Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cash On The Table? A Behavioral Analysis Of Refund Claimants And Annuitants In The Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Martin F. Lueken

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents pension benefit choices made by public school teachers enrolled in the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System (TRS), where they choose between taking a lump-sum withdrawal of their refundable contributions and deferring a pension benefit. The analysis explores the extent to which vested teachers enrolled in TRS separate from service with positive pension wealth, estimates how much money is "left on the table" at a conventional discount rate, and investigates what types of teachers display higher or lower discount rates as indicated by cashout patterns. To control for the relative attractiveness between choices, the analysis relies on three central …

Liminal River: Art, Agency And Cultural Transformation Along The Protohistoric Arkansas River, Leslie Walker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For nearly a century, ceramic vessels looted from Protohistoric Native American Graves in the Central Arkansas River Valley have raised questions about the ethnic identity of the inhabitants of the region and their relationship to their neighbors in time and space. This analysis combines careful documentation of 1198 of these vessels with excavated sherds and other data from the Carden Bottoms site (3YE0025) and adjacent rock art sites in the Arkansas River Valley to provide a context for these vessels and, in so doing, defines the Dardenne Style of artistic production. Comparing motifs, and the manner in which they are …

Tempo And Mode Of Domestication During The Neolithic Revolution: Evidence From Dental Mesowear And Microwear Of Sheep, Melissa Zolnierz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Neolithic Revolution marked a dramatic change in human subsistence practices. In order to explain this change, we must understand the motive forces behind it. Researchers have proposed many different stimuli, with most theories invoking environmental dynamics, human population density increases beyond environmental carrying capacity, and the natural outgrowth of human and plant/animal interactions. However, unanswered questions remain concerning the mechanics of animal domestication. Traditional studies of changing faunal morphology and skeletal population profiles offer some clues, but such research has had limited success identifying stages intermediate between wild and domesticated forms, which makes it difficult to discern initial attempts …

The Archaeological Excavation Of An Antebellum Educational Boarding House In Cane Hill, Arkansas 3wa1233, Teka Rene Mcglothlin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an archaeological evaluation of the remains of a two related structures located in Cane Hill, Arkansas. In order to establish the function and/or affiliation of the structures, historical documentation was combined with the analysis of the artifact assemblage. Based on artifacts recovered and archival sources, these two structures appear to be associated with a former boarding house used for male students attending Cane Hill College. This research provides insight into educational boarding facilities as well as multiple cultures cohabitating in the 19th Century Ozarks.

Financial Crisis And The Supply Of Corporate Credit, Jorge Santiago Emmanuel Barraza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that study the relationship between distress and credit and the role this relationship has in determining corporate investment and economic activity. The first essay studies the supply of credit during the recent financial crisis. It shows that distress in the banking sector led to bank credit rationing, which a portion of nonfinancial borrowers palliated by migrating to the public market for credit. The overall reduction in credit, however, was followed by a severe drop in corporate investment, which in time led to a fall in the levels of aggregate production.

The second essay examines …

Emotional Interference Of Response Inhibition In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Thomas Grover Adams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have hypothesized that failures of inhibition are partially responsible for habitual and perseverative symptoms that are unique to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is also well known that sequelae of emotional processes are also implicated in the etiology and maintenance of obsessions and compulsions. However, little research has tested how emotional processes moderate inhibitory functions in OCD. In the present study, high contamination phobic (HCP, n = 17) and low contamination phobic (LCP, n = 30) participants completed an emotional go/no-go task, which measured the interfering effects contamination-threat processing on action restraint. The present study had a two level between-subjects-quasi-independent …

Parent Management Training In Primary Care: Feasibility, Acceptability, And Preliminary Results, Debbie Gomez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the notion that brief interventions delivered in primary care can lead to positive outcomes in children with externalizing behavior problems. Study aims explored behavioral problem prevalence, whether caregivers found it acceptable to receive brief behavioral interventions following routine pediatric visits for identified behavioral problems, and whether it was feasible to deliver same-day services in a primary care setting. Additionally, preliminary data were provided regarding a small N randomized control trial conducted in a primary care setting. The trial utilized either a one-session intervention comprised of evidence-based Parent Management Training components or a supportive therapy intervention for children …

Paws In Prison: A Second Chance, Tiffany King

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The documentary film Paws in Prison: A Second Chance takes an in-depth look at a program that has been incorporated in seven Arkansas prisons since 2011. Select inmates housed in these prisons are chosen to learn how to become dog trainers during their sentences. They spend 24 hours a day with dogs that were rescued from shelters where they may have been euthanized. This project incorporates interviews with inmates in the Paws in Prison program, wardens at the Maximum Security Unit and the Tucker Unit, and volunteers who spend time teaching inmates how to train and socialize their dogs. The …

The Art Of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The Battle Of Beit Mery And Beyond, Paula Marie Haydar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the living and vibrant oral tradition of verbal dueling in Lebanon, also known as Lebanese zajal. The introductory chapter explores the historical, sociolinguistic, and musical-metrical roots of today's Lebanese zajal contests and festivals, which feature teams of up to four poets who compete against each other in improvised, sung verse in colloquial Lebanese, carrying a sort of dialogue within which they argue opposing sides of universal themes and topics of current social interest. Though time, tradition, and culture in the Lebanese mountainside have nurtured the development of sung oral poetry into its current form and status …

Explaining Implicit And Explicit Affective Linkages In It Teams: Facial Recognition, Emotional Intelligence, And Affective Tone, Mary M. Dunaway

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over 80 percent of task work in organizations is performed by teams. Most teams operate in a more fluid, dynamic, and complex environment than in the past. As a result, a growing body of research is beginning to focus on how teams’ emotional well-being can benefit the effectiveness of workplace team efforts. These teams are required to be adaptive, to operate in ill-structured environments, and to rely on technology more than ever before. However, teams have become so ubiquitous that many organizations and managers take them for granted and assume they will be effective and productive. Because of the increased …

Time-Space Analysis Of Terrorist Planning Cycles, Michael Stephen Gerald Eastham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrorism is among the largest threats to national and international security in today's global community. Acts of terrorism have resulted economic and societal impacts throughout the world. Improvements in technology have increased the capacity of terrorists to maximize the impact of their actions. The increasing influence and prevalence of terrorist activity has demanded research focused on the prevention of terrorist acts. A known method of terrorism prevention is uncovering a plot during its planning and preparation phase. Terrorist planning can be evaluated based on how actors move through space and time prior to the execution of their attack. General patterns …

Tall Tales: Editing Autobiographical Memories, Holly Elizabeth Cole

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The impact of exaggerating when sharing an autobiographical memory with another person was investigated. Literature indicates that sharing an autobiographical memory serves a social function. However no research has investigated the impact that exaggerating when sharing specific memories has on this function. Research on lying suggests that deviating from the truth would cause the listener to like the speaker less. Research on what makes a good story indicates deviating from the truth could enhance the social benefits of sharing specific autobiographical memories by increasing the quality of the story. In Study 1, participants read scenarios of a person telling a …

Community At The Courts: Social And Community Interactions At Public Basketball Courts, Elizabeth Arnaud Fogle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Based on over 60 informal interviews conducted at two public basketball courts, this study utilizes grounded theory to trace class- and race-based differences in the social interactions occurring at both parks. By comparing social interactions between a white, middle class basketball court, and a black, lower class basketball court, I argue that social engagement is not be declining for all segments of society as some theorists suggest. Moreover, I argue that the relationships forged at the basketball court in a predominantly black, working-class neighborhood prove to be more meaningful and have deeper benefits than those forged at a basketball court …

Effects Of Parental Modeling On The Development Of Panic-Relevant Escape And Avoidance Among Adolescents: An Experimental Study Using A Biological Challenge Procedure, Liviu Bunaciu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Escape and avoidance behaviors play a prominent role in the maintenance of panic-spectrum difficulties and may also be implicated in the development of such problems. Although the current state of the literature regarding the etiology of these emotion-regulation strategies is relatively underdeveloped, it appears that learning experiences involving parental modeling of such behaviors may be instrumental in the development of panic-relevant escape and avoidance. Given that no tests of such a conceptualization exist at this time, the current study proposed an initial experimental examination of whether parental modeling of defensive reactivity during a well-established biological challenge could impact panic-relevant escape …

Leadership In African American Politics: The Role Of President Obama On The Issue Of Same-Sex Marriage, Kevin Christopher Faulk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2008, African Americans overwhelmingly supported Senator Obama in his bid for the Presidency. Their supported averaged at 95% of African American voters. At the same time that Senator Obama was on the ballet, Prop 8 - legislation designed to amend California's Constitution to define marriage as between a man and woman - was passed with a large majority of African American support. Why did strong Democrats vote in favor of a law that most Democrats rejected? Previous research has concluded it was the role of the Black Church in African American politics that moves the community to a more …

Assessing Food Policy Options In Asia To Reduce Price Volatility Of Rice Market, Ranjitsinh Mane

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rice is a staple food in Asia and its prices at national and international levels are largely influenced by different policy actions of trading countries. The consequence of the 2008 food crisis was food riots and rationing of rice in many nations. The ASEAN Plus Three (APT) countries have adopted an institutional framework called ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserves (APTERR) to address food security concerns of ASEAN countries that may arise due to climate change, supply chain disruptions or price speculation in the regional rice market. The RICEFLOW model is used to study the effectiveness of the strategic grain …

The Responses Of The Roman Imperial Government To Natural Disasters 29 Bce-180 Ce, Michael Timothy Mccoy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the practice of imperial disaster relief between 29 BCE and 180 CE. It focuses upon both the process of disaster aid delineating how Roman emperors were petitioned for assistance, the forms disaster relief took, and the political motives individual emperors had for dispensing disaster aid. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to the topic. Chapter 2 outlines the scope of the study as well as the examples used to establish disaster relief in context. Chapter 3 gives an overview of euergetism and also discusses two cases of disaster assistance that pre-date the reign of Augustus. Chapter 4 …

Balance And Power In Older Adults With And Without A History Of Falls, Stephanie Michelle Gray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to observe the differences between power and balance in older adults over the age of 65 with and without falls. A total of 62 community dwelling older adults between the ages of 65 and 92 participated in the study. Two groups consisted of 25 fallers and 37 non-fallers. No statistical differences were found between groups on age, height, weight, or BMI. Testing included the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) to test balance, the Tendo Weightlifting Analyzer (TWA) during a sit-to-stand to test lower body power, and the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) to …

Evaluating The Effects Of The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery On College Participation, Noah Aaron Pittman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, lottery scholarship programs have become a popular policy program for states that wish to help students afford higher education without having to raise new taxes. Through a statewide lottery, profits from the program are passed onto college students in the form of merit-based scholarships. Even with strong opposition from opponents who questioned how much a lottery would benefit the entire population of the state, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery was created via voter referendum in 2008.

A key goal of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery was to increase college participation, especially among underrepresented students. The study therefore sought to …

Overcoming Roadblocks In Introducing Virtual World Technology To High Schools, Casey Dylan Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The EAST (Environmental And Spatial Technology) Initiative is a non-profit educational organization that provides students in over two hundred schools in eight states with access to advanced computing technologies for the purpose of enabling students to develop technical skills early and to produce solutions to local community problems. Although many high-end technologies are available through EAST, they are desktop solutions that individual students use and there are none that enable students within a school or between schools to collaborate.

This thesis is a saga that documents the identification and removal of many roadblocks to introducing a 3D multi-user virtual simulation …

Essays On Smallholder Farmers In Jamaica: Context-Specific Evidence For Food Security Policymaking, Deborah Evadne Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three essays that examined the experiences and welfare of traditional food crop farmers in Western Jamaica. It systematically analyses the interplay between smallholder farmers and often overlooked variables in society. The study used qualitative interviewing, field observations and discourse analysis techniques to generate context-specific evidence for food security policymaking.

The first essay examined smallholder farmers' motives for farming. This formed the basis for a farmer typology that provides a portrait of the participants, and was used to inform findings in subsequent essays in this dissertation. The theory of planned behavior provided the conceptual grounding and …

Millennial Alumni Perceptions Of Communications Media Utilized By The Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences, Amanda Nicole Anthony

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alumni relationship cultivation serves as the foundation of higher education and must be maintained to keep graduates and alma maters connected. To evaluate the success of communications media in reaching recent graduates, classified as Millennials, this study sought to determine Millennial alumni perceptions of media distributed by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences (Bumpers College) from 2012 through 2014. Assessed communications media included The Graduate and AR Culture magazines, The Graduate e-newsletter, tailgate and mocktail party invitations, College website, and social media presences. Active and inactive Millennial alumni (N = 20) responses were gathered through …

How Microlending Affects Innovation And Entrepreneurship: Evidence From Ethiopia, Robert Hirth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advocates of microlending suggest it is a sustainable intervention that reaches the poor directly and offers them the means to invest and improve their incomes (Khavul, 2010; Morduch, 1999; Yunus, 2007); yet, impact studies of these interventions have suggested they often have little or even a detrimental impact on borrowers (Van Rooyen, Stewart & De Wet, 2012). This dissertation examines the efforts to promote entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty in developing countries through microlending. I begin by reviewing the microlending literature, and in particular, impact studies of the effect microlending is having in developing countries. Next, I review theory and empirical …

A Mixed Methods Approach Of Communication Campaign Development And Assessment: Identifying The Needs Of An Audience And Determining The Value In Evaluation, Tara Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two articles presented in this thesis used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to examine two distinct stages of communication campaigns: research and evaluation. In the quantitative study, students (n = 440) at the University of Arkansas were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the Arkansas Water Resources Center (AWRC), water resources, and water issues. A questionnaire was developed from an existing instrument, reviewed by a panel of experts, pilot tested, and revised. The researchers found participants were most aware (M = 3.23, SD = 1.14), concerned (M = 4.07, SD = 0.86), and interested (M = 4.10, SD …

3-D Morphometric Analysis Of The Primate Elbow Joint, Seth Brockman Boren

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Large body size requires limb joints capable of supporting said weight, and a species exhibiting sexual size dimorphism may necessitate joint size differences between the sexes of the species. If habitual behavior differs with body size, one may expect to see significant variation in joint morphology between species and the sexes within species. The following analysis tests two hypotheses: (1) that significant differences in joint size between males and females correlate with the magnitude of sexual dimorphism and (2) that there is significant interspecific variance in joint shape between males and females of the same species. The first hypothesis is …

Gender, Humor And Quality Of Life In Workplace Sitcoms: A Content Analysis Examining Agency In Post-Recession Situation Comedies, Gwendolyn Logan Bost

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used content analysis to analyze gender representations in post-recession workplace sitcoms using a typology developed using Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. 100 episodes of programming were analyzed by five graduate researchers for a total of 2579 cases. Though men dominated the sample, results were dissimilar from previous findings within some of the literature on televised representations of gender. Findings indicated that need type for most commonly expressed needs were split fairly evenly by gender, but that less expressed needs were more polarized with regard to gender representation. Women also met their own needs more than men did, and had …

Essays In Pro-Social Behavior, Joshua R. Foster

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines individuals' actions to improve social outcomes when unrecoverable investments are necessary. Situations involving non-pecuniary and pecuniary investments are considered. In the former, the prerequisite of real effort - a non-pecuniary, unrecoverable investment - is examined when said effort determines an individual's ability to procure their preferred social outcome. Theoretical predictions over an individual's effort provision are based on their revealed preferences for the social distribution of wealth according to the general axiom of revealed preference (GARP). Laboratory experiments reveal that individuals' effort provisions do not support the assumption of stable preferences (transitivity) of wealth distribution. Specifically, individuals …

Means-Tested Vouchers: Impacts On Public School Performance & Racial Stratification, Anna Jacob

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the systemic effects of private school choice in the context of two statewide, means-tested school voucher programs-- the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP) and the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP). Specifically, I examine public school responses to private school competition from the ICSP and the LSP and the direct impacts of the LSP on racial stratification in public and private schools. In Louisiana, I show that the lowest-graded public schools had a modest, statistically significant, positive response to the injection of competition, with impacts ranging from .001 to .06 SD. In Indiana, the evidence is slightly weaker. In …

Male Privilege, Sexual Double Standard, And Sexual Scripts: College Students' Perceptions And Influences Of Hooking Up, Mary Ellen Hunt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately three-fourths of young adults in college hook up at least once by their senior year (i.e., engage in a casual sexual encounter outside the context of a committed relationship). There are important gender differences which may inform how men and women conceptualize hooking up. Men and women may have different predictors of interest, expectations of sex, or attitudes toward sex. These gender differences are likely culturally constructed by the sexual double standard and traditional sexual scripts which project men to be the aggressive sexual initiators who want sex all the time, and women to be passive gatekeepers who desire …

A Melting Pot Of Voices: Public Discourse And The Latino Immigrant Experience In The United States, Elizabeth Katherine Vammen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the discourses surrounding the immigrant experience in the United States to reconcile first-hand accounts of Latino immigrant experiences with the discourse prevailing in broader domains such as immigration law, public forums, non-fiction essays, and the news media. In order to break down barriers that prevent productive discussions, this analysis identifies stifling language guised under what Antonio Gramsci defines common sense rather than good sense. At the same time this study aims to deconstruct stifling language, it uses first-hand accounts from Latino immigrants to provide insight as to where the American public is not listening. By analyzing common …