Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Personal Financial Planning Online Course, Camille Olsen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

My main interest in the financial field is Personal Financial Planning, which has just been developing over the past few years in the finance industry. Utah State University has been a pioneer in this area, and now offers a minor in personal financial planning through the accounting department. The courses offered fulfill the educational requirements needed to take the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) exam. This designation can be compared to the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) in the accounting field. Therefore, the College of Business has decided to offer these courses online so that students and professionals throughout the state can …

Social Stratification And Health In Dynastic Egypt: The Differential Effect Of Disease Among The Elite And Working Classes, Jerilyn Hansen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Social stratification in Dynastic Egypt between the elite and working class is suspected to have created differential health conditions for these two social classes. It is hypothesized that due to differing living conditions, resulting in varying levels of exposure to infectious pathogens, workloads, and quality of diet, the elite and working class will have dissimilar health conditions. Specifically, it is expected that the working class of Dynastic Egypt suffered ill health more often, and more severely, than the elite. The health conditions of the elite and working class were measured by the prevalence of the density-dependent disease tuberculosis, the workload-related …

An Assessment Of Marital Satisfaction, Marital Adjustment, And Problematic Areas During The First Few Months Of Marriage Among A Sample Of Newlyweds In Utah, David G. Schramm

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A self-selected sample of 232 newlywed husbands and wives in Utah was surveyed to assess marital satisfaction, marital adjustment, and problematic areas during the first few months of marriage. The study utilized the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS), in addition to a list of30 potential problematic areas created by Creighton University to measure these constructs.

Although the majority of the newlyweds in this sample were fairly satisfied and well adjusted, 11% of both husbands and wives scored in the distressed range on the RDAS, signaling that the first few months of marriage can …

Impasse In Marriage And Family Therapy, Valentina V. Popkova-Massé

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this exploratory study was to learn about practicing Marriage and Family Therapists' experiences with therapeutic impasse. The study had several objectives: investigate the incidence of impasse; look into therapists ' experiences with impasse, their attitudes toward it, and their views on its etiology; and explore clinicians' strategies for impasse resolution.

One hundred and six clinical members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) responded to a self-designed questionnaire. The majority of the respondents (83%) reported being stuck in therapy for a few minutes and 35% reported being stuck for three or more sessions during …

Women's Marital Adjustment In Relation To The Number Of Children Ever Born, Junius K. Merrill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined how women's marital adjustment and marital arguments were affected by the number of children ever born over time. The effects of age, age at first marriage. education, number of years married, and race, were also analyzed as covariates. It was expected that marital adjustment and marital arguments would change over time and would be affected by the constancy or change in number of children ever born. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to test whether the constancy or change in number of children over time affected marital adjustment and arguments. The passage of time did seem to affect …

The Meaning Of "Being Single" For Mormon College-Age Single Adults, Jana Darrington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study researched the meaning of being single among 24 college-age adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e., Mormons). It examined influences on the construction of meanings of singlehood, gender patterns regarding the meaning of singlehood, and pressures on L.D.S. singles to date and marry.

The most important finding was that positive attitudes toward singlehood are more prevalent than negative or ambivalent attitudes. Families, as gate-keepers and transmitters of cultural information about singlehood and marriage, and the L.D.S. religion were the strongest influences on the development of meanings of singlehood. Families and religion mutually influence one …

Student And Parent Views On School And Community Strengths And Concerns, Tricia Hill Danielson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Lincoln Elementary School needs assessment surveyed students in the third through fifth grades and their parents in order to identify strengths and concerns in their school and community. It also investigated whether or not participants considered family counseling skills as a concern or a strength. The results showed that the concerns and strengths identified by participants fell into three categories: family, community, and school. Parents' primary concern was children watching TV, while children's primary concern was getting enough sleep. Group differences were identified by ethnicity, gender, and marital status. These differences included English/Spanish skills, children showing respect for authority, …

Marital Happiness: Undergraduate University Students Assess Their Parents' Marriage Regarding Communication, Power, Education, And Religiosity, Margaret F. Oak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to investigate undergraduate university students' appraisals of their parents' marital happiness, and how those views affect respondents' current attitudes toward marriage. The sample included 1,437 undergraduate students between the years 1970 and 1999. The dependent variable was perceived marital happiness in the family of origin. The independent variables were perceived communication quality, perceived level of egalitarianism, level of education, and perceived religious activity of the respondents' parents as reported by the respondents. Respondents' desire to have a communication situation in their own marriage similar to that of the parents' marriage, and desire to have a power …

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Adolescent Deviant Behavior, Jennifer R. Lance

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis summarizes a study conducted to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and adolescent deviancy. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the relation between 1) overall emotional intelligence plus its subscales and overall normative deviant behavior, and 2) emotional intelligence subscales and subscales of a deviancy measure. Tapia's Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EII) and Vazsonyi's Normative Deviancy Scale (NDS) were used to measure the two variables of this study. Subjects included 152 high school students, aged 14-18, from a small city in Northern Utah. One hundred seventeen students came from a local high school comprising grades 10-12 …

Shared Book Reading, Home Visit Processes, And The Relation With Low-Income Infants' Language Development, Katie Christiansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Language is important for children to succeed in school. Language development begins early in a child's life and can be facilitated by a supportive language environment. Shared book reading is an important aspect of the language environment a child experiences.

This study utilized data from twenty children living in low-income families. These children are part of the Rural Utah Child Development Head Start and receive weekly visits from home visitors. Two home visits were videotaped and coded for parental and home visitor language facilitation behaviors. A parent interview was also completed to obtain participant demographic information and measure child and …

The Effects Of A School-Wide Peer-Administered Praise Intervention On Student Problem Behavior, Meredith L. Brent

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study evaluated the effects of a peer-administered positive behavioral support intervention on a school-wide problem behavior. Utilizing the differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors method (DRl), peer monitors praised incidences of walking in order to decrease incidences of running in the hallway. A multiple baseline design across two hallway settings was used to evaluate the effect of peer monitors administering verbal praise and praise notes to students who demonstrated the desired behavior, walking. A lottery drawing in which recipients of praise notes received small prizes was conducted at the end of each week during the treatment phase. Results indicated that …

Sampling Considerations In Human Immunodeficiency Virus And Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Needs Assessments, Ryan K. Loo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reduces the number of healthy immune cells in the human body. When the immune cells drop below a certain level, the person is diagnosed as having acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which increases the likelihood of opportunistic infections. As a result, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH/A) have an elevated need for medical and support services. HIV/AIDS needs assessments identify unmet needs, and the results are used in the allocation of resources. Failure to accurately identify needs due to nonrepresentative samples may result in PLWH/A failing to receive needed services. Random sampling is rarely used, but convenience …

Outcomes And Presurgical Correlates Of Lumbar Interbody Cage Fusion, Rick Lacaille

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rates of lumbar fusion surgery have been increasing with an estimated 192,000 procedures performed annually. However, satisfactory outcomes of lumbar fusion vary considerably and often emphasize technical success, such as arthrodesis, rather than Ill functional and quality of life outcomes. Interbody cage fusion was recently developed and touted as a superior alternative to existing lumbar fusion procedures. There is, however, a paucity of research to support these claims, particularly with regards to functional and quality of life outcomes. Moreover, predictive correlates of outcomes for interbody cage fusion have not been given adequate attention in the literature. The aims of this …

The Effects Of Self-Monitoring Checklists And Performance Feedback On Study Skills Of College Students With Disabilities, Sherrie Mecham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study utilized a multiple baseline design across two study skills to examine the impact of a self-monitoring checklist and performance feedback on the implementation of study skills for seven college students with disabilities. The accuracy with which students performed study skills was calculated as a percentage based on the number of correct study skill steps completed during a college course divided by the total number of treatment steps. The results show that three of the seven students markedly increased the accurate use of the notetaking and study guide skills immediately when provided with a self-monitoring checklist and performance feedback, …

Community Factors That Correlate With Middle-Adolescent Antisocial Behavior, Olga Kamenchuk

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many adolescents nowadays display antisocial behavior. A large number of theories explaining origin of antisocial behavior have been developed in the last several centuries. The current study utilizes the "ecological" theoretical framework that allows the researcher to consider multiple ecological systems in which individuals operate and to focus on the community factors influencing antisocial behavior.

The researcher used part of the Prevention Needs Assessment survey to identify which community risk and protective factors correlate with middle-adolescent antisocial behavior. Analysis included intercluster, cluster-item correlations, and partial correlations. Results indicated correlations between antisocial behavior and a number of community risk factors, and …

Differential Diagnosis Of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder And Depression: Potential Bias And Misdiagnosis, Hollie K. Berglof

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated whether psychologists are attempting to distinguish between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression in youth. Findings indicate that, overall, clinicians are conducting comprehensive evaluations and considering ADHD and depression as likely diagnoses. Clinicians were more likely to use self-report depression measures if the client was female or adolescent than if the child was male or school age; however, they were equally likely to incorporate ADHD-related measures with males and females, and 8 year olds and 15 year olds. Clinicians were more likely to consider adolescents than school-age children and females than males to have a mood …

How Utah Parents Of Utah School Children Judge School Effectiveness, Philip L. Rodgers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a perceived crisis concerning public education in the United States. This has led to an increase in the use of standardized tests for the purpose of measuring school effectiveness. However, the use of standardized tests for this purpose is problematic. Among these problems is the concern that standardized tests may not measure what parents believe are the most important attributes of an effective school. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of empirical evidence regarding parent beliefs in this area.

The purpose of this research was to answer the following four questions.

1. What do parents of school-aged …

Planning For The Future Of Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Dianna L. Payne Broadbent

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This descriptive study examined the current status of future planning preparation by caregivers for individuals with developmental disabilities, including mental retardation (DD/MR) in the State of Utah. Other descriptive variables identified areas of planning in which the caregivers required assistance, perceived barriers to future planning, and preferences regarding conveyance of planning information.

Persons with developmental disabilities were identified by the state computer system as either on the waiting list for or currently receiving services through the Division of Services for People with Disabilities. The targeted sample was narrowed to persons with developmental disabilities over the age of 20 years who …

Maternal Involvement In Preschoolers' Sexuality Education: A Comparison Of Single And Married Mothers, Ginger S. Sandweg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the responses to a sexuality education questionnaire completed by 30 single mothers and 43 married mothers with preschool-aged children. Chi-square analyses were used to examine differences between married mothers and single mothers; mothers of males and mothers of females; and married mothers of males, married mothers of females, single mothers of males and single mothers of females. Age at which their preschool children first exhibited behaviors, frequency of that behavior, and comfort level of mothers' responses to those behaviors were addressed for each topic: male-female differences, reproduction and birth, privacy or modesty, taboo or obscene words, genital …

Amenity Migration And Social Change: Expanding The Concept Of Community Attachment And Its Relationship To Dimensions Of Well-Being In The Rural West, Joan M. Brehm

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Most sociological analyses of community attachment have focused on the strength of attachment, with little concern for the qualities or attributes of a place to which people become attached. In cases where dimensions of attachment are the focus of analysis, the literature is rather narrowly focused on social dimensions, referring most often to connections with family, friends, and other social networks and largely ignoring the realm of natural environment factors. Two primary premises motivated this study. First, sociological understandings of community attachment would benefit from an expanded analytic framework that incorporates more complex arrays of both social and natural environment …

Effectiveness Of Utah Level Six Treatment Programs For Juvenile Males Who Offend Sexually: The Client Perspective, Darren B. Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined treatment effectiveness from the perspective of former clients of Utah level six treatment programs for juvenile males who offend sexually. Employing an anonymous, self-reported instrument, this study identified a high level of sexual recidivism (44%). In obtaining client perceptions of treatment effectiveness, this study also differentiated between the various components of level six treatment. Individual therapy was rated highest by the clients in helping them in their subsequent efforts not to recidivate. Drug and alcohol treatment received the lowest overall score, while remaining very important in the eyes of a few subjects. This suggests that clients benefit …

Racial And Ethnic Differences In Rural And Urban Migration, Lisa L. Knapp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Most past research on migration has focused on young adults or recent retirees since these are the two groups most likely to migrate. Very little research has looked at the factors that affect the migration of people in the middle stages of life. The purpose of this research is to identify those factors, and determine if there are differences between whites, blacks, and Hispanics.

The data utilized for this research were from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79, a study funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that has been ongoing since 1979. Migration was defined as the movement …

Marginalia No. 14, Merrill-Cazier Library

Marginalia

Issue Number 14: Spring 2003

RIBBON CUTTING & DISCUSSION OF AMERICAN LAW-Pres. Kermit Hall opens Quad-Side Café

SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION SYMPOSIUM AT USU- Rob Morrison on Journal publishing & profits

FRIENDS HOST BOOK TALK: WATER POLITICS AND THE WEST-Stephen Sturgeon on his new book

WHODUNIT LIBRARY TOUR-Marcia Cheney reports on the Halloween Tour for library staff

WESTERN ARCHIVISTS TO MEET AT USU-Randy Williams reports on CIMA Archivists May meeting

FAREWELL TO A GREAT FRIEND RICHARD BRIAN SCHOCKMEL-Death of Collection Development Librarian

Reputation And The Control Of Pollution, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the effectiveness of reputation in inducing a polluting firm to self-regulate its emissions when consumers have imperfect information. In particular, we ask to what extent must consumers reward and punish the firm before it chooses self-regulation as its dominant strategy? We find that if payoffs in the stage game are such that both the consumer and the polluting firm have beliefs that are consistent with each others’ behaviors, then the firm has a positive probability of playing clean in each period of a finite game. Further, we find that a weak reward/punishment scheme may have an adverse …

Creating Community: Macnas’S Galway Arts Festival Parade, 2000, Christie L. Fox

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Stories We Are: Old Meshikee And The Winter Of 1929, Michael Spooner

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Flowering Thorn, Thomas A. Mckean

All USU Press Publications

The flowering thorn expresses the dual nature of the ballad: at once a distinctive expression of European tradition, but also somewhat tricky to approach from a scholarly perspective, requiring a range of disciplines to illuminate its rich composition. Most of this latter quality has to do with the very features that characterize ballads... or narrative songs. These include an appearance of fragmentation; a wide range of cultural and social referents; complex, evocative symbolic language; and variation. The notable multiformity of meaning, text and tune is mirrored in scholarship, too. The Flowering Thorn is therefore wide ranging, with articles written by …

An Efficient Mechanism To Control Correlated Externalities: Redistributive Transfers And Coexistence Of Regional And Global Pollution Permit Markets, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Willingness To Pay For Curbside Recycling With Detection And Mitigation Of Hypothetical Bias, David M. Aadland, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

In this article, we estimate willingness to pay for curbside recycling. Using a unique data set, we also test for and detect significant hypothetical bias using stated- and revealed-preference data. A short-scripted “cheap-talk” statement is used to mitigate the bias and provide more efficient estimates of the welfare impacts of curbside recycling programs.

Cache Countycommunity Survey Of Future Landfill Alternatives, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, A. Caplan, T. Jones, T. Grijalva

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

State University in the spring of 2003. The purpose of this survey was to gather scientific information regarding the concerns, perceptions, and preferences of Cache County adults related to various future landfill siting options. The survey was conducted at the request of local officials, the Countywide Service District, and various advisory committees established to make recommendations on a future Cache County landfill site.