Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ecological Transitions Of U.S. Elementary School Students: Their Short– And Long–Term Educational Outlooks, Anthony Buttaro Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I identify different types of U.S. elementary school students experiencing ecological transitions and examine their characteristics. Then, I investigate the short-term and long-term educational outlooks of these ecological transition groups from birth through their 5^th-grade. The main research questions are: Which are the characteristics of students experiencing each type of ecological transition? What short–term associations exist between different types of ecological transitions and students’ academic achievement during the elementary school grades? What long–term associations exist between students’ ecological transition histories and their academic achievement growth?

To address these questions I used data from the public …

The Effect Of Cognitive Load On Liars And Truth Tellers: Exploring The Moderating Impact Of Working Memory Capacity, Sarah Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Two studies are presented. The purpose of the first study is to examine the moderating impact of working memory capacity (WMC) on the cognitive load produced by both the type of statement a person is making and the manner in which the person is interviewed in a mock crime scenario. The moderating impact of suspects’ WMC (measured using the automated operation span task) on this process was also assessed. Suspects were instructed to tell the truth, a relatively easy lie, or a more difficult lie. Suspects were then interviewed in a relatively easy manner, a moderately more difficult manner, or …

When Human-Leopard Conflict Turns Deadly: A Cross-Country Situational Analysis, Julie S. Viollaz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Habitat destruction and pollution are two of the main causes for the decline of the planet’s biodiversity. Yet environmentalists are now recognizing that illegal wildlife killings, both poaching and retaliatory killings due to human-wildlife conflict, are perhaps the next major threat. Biologists have researched illegal killings and their effect on species conservation, but few researchers have applied criminological principles of crime reduction to them. This research will explore the situational factors that drive retaliatory leopard killings in parts of South Africa, Kenya, and India. These factors, human and environmental, include local expectations from wildlife, sensitivity to environmental issues, communication between …

Through The Gateway: Marijuana Production, Governance, And The Drug War Détente, Michael Polson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the 1996 voter approval of medical marijuana laws in California, marijuana policy has become increasingly liberalized. Producers, however, have remained in the greyest of grey market zones. Federal anti-drug laws and supply-side tactics have intensively targeted them even as marijuana has become more licit. In this legally unstable environment, marijuana patient-cultivators and underground producers have articulated and asserted themselves politically and economically, particularly as the likelihood of full legalization has increased. This dissertation explores how producers navigated the nebulous zone between underground and medical markets. I argue that even as producers supplied marijuana to a formalizing, regulated medical industry …

Problem And Adaptive Behavior Levels In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders As Predictors Of Sibling Adjustment, Hallie Solarsh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among adaptive and problem behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and stress, personal adjustment and behavior of typically developing siblings. The participants were 53 sets of parents and typically developing siblings of children with ASDs, recruited from the tri-state New York area. The siblings were between the ages of 8-18 years. Parent participants completed three questionnaires including: 1) The Nisonger Parent Behavior Rating Form, 2) The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-Second Edition, and 3) The Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition, Parent Report. Typically developing siblings completed 1) The …

Psychological Perspectives On The Under-Representation Of African Americans And Females In Entrepreneurship: The Relationship Between Perceptions Of Fit And Intentions To Leave, Rachel Pascall-Gonzalez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Advisor: Professor Charles Scherbaum

Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a vehicle for economic growth (Ireland & Webb, 2007), and recent years have shown growing multi-disciplinary interest among entrepreneurship scholars. The primary focus of this study was to identify psychological and contextual variables that explain African American and females’ intent to quit entrepreneurship. Specifically, using Heilman’s (1983) lack-of-fit model as a theoretical lens, it tested the proposal that the intent to quit entrepreneurship could be explained by the extent of African American and females’ perceptions of fit and identification with the role. Data were collected via survey methodology from a sample …

Stress And Suicidal Behavior: A Cognitive, Behavioral, And Biological Integrative Approach, Jorge Valderrama

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in young adults in the United States. Previous research has established distal and proximal life stress as a strong risk factor for suicidal behavior. However, how stress impacts suicidal behavior via interactive cognitive and biological mechanisms has not been thoroughly examined. The present research sought to better understand the relationship between stress and suicidal behavior via altered neurobiological functioning, maladaptive cognitions, and deficits in executive functioning. The first study found a relationship between the brooding subtype of rumination and trait impulsivity in the forms of negative urgency, lack of premeditation, and …

Let Fall: Hysteria And The Psychoanalytic Act, Matthew W. Oyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This text proposes to examine the contemporary crisis of psychoanalysis by taking seriously feminist critiques of the theory’s phallocentrism, but arguing that the phallus cannot be metaphorically or metonymically replaced by any substitutive term, as most revisionist theories of psychoanalysis have sought to do. Castration is the central psychoanalytic concept, though the theory always seeks to cover it over. In order to develop a psychoanalysis that can confront this castration that is always repressed and yet, in its persistent return, continuously disrupts the continuity of psychoanalytic theory, a detour is proposed, returning to the origins of psychoanalysis and taking hysteria …

An Exploration Of Target Event Encoding In A Predictive Learning Task With Humans: Integrated Or Separable Processing?, Natasha B. Nadler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A major theme in the study of Pavlovian learning explores how attributes of a predicted event are represented and encoded. In Pavlovian conditioning, the conditioned stimulus (CS) is frequently assumed to associate with one or more of the various attributes of a motivationally significant unconditioned stimulus (US, e.g. it’s hedonic, motivational, and/or sensory features). The present research asks whether humans learn to predict and encode different aspects of motivationally neutral target events, namely, their specific sensory and temporal features in a separable or integrated manner. This question of how target events are encoded has implications for associative and timing models …

The Effect Of Community And Individual Differences On College Students' Attitudes And Behaviors Towards Transgender Individuals, Laura Hackimer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For transgender adolescents in an environment consisting largely of non-transgender (cisgender) individuals, whether adults and their peers in school are rejecting or accepting of their gender identity can have a large impact on their immediate and future outcomes. As college students will go on to form the social environment for the next generation of transgender adolescents, it is important to assess their beliefs and behaviors regarding this population. The present study sought to investigate the impact of individual and community factors on cisgender college students’ attitudes and behaviors towards transgender individuals. Using a sample of 302 cisgender college students from …

Exploring The Use Of An Iphone App: A Novel Approach To Dietary Assessment, Melissa Keeney, Ming-Chin Yeh, Rissa Landman, May May Leung, Ann Gaba, Khursheed Navder

Publications and Research

Recent advancements in smartphone technology have provided new methods of dietary assessment. An iTunes application (app) called Meal Snap lets users take pictures of the meal they eat, and then estimates the calories of the food items eaten. We conducted a pilot study to explore the user-friendliness and calorie estimation functions of the Meal Snap app. Two female nutrition graduate students pilot-tested the Meal Snap app. Using the app, each student took pictures of foods and drinks consumed daily for two weeks. The data were analyzed using the Nutritionist ProTM software, version 4.4.0. The mean daily caloric intake obtained from …

Could Latinos Choose The Next President? States In Which Latinos Could Determine The Margin Of Victory In The 2016 Presidential Election, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

This special report in partnership with CNN en Espanol examines characteristics of states in which the Latino electorate could determine victory in the 2016 presidential election. Methods: Data were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, Voting and Registration, as a part of the Current Population Survey data from the November Voter Supplements. The 2016 estimates were derived by using the yearly percentage rate of increase between 2004 and 2012. Additional data were derived from an analysis of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) American Community Survey (ACS). Results: In Florida Latinos comprise a large share of the electorate and …

Empowerment From Within: Supporting Palestinian Women’S Struggle Against Violence, Ortal Bensky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Recent reports by the United Nations and local non-governmental organizations present a troubling increase in incidents of violence against Palestinian women in Palestine. These are cases of domestic violence, where the attackers are Palestinians, and political violence, where the attackers are Israeli settlers and soldiers. These violent incidents include attacks on body and property. Most incidents are neither dealt with by the Palestinian authorities nor by the Israeli government and judicial system. There is not sufficient international pressure to enforce justice. The purpose of this study is to offer alternative ways to prevent violent crimes, enforce relevant laws, and provide …

Essays In Chinese Financial Markets, Chang Xia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 adopted the constraint dummy variables regression model in Cao, Harris and Wang (2007) to examine seasonality in the returns, volatility, and turnover of Shanghai ‘A’, Shanghai ‘B’, Shenzhen ‘A’, and Shenzhen ‘B’ composite indexes in the Chinese Stock Market. Daily data of four composite indexes (Shanghai ‘A’, Shanghai ‘B’, Shenzhen ‘A’, and Shenzhen ‘B’) was collected: the opening index value, the closing index value, the maximum index value, the minimum index value and the volume traded. Volatility (a realized volatility that is based on the daily trading range), trading volume, and three return series of the four indexes …

The Effect Of The Long Anchor Duration On Performance In The Temporal Bisection Procedure, Sho Araiba

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study investigated the determinants of the location of the bisection point (BP) in the temporal bisection procedure. Interest in the study of temporal perception emerged from the finding of the scalar property such as Weber’s law for time and the ratio rule in behavior under Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. One method to investigate temporal perception in both non-human animals and humans is the temporal bisection procedure. The primary dependent variable of this procedure is the BP, which has been taken as the subjective midpoint between two durations. The ratio similarity rule (Gibbon, 1981) hypothesizes that the location of …

Politics Between And Within Us: Authenticity And Theatricality In Modern Political Thought, Daniel J. Mccool

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation details the ways in which two distinct models of politics — the politics of authenticity and the politics of theatricality — have influenced political rhetoric and activity in America and beyond. The focus on authenticity in politics goes back to the ancients, yet it has taken on greater political significance in the modern era. Morally-charged language of “telling the truth”, or “being oneself” in politics has meant that public judgment and analysis has increasingly focused on the interiority of the speaker: one’s intentions, feelings and consistency, rather than on the persuasive case one is attempting to communicate. In …

Connectivity: An Ecological Paradigm For The Study Of Bronze Age, Slobodan Mitrović

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Connectivity: an ecological paradigm for the study of Bronze Age” addresses the relationship between historic and prehistoric people, and the landscapes they inhabited, moved about, and continue to inhabit. It suggests alternative methodological approaches that have broader ramifications for the discipline of (Bronze Age) archaeology. By engaging the code and innovations stemming from ecology and digital technology, the research questions concern the interface – referred to as connectivity – between the archaeological sites, resources, networks of communication, and the conditions of archaeological knowledge acquisition. Drawing on published and new data, the aim of the project is to put forward a …

The Politics Of Middle Class Decline And Growth In Industrialized Democracies, 1980 To 2010, Young-Hwan Byun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research explains why some industrialized democracies have experienced middle class decline while others have experienced middle class growth since the 1980s. The prevailing political science literature based on the median voter theory predicts that middle class decline should not occur in democracies, whereas economic theories fail to explain national variation of middle class decline by attributing the decline to common developments such as globalization or technological change. I analyze data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database, the Comparative Welfare States Dataset, and the Comparative Welfare Entitlement Dataset, and demonstrate a significant partisan effect on middle class decline. I argue …

The Effect Of Attitudes Towards The Death Penalty On Forensic Clinical Judgments Of Competency For Execution, Eugenia Garcia-Dubus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Capital punishment has been a part of the American Justice System since colonial times. A brief historical overview reveals a general tendency towards the imposition of restrictions on who is eligible for the death penalty (DP). In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court has held that the execution of an incompetent inmate is unconstitutional, but the topic is controversial among mental health professionals. The likelihood of clinician attitudes towards the DP affecting judgments of competency for execution (CFE) is discussed in the context of existing literature. The vagueness of the current CFE standard is thought to contribute to this …

The Hermeneutics Of International Trade Conflicts: U.S. Punitive Trade Policy Towards China And Japan, Barry F. Murdaco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes punitive trade conflicts between the U.S. and two trading partners: China and Japan. Punitive trade conflicts can be defined as trade wars between two states, retaliatory tariffs, or other forms of conflict, e.g. preventing the acquisition of foreign assets or sanctions for an undervalued exchange rate. I will examine several trade conflicts between the U.S. and Japan in the 1980s and several trade conflicts between the U.S. and China from 2001 to the present. This study is situated within a larger debate concerning the resolution of four theoretical "puzzles" in political science. The first concerns the dispute …

Firms' Decisions To Enter A Market Of Highly Differentiated Products: Apparel Industry And New York Fashion Week, Yoko Katagiri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation deals with economic aspects of the fashion industry. It begins with a discussion of the complex industrial organization aspects of the industry. A wealth of information in this area has been assembled and is presented for the first time. The focus is on the high-end fashion market: how it started, how it works, New York Fashion Week, and its significance for the industry. Then a comprehensive review of the economics literature as it pertains to the industry is presented, also for the first time. The empirical sections of the dissertation contain estimates of demand functions for apparel and …

Unfaithful Allies: Local Resistance And The Failure Of Statebuilding, Ervin Kallfa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Unfaithful Allies: Local resistance and the failure of statebuilding in the Western Balkans

Adviser: Professor Susan Woodward

International efforts to build strong and legitimate states in developing societies often present a paradox. In many instances they are undermined by the resistance of very local actors with whom the Union partners up. The form that this resistance takes varies by country. In some instances the domestic partners show open defiance. In other cases they formally conform, while working behind the scene to undermine statebuilding.

My dissertation examines the factors that shape the domestic resistance to statebuilding projects by examining EU statebuilding …

Development, Security And Displacement: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Rocinha And Other Key Favelas In Rio De Janeiro, Marcos D. Burgos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study highlights the complex and generally overlooked relationship between development, urban space, and security, and does so through a multiyear ethnographic study of Rocinha, Brazil’s largest favela (slum/squatter community).

Since 2007 unprecedented resources have been devoted towards improving Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (slums), mainly in the form of large-scale favela upgrading and security programs. Coinciding with the historic improvement schemes in Rio, and in large part responsible for them, Brazil’s economy experienced one of its most sustain period of growth during the first decade of the twentieth century. For the first time, strong economic growth and a historic decrease …

Wandering In Contemporary Literature: A Narrative Theory Of Cognition, Hillel E. Broder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study offers a theory of wandering cognition as an animating feature of western literature, in general, and of contemporary literature, in particular. Unlike existing theories of peripatetic bodies and minds in fiction that focus primarily on political critiques, cultural practices, or pleasures of digression, this theory of wandering offers an aesthetic philosophy and ethical critique of representing cognition, memory, and narrative identity that finds affinities in the political, phenomenological, and ethical thought of Walter Benjamin, Emmanuel Levinas, and Giorgio Agamben.

Unlike existing cognitive theories of literature that apply cognitive theory to literary study (or vice versa), this study develops …

Alien, Illegal, Undocumented: Labeling, Context, And Worldview In The Immigration Debate And In The Lives Of Undocumented Youth, David A. Caicedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A key element of investigating attitudes towards unauthorized immigrants in the United States has been political orientation, yet few studies have examined the influence of such orientation on labels relevant to the immigration debate. The current dissertation project examined these attitudes among young adults using survey, focus group, and interview methodologies. Level of agreement on various statements regarding unauthorized immigrants was examined in Study I, definitions given for the labels ‘illegal’ and ‘undocumented’ were explored in Study II, and the lived experience of undocumented youth in two community colleges was investigated in Study III. It was hypothesized that: I) attitudes …

Madison Vanguard: A Novel, Berni Moestafa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project takes the form of a popular fiction novel that introduces parts of the academic discussion on capitalism to a wider audience through storytelling. Using a fictional fiscal crisis in New York as its setting, the novel discusses the relationship between capitalism and democracy. It therefore aims to address the underrepresentation of the debate on capitalism in popular entertainment and raise awareness about some of the debate’s key issues.

Popular culture be that music, film, books, media, videogames or advertisement surround our lives and expose us to a plethora of messages that help shape our understanding of the …

Locked In: Melancholia In The Modern American Prison Literature Of R. Dwayne Betts And Jarvis Jay Masters, Johnna Scrabis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the theme of melancholia in the writing of currently and formerly incarcerated African American men during the late 20^th and early 21^st century. Melancholia, with its rich history in literature from ancient times to the present, is discernable in the works of many people with prison experience. In their writing, melancholia is expressed primarily as a loss and as a disconnection with time, as well as an empowering creative force. The work of Jarvis Jay Masters and R. Dwayne Betts reflects the paradox of melancholia: just as it shows the depressive element of the condition, …

African American Young People's Views Of Youth Participation And Its Implications For Addressing Community Problems, Isabelle M. Elisha

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Youth participation has been brought to the forefront of scholarly concerns by a growing interest in the positive effects of youth participation on developmental outcomes. However, few studies have investigated within group variations in African American young people’s views of civic participation. The present study examined African American early adolescents’ perceptions of youth participation in resolving community problems. Using a written protocol instrument with open-ended questions, the present study elicited diverse narratives from thirty-one 11-14 year old African American adolescents in order to address within-group variations in their experiences with youth participation and their understanding of racial discrimination. Participants described …

The Dream Defaulted: Foreclosure, Crisis, And Hope In Baltimore, Maryland, And Detroit, Michigan, Heidi M. Rafferty-Reijm

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, the late 2000s were a time of crisis that tested many urban decision-makers. The recession that started in 2007 was defined by a severe crash in the housing market and the proliferation of mortgage foreclosures across the country. Foreclosures occurred in urban, suburban, and rural communities, but had a particularly devastating impact on larger, older cities and their low and moderate-income neighborhoods. These cities had been dealing with economic and population decline for half a century. In many of their urban neighborhoods, foreclosures affected as many as one in four households and added yet another challenge …

The Politics Of Court Driven Morality Policy: A Comparative Analysis Of Abortion And Same-Sex Marriage 1971-2015, Korey L. Hughes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation had two principal components. First was the development of an argument outlining the five critical differences between abortion and same-sex marriage policy, which highlight the current insufficiency of the existing morality politics framework. These differences were: the duration of the issue, whether it demonstrated an incrementalist of a punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change, the scope of conflict, the degree of institutional entrenchment within the two parties, and the social construction of stakeholders. I then advanced five hypotheses to explain why these differences between the two policy areas in both process and outcome existed, for the purpose of …