Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Indoctrination Into Hate: The Development Of Racial Neuroses Resulting From Racist Socialization Under White Supremacy, Aliya Kathryn Benabderrazak

Haslam Scholars Projects

Racial-ethnic socialization is critical to our unique and individual conceptualization of reality. This socialization occurs explicitly and implicitly across the lifespan and has significant implications for one’s behavior, social relationships, and ideological beliefs. Two of the most notable and impactful spheres in which racial-ethnic socialization occurs are within the family unit and schooling contexts. The treatment and teachings within these two spaces shape our social and psychological development. The first part of my project considers the neurosis of Whiteness as a psychological consequence of racist socialization within school settings and primarily White communities—as a macro example of the family unit—to …

“In The Skin I’M In…I Represent A Different Version Of What Help Looks Like:” Black Women Sport Psychology Professional’S Experiences In Applied Sport Psychology, Sharon R. Couch

Doctoral Dissertations

Black Feminist Applied Sport Psychology (BFASP) is a culturally inclusive theoretical framework for centering Black women’s experiences in applied sport psychology (Carter et al., 2020; Couch et al., 2022). For the past two decades, (White) Feminist applied sport psychology professionals (FASPPs) described the experiences of Black women as unique but were overlooked in research and participant pools due to the prioritization of White women's and Black male sport experiences. (Carter & Davila, 2017; Carter & Prewitt-White, 2014; Gill, 2020; Hyman et al., 2021). The purpose of this study was to explore the life and work experiences of BASPPs (i.e., faculty, …

Critical Political Thinking: An Analysis Of Undergraduate Students’ Higher-Order Thinking Skills And Preferred Political Values, Labels, And Leadership Traits, Maya Mingo

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study details the political values of students enrolled in an entry-level, multi-section educational psychology course at a large, southeastern United States university during the fall semester of 2017 (N = 167). Survey data were collected to identify the following: which political values and personality traits undergraduate students give the most priority when making political decisions, whether or not the political labels participants identified as most important to them are consistent with those common to their families, close friends, and childhood geographical regions, the quality of respondents’ self-reported label-value congruence, and the relation between the students’ critical thinking …

How Do You Design Your Practice? Understanding Volunteer Soccer Coaches' Behaviors In Terms Of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies, Takuya Hayakawa

Doctoral Dissertations

Many sports studies investigated elite performance level or experienced athletes whereas there are few studies addressing non-experienced or volunteer coaches’ perspectives. Empirically, the effects of self-regulated learning (SRL) in sports performers have been proven in a variety of athletes. Meanwhile, few studies have addressed coaches’ perspectives of using SRL strategies to facilitate their athletes to develop athletic performance. Furthermore, many studies of SRL in sports were rarely analyzed qualitatively in order to understand the meaning of behaviors related to SRL strategy use. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address volunteer youth soccer coaches’ understanding of self-regulation in athletes …

When Getting Good Grades Isn’T Enough: The Overachiever’S Transition To College, Sarah Littleton

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Problem-Based Learning In Human Growth & Development Counselor Education, Javier F. Casado Pérez Ph.D. Ncc, Elliot Witherspoon Lpc

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

As a core curricular standard that applies to all Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2015) accredited programs, human growth and development can present unique challenges for the teaching professional. In this article, we present an in-class activity grounded in problem-based learning that uniquely lends itself to the task of supporting medium-to-large classrooms in learning about human growth and development.

The Effect Of Familiarity On Learning With Video Clips Containing Seductive Details, Jonah Lee Ruddy

Doctoral Dissertations

Seductive information included in educational lessons can arouse students’ emotional and situational interest. However, research on seductive details across instructional modalities shows both helpful and harmful effects on learning. The seductive details effect describes the negative influence of interesting, but irrelevant, information on achieving learning goals. Results from studies of videos with relevant and seductive details in multimedia lessons are inconclusive. Prior knowledge of target information has been shown to moderate the seductive details effect. In this study, the moderating effect of prior exposure to, or familiarity with, seductive, rather than target, information was explored using a multifactorial design. The …

Targeting Difficult Multiplication Problems: Increasing Multiplication Fact Fluency Through A Learning Trials Intervention, Kelly Mccullough Thompson

Doctoral Dissertations

The acquisition of basic math facts is a necessity for elementary school students as it fosters skill development as math concepts increase in difficulty. Specifically, by the end of the fifth grade, students are expected to have mastered all basic one-digit by one-digit multiplication problems. Many students, however, do not become fluent with multiplication facts, particularly the most difficult basic facts (i.e., digits 6-9). The current study was designed to determine if a computer-based learning trials program could enhance automaticity with difficult multiplication facts. Further, we investigated whether the computer program targeting difficult facts could enhance fluency across all basic …

Laying Groundwork For The Use Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Constructs To Enhance The Identity Development Of Counselors-In-Training: An Exploratory Quantitative Analysis, Emma Christine Burgin

Doctoral Dissertations

Counselor educators aid counselors-in-training (CITs) in the process of professional identity development, which has its own challenges, such as managing anxiety and increasing self-awareness. One way proposed to enhance these therapeutic challenges is mindfulness. However, most research examining mindfulness in counselor education to-date lacks a standard theoretical framework, which may cause counselors to diminish the value of mindfulness in counselor training. One theory-driven concept of mindfulness comes from ACT, an empirically validated approach to counseling. It is possible that ACT could serve as a common language for educators to use when implementing mindfulness into counselor training, and thus, there is …

Living Alongside: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Impact Of Reflective Practice Training In Real Life, Patricia Randall Long

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this narrative inquiry (NI) was to explore, through personal narratives, the experience of the impact of Reflective Practice (RP) training (offered through an institute for collaborative communication housed within a large southeastern regional research one university) and subsequent practice on the day-to-day lives of two participants. While most published studies focus on RP impact during or immediately after training, this inquiry spanned seven months post training.

Field texts were generated from five open, non-structured interviews, journals, and field notes. The findings were framed within the NI commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place, as well as seminal theories …

The Discursive Construction Of Language Teaching And Learning In Multiuser Virtual Environments, Douglas W. Canfield

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to broaden how researchers within computer-assisted language learning (CALL) make sense of and examine psychological and power constructs at play in language courses conducted in 3D multiuser virtual environments. 18 students and 2 teachers in 8 formal English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in the 3D multiuser virtual environment of Second Life participated in a discourse analysis study to explore the theoretical and analytic ways in which critical discursive psychology could function to explore how teaching and learning are performed as interactional events in a community of language teachers and learners in Second Life by investigating …

Academic Choices Matter For Collegiate Student-Athletes, Kendra Arielle Berry

Masters Theses

As college athletics has grown during the last two decades, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing institution of college athletics in the United States, has renewed its focus on academic reform and the academic performance of student-athletes (Petr & McArdle, 2012). Athletic administrators and academic support units have started to exert a greater amount of control over student-athletes’ academic lives. However, research with general samples of college students has suggested that having some degree of autonomy is important for academic performance. This raises questions about whether increased control (and reduced autonomy) is actually in the best interest of …

The Effects Of Voluntary Versus Cold-Calling Participation On Class Discussion And Exam Performance In Multiple Sections Of An Educational Psychology Undergraduate Course, Brittany Ann Carstens

Doctoral Dissertations

Although class participation has been linked to improved student performance, little research has evaluated the effects of cold-calling versus voluntary participation. This study (N =156) determined the differential effects of voluntary and cold-calling participation practices on participation credit, uncapped magnitude of participation, participation rate, attendance, and adjusted exam scores. These dependent measures were compared between (a) voluntary and cold-calling conditions and (b) high and low participants under baseline (voluntary participation without credit and high-rate and low-rate participants). The use of voluntary and cold-calling procedures was alternated across units. Results were evaluated using mixed designs with repeated-measures across treatment units …

Theories-In-Use And Espoused Theories: An Examination Of Team Decision-Making In The Initial Special Education Eligibility Meeting, Heather Anne Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether education professionals’ theories-in-use were congruent with their espoused theories (Argyris & Schön, 1974) regarding the inclusion of parents as team decision-making partners in the initial special education eligibility meeting of individualized education programming (IEP) teams. Particular attention was given to procedural practices education professionals used to include parents as decision-making partners and their descriptions of this practice.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates the inclusion of parents as members of IEP teams, including their right to participate in the special education eligibility decision. Research supports the inclusion of parents …

The Relationship Between Demands And Resources And Teacher Burnout: A Fifteen-Year Meta-Analysis, Tammy Marie Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis explored the phenomenon of teacher burnout— the biggest contributor to teacher attrition (Owens, 2013; Unterbrink, 2014; Yu, 2015). The focus of this study was to use meta-analytical procedures to explore the relationship between burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of personal accomplishment) and specific demand and resource correlates. Demand correlates included work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and student misbehavior. Resource correlates included peer support, supervisory support, and decision-making. This meta-analytical research method encompassed fifteen years of published and unpublished studies from January 2000 through January 2015. A total of 116 studies met the following inclusion …

Adult Attachment, Emotional Intelligence, And Resilience As Correlates Of Social Engagement, Academic Engagement, And Confidence Of Persistence In College Students, Yacob Tewolde Tekie

Masters Theses

The current study investigated freshmen university students (N = 210) to examine the role of attachment style (anxiety, avoidance), emotional intelligence (repair, attention, clarity) and resilience in predicting student adaptation to college (academic, social, personal and academic engagement). Four multiple regression analyses were conducted for each subscale of adaptation to college. The results indicated that; a) emotional intelligence (attention, clarity) and resilience significantly predicted student academic adjustment; b) emotional inelligence (repair) predicted student social adjustment; c) emotional inteligence (clarity), resilience, and adult attachment (anxiety) significantly predicted student personal adjustment; and d) emotional intelligence (repair, clarity) and resilience, significantly predicted …

Analysis Of The Role Of Homework In Predicting And Improving Exam Performance, Charles E. Galyon

Doctoral Dissertations

Homework is one of many factors thought to improve students’ academic performance, given that homework provides a means for students not only to master course content, but also to develop valuable study habits, improve their time management, and learn to work independently. Unfortunately, college students commit considerably less time to homework than is conventionally thought necessary, and their answers to homework questions frequently indicate an erroneous and/or incomplete understanding of the course material. The current study examined relationships between potential predictors of and trends in exam performance in a large undergraduate educational psychology course. The relationship between homework completion, homework …

Early Identification And Improvement Of Variables Related To Course Success, Carolyn Anne Blondin

Doctoral Dissertations

The process of identifying and improving factors related to early exam success or failure in an undergraduate setting (Ed Psych 210) was divided into 2 separate studies. The first study was a retrospective analysis of 2 years’ of data that compared high and low performers on the first course exam with respect to their subsequent success in the course. Mean comparison between initially high (N = 158) and low (N = 163) performers revealed significantly higher means for those in the former group across several academic variables (i.e., critical thinking, grade point average, subsequent exams, practice exams, quiz …

Academic Work Ethic: Predicating Student Assignment Choice And Evaluating The Academic Work Ethic-Student Measure, John Thomas Parkhurst

Doctoral Dissertations

There were several objectives associated with the following three-study dissertation. The initial study was designed to replicate and extend previous research on the partial assignment completion effect (PAC), effort, and students’ assignment choice behavior. Our focus was to determine if individual differences, specifically work ethic, may explain why some students chose to continue to work on a partially-completed assignment as opposed to completing a different, lower-effort assignment. Our experimental and correlational results extended research on PAC and effort by suggesting that individual differences in work ethic may influence students to choose to finish what they started, even when it requires …

The Relationship Between Self-Directed Learning And Information Literacy Among Adult Learners In Higher Education, Tiffani Reneau Conner

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-directed learning and information literacy. Participants completed the Personal Orientation in Self-Directed Learning Scale ([PRO-SDLS], Stockdale, 2003) and the Information Literacy Test ([ILT], James Madison University, 2003). The PRO-SDLS is a self-report scale consisting of 25 statements about self-directed learning preferences in college classrooms. The ILT is a 60-item multiple-choice test that assesses the information literacy skills of college students. Correlation, ANOVA, and multiple regressions were used to test relationships and differences between self-directed learning and information literacy. Despite claims that teaching information literacy creates self-directed learners, composite scores …

Pushing Me Through: A Poetic Representation, Jessica Nina Lester, Rachael Gabriel

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

For many children and adults labeled learning disabled (LD), the very process of being identified and eventually labeled is oriented to as difficult to understand, disorienting, and just a taken-for-granted part of a system that names some ‘normal’, even gifted, while others are named abnormal. Minimal research exists that attends to the ways in which the official ways of talking about LDs are worked up in the everyday language of those most involved in the special education process, particularly the students themselves. Thus, in this article, we present, in an alternative form of writing (Richardson, 1997), a poetic representation of …

Balancing Student Participation In Large College Courses Via Randomized Credit For Participation, Daniel Fox Mccleary

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study was an extension of research reported by Krohn (2010), which showed that daily credit for self-reported participation in designated credit units tended to balance participation across students (i.e., fewer non-participants, more credit-level participants, and fewer dominant participants). The purpose of the current study was to determine if similar results would be achieved by randomly selecting half of the discussion days in designated credit units for participation credit.

The study was done in 3 large sections of an undergraduate class (approximately 54 students per class). Students self-recorded their in-class comments each day on specially designed record cards. At …

Decolonial Multiculturalism And Local-Global Contexts: A Postcritical Feminist Bricolage For Developing New Praxes In Education, Katharine Matthaei Sprecher

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a conceptual bricolage that explores complex, reflexive, and interrelated dimensions of educational praxes. My work is grounded in the assertion that the ever-changing, local-global nature of contemporary societies requires new approaches to curricula, pedagogies, policies, and practices in U.S. schools to meet the challenges and opportunities of a global era. Presenting my research and findings as four articles, I begin with a dialectical analysis of theoretical and pedagogical literatures to develop an adaptable framework for decolonial multicultural education. In Article 1, I demonstrate how this framework synergizes aspects of social reconstructionist and critical multicultural, global, and …

The Professional Quality Of Life Of Counselors In The U.S. Gulf State Of Mississippi Following Multiple Traumatic Events, Deirdre Juanita Anderson-White

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation was an exploratory research study using a cross-sectional survey design to examine the impact of ecological, environmental, psychological, and financial hardship on counselors of the U.S. Gulf Region. Since 2005, the U.S. Gulf Region, unlike any other region of the United States, has faced multiple disasters including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav (Walsh, 2010), the Great Recession (Conant, 2010), and the largest ecological disaster in the history of the United States, the BP Oil Spill (Gray, 2010). The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and characteristics of counselors in one U.S. Gulf State, specifically …

A Comparison Of The Wellness Levels Of Victims Of Domestic Violence With A Local Female Population, Tara Zeruie Harvey

Doctoral Dissertations

This research project is an investigation into the wellness levels of victims of domestic violence. Wellness was measured using the Five Factor Wellness Assessment by Meyers and Sweeney (2005). The research is grounded in a theoretical trifecta comprised of the works of Alfred Adler, Hiram Maslow and the global concept of wellness as defined by Jane Meyers and Thomas Sweeney. An exploratory factor analysis was run on the Five Factor Wellness Assessment to assess the goodness of fit for the population being studied. Wellness levels were assessed upon intake into a domestic violence shelter and compared with the national normative …

“Holla If You Hear Me”: A Conversation With Black, Inner-City Youth On Career Preparedness Programs, Theressa N. Cooper

Doctoral Dissertations

This research study specifically addressed; how vocational preparedness programs effect the career aspirations of Black youth, within the context of the Middle Tennessee Council Boy Scouts of America’s Exploring program. The goal of this research is to represent Black youth participating in a vocational preparedness program. Interviews, journals, and rich, thick descriptions are utilized in this work.

Using the lens of narrative inquiry and cultural studies, I hoped to further the field of career development through the experiences of some of its key players, African American youth. Within the context of their stories five major themes surfaced around the ideas: …

We're Not Thugs And Rappers: An Examination Of African American Male Athletes' Perceptions Of The Media, Keia Janese Bragg

Masters Theses

Manipulation of stories and events expose issues of false representation and stereotyping within the mainstream media. This research examined the media’s role in shaping the behaviors and experiences of African American male athletes while using Critical Race Theory as the framework in conducting research. A focus group consisting of six former African American male student athletes was conducted. A semi-structured interview schedule was used in order to allow for open discussion. The Constant Comparison Method was instrumental in thematizing the data while QDA Miner software was used to analyze the data. The findings suggested that African American male athletes feel …

An Examination Of Potential Mediating Factors On The Seductive Details Effect In Learning From Text, Emily Kay Rowland Bryant

Doctoral Dissertations

Seductive details (SDs) are interesting, but not necessarily relevant, information that may be included in text to capture students’ attention. Unfortunately, including such details often hinders learning. Schraw (1998) differentiated between context-independent (i.e., interesting without surrounding context) and context-dependent (i.e., interesting only in light of surrounding context) SDs.

In the first study, 388 undergraduate students read six paragraphs describing Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages (i.e., target material). Participants in four groups also read one of two biographical paragraphs. The biographical paragraphs contained SDs about Freud that were either context-dependent or -independent to the target material and presented before (primacy) or after …

Listening To Undocumented Mothers: The Experiences Of Undocumented Mexican Mothers Of High School Students Living In The U.S. And Receiving Social Services, Maria Alejandra Lopez

Doctoral Dissertations

The present dissertation is based on a phenomenological study on undocumented Mexican immigrant mothers of high school students who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and received social services. Most of these mothers have emigrated from rural areas of the central and southern Mexican States of Guanajuato, Michoacan, Queretaro, among others. According to the participants, socio-economic conditions forced them to leave their homelands hoping to find a better life in the U.S.

Ten undocumented mothers of high school students living in the U.S. were interviewed from a phenomenological perspective. They were monolingual Spanish speakers (only one …

The Biology Of Reality Testing - Implications For Cognitive Education, Neil Greenberg

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

• This report explores the proposition that teaching effectiveness can be enhanced by accommodating the key differences between two complementary and deeply engrained modes of reality testing, each predominantly centered in different hemispheres of the brain. • (1) Correspondence involves “reality-testing” of a percept, the cerebral representation of an experience in the world. • (2) Coherence involves “textualizing”, that is, reality-testing of a percept by how easily it relates to previous and ongoing parallel and collateral experiences. • Confidence in the validity of any percept throughout development is related to the interplay of these key processes. • As organisms develop, …