Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Community Life In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Current Perceptions And Future Strategies: 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Connie Reimers-Hild

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Recent community level Census data show that most small communities in Nebraska experienced population decline since 2000. However, most of the larger communities experienced population growth during this same time period. Various economic development strategies could be employed by communities to grow their population and economies. Given these conditions, how do rural Nebraskans feel about their community? Are they satisfied with the services provided by their community? Are they planning to move from their community in the next year? Have these views changed over the past sixteen years? How do rural Nebraskans believe various economic development strategies would impact their …

"Sometimes I Feel Like I'D Do This Job For Free": A Phenomenological Study Exploring Public Relations Practitioners' Beliefs About Immensely Satisfying Work, Peggy M. Rupprecht

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the beliefs of 12 public relations practitioners’ about the construct of immensely satisfying work. The central research question was: What is the meaning of immensely satisfying work for a group of public relations practitioners working in the Midwest? Participants in this study had three or more years of experience as public relations practitioners, were members of, or affiliated with, a professional public relations organization, such as the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and had experienced, at some time during their professional careers, immensely satisfying work. Eight themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews: Leader Sets …

A Phenomenological Study Of Millennial Generation Cooperative Extension Educators' Development Of Core Competencies, David L. Varner

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe the experiences that contribute to the development of core competencies among Millennial Generation, county-based Extension educators in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Division. Fourteen educators were randomly purposefully selected to participate in the study. Participants were born in 1977 or later as determined by Tapscott (2009). Educators’ tenure in Cooperative Extension ranged from two months to seven years. Three themes and associated sub-themes emerged from semi-structured interviews: (a) Blindfolded and Scared—educators were confused, overwhelmed and in need of support; (b) Developing the Big Skills: A Daunting Task—focused on discovering competencies …

Prosocial Behavior As A Protective Factor For Children's Peer Victimization, Emily R. Griese

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective role prosocial behaviors may serve for victimized children. Although a significant portion of the victimization literature focuses on the association of victimization with negative outcomes, research findings suggest a need to examine the heterogeneity also apparent in children’s responses to victimization. By beginning to examine the variability in children’s responses to peer victimization, researchers can gain insight into the dynamic process of peer victimization and begin to define what factors might distinguish children who show resiliency to negative effects from victimization from those who do not. Research examining the protective …

Is Less More And More Less…? The Effect Of Two Types Of Interviewer Experience On “Don’T Know” Responses In Calendar And Standardized Interviews, Ipek Bilgen

Survey Research and Methodology Program: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Among interviewing context factors, the level of interviewer experience has been observed to be associated with item nonresponse rates in surveys (Singer et al., 1983, Bailar et al., 1977; Pickery & Loosveldt, 1998). The findings regarding the direction of this association, however, are equivocal. This dissertation addresses competing theories behind the relationship between interviewer experience and item nonresponse. The explored experience types are general interviewer experience, gained via survey administration during a lifetime, and within-study interviewer exposure, gained during administration of a particular study fielding period. Item nonresponse was measured via respondents’ “don’t know” responses.

To date, methodological …

The Development Of Future Orientation: Underpinnings And Related Constructs, Sarah J. Beal

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Future orientation has been conceptualized in a variety of ways across literatures in psychology, sociology, education, and vocation. The lack of a shared definition and measurement across theoretical perspectives has resulted in a challenge in comparing findings across literatures and organizing results in a way that provides a coherent sense of how future orientation impacts later outcomes. Trommsdorff (1979) provided a comprehensive definition of future orientation that included eight dimensions: extension, detail, domain, affect, motivation, control, sequence of events, and number of cognitions. Study 1 was designed to test this definition using measures from five prominent theories of future orientation …

Cognitive Processes For Infering Tonic, Steven J. Kaup

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Research concerning cognitive processes for tonic inference is diverse involving approaches from several different perspectives. Outwardly, the ability to infer tonic seems fundamentally simple; yet it cannot be attributed to any single cognitive process, but is multi-faceted, engaging complex elements of the brain. This study will examine past research concerning tonic inference in light of current findings. First I will survey the recent history of experimental research in cognitive functions for memory retention and expectation as they relate to the recognition and learning of musical schemas. Then I will discuss distributional theories associated with the tonal hierarchy of major and …

Does Trust Really Matter? A Quantitative Study Of College Students' Trust And Use Of News Media, Soo Hui Lee

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

Media polls reveal that trust in news media has been on the decline in recent years and so is the consumption of news. This quantitative study reveals no significant correlation between overall trust and use of news media. It finds that college students have more trust in traditional news sources and view TV as their most important news source. Yet they are more likely to seek out a future news event from online news sources, despite having less trust in them. Results indicate that social media sources, such as Facebook and Twitter, are used as frequent sources for news and …

Applying Data Mining Techniques To Evaluate Applications For Agricultural Loans, Emile J. Salame

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Financial lending institutions continuously look at improving their credit risk models. This study examines the performance of three estimation methods: logistic regression, decision tree, and neural networks, in terms of their misclassification rates of credit default. The study uses 17,328 loans of grain producers for the period of 2006 - 2010. Those loans belong to the category of “diversified loans / core standard” originating from a large financial lending institution. The data has been split into nine different sets to acknowledge three factors: the shift in price of grains to a higher plateau after 2006, the contamination effect on defaulting …

Sustainable Practices Like Recycling: Could Colleges And Universities Be Role Models?, Prabhakar Shrestha, Gary D. Lynne

Cornhusker Economics

For the very first time in the history of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, this year's summer graduates wore a "green" gown for their commencement exercises. The gown is made from sustainably harvested wood pulp, with zippers made from 100 percent recycled plastics. Practices like these are a step in a positive direction, suggesting colleges and universities could become leaders in sustainable practices, as well as in ensuring that the curriculum used in helping form the education obtained by students includes sustainability principles.

This Library Life, Richard E. Voeltz

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Forty-three years of employment at the University Libraries have encompassed remarkable changes in collection, organization, and distribution of information in the University community. Card catalogs and files of paper serial records have disappeared, and acquisition of library materials is now a highly automated process. The Libraries staff has grown and diversified as our delivery systems evolved. Branch libraries have disappeared as electronic search and delivery systems became more common and easy to use. Library instruction has become a routine part of service to the library’s users. Adaptive equipment has been acquired to accommodate handicapped users of the library’s collections and …

Strategic Discussions For Nebraska - Opportunities For Nebraska: Energy, Climate And Sustainability, College Of Journalism And Mass Communications, Robert And Ardis James Family Foundation, Unl Institute Of Agriculture And Natural Resources

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

Innovation

Soil: Techniques and Production Methods and How They Conserve Resources • Mark Kuzila

Soil Productivity Vital for Economical Crop Production • Richard Ferguson

Leading Through Sustainable Management of Natural Resources • Charles Wortmann

Scientific Trait Development • P. Stephen Baenziger

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Developing Better Foods and Fuels • Edgar Cahoon

Crops Innovations Overview • Mark Lagrimini

Grapes and Wine: Adding Value to Nebraska’s Economy • Paul Read

UNL Plant Trait Research Saves Water, Grows More Food • James Specht

Feeding the World from Nebraska’s Research Technology • Larry Berger

Research Means Better Ag Productivity, Better Marketing …

Business Competency For Ag Businesses; A Key To A Prosperous And Sustainable Future, Matthew Stockton

Cornhusker Economics

Husker Ag SMARTS, a statewide professional business management training program was developed and is delivered by the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It is in conjunction with several partners, University of Nebraska Extension and financial institutions across the state. This joint effort has been financially supported by banking institutions and public funding through the North Central Risk Management Education Center. Local banks and cooperatives have been excited to see this program offered, and have been very supportive in giving scholarships, identifying possible participants and encouraging their clients to become involved.

The SMARTS portion of the program’s name is …

Legal Fences In Nebraska, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

This week I received two telephone calls asking “What is a legal fence in Nebraska?” Our recent fencing statute - which requires all landowners to split the cost of a division fence 50/50, is probably the source of this interest. So this newsletter begins with a brief history of the legal fence’s role in Nebraska fence law, and then lists the legal fence provisions in the 2011 Nebraska fence statutes.

Scholarly Communications Annual Report, Fy 2011, Paul Royster, Sue Ann Gardner

Institutional Repository Information

The Office of Scholarly Communications continued to recruit and manage content for the UNL DigitalCommons institutional repository (IR) and to expand its outreach to campus, regional, and national constituencies.

Psychological Net Worth: Finding The Balance Between Psychological Capital And Psychological Debt, Michele L. Millard

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This multi-level study examined a proposed framework of psychological net worth that builds on the current psychological capital conceptualization of positive psychological assets provided to an organization by articulating the construct of psychological debt or those psychological liabilities in an organization. By describing psychological debt as a collection of negative attributes that occur at the individual level for individuals that hamper productivity, morale, and effectiveness in organizations, this framework of psychological net worth proposes the need to create a psychological balance sheet of psychological capital and debt. Psychological debt is described using the dimension of emotional labor, job insecurity, job …

Visual Attention And Social Anxiety: Oculomotor Behavior When Threatened, Jacqueline S. Singh

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A growing theoretical and research literature suggests that trait and state social anxiety can predict attentional patterns in the presence of emotional stimuli. The current study addressed some inconsistencies and gaps in the literature using eye tracking methodology. Participants with high and low trait social anxiety were randomly assigned to either give a speech or to watch a video of another individual delivering a speech (state social anxiety manipulation). Next, participants were asked to engage in a free view task in which pairs of emotional facial stimuli (angry-happy, angry-neutral, or happy-neutral) were presented for 3 s. Eye movements were monitored …

You're @ Cojmc: An Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign, Ambidex

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Student Advertising Projects

Campaign Challenge The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications has entered the Big Ten conference and would like to assure its position among other competing mass communications programs with a more integrated and memorable recruiting and branding campaign designed to promote the CoJMC’s strengths of community, faculty, and the new worlds of digital and mobile technologies.

Target Audiences High school students, their parents and advisers, and college transfer students from other community colleges.

Budget The budget for this campaign was under $10,000.

Objectives To research, concept and create an integrated marketing communications plan that will effectively promote …

Networked Expertise In The Era Of Many-To-Many Communication: On Wikipedia And Invention, Damien S. Pfister

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay extends the observations made in E. Johanna Hartelius’ The Rhetoric of Expertise about the nature of expertise in digital contexts. I argue that digital media introduce a scale of communication—many-to-many—that reshapes how the invention of knowledge occurs. By examining how knowledge production on Wikipedia occurs, I illustrate how many-to-many communication introduces a new model of “participatory expertise.” This model of participatory expertise challenges traditional information routines by elevating procedural expertise over subject matter expertise and opening up knowledge production to the many. Additionally, by hosting multiperspectival conversations on Wikipedia, the participatory model of expertise introduces epistemic turbulence into …

‘‘The Love Games People Play’’ Survey: Using Research Methods To Examine Gendered Scripts And Stereotypes, Kristen Lucas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this activity is for students to examine systematically gendered scripts and stereotypes about romantic relationships. As a secondary purpose, the activity demonstrates the value of communication research in seeking dependable answers to important questions

Departmental Publications In Agricultural Economics 2010, Pamela A. Holmes

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Publications by Faculty, Research Associates and Graduate Students in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agricultural Economics in 2010.

The Status Of Students With Special Needs In The Instrumental Musical Ensemble And The Effect Of Selected Educator And Institutional Variables On Rates Of Inclusion, Edward C. Hoffman Iii

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The purpose of this study was to describe the current status of students with special needs in the instrumental musical ensemble and to examine the effect of selected educator and institutional variables on rates of inclusion. An online survey was designed by the researcher and distributed electronically to 600 practicing K-12 instrumental music educators in the states of Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. While 13.6% of the total school-aged population nationwide received special education services, demographic data provided by respondents revealed that students with special needs accounted for 6.8% of all students participating in bands, orchestras, …

Past Successes And Future Prospects For Nebraska Agriculture, Ray Supalla

Cornhusker Economics

When I joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty in 1976, Nebraska had 5.5 million irrigated acres, irrigated corn yields averaged 115 bushels per acre, irrigation water was worth $25 per acre per year, center pivot irrigated land was selling for $1,000 per acre, net farm income averaged $0.8 billion per year and both groundwater pumping and nitrogen fertilization practices were unrestricted. Today as I prepare to retire, Nebraska has 8.5 million irrigated acres, irrigated corn yields average 186 bushels, irrigation water is worth more than $100 per acre per year, pivot irrigated land is selling for over $4,000 per acre, …

The Digital Age: Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans’ Use Of Technology 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Over the past decade, people have increasingly used the Internet for shopping, social networking, government services, learning and education. Are rural Nebraskans using the Internet for these applications? What do they believe are the benefits and drawbacks of these applications? In addition, people are increasingly using mobile devices to connect to the Internet. Are rural Nebraskans using their cell phones to access the Internet? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions.

This report details 2,490 responses to the 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll, the sixteenth annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions …

Animal Welfare: Perceptions Of Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans: 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Connie Reimers-Hild

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

The manner in which food animals are produced, shipped and processed has been in the news lately. Specifically at question is whether or not current livestock practices adequately ensure the welfare of food animals. With a sizable animal agriculture production sector in the state of Nebraska, this is an important issue. How do rural Nebraskans feel about animal welfare issues? Do their opinions differ by age, education or their experience with livestock production?

This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions. This report details 2,490 responses to the 2011 Nebraska Rural Poll, the sixteenth annual effort to understand rural …

The Effect Of Tax Increment Financing On Spillovers And School District Revenue, Jennifer A. Bossard

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the years the urban development financing tool known as Tax Increment Finance (TIF) has been a controversial topic as it relates to fiscal impacts on school districts. This study addresses an important question related to this issue. Does TIF affect non-TIF district property value within the school district? The question is explored by developing a theoretical model that describes the relationship between TIF and school finance and estimating an empirical model that tests the hypotheses stemming from the theoretical model. Although the results are mixed, there is some evidence that TIF does affect non-TIF district property value in the …

The Referral Process: Rural Primary Care Physicians' Perspectives On Providing Counseling Referrals, Casey N. Tallent

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The advantages to collaborative care between physicians and mental health care providers have been known for many decades. Rural primary care physicians (RPCPs) are the first professionals that most patients contact when they have a mental health concern, particularly in rural communities. It is therefore important to understand the process that occurs when a referral for counseling is made from a RPCP and the subsequent collaboration that occurs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to generate a model that provides a better understanding of the counseling referral process from the perspective of RPCPs in private practice in the Midwest. …

When Knowing Just Isn't Enough: Examining The Role Of Moral Emotions In Health Decision Making Using The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Kate Duangdao

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A proposed integrated Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model aimed to examine the role of moral emotions and two health outcomes: prosocial behaviors and smoking outcomes. Based on Tangney’s work with shame and guilt-proneness, it was expected that those more prone to guilt would engage in more prosocial behaviors and those more prone to shame would engage in more smoking behaviors. Prosocial behaviors were found to be negatively associated with smoking outcomes. However, results suggested that guilt and shame-proneness seem to function similarly in predicting behavioral outcomes. Components within the TPB were generally positively correlated with each health outcome, however …

Exploratory Analyses Of A Developmental Conceptualization Of Insight And Treatment Outcomes Of Individuals With Serious Mental Illness In Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Ashley R. Wynne

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the present study was to further examine the relationship between adolescent psychiatric pathology and SMI by assessing the relationship between prior mental health services before the age of 18 and time of assessment on people’s insight into their illnesses. A secondary relationship between adolescent psychiatric pathology and functioning in a variety of domains before, during, and after treatment was assessed. Overall, there was an inconsistent pattern of results and partial support of hypotheses. The current study was a retrospective longitudinal study in which assessments were given to 308 participants in an inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation unit every 6 …

Why Confronting Sexism Works: Applying Persuasion Theories To Confronting Sexism, Amy Hillard

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Speaking up about or confronting prejudice creates more positive attitudes, but the mechanism underlying confrontation’s prejudice reducing effect remains unclear. Based on an integration of the confronting prejudice and persuasion literatures, I expected that observing a confrontation (vs. no confrontation) reduces prejudice and discrimination; that elaborating on confrontation messages reduces prejudice and discrimination more than confrontation alone; and that elaborating on confrontation messages causes attitude change that lasts longer than confrontation alone. Participants were recruited to complete measures of sexism and feelings toward subtypes of women across three time points (i.e., pre-test, lab manipulation, and post-test). During the lab manipulation, …