Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Brigham Young University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 4291 - 4320 of 8231

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Automatic Readability Detection For Modern Standard Arabic, Jonathan Neil Forsyth Mar 2014

Automatic Readability Detection For Modern Standard Arabic, Jonathan Neil Forsyth

Theses and Dissertations

Research for automatic readability prediction of text has increased in the last decade and has shown that various machine learning methods can effectively address this problem. Many researchers have applied machine learning to readability prediction for English, while Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) has received little attention. Here I describe a system which leverages machine learning to automatically predict the readability of MSA. I gathered a corpus comprising 179 documents that were annotated with the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) levels. Then, I extracted lexical and discourse features from each document. Finally, I applied the Tilburg Memory-Based Learning (TiMBL) machine learning system …

Go to article

Online Course Management System For Wic Nutrition Education And Study Of Its Effectiveness In Behavioral And Attitude Changes, Ryan A. Amy Mar 2014

Online Course Management System For Wic Nutrition Education And Study Of Its Effectiveness In Behavioral And Attitude Changes, Ryan A. Amy

Theses and Dissertations

Social media has been used in a variety of contexts to connect people of varying backgrounds and as a method of teaching. This thesis collaborated with the Utah County Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) department to develop an online course management system that facilitated research to evaluate the effectiveness of social media on nutrition behavior and attitude changes among WIC clients. We created a toddler themed Facebook page in conjunction with the online nutrition classes and provided the opportunity for clients to use them. Previous social media research used individuals that had agreed to participate in the social media experiment …

Go to article

An Analysis Of The Archaeological Work Of The Provo River Delta, Utah, Adrien Carole Mooney Mar 2014

An Analysis Of The Archaeological Work Of The Provo River Delta, Utah, Adrien Carole Mooney

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the 20th century, a significant amount of work was conducted at archaeological sites in Utah Valley dating to the Archaic, Fremont, and Late Prehistoric periods. Despite the amount of work conducted, very little has actually been reported in the past. As a result, very little has previously been known about either the prehistoric archaeology of the Provo River Delta area or the historic archaeological work that has taken place. This thesis presents a synthesis of historical work, a reanalysis of artifacts from previous excavations, and a review of extant documentation (including field notes, maps, and student reports) of several …

Go to article

The Effect Of Age On Second Language Acquisition In Older Adults, Charisse Alaine Major Mar 2014

The Effect Of Age On Second Language Acquisition In Older Adults, Charisse Alaine Major

Theses and Dissertations

A primary purpose of second language (L2) research is to determine what factors hinder or help L2 acquisition. One aspect that has a strong effect on L2 proficiency is learners' age of onset of acquisition (AOA) (Johnson & Newport, 1989). These studies and others suggest that younger learners are more adept than older learners at learning an L2, especially to a near-native level. However, some older learners can become quite proficient in an L2 (Ioup, et al. 1994; Bialystok, 1997; Bongaerts, 1999), although learners who have acquired the L2 over the age of 30 are rarely studied. Why is it …

Go to article

The Relative Importance Of Parenthood On Parental Daytime Ambulatory Blood Pressure And Average Daily Ambulatory Blood Pressure, Wendy Birmingham, Adam Howard, Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad Mar 2014

The Relative Importance Of Parenthood On Parental Daytime Ambulatory Blood Pressure And Average Daily Ambulatory Blood Pressure, Wendy Birmingham, Adam Howard, Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Epidemiological research indicates that both the quality and quantity of social relationships significantly protects individuals from various causes of morbidity and mortality. For most adults, marriage and children play a central role in their social lives. Social relationships have been reliably associated with important long-term health outcomes including coronary heart disease (CHD). One pathway by which social relationships may influence health is via ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) during daily life. Research examining marriage alone has found that married individuals fare better psychologically and physiologically; additionally, research including children as a variable has shown that children have an impact on the …

Go to article

Examining Religious Commitment, Perfectionism, Scrupulosity, And Well-Being Among Lds Individuals, Kawika Allen, Kenneth T. Wang Mar 2014

Examining Religious Commitment, Perfectionism, Scrupulosity, And Well-Being Among Lds Individuals, Kawika Allen, Kenneth T. Wang

Faculty Publications

This study examined the relationships and interactions between religious commitment, perfectionism, scrupulosity, and psychological well-being among Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormons). The results showed a positive association between religious commitment and satisfaction with life. Scrupulosity partially mediated the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with life. The sample majority was classified as adaptive perfectionists, reporting higher intra- and interpersonal religious commitment, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life, and lower levels of anxiety and depression than the maladaptive and nonperfectionists. Additional results are provided. Implications of these findings are outlined.

Go to article

A Meta-Analysis Of School-Based Depression Prevention Programs For Children And Adolescents, Sherry Lynn Cowen Mar 2014

A Meta-Analysis Of School-Based Depression Prevention Programs For Children And Adolescents, Sherry Lynn Cowen

Theses and Dissertations

School-based depression prevention programs are being implemented in schools across the world in efforts to inoculate children and adolescents from depressive symptoms. This meta-analysis examined 56 manuscripts with a total of 82 studies which focused on school-based programs to determine how they affect depression, anxiety, cognitive skills, self-esteem, coping, and internalizing behaviors. For these specific outcomes, effect sizes ranged from .08 to .25. All combined outcomes yielded a significant effect size of .15. Moderator analyses revealed key differences that identified characteristics of the most effective programs. Targeted programs servicing at-risk students yielded an effect size of .31, while universal programs …

Go to article

A Dyadic Analysis Of Couple Attachment Behaviors As Predictors Of Dietary Habits And Physical Activity Levels, Stephanie Young Mar 2014

A Dyadic Analysis Of Couple Attachment Behaviors As Predictors Of Dietary Habits And Physical Activity Levels, Stephanie Young

Theses and Dissertations

While there is substantial evidence that marriage impacts health, no studies have explicitly analyzed the association between attachment behaviors and health practices. This study examines the relationship between couples' attachment behaviors and health practices, as measured by physical activity levels and dietary habits. Couple data was analyzed from the RELATE database (n= 4,957 couples). An Actor Partner Interdependence Model, using a multinomial logistic regression, was used to examine the relationships between attachment behaviors and health practices, as measured by activity level and dietary habits. Results for actor paths indicate that wives' own attachment behaviors significantly influence their own health practices. …

Go to article

The Relationship Between Partner Perceptions Of Marital Power And Sexual Satisfaction As Mediated By Observed Hostile Interaction, Amanda Claire Christenson Mar 2014

The Relationship Between Partner Perceptions Of Marital Power And Sexual Satisfaction As Mediated By Observed Hostile Interaction, Amanda Claire Christenson

Theses and Dissertations

Using a sample of 322 married couples (644 spouses) from The Flourishing Families project, this study examined the relationship between marital power and sexual satisfaction as mediated by observed hostile interaction. More specifically, an actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used in which husband and wife perceptions of their partner's power were hypothesized to be related to husband and wife self-report of sexual satisfaction, with husband and wife observed hostile interaction as possible mediating variables. Results showed that husband and wife perceptions of power were positively related to their respective husband and wife sexual satisfaction and positively related to their respective …

Go to article

Romantic Relational Aggression In Parents And Adolescent Child Outcomes, Jennifer Nicole Hawkley Mar 2014

Romantic Relational Aggression In Parents And Adolescent Child Outcomes, Jennifer Nicole Hawkley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine marital romantic relational aggression in parents and its impact on adolescent relational aggression, adolescent romantic relational aggression, internalizing, and school engagement with self-regulation as a potential mediator. Gender differences were also examined. Adolescents were from 328 two-parent families in a large north-western city in the United States and were between 12 and 17 years of age (M=14.24, SD=1.00, 51% female) at time 4. All independent variables except adolescent self-regulation were measured at wave 4, and all adolescent variables were measured at wave 5. Results indicate that higher levels of romantic relational aggression …

Go to article

The Self-Report Version Of The Youth Outcome Questionnaire: Normative Data, Paul M. Rose, Dr. M. Gawwain Wells Mar 2014

The Self-Report Version Of The Youth Outcome Questionnaire: Normative Data, Paul M. Rose, Dr. M. Gawwain Wells

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Introduction In the wake of increasing interest and demand from mental health care providers for sophisticated youth outcome measures, Burlingame, Wells and Lambert constructed the Youth Outcome Questionnaire (YOQ) in 1996 (1). To fill the need for an adolescent self-report version of the YOQ, Burlingame, Wells, and Lambert later developed the adolescent self-report version of the YOQ (YOQ2SR) (2). Before the YOQ2SR can be used in mental health practice, normative data must be collected from adolescents who are not in treatment. The present study provided this data.

Go to article

Gender Differences In Text Messaging, Sara R. Shawcroft Mar 2014

Gender Differences In Text Messaging, Sara R. Shawcroft

Theses and Dissertations

Text messaging is a significant social phenomenon that merits investigation. Communications theories are well suited to this type of research because text messaging serves as both mediated communication and interpersonal communication. This kind of research can also contribute to a deeper understanding of communication differences between genders. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether there are gender differences in the use of text messaging and, if so, what the differences are. Participants for the study were recruited via convenience sampling. The sample consisted of 27 participants ages 18--35; 14 were female and 13 were male. Data were collected …

Go to article

A Modified Approach To The Implementation Of Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback, Brooke Elizabeth Eddington Mar 2014

A Modified Approach To The Implementation Of Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback, Brooke Elizabeth Eddington

Theses and Dissertations

Grammatical accuracy in second language (L2) writing is one of the key issues that English as a Second Language (ESL) learners struggle with, both in intensive English language programs and continuing after their university matriculation. Numerous instructional methodologies exist that center around the concept of error correction—how can or should ESL instructors correct grammatical errors in L2 students' writing to best facilitate improvements in written linguistic accuracy? Error correction in L2 writing has been a controversial issue for over a decade (e.g., Ferris, 1999; Truscott, 1996), and in an effort to contribute to an understanding of this controversial topic, this …

Go to article

The Effects Of Peer Tutoring On Junior High General Education Students' Attitudes Toward Students With Severe Disabilities, Amanda Kim Hunsaker Mar 2014

The Effects Of Peer Tutoring On Junior High General Education Students' Attitudes Toward Students With Severe Disabilities, Amanda Kim Hunsaker

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if and how the perceptions of general education students toward their peers with severe disabilities changes when they participate in a peer tutoring program. The study was conducted in a suburban/rural district in Utah and included 102 participants in treatment and control groups over three junior high schools. The data found mixed results. One of the three schools had a significant difference in the attitudes of the treatment group after being part of a peer tutoring program. The study shows that being part of a peer tutoring program can have a …

Go to article

Physiological Stress Responsiveness And Outcome In Psychotherapy, Dr. Patrick Steffen Feb 2014

Physiological Stress Responsiveness And Outcome In Psychotherapy, Dr. Patrick Steffen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Research conducted by Michael Lambert et al. has found that a substantial minority of psychotherapy clients (about 10%) get worse over the course of therapy. They call these clients ‘red responders’ because they are of particular concern for the therapists and require additional focused treatment. Interestingly, at the other end of the spectrum, Lambert et al. note that there are ‘blue responders,’ clients that not only respond very well to therapy but also respond very quickly (within a few sessions) and also do very well over time. There are no studies to date that have determined what predicts who will …

Go to article

The Study Of Inflexibility In Autism: Training Students For Translational Neuroscience, Mikle South Feb 2014

The Study Of Inflexibility In Autism: Training Students For Translational Neuroscience, Mikle South

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This grant was intended to train undergraduate students from psychology and life sciences in preparation for advanced study related to translational neuroscience, i.e. the application of basic research to clinically-­‐useful objectives. Specifically we conducted studies of anxiety in autism including studies of emotion influences on learning and decision making.

Go to article

Marital Quality In Remarriage, Dr. Kevin Shafer Feb 2014

Marital Quality In Remarriage, Dr. Kevin Shafer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

There were four goals of this MEG project. Unlike most MEG projects, I employed graduate students because the School of Social Work lacks undergraduate students. Below I outline the four goals of the project and discuss how each goal was met. Notably, we found some interesting effects related to relationship self-regulation in remarriage, which has led us to work in other areas, as well.

Go to article

Project Title: The Cognitive Neuroscience Of Long-Term Memory, C. Brock Kirwan Feb 2014

Project Title: The Cognitive Neuroscience Of Long-Term Memory, C. Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Memory is an essential cognitive ability. It allows us to use past events to guide future actions. Research in my laboratory focuses on determining the mechanics of how the brain remembers what it does. We are interested in determining what will be remembered and what will be forgotten. Specifically, my research focuses on one aspect of memory encoding that allows us to form distinct memory representations for stimuli and events that are very similar. For example, the location where you parked your car this morning is probably very similar to the location where you parked your car many times before. …

Go to article

Attracting Female Students To Science: An Interdisciplinary Stress-Psychobiology Mentored Experience, Michael Larson Feb 2014

Attracting Female Students To Science: An Interdisciplinary Stress-Psychobiology Mentored Experience, Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Women have made considerable progress in education and the workplace; however, progress in science and technology fields continues to lag behind. Females remain underrepresented in science majors at the university level and, subsequently, represent less than a quarter of full professors in scientific fields. Increasing female representation in science is considered a national priority. Studies indicate women who receive a mentored scientific experience are more likely to choose careers in science and research than peers who are not exposed to scientific research in a mentored environment. Thus, our grant focused on attracting female students to the academic and scientific environment …

Go to article

Non-Invasive Treatment For Drug Addiction, Scott C. Steffensen Feb 2014

Non-Invasive Treatment For Drug Addiction, Scott C. Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The primary objective of this MEG project was to develop a non-invasive treatment for drug addiction. It was the first aim of this study to determine, in controlled experiments in rodents, the efficacy of brain electrical or light stimulation to produce long-term enhancement of dopamine (DA) release. Then, second, in a known human model of transient DA deficiency in drug-free subjects, which we already have recent experience, we will evaluate the effects of this stimulation to ameliorate the physiological and cognitive deficits that we have seen. When an addict refrains from their addictive behavior DA levels fall in the mesolimbic …

Go to article

Summary Of Creative Research Grant Results: The Effects Of 15th And 16th Century Scholarship On The American Founding, Owen D. Yeates, Dr. Richard Vetterli Feb 2014

Summary Of Creative Research Grant Results: The Effects Of 15th And 16th Century Scholarship On The American Founding, Owen D. Yeates, Dr. Richard Vetterli

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The scope of my initial research proposal was quite wide, simply stating that I would study the writings of the Cambridge Platonists and Oxford Reformers and those surrounding them to discover the effects of religious thought on the concepts of virtue and liberty as transmitted from the initial Christian humanist movement in Italy to the American Founders. After reading some information gathered from Dr. Vetterli I decided to focus my research on Isaac Newton and included science and reason with religion, virtue, and liberty in the thrust of my research.

Go to article

Law Schools Environments Study, Jacob S. Walker, Alf Pratt Feb 2014

Law Schools Environments Study, Jacob S. Walker, Alf Pratt

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The researchers aimed to establish a set of criteria for judging the environments at various law schools, and then apply these criteria to five national law schools. The students specifically examined the academic and social environments at each school as they relate to a Latter-Day Saint family. A review of the literature on married graduate students suggests areas of importance to the student’s family. An email survey was used to assess housing availability, transportation, community activities, ward activity and support, crime, faculty support, and financial aid. The results of the survey are presented and compared with other rankings of law …

Go to article

Justice George Sutherland: The Forgotten Utahn, William Lyle Stamps, Dr. Paul Edwards Feb 2014

Justice George Sutherland: The Forgotten Utahn, William Lyle Stamps, Dr. Paul Edwards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

George Alexander Sutherland was the first and only Utahn to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Curiously, he isn’t mentioned in Utah History books. Further, his national reputation is not much brighter. While acknowledged as a “good” justice, he isn’t ranked with the greatest. Despite his many accomplishments and lasting influence, he has been forgotten (Peterson 1980, 310).

Go to article

An Analysis Of Nafta’S Effects On The Us And Mexican Apparel Trade, John F. Yoder, Dr. Scott Bradford Feb 2014

An Analysis Of Nafta’S Effects On The Us And Mexican Apparel Trade, John F. Yoder, Dr. Scott Bradford

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Prior to the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, critics predicted NAFTA would harm the US economy. Even proponents of NAFTA admitted that free trade between the US, Canada, and Mexico would shift low-skilled jobs to Mexico where such work could be done more cheaply. Most economists predicted that such a job shift would occur in the apparel industry, which employs low-skilled workers. For example, Alain de Janvrey noted that “intra-industry trade in this case [between NAFTA countries] is importantly motivated by the chase for cheap labor and hence can induce systematic plant relocation toward Mexico” (de Janvrey, …

Go to article

Policy Making In Welfare Reform, Misty May Wright, Dr. Donald Forsyth Feb 2014

Policy Making In Welfare Reform, Misty May Wright, Dr. Donald Forsyth

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper is to report the results of my study on policy-making in welfare reform. While interning at a special interest group for disability issues in Washington D. C., I conducted ethnographic research through ethnographic interviewing and participant observation. It was my intent to profile the culture of policy-makers, specifically in welfare reform, as part of a more extensive study to compare their culture to those affected by policy. I found that the primary markers of the policy-making culture are information exchange and meetings.

Go to article

The Patterns Of Feeding And Drinking Behavior After Intraventricular Administration Of Orexigenic Compounds To Rats, Lauro Alejandro De Santiago, Dr. Gregory N. Ervin Feb 2014

The Patterns Of Feeding And Drinking Behavior After Intraventricular Administration Of Orexigenic Compounds To Rats, Lauro Alejandro De Santiago, Dr. Gregory N. Ervin

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The effects of injections of some compounds on feeding behavior have been studied thoroughly in rats. However, the simultaneous pattern of feeding and drinking after the injection of either anorexic (feeding suppressor) or orexigenic (feeding inducer) compounds have been observed only infrequently or not at all. Only the feeding effects of a few compounds, like Neuropeptide Y (an orexigenic compound), have been studied in conjunction with drinking behavior. Observing the patterns of drinking and feeding behavior is important because it can provide valuable neuropharmacological and psychobiological information about the mechanisms that mediate the anorexic and orexigenic effects of these compounds. …

Go to article

“Small Happiness” In China: The Battle To Save China’S Daughters, Jennifer H. Myers, Eric Hyer Feb 2014

“Small Happiness” In China: The Battle To Save China’S Daughters, Jennifer H. Myers, Eric Hyer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In an attempt to discover if attitudes toward female children are changing in China, I conducted interviews of 48 Chinese women in several areas of China and Hong Kong. My original plan included only two age-groups of women: women ages 60 and older, who were born before the Chinese Communist Revolution, and college-age women born after Deng Xiaoping’s reforms of 1978 (which included the one-child and birth-planning policies). In conducting interviews, however, I discovered that I was ignoring a crucial age-group: women of child-bearing age. Because China’s population is so large, enrollment at Chinese universities is limited; college students may …

Go to article

Squandering The Future? A Utah-Colorado Comparison Of Industry Development Path Dependency, Michael Murff, Dr. John Griffin Feb 2014

Squandering The Future? A Utah-Colorado Comparison Of Industry Development Path Dependency, Michael Murff, Dr. John Griffin

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Escalating in the 1970s, the Intermountain West experienced a dramatic economic shift from mining and agriculture toward information technology (IT). Both Utah and Colorado took steps to attract computer and software firms in an effort to diversify and develop IT industries. At first glance Utah appears especially well prepared for technological innovation and a progressive IT market. Strong university computer science departments, two solid law schools, and a respectable business school provide ample intellectual capital for a robust Wasatch Front IT environment. But a closer look reveals that Utah firms lag behind their regional counterparts in overall growth rates, initial …

Go to article

Women’S Rights: Domestic Abuse In Venezuela, Melissa Humes, Dr. Darren G. Hawkins Feb 2014

Women’S Rights: Domestic Abuse In Venezuela, Melissa Humes, Dr. Darren G. Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The results of my research were surprising and have inspired further research and investigation in the area of how international norms of human rights are spread throughout regions. The findings to date have taken my research in a new direction as I search for understanding of how the international norms of domestic violence were transferred into political action throughout Latin America.

Go to article

Brazilian Speech Audiometery, Allison Merrill, Dr. Richard Harris Feb 2014

Brazilian Speech Audiometery, Allison Merrill, Dr. Richard Harris

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Whenever we perform a comprehensive hearing evaluation we measure thresholds for the patient for puretones and also for speech. Measurement of puretone hearing thresholds in individuals whose native language is not English can be very difficult. Measurement of puretone thresholds in isolation is inadequate. It is very important to obtain some measure of the ability to hear and to understand speech.

Go to article

First Prev Next Last