Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons^™

Classification Of Urban Features Using Airborne Hyperspectral Data, Bharath Ganesh Babu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate mapping and modeling of urban environments are critical for their efficient and successful management. Superior understanding of complex urban environments is made possible by using modern geospatial technologies. This research focuses on thematic classification of urban land use and land cover (LULC) using 248 bands of 2.0 meter resolution hyperspectral data acquired from an airborne imaging spectrometer (AISA+) on 24th July 2006 in and near Terre Haute, Indiana. Three distinct study areas including two commercial classes, two residential classes, and two urban parks/recreational classes were selected for classification and analysis. Four commonly used classification methods – maximum likelihood (ML), …

A Program Evaluation: Therapeutic Playgroup For Preschool-Aged Children With Mental Health Needs, Denise M. Harden

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The understanding of preschool children has been explored in the fields of developmental psychology and early childhood education. The field of school psychology has also increased interest in the assessment of the social and emotional functioning of preschool children (Martin, 1986). Currently, there are changes in national education policy and societal pressures for systematic, professional assessment and intervention with younger children (Executive Office of the President, 1990). In addition, focus has been placed on the incorporation of evidence-based practices into assessment and treatment (Tolan & Dodge, 2005). Mental health services, in particular, aim to address the social and emotional needs …

Optimal Experience In Relationships, Activities, And Beyond: Connecting Flow With Self-Expansion, Brandy M. Dean

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flow is a state of optimal experience characterized by complete immersion in an enjoyable activity and has been associated with positive experience in activities. Self-expansion is a state of increase in the diversity and complexity of the self and has been linked with positive experience in relationships. Despite phenomenological similarities, the connection between these two states has not been examined. The current study used a correlational design to explore the degrees of overlap between these states by comparing them in general, situation-specific, and predictive contexts. It was expected that flow and self-expansion would occur at similar frequencies, be produced by …

Stressful Life Events And Interpersonal, Religious, And Spiritual Changes, Paul Murdock

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Survivors of stressful life events and traumatic experiences often report positive psychological changes “...as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances” (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004, p. 1). Three often reported areas of growth include having a greater appreciation for life in general, new priorities, and an increased significance placed on interpersonal, spiritual or religious issues. Despite reports of positive changes, the literature on stress-related growth (SRG) is inconclusive as to whether SRG is an illusion or represents actual change. For example, no studies to date appear to use longitudinal data, objective indictors, or behavioral measures of change. …

Professional Psychology Training Programs: Program Interventions And Prediction Of Doctoral Student Stress And Life Satisfaction, Crista Montgomery M.S

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A growing literature on professional training and practice of psychology advocates that psychologists must be educated on risks and effects of impairment and the importance of self-care. Despite the general recognition of the importance of these issues, they have not been incorporated into training standards such as the American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines and Principles of Accreditation (2007). In order to assess the approaches that programs currently adopt to address impairment and self-care, this study extended and updated previous research. A large sample of students (n = 591) enrolled in APA accredited doctoral training programs in professional psychology completed surveys …

Disorders Of Extreme Stress, Not Otherwise Specified, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, And Borderline Personality Disorder: A Vignette Study Exploring Clinicians' Diagnostic Perceptions, Awen Knowles

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that some individuals who suffer invasive, early childhood trauma develop significant character pathology, and may meet the criteria for both Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Trauma researchers have proposed a new diagnostic category for these individuals, called Disorders of Extreme Stress, Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS), also known as Complex PTSD. The present study compared clinicians’ symptom ratings for two case vignettes to determine if DESNOS was a better description of the cases than PTSD, BPD, or comorbid PTSD/BPD. Additionally, potential sex bias in diagnosis was examined by manipulating the sex of the client in …

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Sleep Disturbances: Consideration Of Familial Influences, Gretchen Stuckert Noble

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the extent to which parenting influences problems with sleep in children referred for an evaluation of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Data was collected from parents and/or legal guardians of sixty-three 4- to 12-year old children referred for assessment at an ADHD Evaluation Clinic located at a Midwestern university. Previous literature linking sleep problems to ADHD has typically derived from community and pediatric sleep clinic samples and has largely overlooked children with sub-clinical sleep impairments and/or those whose sleep problems stem from alternate etiologies. More than 60% of parents/caregivers in the current study reported significant child sleep difficulties. …

Pollinator Deception And Plant Reproductive Success In Jack-In-The-Pulpit, Joseph L. Pettit

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I conducted a study of the deceptive pollination system of Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisama triphyllum, Araceae) in forests of west-central Indiana. I focused on (a) determining the identities and abundances of insect visitors to spathes, (b) evaluating the success of female spathes in setting fruit, (c) determining the relative importance of pollinator visitation and plant size for fruit number, and (d) investigating the function of the female spathe’s lack of an exit hole, which has been hypothesized to improve pollination success. I found that (a) Jack-in-the-pulpit receives visits from both flies and thrips. Counts of fly corpses from spathes showed the most …

Website Compliance With Ethical Guidelines By Psychologists And Professional Counselors, Joseph Yazvac Iii

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is currently very little research investigating the ethical practice of etherapy, and none that distinguishes between types of therapists in terms of their compliance with ethical codes pertaining to e-therapy. The American Psychological Association does not have ethical standards specific to the provision of e-therapy but the American Counseling Association does. The purpose of this study was to assess differences in ethical compliance for e-therapy websites sponsored by psychologists and e-therapy websites sponsored by professional counselors. Specific ethics codes for the practice of e-therapy of the American Counseling Association were used to generate an assessment instrument, which served as …

Our Greatest Want: An Examination Of The Rhetorical Tendencies Employed By African American Female Abolitionist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), Lauren Deborah Nye

English

You are standing at the doorway of a church in Philadelphia. Looking in, you see a mass of heads, all turned toward the podium, waiting for someone to get behind that podium. Then you see her. She is an attractive African American with “a fair figure, long, lustrous hair, and facial features pleasant to behold” (Logan 49). You overhear one person comment that she looks like “a bronze muse” (Logan 31). A reporter will later write that she has “a strong face, with a shadowed glow upon it, indicative of thoughtful fervor, and of a nature most femininely sensitive, but …

Confronting Environmental And Social Crises: Octavia E. Butler’S Critique Of The Spiritual Roots Of Environmental Injustice In Her Parable Novels, Melissa Vargas

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

We are living in the midst of environmental and social crises. This fact was not lost on late African-American science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler, whose 1993 Parable of the Sower and 1998 Nebula Award-winning Parable of the Talents depict and critique the current environmental and social crises in the United States. Speaking of Sower in an interview with Essence magazine, Butler says that all she “did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters” (“Brave New Worlds” 164). In another interview with Randall Kenan, Butler describes environmental …

Becoming A Boy: Disability & Masculinity In Rodman Philbrick’S Freak The Mighty, Courtney Cohen

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Capstone thesis is a discussion of the various representations of disability in Rodman Philbrick’s children’s book and the film it was made into. In analyzing the characters, relationships between the characters and vernacular used within the text, I came to the conclusion that certain parts of the book, including the inclusion of not one, but two characters with impairments as main characters, serve to engage the book in a complex discourse with various concepts of disability and masculinity.

In order to place Philbrick’s text within a larger discourse of disability studies, I analyze it with regard to theories of …

Theodicy From The Inside: Viewing The Problem Of Evil Through Shoah Survivor Narratives, Sabrina Kaye Jurey

MA in English Theses

We can know the facts and details of the Shoah from history books and official records, but if we go no further than this, we cannot get the full picture. To truly glimpse what happened in the camps, we must turn to the accounts of survivors, of those who experienced and lived those facts and details. To truly look the Shoah in the face, we must look into the faces of these survivors.

It is for this reason, then, that when I began to dig deeper into theodicy studies, I turned simultaneously to Shoah survival narratives. Those who have suffered …

Jean Toomer And Carl Van Vechten: Identity, Exploitation, And The Harlem Renaissance, Phil Shaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Jean Toomer's Cane is considered one of the literary achievements of the Harlem Renaissance, though the many of his philosophical ideas which inspired it are dismissed. Inversely, Carl Van Vechten's influence as an advocate and patron of African American art is foundational though his Nigger Heaven is dismissed. However, there are commonalities in each authors identity positioning and subsequent exploitation of the black Harlem Renaissance ethos. Further, their utilization of Gurdjieffian principles of objectivity and primitivist images of blacks links and explains, in part, how their identities contributed to the ideas expressed in the novels.

Chester Himes: Experiences Stirred His Thought And His Pen, Chanté Calais

XULAneXUS

An effort to research the relationship between personal experience and the imaginative work of Chester Himes, this report explores the family life and experiences that fuel the apocalyptic theme of Himes‟ short story, “Prediction.” The confused and anxious feelings of the main character, alone in a small chamber containing the collection box of a Cathedral, parallels with the position of uncertainty in Chester Himes‟ own life. While black inferiority and white dominance are depicted throughout the pages of his short story, the underlying need for change is present as well. Just as Himes‟ character believes that the only solution for …

Pecan Grove Review Volume 11, St. Mary's University

Pecan Grove Review

Creative writings by students, faculty, and staff of the St. Mary's University community.

Race, Politics, And Public Housekeeping: Contending Forces In Pauline Hopkins’S Boston, Betsy Klima

Trotter Review

For Pauline Hopkins, the decision to present readers with a fictional yet faithful portrayal of urban African-American life centered in Boston, which at that time was the capital of African-American advancement, was political. In her introduction to Contending Forces (1900), she writes: “Fiction is of great value to any people as a preserver of manners and customs—religious, political and social. It is a record of growth and development from generation to generation. No one will do this for us; we must ourselves develop the men and women who will faithfully portray the inmost thoughts and feelings of the Negro with …

"Ain't You Heard"?: The Jazz Poetry Of Langston Hughes, Kristin Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

It all began with a piano bench. At the age of four, I sat next to my first piano teacher, as she told me the names of the keys. 'This is C, D, E . . . ," she said, her finger touching each key. moving through the entirety of a C-major scale. Afterward she asked, "Now. which one is F?" Though I touched the incorrect key, A instead of F, I remember being fascinated by the realization that I could create music by depressing those keys, making little wooden hammers strike strings in the piano's hidden belly. That fascination …

Dystopian Surface, Utopian Dream: Wittman Ah Sing Foresees Postethnic Humanity, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

"Dystopian Surface, Utopian Dream" examines the postethnic and the posthuman in fiction by Maxine Hong Kingston, Octavia Butler, and Isaac Asimov.