Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Coping, Accommodations, And Strategies: An Interview Study On Academic And Employment Experiences With Adults With Dyslexia, Rita W. El-Haddad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dyslexia is a neurologically-based learning disability where people have difficulty with reading and writing despite adequate intelligence and educational opportunity. Qualitative research on people with dyslexia has shown that the use of various accommodations and implementation of personal strategies can be vital for overcoming their difficulties. Considerable research has been conducted worldwide, but in the United States, interview studies on diverse samples of people with dyslexia remain rare. Fifteen adults with dyslexia were individually interviewed about their academic and employment experiences. Participants reported that extra time on exams and additional help from a teacher or tutor were the most common …

Community, Identity, And Tradition Within A Progressive Christian Congregation, James W. Skinner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Trends towards religious individualism, the de-institutionalization of religion, and the decline of denominational affiliations potentially impact religious congregations in a range of different ways. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and historical perspectives, this study examines these issues through a qualitative case study of a progressive Christian congregation in Brooklyn, New York. The case study explores the history, worship practices, and culture of the congregation in detail, focusing on the formation of religious identity and community within the context of congregational life. This close examination of the culture of the congregation reveals the ways in which the tensions between religious …

In Search Of Homo Sociologicus, Yunqi Xue

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The subject of this dissertation is to build an epistemic logic system that is able to show the spreading of knowledge and beliefs in a social network that contains multiple subgroups. Epistemic logic is the study of logical systems that express mathematical properties of knowledge and belief. In recent years, there have been increasing number of new epistemic logic systems that are focused on community properties such as knowledge and belief adoption among friends.

We are interested in revisable and actionable social knowledge/belief that leads to a large group action. Instead of centralized coordination, bottom-up approach is our focus. We …

Parental Influence On Second Generation Chinese-American Youth’S Career Choice And Development, Yingli Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A large body of literature supports the claim that the role of parents in shaping Asian-American youth's career development is significant (Leong & Serafica, 1995; Leong & Hardin, 2002; Yuan, 2012; Sandhu, 2017; Qin, 2011). When considering the family impact on Asian-Americans’ vocational choices, researchers should examine the phenomena through culturally specific lens so that variables that are more cultural relevant are captured. This is a pilot study with the goal to provide a preliminary understanding of the ways in which first-generation Chinese immigrant parents influence the choice and development of a career to their second-generation young adult children. In …

The End Of Aids: Gender, Race And Class Politics In New York's Campaign To End The Epidemic, Lauren Suchman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since its official discovery in 1981, the story of HIV/AIDS has been a story of inequality. Not only has the virus spread more easily among those marginalized due to their gender, race, or class, but AIDS activism itself has tended to elevate the voices and needs of the more powerful over those with less privilege. While we might point to 1981, when the CDC issued its first official report on HIV, as the official “beginning” of HIV/AIDS, where and how does the story end? This dissertation examines one attempt to bring the story to a close: New York State’s “Ending …

Persistent Pleasures: Agency, Social Power, And Embodiment In Women's Solitary Masturbation Experiences, Christin P. Bowman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Though sexuality has historically been a useful site for examinations of social power, looking at power through the lens of sexuality often involves interpersonal analyses. But social power can also inform solitary experiences through the internalization of social norms and discourses. In this dissertation, I move beyond explorations of how people interact sexually with one another, and instead investigate women’s solitary masturbation experiences throughout their lives as a means to better understand the intricate ways in which sexist, racist, and heterosexist ideologies weave themselves into women’s bodies and lives. Specifically, I ask the following research question in this dissertation: How …

Effects Of Multimedia Instruction On L2 Acquisition Of High-Level, Low-Frequency English Vocabulary Words, Euna Cho

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examined the effects of multimedia enhancement in video form in addition to textual information on L2 vocabulary instruction for high-level, low-frequency English words among Korean learners of English. Although input-based incidental learning of L2 vocabulary through extensive reading has been conventionally believed to be appropriate for high-frequency words, intentional or explicit vocabulary learning is suggested to be more sensible or realistic for the acquisition of low-frequency academic words. Multimedia support in foreign language instruction has revealed benefits in promoting direct teaching and explicit learning of L2 vocabulary; moreover, adding textual information to video seems to boost students’ …

Personalizing An Implicit Measure Of Job Satisfaction, Brittany Boyd

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Implicit attitude measures have become increasingly popular over the last two decades due to their ability to circumvent a number of the limitations of explicit measures and predictive validity evidence for certain behaviors that is superior to explicit measures. However, a number of improvements have been suggested, including personalizing the implicit measure to better capture the participant’s attitude, not their general evaluation of constructs involved. This paper examined implicit job satisfaction with a modified version of a pre-established measure (IAT; Boyd, 2010), proposed a new personalized measure (P-IAT), and examined the relationships of these measures with organizationally-relevant attitudes and behaviors, …

Thine Is The Kingdom: The Political Thought Of 21st Century Evangelicalism, Joanna Tice Jen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite renewed attention to religion and ethics in political theory, there is a notable absence of inquiry into evangelicalism. Social scientists have studied Christian right policy in the late 20th century, but how has the movement shifted in the new millennium and what are the theoretical beliefs that undergird those shifts? By reading popular devotional writings as political texts, this dissertation distills a three-part evangelical political thought: 1) a theory of time in which teleological eternity complements retroactive re-birth; 2) a theory of being wherein evangelicals learn to strive after their godly potential through a process of emotional self-regulation; and …

The Legacy Of Slavery And The Continued Marginalization Of Communities Of Color Within The Legal System, Julia N. Alvarez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis paper is to demonstrate how the history of slavery in the United States continues to marginalize communities of color. The history of slavery in America was the result of various factors. Some of these factors included but were not limited to; economic, legal, and social. Slavery provided a reliable and self-reproducing workforce. The laws enacted during slavery ensured the continuation of the social order of the time. This social order was based on the generalized understanding that blacks were born into servitude. Those born into slavery were not given the same legal or economic status …

Spatial-Relational Learning And Memory Deficits Associated With Nmdar Autoantibodies In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Brittany L. Bascetta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Individuals with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) experience inflammation that may target any organ within the body, including the central and peripheral nervous systems. Additionally, these individuals often demonstrate psychological dysfunctions including emotional and cognitive deficits; however, research is inconsistent as to the nature and cause of these dysfunctions. While there are multiple factors that may increase risk for variability in cognitive function, such as population differences, socioeconomic status (SES), mood disorders (depression and anxiety), medication effects, and disease activity, these factors do not reliably predict the severity and extent of cognitive deficits. A growing body of animal research associates autoantibodies …

A Political Ecology Of Information: Media And The Dilemma Of State Power In China, Michael L. Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I employ a Weberian concept of social power in order to theorize the challenges posed by, and the varieties of state response to, the dilemma of state power: the need of all states to empower societies with social capacities that may, in turn, threaten state interests. Through a comparison of traditional and new forms of media in China, I show that rather than posing qualitatively new types of challenges to authoritarian states, new media exacerbate the dilemma of state power. They do so because along each of three dimensions of social control, new media shift the relationship …

Embodying Rhythm Nation: Multimodal Hip Hop Dance As A Site For Adolescent Social-Emotional And Political Development, Lauren M. Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology, specifically values analysis, to learn more about how being involved within Hip hop dance communities positively relates to adolescent development. Adolescence was defined herein as ages 13-23. The study investigated Hip hop dance communities in terms of cultural expertise (i.e. novice, intermediate and advanced/expert) to look specifically at dance narratives (i.e. peak experience narratives and “I dance because” essays) and hip hop dance performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to (1) explore how adolescents use multimodal Hip hop dance discourse for social-emotional development and critical consciousness, and to (2) understand how values …

Open Source Micro Diplomas: New Credentials For New Learning, Jack F. Powers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The standard model for college in America—a four-year bachelor’s degree that teaches critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and written communication skills—is unaffordable and unattainable for most Americans. Only about a third of citizens aged 25 and over have achieved a baccalaureate degree or better. Two-thirds are left behind in precarious jobs that pay substantially less and that are losing ground. Everyone from politicians to parents repeats the mantra of “college for all”, but the reality is more like “college for the socio-economically gifted.”

At the same time, the modern world of work is evolving into a more complex, technical, and computerized …

The Variation In Russia’S Foreign Policy In Near Abroad After The Disintegration Of The Ussr, Nataliia Donchenko

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This master thesis sets out to explain the complex nature and variation in Russian foreign policy in Near Abroad states from the collapse of the USSR in December 1991 and the accession of Boris Yeltsin to the end of Vladimir Putin’s third term as President of the Russian Federation. I analyze Russian foreign policy through the lenses of cultural, external, domestic and institutional determinants. Due to the limit of the paper, I look at three “frozen” conflicts that Russia got involved into since the dissolution of the USSR – Transnistria (Moldova) in 1992, Abkhazia (Georgia) in 2008, Crimea (Ukraine) in …

Conceptualizing The Emergence Of Social Capital In Young Children, Courtney Wong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper explores the concept of social capital as it relates to children. Three major theorists, Coleman (1988), Putnam (1995), and Bourdieu (1986), offer different conceptualizations of social capital, but all agree that social capital exists within relationships amongst people and allows them to facilitate an action or receive some sort of benefit. Within much of social capital literature, children are mostly viewed as passive recipients of social capital from their parents and teachers, as opposed to being acknowledged as creators of their own social capital. More recent research is starting to recognize the latter and to conceptualize how children, …

Seaport Vulnerability To Criminal Networks: A Mixed Method Approach To Measuring Criminological Vulnerability In The Top 30 U.S. Container Ports, Leonid Lantsman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Seaports form a unique space for criminological examination. As the locus points for the majority of international and domestic trade criminal network access to a port can provide outsized benefits. While ports are physical spaces they are underlined by complex systems incorporating public and private agencies, companies and small entities. Underlying the administrative and logistical activity at the port is a jurisdictional web of public and private security regulatory agencies. The complexity of the environment creates vulnerabilities that criminal networks can use to gain access to ports. This dissertation developed a Seaport Vulnerability Framework (SVF), developed from the rational choice …

Bricolage Propriety: The Queer Practice Of Black Uplift, 1890–1905, Timothy M. Griffiths

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bricolage Propriety: The Queer Practice of Black Uplift, 1890-1905 situates the queer-of-color cultural imaginary in a relatively small nodal point: the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Through literary analysis and archival research on leading and marginal figures of Post-Reconstruction African American culture, this dissertation considers the progenitorial relationship of late-nineteenth century black uplift novels to modern-day queer theory. Bricolage Propriety builds on work about the sexual politics of early African American literature begun by women-of-color feminists of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Hazel V. Carby, Ann duCille, and Claudia Tate. A new wave of …

Beyond Vulnerability: Refugee Women’S Leadership In Jordan, Widad Hassan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While both men and women are affected by conflicts and humanitarian crises, 80 percent of the world’s refugees and internally displaced persons are women and children, indicating that women experience conflict and war differently. The emphasis on women’s vulnerability during conflicts and humanitarian crises leads to their exclusion from leadership roles and decision-making on humanitarian programs and issues that impact them. Though women experience numerous socio-cultural barriers to exercising leadership in humanitarian settings, they have taken on important roles in emergency response and in refugee camps. This paper traces the progress of UN and humanitarian agencies recognition and development of …

Washington Square Park: Struggles And Debates Over Urban Public Space, Anna Rascovar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public space is often perceived as a space that is open to everyone and is meant for gatherings and interaction; however, there is often a great competition over the use and control of public places in contemporary cities. This master’s thesis uses as an example Washington Square Park, which has become a center of contention due to the interplay of public and private interests. In the center of the current confrontation is New York University’s plan to add 2.4 million gross square feet of new development by 2031 for academic use, faculty and student residential space, athletic facilities and a …

Cruising Borders, Unsettling Identities: Toward A Queer Diasporic Asian America, Wen Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I challenge the dominant conceptualization of Asian Americanness as a biological and cultural population and a cohesive racial category. Instead, I consider it as a form of flexible subjectivity and an affective emergence that occurs and materializes due to the multiple sites of convergence in the neoliberal assemblage of model minority ideology, imperialist geopolitical history, racialized queer politics, and criminal (in)justices. I examine the spatial and temporal configurations of Asian American subjectivity through a queer and postcolonial lens, first by conducting a critical historical review of the category of Asian American in the geopolitical history of psychological …

Swords Into Ploughshares: Agricultural Recovery And Postwar Institutional Development In Sub-Saharan Africa, Jinu R. Abraham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Civil wars have long been characterized in the comparative politics literature as having profoundly negative economic effects for both individual households and countries on a larger scale. However, variation in postwar economic outcomes indicates that conflict may indeed have some curative effects. I argue political settlements in the aftermath of civil wars can shape postwar economic outcomes by transforming institutions critical to agricultural productivity. The structure of the state postwar can shape land tenure security, local government participation, and the management of preexisting social divisions. I employ a case study method controlling for differences on the independent variable in order …

Why Some Take Pleasure In Other People’S Pain: The Role Of Attachment, Competition, And Cooperation On Schadenfreude, Alison Baren

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When witnessing someone’s misfortune, some people may feel empathy and offer to help while others may feel schadenfreude (i.e., joy at other’s misfortunes) and not help. This research examined why people react to others with compassion while others respond more callously. I investigated how individual differences in attachment, empathy, personal distress, and schadenfreude, and the effects of competition versus cooperation, impacted prosocial behavior. As a novel contribution, I looked at attachment’s association with not only state schadenfreude but also trait schadenfreude. After developing a measure of trait schadenfreude (Study 1), I determined if attachment related to schadenfreude (Study 2) and …

Aspects Of Quantifier Float In Thai, Khanin Chaiphet

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research on Thai Q(uantifier)-float attempts to manifest the problems for each of its analysis. For the adverbial analysis, the Japanese data show that the floating quantifiers can be associated with both distributive and plurality-of-events readings while Thai does not distinguish between these two readings. For the stranding analysis, the differences from English-Thai comparative data show that Thai floating quantifiers often occur in positions where their associated NPs could not have previously occupied or have been moved from, and thus cannot be analyzed as resulting from stranding. As a solution, Thai Q-float is postulated as an instance of rightward movement (extraposition) …

“Pay, Protection, And Professionalism”: The History Of Domestic Worker Organizing And The Future Of Home Health Care In The United States, Julia R. Gruberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With a multidisciplinary approach, I analyze the socio-economic, political, and historical factors that led to the current state of home health care in the United States. The legacy of slavery and the devaluing of so-called “women’s work” explain how the field of domestic work has been historically excluded from protection and regulation in the United States. Caring for children and keeping house have been women’s work for centuries, regardless of whether women were paid to do it or it was outsourced to an employee. Domestic work is sometimes referred to as “the work that makes all other work possible,” but …

Medical Student Knowledge Regarding Age Related Hearing Loss And Amplification, Max L. Rubin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this survey is to determine medical student knowledge regarding hearing loss, communication, audiology, treatment and diagnosis of age related hearing loss and the connection to health outcomes. A questionnaire was created, using Survey Monkey, to assess medical student knowledge of hearing loss, communication, audiology, treatment and diagnosis of age related hearing loss and the connection to health outcomes. The questions comprising the survey pertain to demographics, the profession of audiology, auditory system anatomy and physiology, hearing pathologies, and appropriate intervention and health outcomes associated with under-treatment of hearing loss. Questions were gathered from previous research studies attempting …

Social Order And The Culture Of Corruption In India, Arunodhaya Jebamani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Corruption is rampant in India and is prevalent in every sector of the Indian society. The purpose of this paper is to discuss selected cases to understand the widespread corruption that occurs in various sectors of the society such as academia, business, banking, law enforcement and other everyday services. This paper will address how the social order contributes to these corrupt practices, and tries to shed some light on how corrupt practices have been socially accepted and have become an unavoidable norm in many cases. The paper also studies the structures that exist and aide in augmenting corruption in India …

Back To Square One: Understanding The Role Of The Egyptian Armed Forces, Ahmed A. Ahmed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Six years ago, in 2011 the Egyptian youth took to the streets across Egypt demanding freedom from the corrupt, autocratic, and authoritarian Mubarak government. Within days, tens of millions of Egyptians demanded the resignation of President Mubarak, who had ruled the country for 30 years. Millions of Egyptians were fed up with the rampant corruption of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Democratic activists warned that presidential election slated for September 2011 were not going to be competitive, rather successional so that Mubarak’s son Gamal would be president. Most analysts argue that the vast masses of protests severely damaged the …

First And Second Generation New York City Bilinguals: What Is The Role Of Input In Their Collocational Knowledge Of English And Spanish?, Ingrid T. Heidrick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study compares monolinguals and different kinds of bilinguals with respect to their knowledge of the type of lexical phenomenon known as collocation. Collocations are word combinations that speakers use recurrently, forming the basis of conventionalized lexical patterns that are shared by a linguistic community. Examples of collocations typically used by speakers of English in the United States are make a decision, take a step, and have a coffee. Examples of collocations typically used by speakers of Spanish in Latin America and Spain are tomar una decisión ('make a decision', lit.: take a decision), dar un …

Becoming Ghosts: The Public Veiling Of Puerto Ricans In New York City, Samantha Pina Saghera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years Puerto Ricans in New York City have become difficult to locate in the public realm. This is a paradox given that Puerto Ricans make up the largest Hispanic subgroup in the larger metropolitan region. This study examines how, when, and why Puerto Ricans became publicly invisible in New York City.

Demographic, media-based, political, and cultural changes have all contributed to the decline in Puerto Rican ethnic visibility. The consequence is that although Puerto Ricans continue to be racialized (as evidenced by their socioeconomic indicators), their racialization cannot be seen in the public realm. Instead, Hispanic characteristics are …