Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Theatre As An Intervention For Empathy Development Among Undergraduate Students, Jonathan Stewart

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Empathy is the ability feel into, or put oneself in the place of another. It is the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes. Studies have shown that this ability is decreasing among today’s college students and on the rise as a desired trait for today’s leaders. This dilemma provides an interesting opportunity to explore how institutions of higher education can help develop the leaders of tomorrow by increasing empathy among students. Specifically, this research explores theatre as an intervention for empathy development among college students.

Theatre, as a program of study, is unique within the college experience in that …

Perceived Helicopter Parenting And Self-Determination Theory In Emerging Adulthood, Emily Hivick

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Self-determination theory encompasses three different elements, competence, autonomy and social belongingness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Helicopter parenting is defined as extreme involvement in a child’s life to the point of making decisions for them while also being associated with high levels of parental support and high feelings of parental-child closeness (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). Research has shown that helicopter parenting has been associated with psychological and behavioral problems in young adults, (Odenweller, Booth-Butterfield, & Weber, 2014). The current study investigated the association between perceived helicopter parenting and self-determination theory components along with intrinsic motivation and academic and extracurricular engagement in …

Assistance In Mine Action: Resolution Adopted By The General Assembly On 13 December 2019, Un

Global CWD Repository

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 72/75 of 7 December 2017 and all its previous resolutions on assistance in mine clearance and on assistance in mine action, all adopted without a vote,

Recalling also all relevant treaties and conventions1 and their review processes,

Noting the twentieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,2 and the establishment of both the United Nations Mine Action Service and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action,

Noting with appreciation the extent to which the International …

Analyzing Discourse Surrounding The George Morris Ban: An Ideological Critique Of Sexual Assault Culture In Sports, Megan Mcloughlin

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On August 6^th, 2019 one of the biggest names in the equestrian community, George Morris, was barred from the sport for life based on sexual assault allegations. I have conducted a Social Constructionist discourse analysis of the online responses to this case. Overarching themes exposed flaws in the hegemonic ideals of both the sports world and American culture in its entirety. As the case continues to develop every day, I have adapted my research to reflect new findings and have found that Deflection, Bolstering, and Reflection have emerged as the major themes of this discourse. This method allowed …

Do Faces Facilitate Or Distract Children From Attending To Threats?, Sarah A. Skidmore

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Threatening stimuli may produce an attentional bias in humans, capturing and holding attention to a greater extent than other types of stimuli. Humans rely on others to alert their attention to threats in their environment, and social stimuli, such as faces, have privileged processing compared to nonsocial stimuli. We wanted to explore whether task-irrelevant fearful or neutral faces facilitate, distract, or have no effect on the detection of threatening or neutral images (spiders and frogs, respectively). Three- to-five-year-old children (N=37) completed a visual search task in which they searched for threatening or neutral animals. Consistent with previous literature, we found …

Leading From The Field: Funded International Nongovernmental Organizations And The Participatory Development Of Long-Term Impact Assessments, Geary A. Cox Ii

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Leaders of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must contend with multiple accountability regimes while balancing responsibilities to stakeholders. While many accountability mechanisms are donor-led, this study sought to understand the capacity that NGOs have as agents of change to influence measurement and evaluations activities. The study focused on NGO applications submitted to a donor-government during competitive award announcements for conventional weapons destruction activities.

Using a parallel convergent mixed methods approach, this study examined the ways in which NGO leaders develop their organizations’ capacity to implement long-term impact assessments. A direct entry logistic regression of applications showed evidence of organizational characteristics influencing …

Bridging The Gap: The Collaboration Of Mental Health Services And The Juvenile Justice System, Gregory Medley

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Abstract

This paper explore the mental health needs of juveniles in the juvenile justice system. The need for mental health services in detention centers has been identified consistently throughout the United States. It is clearly noted in research that meeting the needs of youth in local community detentions centers are inadequate. With 65% to 70% of youth in contact with juvenile justice system having a diagnosable mental health disorder; over 60% of youth with a mental health disorder also having a substance abuse disorder (Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Collaborative for Change, 2015). As a result, I have created a …

Library And Academic Discipline Partnerships: Building A Foundation Of Oer Knowledge In Teacher Education Students, Liz Thompson, Jessica Lantz

Libraries

As libraries support OER across an institution, that support looks different in each discipline. In teaching future educators, building early awareness of Open Education Resources (OER) for preservice teachers creates a foundation for future growth. In a higher ed institution's College of Education, librarians and instructional designers interact with both faculty educators and students that are completing a degree to become PK-12 educators. Libraries can help build OER awareness through in-class instruction, outreach pop-up events, and online resource guides. The Library began this project in an effort to raise awareness of OER concepts before the students begin their professional teaching …

Jungle Gyms Of Justice: Understanding The Urban Park Accessibility Problem, Victoria Holmes

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Urban parks and green spaces have the potential to provide outstanding benefits to both children and adults. However, increased urbanization and the disproportionate placement of urban parks and green spaces can make these benefits elusive. Case studies focused on Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago have found that access to urban parks and green spaces is more challenging for non-white and low-socioeconomic status populations. The present study, focused on the much smaller, much less populated city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, builds on this work using geographic information system (GIS) buffer analysis to find that all socioeconomic groups face access issues to some …

Librarian, Faculty, And Student Perceptions Of Academic Librarians: Study Introduction And Literature Review, Jody C. Fagan, Hillary Ostermiller, Elizabeth Price, Lara Sapp

Libraries

A survey concerning perceptions of academic librarians was conducted at a large, 4-year university with three populations: librarians, faculty, and undergraduate students. The high response rate and the use of an instrument based on previous studies offers the possibility of longitudinal comparison and the identification of relationships between groups within one environment. Results will be presented in a series of articles, beginning with this paper’s study introduction and literature review of librarian, faculty, and student perceptions of librarians. Subsequent papers will present results from the three surveys and offer analysis across the three groups. The literature review focused on research …

Learning Europe, Jesse Giammarino

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

Learning Europe is an annual project that takes place in the high schools of Florence and Pistoia in Italy. JMU master’s students in the European Union Policies Studies program in Florence attend these high schools for two sessions to teach Italian students about the European Union. JMU students go to these meeting either alone or in pairs of two, but with a JMU faculty member (usually a teaching assistant) who assists in the sessions. The two sessions are broken up by the material taught in them, with a natural progression from topics discussed in the first to the topics discussed …

Font Fails To Improve Reading On Assessment Tasks, Steven L. Powell M.A., Denton S. Warburton M.A., Ashton D. Trice Ed.D

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

Dyslexie is a font type that was created specifically to address the challenges that individuals with Dyslexia face. This font-type consists of distinctive characteristics in each letter that are suggested to be more easily distinguishable from one another, such as a bolded bottom portion of each letter, additional inter-letter spacing, a greater x-height, and capitalized letters that are slightly italicized and bolded. Although the author claims that it improves the reading performance of individuals with Dyslexia, the literature on its effectiveness is conflicting. The current study investigates the effectiveness of Dyslexie compared to two commonly used fonts on readers’ comprehension …

Evaluating The Outcomes Of Social Media Marketing Alongside Traditional Promotional Techniques In Library Outreach, Liana Bayne, Caroline Hamby

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

James Madison University MALA (Madison Academic Library Associates) graduate assistants worked together with Special Collections and the library’s Outreach department to help market and support JMU’s First Annual Pulp Studies Symposium in Fall 2016. Social, digital, and physical ultimately came together to highlight and surface Special Collections’ extensive holdings of pulp magazines. Hashtags, archival ephemera, and everything in between melded in this multi-part exhibit. Since one of the least known and studied genre of pulps are the romance pulps, Love Story Magazine was the focus of our social media outreach project. Its florid narratives led organically to the idea of …

Ethics And Equity In Nonprofits, Jennifer K. Morgan

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

When considering modes of delivery of public services, traditionally people depend on the government to supply these goods and services. Citizens believe in the social contract and that it is the duty of the government to deliver services to the public. However, beginning in the 1970s, the traditional form of public goods delivery moved away from strictly government distribution, towards market delivery in hopes of greater responsiveness and ability to deliver at a lower cost. However, can nonprofits deliver goods and services once provided by the government with the same equity standards as the government? When examining the literature on …

Impacts Of Giving Circles On Participants: Giving Style And Civic Engagement, Eric Thomas Busche

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

Giving circles are an emerging form of philanthropy in which members contribute and pool funding with the intent to distribute said funding to grantees, with such efforts often identified based on group-generated consensus with members voting on both what issues to address and which recipients to fund, in order to generate an increased impact on the grantee. Giving circles present a way in which individuals may exert greater control over the way in which their donations are appropriated without needing to donate relatively large sums of money. In this way giving circles may present an attractive option to individuals who …

A Rubric For Evaluating And Designing Survey Research In Neuropsychology, Emily F. Matusz, Bernice A. Marcopulos, Thomas M. Guterbock

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

The current study presents recommended guidelines for neuropsychologists in accordance with best practices used in survey research design and data reporting. Although there have been improvements in the quality of research design and data reporting of neuropsychological surveys over time, several areas are still in need of improvement. A rubric, created from these recommended guidelines, is intended to provide neuropsychologists with an easily accessible tool to help further improve the quality of of survey research in neuropsychology.

Assessment Project, Caroline Hamby 5887520

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

My project presents research related to prescription drug abuse. It lays out a brief, hypothetical intervention focused on psychoeducation around potential negative effects of prescription drug abuse. It proposes that patients being placed on strong painkillers must go though a brief program before they obtain their first refill. This will hopefully result in less prescription drug abuse over time, as measured by tools assessing problematic use.

Using The Reflective Functioning Scale To Predict Counseling Outcomes, Matthew Swartzentruber

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

It is my proposal to demonstrate the usefulness of the Reflective Functioning Scale within counselors-in-training populations to promote effective counseling clinicians and improve counseling competencies.

A Bereavement Support Group For The Non-Religious, Charles L. Miller

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

In American culture, the approach of many to death and bereavement is couched in religious messaging. For much of the country, this approach resonates with a mourner's worldview. However, this is not the case with a growing segment of the population: individuals who identify as non-religious. While well-meaning, common strategies intended to comfort these individuals and help them navigate the mourning process may be less than effective, and in some cases even distressing due to religious content.

The design of the proposed intervention is intended to provide a purely secular support environment in which group members explore the cultural context …

Improving Relationships, Brittany D. Dioszeghy

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This project is a proposal for a program that improves individuals' experiences in relationships.

A Home For The Spirit: Mental Health Care Delivery And The Homeless, John D. Rogers

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

I propose to present a poster summarizing a needs analysis for delivery of mental health care services to homeless people in small cities. The poster will provide highlights of a review of the relevant literature, best practice from current shelters, a summary of needs, a proposed model agency.

Homelessness is a significant and persistent issue in the United States and around the world. With public policy support, integrated care modalities, and new conceptualizations of treatment, those without homes can find help for mental health issues, and those in the helping profession can find rewarding opportunities to contribute to improved prognosis …

Congruence And Therapy: The Real Relationship Inventory (Rri), Jean F. Ndzana

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

I am interested in looking at the process of psychotherapy, and how specific under-represented groups (that are already reluctant to entering therapy), experience this process and the genuineness of the therapist. I am interested in exploring concerns that are parallel to the initial concern that brought the person for counseling, and how such processes, if unexplored, that can damage therapeutic alliance, and result in poor therapy outcome. The ultimate goal is not to get people in therapy, but to deliver successful therapy.

Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: Sector Mapping And Needs Analysis, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

The dramatic rise in the number of civilian casualties from explosive ordnance (EO) since 2013 has triggered a debate in the mine action (MA) sector about the effectiveness of explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) (often shortened to risk education – RE). This rapid appraisal of EORE approaches, capacity, coordination and resources examines how the EORE sector is responding to new and emerging EO threats and violent operating environments to identify EORE good practices and potential needs. This report, based on document review and interviews with MA stakeholders conducted between mid-May and mid-June 2019, summarizes the research findings.

Guidance On Protection From Sexual Exploitation And Abuse, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by humanitarian workers are some of the most serious failures of protection and are grave violations of the responsibility of humanitarian personnel to do no harm. Whereas instances of SEA are not a new occurrence, the pervasiveness of this phenomenon was only exposed to the public eye in 2002 following allegations of SEA by aid workers against refugees and displaced women and children in West Africa. Acknowledging that the problem was global, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) was established in 2002 with the short-term purpose …

Building The Future Of Oer Through Pre-Service Teachers, Liz Thompson, Melissa Wells, Jessica Lantz

Libraries

According to recent literature and research, in-service teacher awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons licenses continues to be uneven and relatively low. Providing OER education while teachers are focused on learning in their degree-granting programs could be a sustainable long-term strategy to build awareness of OER with PK-12 instructors. A small research team, consisting of two Librarians, an Instructional Designer, and an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at two higher education institutions, designed a survey and intervention for pre-service teachers to measure and increase their levels of OER awareness. The purpose of the survey is …

Empowering Your Staff To Solve Problems: Evidence-Based Training For Strategic Thinking, Rebecca B. French, Jennifer A. Keach

Libraries

Are you teaching procedures or are you teaching problem solving? Discover an approach to help develop your staff’s strategic thinking skills to meet the needs of the 21st-century library workplace. Explore how to apply learning theory and walk away with actionable steps for training independent problem solving.

5 Steps To Creating Quality Educational Programs: Lessons From The Field Of Instructional Design, Jennifer A. Keach

Libraries

Whether you are developing a staff training program or programming for your community, the field of instructional design offers valuable advice if your goal is to help your attendees to learn. Learn how to build your own programs from scratch with easy-to-implement steps based on learning science.

Spaceport: A Finding Aid Launchpad, Rebecca B. French

Libraries

JMU Libraries distributes its Special Collections finding aids to a number of discovery platforms, a process which historically has involved a significant amount of hand-encoding and manual data entry. We recently developed and implemented Spaceport, a Python app that has revolutionized this workflow. This presentation provides an overview of the app's functionality, which includes generating EADs for Virginia Heritage, HTML files for upload to the Libraries website, and MARCXML records for our catalog and OCLC. It also describes the efficiencies and other benefits we have observed from Spaceport's use.

A Guide To Non-Technical Survey, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

The aim of this guide is to provide an introduction to Non-Technical Survey (NTS) for mine action personnel who wish to learn more about the subject, but who may lack practical experience. This guide collects the lessons learnt from the development and standardisation of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) Non-Technical Survey Training Course and will form part of the pre-course reading material. It aims to provide course participants with a better understanding of the theory and practice of NTS operations. The importance of the practical training cannot be overstated, and this guide is not meant to replace …

Building An Inclusive Library Through Staff Accessibility Training, K.T. L. Vaughan

Libraries

Libraries provide a needed third place for students to engage with their peers and faculty, both academically and socially. Staff behavior, knowledge, and skills in providing an accessible and inclusive environment are key to helping students with disabilities feel that they belong in the libraries. This makes training in disability and accessibility awareness a necessary component of the overall program for the library. This study assessed a locally-developed, online training program for staff of all levels that was intended to improve staff knowledge and skills in disability etiquette, library services and spaces that support people with disabilities, and the policies …