Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Anonymity, Cybercrime, And The Connection To Cryptocurrency, Jesse D. Bray

Online Theses and Dissertations

Cybercrime currently poses a significant threat to the infrastructure of the United States. It can exploit vulnerabilities within the Critical Infrastructure or (CI) systems that are increasingly interconnected. Although the increased interconnectedness allows for easier and more efficient communication it creates vulnerabilities that did not exist ten years ago. A lack of a standardized definition of cybercrime has made it increasingly difficult to create policy that will allow for more efficient interagency cooperation and concrete laws regarding cybercrime. Cybercrime thrives on the anonymity of the Internet with the use of specific browsers, The Onion Router for example, to access information …

Nixon's Wars: Secrecy, Watergate, And The Cia, Chris Collins

Online Theses and Dissertations

Watergate is considered the most infamous political scandal in American history. It resulted in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, and it had a profound, lasting, and damaging impact on the American people’s trust in government. The story of Watergate is often intertwined with that of President Nixon—his corruption, paranoia, abuse of power, and dramatic political demise. This thesis argues that the crisis of Watergate was rooted not merely in the personality and conduct of the tragically flawed Nixon, but in the deep, systemic government secrecy that developed in the United States at the onset of the cold war. …

When Focusing On Differences Leads To Similar Perspectives: A Replication Study Of Todd, Hanko, Galinsky, And Mussweiler (2011), Cassie Marie Whitt

Online Theses and Dissertations

Todd et al., (2011) found support for the hypothesis that participants primed with a difference mind-set were more likely to spontaneously adopt an other-oriented visual perspective than participants primed with a similarity mind-set or participants in a control condition. The current study was an attempt to directly replicate this finding using American and German samples collected via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The project utilized the ‘Replication Recipe’ (Brandt et. al, 2014) to facilitate the replication process and set the conditions necessary for replication access. The replication was deemed inconclusive; possible explanations are discussed.

The Secret Ingredient For Improving Infant/Child Mental Health: Teaching Parents To Play, Geraldine Healy Marini

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Disorders in mental health are the highest of all disorders and results in the most common form of disability. Since 2011, mental health disorders have increased at alarming rates. It is estimated that 9.5 to 14.2% of children between the ages of 0 to 5 years have and emotional or behavioral problem. The mental health of parents or caregivers can affect and impact the development of young children (Nelson & Mann, 2011, Zero to Three, 2004).

The over arching goal of this research is to explore issues of mental health within parent-child interactions. Coaching parents during the co-occupation of play …

Faculty Of Color At The Kentucky Community And Technical College System: A Survey Of Ethnic Diversity, Geographic Location, And Personal Perspectives, Linda Karen Ballard

Online Theses and Dissertations

Rural universities and colleges with traditionally homogeneous ethnic and cultural populations have to work especially hard to ensure faculty diversity. Despite efforts to increase the number of faculty of color in Kentucky's statewide system of community colleges, minority representation remains proportionally low, especially on the state's rural college campuses. The purpose of this study was to investigate how faculty of color in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) perceived their work climate and resident communities in order to distinguish if these faculty members were content and therefore more inclined to remain at their jobs and offer the degree …

A Mediacentric Examination Of The Corporate Psychopath, Pamela Martha Brooks

Online Theses and Dissertations

The psychopathic personality disorder is an extraordinarily complex and multidimensional phenomenon. While its study has primarily focused on criminal and forensic populations, many researchers are broadening the scope of psychopathy research to include those in the corporate world. This, after striking similarities were revealed between the personalities of corporate leaders and clinically diagnosed psychopaths. One profession that may be attractive to psychopathic personalities is the media, specifically television and radio. This exploratory study utilized a blend of original and archival data. Calculated effect sizes were used to examine the existence of personality facets among three groups of media professionals and …

Identifications Of Challenges And Success Factors Of Females Entering And Advancing In The Profession Of Emergency Management, Audra Cronen

Online Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on how women in the emergency management field have identified and overcome challenges when entering and advancing in the profession. The two research questions were:

• What barriers have females experienced when entering and advancing in the field of emergency management?

• In what ways have females overcome barriers when entering and advancing in the field of emergency management?

These questions were answered by five women who work in the field of emergency management and responded to a series of interview questions. These women made it clear that while this is a predominately male-dominated field of work, …

A Comparison Of School Suspension Rates And Number Of Days Suspended Between African-American And Caucasian Males, Jeffrey D. Herron-Rodgers

Online Theses and Dissertations

Racial discrimination plays a major role in out-of-school suspensions. Research shows that when students are suspended, they are removed from their learning environment, which can lead to poor academic achievement, lower graduation rates, and higher delinquency. The distribution of racial and ethnic minorities that are being suspended or expelled reveal disparities between the groups. Within the United States public school system, racial disparities have been documented over time to show African-American students are suspended from school at higher rates than any other race (Arcia, 2007; Bulter et al, 2012; Rocque, 2010; Skiba et al, 2002; Townsend, 2000).

School systems should …

Teacher Perception Of Principal Leadership Practices: Impacting Teachers' Sense Of Self-Efficacy In Rural Appalachia Kentucky, Brandon Lee Hibbard

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant relationship existed between principal leadership practices, as perceived by teachers, and teacher’s sense of self-efficacy. The target population was rural Appalachian teachers that worked for a principal that had been in administration for at least three consecutive years. This study utilized teacher responses from a survey consisting of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001) and the Leadership Practice Inventory – observer (LPI, Kouzes & Posner, 2003).

Results from the survey categorized levels of self-efficacy for teachers based on the works of Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy …

School Accountability Grades: The Influence Of Student And School Characteristics, Tara Isaacs

Online Theses and Dissertations

In the United States of America, several states passed legislation that enacted a grading system by which schools are measured for their performance through a formalized ranking system, which deem schools a success or failure. These accountability systems are developed by legislators and policymakers in order to fulfill federal requirements like the No Child Left Behind Act (No Child Left Behind [NCLB], 2002) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015), to encourage systemic improvement across states. In reporting annual school performance for the state of Utah, for example, it is necessary to investigate to what extent student and school characteristics …

On The Shithouse Wall: The Communicative Value Of Latrinalia, Thomas Lively

Online Theses and Dissertations

Graffiti has communicative value, and it is a medium through which individuals voice their innermost thoughts, concerns, and beliefs. Restroom graffiti or "latrinalia" offers a unique space for graffiti writers to deliver their messages. The sole focus of this paper is to examine the meaning and communicative value of latrinalia as found in the men's restrooms of a medium-sized university. For this study, restrooms in 17 buildings were visited and a total of 965 instances of graffiti were recorded and codified into 14 different categories. The four most common categories of latrinalia were signature, sexual, artistic, and discriminatory. Latrinalia was …

Intercultural Learning Perspectives Of World Language Educators In Kentucky, Ernest Luke Mcclees

Online Theses and Dissertations

A line has become blurred between intercultural interactions and daily personal interactions. The once long distance for trade, travel and communication is at its’ smallest gap. However, “American graduates have been cited as being culturally deprived and linguistically illiterate, compared to students from other countries” (2013 Kentucky Standard for World Language Proficiency). For educational leaders to improve this current educational inadequacy, it is important to understand teachers’ intercultural beliefs and how they impact their classroom practices. What is not known is the present state of world language teachers’ global competence understanding and what they perceive to be best practices to …

Effectiveness Of An Emergency Vehicle Operations Course Component, Visual And Perceptual Skills: Analyzing Student Response To Searching, Identifying, Predicting, Deciding, And Executing Skills, Christopher Bradley Millard

Online Theses and Dissertations

As funding for driver education declines according to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHSA) 2013 Traffic Safety Facts, there were 2,345,719 people injured or killed as a result of vehicle crashes. NHTSA reported that there were a total of 118 people killed in 2013 from accidents involving emergency vehicles. The effectiveness of an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course component of visual and perceptual skills can be measured by administering the Driver Performance Test prior to and after student participation. This study examined the population of the students who participated in the TRS 235: Emergency Vehicle Operations Course at Eastern Kentucky University …

The Exploration Of Machiavellianism, Logan Taylor Penticuff

Online Theses and Dissertations

Dyads, whether in an academic or practical setting, are commonplace. Workforces and academic settings alike are often comprised of groups of two or more individuals working together towards a common goal. As these interactions continue to be prevalent and important in the various settings, the context in which these interactions takes place and the people involved, influence the efficiency of these pairings. More specifically, the realm of business harbors more individuals considered high in a personality trait referred to as Machiavellianism (i.e., Mach) than other common professions. To better understand how Machiavellianism influences commonplace dyads in settings applicable to everyday …

"You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive": Using Fx's Justified To Form A Cultural Understanding Of Crime In Harlan County, Kentucky, Morgan Stone

Online Theses and Dissertations

Rural southern violence has long been a sensationalized issue. From the Hatfield and McCoy feud to Deliverance, social issues unique to the rural south have received a significant amount of focus within modern popular culture. One of the most recent and popular examples of southern culture and violence is the television network FX’s Justified, set in Harlan County, Kentucky. The storyline follows US Marshal Raylan Givens as he is sent back to Kentucky after a misstep during his tenure in Miami. After arriving in his home state, he finds himself constantly drawn back to his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky, whether …

Relationships And Sports: Mechanisms In Relational Motivation And Its Impact On Athletic Performance, Alexandra Szarabajko

Online Theses and Dissertations

Relationally-Autonomous Reasons (RARs) for pursuing goals are motives that take one’s own personal needs and the needs and desires of close others into account. These relational reasons motivate people in pursing health, school, or sports goals. The purpose of this study was to identify what mechanisms drive relational motivation that in turn affects athletic performance. Participants (n = 156) in this study were student-athletes from various sports, who completed a questionnaire. Athletic performance was obtained and standardized through each athlete’s performance statistics within their sport. The results of the study revealed that closeness, support, accountability, and shared values predicted relational …

Comparability Of Sirs And Sirs-2 Classifications With External Response Bias Criteria, Jessica Lynn Tylicki

Online Theses and Dissertations

The current study compared the classification groups between the SIRS and SIRS-2 using samples of disability claimants and criminal defendants. Results suggest that the newly revised SIRS-2 may have less clinical utility than the original SIRS. Implications of these results for both clinical and forensic settings are discussed.

Law Enforcement’S Social Media Punitive Anomaly, Christopher Lloyd Freeman

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research is a descriptive study of the misuse of social media in law enforcement from 2011 to present. The research will use a content analysis of social media policies coupled with survey of 10 questions administered anonymously to students at the Department of Criminal Justice Training. This mixed method approach will attempt to explain the growing number of police officers and other law enforcement employees who find themselves in violation of the agency policies. The survey consists of Likert scale style questions concerning the agreement with and understanding of social media policies, as well as the perception of privacy …

Carving A New Notch In The Bible Belt: Rescuing The Women Of Kentucky, Molly Dunn

Online Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation has become a major focus on the local, national, and global level. This is despite research, which has identified labor trafficking to be a significantly larger issue across the globe. The purpose of this research is to identify how human trafficking has come to be defined in Kentucky by examining how prominent local actors guide the state’s anti-trafficking movement. Through interactions with non-profit organizations, law enforcement, and concerned citizens, factors and forces that may shape the public’s conception of human trafficking were examined. While the stated goal of …

The Impact Of Compliance With A Certified Accreditation Standard For Municipal Fire Departments, David Ryan Hickel

Online Theses and Dissertations

This report was conducted to assist public administrators serving in municipal fire departments in making the complex decision to pursue agency accreditation. The research finds that very little information is available to administrators that details the impacts accreditation has on a municipal fire department. The research conducted in this report aims to fill that gap.

Literature was reviewed that focused on the emergence of accreditation within the fire service. Then, an exploratory qualitative research method was utilized for the framework of this research, and interviews were arranged with members of various fire departments possessing unique relationships and experience with the …

A Qualitative Pilot Study Of Aging Women’S Physical Activity Experiences In One University Fitness And Wellness Center, Alexis Hobbs

Online Theses and Dissertations

Physical inactivity is one of the driving risk factors for developing health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (World Health Organization, 2003). The prevalence of these diseases increases with the aging process, which renders participation in physical activity crucial among the aging population. There is strong evidence that physical activity reduces the risk of these health disparities and disabilities (Young & Dinan, 2005), however despite these well-documented benefits, aging women still remain sedentary. This study examined the phenomenon of women 55 years of age or older and their lived experiences of participating in physical activity within a university …

An Evaluation Of Educator Perceptions Regarding The Level Of Family Engagement In Appalachian Kentucky Schools With Middle Grade Students, Penelope Ann Jordan

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the perceptions of educators about the level of family engagement occurring in rural Appalachian Kentucky schools with middle grade students. The research contributes to the field of rural family engagement studies by providing baseline metrics of educator perceptions on the current level of family engagement. The sample consisted of 95 educators working in Appalachian Kentucky public school districts with middle grade students. The educators were asked to respond to questions on four dimensions of family engagement. The dimensions of family engagement surveyed were: Communication, Family Support, School Decision-making and Advocacy, and Partnerships. …

Policing Celebratory Behavior: Tactical Vs. Relationship, A Micro Study Of Lexington Kentucky Police Response, Gregg Nelson Jones

Online Theses and Dissertations

In the last three plus decades, considerable attention has been given to certain common phases in the life cycle of gatherings, demonstrations, and riots in the United States. Much of the study focuses on theoretical origin and social psychology associated with each type of event. There is considerably less empirical work regarding police reaction to these events, particularly concerning celebratory behavior following a sporting event. Celebratory incidents are less organized than their protests counterpart. A variety of fans with collective zeal gather in a common location without leadership or mission. Celebratory behavior has become commonplace amongst fans in cities with …

The Deaf Experience In A Hearing Medical World, Sarah Kaylynn Lykins

Online Theses and Dissertations

Background: The purpose of this narrative study was to understand personal experiences of a Deaf individual when communicating with healthcare professionals, to describe personal feelings regarding challenges and successes experienced during healthcare interactions, and express the need for culturally competent healthcare providers with increasingly diverse populations.

Method: The participant interviewed is a member of the Deaf community, uses American Sign Language (ASL), and had multiple decades of major medical treatments. The study was conducted using a semi-structured method with a certified interpreter (CI) present to interpret and was audio and video recorded to account for all aspects of the signed …

Nemo's Plight: Political Economy, Green-Cultural Criminology, And Fish Abuse, Jordan Edward Mazurek

Online Theses and Dissertations

Using the Marine Aquarium Fish Trade as a case study, I propose an integrated theoretical framework in green criminology that strengthens the political economic "treadmill of production" theory (see Lynch et al., 2013) by incorporating an analysis of the "cultural grease" that ensures the treadmill’s smooth operation. Choosing fish as a subject matter, though, requires challenging the "thoroughgoing speciesism" (Beirne, 1999) inherent in the mammalian-centric animal abuse literature. To do this I draw from research in marine biology and animal cognition to philosophically establish that fish are moral agents, "subjects-of-a-life" (Regan, 1983) on par with mammals and thus worthy of …

Chaos Criminology: A Critical Inquiry, Adrienne Leigh Mccarthy

Online Theses and Dissertations

There has been a push since the early 1980’s for a paradigm shift in criminology from a Newtonian-based ontology to one of quantum physics. Primarily this effort has taken the form of integrating Chaos Theory into Criminology into what this thesis calls ‘Chaos Criminology’. However, with the melding of any two fields, terms and concepts need to be translated properly, which has yet to be done. In addition to proving a translation between fields, this thesis also uses a set of criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of the current use of Chaos Theory in Criminology. While the results of the …

Strain And The School Shooter: A Theoretical Approach To The Offender's Perspective, Jessica Suzanne Palumbo

Online Theses and Dissertations

To quote the renowned criminologist, Dr. Robert Agnew (1992, p. 69), “there are two major types of behavioral coping: those that seek to minimize or eliminate the source of strain and those that seek to satisfy the need for revenge.” In some cases, those who seek satisfaction for their vengeful feelings can become deadly when healthy means of coping fail; many have turned to violence upon their peers in pursuit of resolution. The inability to properly cope with strain might explain why some individuals commit seemingly inexplicable acts of mass violence such as school shootings.

Incidents such as Columbine have …

An Elliptic Exploration, David Curtis Swart

Online Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will be giving an introduction to an interesting kind of equation called elliptic curves, and how they can be used to protect our national security through Cryptology. We will explore the unique operation for adding points on elliptic curves and the group structure that it creates, as well as the ECC method, which stands among the RSA and AES methods as one of the modern day's most secure systems of cryptography. In addition, I will also introduce several algorithms and methods that are useful for working with ECC such as Schoof's Algorithm, and I will also …

To Foster Change, Damon Tichenor

Online Theses and Dissertations

The current study intended to investigate the effects of increased similarity to upward, lateral, and downward comparison targets on changes to participants’ psychological well-being and self-aspect valence. Based on previous literature, hypotheses were proposed in regard to the effect of increased similarity to each direction of comparison. A sample of students in introductory psychology classes from Eastern Kentucky University were employed to test these hypotheses. All of the participants completed measures that captured their self-aspect valence and centrality, perception of comparison targets, and psychological well-being. The results of this study confirmed some of the hypotheses. The results showed that for …

The Effects Of Strong Ties On Socialization, Colton Alan Burgess

Online Theses and Dissertations

Organizations that successfully socialize newcomers benefit from effective workforces comprised of employees who experience higher job performance, satisfaction, and commitment. Organizational insiders, known as social agents, play an integral role in facilitating the socialization of newcomers, as these individuals make up the networks in which newcomers work. To better understand in what ways social agents help assimilate newcomers, a more thorough understanding is needed concerning how tie strength between individuals facilitates the socialization process.

This thesis has two objectives. First, two types of antecedents to strong tie development are explored: orientation practices deployed by organizations to promote interaction between newcomers …