Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Theoretical And Psychological Foundations Of Care In Environmental Ethics, Rachel Fedock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I investigate the phenomenon of care, provide some of the theoretical and psychological framework for the ethics of care, and apply this framework to environmental issues. The neglected dimensions of care I explore are: the emotions of care, care as a virtue, and the caring person, respectively, while constructing possible conceptions of in what each dimension consists. I argue for the necessity of sympathy and concern within the ethics of care, while arguing against the necessity of empathy. Next, I explore the virtue of care as an ideal, where emotions, desires, reasoning, motive, duty and action all play an important …

Neural Mechanisms Underlying The Perception Of Three-Dimensional Shape From Texture: Adaptation And Aftereffects, Carole Filangieri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Input into the visual system is two-dimensional (2D) and yet we effortlessly perceive the world around us as three-dimensional (3D). How we are able to accurately extract 3D shape information from the 2D representations that fall on the retina remains largely unknown. Although much research has been conducted that investigates higher levels of form processing (i.e. face recognition), less is known about the mechanisms that underlie the perception of simple 3D shape. Previous studies in our lab have shown that our ability to perceive 3D shape from texture cues relies on the visibility of orientation flows -- patterns that run …

Held And Dropped: A Study Of Metaphor And Subjective Experience In A Psychoanalytic Treatment, Alison Michele Ferst

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores particular patterns of change that might unfold over the course of an intensive psychoanalytic treatment by mapping the forms of change that might take place in terms of a patient's subjective experience and the meaning that the patient attributes to it as reflected in the effort to express that experience in figurative language (i.e., metaphors). The data set was treatment session transcripts provided by P. A. Dewald over a period of 2 years and is partitioned by Dewald into three sequential phases.

Figurative language in general and metaphor in particular consists of essential forms of representation of …

The Relationship Between Teacher Training, Perceptions Of School Violence, And Burnout., Kristi Lynn Geissler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study seeks to contribute to the limited body of literature addressing teachers and school violence (SV). The development of SV is analyzed through an ecological perspective (i.e., Bronfenbrenner, 1979), that allows consideration of how SV is influenced by individual, classroom, school, and community factors. Literature suggests that few teachers report feeling prepared to respond to instances of violence prior to entering the field (Kandakai & King, 2002) and that it is not clear if teachers are receiving adequate training to equip them with strategies and coping skills for dealing with SV (Espelage et al., 2013; Sela-Shayovitz, 2009). The …

Was There A Sensory Trade-Off In Primate Evolution? The Vomeronasal Groove As A Means Of Understanding The Vomeronasal System In The Fossil Record., Eva Christine Garrett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Primates have remarkable visual adaptations compared to most other mammals, long explained as associated with a trade-off with olfaction (smell). However, as more information comes to light on the role of olfaction in primate behavior it becomes apparent that olfaction is not a trivial sense. Even humans use smell to communicate, albeit in subtle ways, and the olfactory systems of the lemurs and lorises are very well-developed. Olfaction, however, is actually comprised of two distinct systems - the main olfactory and vomeronasal systems. These two systems overlap in many functions, but the main olfactory system is considered fairly generalized while …

El Transnacionalismo Y La Identidad Judia En La Obra De Isaac Goldemberg, Jose Goni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this research is to study the work of Isaac Goldemberg, a Peruvian writer of Jewish roots who settled for several years in the United States. His work shows a combination of elements that reflect both his Jewish origin and his country of birth. I believe that studies of Jewish Latin American writers are scarce. They have been approached from a sociological, anthropological, religious and historical perspective, but not from a literary one. Therefore, I intend to make a literary analysis of Goldemberg's work first, and secondly, an interpretation of his Jewish identity and his transnationalism as shown …

Pennsylvania Academic Career/Technical Training Alliance Initiative: Engaging Youth In School And Work, Marna Goodman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research offers a feasibility study on the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania Academic Career Technical Training Alliance (PACTT) at engaging youth in school and work upon return to the community. The sample included adjudicated youth from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania committed to PACTT-affiliated residential facilities and who discharged between July1, 2011 and June 31, 2012. An overview of the PACTT Initiative, with specific attention to its core elements, is presented and examined in the context of Ecological Systems Theory. Secondary data was analyzed using logistic regression to measure the overall impact of the five PACTT elements, dosage of PACTT elements, and …

An Assessment Of The Therapeutic Fib: The Ethical And Emotional Role Of Therapeutic Lying In The Caregiving Of Alzheimer's Disease Patients By Non-Medical Caregivers, Dina Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study qualitatively assesses the various aspects of the use of the therapeutic lie in care giving for Alzheimer's Disease patients while examining the ethics of lying associated in and out of the medical setting. The objectives of this study are to: gain an understanding of the role therapeutic lying plays in the care given by non-medical caregivers through a series of focus groups and interviews; examine the moral and emotional issues related to the use of this practice with a focus on non-medical caregivers; gather knowledge of the use of therapeutic lying in order to improve care for Alzheimer's …

What's "Black" Got To Do With It: An Analysis Of Low-Income Black Students And Educational Outcomes, Derrick E. Griffith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Well-known social scientist William Wilson notes the Black underclass is particularly at risk of developing behaviors and attitudes that promote educational and social isolation. This situation has become characteristic of America's inner cities (Wilson 1996). Education as the great arbiter of social mobility seems to be less true for America's most vulnerable Black students. Low-income Black students graduate high school at a much lower rate than their middle- to upper-income counterparts. This statistic prompts the examination of low-income (vulnerable) students and their high school educational outcomes.

The educational (under)achievement of Black students has been well documented and researched. Far too …

The City Meditations, Nicholas Grosso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This portrait develops a new understanding of how and why cities function and their importance to humanity. Past attempts at understanding cities have focused on their economic roles or cultural centers but have overlooked their great ability to engage conversation and spark new ideas. Drawing upon ideas and theories of architectural layout such as Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities, city planning (Lewis Mumford's What is a City? and Samuel Delany's Times Square Red, Times Square Blue), and social landscape (Jürgen Habermas), this project will develop a theory that considers how the city functions as …

Essays On The Impacts Of Quantitative Easing On Financial Markets, Joanne Guo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Due to the severity of the financial crisis of 2008, the Federal Reserve had attempted a variety of unconventional monetary policy to support the U.S. financial markets at the verge of collapse. The most well-known of the Fed's unconventional monetary policy is quantitative easing, in which it purchased a large amount of government securities from the markets in order to lower longer term interest rates and mortgage rates. The several rounds of quantitative easing had different impacts, intended as well as unintended, on U.S. financial markets and foreign markets. The purpose of this paper is to fully explore the effects, …

Vocabulary Through Affixes And Word Families - A Computer-Assisted Language Learning Program For Adult Ell Students, Magdalena Kieliszek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Vocabulary plays an important role in language learning of ELL (English Language Learner) students. This work discusses the importance of metalinguistic awareness in teaching vocabulary to adult English Language Learners at an intermediate- or advanced-level of English language proficiency with an emphasis on learning vocabulary through word families and increased morphological awareness. The main contribution is a computer-based program that guides users through a series of interactive reading and vocabulary practice exercises which allow them to explore and learn how certain words are connected through word families and how some of the most common affixes in English can affect the …

Sibling Self-Management: Programming For Generalization To Improve Interactions Between Typical Siblings And Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Lauren Kryzak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interactions between children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their typically developing siblings are often of lower quality compared to their typical peers. Teaching behavior change strategies to typical siblings and their siblings with ASD can improve their interactions, but there is limited empirical evidence that it results in generalized improvements. One method to program for generalization is to teach learners to monitor their engagement in behavior change tactics (i.e., self-management). A multiple baseline probe design across typical sibling-sibling with ASD dyads was used to demonstrate a functional relationship between behavioral skills training with typical siblings and their engagement in …

Juan Bautista Aguirre (1725-1786) Y Los Orígenes De La Nación Ecuatoriana, Alex Paul Lima

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how mid-eighteenth century notions of patria, nación, and Nuestra América predate latter nation-building constructs, particularly at the turn of the 19th century. Benedict Anderson's (1991) assertion that Spanish-American Creoles attained a sense of belonging to an "imagined community", towards the end of the 18thcentury,fails to take into account the limitations of print capitalism due to extremely low literacy rates and rare access to the printing press. This dissertation focuses on the life and work of Jesuit poet, orator, and philosopher Juan Bautista Aguirre (Daule [Ecuador], 1725-Tivoli [Italy], 1786). His poems and sermons, …

`We Are All Stories In The End, I Want Mine To Be A Good One': College Students' Work-Family Expectations And The Role Of Educational Experiences, Chandra D. Mason

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While researchers have long been interested in the experiences of people who combine paid work with non-work roles (e.g., spouse, parent, eldercare provider), relatively little attention has been given to the expectations that people hold prior to occupying these roles, such as the amount of role conflict or fulfillment anticipated as a result of participating in both work and non-work roles. Even less is known about the factors that shape these expectations. For college students, these factors may include experiences of a college education (e.g., coursework that addresses gender roles, interacting with successful role models), yet, ironically, few studies have …

The Impact Of Police Misconduct In Kings County On New York City's Civil Liability 2006-2010, Brian A. Maule

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The confluence of police misconduct and civil liability is an issue of growing concern for many communities throughout the U.S. today. The gravamen of the issue is evident in increases in the number of lawsuits alleging police misconduct and the civil liability that results from these lawsuits.

In New York City during the period 1997-2005 the cost for police misconduct went from $27.9 million in 1997 to $40.4 million in 2005 (Thompson, 2007). Concerns over these increases have resulted in efforts to curb both the number of lawsuits brought against the New York Police Department and the civil liability to …

The Encoding Of Temporality In Second Language Acquisition: A Study Of Mandarin Chinese-Speaking Esl Learners, Li Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the influences of pragmatic factors, lexical devices, as well as the lexical aspectual properties of verbs on second language learners' encoding of temporality in their target language. The pragmatic factors being investigated include a recency effect and the number of occurrences of a tense in the previous context, and the lexical devices include past-time temporal adverbials and frequency adverbs. The role of the lexical aspectual properties of verbs is checked against the Aspect Hypothesis, which states that learners will initially restrict past or perfective marking to achievement and accomplishment verbs and later gradually extend this usage to …

Opportunities For Play-Based Experiences In Post "No Child Left Behind" Kindergarten Classrooms: The Role Of Training, Resources, And Accountability Pressures In Meeting Best Practices, Cristina Medellin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In response to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), opportunities for play-based experiences in classrooms have been challenged over the past decade. Despite research demonstrating the educational benefits of child driven play, teachers and schools have been pressured to focus on improving children's success on standardized assessments which may not relate to the developmental achievements expected from activity based experiences. To explore teachers' response to the tension between assessment driven mandates and best early childhood practices, this study investigated which factors influence teacher practices and values. Specifically, how do teacher training and classroom resources influence teachers' values about the appropriateness of …

Physiological And Subjective Aspects Of Positive Mood In Relation To Executive Functioning: The Potential Moderating Role Of Personality, Luz Helena Ospina

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Positive affect has been demonstrated to improve aspects of cognition. However, recent studies reveal that positive affect may hinder the same cognitive processes, such as executive functioning, memory and creativity. These discrepant findings may be due to differing levels of physiological arousal, a component of the circumplex model of affect, which has been largely ignored in affective research. For example, one recent study suggests that positive valence coupled with varying levels of physiological arousal (i.e., low, moderate, and high) may differentially affect performance on tasks of verbal fluency and memory. Furthermore, one other explanation for these inconsistent findings may relate …

Intergroup Contact And Evaluations Of Interracial Exclusion In Offline And Online Settings Among Adolescents And Young Adults, Henry C. Park

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is considerable research with adult samples documenting the benefits of intergroup contact, such as improved intergroup attitudes and prejudice reduction. However, developmental psychologists have only recently begun to consider the relationship between intergroup contact and evaluations of interracial exclusion in minority and majority youth. There has also been extensive research studying the social effects of the internet and its ability to influence wide audiences, but little research on the impact of online interactions on intergroup relations. The present study addresses this limitation. Using social media and various online forums to recruit and survey participants about their views of interracial …

It-Enabled Coordination In Electronic Markets: An Experimental Investigation Of The Effects Of Social Communication On Group Buyers, Alexander Pelaez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coordination, and the mechanisms by which coordination occurs, represents a significant area of study for economic research, and information technology. Technology enhances communication in both speed and quantity of information and when aligned with appropriate tasks can improve decision-making and task performance. Examining the effect of technology based coordination mechanisms on market platforms provides insight into outcomes as represented by buyer surplus and task completion as well as behaviors, such as network structure and emotional attitudes in economic experiments. Drawing on theory from economics and information systems, larger buyer groups should be able to obtain better prices and extract higher …

Inmate-, Incident-, And Facility-Level Factors Associated With Escapes From Custody And Violent Outcomes, Bryce E. Peterson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: Preventing escapes from custody is a critical function of prisons, jails, and the individuals who run these correctional facilities. Escapes are a popular topic in the news, among lawmakers, and in public discourse. Much of this interest stems from the widespread notion that escapees pose a serious threat to public safety, as well to the safety of correctional staff and law enforcement officers tasked with preventing and apprehending them. However, despite the importance of preventing escapes and minimizing violence, there has been very little empirical research on these issues in the past several decades. Extant research has also been …

Right To Land And The Rule Of Law: Infrastructure, Urbanization And Resistance In India, Preeti Sampat

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Special Economic Zones Act 2005, a critical infrastructure model, was enacted in India in two days amid total political consensus. Within two years, intense conflicts over land and resources erupted in SEZ areas across the country between corporate developers, the state, and peasants' and citizens' groups. In the ensuing furor, several SEZs foundered and Goa state unprecedentedly revoked its SEZ policy, suspending 15 SEZs, some with construction underway. Amid raging debates and accusations of corrupt real estate deals over SEZs and other "infrastructure" and urbanization investments, the central (federal) government attempted to redraft land acquisition policy, eventually enacting a …

Learning To Write Without Writing: Using Conditional Discrimination Training To Establish An Expressive Repertoire, John Spear

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interpreting and describing complex information shown in graphs are essential skills to be mastered by students majoring in psychology. The dissertation describes conditional discrimination training procedures that induced students' writing of descriptions of graphs. This training was designed to establish targeted conditional and joint stimulus control by elements of graphs and their printed descriptions. Thus, writing, a production-based performance, was induced by conditional discrimination training, a selection-based procedure.

Performing Blackness In A Mulatto Society: Negotiating Racial Identity Through Music In The Dominican Republic, Angelina Maria Tallaj-García

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation analyzes Dominican racial and ethnic identity through an examination of music and music cultures. Previous studies of Dominican identity have focused primarily on the racialized invention of the Dominican nation as white, or non-black, often centering on the building of Dominican identity in (sometimes violent) opposition to the Haitian nation and to Haitian racial identity. I argue that although Dominicans have not developed an explicit verbal discourse of black affirmation, blackness (albeit a contextually contingent articulation) is embedded in popular conceptions of dominicanidad ("Dominicanness") and is enacted through music. My dissertation explores ways in which popular notions of …

Attention In Hiv, Kathleen Marie Van Dyk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In contrast to the striking benefit of advances in antiretroviral therapy on longevity and health in the HIV+ population, mild cognitive disorders persist (Heaton, Clifford et al., 2010). Additional factors that may be related to cognitive decline and warrant consideration in this population are aging and physical health status. Among cognitive domains affected, attention and processing speed have emerged as particularly vulnerable to the effects of HIV. There are also age effects observed in these domains, and we proposed that reduced physical health can also impact cognition in these areas, comparably to pain. Sensitive measures of attention that vary attentional …

Children First Reforms, Fair Student Funding And The Displacement Of Accountability In The New York City Department Of Education, Daniel Voloch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the first decade of the 21st century, Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg oversaw a radical transformation of the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) into a portfolio management district in which the primary responsibility of the NYCDOE was not to develop the capacity of school leaders or teachers, but instead to create a marketplace through which strong schools could be created and failing schools could be closed. Central to these reforms was a focus on the individual school as the site of both reform and accountability. In a 2006 interview with William Ouchi (2009), Joel Klein …

Reflective Functioning In Patients With Panic Disorder With Or Without Agoraphobia: An Examination Of The Effects Of Comorbid Personality Disorders, Tempe Watts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined reflective functioning (RF) in patients who experience a combination of panic and personality disorders (PD). Despite broadly accepted beliefs that comorbid personality and Axis I disorders indicate poor prognosis, limited research has examined how these two axes interact within a panic disorder population. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders typifies personality disorders as fitting different clusters categorization: cluster A referring to "odd" personality disorders, including schizoid, schizotypal and paranoid PDs; cluster B referring to "dramatic" personality disorders, including borderline, narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial PDs; and cluster C referring to "anxious" personality disorders, including avoidant, dependent …

Does Financial Openness Affect Economic Growth In Asian Economies? A Case Study In Selected Asian Economies, 1980-2010, Hsinrong Wei

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent decades, financial liberalization has been one of the most important strategies for Asian countries to promote growth. However, debate emerges following several financial crises on whether liberalizing financial markets and allowing for free access to international capital markets, would benefit or impede economic development. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of financial openness on selected seventeen Asian economies and answer the three questions: 1. Is there any linkage between financial openness and economic growth for these seventeen Asian countries? 2. Does any of the financial openness pose positive or negative effects? 3. If no …

Guilty Stereotypes: The Social Psychology Of Race And Suspicion In Police Interviews And Interrogations, Sara C. Appleby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over 300 people have been exonerated by post conviction DNA testing, unequivocally proving their innocence. Nearly 70% of these post conviction DNA exonerees are members of minority groups, and approximately 69% of those convicted as a result of false confessions are racial/ethnic minorities (www.innocenceproject.org). To date, there is little research on the role of race in police interviews and interrogations. The present research had two goals. First, we examined Black and White participants' experiences during a mock crime interview. Second, using the interviews from Study 1, we evaluated the role suspect race plays in police officers' veracity judgments. Using a …