Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Male Vs. Female Emotional Expression In Text Messaging, Stephanie Gruner

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study focused on gender differences in emotional expression in text messaging. It sought to discover whether men or women use more emotionally expressive tools and words in texts and whether the gender of the person receiving the message affects a person’s emotional expression when creating text messages. Fifty female and fifty male college students completed a two-part study in which they created text messages displaying particular emotions according to given scenarios. The participants were instructed to create each message as if they were texting a member of the same sex, and then a member of the opposite sex. A …

Pronouns - A How To Guide, University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Lgbt Resource Center

LGBT Resource Center Instructional Materials

This Creative Commons material provides an easy reference on how to use pronouns. It also provides a non-exhaustive list of some of the pronouns that people use. The rest of the material also provides answers to some frequently asked questions about using the correct pronouns that others use. Additionally, it also provides a brief history of gender-neutral English pronouns.

Aim

Teach how to properly use the pronouns someone uses

Purposeful Engagement Of First-Year Division I Student-Athletes, Keith Harrison

Dr. C. Keith Harrison

This study examined the extent to which transitioning, first-year student-athletes engage in educationally sound activities in college. The sample included 147 revenue and nonrevenue first-year student-athletes who were surveyed at four large Division 1-A universities. Findings revealed that revenue and nonrevenue first-year student athletes differed regarding their academic and athletic identities. Transitioning revenue student-athletes rated themselves as having slightly higher athletic identities, yet lower academic identities compared to their nonrevenue counterparts. The findings from this study also indicated that the kinds of effective educational practices that first-year student-athletes engage in have a positive influence on their academic self-concept. These findings …

The Gendered Performance At The Beijing Olympics: The Construction Of Olympic Misses And Cheerleaders, Hongmei Li

Hongmei Li

This article analyzes the gendered performance at the Beijing Olympics by looking at the elite cheerleaders and Olympic misses, including medal and country presenters at the Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies. Drawing upon participant observation, unstructured interviews, media reports, and blogs, this article argues that the paradoxical construction of Chinese women stands for the broader context of Chinese modernity. The seeming paradoxes of tradition and modernity, and Oriental femininity and Occidental sexuality perpetuate old and produce new gender politics in China. The internally contradictory hybrid representation of gender in contemporary China contributes to feminist communication theory by illustrating …

Cancun Climate Negotiations, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, held from November 29 to December 11, 2010, in Cancún, Mexico, relaunched the United Nation's multilateral facilitation role.

Hegemonic Masculinity On The Sidelines Of Sport, Laura A. Grindstaff, Emily West

Emily E. West

Nearly a quarter of a century old, the concept of hegemonic masculinity as developed by R. W. Connell remains both influential and contested among gender scholars. In this essay, we use our research on coed cheerleading in the United States as a springboard to explore the bounds and limits of hegemonic masculinity as both cultural script and analytic construct. Cheerleading constitutes a public stage for ‘doing gender’ in ways that highlight normative, taken-for-granted notions of gender difference; consequently, we use cheerleading as a vehicle for asking under what circumstances and to what degree heterosexuality remains central to the enactment of …

Labor Pains In The Academy, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This piece offers autoethnographic reflections on crossroads to which many academics come: whether to seek (or postpone or avoid) parenthood and when. The author deeply explores the personal (her own trajectories from daughter and sister to potential mother and from graduate student to full professor) in order to reflect on structural constraints associated with graduate education, the academic job market, and institutional policies and politics.

Blackness As A Weapon: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The 2009 Henry Louis Gates Arrest In National Mainstream Media, Ashley Ann Jones

Theses Digitization Project

This study analyzed the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and USA Today's contributions to portraying the 2009 Henry L. Gates arrest. This study is interested in finding out how nationally circulated mainstream dailies and weeklies framed the indident and Gates' image within their news coverage. This study also seeks to find out how the media constructed race. Most importantly, this study seeks to uncover racial stereotypes as they relate to race and social status.

This Is Not A Love Story: A Semiotic Discourse Analysis Of Romantic Comedies, Stephanie Lynn Gomez

Theses Digitization Project

This study is an examination of the ideologies present in the highest-grossing romantic comedy from each year in the past decade. Because romantic comedies feature prominent romantic relationships, repeated exposure to romantic comedies may influence audiences' perceptions of what romantic relationships should be like. People who are exposed to media content depicting romantic relationships may rely on those portrayals when they are either considering beginning a new romantic relationship, or evaluating a current romantic relationship.

Slave To Fashion: Masculinity, Suits And The Masciste Films Of Italian Silent Cinema, Jacqueline Reich

CMS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Commercialization On The Perception Of Hip Hop Culture And Black Culture In Mainstream Culture In The United States, Chris A. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is examines how the perception of a sub-culture can be altered by a dominant culture. Specifically this project addresses the effects resulting from the assimilation of Hip Hop Culture by mainstream culture in the United States, and its subsequent use as a marketing tool. Because Hip Hop Culture originated in Black Culture, the perception of Black Culture as reflected by hip hop music is also discussed. All of these themes are addressed creatively through a narrative script project.

Through My Mother's Eyes: The Lifelong Journey Of Raising Children With And Without Disabilities, Lucie P. Lawrence

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the use of narrative, this study sought to document the life-altering journey of 32 mothers raising children at various stages of development and with a variety of disabilities. The main questions guiding this research study consider the lived experiences of mothers raising children with and without disabilities; what these mothers reveal about the journey with their children; how these mothers define motherhood; and how their definition of motherhood differs for each of their children. To address the research questions and capture the narratives of participants, a two-pronged qualitative methodology was applied, using diaries compiled by participants and in-depth interviews …

Fashioning The Self: Performance, Identity And Difference, Jessica L. Neumann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project will examine cultural and rhetorical communication studies to determine how these modes of analysis can be compared with interdisciplinary literature to better understand the role fashion plays within everyday performances and the shaping of identity. Criticisms by second-wave feminist scholars have focused on the fashion industry's overarching male influence; in more recent scholarship, feminist academics have often considered an affinity for fashion to be un-feminist and oppressive. I argue that fashion can instead be viewed as a tool for female agency and expressing individuality, rather than just a mode for reinforcing gendered norms. Using feminist rhetorical analysis …

Coparental Communication, Relational Satisfaction, And Mental Health In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study tested a series of actor–partner interdependence models of coparental communication, relational satisfaction, and mental health in stepfamilies. Participants included 127 couples (N = 254). Results revealed 2 actor-oriented models whereby parents’ and stepparents’ coparental communication quality positively predicted their own (but not their partners’) satisfaction and mental health. A final model revealed that parents’ relational satisfaction mediated the effect of coparental communication on their own mental health. A similar pattern emerged for stepparents, although coparental communication continued to have a direct, positive effect on stepparents’ mental health. Importantly, parents’ coparental communication produced an inverse partner effect on stepparents’ …

Ex-Spouses’ Relational Satisfaction As A Function Of Coparental Communication In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Aimee E. Miller, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study tested a series of actor-partner interdependence models of coparental communication and relational satisfaction among ex-spouses living in stepfamilies. Participants included 41 ex-spousal dyads (N = 82). Results revealed two actor-oriented models whereby ex-spouses’ supportive and antagonistic coparental communication predicted their own (but not their ex-spouse’s) relational satisfaction. A second set of models revealed that nonresidential parents’ supportive and antagonistic coparental communication with the residential stepparent predicted their own satisfaction with their ex-spouses, as well as their ex-spouse’s satisfaction with them (i.e., a partner effect). Importantly, the findings demonstrate the interdependence of coparenting relationships in stepfamilies, as supportive coparental …

Perceptions Of Masculinity And Career Specific Gender Stereotypes, Brian A. Golden

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Career gender bias is the tendency for men or women to resist work in careers that tend to be dominated by individuals of a specific gender (nursing, public relations, elementary education, child-care, police, fire, manufacturing). This study posits that current university students exhibit career gender bias and classify certain Bureau of Labor Statistics job classifications as male, female or unisex occupations. Furthermore, with use of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) scale, this study attempted to understand if masculinity, femininity, or androgyny gender identity influences college students’ perceptions of career gender stereotypes and ultimately their view about the growing or …

Sexuality, Exoticism, And Iconoclasm In The Media Age: The Strange Case Of The Buddha Bikini, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

It is widely acknowledged that we in the West are living in an age of both rampant consumerism and competing religious faiths. In addition, those of us living in the United States of America inhabit a society with striking variation when it comes to what is considered appropriate sexual or bodily display, especially when it comes to women’s bodies. The hullabaloo surrounding Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” brought to light some of these tensions, at the single most important religious spectacle in America, no less, the Super Bowl. Though admittedly less well known, another recent scandal even more clearly raises …

Homemaker To Seductress: A Content Analysis Of Gender Stereotypes In Online Embedded Advertisements, Danica L. Stith

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Countless studies have documented and analyzed the presence of gender stereotypes in print and television advertisements, but very few have been performed on online advertisements. While the World Wide Web is no longer an exciting new domain for us, researchers are only beginning to analyze the vast number of gender stereotypes that are presented to viewers on a daily basis. The proliferation of gender stereotypes (specifically female stereotypes) is obvious in print advertisements and television advertisements, but do they also abound in online advertisements? In my research, I performed a content analysis of online embedded advertisements, specifically in three types …

Re-Examining “In A Different Voice” For The New Millennium, Brittany Morris

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice (1982) first presented the concept of different moral reasoning as key to understanding how men and women seem to arrive at different conclusions in similar situations. Contrasting her work with the influential model of Kohlberg, Gilligan argues that women’s concept of moral decision-making is inherently relational, rather than reflecting the acceptance of abstract justice deemed to be the highest level of decision-making by Kohlberg. Here, I explain this contrasting perspective, and then examine modern integration of Gilligan’s perceptions as seen through print and broadcast media.

"Fourth World" Values In A Spanish-Language Newspaper Serving An Immigrant Community, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

This study operationalized the Four Worlds model for mass media values in a new context — that of a foreign-language newspaper serving a recent-immigrant community within a First World society, namely a Hispanic community in central Arkansas, in the United States. The study established baseline representations of previously described “First World” and “Fourth World” values in a mainstream central Arkansas newspaper, and in Cherokee and Koori newspapers. The study speculated that the central Arkansas Hispanic community exists with a measure of physical and cultural separation from mainstream society — arising from informal barriers such as socioecomomic status, residential neighborhoods, language, …

Play Education Video Games On Their Terms, Wendi M. Kappers

Publications

It is imperative when utilizing educational video games in K-12 classrooms that student preferences with regard to game play, purpose, and design be considered in order to maximize game play efficiency for learning. As Web 2.0 content infiltrates our educational medium, student customization is key. This manuscript intends to share customization requests gleaned during an 18-week experimental study examining educational video game effects upon 7th graders enrolled in Mathematics and Mathematics 2 courses.

Tax The Rich, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

White College Students' Explanations Of White (And Black) Athletic Performance: A Qualitative Investigation Of White College Students, Harrison

Dr. C. Keith Harrison

No abstract provided.

A Conceptual Model Of Academic Success For Student-Athletes, Keith Harrison

Dr. C. Keith Harrison

Concern over the academic talent development of Division I student–athletes has led to increased research to explain variations in their academic performance. Although a substantial amount of attention has been given to the relationship between student–athletes and their levels of academic success, there remain critical theoretical and analytical gaps. The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual model to understand and explain the cumulative processes and characteristics—as a whole and in stages—that influence academic success for Division I student–athletes. Research on student–athletes and academic success is reviewed and synthesized to provide a rationale for the basic elements of …

Beyond Tolerance: Consciously Using Universal Energy Laws, Discernment, And Harmonious Relationship Principles, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

Every day we, as human beings, maneuver through a myriad of circumstances in our individual and collective life spaces. Central to our experiences is the nature, kind, and quality of our relationships. When we encounter differences (racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, economic, sexual orientation, the mentally and physically challenged), a common issue that often emerges in our experiences is the extent to which we use tolerance in relating to other people and circumstances. For this reason, I want to discuss the nature of tolerance and its limitations, and how to move beyond tolerance by consciously using Universal Energy Laws, discernment, and …

Tax The Rich, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

Fed up seeing your life become increasingly stressed with more debt and less cash in your pocket? Michael I. Niman has the answer, in three words