Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rwanda: (Limited) Effects Of The First Female Parliamentary Majority In The World, Charlene Anita Raman-Preston

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The case of Rwanda provides a laboratory to explore a unique set of circumstances. This thesis builds upon feminist theory, the literature on post-conflict situations and failed states. It finds that although Rwanda's post-conflict situation provided unexpected and historic opportunities for women to enter politics (a record 64 percent of the members of parliament are female), more women in parliament does not mean the end of patriarchy. Since 1994, Rwanda has experienced significant yet limited progress toward gender equality in employment and education. However, much remains to be done and gender dynamics have not changed substantively. Rather, increasing the numbers …

Heuristics: Bias Vs. Smart Instrument. An Exploration Of The Hot Hand, Jehangir Cooper

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Classical perspectives on judgment and rationality view heuristics as erroneous, leading to suboptimal judgments. Conversely, ecological perspectives view heuristics as smart mechanisms that result in good judgments in the face of uncertainty. Our research focused on the hot hand heuristic and examined it using non-linear analysis methods. This research attempted to answer two questions. The first question concerned the applicability of frequency analysis methods for detecting constraints (such as the hot hand) or structure in a time series of binary data, which we attempted to investigate through Monte Carlo simulations. We found that this method was sensitive enough to detect …

Flash Lag Effect Model Discrimination, Stephen R. Gabbard

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test the various models describing the Flash Lag Effect (FLE). Beginning with the initial work of Nijhawan (1994), several models have emerged endeavoring to explain the FLE (e.g., Eagleman & Sejnowski, 2000; Whitney, 2000; Baldo & Caticha, 2005). Two series of studies comprising 11 separate experiments were undertaken to differentiate these models, with a particular focus on the neural network model of Baldo and Caticha (2005). The experiments included the three primary FLE experimental paradigms: continuous motion (CM), flash-initiated (FIC) and flash-terminated (FTC). Ninety-three participants made observations in these three paradigms using a …

Batterer's Intervention Program: The Partner's Perspective, Megan Denae Nichols

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The following study attempted to determine the effectiveness of the Preventing Abuse in the Home (PATH) batterer's intervention program from the perspective of the partners of men enrolled in the program. The partner's perspective was obtained through the collection of qualitative data from interviews conducted with women who were currently or recently involved with men who had been participating in the PATH program for a minimum of 16 weeks. Interview questions were created based upon several variables including review of empirical literature and specific questions that researchers were interested in addressing in regards to PATH. Results highlighted the various types …

Diffusion Of Innovative Panic Disorder Treatment Strategies In A Community Mental Heath Agency, Whitney Noelle Pierce

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This translational research piece involved collaborating with a local community mental health agency to examine knowledge, skills, attitudes, practices, and outcomes for panic disorder treatments. The project included designing and administering an online survey to client care personnel including psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, and psychiatrists. Additionally, a database review was utilized to obtain information about treatment modalities, duration, and outcomes. Survey results were analyzed using goodness of fit statistics to show differences between attitudes of participants by discipline regarding the safety and effectiveness of panic disorder treatments. The database analysis of pre and post GAF scores revealed comparable outcomes …

The Effects Of Cerebrovascular Accidents On Prospective Memory, Scott A. Magnuson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Prospective memory is the ability to remember to do something in the future, also known as meta-remembering. Prospective memory is required to complete certain tasks, such as remembering to take medications, pay bills, and perform various activities of daily living. The Memory for Intentions Screening Test (MIST) is a standardized objective assessment of prospective memory that has been utilized to document impairment in prospective memory in various clinical populations such as Alzheimer's Disease, mild cognitive impairment, mild traumatic brain injury, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), schizophrenia, and Parkinson's Disease (Raskin, 2009). The current research project utilized the MIST to identify the …

Examination Of The African-American Father-Daughter Relationship: Application Of The Marschack Interaction Method, Amber N. Thornton

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Early research on the Black family implied an enormous lack of African-American father presence and involvement among African-American fathers. However, more current research negates those findings by highlighting the contributions African-American fathers make when parenting their children (Coley, 2003; Cooper, 2009; Mandara, Murray & Joyner, 2005). In spite of facing unique psychological and social challenges, such as disproportionate levels of poverty, and race related social barriers, such as the invisibility syndrome (Franklin & Boyd-Franklin, 2000), researchers who have studied the African-American father-daughter dyad have discovered that this relationship has many benefits for African-American girls, including cognitive and academic enhancements, reductions …

Barriers To Group Therapy For Latino College Students In The United States, Michelle C. Stoyell

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

While group therapy appears to be gaining popularity at University Counseling Centers, scant research has been done on Latino students' group therapy participation. The present study examined the barriers that Latino college students face in considering whether to join group therapy. Participants (N=81) completed three measures. The first measure was a demographic questionnaire. The second measure was a modified version of the Barriers Scale, originally developed by Harris (2012), a 44-item survey in which participants were assessed in terms of: their willingness to consider group therapy, group therapy modality preferences, expectations of group therapy, expectations of group members, expectations of …

Mindfulness-Based Interventions And Processes Of Change: A Conceptual Model For Clinicians, Shalagh A. Frantz

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Mindfulness-based interventions are receiving a great deal of attention from clinicians and researchers and research in this field is increasing dramatically in the past decade. Much of this research is consistent with positive psychotherapeutic outcomes for a wide range of presenting clinical issues. As with any seemingly successful psychotherapeutic treatment, it can be helpful to understand the processes of change underlying mindfulness-based interventions that are responsible for observed positive outcomes. In doing so, the effective components of an intervention can be refined and perfected, while components deemed unneeded can be appropriately discarded. This dissertation critically reviews the literature's current understanding …

The Role Of Hope And Resilience In Pediatric Obesity Intervention Outcomes, Brigitte Dawn Beale

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Childhood obesity is a major health concern in the United States (McClanahan, Huff, & Omar, 2009). In recent years, the prevalence of pediatric obesity has stabilized. However, a substantial decrease in obesity rates has not yet occurred, nor has the gap of health disparity been closed amongst ethnic groups experiencing obesity. African-American and Hispanic youth continue to experience obesity at substantially higher rates than other ethnic groups (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine correlations between Positive Psychology constructs and pediatric obesity intervention outcomes. A single-participant research design was utilized to compare baseline outcomes …

The Student Perspective: An Exploration Of The Experiences And Needs Of University Students With Mental Illness, Hannah Lee Gammon

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

There is a gap in the current literature concerning the study of university students with mental illness. Particularly, very few qualitative studies have been conducted in which interviews with university students with mental illness have yielded knowledge about the population's experiences and needs. The present study, employing a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, was designed to promote a more accurate perception of the lives of university students with mental illness by allowing the voices of members of this group to be heard. Eight matriculating university students who self-identified with mental illness participated in this exploratory PAR initiative. The study involved …

The Psycho-Social Impact Of Colorism Among African American Women: Crossing The Divide, Lauren A. Fultz

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine how skin tone discrimination affects African American women. The phenomenon of colorism is not exclusive to African American women, but the manifestations on this group are diverse, and the effects are unique. Previous research has shown that the experience of colorism is pervasive within the Black community and that most African American women have been, either culturally or personally, affected by intra-racial discrimination. This body of work used a focus group to investigate the experiences of African American women who were categorized according to their self ascribed skin tone group. It specifically explored skin …

The Effects Of The Proportion Of Women In A Work Role And Tenure On Performance, Kathryn Gabrielle Van Dixhorn

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Token theory (Kanter, 1977) suggests that being a token individual in an organization can cause that individual to experience discrimination, increased pressure to perform, isolation from the majority group, negative stereotyping, and can interfere with performance. The purpose of this research was to determine if varying percentages of females in a work role do indeed influence the likelihood that these negative outcomes will occur by using performance data from an applied sample. By using both supervisor ratings and objective sales figures from a sales organization, this research filled a gap in the current research, in which token theory is often …

The Power Of Perception: Securitization, Democratic Peace, And Enduring Rivalries, Derrick Charles Seaver

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

What best explains the democratic peace: empirical indicators of democracy or the mutual perceptions of democracy within a dyadic relationship? This paper will examine three enduring rivalry dyads: the United States-Great Britain, France-Germany, and India-Pakistan, during the course of their respective enduring rivalries (Bennett, 1997; Diehl and Goertz, 2000). Within each of these dyads, I will provide detailed case studies of two conflicts at different phases of democratization - six cases in total - in order to ascertain the answers to three questions: 1) What role, if any, did the democratic character of the individual governments play in the resolution …

Job Crafting: The Pursuit Of Happiness At Work, Cristina D. Kirkendall

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Traditional job satisfaction theories focus on either environmental causes or stable underlying personality characteristics as determinants of job satisfaction, giving very little attention to the possibility that employees may be able to affect their own job satisfaction levels. Recent research on job crafting, however, has provided a source of optimism for changing job satisfaction levels. Job crafting is the processes by which employees actively shape their job to fit their individual needs and unlike the traditional models, it offers hope to those employees that work in a dissatisfying environment or whose personalities may not predispose them to high job satisfaction. …

Religious Fundamentalism Vs. Security: What Really Drives Likud's Policies Towards Israeli Settlements?, Claudio Vinicius Santo

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research challenges the general claim that religious fundamentalist groups exercise great influence in Israeli policies regarding settlements in the Palestinian disputed territory. It proposes an alternate hypothesis that security considerations, rather, are the driving factors underlying the government's decision process. These two propositions are evaluated by assessing three settlement decisions made under a Likud led government - a common factor purposely chosen given the known symbiotic relation between religious fundamentalist groups and the Likud's right wing political movement. Upon assessing the return of Sinai to Egypt, the annexation of the Golan Heights, and the unilateral disengagement from Gaza Strip, …

Impact Of Binaural Beat Technology On Vigilance Task Performance, Psychological Stress And Mental Workload, Elizabeth Ann Shoda

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Currently, there is only one published study examining the impact of binaural beats on the performance of a laboratory vigilance task, however this study had mixed results and left many questions unanswered. I further examined this phenomenon by using a successive vigilance task, between-subjects design, and a control condition to determine whether beta frequency binaural beats could affect vigilance performance over time and across conditions. I hypothesized that participants listening to beta binaural beats would have more hits and fewer misses on the vigilance task than participants in the control condition. In addition, I hypothesized that participants listening to beta …

The Effects Of Multicollinearity In Multilevel Models, Patrick Carl Clark Jr.

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study examined a method for calculating the impact of multicollinearity on multilevel modeling. The major research questions concerned a) how the simulation design factors affect (multilevel variance inflation factor) MVIF, b) how MVIF affects standard errors of regression coefficients, and c) how MVIF affects significance of regression coefficients. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to address these questions. Predictor relationships were manipulated in order to simulate multicollinearity. Findings indicate that a) increases in relationships among Level 1 predictors and also relationships among Level 2 predictors led to increased MVIF for those specific variables, b) as MVIF increases for a predictor, …

Spatialized Audio And Landmarks In Team Navigation, Andrew Hampton

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from a prior study that established the benefit of spatialized audio on team navigation, the current paper examines the underlying mechanisms by which that benefit arose. With linguistic measures extracted from trial transcripts, I study emergent patterns of conversation for four dyads as they attempt to rendezvous in an immersive virtual environment. Spatialized audio is compared to landmarks, traditionally viewed as integral to navigation tasks, on the basis of coordination and strategy. Analyses reveal that spatialized audio creates a decreased need to speak overall. Paired with the performance advantage, this creates a more linguistically efficient task structure. …

Resource Control And Political Development In Africa: The Cases Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo And The Republic Of Botswana, Oweka Ime

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Ironically, it appears that the countries with the greatest resource wealth have often had the hardest time achieving political and economic stability. Is there a direct correlation between the way in which natural resources are controlled within a country and its democratic process? How do other factors come into play, such as MNC involvement or the level of natural resource revenue dependency? This study compares and contrasts two resource-rich countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Botswana between 1885 and 2012. To address the problem under investigation, three hypotheses have been formulated: 1) the higher the …

Personality's Influence On Burnout: An Unfinished Puzzle, David Andrew Periard

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between emotional exhaustion-the main component of burnout-and several facets of the Big Five Factors of personality. Previous research has found small relationships between the Big Five Factors and emotional exhaustion. I hypothesized that the facets of trust, cooperation, orderliness, and self-discipline will have curvilinear relationships with emotional exhaustion. The facets of vulnerability and depression were also hypothesized to moderate the curvilinear relationships between orderliness and self-discipline and emotional exhaustion. Regression analyses only found a curvilinear relationship between order and personal burnout when vulnerability was controlled for. A significant quadratic-by-linear interaction was found between order and …

The Little Brother Syndrome And Nuclear Proliferation, An Exploratory Analysis Of Pakistan And North Korea's Risk Prone Policies, Richard Ellis Hebblethwaite

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The successful pursuit of nuclear weapons technology by Pakistani and North Korean leaders has fundamentally shifted the post war nuclear paradigm that established the monopoly of five nuclear powers over nuclear weapons and supplies of fissile materials under the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). How does one explain the daring nuclear pursuit of Pakistan and North Korea and their success in achieving this capability? Numerous theories have tried to explain both the rationale and the causal factor(s) for nuclear proliferation and specifically nuclear arms. While realism and neo-realism concentrate on the fear of the unknown; i.e., the international system and military power …

Book Review: Drawing Card, Scott D. Peterson

Communication Faculty Publications

Although Drawing Card employs many of the standard conventions of a baseball novel, Mills' book also makes significant and surprising departures. Instead of telling the story of a player's experience in the game, the narrative derives primarily from the consequences of a dream denied. The novel also serves as a cultural history of Cleveland of the 1930s and 1940s with side trips to Sicily at various key points in the island's history.

The Guardian, December 12, 2012, Wright State University Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

Twelve page issue of The Guardian, the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. The Guardian has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Mcofuture: Formulas For Success In Montgomery County, Ohio, Zachary Moore, Jack Dustin

Explorations – The Journal of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity at Wright State

The subject of regionalism and metropolitan government is one that has increasingly been addressed following the latest economic downturn and subsequent cuts in government funding. In today’s globalizing world, metropolitan regions across the United States have sought to not only attract new companies and jobs, but also to retain the companies and jobs they already have. It has become a struggle for some cities to hold on to businesses, whether they are relocating to another region altogether or even to a nearby suburban municipality. When it comes to economic development, competition is fierce between cities and regions. It is now …

Sexual Minority And Ally Brain Drain In Ohio: Survey Design And Pilot Study, Leah Miller, Gary Burns, Megan Morris

Explorations – The Journal of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity at Wright State

The purpose of this project was to develop a study to examine sexual minority and ally college students’ intentions to relocate after graduation. Research questions asked whether sexual minorities and allies plan to leave Ohio after graduation and sought to determine which specific issues might cause this migration. In partnership with Equality Ohio, we developed a survey and database of potential participants and conducted a small pilot study. In the Fall of 2012 this data collection will expand across Ohio; in 2013 the project will expand to examine brain drain across all 50 states.

Digital Curation And Information Management: Technological Changes In Art History, Joy K. Hyatt

Explorations – The Journal of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity at Wright State

Archival and curatorial practices including information management within the fields of art and art history are changing. As a contribution to these vital fields of study, this project addresses their practical application in this digital age. My ten-week research project, Digital Curation and Information Management: Technological Changes in Art History explored this concept. Taking place at Wright State University (WSU), this included a practical application of my art history and motion picture coursework. This included investigating the many phases of digital image curation (the act of curating) through information analysis and management. The assimilation of online and written literature, program …

Coping Strategies Utilized By South Asian Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Nicole Gaige, Shreya Bhandari

Explorations – The Journal of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity at Wright State

This study is based upon exploring the coping strategies utilized by South Asian immigrant women who have experienced intimate partner violence. All participants are from South Asia, which includes the countries of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

In-depth telephone and face-to-face interviews are conducted with the participants from the Greater Cincinnati and Columbus area. Referrals for the current study are received from a South Asian organization catering to this specific ethnic population and a couple of mainstream women's organizations. So far seven in-depth interviews have been conducted. Due to the sensitive nature of the issue there are …

The Guardian, December 5, 2012, Wright State University Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

Twelve page issue of The Guardian, the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. The Guardian has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Insights From Characterizing Extinct Human Gut Microbiomes, Raul Y. Tito, Dan Knights, Jessica Metcalf, Alexandra J. Obregon-Tito, Lauren M. Cleeland, Fares Najar, Bruce Roe, Karl Reinhard, Kristin D. Sobolik, Samuel L. Belknap, Morris Foster, Paul Spicer, Rob Knight, Cecil M. Lewis Jr.

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications

In an effort to better understand the ancestral state of the human distal gut microbiome, we examine feces retrieved from archaeological contexts (coprolites). To accomplish this, we pyrosequenced the 16S rDNA V3 region from duplicate coprolite samples recovered from three archaeological sites, each representing a different depositional environment: Hinds Cave (~8000 years B.P.) in the southern United States, Caserones (1600 years B.P.) in northern Chile, and Rio Zape in northern Mexico (1400 years B.P.). Clustering algorithms grouped samples from the same site. Phyletic representation was more similar within sites than between them. A Bayesian approach to source-tracking was used to …