Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

After The Bp Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Financial And Health Concerns Among Coastal Residents And Commercial Fishers, Katie E. Cherry, Bethany A. Lyon, Loren D. Marks, Pam F. Nezat, Rachel Adamek, S. Devon Walsh, Kristina B. Fitzgerald, Dina R. Anbinder, Claire V. Bernacchio

Faculty Publications

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is recognized as the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. In this article, we examine the impact of the BP oil spill on directly affected commercial fishers and indirectly affected residents of the greater New Orleans metropolitan area. A sample of 148 participants responded to an open-ended question on the impact of the oil spill on self, family, and their community at least 12 months after the oil spill began. Content analysis of their narrative text yielded four emergent themes which we present here: 1) Economic Impact on the Seafood Industry and Local …

Looking For The Silver Lining: Benefit Finding After Hurricanes Katrina And Rita In Middle-Aged, Older, And Oldest-Old Adults, Katie E. Stanko, Katie E. Cherry, Kyle S. Ryker, Farra Mughal, Loren D. Marks, Jennifer Silva Brown, Patricia F. Gendusa, Marisa C. Sullivan, John Bruner, David A. Welsh, L. Joseph Su, S. Michael Jazwinski

Faculty Publications

Looking for potentially positive outcomes is one way that people cope with stressful events. In two studies, we examined perceived “silver linings” after the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita among indirectly affected adults. In Study 1, middle-aged (ages 47–64 years), older (ages 65–89 years), and oldest-old (ages 90–95 years) adults in the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study (LHAS) responded to an open-ended question on perceived silver linings in a longitudinal assessment carried out during the immediate impact (1 to 4 months after landfall) and post-disaster recovery phase (6 to 14 months post-storm). Qualitative grounded theory methods were employed to analyze these …

Skin Carotenoid Response To A High-Carotenoid Juice In Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Sheryl S. Aguilar, Heidi J. Wengreen, Jeffrey P. Dew

Faculty Publications

Background Previous studies have shown an increase in serum carotenoid status among children when fed carotenoids. This study looked at the effect and dose–response of a known amount of carotenoid consumption on change in skin carotenoid status among children.

Methods Participants were children aged 5 to 17 years from Cache County, UT (n=58). Children were randomly assigned to one of three groups: high (n=18) or low (n=18) dose of a carotenoid-rich juice (2.75 mg carotenoids/30 mL juice), or placebo juice (n=22). Children were asked to drink an assigned dose of the juice (30 to 120 mL/day) based on the weight …

How Do Boys And Girls Help? Validation Of A Multidimensional Measure Of Prosocial Behavior, Matthew Glade Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

The study of prosocial behavior is growing increasingly multidimensional in the way that it considers whom is helped and how. One area of concern is the effect of gender on prosocial behavior. Is masculine behavior more physically oriented, and if so, are measures neglecting these behaviors and biasing results toward more feminine prosocial behaviors? The current study sought to answer these questions by creating and validating a new multidimensional measure of prosocial behavior that includes behaviors more common to males. An EFA was performed on a sample of 463 adolescents and emerging adults from Amazon Turk (US citizens, 16-25, 60% …

Effects Of Positive And Negative Events On Daily Relationship Effect For Clinical Couples: A Daily Diary Study, Kayla Dawn Mennenga

Theses and Dissertations

Relationship satisfaction is a popular variable to consider when looking at long-term success for couples. Research indicates positive and negative events have an impact on relationship satisfaction. Considering the influence of the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation framework, the present study focuses on the daily impact of positive and negative events that happen outside of therapy on couple relationship satisfaction for couples seeking therapy. Daily diary methods were used to collect data, a first for using this method with clinical couples. Random effects and multilevel models of analysis controlled for days and couples. Results suggest that on any given day, positive events impact both …

Differences In Pornography Use Among Couples: Associations With Satisfaction, Stability, And Relationship Processes, Brian J. Willoughby, Jason S. Carroll, Dean M. Busby, Cameron C. Brown

Faculty Publications

The present study utilized a sample of 1755 adult couples in heterosexual romantic relationships to examine how different patterns of pornography use between romantic partners may be associated with relationship outcomes. While pornography use has been generally associated with some negative and some positive couple outcomes, no study has yet explored how differences between partners may uniquely be associated with relationship well-being. Results suggested that greater discrepancies between partners in pornography use were related to less relationship satisfaction, less stability, less positive communication, and more relational aggression. Mediation analyses suggested that greater pornography use discrepancies were primarily associated with elevated …

Big Data: Challenges And Opportunities For Digital Libraries, Richard Hacken

Faculty Publications

Presented as a Keynote Address to the International Conference on Computing in Engineering and the Sciences in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 30, 2015.

This is an abstract of the speech:

Thanks to technological progress, thanks to the copious Internet, thanks to geometrically burgeoning social media and to quickly proliferating sensors, the flood of data available to us is surging larger and larger, faster and faster. Paradigms for management and analysis are at the core of data-driven businesses and institutions, fueling the velocity of scientific research and development. The phrase “Big Data” was itself coined by scientists as they manipulated exploding …

Longitudinal Relations Between Prosocial Television Content And Adolescents’ Prosocial And Aggressive Behavior: The Mediating Role Of Empathic Concern And Self-Regulation, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Sarah M. Coyne, Kevin M. Collier, Matthew G. Nielson

Faculty Publications

The current study examined longitudinal cross-lagged associations between prosocial TV (content and time) and prosocial and aggressive behavior during adolescence, and explored the mediating role of empathic concern and self-regulation. Participants were 441 adolescents who reported on their 3 favorite TV shows at 2 time points, approximately 2 years apart (M age of child at Time 3 􏰀= 13.31, SD 􏰀= 1.06; 52% female; M age of child at Time 5 =􏰀 15.27, SD =􏰀 1.06). Results suggested that prosocial content at Time 3 was negatively associated with aggressive behavior 2 years later, and aggressive behavior at Time 3 was …

A Mexican Woman's Journey In Becoming A Successful American Educator, Lucy Ordaz Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations

This self-study explores the question of "What factors in my life shaped my journey in earning an American college degree and becoming a successful educator in the U.S.?" This question is explored in the context of my own lived experiences. Results contribute to the field of immigrant studies and may encourage others who wish to transition from first generation immigrant to successful professional educator in the U.S. This study employed hermeneutic phenomenology to answer the research question. It used in-depth narrative interviews to elicit my responses to lived experiences from growing up in Mexico to my current teaching position. Thematic …

Effects Of Feedback Assisted Treatment On Post-Treatment Outcome For Eating Disordered Inpatients: A Follow-Up Study, Megan Michelle Bowen

Student Works

Research on the effects of progress feedback and clinician problem-solving tools on patient outcome has been limited to a few clinical problems and settings (Shimowaka, Lambert & Smart, 2010). Only one randomized clinical trial has examined feedback-assisted treatment in an inpatient eating-disordered population. Results from this study suggested that those who received feedback-assisted (Fb) treatment were more likely to meet Jacobson and Truax's (1991) criteria for recovery than participants in the treatment-as-usual (TAU) condition; however, while these interventions appear to have worked well in the inpatient setting, the long-term effects of this treatment have not been investigated. This is especially …

The Home Field Advantage: Exploring Elements Of Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Loren H. Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Immigrants participate in entrepreneurial activity more frequently than other groups, largely resulting from restricted access to traditional occupational advancement. Recent studies have reported that immigrant entrepreneurs focus on their abundance of human and social capital to obtain the financial resources necessary to fund their ventures. Lack of financial resources has been identified as a major barrier for immigrant entrepreneurs; however, as this study indicates, both native and immigrant entrepreneurs face similar financial hurdles in locating initial startup funding. Where major differences arise between native and immigrant entrepreneurs is that native entrepreneurs more frequently transition to business forms of debt, a …

School Resource Officers' Perceptions Of In-School Graffiti: Disciplinary Measures And Prevention Efforts, Bobbi Sue Van Leuven

Theses and Dissertations

The term graffiti has been adapted to mean any type of writings on a surface area that have been scratched, painted or marked. These writings, which are typically perceived from a negative point of view, may be something as small as doodles on a paper or something as large as paintings on a wall or the side of a building. Because graffiti is often part of gang culture and identified as criminal activity, when graffiti enters into a school the school's atmosphere and graffiti deters from a positive educational environment. In this study, five School Resource Officers from urban secondary …

Respite Care And Marital Quality In Parents Of Children With Down Syndrome, Michelle Norton

Theses and Dissertations

Parents of a child with a disability are at greater risk than other couples for having higher stress, adjustment difficulties, and lower marital quality. Respite care has been shown to reduce stress in parents of children with disabilities. This study focused on parents who have a child with Down syndrome and their reported marital quality and respite care received. One hundred and twelve couples, each consisting of a mother and a father who lived with their child with Down syndrome, completed questionnaires including the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Experience in Close Relationships Questionnaire, Daily Hassles and Uplifts Scale, and a …

Training Middle School Paraeducators Positive Behavior Support Strategies Through Job Embedded Feedback, Carrie Ann Eichelberger

Theses and Dissertations

The current training model for paraeducators traditionally consists of single-day workshops, emails, newsletters, in-service meetings or other similarly isolated and infrequent tips or no training at all. Such practices have caused many paraeducators and teachers to cite a lack of efficient and effective training as one of the major difficulties in their job. The purpose of the study was to establish a causal relationship between the independent variable: the direct instruction of precorrection through modeling and guided practice with bug-in-the-ear feedback and the dependent variable, the performance or nonperformance of positive behavior support strategies in the classroom. The study took …

A Case Study Of Irada: Its Impact On The Development And Enhancing The Legitimacy Of Home-Based Businesses In Key Poverty Areas In Jordan, Zaid Hussein Al Attar

Theses and Dissertations

Many researchers have investigated the phenomenon of the informal economy and rec-ommended impractical interventions such as controlling the informal economy or formalizing it. However, most research has missed another strategy for helping the informal economy, which involves achieving legitimacy. This study uses unique data from a Jordanian government organi-zation named IRADA designed to help small, home-based businesses. Data on 345 home-based businesses representing a range of poor areas across Jordan provide a case study of IRADA's strategies to help home-based businesses succeed and to contribute to legitimate informal econo-mies in these areas. Logistic regression analysis reveals how marketing and specialized …

Participation In Sports And The Development Of Resilience In Adolescents, Jason Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents today are faced with an array of risk factors including sexual activity and drug and alcohol use, as well as environmental factors that are beyond their control, such as parental divorce and poverty. The attribute of resilience is an extremely desirable quality that, if developed, has the capacity to reduce the effect of many of these risk factors that many adolescents are exposed to. Sport participation is a potential intervention that a large portion of adolescents can have access to through school and community programs that could potentially foster resilience. The current causal-comparative, non-experimental study sought to add to …

Falsification Of The Look, Rodrigo Andres Veas

Theses and Dissertations

The LOOK is a viewing time measure that seeks to assess sexual interest patterns and is currently in development at Brigham Young University. This instrument is intended to aid current efforts to prevent child sexual abuse by identifying deviant sexual interests. A recently presented study on a similar viewing time measure has raised concerns regarding individuals' ability to falsify sexual interest patterns on average. This study seeks to extend this falsification research to the LOOK in order to assess if falsification of this measure is possible by means of speed or pretense. Participants were exclusively heterosexual non-pedophilic males and females. …

Comparing The Point-Of-View And Spectator Perspectives In Video Prompting For Young Adults With Disabilities, Elizabeth A. Washburn

Theses and Dissertations

Video modeling is an evidence-based practice for teaching a wide range of skills to individuals with disabilities. Recent advances in technology have also made video modeling and video prompting more accessible and feasible for teachers and practitioners. This study aims to see if a functional difference exists between two filming perspectives: point-of-view and spectator. Using a single-subject alternating treatments design with least-to-most prompting, the researcher investigated differences between the two perspectives. Four individuals participated in this study—two males and two females between the ages of 19 and 21 with varying disabilities. Data were analyzed visually. Tasks that were taught are: …

Effects Of Feedback Assisted Treatment On Post-Treatment Outcome For Eating Disordered Inpatients: A Follow-Up Study, Megan Michelle Bowen

Theses and Dissertations

Research on the effects of progress feedback and clinician problem-solving tools on patient outcome has been limited to a few clinical problems and settings (Shimowaka, Lambert & Smart, 2010). Only one randomized clinical trial has examined feedback-assisted treatment in an inpatient eating-disordered population. Results from this study suggested that those who received feedback-assisted (Fb) treatment were more likely to meet Jacobson and Truax's (1991) criteria for recovery than participants in the treatment-as-usual (TAU) condition; however, while these interventions appear to have worked well in the inpatient setting, the long-term effects of this treatment have not been investigated. This is especially …

Teaching Self-Determination Skills To Middle School Students With Specific Learning Disabilities, Audryn Damron

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of explicitly teaching self-advocacy skills to three middle school students with mild/moderate disabilities by having them memorize a script and request accommodations in a training and generalization setting. The intervention components included 16 lessons comprising discussion and reflection about their disabilities and educational rights under IDEA, a four-part script, and a prompting procedure. The script included (a) greeting teacher and asking if it's a good time to talk, (b) expressing concern with assignment, (c) asking for accommodation, and (d) thanking teacher. The dependent variables were (a) frequency, measured by the …

The Association Between Time Spent Using Entertainment Media And Marital Quality In A Contemporary Dyadic National Sample, Jeffrey P. Dew, Sarah Tulane

Faculty Publications

This study used the Actor Partner Interdependence Model and a national sample of married couples (N = 1368) to explore the relationship between entertainment media use and marital satisfaction, conflict, and perceived marital instability. Entertainment media-use included newer types of media (e.g., social networking websites) as well as traditional media (e.g., television). A number of negative relationships between media use and wives’ and husbands’ marital quality emerged. Husbands’ use of social networking websites, in particular, was associated with many of the marital quality variables. The effect sizes of media use were small, however. We also explored whether the relationship …

Aging And Pattern Separation, Nathan Giles, Dr. C. Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

It is widely known that as we age, our cognitive functions start to decrease, especially when it comes to memory. Memory in the human brain has major processes in the medial temporal lobe, specifically the hippocampus. It is widely accepted that in older adults, the areas in the medial temporal lobe start to atrophy and this decrease in brain tissue volume is what leads to difficulty in memory (Van Petten, 2004). Further, as we age the rate of new neuron growth (termed neurogenesis) in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus slows down (Small, 2001). Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus …

A Generalized Ordered Response Model, Carla Johnston, Dr. James Mcdonald

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Does happiness depend on income? What puts people at risk to become “heavy smokers?” Do gender and wage affect job promotion? The answers to these varied questions have one thing in common: they employ grouped or categorical data. Happiness is often reported on cales of 1 to 10 (Winkelmann 2005). Tobacco users and cigarette smokers are asked if they are “non-users,” “light users,” or “heavy users” (Harris and Zhao 2007). In some professions, such as the British nursing field, careers are assigned ranks from one to six Pudney and Shields 2000). Categsorization often cannot be avoided when collecting data. The …

America’S Prodigal Devotion To Light Rail: Did Denver’S Light Rail System Help With Traffic Decongestion?, Thomas Kelemen, Dr. Michael Ransom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the past twenty years, the Denver Regional Transit District has developed an extensive light rail public transit system in the Denver, Colorado metro area. This development was motivated, at least in part, by severe highway congestion on important highway routes to downtown Denver. In a recent analysis, Bhattacharjee and Goetz (2012) suggest that the presence of the light rail system has reduced the growth of highway traffic on major highways near the light rail network by ten percent, relative to routes in areas not served by light rail. We show that such an effect is implausibly large. We provide …

Skill, Complexity, And Strategic Interaction, Val Lambson, John Van Den Berghe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Abstract: We present a win-loss game between players with explicitly-modeled cognitive limitations. Differences in the players’ abilities to analyze the available actions and deduce the optimal choices induce preferences over the complexity of the environment and hence incentives to manipulate that complexity. More skilled players are always at an advantage. In a class of long-horizon games with constant complexity, greater complexity favors the less- skilled player when the more-skilled player is the last mover. When the less-skilled player moves last there are countervailing effects. Finally, when complexity can be manipulated over the course of the game, the benefits of strategic …

Compulsory Voting In Latin America: Good Or Bad For Democracy?, Ian Hansen, Dr. Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Using survey data from across Latin America, I sought to determine whether compulsory voting laws have negative effects on constituents’ views toward democracy. I expected to find that such laws influence voters to have lower appraisals of democracy in their country.

The analysis yielded results that lend significant support to my theory. Controlling for individual demographic variables and the country-level indicators of GDP per capita and GINI Index (which measures economic inequality), it appears that compulsory voting laws do, in fact, have a statistically significant effect on support for and satisfaction with democracy. Further, although the substantive effects are small, …

Voter Turnout: How Femininity And Competence Affect Attitudes Toward Female Political Candidates, Holly Henrich, Dr. Chris Karpowitz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Currently, the United States ranks as the 86th country in women’s representation in government,with 18.2 percent of seats in the House of Representatives and 20 percent representation in the Senate (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2014). With a nation that is half comprised of women, questions are raised as to why women have historically been underrepresented in government. More coverage on the physical appearances and fashion choices of female political candidates has far exceeded the coverage given to their male counterparts (Rosholm, 2009). How female political candidates are initially perceived based on their physical attributes may be a contributing factor as to why …

Good Vs. Evil: Incorporating Human Stimuli To The Question Of Infant Morality, Jordan Layton, Dr. Ross Flom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

A recent as well as intriguing question in developmental psychology is whether human infants have an innate sense of morality. Media outlets such as 60 Minutes and New York Times magazine have reported findings from Hamlin et al. (2007)1 that infants as young as 6-months have the innate ability to discriminate an individual as either appealing (i.e., helpful) or aversive (i.e., hindering).

Maoa Genotype X Environment Interaction And Influence On Monoamine Neurotransmitter Functioning In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta), Daniel Loveland, Dr. J. Dee Higley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Original Project Title: Why can’t we all just get along? MAOa genotype variation is associated with aggressive temperaments in nonhuman primates

In place of studying behavior differences among rhesus monkeys with differing MAOa genotypes, my research group and I chose to analyze the effects of genes and the environment on brain chemistry.

Priming The Pump: A Study Of Hidden Biases, Rachel Maxwell, Dr. Jerffrey Reber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Priming is a method often used in psychology research to activate implicit attitudes and behaviors. Priming has been effectively demonstrated in advertising and the marketplace (North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1999; Milliman, 1982; Jacob, Gueguen, & Boulbry, 2011), politics (Berger, Meredith, & Wheeler 2008; Rutchick, 2010), business (Kay, Wheeler, Bargh, & Ross, 2004), social norms (Aarts & Dijksterhuis, 2003), studies of aggression (Berkowitz & LePage, 1967), and studies of racism (Wittenbrink, Judd, & Park, 2001). In these studies certain cues in the environment led to an unconscious activation of an attitude or behavior.