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University of Central Florida

Theses/Dissertations

2021

Articles 1 - 30 of 178

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effects Of A Tactile Display On First Responder Performance, Michael Schwartz Dec 2021

The Effects Of A Tactile Display On First Responder Performance, Michael Schwartz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Firefighting is a dangerous and difficult task. Simulation affords researchers and practitioners the ability to examine performance and training in adverse conditions while preserving life, offering repeatable scenarios, and reducing costs. Multiple Resource Theory is used in this study as a model for assessing alternate sensory channels for information delivery when the optimal channel is not available. Specifically, this study tests the influence of a waist-worn vibrotactile display to assist navigation when visibility is reduced in a firefighter simulation. The present study measures participants' objective performance and self-reported workload while navigating a simulated fireground. Results from 70 research participants revealed …

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Mail Ballot Signature Rejections: Household Members Signing Each Other's Ballots, Craig Wilding Dec 2021

Mail Ballot Signature Rejections: Household Members Signing Each Other's Ballots, Craig Wilding

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Election administrators anecdotally mention that many ballots get signed by someone else in the household, such as the husband signing the wife's ballot. If household members are signing each other's ballots mistakenly, then there should be a rise in mismatched signatures as the number of people in the household increases. By matching household addresses of registered voters and the addresses that ballots were mailed to from the 2020 Florida general election, the study found that the probability of a signature mismatch did increase as the number of household members increased. While the data showed that black and Hispanic households have …

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Big Five Aspect Personalty Scales And Social Anxiety Severity In A Nonpsychiatric Sample, Samantha Simpson Dec 2021

Big Five Aspect Personalty Scales And Social Anxiety Severity In A Nonpsychiatric Sample, Samantha Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Personality can be explored hierarchically with higher- and lower-order factors. Recent research suggests the personality hierarchy is comprised of higher-order Big Five traits with two lower-order factors per Big Five trait, termed aspects. There is a lack of research examining the relationship between these lower-order aspects and social anxiety (SA) severity. To better understand these relationships, 443 university undergraduate students (72.2% female; mean age = 20.48, SD = 4.64) completed the Big Five Aspects Scale (BFAS) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory- 23 (SPAI-23), and were retained following exclusionary criteria. Path analysis, covarying for sex, age, and general anxiety …

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Studying Users Interactions And Behavior In Social Media Using Natural Language Processing, Sultan Alshamrani Dec 2021

Studying Users Interactions And Behavior In Social Media Using Natural Language Processing, Sultan Alshamrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Social media platforms have been growing at a rapid pace, attracting users' engagement with the online content due to their convenience facilitated by many useful features. Such platforms provide users with interactive options such as likes, dislikes as well as a way of expressing their opinions in the form of text (i.e., comments). As more people engage in different social media platforms, such platforms will increase in both size and importance. This growth in social media data is becoming a vital new area for scholars and researchers to explore this new form of communication. The huge data from social media …

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Bringing Instagram Posts Into Being: A Study Of Fyc Students' Self-Sponsored Posting Practices And Transfer Opportunities, Jessica Kester Dec 2021

Bringing Instagram Posts Into Being: A Study Of Fyc Students' Self-Sponsored Posting Practices And Transfer Opportunities, Jessica Kester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Social media platforms have offered students—and all of us—more opportunities for self-sponsored writing. In response to calls from researchers to explore students' 21st-century writing practices and their relevance to college writing instruction, this dissertation articulated and applied a feminist teacher research methodology and a mixed-methods research design to explore first-year composition (FYC) students' self-sponsored writing practices, attitudes, and transfer opportunities on a popular, albeit under-examined, social media application: Instagram. This study found that students have developed elaborate, rhetorical, multimodal composing processes that include planning, drafting, evaluating, selecting, and styling images as well as planning, drafting/revising, and styling captions. Additionally, though …

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Communities Of Play And Practice: Collaborating With Audiences And Coworkers In Performative Online Spaces, Paul Oppold Dec 2021

Communities Of Play And Practice: Collaborating With Audiences And Coworkers In Performative Online Spaces, Paul Oppold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This study describes an ethnographic investigation of Communities of Play within Communities of Practice. As professional 'content creators', whose 'work' is 'play', are increasingly interacting with non-professional content consumers, whose 'play' is a kind of 'work', the barriers between 'work' and 'play' are increasingly dissolving. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and frequency of the professionals' interactions with coworkers in an office and with the content consumers while working from home. Data were collected in the form of gameplay videos uploaded by the professional streamers from January of 2017 to March of 2018, downloaded by the …

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Creativity As A Resource: How Creativity Influences The Appraisal Of Work Stressors And Subsequent Strain, Alyssa Perez Dec 2021

Creativity As A Resource: How Creativity Influences The Appraisal Of Work Stressors And Subsequent Strain, Alyssa Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Although creative behaviors are known to have positive effects on general well-being, little research has looked at the relationship between an individual's creativity and stress within the context of work. This research explored how creativity may work as a buffer against the strain of job stressors. In study 1, six vignettes were developed using Role Stressor Theory (Kahn et al., 1964) and the Challenge/Hindrance Framework of stress (Cavanaugh et al., 2000). A sample of 164 undergraduate students responded to the vignettes and results showed that trait-level creativity was directly related not only to the creativity of the solutions the participants …

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Using Lidar To Locate Indigenous Mound Structures Along The St. Johns River In The Ocala National Forest, Taylor Collore Dec 2021

Using Lidar To Locate Indigenous Mound Structures Along The St. Johns River In The Ocala National Forest, Taylor Collore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The Indigenous people of Florida terraformed the region's relatively flat landscape into monumental vantage points for residence, burial, and displays of regional power. Known as mound structures today, these long-abandoned sites are now obscured by dense vegetation and thick tree canopies making their rediscovery difficult. Using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology these lost sites can be located remotely for protection and study. In this research, LiDAR is used to locate Indigenous mound sites along the St. Johns River within the Ocala National Forest. Using free an open source geographic information systems (GIS) and similar software, LiDAR point cloud data …

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Using Expectation Violation Theory To Evaluate Dialectal Bias In Courtroom Contexts, Christina Joseph Dec 2021

Using Expectation Violation Theory To Evaluate Dialectal Bias In Courtroom Contexts, Christina Joseph

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

There is much evidence to indicate the role of speaker accent expectations and its impacts on the subsequent rating of the speaker. Additionally, examples including the Central Park Five as well as Rachel Jeantel of the Trayvon Martin case indicate the impacts of this speaker rating particularly in the context of the courtroom. This necessitates the further evaluation of the impact of dialectal bias on speaker ratings especially in the context of a courtroom due to the severity of the impacts. Utilizing a 4x2 between subjects experimental design manipulating on the basis of both dialect and speaker expectation, this study …

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The Elderly Voter As Collateral Damage: The Consequences Of Voter Restriction On Elderly American Voter Turnout, Mia Warshofsky Dec 2021

The Elderly Voter As Collateral Damage: The Consequences Of Voter Restriction On Elderly American Voter Turnout, Mia Warshofsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Voting is an indispensable feature of American democracy. Voting amplifies the voice of the electorate. Not voting disempowers individuals and communities. Despite protective legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many Americans experience electoral difficulties today. Following record-breaking turnout in the 2020 presidential election and under the guise of election security, some Republican lawmakers have introduced and supported legislation that restricts the ability of many Americans to vote. Research on communities of color, low-income communities, and disabled communities demonstrates the inhibitive effect of these measures. In contrast, conventional wisdom claims that older voters are more likely to vote …

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The 'Ideal Victim' Of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: An Examination Of The Impact Of Victim/Offender Relationship Status, Victim Self-Identity, And Observer Gender On Constructing Victim Status, Kelli Dauphinais Dec 2021

The 'Ideal Victim' Of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: An Examination Of The Impact Of Victim/Offender Relationship Status, Victim Self-Identity, And Observer Gender On Constructing Victim Status, Kelli Dauphinais

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Guided by Nils Christie's (1986) Ideal Victim framework, the current study examines the effect that victim/offender relationship status (casual vs. serious), victim self-identity (as a "victim" or a "survivor"), and observer gender (woman vs. man) have on victim blame attributions. Data were collected from 329 adult students at a large public university in the Southwest United States using an online, experimental vignette design. Three separate one-way analysis of variances (ANOVAs) were conducted to test the study's three hypotheses. Results suggest that among the study sample, victim/offender relationship status (H1) and victim self-identity (H2) do not significantly affect victim blame attribution …

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"A Penny For Your Thoughts?": Development And Validation Of A Revised Measure Of Rumination, Jenna Beltramo Dec 2021

"A Penny For Your Thoughts?": Development And Validation Of A Revised Measure Of Rumination, Jenna Beltramo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The present research sought to demonstrate the utility, validity, and reliability of a new measure of rumination assessing both the intentionality and valence of ruminative thought. The Intentionality and Valence of Work-Related Ruminations Questionnaire (IV-WRRQ) is developed based on Martin and Tesser's (1996) goal progress theory of rumination and existing approaches across various sub-disciplines in psychology. Specifically, it is designed to assess four distinct forms of rumination: deliberate-positive, deliberate-negative, intrusive-positive, and intrusive negative rumination. Initial expert ratings provided insight into the initial construct validity, face validity, and readability of the items. The measure was further refined in a study among …

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Corporate Social Advocacy: Addressing Social Justice In The Age Of Black Lives Matter, Asianna Elston May 2021

Corporate Social Advocacy: Addressing Social Justice In The Age Of Black Lives Matter, Asianna Elston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This research explores corporate advocacy and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Using organizational legitimacy theory as a theoretical framework, this research employed thematic analyses in order to study statements issued by Fortune's 50 most admired companies in response to the re-energized Black Lives Matter movement. These statements were studied using thematic content analysis in order to gauge corporate engagement with the movement, as well as indicate themes of authenticity or hypocrisy apparent in the statements. The study revealed major themes of support and authentic engagement, as well as highlighted the missing components that may indicate hypocritical stances to …

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The Cognition And Enjoyment Of Transmedia Journalism Vs Print Journalism, Lea Crittenden May 2021

The Cognition And Enjoyment Of Transmedia Journalism Vs Print Journalism, Lea Crittenden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Transmedia journalism is a growing way to get news stories to readers with the new technology of social media platforms. This study, through surveys and a blog, measured information retention/cognition and preference of the interactive platform(s) and the print platform to see which type of transmedia journalism is preferred more to readers and easier for readers to retain more information. The sample was 31 Digital media undergraduate and graduate students concurrently enrolled in the University of Central Florida's Nicholson School of Communication and Media in the Games & Interactive Media program. All participants received at least one story platform consisting …

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Modeling The Relationship Between Perceptual And Stimulus Space In Category Learning, Clay Killingsworth May 2021

Modeling The Relationship Between Perceptual And Stimulus Space In Category Learning, Clay Killingsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Learning to categorize visual stimuli is a fundamental cognitive skill underlying both everyday functioning and professional competencies in domains such as radiology and airport security screening. Categories may be very simple or highly complex, with accurate categorization dependent on multiple interacting features. General recognition theory (GRT) models uniquely allow examination of feature dimension interactions, but basic questions remain about the applicability of such models and the 2x2 categorization tasks (four-alternative forced choice) employed in studies which use them. Findings in several studies that factorially combine 2 levels of 2 stimulus dimensions indicate a common pattern of perceptual advantage for the …

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Pixelated Domes: Cinematic Code Changes Through A Frank Lloyd Wright Lens, William Allen Jan 2021

Pixelated Domes: Cinematic Code Changes Through A Frank Lloyd Wright Lens, William Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Panoramic 360-degree documentary videos continue to saturate the visual landscape. As practitioners' experiment with a new genre, understanding meaning and making awaits the academic and marketplace landscape. The new media journey of 360-degree documentary storytelling is ripe for media archaeologist to explore. New media scholar Lev Manovich (2016) believes "we are witnessing the new emergence of a cultural metalanguage, something that will be at least as significant as the printed word and cinema before it" (p. 49) Considering the meta- development of this new media genre, my dissertation seeks to discuss the historical roots of the panoramic image, define 360-degree …

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Easy Money: Examining Social Disorganization, Urbanization, Healthcare Fraud, And Community Health In America., Wilmer Alvarez Irizarry Jan 2021

Easy Money: Examining Social Disorganization, Urbanization, Healthcare Fraud, And Community Health In America., Wilmer Alvarez Irizarry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

In the past 40 years, the health of citizens in the United States has changed significantly. The population of the United States managed to get sicker and die slower across the prior four decades. Adding to this complexity is the fact that illnesses and health behaviors in the United States are also not equally distributed by race, class, gender, or other social factors. These facts do not only reflect level of the disease and illness in the United States, but also the disparities that exist within them and the sociomedical factors that impact health. Despite costing American taxpayers between $120 …

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Dual Language Teachers' Beliefs And Practices Regarding Effective Second Language Instruction: A Qualitative Study, Deddy Amrand Jan 2021

Dual Language Teachers' Beliefs And Practices Regarding Effective Second Language Instruction: A Qualitative Study, Deddy Amrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The present study examined dual language (DL) teachers' beliefs and practices regarding effective second language instruction. DL teachers are expected to integrate language teaching and content instruction. However, balancing the two areas of instruction has been proved challenging. It has also been reported that bilingual educators lack pedagogical skills and hold incorrect beliefs about second language acquisition. Five DL educators participated in the study. Data about the teacher's beliefs were collected using semi-structured interviews, and data about their classroom practices were gathered from their teaching journals. Second semi-structured interviews were conducted to reveal the factors influencing the enactment of stated …

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Beyond The Second Sidewalk: A Study Of Collective Efficacy At Institutions Of Higher Education And Surrounding Communities, Rebecca Decesare Jan 2021

Beyond The Second Sidewalk: A Study Of Collective Efficacy At Institutions Of Higher Education And Surrounding Communities, Rebecca Decesare

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Social disorganization theory (Shaw 1942; 1969) suggests that communities with greater racial heterogeneity, residential mobility, and low socioeconomic status will be less organized, thereby less able to collectively repel criminal behavior. These characteristics describe many institutions of higher education (IHEs), so we should expect that IHEs would have higher crime rates than neighboring areas with greater social organization. However, recent explorations of social disorganization have considered the mitigating concept of collective efficacy. This research suggests that the characteristics of social control, social cohesion, and trust present in communities will mitigate crime (Sampson 1997). These community characteristics also describe many IHEs. …

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Will It Be Ok Boomers?: Effects Of Precarious Work On Older Job-Insecure Workers, Alissa (Gebben) Neal Jan 2021

Will It Be Ok Boomers?: Effects Of Precarious Work On Older Job-Insecure Workers, Alissa (Gebben) Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The changing nature of work, in conjunction with union power decline, has resulted in increasing levels of job insecurity and precarious work among the global workforce (Benach et al., 2014; Hoffman et al., 2020). Additionally, research has shown that older workers experience work differently than younger workers (Ng & Feldman, 2012), and represent 44% of the workforce in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). The present study explores the extent to which the confluence of precarious work and age creates a scenario where these workers respond to job insecurity in ways which differ from what is typically depicted …

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Sexual Orientation And The Disclosure Of Unwanted Sexual Experiences, Rebekah Kanefsky Jan 2021

Sexual Orientation And The Disclosure Of Unwanted Sexual Experiences, Rebekah Kanefsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, and other non-heterosexual orientations (LGBQ+) are significantly more likely to experience a sexual assault. To date, research on barriers to sexual assault disclosure (i.e., telling someone about a sexual assault) has been conducted almost exclusively on heterosexual women. Participants ages 18 to 30 participated in a cross-sectional, online study that assessed unwanted sexual experiences, disclosure of those experiences, perceptions of the police and perceptions of belonging to the LGBQ+ community. Findings demonstrated that survivors who identified as LGBQ+ took longer to initially disclose their sexual assault and had greater negative perceptions of …

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Documenting Outdoor Simulated Scenes With Photogrammetry: Methods For Improving Dappled Lighting Conditions, Caroline Jasiak Jan 2021

Documenting Outdoor Simulated Scenes With Photogrammetry: Methods For Improving Dappled Lighting Conditions, Caroline Jasiak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The primary goal of a forensic archaeologist is to reconstruct the context of scenes involving skeletal remains using recording and mapping methods. However, the outdoor locations of most forensic archaeology scenes can result in difficulties when recording and mapping scenes. While close-range photogrammetry (CRP) has been considered for documenting context of forensic sciences, this method lacks a sufficient procedural basis to guide data recording when encountering problematic environmental conditions. The purpose of this research is to test how light correction tools, a sheet and artificial lights, could improve harsh lighting conditions. Photographs were taken of controlled scenes with skeletal remains …

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Queer Arab American Experiences: Navigating Cross Cultural Expectations Of Gender And Sexuality, Gabriela Mansour Jan 2021

Queer Arab American Experiences: Navigating Cross Cultural Expectations Of Gender And Sexuality, Gabriela Mansour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The understanding of the experiences of queer Arab Americans and the ways in which they navigate cross cultural expectations of gender and sexuality is limited in the anthropology or social sciences scholarship. The available scholarship focuses primarily on queerness in juxtaposition to Islam, which is not relatable to all Arab Americans as they are a religiously diverse group. Through an intersectional approach, this research, conducted from April 2020 to May 2021, explores the lived experiences of queer Arab Americans from across the United States (U.S.) while seeking to identify potential commonalities that could encompass a more general queer Arab American …

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Help In The Time Of Covid: Informational, Emotional, And Instrumental Support Among Graduate Students During A Pandemic, Teanna Staser Jan 2021

Help In The Time Of Covid: Informational, Emotional, And Instrumental Support Among Graduate Students During A Pandemic, Teanna Staser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This study examined graduate students' experiences with social support in relation to stress and uncertainty during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Graduate students as a population have significant levels of stress and uncertainty which may have negative effects on their lives and academic experiences. Graduate students often utilize social support as a way to cope with or mitigate the effects of stress and uncertainty. This qualitative study consisted of six focus groups, ranging from three to six participants, total of 22 participants, who were found using a purposeful snowball sampling method. The participants were masters and doctoral level students in communication …

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"I Have My Coven Now": Transgender Experience In The Central Florida Pagan Community, Alison Whitmore Jan 2021

"I Have My Coven Now": Transgender Experience In The Central Florida Pagan Community, Alison Whitmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This thesis analyzes Transgender experience and dynamics in the Pagan community of Central Florida. Religion plays an important role as part of social structure for many people in the United States. It can also be a source of strife and conflict between culture groups and within cultures. In the US, predominant religious traditions stem from monotheistic Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam); however, Wicca, a Neo-Pagan polytheistic religion, is practiced by a small but growing number of people. Based on nearly one year of ethnographic engagement with the Central Florida Wiccan community, this study presents an analysis of participants experiences …

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Examining The Indirect Effects Of The Big-Five Traits On The Change In Job Satisfaction Via The Change In Specific Work Characteristics, Jimmy Zheng Jan 2021

Examining The Indirect Effects Of The Big-Five Traits On The Change In Job Satisfaction Via The Change In Specific Work Characteristics, Jimmy Zheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The present series of studies leveraged the ASTMA model (attraction, selection, transformation, manipulation, attrition), theory of purposeful work behavior, and work on job crafting to investigate the influence of personality on job satisfaction through the active and passive shaping of one's work environment (i.e., work characteristics). Study 1 integrates the ASTMA model and theory of purposeful work behavior perspectives to suggest that individuals who are conscientious, agreeableness, emotionally stable, open to experiences and extraverted become more satisfied with their jobs because each of these traits is associated with active and passive changes to specific work characteristics. These ideas were tested …

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Loss Of Control Eating Predicted By The Interaction Between Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Distress Tolerance, And The Expectancy That Eating Reduces Negative Affect, Emily Burr Jan 2021

Loss Of Control Eating Predicted By The Interaction Between Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Distress Tolerance, And The Expectancy That Eating Reduces Negative Affect, Emily Burr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

A prominent theory of binge eating is the affect regulation theory, which posits that individuals binge eat to alleviate negative affect, and subsequently reduced negative affect reinforces the behavior. Although it is well-supported that individuals experience elevated negative affect pre-binge, findings do not consistently evince reduced negative affect after binge eating. Therefore, the affect regulation theory does not fully account for binge eating. However, habitual binge eating without reliable improvement in affect may be accounted for by expectancy theory. Expectancies may be predictive of behavior whether the outcomes of a behavior are inconsistent. Additionally, there is an increasing scientific awareness …

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Empathy As A Buffer: The Moderating Effect Of Trait Empathy On Counterproductive Work Behavior, Amanda Grinley Jan 2021

Empathy As A Buffer: The Moderating Effect Of Trait Empathy On Counterproductive Work Behavior, Amanda Grinley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

While much research has been dedicated to determining what may cause workers to engage in counterproductive behavior at work, fairly less attention has been paid to the factors which may influence individuals to refrain from enacting these behaviors. The current study was conducted to determine whether trait empathy may be one such factor and serve as a moderator of the relationship between work stressors and intentions to commit counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Using the theoretical framework of the stressor-emotion model of CWB it was hypothesized more specifically that empathy moderated the mediating effects of negative affect on relationships between stressors …

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Stance And Engagement In Scientific Research Articles, Caoyuan Ma Jan 2021

Stance And Engagement In Scientific Research Articles, Caoyuan Ma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Stance and engagement are important rhetorical resources for writers to construct interaction with readers and ideas by marking epistemic evaluation and bringing readers into the texts. Building on previous research that suggests notable differences in the use of stance and engagement in academic discourse, this comparative study investigates the use of stance and engagement in scientific research articles. By comparing two corpora that contain 144 research articles in total across 16 scientific disciplines, this study examines if the numbers of stance and engagement differ between manuscripts (unpublished research papers) that are produced by nonnative writers and those that are published …

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Initiation Of Alcohol Use In College Students, Gabrielle Lynch Jan 2021

Initiation Of Alcohol Use In College Students, Gabrielle Lynch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Alcohol use contributes to widespread harm in college students, and postponing initiation of drinking can reduce negative consequences and risk for developing an alcohol use disorder (Palmer et al., 2010). This study focused on variables related to initiation of alcohol use among new students, and maintenance of abstinence among those who chose not to drink. Data was collected from 467 first year college students, 7.5% of whom initiated alcohol use in college, 33% had never consumed alcohol, and 59.5% started drinking before starting college. Several a- priori hypotheses were supported. Perceptions of peer drinking/attitudes mediated the relationship between academic involvement …

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