Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Different Levels Of Negative Emotions And Their Impact On Prosocial Behavior, Tsamchoe Dolma

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In this fast and competitive world, people are becoming less likely to help others. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), the volunteerism rate reached the lowest point in 2013 since 2002. This decrease in prosocial behavior makes the study of prosocial behavior important, especially with the increasing numbers of charitable organizations and their competition to attract more donors and volunteers. Public service advertisements (PSA) are used as a common medium to garner help and support, and many of them use emotional appeals to enhance persuasion. The literature on persuasion shows that emotions have persuasive power to change people's …

The Transition Of An Oral Communication Course From Traditional Face-To-Face To The Online Format: A Faculty Perspective, Cydney A. Lovell

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study is to examine instructor experiences regarding their transition from the face-to-face teaching format to the online format of a basic oral communication course. Qualitative interviews were conducted with ten instructors who have transitioned their basic oral communication class to online. Participants were recruited using the Basic Communication Course Directors List Serv and NCA’s CRTNET. Interviews were conducted face-to-face and over the phone using a set of twelve semi-structured interview questions. Participants were instructors from both community colleges and universities. This qualitative study explores all aspects of the transition, including levels of instructor training, the importance …

The Dual Role Of Self-Enhancement : Protection And Stigma, Corina Evelyn Klein

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Despite the availability of effective treatment options for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), these treatments are highly under-utilized. One of the most cited barriers to treatment among people with PTSD symptoms is public stigma. In fact, the majority of the population experiences a potentially traumatic event (PTE) in their lifetime and should contribute to an assumption of a lack of stigma toward people with PTSD symptoms. Yet, it may be that the stigma perceived by people with PTSD symptoms is more nuanced than what is seen in stigma for other disorders. More often than not, people who experience a PTE will …

A Model For Measuring The Contribution Of Form To Perception Of Biological Sex In Point-Light Actors, Michael Mintz

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

People are able to judge the sex of actors represented in point-light displays. Much of the previous literature has focused on the contribution of motion information to this judgment, or has focused specifically on information gathered from the shoulders and hips. The purpose of the current study is to model how form information, based upon the distance between the dots representing a point-light actor’s key joints, the shoulder, hip, elbow, knee, wrist, and ankle points, contributes to the perception of biological sex. In a pilot study, 6 naïve observers responded to 63 computer generated stimuli that ranged from extremely female …

Spacial Analysis Of Foreclosure And Neighborhood Characteristics In Miami Metropolitan Area, Florida, Adejoh Emmanuel Ogbe

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In 2013, the State of Florida had 13 of the top 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) with the highest foreclosure rate in the country. Despite the high ranking, extensive research on foreclosure has yet to be carried out within the Miami-Fort LauderdalePompano Beach MSA. This research is a foray into an uncharted territory to understand the relationship between foreclosure and neighborhood characteristics in the Miami metropolitan area (MMA) within Miami-Dade County. The study was conducted in two phases: The first phase was to identify the foreclosure pattern in the MMA from 2010- 2013 by implementing the use of spatial analysis …

The Impact Of Student Organizations On The Development Of Core Competencies, Stanley Somtochukwu Ebede

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Higher education has a significant impact on the development of critical skills that improve students’ academic outcomes. However, academic institutions have not adequately focused more on the role of student organizations in supporting and improving student outcomes. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate students’ perception of the development of core competencies during their experiences at a comprehensive Midwestern university, specifically examining the differences of those involved in student organizations to those not involved.

The impact of student organizations on the development of core competencies was assessed using a survey that was designed around the core competencies outlined …

The Influence Of The Single Stereotype On Moral Judgments, Peng Zhang

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Stereotypes can powerfully influence people’s moral judgments. For example, stereotypes of atheists lead people to report immoral behavior as more consistent for atheists than Christians (Wright & Nichols, 2014). When targets are labeled as “obese” or “hippie”, perceivers morally judge them more harshly than targets who are not assigned such labels (Masicampo, Barth, & Ambady, 2014). However, limited research has examined how stereotypes of single people can influence perceivers’ moral judgments. Because of various negative stereotypes people hold about single people (Conley & Collins, 2002; DePaulo & Morris, 2005), it was anticipated that people would morally judge a single target …

Spaces Of Disadvantage, Places Of Hope : Women Empowerment, Economic Emancipation And Ngos In Bogotá Slums, Ekaterina Korzh

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This research is devoted to the gender issue in Colombian Slums with the specific focus on the social and economic place of women, challenges that women are facing within this extremely impoverished and criminalized areas and avenues to improve women empowerment and emancipation in the slums of Bogotá.

The goal of this research is to improve understanding of social and economic roles of women in the slums and identify NGO-supported coping strategies that allow improving women empowerment and emancipation in the slums of Bogotá. The first objective is to define “slums” and determine their extent, morphology and population characteristics using …

Perceived Effects Of Family Status Changes On Male Collegiate Outdoor Recreation Coordinators, Andrew K. Martin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A career as a collegiate outdoor recreation professional is both a challenging and rewarding occupation. It is a position that consists of inconsistent hours as well as extended periods away from home. This qualitative study identified how changes in family status affect an individual’s perception of the position as a collegiate outdoor recreation coordinator. More specifically, the perceived benefits or challenges that occur throughout the family status changes, and what effect, if any, these perceptions had on the individual’s work performance, job satisfaction and career longevity.

Using a phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight individuals who were employed …

An American's Paris: Tourism And The American Consumer, 1947-1961, Margaret Nervig

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In 1947, a group of twenty-two Iowa farmers traveled to Europe for a month-long trip around the continent’s top destinations. Their primary mission, as outlined in Life Magazine, was to investigate European farming practices, particularly agricultural methods and food needs in the postwar period. The article included photos of the Iowans visiting French farms and speaking with farmers, but it also included a full-page photo of the group at a Parisian nightclub, complete with scantily clad women. Despite their agriculturally-based intentions, these Midwestern farmers could not resist a taste of Parisian culture.

This type of imagery is only one example …

Identification Of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo By Pre-Service Teachers, Rachel Elizabeth Meisinger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Current research suggests that Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is a distinct attentional disorder from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that is characterized by a hypoactive, sluggish behavior pattern (Barkley, 2014). Further, unlike ADHD, SCT represents a more passive form of inattention that does not overly disrupt classroom learning goals. Thus children with SCT may be ‘falling through the cracks’ in schools. If children with SCT are going unrecognized in the classroom, they are likely not getting referred for treatment and additional educational services. SCT is related to many internalizing, academic, and social difficulties (Becker & Langberg, 2013, 2014) and early identification and …

On Body Dumps : The Rhetorics Of Corporeal Narcoterrorism, Evan Mitchell Schares

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Though the exact number is unknown, estimates indicate the trade and movement of narcotics have resulted in over 60,000 murders of Mexican citizens. As a result of the rising narcoviolence, Felipe Calderón, early in his presidential administration, made the “War on Drugs” a top priority. Despite this effort to curb the violence, in 2010 alone, more than 15,200 lifeless bodies have been left across Mexico, most likely by drug cartels. A nascent phrase, body dumps, has risen in journalistic reports describing this conscious relocation of the ruined corpse to highly visible traffic areas. This thesis explores the rhetorical constructions of …

The Variation Of Center Of Mass Excursion Within And Between Innings And Its Relationship To Pitched Ball Velocity In Collegiate Softball Players, Leah Renee Embrey

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to measure the changes to excursions of the COM with pitch count and innings pitched in a collegiate softball game. Additionally, the effect of excursion on pitched ball velocity was investigated.

Twenty-six collegiate pitchers were recorded using a high speed video camera. The first three fastballs and the last three fastballs in each inning were used to determine the COM position during the stride foot takeoff, the lead foot touchdown, and the release. Ball velocity was also calculated from the digitization of each video. MatLab and Excel were used to calculate the excursions between …

Caged Manhood : Office Culture And How Walter Camp's Daily Dozen Revitalized The Workforce, 1903-1940, Nick Sly

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis is examines how culture became a means to deal with the problems of over-civilization in the early twentieth century. The realities of a salaried position and corporate work spaces had dramatically changed how the middle class felt about work. Looking at the writings of Walter Camp, the human relations movement, and the exercise culture of the period one can see how the office space was not simply a place of work but a new context for constructing masculinity and a sense of worth.

Injunctive And Descriptive Norms Effect On Physical Activity, Monica Lynn Ehn

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Nearly half of adults in the United States do not meet the recommended guidelines for both aerobic and strengthening activities despite the benefits of regular physical activity (National Center for Health Statistics, 2014; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). The purpose of the current study was to test whether normative feedback (i.e., descriptive and descriptive plus injunctive norms) affects levels of physical activity. Participants wore a Fitbit Zip pedometer to record exercise behavior and received normative feedback messages sent to their mobile phones. Participants were 52 undergraduate students with a mean age of 18.66 (SD = 0.83); 27 …

Predictors Of Racial Prejudice : A Meta-Analysis Of The Influence Of Religion And Political Orientation, Kristin Ann Broussard

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The effects of religion and political orientation on racial prejudice are frequently studied yet, to date, no research has compared these effects using meta-analysis. One theory of prejudice that may help to predict outcomes is sociocultural theory (Ashmore & Del Boca, 1981), which posits that social identities provide norms and values that promote cultural stereotypes. Strong social identities such as religion or political orientation may differentially promote outgroup stereotyping and prejudice. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of religion and political orientation on anti-Black racial prejudice through meta-analysis. 153 independent samples were analyzed with a random …

Perceived Relational Evaluation : Biological, Psychological, And Physical Health Correlates, Emily Christina Banitt

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Humans have a fundamental need to belong, and being rejected or devalued elicits strong emotional reactions such as stress and anxiety (Leary, 2001). Low perceived relational evaluation (PRE), as a type of rejection, occurs when one person in a relationship believes his or her significant other does not regard his or her bond with the other person as valuable, close, or important (Leary, 2001). The goal of the research was to examine the interrelations among PRE, cortisol (biological stress), relationship quality, and physical and psychological within dating couples. Undergraduate female students (N = 109) who were involved in dating relationships …