Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Data Analysis: Qualitative And Quantitative Approaches, Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur, Roger Clark

Faculty Publications

Social data analysis enables you, as a researcher, to organize the facts you collect during your research. Your data may have come from a questionnaire survey, a set of interviews, or observations. They may be data that have been made available to you from some organization, national or international agency or other researchers. Whatever their source, social data can be daunting to put together in a way that makes sense to you and others. This book is meant to help you in your initial attempts to analyze data. In doing so it will introduce you to ways that others have …

Refusing To Be Silent: A Case Study Of Act Up & The Dual Role Of Anger In Social Movements, Juliet Aurora Antonio

Honors Projects

The central question for my thesis is: How much can activism be fueled by anger, and how can that anger lead to a movement destruction? Anger is an effective catalyst for a movement; However, if a movement fails to change its goals to adapt to a shifting political climate, and if activists begin to turn their anger on each other, then the movement will decline and collective action will cease. I argue that those emotions led to ACT UP demise as the organization fractured after its controversial responses to routine opposition and failure to adapt to a changing political context. …

Meet Pressbooks, Dragan Gill, Jenna Azar

Open Textbook Initiative

Want to create and share your own teaching and learning materials online and in print? Adapt or author open textbooks? Pressbooks is an online publishing tool that lets you distribute materials in ten formats, including print. It’s perfect for sharing reports, lab manuals, anthologies and reading collections accessibly. This workshop will introduce you to the platform’s features and get you started with your RIC account.

Making Sense Of Acute Stress: Psychological Adjustment In Meaning Making, Kristen Diann Petagna

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The current study utilized an experimental design to investigate violations of global meanings, perceived stress, positive affect and negative affect in the context of meanings made from a stressful situation. Additionally, meanings made were investigated as a moderator of the relationship between those variables. A sample of 40 participants completed the experiment and the questionnaires. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to either the control group or the experimental group. Participants responded to a variety of measures including, perceived stress, positive and negative affect, positive cognitive emotional regulation strategies (meaning making attempts), meanings made, global meaning measures such as …

Recovery Capital As A Mediator Between Stress And Drug-Taking Abstinence Self-Efficacy, Roxxanne Newman

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The present research was designed to address the gap in research regarding recovery capital, stress, and drug-taking abstinence self-efficacy. Prior research on recovery capital and stress has demonstrated that recovery capital buffers stress in recovery and enhances quality of life. Additionally, prior research has demonstrated that stress depletes self-control, and contributes to continued relapse behaviors, while self-efficacy represents the ability to abstain from drug use. The current research sought to examine the role of recovery capital as a mediator between stress and drug-taking abstinence self-efficacy. Participants in the community completed a survey packet that measure recovery capital, perceived stress, and …

Impact Of Structural And Individual Level Traits On Delinquent And Criminal Behavior: Building A Testable Multilevel Model, Jason Benjamin Gieck

Honors Projects

The creation of a multilevel model to examine the structural and individual level characteristics that contribute to delinquency and criminality, and how the created work can inform future research, counseling and policy strategy changes in the future.

#Metoo Movement: A Sociological Analysis Of Media Representations, Lindsay Tahan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The Me Too or #MeToo movement has come under the spotlight in recent years since more survivors/victims are now speaking out against their abuser. These survivors/victims repressed their abuse for years, ashamed to speak out in fear that they would not be believed or face extreme scrutiny and humiliation. Survivors/victims are now coming together to seek justice and to reform the judicial system and how they handle sexual abuse and violence cases. This movement has become more prominent now than it was when it first was formed in 2006 by Tarana Burke and reintroduced by Alyssa Milano using Twitter in …

Fair Trade: The Successes And Failures As Seen Through The Sustainable Development Goals, P. Alison Macbeth

Honors Projects

In this paper I seek to understand fair trade as a social movement and the relationship of fair trade to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations. I look at the history of the fair trade movement in the context of alternative trade organizations and the sustainability movement during the precipitous rise and stature of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the 1990s. I analyze the growth and scalability of fair trade in the U.S. since 2015 through three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 1: Ending Poverty; SDG 5: Gender Equality; and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and …

Stonewalling In The Brick City: Perceptions Of And Experiences With Seeking Police Assistance Among Lgbtq Citizens., Danielle M. Shields

Faculty Publications

Extant research has documented police interactions between racial and ethnic minority populations, including negative perceptions of and experiences with the police; police corruption and misconduct; and the deleterious effects of negative relationships with the police, such as reduced legitimacy and mistrust. Comparatively, exchanges between lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) populations and the police have received limited attention. This is despite work suggesting that LGBTQ citizens face an elevated risk of victimization, and a possible reticence in reporting their victimization, resulting from negative perceptions of police, fear of mistreatment, or even experiences of harassment and abuse by police. To …

What’S Water Got To Do With It? Place-Related Symbolic Meanings Alter Residents’ Perceived Effects Of Coastal Infrastructure, Bryce B. Dubois, Katherine Lacasse, Aaron J. Ley

Faculty Publications

The symbolic meanings residents associate with their local bodies of water and coastal infrastructure can shape their perceptions of the infrastructure’s effects. In this case, we conduct a survey (N = 168) to examine residents’ perceptions of visibly disruptive, yet environmentally

protective cooling towers attached to a long-standing coal-fired power plant on Mount Hope Bay. Residents’ symbolic meanings of the bay corresponded predominantly with aesthetic,

ecological, or recreational themes, whereas their symbolic meanings of the towers also focused on aesthetics as well as the towers’ function or uselessness. Although residents generally perceived the towers as having negative effects on …

The Earth Has Humans, So Why Don’T Our Climate Models?, Brian Beckage, Katherin Lacasse, Jonathan M. Winter, Louis J. Gross, Nina Fefferman, Forrest M. Hoffman, Sara S. Metcalf, Travis Franck, Eric Carr, Asim Zia, Ann Kinzig

Faculty Publications

While climate models have rapidly advanced in s 37 ophistication over recent decades, they lack dynamic representation of human behavior and social systems despite strong feedbacks between social processes and climate. The impacts of climate change alter perceptions of risk and emissions behavior that, in turn, influence the rate and magnitude of climate change. Addressing this deficiency in climate models requires a substantial interdisciplinary effort to couple models of climate and human behavior. We suggest a multi-model approach that considers both a range of theories and implementations of human behavior and social systems is required, similar to how a multi-model …

Incorporating The Critical Music Framework: An Autoethnographic Reflection, Tommy Ender

Faculty Publications

I articulate an autoethnographic narrative of using different songs to counter dominant interpretations of gender, class, immigration, slavery, and education in the secondary social studies classroom. Framing it as the Critical Music Framework, the practice of using music addressing social issues and historical representations of women and people of color provided students with reflective learning opportunities. The resulting conversations illustrate the importance of music not just on the personal but also the academic aspects of individuals.

Cognitive Representations Of Dyadic Relationships: Determinants, Reciprocity, And Egocentric Bias, Casey Stephen Silva

Honors Projects

This study focuses on cognitive representations of one’s own and others’ dyadic relationships and tests the principle that there is a self-serving bias in the assessment of them. Not only do people believe they are superior to other individuals on many psychological dimensions, called egocentric bias, they also believe that their dyadic relationships with others are superior. Participants, called key persons, were brought into the laboratory, and instructed to select three family members and three friends that they know well, and who also know one another within groups but not across groups. After doing so, participants made ratings of their …

The Effects Of Child Maltreatment On Social Relationships In Emerging Adulthood, Roxanne E. Heikin

Honors Projects

This retrospective study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment and social relationships in an emerging adult sample of 159 individuals between 18 and 25 years of age. This research provides additional evidence on the effects of child maltreatment by investigating outcomes found in both friendship and romantic relationship quality in emerging adulthood. Protective factors likely to reduce the negative impact of child maltreatment on social relationships, including emotion regulation, coping, and optimism were examined as moderators. Emotion regulation was the only significant moderator that reduced the negative effect of child maltreatment on friendship and romantic relationship outcomes. Self-report of child …

Conformity To Masculine Norms Predicts U.S. Men’S Decision-Making Regarding A New Male Contraceptive, Katherine Lacasse, Theresa E. Jackson

Faculty Publications

Health decision-making is often explained by affective and cognitive processes, but this processing is rarely explored in relation to gender norms. We investigated how conformity to specific masculine norms are linked to the affective and cognitive processes that lead to U.S. men’s decisions regarding a new male contraceptive. U.S. male college students (N = 151) completed an online survey. They read a description of a long-acting reversible contraceptive, then completed questionnaires measuring their affective and cognitive responses, their information-seeking and willingness-to-try the contraceptive, and their conformity to masculine norms. Participants reported less willingness-to-try the contraceptive when they endorsed masculine …

Social Value Creation And Social Innovation By Human Service Professionals: Evidence From Missouri, Usa, Monica Nandan, Archana Singh, Gokul Mandayam

Faculty Publications

Owing to the contextual challenges, human service professionals (HSP) are creating social value (SV) for diverse vulnerable population groups through social innovation. This qualitative exploratory study investigates the nature of SV created by 14 HSPs, representing a diverse range of human service organizations (HSOs), and examines ‘why’ and ‘how’ they innovate. In addition, the study examines HSPs’ current understanding and practices related to social entrepreneurship (SE). The study findings highlight that increased accountability and new funding opportunities challenged HSPs to innovate. HSPs created SV by addressing new unmet needs, developing new collaborations, and employing alternative marketing strategies, thereby ensuring the …

The Rights Of Queer Children, Robyn Linde

Faculty Publications

The ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc) has long been hailed as a major event in the realisation of children’s human rights, combining the need for protection with a desire to grant agency through recognition of the evolving capacities of the child. Yet the idea of children’s agency as articulated in the crc excluded sexual identity and expression, and ushered in an incomplete emancipation for lgbtiq children; children who are gender non-conforming; and children whose sexual expression otherwise conflicts with heterosexuality – hereafter queer children. I argue that while the crc granted …

Women's Sexual Satisfaction And Overall Well-Being: Examining Relationship Satisfaction, Sexual Agency, Sociosexual Orientation And Relationship Status, Christine M. Curley

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Medical and psychological research has found a strong association between sexual satisfaction and overall well-being. However, few studies have addressed whether the relationship between women’s sexual satisfaction and overall well-being differs for women of different ages. This mixed-method study recruited 347 women aged 18 to 76 and found (1) a positive significant association between age, relationship satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction and overall well-being, and higher levels of sexual satisfaction are associated with higher levels of overall well-being. However, age was unrelated to sexual satisfaction and overall well-being, and; (2) while relationship satisfaction interacted with sexual satisfaction and overall well-being, there …

Why Can't We Sleep? Impact Of Race And Social Status On Sleep In College, Jillian Silva-Jones

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This study assessed the impacts of discrimination, microaggressions, and socioeconomic status (SES) on sleep in college students. The study also assessed moderators of racial identity and sleep hygiene as potential buffers of the impact from discrimination. Method: The impacts of lifetime discrimination and microaggressions over the past six months on sleep over the past month was assessed using an online survey (Study 1), and daily impacts of microaggressions on sleep was assessed from a daily diary study (Study 2). Results: The results showed modest correlations for the impact of discrimination, microaggressions, and SES on sleep, with the overall patterns suggesting …

Experiences Of Hiv Stigma And Spirituality Of Older Black Men Living With Hiv, Warren. L. Miller

Faculty Publications

Previous research on HIV stigma and the use of spirituality by people living with HIV/AIDS is scarce. Moreover, the research with older Black men who have sex with men is scant. This study aimed to investigate experiences of HIV stigma and the use of spirituality among older HIV positive Black men who sleep with men. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of ten men. Data were analyzed utilizing to the modified van Kaam data analysis method. Three major themes were identified that explores the participants lived experiences with HIV stigma and use of spirituality: experiences of stigma reinforcing the …

The Ethics Of Whistle Blowing, Frederic G. Reamer

Faculty Publications

We can begin with the good news: the vast majority of behavioral health professionals – including psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, addictions counselors, and psychiatric nurses – are ethical and avoid profound moral lapses. That said, the unfortunate reality is that some behavioral health professionals, a nontrivial minority, misbehave or otherwise violate widely accepted ethical standards.

Relationship Between Financial Markets And Natural Disasters In The Us, Esteban Giraldo

Honors Projects

The objective of this study is to find out how different sectors of the market, as defined by the Bloomberg Industry Classification Standard (BICS), react before and after different natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados. Public cross sectional and time series data from NOAA, Unisys Weather, and the USGS were collected, in order to build a data set that could be used for this study. OLS regressions, as well as fixed effects regressions were used to achieve the results. Among the major findings is a highly significant upward reaction in the returns of the energy sector when property …

A Pilot Study Of Airborne Hazards And Other Toxic Exposures In Iraq War Veterans, Chelsey Poisson, Sheri Boucher, Domenique Selby, Sylvia P. Ross, Charulata Jindal, Jimmy T. Efird, Pollie Bith-Melander

Honors Projects

During their deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) , many Veterans were exposed to a wide array of toxic substances and psychologic stressors, most notably airborne/ environmental pollutants from open burn pits. Service members do not deploy whilst unhealthy, but often they return with a multitude of acute and chronic symptoms, some of which only begin to manifest years after their deployment. Our findings, while preliminary in nature, suggest that Iraq War Veterans who participated in our survey reported a decrease in overall physical fitness and increased respiratory clinical symptoms compared with pre-deployment periods. The objective …

Investigating The Social Support For Three Social-Political Movements: A Terror Management Theory Perspective, Esther Quiroz Santos

Honors Projects

Objective: This study investigated the social support for the Black, Blue, and All Lives Matter movements from the perspective of terror management theory (Greenberg et.al., 1986; TMT). Method: Participants completed a set of questionnaires about death, pain, self-esteem, self-consciousness, justice sensitivity and their opinions towards social issues currently happening in the nation. The order of questionnaire differed, as to prime participants with death (the experimental condition) or pain (the control condition) as their first questionnaire. Results: There was support for the Black Lives Matter movement regardless of priming condition. Additionally, post-hoc analysis revealed a negative correlation between participant’s death anxiety …

Gatekeeper Persuasion And Issue Adoption: Amnesty International And The Transnational Lgbtq Network, Robyn Linde

Faculty Publications

Network theory is a valuable tool for understanding how transnational human rights advocacy emerges and develops; how norms become salient; and how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) gain prominence within networks. This article evaluates political network theory through the case study of the transnational lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) advocacy network. Through interviews with key figures at human rights and LGBTQ NGOs, I suggest that the transnational LGBTQ network emerged through contestation with the human rights gatekeeper, Amnesty International, and its US section, AIUSA. This process of contestation would produce a specific type of gatekeeper activism that would become a …

Apocalyptic Rhetoric And Subversive Framing In “The Uninhabitable Earth” (Poster), Louisa A. D'Ovidio

Spring Expo of Research and Creative Activity

By applying theories of rhetorical criticism to the arguments in the viral, and controversial, New York Magazine cover piece “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace-Wells, this study evaluated the dominant frames, appeals and persuasive narratives utilized in the article. In vivid brush strokes, “The Uninhabitable Earth” painted eight scenes of apocalyptic horror that climate change will bring to our civilization, from toxic smog that will smother cities, to deadly heat waves that could kill thousands near the equator, and even total societal collapse because of the economic cost of climate change. The article became an overnight and controversial success, and …

Linking Models Of Human Behavior And Climate Alters Projected Climate Change, Brian Beckage, Louis J. Gross, Katherine Lacasse, Eric Carr, Sara S. Metcalf, Jonathan M. Winter, Peter D. Howe, Nina Fefferman, Travis Franck, Asim Zia, Ann Kinzig, Forrest M. Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Although not considered in climate models, perceived risk stemming from extreme climate events may induce behavioral changes that alter greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we link the CROADS climate model to a social model of behavioral change to examine how interactions between perceived risk and emissions behavior influence projected climate change. Our coupled climate and social model resulted in a global temperature change ranging from 3.4–6.2 °C by 2100 compared with 4.9 °C for the C-ROADS model alone, and led to behavioral uncertainty that was of a similar magnitude to physical uncertainty (2.8 °C versus 3.5 °C). Model components with the …

Differential Self-Presentation Across Multiple Social Network Sites, Joshua M. Amaral

Honors Projects

This study investigates the ways in which users of multiple social network sites (SNSs) differ their self-presentation across the various SNSs that they use; as well as analyzes how SNS users alter their self-presentation on SNSs based on their perceived audience. This study was granted permission by participants to follow their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts and to perform content analysis on the artifacts that they generated during the phase of observation. A grounded theory approach was implemented and was effective in coding and analyzing both the ephemeral and non-ephemeral content observed in this study. Results indicate that participants …

Fatally Female: A Study Of The Treatment Of Women In True Crime Narratives, Jessica R. Washak

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis studies book-length literature from four cases of violent crime—the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947, the prosecution of O.J. Simpson by Deputy Assistant District Attorney Marcia Clark, the shooting at Columbine High School by Harris and Klebold, and the trial of American exchange student Amanda Knox for the murder of her roommate in Italy in 2007–in order to analyze the way in which authors characterize the women and events involved in each case. Regardless of their positioning to the crime, the women who are close to these cases are repeatedly criticized by those chronicling their actions for …

The Cookbook Of Eduardo Da Graça, Eduardo Da Graça, Monica Taboada, Marlene Lopes

daGraça and Soares family papers

Handwritten cookbook by Eduardo da Graça, who emigrated from Cape Verde to the United States in 1925. He worked as a chef at the Minden Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island where he kept this notebook of favorite recipes.