Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Death And Dignity, Michael Gardner

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This paper discusses the contemporary debate over physician-assisted suicide and focuses specifically on Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. Because the majority of the states have yet to pass legislation on physician-assisted suicide, the greatest debate over the legality of euthanasia is yet to come. This paper addresses the arguments for and against physician-assisted suicide with the purpose of educating the reader regarding the social, moral and ethical consequences of allowing or denying its practice.

Redefining Immutability: Utah's Model For Advancing Lgbt Rights, Zachary Herzog

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This paper attempts to explain the Supreme Court’s recent efforts to expand the definition of immutable rights to protect LGBT Americans and argues that gender identity also be included in that definition. States should expand this definition in their own constitutions and do so in a way that protects the interests of the LGBT community as well as other demographics. Utah Senate Bill 296 is a good example of how this definition can be successfully expanded, and should be a model for states in which LGBT antidiscrimination legislation has been less effective.

Leaving Behind Self-Righteousness: Using Mutual Respect And Compromise To Solve Emerging Conflicts Between Religious Liberty And Same-Sex Marriage, Benjamin Issa

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This paper attempts to provide a reasonable framework for thinking about religious liberty issues following the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Following the decision in that case, which requires states to wed same-sex couples, there has been a national debate about when - and if - religious business owners can discriminate based on sexual orientation. This issue pits religious liberty organizations against LGBT rights organizations, and leaves both sides feeling demonized and misunderstood. This paper advocates a more nuanced approach, and suggests that reasonable compromise is possible if we are willing to leave behind self-righteousness and instead engage …

The Systematic Neglect Of Inmates Suffering From Substance-Use Disorder In The American Prison Systems, J Lyons

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

While the problem of crime and its perpetuation is multifactorial and inherently complex, the mental and physical health of criminals falls under the legal oversight of the penal system. Prisoners have a legal right to quality medical care—a right that is often forgotten and neglected by society at large and, more specifically, the court system itself.

Workplace Discrimination And The Inefficiency Of The Ellerth/Faragher Defense, Kimberly F. Medina

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This article addresses the growing problem of workplace discrimination. Even though a few states have implemented laws requiring employers to train their employees on workplace discrimination, the number of discrimination claims has continued to rise each year. In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled on two important cases regarding workplace discrimination. Their opinion on these cases established what is known as the Ellerth/Faragher defense. The Ellerth/Faragher defense sets standards that an employer must meet to claim affirmative defense in cases of illegal discrimination. This article argues that the current standards set in this defense are flawed and need to be updated. …

Abstinence-Only Sex Education On Trial, Kendall W. Orton

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Title V abstinence-only sex education funds are used to fund programs that do not reduce sexual activity, STDs, or pregnancy in high school students, contrary to the purported goals of public school sexual education. This paper outlines the history and legal and social research regarding sexual education. It also argues that comprehensive sex education does not violate the Establishment clause or Free Exercise clause by applying the Lemon doctrine. This paper advocates that the United States government should only fund comprehensive sexual education models that have shown positive results and promote healthy attitudes about sex.

Child Prisoners: Asylum-Seeking Detainees In The U.S. And The Violation Of The Flores Settlement Agreement, Miriam L B Sweeney

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The Flores Settlement Agreement allows for asylum-seeking minors to be released from detention if the minors are in unsafe circumstances. Children are experiencing physical and mental harm in asylum-seekers’ detention. This harm constitutes a lack of safety. Therefore, the current conditions of detention for asylum-seekers violate the Flores Settlement Agreement.

The Battle Of Birthright Citizenship, Joshua White

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This article examines the legal case behind denying birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born on U.S. territory and thereby correcting the present interpretation of the Citizenship Clause. Currently, children of illegal aliens born on U.S. territory are automatically granted citizenship jus soli. This removes the sovereignty of the American citizen by supplanting the citizen with an illegal alien in determining who can become citizens of the United States. To resolve this problem, Congress must enact legislation specifically restricting birthright citizenship from children of illegal aliens. While other articles focus on the morality of accepting refugees or illegal …

Reevaluating The Constitutionality Of Blanket Primaries, Soren J. Schmidt

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

I argue that the Supreme Court’s ruling in California Democratic Party v. Jones should be reconsidered and overturned, allowing states to adopt blanket-primary election systems. Given the crucial role that primaries play in the public process of elections, parties’ rights of association should not trump the right of the people to select their own representatives. In Jones, the Court applied a stricter constitutional test than necessary, leading to an erroneous conclusion. I demonstrate why a more flexible test would have been more appropriate for judging primary elections. Under this alternative test, public state interests are weighed against party rights injuries. …

The Mediating Role Of Relational Aggression Between Neuroticism And Couple Attachment And Relationship Quality In Long-Term Committed Relationships, Sarah Annis Eliason

Theses and Dissertations

Much of the literature regarding relational aggression in romantic relationships has focused on the behaviors and outcomes of the actor and victim independently. Additionally, the relationships studied usually cover emerging adult samples, and rarely expand to long-term committed relationships, such as cohabiting or married couples. In this paper I sought to determine if relationally aggressive behaviors in long-term committed relationships over time resulted as a function of individual predictors (e.g. neuroticism), or as a process of couple interactions (e.g. couple attachment); and how these traits directly and indirectly (through relational aggression) influenced relationship quality. An Actor Partner Independence Model (APIM) …

The Effects Of Fluency Training On The Acquisition And Retention Of Secondary Students' Fraction Skills, Jani Dawn Ashbaker

Theses and Dissertations

Secondary students, especially those with learning disabilities, often lack an understanding of computations involving fractions. Much of the secondary math core, especially algebra, requires an understanding of fractions to be able to successfully complete core classes. Instruction on fraction concepts in not part of the secondary core standards. These students are expected to already have this knowledge. There is a need for students with learning disabilities who struggle with fraction computations to receive instruction on fraction concepts in addition to their core instruction. This study used direct instruction and fluency practice as an intervention to teach basic fraction skills to …

Burial Plots: Finding Theatre In The Thanatology Of Colonial North Coast Peru, Connie Ericksen

Theses and Dissertations

Spain's invasion of the Andes initiated a social drama unprecedented in the experience of the Andean natives. Spanish and Spanish-conscripted native chroniclers wrote extensively about Inca pageantry, spectacle, and ritual, and hastily attributed pagan belief to performances they witnessed or heard about. With equal haste, the Spanish appropriated performance as means of introducing and enforcing Christianity. In this thesis, I treat performance as the central feature of Andean Colonial transition. Performance may be viewed as an ephemeral feature of the Andean transition but fortunately, in mortuary performances (dealing with death and treatment of the body); there are many theatrical elements …

Differences In The Motivations Of Chinese Learners Of English In Different (Foreign Or Second Language) Contexts, Rui Li

Theses and Dissertations

This study employed the L2 Motivational Self-System (Dörnyei, 2005) as a framework to compare differences in the types of motivation reported by Chinese learners of English in a foreign language context (China) and a second language context (USA). It followed up on studies by Taguchi, Magid, and Papi (2009) and You and Dörnyei (2016). The participants consisted of 61 current students at an American university who come from Mainland China. This study adopted a mixed-method approach, using an internet-based questionnaire followed by an individual interview. The investigation aimed to explore what types of English learning motivation Chinese students have in …

Spanish Heritage Bilingual Perception Of English-Specific Vowel Contrasts, John B. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Theories of lexical storage differ in how entries are encoded in the lexicon. Exemplar-based accounts posit that lexical items are stored with detailed acoustic information, while abstract accounts argue that fine acoustic detail is removed and an item is stored in more basic phonological units. These separate accounts make distinct predictions about cross-linguistic and bilingual perception. Studies asking participants to compare non-native vowels have shown that people tend to associate multiple non-native phonemes to a single L1 phoneme when the contrast between the two does not exist in the L1. However, several studies have shown that the ability to discriminate …

Social Withdrawal And Psychological Well-Being In Later Life: Does Marital Status Matter?, Melanie Mei Serrao

Theses and Dissertations

Personality researchers have described dispositional traits to typically show stability over the life course and yet one such trait, shyness, has rarely been examined in later life. Shyness as a global trait has been linked negatively to multiple psychological indices of childhood well-being, including loneliness. Despite the fact that older adults may be already at risk for experiencing heightened loneliness, regret, or decreased fulfillment, research has not assessed these experiences in relation to personality in later life. In recent years, withdrawal research has begun to move past shyness as a global trait to examine the motivations behind socially withdrawn behavior. …

Nabataean Subadult Mortuary Practices, Courtney Dotson Ewert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides the beginnings of further research on the correlation between Nabataean mortuary practices and specific biological age ranges. It seeks to answer the question of whether Nabataean infants were absent from, or under-represented, in Nabataean cemeteries. Several quantitative analyses and descriptive statistics were performed, comparing Nabataean adult and subadult burials from fourteen sites. Nabataean cemetery populations were also compared with Walter Scheidel's model life table. These analyses demonstrate that Nabataean burials typically consisted of either a single adult or multiple individuals of various age ranges. Subadults, individuals under the age of 20 years, were rarely found buried by …

Women In Community Corrections In New York City: Hiv Infection And Risks, Nabila El-Bassel, Phillip Marotta, Stacey Shaw, Mingway Chang, Xin Ma, D Goddard-Eckrich, Tim Hunt, Karen Johnson, Sharun Goodwin, Maria Almonte, Louisa Gilbert

Faculty Publications

Although the incidence of HIV among women on probation, parole and alternatives to incarceration programs is significant to public health, drivers of this concentrated epidemic among women under community corrections remain understudied. This study examined prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections and the associations between substance use, sociodemographic factors and the prevalence of biologically-confirmed HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among a sample of 337 substance-using women recruited from community correction sites in New York City. Prevalence of HIV was 13% and sexually transmitted infections was 26% (Chlamydia, trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhea). After adjusting for covariates, HIVpositive women were …

Evaluating The Dimensionality Of Pornography, Dean M. Busby, Hsin-Yao Chiu, Joseph A. Olsen, Brian J. Willoughby

Faculty Publications

Pornography may be a construct with a single trait or one with many traits. Research in the past was inconsistent in this regard with most researchers assuming that pornography was unidimensional (with one single trait of pornography). However, the considerable amounts of residual variation found in these studies beyond that explained by the single trait hints at what might be a multidimensional construct (with multiple traits such as sensitization and differentiation). Consequently, in this study, we intended to address the question of whether pornography consisted of a single trait or if it was multidimensional. Using MTurk, 2173 participants from the …

Are Our Policy Makers On Board? What Policy Makers Think Of The Social Determinants, Health Disparities, And Health In All Policies, M. Lelinneth B. Novilla, Michael C. Goates, Spencer Calder, Tabetha Ellis, Kraymer Eppich, Laura A. Galvao, Noyra Melissa Quintana, David Mateos

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: We impact our health by “how we manage our affairs in society.”¹ The unequal distribution of power, money, and resources creates a collective social milieu with disparities in health between and within countries. Tackling health inequities require addressing the health implications of the “toxic combination of poor social policies and bad politics.”¹ But how do U.S. policy makers view the social determinants of health?

OBJECTIVE: Determine U.S. policy makers’ awareness for the social determinants of health, health inequities, and health in all policies; identify the social determinants of health perceived as legislative priorities; list factors identified/perceived …

American Prosperity Faces The Music, Douglas E. Archibald

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

If music influences people, what influences music? Intuitively, it is inspired by cultural traditions, changes in technology, and the zeitgeist of nations. On an even deeper level, it is inspired by demand. People will not buy music that does not give them utility. Now, how can someone know what type of music is in demand, or will be in demand? What factors influence music demand, and by studying these can future music trends be predicted? The purpose of this study is to discover how the economic well-being of a nation influences the demand for certain types of music, and if …

Early Exposure To Expository Texts: Administering The Eeca-R2 To Preschoolers, Annika Stark, Barbara Culatta

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Children are exposed to a variety of narrative texts from a young age. However, young children are not given this same amount of exposure to expository texts. Expository texts inform and describe as they expose a child to factual information. There is a current need in early childhood education for an assessment tool that helps teachers gauge young students’ expository text comprehension skills. In 2005, Dr. Kendra Hall-Kenyon, Dr. Janet Markham, and Dr. Barbara Culatta collaborated to develop an assessment tool to address this problem. The tool was titled the Early Expository Comprehension Assessment (EECA) and was found to be …

Communication Patterns, Spousal Influence, Relationship Quality, And Genetic Testing In Regards To Colorectal Cancer Prevention, Kaitlynn Wright, Wendy C. Birmingham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancer types in the United States. Having CRC in one’s family history is one of the strongest risk factors for this cancer, suggesting a genetic influence in developing CRC. While this cancer can be deadly, many steps can be taken to reduce one’s risk of getting CRC by making healthy lifestyle choices such as improving one’s diet, maintaining a healthy BMI, and engaging in an exercise regimen. Receiving CRC screening is a highly effective method for reducing one’s risk for the disease, however many with CRC in their family histories do …

Understanding Utah’S Water Resources Through The Red Canyon Bristlecone Pine Tree, Shawn Wortham, Matthew Bekker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this research project is to properly cross date samples of the Bristlecone Pine Tree in order to learn more of the past, present, and future of Utah’s Water Resources. Under the mentorship of Dr. Bekker, we will take both living and dead cross sections of the Bristlecone Pine Trees found in Red Canyon, UT and add them to a tree ring database with hundreds of other samples. This will build a master chronology of tree ring measurements to help our team to discover more about the water supply for Utah.

Re-Ordering Utterances Using Transition Probabilities Among Randomly Assigned Grammatical Tags, Emily Duncan, Ron Channell

Journal of Undergraduate Research

It was our desire to investigate further, using a computer model, how children acquire language. Specifically, we decided to investigate how children learn how to arrange grammatical tags (i.e. grammatical categories: verb, adjective, etc.) into the proper order. Originally, we were going to investigate how an evolutionary algorithm could improve the degree of accuracy in re-ordering grammatical tags. However, we decided to branch off of a previous study to gain a better understanding of the potential of a computer model to re-order the grammatical tags with just the tag transition probabilities. In her thesis last year, Katie Shaw Walker, a …

Four Year Effects Of Couple Relationship Education On Low And High Satisfaction Couples: A Randomized Clinical Trial, W. Kim Halford, Riyad H. Rahimullah, Keithia L. Wilson, Stefano Occhipinti, Dean M. Busby, Jeffrey Larson

Faculty Publications

Objective: Relationship education (RE) usually is conceived of as relationship enhancement for currently satisfied couples, with a goal of helping couples sustain satisfaction. However, RE also might be useful as a brief, indicated intervention for couples with low satisfaction. The current study evaluated the effect oof RE on couples with low and high relationship satisfaction. Method: The study was a randomized controlled trial in which 182 couples were randomly assigned to: a book reading control condition (control); RELATE online assessment with feedback and relationship goal setting (RELATE); or RELATE with CoupleCARE (RCC), a flexible delivery skill-based education program. Couples …

Latino Adolescent Substance Use: A Mediating Model Of Inter-Parental Conflict, Deviant Peer Associations, And Parenting, Sergio B. Pereyra, Roy A. Bean

Faculty Publications

Substance use among Latino adolescents continues to be a growing concern for researchers and clinicians. This paper reviews relevant literature regarding the impact of inter-parental conflict (IPC), deviant peer associations (DPA) and parenting behaviors, namely as parental support, psychological control, and parental monitoring knowledge on substance use among Latino adolescents. Although mediating models of IPC and similar parenting behaviors on adolescent externalizing behaviors have been represented in empirical studies, none have included the influence of peer associations or have analyzed these factors with substance use among Latino adolescents in the U.S. This study investigated direct relationships of IPC and DPA …

Managing Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback: Perceptions Of Experienced Teachers, Rachel A. Messenger

Theses and Dissertations

Error correction for English language learner's (ELL) writing has long been debated in the field of teaching English to learners of other languages (TESOL). Some researchers say that written corrective feedback (WCF) is beneficial, while others contest. This study takes a look at the manageability of the innovative strategy Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback (DWCF) and asks what factors influence the manageability of the strategy (including how long marking sessions take on average) and what suggestions experienced teachers of DWCF have. The strategy has shown to be highly effective in previous studies, but its manageability has recently been in question. A …

The Effects Of A Buddy Bench On Students' Solitary Behavior At Recess, Andrew Alan Griffin

Theses and Dissertations

Students with internalizing behaviors are often overlooked in terms of receiving interventions that could change academic outcomes and prevent problems that could have serious implications, including social withdrawal, social isolation, and suicidal ideation. Recent research has found the use of social emotional learning (SEL), school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS), and social skill instruction, to be effective in treating students with both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The use of peers has also shown promise in helping students with behavior problems. In this study, a multiple baseline across participants' design was used across two playgrounds to evaluate a buddy bench intervention, …

Preparing Non-Native English Speakers For The Mathematical Vocabulary In The Gre And Gmat, Irina Mikhailovna Baskova

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop vocabulary materials to aid non-native English speakers, specifically Russian speaking test-takers, in their preparation for the mathematical sections of the General Record Examination (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in terms of English mathematical vocabulary. GRE and GMAT preparation materials and practice tests published by the Educational Testing Service, Kaplan, and Barron's were analyzed with the help of computer software. This data was then used to determine which key words to include in the vocabulary tool, which is now available on Quizlet (www.quizlet.com). The developed materials were further proofread by …

Comparing Two Individually Administered Reading Assessments For Predicting Outcomes On Sage Reading, Meighan Noelle Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

Accountability for student learning outcomes is of importance to parents and school and district administrators, especially since the passage of The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The requirement for high-stakes testing to measure progress has fostered interest in ways to monitor student preparedness during the school year. This study used 2014 and 2015 test data from of 154 students from one elementary school to measure the correlation between individually administered Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement Brief Reading and DIBELS Next reading assessments and outcomes on the high-stakes Utah SAGE test. This correlational study used Pearson correlation coefficients to …