Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Applicability Of A Habitat Rating System For Low Gradient Streams In Wisconsin To Low Gradient Coldwater Streams In Northern Michigan, Eric Lawrence Forward

Masters Theses

Habitat and fish assemblage data were collected on 12 streams in northern Michigan to assess the applicability of a habitat rating system developed for low gradient streams in Wisconsin in determining stream health in low gradient coldwater streams in northern Michigan. An Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) developed for coldwater streams in the upper Midwest was used as the measure of stream health. Principal components analysis was used to select a small subset of habitat variables to describe the variation in IBI scores. The seven habitat variables chosen to describe the variation in IBI scores in the final model included: …

Molecular Anthropology And The Punta Lobos Assemblage: Dna-Based Sex-Typing Of Juveniles From Ancient Hair Samples, Adriane Michelle Scola

Masters Theses

The recent proliferation of techniques suitable for DNA recovery in ancient samples has prompted anthropological researchers to explore molecular-based investigations of human remains from archaeological contexts. The study demonstrates the utility of ancient DNA analysis to strengthen a site-specific demographic profile from the Punta Lobos assemblage. DNA extraction via a silica-based extraction technique from juvenile hair bulb samples and further DNA amplification via high cycle-number PRC was undertaken to genetically type individual sex. Morphologically intermediate subadult samples were typed as biological males when amplification was successful. The inclusion of preliminary amplification results form a mitochondrial DNA marker suggests that DNA …

Preliminary Report On The Faunal Remains And Taphonomic Analysis Of Plover's Lake Cave, Cradle Of Humankind, South Africa, Juliet Krueger Brophy

Masters Theses

This study examines a sample faunal assemblage from Plover’s Lake Cave, South Africa, and uses the faunal identification and taphonomic indicators to determine the bone accumulating agents and make inferences about their behavior and environment. Fossil assemblages can be dramatically affected by ancient bone collectors as evident by their taphonomic signatures. The taphonomic overprint given to a site is typically due to episodic factors and the paleoenvironmental reconstructions that are based upon these assemblages must take into account any biases the accumulating agents may impart. After performing several analyses involving bone modification and taxonomic abundance, I suggest three accumulators were …

Examining Restricted And Repetitive Behavior In Children With Autism: A Descriptive Study, Dawn Deann Detweiler

Masters Theses

This exploratory study examined the specific topographies and corresponding demographic information of restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities of children with autism, and evaluated developmental differences between age groups. Previous literature has largely neglected this core feature of autism despite the need, and frequent call for such foundational data (Bodfish et al., 2000; Kennedy et al., 2000; Mercier et al., 2000; Turner, 1999). Participants included primary caregivers of 104 children who met DSM-IV-TR criteria for autism (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and ranged in age from 3 to 7 years (M = 4. 7). The behaviors reported as occurring …

Influence Of The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant On Residential Housing Prices, Nicole N. Blodgett

Masters Theses

The controversy over the influence of nuclear power plants on property values is a continual debate among communities (Clark et al. 1997). I will be looking at a sample of 400 residential houses within a twelve-mile radius of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert, Michigan to see how the location of the plant influences the home sale price. Several structural, neighborhood, and demographic characteristics were complied for the analysis. In addition to these characteristics, distance to the plant, a visibility component, and a dummy variable to indicate all properties within a quarter mile from the Lake Michigan shoreline were …

Reinforcement Schedules Modulate Discriminative Stimulus Properties Of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine And Cocaine, Daniel Kueh

Masters Theses

Drug discrimination is a model used to assess the subjective effects of different psychoactive drugs such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and cocaine. However, results from MDMA discrimination studies across different laboratories have not been consistent. Possible confounds for this inconsistency may include the use of different reinforcement schedules such as the fixed-ratio 20 (FR20) and the variable interval 15 seconds (VI15 s) during discrimination training. Studies examining the effects of these two schedules on the discriminative stimulus properties of MDMA and cocaine have not been conducted. Thus, the present study compared the FR20 and the VI15 s schedules to determine their …

White Rules, Black Stars: Race, Sport, Community, And The Emergence Of Integrated Boys' High School Basketball In Benton Harbor, Michigan, 1945-1965, Christopher Michael Jannings

Masters Theses

Located in the southwestern corner of the state in Berrien County, the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan rests along the shores of Lake Michigan, in the heart of the Fruit Belt, and near the St. Joseph River. Not until the early 1940s did a significant number of black migrants arrive from the South and larger metropolitan areas in the North to take advantage of a booming a wartime economy, higher paying jobs, and better living conditions. The growing black presence greatly altered the social, political, cultural, and economic structure of Benton Harbor. By the late 1950s and early 1960s the …

Denying And Minimizing The Allegations: The Martha Stewart Scandal, Rebecca A. Schmidt

Masters Theses

This thesis studies the crisis management strategies employed by Martha Stewart as she responded to allegations surrounding her sale of ImClone stock in December 2001. Through rhetorical analysis, which utilizes the generic method of criticism, it examines Ms. Stewart's public responses to her crisis that were broadcast on television, printed in newspapers and magazines, and posted on Stewart's website, and found that she used primary strategies of denial and minimization. Finally, this thesis concludes that Ms. Stewart's responses are considered appropriate as they relate to the expectations of her audience as well as her attempt to repair her image and …

Wine Tourism Route Development And Marketing Strategies In Southwest Michigan, Astrid Wargenau

Masters Theses

As many tourists find their way to the shorelines of Michigan every summer, Southwest Michigan's fruit belt has begun to draw- visitors inland. Wine tourism has emerged as a new form of tourism. The vineyards in Southwest Michigan, depending on these visitors as their main customer market, therefore formed a wine route, connecting them and creating a wine region feel for tourists. In doing so, the wineries hope to establish a recognized wine region and sell their wines nationwide.

This study is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with General Managers and Marketing Officials of each of the vineyards. Based on …

A Multicomponent Intervention System Using Human Performance Technology Concepts To Improve Performance In Small Service Businesses, Doug Lafleur

Masters Theses

A small business servicing dealerships in the chimney lining industry was responsible for training and resupplying contractors in a propriety chimney lining system. A process was developed for sharing and comparing the dealerships' financial reports and business processes. The process involved a small group of dealers attending regular 6- month meetings called Impact Groups. Dealers took turns hosting the meetings and having the attending dealers analyze their business. A detailed list of problems and solutions was provided to each host business.

Testing The Relationships Among Depression, Communication Competence, Relational Satisfaction, And Social Support, Rebecca Sue Devries

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to test the relationship between depression, communication competence (CC), and social support. This relationship is rooted in the premise that central to CC is one's ability to solicit and receive social support from interpersonal relationships in terms of 3 dimensions: assertiveness, responsiveness, and cognitive flexibility. It was hypothesized that depression is negatively associated to cognitive flexibility, and in tum the assertiveness and responsiveness CC dimensions are positively related to quality interpersonal relationships and the social support received from such relationships. Bivariate correlation results indicate the data are consistent with the predicted relationships between the …

Intersections Of Race, Identity, And Co-Cultural Practices: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of A 'White Black Woman', Tammy Lynn Jeffries

Masters Theses

Notes of a White Black Woman by Judy Scales-Trent (1995) was the text used for this analysis and offered insight to the process of identity development, and the co-cultural communication practices of an African American woman whom others mistake as European American-a 'White Black Woman.' The basis for this body of research was embedded in the premise that co-cultural communication practices are intrinsically linked to the normal communication of the White Black person's identity development negotiation process. The initial exploration of this study began with explaining Kich's (1992) bi-racial identity model from a mono-racial perspective allowing for new interpretations of …

Worldviews In Music: A Rhetorical Study Of Philosophies Of Truth And Reality In Country Music And Contemporary Christian Music, Karen Lynn Legg

Masters Theses

This study examines the philosophies of truth and reality that are communicated through the lyrics of Country and Contemporary Christian Music. The lyrics from the top ten songs from the years 1980, 1990, and 2000 were collected and analyzed for both genres. The songs were then coded and placed in one of eight categories: N/A, Naturalism, Transcendentalism, Theism, Naturalism/Theism, Transcendentalism/Theism, Naturalism/Transcendentalism, and Undeterminable. Country and Contemporary Christian Music’s trends were discussed individually as well as compared and contrasted to each other. Results found that Contemporary Christian songs communicate a Theistic view of truth and reality every time worldviews were brought …

The Effect Of Official College Athletic Web Sites On The Job Of Division I Sports Information Directors, Karen J. Bielak

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of official college athletic Web sites on the job of Division I sports information directors. Specifically, it focused on how often the site is updated, who is responsible for performing that duty, and whether a position has been created solely for the purpose of maintain the Web site. The target population included all 327 Division I sports information directors. Directors from Division I schools were chosen because of the high probability that their school maintains an official Web site that it has had an impact on the sports information director …

The Interaction Between Andrew Johnson And The Press, Jennifer L. Lowe

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the unstable relationship that existed between Andrew Johnson and the press. Information collected throughout this examination can be used to understand the power of the media in regard to Andrew Johnson’s presidency. Primary documents were examined to determine how the press reacted to Johnson’s policies and actions.

What is perhaps most remarkable about Andrew Johnson’s presidency is that he enjoyed almost unprecedented popularity and support during the first months of his term in office. Within months of his inauguration, however, nearly all politicians and members of the press held him in deepest …

Paternal Involvement: Effects On Delinquency, Porche' Teshia Wynn

Masters Theses

Despite the numerous research studies published regarding the influence of parenting on delinquent behavior, there is yet a clear understanding of how fathers’ parenting practices specifically influence behaviors. Because the majority of previous studies have solely focused on how mothers’ parenting practices affect adolescent behavioral outcomes, research has failed at specifically defining characteristics of fathers’ parenting practices and their influence on behaviors. Because this has been a debatable topic of research for several years, the purpose of the present study is to determine if fathers’ involvement, in the adolescent years, contributes to more favorable behaviors than when fathers are not …

The Effectiveness Of The Chemical Perturbation Index For Monitoring Water Quality In Three Mixed-Use Urban Watersheds, Knoxville, Tennessee, Brooks A. Jolly

Masters Theses

Landscape change within the United States has resulted in significant physical and chemical alteration of our nation's surface waters. Many research projects have demonstrated that landscape features moderate or cause observed water quality conditions. Urbanization is a rapidly growing form of landscape change in the United States and ranks second to agriculture as a major cause of stream degradation. Understanding the effect of urbanization on surface waters is only one component of the larger issue of restoring and maintaining the integrity of urban stream water quality. Effective watershed management is a social process that requires the inclusion of local citizens …

Molecular Anthropology And The Punta Lobos Assemblage: Dna-Based Sex-Typing Of Juveniles From Ancient Hair Samples, Adriane Michelle Scola

Masters Theses

The recent proliferation of techniques suitable for DNA recovery in ancient samples has prompted anthropological researchers to explore molecular-based investigations of human remains from archaeological contexts. This study demonstrates the utility of ancient DNA analysis to strengthen a site-specific demographic profile from the Punta Lobos assemblage. DNA extraction via a silica-based extraction technique from juvenile hair bulb samples and further DNA amplification via high cycle-number PCR was undertaken to genetically type individual sex. Morphologically indeterminate subadult samples were typed as biological males when amplification was successful. The inclusion of preliminary amplification results from a mitochondrial DNA marker suggests that DNA …

Personal Narrative Views Of Mothers And Their Children: Setting Events For Mother-Child Interactions?, Meredith P. Schwartzman

Masters Theses

The personal narratives of mothers and children were examined for coherence and richness. Both were assessed for commonalities in narrative structure and possible links to mother’s responsiveness to child’s aversion behaviors. Narrative structure was empirically manipulated to assess changes on responsiveness and child negativity. A sample of thirty mother-child dyads were recruited for participation from normal populations and ten mother-dyads were recruited through the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic. Measures include the Child Behavior Checklist 9CBCL; Achenback & Edelbrock, 1983), Personal Narrative (Castlebury & Wahler, 1997), and the Standardized Observation Codes-Revised (SOC-R, see Cerezo, 1988). Mother and child narratives were …

Assessing Tmdl Implementation In The Macatawa Watershed, Mi, Using Swat, Laurence Picq

Masters Theses

Lake Macatawa, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, has been impaired by nonpoint source pollution from agriculture. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), developed by the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, established a 60% reduction goal in phosphorus load by 2008. While agricultural best management practices have been implemented in the past three years, the local watershed organization has not had the means to evaluate the effectiveness of these practices, and to assess progress made towards the phosphorus reduction goal.

A simulation model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was chosen to …

An African American Cultural Critique Of Weight, Race, Gender And Class Using A Semiotic Analysis Of Queen Latifah’ S Film Roles, Angela Denise Prater

Masters Theses

This project examined the interconnectedness of race, gender, class and the physical body as interrelated marginalization factors in media representations. Using the feminist body image literature, critical/cultural theory and Black feminist thought this study examined the significance of weight as a marginalization variable interdependent with race, gender and class. The motion picture character portrayals of the iconic figure Queen Latifah are subjected to a semiotics analysis, a traditional method in critical cultural studies to examine media representations. This analysis is informed by the cultural standpoint of the author as an overweight African American female. This study revealed that Queen Latifah's …

Dialectics In Mother-Child Relationships Among First-Generation Asian Indian Women In The United States, Chitra Akkoor

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Asian Indian immigrant women raising children in the U.S. as value contradictions between Asian Indian culture and U.S. culture. Relational dialectics in parent-child relationships among Asian Indian immigrant women and their children was also explored using the dialectcial perspective. Participants for the study were 20 Asian Indian women chosen randomly from the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek (MI) AI community who participated in one-one-interviews. Results of the study showed that participants experienced value contradictions in child-rearing. All four contradictions addressed in research on relational dialectics were also discovered in the context of …

Dietary Exposure To Aroclor 1254 Impairs Radial Arm Maze Acquisition And Performance In Rats, Danielle M. Paris-Larson

Masters Theses

Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is suspected to produce long lasting cognitive deficits in children and adults. This study assessed the effects of dietary exposure to a commercial mixture of PCBs on spatial learning and memory in Fisher 344 rats. Aroclor 1254 (0, 10, 50 ppm) was administered for 28 consecutive days in the daily diet. Seven days after the last dietary exposure, acquisition training began in an eight-arm radial maze. Following 28 days of acquisition training, "working" memory was assessed using a delayed win/shift procedure. Each delay (20 minutes, 2 hours, and 6 hours) was examined on three consecutive …

A Comparison Of The Shopping Preferences Of College Age Apparel Shoppers In Turkey And The United States, William C. Perrine

Masters Theses

This study compared the store attribute preferences of college-age apparel shoppers in Turkey with those of their United States counterparts. The American respondents were selected from a convenience sample of students from a Midwestern university. The Turkish respondents consisted of a convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students from two urban universities. Ninety-six surveys were given in Turkey and 113 were given in the United States to currently enrolled female and male undergraduate and graduate students between the ages of 17 and 51, yielding 204 usable surveys at a 97 percent response rate. Twenty-one shopping preferences were included in the …

Scapegoating As An Organizational Escape From Crisis: A Case Study Of Merrill Lynch, Jennifer D. Brown

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the use of scapegoating as a communication strategy by Merrill Lynch during the 2000's. Using a rhetorical method, it explores the nature of crises and the image restoration attempt by corporations. Finally, it draws a number of conclusions about how organizations should respond to crises communicatively and ethically.

The Lesbian Connection: The Negotiation Of Individualism In A Unique Community, Emily E. Lenning

Masters Theses

This research explores the issue of how individualism is situated within and expressed through a progressive, alternative, and constitutive community. The Lesbian Connection, a lesbian owned and operated publication, will be considered as it relates to the individual-focused dialogue that recent radical theorists claim to be of great importance to the formation of "ideal" communities. Content analysis will be used to investigate how lesbians choose to shape their own community identity while maintaining a sense of personal individualism. Additional attention will be afforded to how lesbians use interaction through text to shape community norms and identify common goals.

Message Strategy And The Perception Of Self-Efficacy In Behavioral Intentions Resulting From Advocacy Advertising, Yoon-Joo Lee

Masters Theses

This thesis uses the Haley (1996) study as a conceptual framework for the study of advocacy advertising. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the role of message strategy in increasing the consumers' perception of self-efficacy, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) in behavioral intentions resulting from advocacy advertising. Additionally, the thesis explored the correlations and causal relationships between self-efficacy/ PCE, and behavioral intention and behavioral intention and the consumers' evaluation of the organization as good.

A quasi-experimental design was used. A questionnaire along with one of the two experimental stimuli (a print advertisement with the transformational-ego or the informational-ration message …

Secrets In Common: Intellectual Foundations Of The Lodge That Found Billet In The Dens And Klaverns, Damien Borg

Masters Theses

Secrets in Common is an anthropological history that undertakes to explain the similarities of membership and ideology between the Freemasons and two formations of the Ku Klux Klan. The work is divided into seven sections. It was compiled from both extant, which was of principle significance, and secondary printed material. After many hours of reading and countless attempts at “understanding,” three short ethnographic narratives were compiled: they makeup the central axis of the material. The first narrative describes the Freemasons, while the second two are on the “Reconstruction Klan” and the “Klan of the ‘20’s,” henceforth referred to as Kuklux …

Effect Of Gender, Socioeconomic Status And Family Structure On Depression In Adolescents In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lada Mujkic

Masters Theses

The relationship between self-reported depressive symptomatology among adolescents in Bosnia-Herzegovina, who experienced the chronic stress during four year war, and risk factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, and family structure were investigated in the current study. The present study tested the hypothesis that each one of above mentioned risk factors individually impact depressive mood. Also interactions between gender and socioeconomic status and gender and family structure were hypothesized. A nationally representative sample of high school teenagers was selected from two high schools in the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo (N=559, 263 boys and 296 girls, mean age 15.34). Data from questionnaire …

A Comparison Of Knee Joint Size, Obesity, And Osteoarthritis Involving Two Recent Skeletal Samples, Jeffrey Reed Huber

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was two-fold: to examine secular change in the size of the knee joint during the last century in White males and females, and to compare the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis over the same time frame. In addition, a specific effort was made to determine a relationship between the modern rise in obesity and knee osteoarthritis. The sample included 291 males and 140 females from both the Robert J. Terry Collection and the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection.

The results indicate no consistent secular change in direction or location between White males and females. Although …