Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The University Library: The Center Of A University Education?, Patricia A. Frade, Allyson Washburn

Faculty Publications

During 2001-2002, a formal study was conducted jointly by Brigham Young University's Office of Planning and Assessment (OPA) and the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) to determine the value of the library to the university community. The study described in this paper was undertaken at a time when some experts were predicting the demise of the academic library, and university administrators were questioning the need for new building, budget, and personnel requests. This paper will present a description of the study and its results, a comparison of similar data collected two years later, and a description of two new student …

The Comparative Guide To American Suburbs [Book Review], Leticia Camacho

Faculty Publications

IN the First quarter of 2003, employers took 1,508 mass layoff actions. this trend continues in 2005. there are many reasons for these layoffs, including bankruptcy, business ownership change, financial difficulty, reorganization, domestic or overseas relocation, model change over, product line discontinuation, weather-related reasons, and so on. The employment market is tight right now, and professionals are forced to expand their job searches beyond their geographic areas. Many professionals who have a family look for jobs in the suburbs, trying to avoid congestion and pollution. The U.S. Census shows an increase in nontraditional families also moving to the suburbs.

Pronunciation Matters: English Consonant Production By Auap Students, K. James Hartshorn

Faculty Publications

Most Asia University students study English for at least six and a half years by the time they come to the United States to participate in the Asian University America Program (AUAP). For many, the AUAP experience is the realization of a dream to be able to forge new friendships and communicate successfully with Americans. However, despite their enthusiasm for learning, those participating in AUAP are not immune to the struggles experienced by most Japanese students as they endeavor to master English pronunciation (Purcell and Suter, 1980; Wells, 2000, Aoyama, K. Flege, J., Guion, S., Akahane-Yamada, R., Yamada, T., 2003). …

Pathways To Success In Pre-College Mathematics, Bob Madsen, Ted Hodgson, Carol Ward

Faculty Publications

Like most tribal colleges, Chief Dull Knife College (CDKC, Lame Deer, MT) offers a sequence of pre-college mathematics courses - Basic Mathematics, Introductory Algebra, and Intermediate Algebra - to assist students who lack college-level skills. To enhance student support, CDKC created the Student Learning Center, which is started by instructors and student interns and offers computer work stations.

Parenting And Peer-Group Behavior In Cultural Context, David A. Nelson, Larry J. Nelson, Criag H. Hart, Chongming Yang, Shenghua Jin

Faculty Publications

Whether specific patterns of parenting are similarly associated with child peer group behavior in diverse cultural contexts has been a fascinating topic of inquiry. From classic anthropological studies dating back to the early twentieth century to the current interest in cross-cultural studies, knowledge concerning the question of universality and cultural variation in parenting linkages to childhood adjustment has expanded at an unprecedented rate (e.g., Harkness & Super, 2002). As the general field of parenting research has uncovered distinctions in parenting styles and practices (e.g., Darling & Steinberg, 1993; hart, Newell, & Olsen, 2003), these concepts have increasingly been applied to …

The Family As A Context For Religious And Spiritual Development In Children And Youth, Chris J. Boyatzis, David C. Dollahite, Loren D. Marks

Faculty Publications

Our chapter addresses how the family promotes or hinders transcendence of the self in children, that is, how the family is a context in which spiritual development occurs. Due to space limitations, our emphasis is on socialization and interaction processes within the family and not on other issues such as psychodynamic processes (e.g., Rizzuto, 1979) or faith development (e.g., Fowler, 1981). There are many motivations to explore family socialization of religious and spiritual development. One, family spirituality and religiosity are linked with many desirable outcomes and inversely with negative outcomes in children and youth. (Other chapters in this volume examine …

Moving From A Grinding Halt: Expanding The Interpretation Of Ground Stone Through Ethnoarchaeology, Michael T. Searcy, Jaime Holthusen

Faculty Publications

Some of the most ubiquitous artifacts found at archaeological sites across Mesoamerica are manos and metates. Yet these important household implements continue to be underrepresented in the archaeological literature. This paper highlights recent ethnographic research on groundstone produced and used by four Mayan communities in Guatemala. We demonstrate how the size of grinding surfaces can be indicative of function, and how modern taboos can be examined to explore notions of gender. Groundstone from the site of La Quemada, Mexico is then analyzed in light of such inferences to evaluate the consistency of archaeological patterning with ethnographic observations.

An Operator-Based Account Of Semantic Processing, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Anton Rytting

Faculty Publications

This paper explores issues of psychological plausibility in modeling natural language understanding within Soar, a symbolic cognitive model. It focuses on constructing syntactic and semantic representations in simulated real time, with particular emphasis on word sense disambiguation (WSD). We discuss (i) what level of WSD should be modeled and (ii) how to use resources such as WordNet to inform these models. A preliminary model of coarse-grained WSD is included to show how syntactic, semantic, and other knowledge sources interact in Soar. Finally, we explore issues of interleaving, learning, and integrating other WSD approaches with Soar's native model of learning.

Modeling Russian Verbs Of Motion: An Analogical Account, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Inna Danielyan Dodge

Faculty Publications

This paper presents research into verb of motion (VOM) constructions in Russian. These constructions are difficult since they involve (i) selection of an appropriate verb (with possible prefixation); (ii) selection of an appropriate preposition; and (iii) selection of an appropriate case for marking the prepositional object. A brief sketch of relevant literature frames the problem. We then discuss how a few thousand instances of VOM usage were extracted from an online tagged corpus of Russian literature. The usage instances were then vectorized using a combination of lexical and semantic class features via automatic, semiautomatic, and hand-coded methods. The instance base …

“The Natives" In The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade, Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

In March of 1824 a small group of trappers, using information obtained from the Crow Indians, rediscovered and crossed over a broad mountain pass at the southern end of the Wind River Mountains. This event would help shape the course of history in the American West.

Cognitive, Emotional, And Quality Of Life Outcomes In Patients With Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, Joanne White, Ramona O. Hopkins, Eric G. Glissmeyer, Natalie Kitterman, C. Gregory Elliott

Faculty Publications

Background: The effects of pulmonary arterial hypertension on cardiovascular and physical function are well documented. Limited information exists regarding the effects of pulmonary arterial hypertension on cognitive function despite patient reports of problems with memory and attention. Our primary purpose was to determine if a prospectively identified cohort of pulmonary arterial hypertension patients had cognitive sequelae. Our secondary purpose was to determine the relationships between cognitive sequelae and neuropsychological test scores with depression, anxiety, and quality of life.

Methods: Forty-six adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension underwent assessment of cognitive function, depression, anxiety, and quality of life using standardized neuropsychological tests …

Marc Vs Xml, Peter A. Zuber

Faculty Publications

Some of the issues in discussion between MARC and XML deal with the desire to expand the content of the bibliographic record. An often-cited example is the library that wishes to enrich the current electronic record with a table of contents. Although a table of contents inclusion is actually possible with the MARC record, it is certainly not an ideal platform for such content. The MARC record is described as being a "flat" record, meaning it does not have a hierarchal nature. As such, it is a poor candidate for hierarchal structures such as a table of contents. A discussion …

Google And The Print Library Initiative: To Scan Or Not To Scan, Peter A. Zuber

Faculty Publications

Already a strong presence on the web, Google has been of particular interest to those in the library industry, raising concerns over future roles that libraries and librarians would play in a Google-dominated, information-seeking world. Noted not only for its search capability, Google had previously demonstrated its desire to expand its role as an information provider with such tools as Google Earth (a remarkable 3-dimensional viewing tool of the planet), Google Scholar (a search tool designed to return only peer reviewed scholarly content) and Google News and Images (capable of searching thousands of news stories and retrieving a myriad of …

How Coming To Terms With Difficulties In The Family Of Origin Positively Influences Adult Children's Relationship/Marital Quality, Vjollca Kadi Martinson

Theses and Dissertations

Decades of research have shown that family-of-origin experiences are generally important predictors of individuals' later relationship/marital quality. On average, the healthier these experiences are, the healthier adult children's relationships and marriages tend to be. The focus of this study was to investigate how coming to terms with difficulties experienced in the family of origin may enhance adult children's ability to create high quality relationships and marriages. The study employed a sample of 6423 U.S. couples, 18-45 years old, who were dating, cohabitating, engaged or married. This study showed that individuals in couple relationships who reported healthier family-of-origin experiences and those …

School Psychologists' Perceived Concerns Regarding Crisis Intervention With Diverse Populations, Ana E. Kemple

Theses and Dissertations

With the ever-increasing diversity among students in the United States, American schools are seeing more of a mismatch between school personnel and students. Service provision has traditionally addressed multicultural competencies in the area of assessment and more recently in counseling procedures. With the increased attention given to school-related crises, the role of school psychologists has expanded to include crisis intervention. The current study will present information on the need for multicultural competencies in crisis intervention and assess the current concerns of nationally certified school psychologists in this area of service provision. Responses from a random sample of school psychologists (n= …

School Counselors' Concerns Regarding Effective Crisis Intervention For Students Of Diverse Backgrounds, Michelle Lynn Canada

Theses and Dissertations

Although school counselors routinely provide crisis intervention, minimal research has focused specifically on providing such services in a manner sensitive to multicultural and ethnically diverse students. Responses of a random national sample of school counselors (n = 276, 69% return rate) indicate that approximately half voice some sort of concern related to providing crisis intervention services to students from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to summarize school counselor's concerns, providing an initial understanding for this aspect of school-based crisis intervention. Additionally, school counselors' comments were further analyzed to examine possible relationships between the type of concern and …

Curriculum Development Of Elang 105: A Ge First-Year Academic Literacy Course For International Students, Tamara Lee Burton Lamm

Theses and Dissertations

Each year more international students enroll in American universities, and administrators nationwide must determine how to meet students' unique writing needs. Compared to similar institutions of higher learning, Brigham Young University (BYU) has a large percentage of international students—4.3 percent of the student body, approximately 2,000 students each year from 112 countries. Prior to Fall 2004, international students were placed in courses offered through the English composition program, which focuses on "mainstream" college writers who compose in their first language (L1) and not on second language writers and their unique needs. As a result, many international students did poorly and …

Transparency In The Government Communication Process: The Perspective Of Government Communicators, Jenille Fairbanks

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents an understanding of the role of transparency in the communication processes of agencies of the United States Federal Government, as guided by principles of stakeholder management, models of public relations, and a model for government agency communication. These theories and models all suggest that increased openness in organizations will result in improved organizational functioning and in some instances, increases in organizational trust. The perspectives presented in this paper were collected through eighteen semi-structured in-depth interviews of professional communicators for various agencies in the United States Federal Government. The data shows that government communicators recognize the need for …

White Beauty: The Portrayal Of Minorities In Teen Beauty Magazines, Micaela Choo Banks

Theses and Dissertations

This content analysis examines the representations of minorities in the two most popular teen beauty magazines: Seventeen and YM. Nine issues for 2003 constituted the sample frame yielding a total of 620 advertisements containing human models. After setting up a theoretical framework of the new racism and White beauty, this study investigates the portrayals of minority models. Overall, when compared with earlier studies the number of minority models used in mainstream magazine advertising rose and the portrayals of minority models in prominent roles increased. Yet, the subtle nature of the new racism was reinforced in the following findings: Prominent …

Question Of Bias: A Content Analysis Of The Visual Coverage Of The 2004 Presidential Campaign, Angie Bergstrom

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the question of preferential treatment by U.S. national newsmagazines of presidential candidates in the 2004 election as evidenced by their visual coverage. Using content analysis, all the visual depictions of candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry were analyzed for 10 visual attributes to determine whether one had received better pictorial treatment. This study asked if the newsmagazines had printed greater amounts of visuals overall for one candidate and if one candidate's visuals were more or less positive than the other. The author concludes that more coverage was given to Bush over Kerry in a 60/40 …

Ipsative Score Distortion On Affinity 2.0, Alec J. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated distortion that occurs when raw scores are converted to ipsative scores on Affinity 2.0, a relatively new instrument for assessing sexual interest. Using a sample of 146 non-offending, heterosexual females, this study examined the characteristics of distorted ipsative score profiles and attempted to develop an algorithm to identify such distortions. A method was developed for defining distortion objectively. Of the 146 profiles,125 were found to contain some degree of distortion. Several hypotheses were formulated as to variables that might be related to distortion. These relationships were examined using Pearson Product Moment Correlations. Several statistically significant, but weak, …

The Internet As An Anchor: A Comparative Analysis Model Of Internet Advocacy And Web Site Production In Japan And The Issue Of History Textbook Reform, Daniel Mark Dowdle

Theses and Dissertations

This master's thesis is a grounded theory study of the development of the Internet as a tool for political action in Japan by groups and individuals producing web pages on the issue of history textbook reform. Through the analysis of 14 in-depth interviews, a framework is developed for understanding the role the Internet has taken in political action in Japan. As activists utilize the Internet in political activism, the Internet appears to be developing into an anchor for continuing political activism. For activists, the Internet is a central point of reference for both mass communication and interpersonal communication activities. The …

Relationships Between Cohesion And Depression In Parents Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Amy Leigh Giauque

Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined the relationship between family cohesion and depression in mothers and fathers of children with disabilities. One hundred and six two-parent families who had a child with a disability provided information on their feelings of cohesion through Bloom's cohesion subscale and depression through the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D). Analyses indicated that mothers and fathers of this sample are not significantly more depressed than the general population. However, there was a correlation between mothers' and fathers' depression, indicating that when mothers' depression increased, fathers' depression increased. Negative correlations were found between mothers' and fathers' self-reported …

Longitudinal Course Of Eating Disorder Risk Among Undergraduate Females At Brigham Young University, Erin Blue Winters

Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined the prevalence rates and longitudinal course of eating disorder risk among undergraduate females at BYU, and compared the identified prevalence rates at BYU with identified rates at other colleges and universities. Almost 2,000 undergraduate females, in three cohort groups, filled out the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) once a semester for four to eight semesters. Clinical cut-off scores were used to determine what percentage of participants were at high risk for eating disordered behaviors and symptomology. Overall eating disorder risk prevalence rates at BYU ranged from 9-11%. These rates were significantly lower than identified rates at other …

The Eating Survey: Disordered Eating And Clinical Cutoff For Adolescents Ages 14-17, David Scott Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

The Eating Survey is a new screening instrument for adolescent eating disturbances. The purpose of this study was to empirically examine how the Eating Survey functions as a total screening instrument and to find a clinical cutoff score for the current 17 items. The participants were 2,569 non-clinical adolescents with a comparative sample of 41 inpatient adolescents aged 14-17. More specifically, this study examined the age and gender differences of the 2,569 non-clinical adolescent males and females. It also compared the 1,662 non-clinical females to a sample of 41 inpatient females. Specificity and sensitivity analyses were conducted to find the …

Development And Validation Of The Theistic Spiritual Outcome Survey, P. Scott Richards, Timothy B. Smith, Marion Schowalter, Michael E. Berrett, Randy K. Hardman

Faculty Publications

We developed the Spiritual Outcome Scale (SOS) to measure the spiritual outcomes of psychotherapy from a theistic spiritual perspective. A 17-item version of the SOS was found to have adequate reliability and validity in a sample of college students. Three factors emerged from the analyses that corresponded to subscales labeled Love of God, Love of Others, and Love of Self. Correlations with measures of psychological outcomes were statistically significant. In subsequent analyses, the SOS was administered over an 8-week period to a sample of inpatient women with eating disorders and to two samples from inpatient psychological clinics in Germany. The …

At-Risk Individuals' Awareness, Motivation, Roadblocks To Participation In Premarital Interventions, And Behaviors Following Completion Of The Relationship Evaluation (Relate), Melissa Lee Kigin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to gain more knowledge about single individuals with specific premarital risk factors for later marital problems (e.g. neuroticism or low emotional readiness, family-of-origin dysfunction, poor communication skills, and hostile conflict resolution style). The sample (N=39) completed the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE) and were selected for the study based on the presence of one or more risk factors. Participants were contacted via email and asked to complete an online version of the Relationship Follow-up Questionnaire (RFQ) to determine their knowledge or awareness of their risk factor(s) after taking RELATE, their motivation for premarital interventions after …

Fremont Storage And Mobility: Changing Forms Through Time, David T. Yoder

Theses and Dissertations

Groups of agriculturalist/hunter-gatherers known as the Fremont inhabited the eastern Great Basin and Colorado Plateau from roughly A.D. 1-A.D. 1350 (Madsen 1989). Fremont groups used differing storage strategies through time and across space. Storage strategies included on-site and off-site storage facilities which were constructed above and/or below-ground. These forms of storage occurred at different frequencies and times throughout the Fremont's 1350 year time span. Researchers (Binford 1980, 1990; Keeley 1988; Soffer 1989; Testart 1982; Wills 1992; Young 1996) using examples from various parts of the world have noted a correlation between the degree of residential mobility and the use of …

The Frequency And Severity Of Problem Behaviors Among Individuals With Autism, Traumatic Brain Injury, And Mental Retardation From The Utah Dspd Dataset, Melanie Kay Arp

Theses and Dissertations

The study reports on analyses of data collected from the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) for 5,859 children with Autism (n = 511), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI, n = 522), or Mental Retardation (MR, n = 4826) whose legal guardians applied for support services through the Utah Department of Services for People with Disabilities (DSPD). Results indicate that the least to most frequent problem behaviors were (a) destructive to property, (b) hurtful to self, (c) hurtful to others, (d) socially offensive, (e) unusual habits, (f) withdrawal, (g) uncooperative, and (h) disruptive behaviors. The degree of severity varied from …

Facilitating Communication About Death Between Mothers And Adolescent Sons Using Fictional Children's Literature, Deon G. Leavy

Theses and Dissertations

Most children will experience the death of a loved one in their lifetime and will need to develop healthy grieving patterns. Communication between parents and children is a key ingredient in facilitating this development. Current opinions about bibliotherapy, using a book to assist in healing, suggest that books provide understanding about grief and death and open channels of communication. Although the use of bibliotherapy is gaining popularity, little research exists about its efficacy. Utilizing the book The Bridge to Terabithia, this study evaluated the facilitation of communication about death between 19 dyads of mother and adolescent sons. Their answers and …