samarth Singh, Ginger S. Watson, Scott T. Acton

VMASC Publications

Despite a tremendous increase in the use of video for conducting research in classrooms as well as preparing and evaluating teachers, there remain notable challenges to using classroom videos at scale, including time and financial costs. Recent advances in artificial intelligence could make the process of analyzing, scoring, and cataloguing videos more efficient. These advances include natural language processing, automated speech recognition, and deep neural networks. To train artificial intelligence to accurately classify activities in classroom videos, humans must first annotate a set of videos in a consistent way. This paper describes our investigation of the degree of inter-annotator reliability …