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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effect Of Teachers' Unions On Issues In School Reform, Katie Reed May 2009

The Effect Of Teachers' Unions On Issues In School Reform, Katie Reed

Public Administration & Policy

The thesis is divided into a number of sections. Part II examines some of the relevant literature on teachers’ unions and reform in education (specifically, merit pay, charter school, and school voucher reforms). The literature review presented in Part II is split up into two sections itself; Section A which examines the actual effectiveness of the aforementioned school reform programs on student achievement, and Section B, which examines literature showing the ways in which teachers’ unions impact school reform. In Part III, primary sources, including direct statements and information from teacher union websites and newspaper articles, are analyzed to determine …


Mortgage Lending Reform Finding Innovative State Responses To The Foreclosure Crisis, Leann Lu May 2009

Mortgage Lending Reform Finding Innovative State Responses To The Foreclosure Crisis, Leann Lu

Public Administration & Policy

In today’s American housing market, foreclosure can be seen as an epidemic resulting from the legal mass marketing of risky loan products and systematic overcharging of consumers in susceptible positions. Subprime mortgages are high-cost home loans intended for people with weak or blemished credit histories, and though they are intended to encourage and facilitate homeownership, not only did politicians create a flawed mortgage industry to push for this “American Dream” but it is arguably a manipulative industry that can easily be taken advantage of.1 Thus, current snapshots of the subprime market show that one in every five subprime mortgages made …


The Effects, Brain Targets, And Mechanisms Of Estradiol For Affective Behavior, Alicia Ann Walf Jan 2009

The Effects, Brain Targets, And Mechanisms Of Estradiol For Affective Behavior, Alicia Ann Walf

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although estradiol (E2) has numerous effects in the central nervous system, this review will focus on addressing the effects of E2 on behaviors related to mood in women and animal models and include recent findings from our laboratory related to this topic. E2's anti-anxiety and anti-depressant-like effects may depend upon many factors (e.g. age, reproductive history/status, time in E2 deficient state before initiation of E2 therapy, regimen and dosing of E2, neuropsychiatric/stress history). First, evidence of how factors may alter responses to E2 in people and in animal models will be discussed. Second, interactions of E2 with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis/stress …


Leadership Behaviors In Cross-Boundary Information Sharing And Integration : Comparing The Us And China, Lei Zheng Jan 2009

Leadership Behaviors In Cross-Boundary Information Sharing And Integration : Comparing The Us And China, Lei Zheng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study comprises a comparative analysis between the US and China regarding public sector leadership behaviors in the context of cross-boundary information sharing and integration. Based on the literature on leadership, public sector information sharing, and cross-cultural analysis, the research begins with an original case study in China set in the product safety and food safety policy domain. The case explores leadership behaviors of middle-level information leaders in the technological, organizational, and legal context of cross-boundary information sharing in this domain. Qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews and government documents. The data were analyzed with an inductive approach to …


Impulsivity, Offending, And The Neighborhood : Investigating The Person-Context Nexus, Gregory M. Zimmerman Jan 2009

Impulsivity, Offending, And The Neighborhood : Investigating The Person-Context Nexus, Gregory M. Zimmerman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A key assumption of the traditional trait-based approach to the study of crime is that personality traits cause people to act similarly across a wide array of contexts. This approach has been challenged for its failure to acknowledge differences in the social environments to which individuals are exposed. Similarly, community-level explanations of crime have been criticized for failing to acknowledge that there are important individual differences between criminals and non-criminals. Ultimately, a full understanding of crime requires the consideration of both individual and environmental differences, perhaps most importantly because they may interact to produce offending behavior. In particular, the influence …


Competitiveness And Addictive Behaviors : Exploring The Role Of Competitiveness And Gender In Exercise Dependence, Disordered Eating, And Alcohol Use, Holly Felicia Serrao Jan 2009

Competitiveness And Addictive Behaviors : Exploring The Role Of Competitiveness And Gender In Exercise Dependence, Disordered Eating, And Alcohol Use, Holly Felicia Serrao

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The current study explored whether or not trait competitiveness existed as an underlying factor contributing to the higher rates of exercise dependence, disordered eating, and alcohol use among athletes. Additionally, the study examined whether certain gender differences occurred, such that the relationship between competitiveness and disordered eating would be stronger for female athletes, the relationship between competitiveness and alcohol use would be stronger for male athletes, and the relationship between competitiveness and exercise dependence would be gender neutral.


Interoceptive Fear Conditioning And Panic Disorder Ii : Clarifying The Role Of Cs-Us Discrimination, Dean Thomas Acheson Jan 2009

Interoceptive Fear Conditioning And Panic Disorder Ii : Clarifying The Role Of Cs-Us Discrimination, Dean Thomas Acheson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite the role afforded interoceptive fear conditioning in learning theory accounts of panic disorder, there exists little research demonstrating such learning in humans. A recent study by Acheson and colleagues (2007) was the first to successfully demonstrate interoceptive fear conditioning in humans. The authors employed a single-cue fear learning paradigm with 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air as interoceptive conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (US) stimuli. The current study had two aims: 1) to replicate the results of Acheson et al. (2007) while improving upon the methodology, and 2) to clarify the role of CS - US discrimination in fear learning and extinction. …


Socio-Technical Processes In Interorganizational Emergency Response And Recovery Process At The World Trade Center, Bahadir Akcam Jan 2009

Socio-Technical Processes In Interorganizational Emergency Response And Recovery Process At The World Trade Center, Bahadir Akcam

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research explores the socio-technical processes in interorganizational collaboration by extending and elaborating a generic dynamic theory. The existing generic dynamic theory offers dynamic hypotheses about causal relationships between social processes and social accumulations based on a study of interagency information integration initiatives. The current study expands this theory and elaborates upon it using interview dataset from interagency collaboration during the response and recovery process following the World Trade Center (WTC) attack on September 11, 2001. Researchers at the Center for Technology in Government interviewed 29 responders in 2002 and 2003 to explore interagency collaboration in the context of information, …


Ghanaian Immigrant Children In The Bronx : A Case Study In Acculturation, James Baffour Asare Jan 2009

Ghanaian Immigrant Children In The Bronx : A Case Study In Acculturation, James Baffour Asare

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The aim of the current study was to examine the cultural adaptation process of the children of Ghanaian immigrants living in the Bronx, New York City. To this end, twenty-five Ghanaian immigrant children were interviewed. In an attempt to ascertain the extent to which these children have become acculturated to the host society and integrated into mainstream American culture, the focus of the interviews was on the impact of American culture on language, food, discipline, dress, religion, mate selection, and education. Interview participants were selected via snowball sampling. Employing a qualitative approach, I conducted face-to-face interviews consisting of open-ended questions …


Collaboration As Paradox : The Case Of The Patuxent River, Md Nutrient Control Strategy, Morris Bidjerano Jan 2009

Collaboration As Paradox : The Case Of The Patuxent River, Md Nutrient Control Strategy, Morris Bidjerano

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Collaboration has increasingly emerged in recent years as a new paradigm in public management. This collaborative trend, however, has contradicted the longstanding American political tradition of conflictual contestation of competing interests and adversarial legalism. Consequently, it has presented public managers with the challenge of dealing in reality with the "tensions between alternative forms of management practice" (Huxham and Vangen 2005, 245). In most accounts, watershed management has recently become a particularly active arena for that clash of opposing collaborative and conflictual managerial practices.


A Descriptive Analysis Of The Problems And Interventions Observed In Care Planning For Nursing Home Residents With Dementia, Dennis Gordon Chapman Jan 2009

A Descriptive Analysis Of The Problems And Interventions Observed In Care Planning For Nursing Home Residents With Dementia, Dennis Gordon Chapman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


Organizational Learning And Nursing Home Quality Of Care In New York State, Ting-Wei Chiang Jan 2009

Organizational Learning And Nursing Home Quality Of Care In New York State, Ting-Wei Chiang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The primary purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and nursing home quality of care (NHQC). The present study addresses OL through both descriptive and prescriptive approaches. The descriptive approach proposes a prism model that defines OL from psychological perspectives, structural perspectives, and cultural perspectives. The prescriptive approach illustrates how each dimension of OL can be improved by its corresponding organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs).


Sexual Harassment In Public Schools : Policy Design, Policy Implementation, And The Perceptions Of Employees Participating In Investigations, Katrina Lynn Bratge Jan 2009

Sexual Harassment In Public Schools : Policy Design, Policy Implementation, And The Perceptions Of Employees Participating In Investigations, Katrina Lynn Bratge

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study of two cases of sexual harassment investigates employee perceptions and organizational characteristics associated with policy and implementation procedures in two public school districts in New York State which experienced different outcomes to litigation in response to formal complaints of sexual harassment.


Critical Mass Or Critical Acts? : An Empirical Test Of The Relationship Between The Presence Of Women In State Legislatures And Their Policy Impact On Agenda Setting And Legislative Success In Fifty Sates, 1995 And 2005, Angela Chen Dalton Jan 2009

Critical Mass Or Critical Acts? : An Empirical Test Of The Relationship Between The Presence Of Women In State Legislatures And Their Policy Impact On Agenda Setting And Legislative Success In Fifty Sates, 1995 And 2005, Angela Chen Dalton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research on gender and politics often invokes Kanter's (1977) critical mass theory to draw a linkage between women political leaders' descriptive representation and substantive representation. Using the 50 state legislatures as the unit of analysis, I empirically tested the validity of the critical mass theory by investigating the relationship between women's share of legislative seats within lower chambers of state houses and their impact on legislative agenda setting and legislative success in 1995 and 2005. Based on the findings, I argue that the critical mass theory is of limited value in explaining women's policy impact and the field of gender …


Party System Stability In Latin America : A Comparative Study, Luis F. Clemente Jan 2009

Party System Stability In Latin America : A Comparative Study, Luis F. Clemente

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

It has been argued that party systems should always be on "working order" because stable party systems correlate with stable democracies, and whenever party systems become dysfunctional, democracy becomes dysfunctional as well. In Latin America, there is legitimate concern for party system stability precisely because of such outcome. Political parties in the region not only face internal and external challenges, but also the added pressure of being part of democratic consolidation. Most importantly, Latin American politics currently present a great challenge: how to restore citizen trust in political parties and party systems.


The Relevance Of The Supervisory Working Alliance To Burnout And Vigor Among Residential Frontline Staff, Laura M. Deihl Jan 2009

The Relevance Of The Supervisory Working Alliance To Burnout And Vigor Among Residential Frontline Staff, Laura M. Deihl

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The study tested hypotheses about (a) the perceived balance of personal resources experienced by residential frontline staff (RFS) to meet the challenges and demands at work and (b) the relevance of the supervisory relationship to support their job-specific wellbeing. Consistent with the Conservation with Resources (COR, Hobfoll, 1989, 1998; Hobfoll & Freedy, 1993; Hobfoll & Shirom, 2001) theory, burnout and vigor were measured by the RFS's reported levels of available personal energy resources.


Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations And Implementation : A Broad Examination Of The Politics Of Medicaid Disenrollment, Kathleen Marie Dalton Jan 2009

Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations And Implementation : A Broad Examination Of The Politics Of Medicaid Disenrollment, Kathleen Marie Dalton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Variation in the Medicaid program has frequently been studied across states, and considered a product of political, fiscal and administrative factors. Few studies have considered variation in Medicaid as a product of federal bureaucratic behavior. This study examines federal variation, and uses federalism, intergovernmental relations and public policy lenses to compare two cases where classes of recipients were being disenrolled from Medicaid, in apparent conflict with federal regulations. In one case, when individuals moved from county-to-county and became disenrolled in Medicaid, the federal bureaucrats used most of the implementation tools at their disposal to try to bring states back into …


Physician-Patient Communication About Patients' Sexual Activities And Substance Use : Information Exchange On Potentially Delicate Matters, Paul Michael Denvir Jan 2009

Physician-Patient Communication About Patients' Sexual Activities And Substance Use : Information Exchange On Potentially Delicate Matters, Paul Michael Denvir

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Previous interaction-based research has shown that physicians and patients collaboratively realize the routine character of comprehensive medical histories through their communicative behavior. A primary resource in this regard is the design of information seeking and reporting actions. Physicians seek information through closed-ended query formats and patients report information in fitted, minimal formats. This organization provides a relatively efficient way to address a wide range of health-related topics. One topical domain that has been described as sensitive and difficult is patient `lifestyle,' which typically includes discussion of sexual activities and substance use. In these domains, patients engage in some special interactional …


Investigating The Grief Process Related To Job Loss, Mary P. Donahue Jan 2009

Investigating The Grief Process Related To Job Loss, Mary P. Donahue

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Adults in the workforce face various psychosocial challenges over the course of their career. One of the most stressful life experiences is the involuntary loss of employment (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). This study explored psychological reactions to involuntary job loss and the overlap between reactions to job loss and bereavement loss. It was hypothesized that the pattern of symptoms reported by a job loss group would not differ significantly from a bereavement group. In addition, a second research question explored three specific contextual variables (social support, work salience, and time since loss) and their correlation with psychological outcomes of the …


Disordered Eating Among Collegiate Female Athletes : The Role Of Athletic Seasonal Status And Self-Objectification, Christy Duffy-Paiement Jan 2009

Disordered Eating Among Collegiate Female Athletes : The Role Of Athletic Seasonal Status And Self-Objectification, Christy Duffy-Paiement

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Over the past several decades there has been a significant increase in attention to the eating related beliefs and behaviors of female college athletes, particularly in determining whether certain subgroups of athletes are at greater risk than others. At seemingly greatest risk for eating disorders are athletes involved in sports where leanness is emphasized or a thin physique is required for performance or aesthetics. However, it remains unclear if differences exist between aesthetic lean and non<–>aesthetic lean sport athletes. It is possible that seasonal status is associated with the transience of eating disorder symptoms and the motivation to engage …


An Assessment Of The Positive Aspects Of Depression, Lisa H. Dulgar-Tulloch Jan 2009

An Assessment Of The Positive Aspects Of Depression, Lisa H. Dulgar-Tulloch

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Whether described as positive reappraisal coping, benefit-finding, or adversarial growth, perceiving benefits in physical illness has been associated repeatedly with positive long-term results. However, little research has explored whether those with mental disorders perceive similar benefits from their illness.


The Effect Of Family Allocentrism And Acculturation On The Tendency To Foreclose In Second Generation Indian College Students, Komal Dutt Jan 2009

The Effect Of Family Allocentrism And Acculturation On The Tendency To Foreclose In Second Generation Indian College Students, Komal Dutt

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Vocational literature on Asians Indians in America is plagued by such major problems as a severe dearth of theory-driven research to explain career process variables such as the process of committing to a career choice. During this process, individuals should ideally proceed through a sequence of stages or phases in which they progress from a relative absence of commitment to a phase in which their level of commitment to a career choice is strong (Super, 1957). However, individuals from Asian cultures may not progress sequentially through these stages, and might choose a path to career development which entails committing to …


Pleading Guilty For Life : An Exploration Of Plea Bargaining In The Face Of Death, Susan Ehrhard Jan 2009

Pleading Guilty For Life : An Exploration Of Plea Bargaining In The Face Of Death, Susan Ehrhard

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores decision making and the process of plea bargaining in aggravated murder cases. The study focuses on the extent to which, if any, the death penalty acts as a bargaining tool, inducing guilty pleas to sentences that would otherwise not be accepted, were the death penalty upon conviction at trial not a possibility. The role of the death penalty in this process is an important consideration and one that raises significant implications concerning the human and financial costs of capital punishment. Interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys in a state where the maximum punishment for murder is death …


Harm Reduction In Outpatient Drug-Free Substance Abuse Treatment Settings, Michael Eversman Jan 2009

Harm Reduction In Outpatient Drug-Free Substance Abuse Treatment Settings, Michael Eversman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the United States, drug-free substance abuse treatment programs generally operate under an abstinence-only, disease model based service orientation. Citing several reasons, critics suggest disease model approaches hinder client utilization and retention within such services. The framework of harm reduction offers an alternative approach to substance abuse treatment services and may have potential for improving utilization and retention outcomes. Yet little is known about how harm reduction is perceived by practitioners in drug-free substance abuse treatment settings, and the circumstances in which harm reduction may or may not be accepted. In addition, despite a body of narrative literature suggesting harm …


Ecotourism, Sea Turtles, And Livelihoods : Adaptation And Resistance To Development And Conservation In Mexico And Brazil, David Ivan Rezende Fleischer Jan 2009

Ecotourism, Sea Turtles, And Livelihoods : Adaptation And Resistance To Development And Conservation In Mexico And Brazil, David Ivan Rezende Fleischer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation's objective is to understand how two communities, Praia do Forte, in Brazil and Mazunte, in Mexico engage in development and conservation practices through work, protest and discourses. Development is represented here by ecotourism and conservation by sea turtle projects and environmental regulations. Sea turtle conservation projects in both locations represent the strong external intervention of the federal government and of the scientific community on traditional livelihoods. This dissertation analyzes both conservation project and ecotourism development using a comparative perspective via onsite ethnography.


The Role Of Attachment And Social Support In Vocational Maturity, Jason Gallo Jan 2009

The Role Of Attachment And Social Support In Vocational Maturity, Jason Gallo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Much research has been conducted to underscore the positive influence of a secure attachment style on numerous adaptive behaviors and the potential negative impact of insecure attachment. Previous research has shown a positive relationship between secure attachment and some elements of adaptive career behavior. However, thus far, the relationship between attachment and all dimensions of vocational maturity set forth by Super (1977) have not been studied. The first goal of the present study was to examine whether or not a significant relationship exists between attachment and all dimensions of vocational maturity. A sample of college students (n = 140) was …


Qualitative Information In Annual Reports & The Detection Of Corporate Fraud : A Natural Language Processing Perspective, Sunita Goel Jan 2009

Qualitative Information In Annual Reports & The Detection Of Corporate Fraud : A Natural Language Processing Perspective, Sunita Goel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

High profile cases of fraudulent financial reporting such as those that occurred at Enron and WorldCom have shaken public confidence in the U.S. financial reporting process and have raised serious concerns about the roles of auditors, regulators, and analysts in financial reporting. In order to address these concerns and restore public confidence, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 was enacted. However, SOX has not lived up to its promise. Numerous cases of fraudulent financial reporting have surfaced in the post-SOX era. So far, the major thrust of research has been on examining fraud that has already been discovered. This dissertation …


Change And Continuity In Mexico's Immigration Policy : How Civil Society Organizations Influence The Policy Process, Laura Valeria Gonzalez-Murphy Jan 2009

Change And Continuity In Mexico's Immigration Policy : How Civil Society Organizations Influence The Policy Process, Laura Valeria Gonzalez-Murphy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN MEXICO'S IMMIGRATION POLICY: HOW CIVIL SOCIETY INFLUENCES THE POLICY PROCESS


Self-Esteem, Self-Compassion, Defensive Self-Esteem, And Related Features Of Narcissism As Predictors Of Aggression, Cara Pharr Gottheim Jan 2009

Self-Esteem, Self-Compassion, Defensive Self-Esteem, And Related Features Of Narcissism As Predictors Of Aggression, Cara Pharr Gottheim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study sought to expand upon existing literature pertaining to feelings toward oneself and aggressive behavior. Specifically, global self-esteem, as well as two specific subsets of self-esteem, defensive self-esteem and narcissistic self-esteem, were examined as predictors of aggressive behavior. Additionally, the relationship between aggression and self-compassion, a recently introduced self-construct moderately correlated with self-esteem, was investigated. College students from a large Northeastern University were invited via email or through a brief classroom presentation to participate in this online study. A total of 181 students completed five surveys that were useable for data analyses: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Rosenberg, 1989), Self-compassion …


Explaining Torture And Its Reduction In A Police Department : A View From Below, Ahmet Guler Jan 2009

Explaining Torture And Its Reduction In A Police Department : A View From Below, Ahmet Guler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This is an ethnographic study of police deviance and police reform. This study investigates how organizational members rationalize the torture they perpetuated in the past, how they explain their sensemaking process and organizational identity change during the change process using empirical data from a counterterrorism division of the metropolitan police department (MPD) in a prospective member state of the EU.