Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communication About Pornography And Relationship Quality In Different-Gender Couples, Rachel Ann Augustus

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have begun to suggest factors that explain and influence the association between pornography use and relationship outcomes but further work is still needed. Communication about pornography is one variable that may be influential but it has yet to be considered in this way. Using a dyadic sample of 713 different-gender couples, I used Actor-Partner Structural Equation Modeling to analyze associations between pornography use (male pornography use, joint pornography use and female pornography use) and relational quality (from the perspective of each partner, respectively), associations between communication about pornography and relationship quality. Communication about pornography was also considered as a …

Adolescent Religious Identity And Body Esteem, Megan Gale

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents experience a key developmental process of identity formation and try to understand who they are and how they feel about themselves. While research has found religiosity to often predict increased body esteem for religious adults, little is known about the association between religiosity and body esteem for adolescents. Using an Identity Theory lens, the current cross-sectional study (n=1,693) examined the relationship between adolescent religious identity (religious salience and belief being a child of God) and body esteem, mediated by one's attachment to God. Three structural equation mediation models examined 1) overall relationships; 2) relationships by gender; and 3) relationships …

The Experience Of Friendship As A Characteristic Of Intimate Relationships: A Grounded Theory Study, Jennifer Griffith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the construct of friendship, specifically how intimate partners experience friendship in intimate relationships. 45 participants were interviewed one-time (for a total of 60-90 minutes) and asked about their experience of healthy and unhealthy behaviors, including friendship, in committed relationships. Research questions included: how participants define the concept of friendship, behaviors that perpetuate friendship in intimate relationships, perceived benefits of friendship, and what a lack of friendship in their relationship looks like. Participants were asked about friendship generally with the hope that information on the research questions would be …

Behavioral Indicators Of The Therapeutic Alliance In Relation To Dropout In Couple Therapy, S. Celeste Esplin

Theses and Dissertations

Almost half of those who start therapy drop out early (Thalmayer, 2018). When therapists work to improve the therapeutic alliance, clients are more likely to stay in treatment and chances of recovery improve (D'Aniello et al., 2018; Escudero & Friedlander, 2017). However, the existing research comes almost entirely from client self-reports of the alliance. Little research has examined what occurs during the session. There has been no research to determine what specific therapeutic alliance behaviors are related to early termination. The current naturalistic study sought to discover if behaviors that strengthen or diminish the therapeutic alliance are related to early …

Method And Interpretation: Gadamer And The Limits Of Methods In Qualitative Research, Jared C. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Qualitative modes of research have been working their way into the mainstream of psychological research. Unfortunately, social psychology has largely resisted this trend, despite the particular utility of qualitative research for investigating social phenomena. Curiously, as qualitative research becomes more widely accepted in psychology, much of the discourse surrounding these approaches has revolved around the procedural dimensions of qualitative inquiry. Specifically, it has focused on developing, describing, and defending various codified approaches to qualitative data analysis. Recently, this methodological paradigm has come under some criticism, with scholars critiquing codified methods as leading to shallow, superficial, and formulaic research. Others have …

Exercise As A Predictor Of Change In Self-Reported Marital Satisfaction And Behaviors Of Couples In Therapy, Emily J. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies looking to link physical exercise with beneficial couple outcomes have had mixed results, showing benefits for females but not males in some instances, and even negative effects for males in one instance. However, these studies used self-report data for exercise which may suffer from reporting errors. This study analyzed how daily exercise, measured by participants wearing accelerometers, impacts marital satisfaction, positive behaviors, and negative behaviors in a clinical population. The data was analyzed using multilevel models to determine how time spent exercising impacted individuals and their partners in terms of relationship outcomes. Results indicated small but significant relationships …

Neuroticism's Ties To Relationship Satisfaction: What Behaviors Matter?, Alexyss M. Lange

Theses and Dissertations

In multiple studies, neuroticism and romantic relationship satisfaction are negatively related to one another. Yet, the exact behaviors that link neuroticism to lower relationship satisfaction are unknown. Our seven-day daily diary study (N = 246) identified specific, everyday behaviors that might mediate this association. After establishing positive and negative factors using exploratory factor analysis, we examined whether positive or negative behaviors (and sub-categories of these dimensions) mediate the relationship between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction. Our results showed that negative behaviors mediated the relationship between neuroticism and relationship satisfaction but positive behaviors did not. A subcategory of conflict tactics mediated the …

Assessing New Wars Theory In The Post-Arab Spring Era: The Libyan And Yemeni Wars (2011-2020), Shady El-Sherif

Theses and Dissertations

Mary Kaldor’s “New Wars” theory which was first published in 1991 argues that warfare has changed after the Cold War with the growing globalization and the rise of violent non-state actors. According to the theory, globalization augmented certain problems that are considered the main causes of these “new wars” such as; state fragility/failure, identity politics, and war economy methods which all account at present for the continuation of conflicts, especially in the MENA region with more civilian casualties. To assess this theory, I am using a comparative case study methodology with a historical process-tracing approach for the Yemeni and Libyan …

Waqf In Transition: Tracing Local Institutional Change During The British Mandate In Palestine, Zachary Murray

Theses and Dissertations

The British Mandate’s actions of state-building in Palestine were informed by a Zionist-Western modernist envisioned past of Palestine. This state-building ideology was embedded within much of the bureaucracy of the Mandate’s system and infringed on numerous Palestinian institutions such as Waqf. Waqf was disenfranchised in particular through the implementation of urban development programs, like town planning and archaeological regimes, which sought to support the British-Zionist recasting of Palestine.

This thesis aims to show how the British’s ideology of Palestine informed the Mandate’s internal polices and actions which infringed on the rights of waqf. This was done through two axes of …

The Effects Of Presession Conditions On Behavior During A Brief Functional Analysis, Dung Haylie Le

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated that patterns of responding during a no-interaction condition of a functional analysis (FA) may predict FA outcomes. Thus, behavior analysts may use an initial no-interaction condition to identify problem behavior maintained by social reinforcement when time and resources are limited. However, in a clinic setting, most functional analyses are conducted in between or immediately after instructional sessions or structured play. Therefore, the proposed study was designed to examine the differential effects of presession conditions of naturally occurring activities (work versus play) at a clinic setting during a modified brief functional analysis. Results showed that presession conditions …

A Comparative Assessment Of Tagteach® And Video Self-Evaluation On Increasing Fluency Of Dance Movements, Eliza Jane Goben

Theses and Dissertations

Dance coaching and education is a rapidly evolving field both within behavior analysis and in other disciplines. Previous behavior analytic research in dance or similar athletics has demonstrated the effectiveness of video feedback/self-evaluative video feedback and TAGteach® separately. However, there is no published research comparing these two interventions. The present study applied an adapted alternating treatment design to examine the effects of TAGteach™ versus self-evaluative video feedback in improving the accuracy of dance movements in beginner level dance students. All participants demonstrated a visibly greater increase in skills paired with TAGteach™ compared to skills paired with video self-evaluation.

The Effects Of Guided Notes In An Online Behavior Analysis Graduate Course, Natalya Theresa Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

Guided notes are handouts with fill-in-the-blank spots, incomplete outlines, or PowerPoint slides with blank spaces identical to those used by the instructor during class lectures (Biggers et al., 2020). This note-taking strategy was initially created for those who have difficulty in the classroom, such as students with learning disabilities (Williams et al., 2012). However, guided notes became a supplemental note-taking technique used during lectures for non-disabled college students as well. The authors examined the impact of guided notes in an online course format, counterbalancing three conditions across participants and instructional units: Guided notes, learning objectives and no notes to determine …

Assessment And Improvement Of Women’S Soccer Performance Using Precision Teaching And Frequency Building, Emily Anne Swope

Theses and Dissertations

Performance assessments may be a helpful tool to determine why performance is lacking in sports and fitness. They may also provide some examples of interventions that help improve performance. If the performance deficits are due to a lack of skill or knowledge, then one teaching procedure that may increase the performance of the skill is frequency building. The purpose of the present study was to use a sports performance assessment to identify the variables responsible for sub-standard performance on a college women’s soccer team. In addition, we used a frequency building procedure to improve the performance of three soccer players. …

Associative Learning In The Monodelphis Domestica Utilizing The Cpa Paradigm, Joseph Caleb Cantu

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to investigate associative learning in the Monodelphis domestica by utilizing the conditioned place aversion paradigm (CPA). The Monodelphis domestica has been used as an animal model for research in multiple fields; however, there is still little information regarding associative learning or utilizing a CPA paradigm. Expanding the literature of the Monodelphis domestica would be adding to the limited research concerning associative learning utilizing the CPA paradigm.

An Analysis Of Income And Healthcare Disparities Across Minority Populations By Incorporating Community Resource Collaboration In Public Policy, Ohioze O. Obadan

Theses and Dissertations

There is widespread literature on the connection between public policy, resource allocation, and income and health inequalities among minority communities. While various services are created to help communities, the distribution and allocation of these services remain elusive, without any collaboration towards a common objective among public policy leaders. This paper investigates the disparities in the access to healthcare within Florida, a state selected because of its documented problems with healthcare access. This thesis research analyzes the income and health inequalities in minority populations in Florida by integrating community resource collaboration into public policy. The study used secondary data from public …

An Analysis Of Mental Health, Psychosocial Stressors, And Social Support Among Latinx Students Who Relocate For College, Lisa A. Lozano

Theses and Dissertations

Relocating for college is one facet of the college adjustment process that has been scarcely explored. Research suggests that relocated students report more severe depression symptoms (Reyes-Rodriguez et al., 2012), poorer social adjustment (Brooks & Dubois, 1995), and worse mental health overall (King et al., 2011) compared to nonrelocated students. This study hypothesized that relocated Latinx college students would experience more severe mental health concerns (depression, anxiety, and stress), psychosocial stress (acculturative stress, loneliness, and sense of belonging), and perceived social support than their nonrelocated counterparts. 159 underclassmen with permanent residence in a South Texas community were surveyed in a …

The Impacts Of Ownership And Covid-19 On Firm Performance-Three Essays, Jian Xu

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays on finance of ownership and COVID-19. In the first essay, we investigate the effect of residual state ownership, foreign ownership, and the interaction between the two on firms' financing patterns. we find that neither firms with residual state ownership only nor firms with foreign ownership only are positively related with external finance. In comparison, firms with both state and foreign ownerships are associated with higher external finance. The increased external finance for firms with both state and foreign ownerships mainly comes from private banks and new equity. Moreover, we explore the channels through which …

The When, Why, And How: Antecedents Of Illegitimate Task Perceptions, Patricia Jewel Emily Morrison

Theses and Dissertations

Driven, satisfied, and motivated employees are crucial to an organization’s long-term success. The purpose of this research study was to examine factors that may be affecting employee perceptions of tasks as illegitimate. Utilizing a purposive, convenience sampling approach, 14 employees were recruited to participate in this study. Participants completed an interview with the researcher that lasted approximately 30 minutes and was audio recorded and later transcribed. All data was analyzed in NVivo qualitative analysis software utilizing the grounded theory method and thematic analysis approach. The following three themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) Lack of Resources, Lack of Support, …

Comparison Of Traditional And Eye-Gaze Preference And Reinforcer Assessments, Zhihao Ou

Theses and Dissertations

A variety of preference assessments have been used to identify potential reinforcers for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disabilities. However, during traditional selection-based assessments, participants may fail to select items or selection may be under faulty stimulus control (e.g., side bias). Previous research has evaluated the utility of eye-gaze preference assessments with individuals with profound intellectual disabilities. The purpose of this study is to compare preference assessments by eye gaze and traditional preference assessment in three participants with ASD. The results of reinforcer assessment showed that among 2 out of 3 participants, the eye gaze method was …

Teaching Children With Autism To Tact Private Events Based On Common Properties, Madisyn Quidort

Theses and Dissertations

Skinner (1957) proposed that people learn to talk about private events in several ways. This study sought to examine the plausibility of one of those mechanisms: common properties. Skinner asserted that children learn tacts for public stimuli through normal interaction with their caregivers. When a child experiences a private stimulus that shares some feature with a previously learned public stimulus, the child generalizes the tact to the private sensation because there is a common property between the two stimuli. Three children with autistic disorder were taught 6 to 9 sensation tacts (e.g., prickly, cozy, tight) depicted in videos (e.g., a …

Quantifying Human Mobility Patterns During Disruptive Events With Geospatial Big Data, Yuqin Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human mobility patterns is an essence for geography and geographical information science. Although existing studies have found that human mobility patterns are highly predictable, such patterns can be disrupted by events, ranging from sports games to natural hazard caused evacuations. However, traditional data collection methods that heavily rely on self-reported travel behaviors are often delayed and at a small scale, and thus are often not sufficient to reveal the disrupted human mobility patterns. Fortunately, with the development of geolocating-related technologies, multiple platforms are able to capture human mobility data in unprecedented spatiotemporal scales and granularities. These data, such as …

Examining The Effects Of A Well-Being Therapy Protocol On Sexual Minority Individuals’ Psychological Well-Being, Thomas M. Toomey

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual minority individuals are at higher risk of mental health concerns than heterosexual individuals due to the impacts of minority stress. Previous counseling interventions for sexual minority individuals have focused on pathology and reducing negative symptoms. However, there is a need for more empirical counseling interventions that address these disparities from a positive psychology perspective. Utilizing a multiple baseline single case research design, the current study examined the impact of a wellbeing therapy protocol for improving the psychological well-being and decreasing depressive symptoms for three sexual minority individuals. There was no functional relationship observed for the Well-Being Therapy protocol on …

Diving Deeper: Employee’S Perceptions Of Diversity, Leader Behaviors, And Inclusion, Phylicia Fanetta Davlyn Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding an employee’s perspectives of their organization, team and leader has been researched extensively in the field. The same can be said for diversity, equity, and inclusion. However there have been gaps in the literature when it comes to an employee’s perception and how they can dictate their approach to their work environment. Grounded in the theory of the effect leadership has on employees (Jung & Welch, 2022; Randolph-Seng et al., 2016), this study examines vary leader behaviors (inclusion, antiracism, allyship) and how they interact with perceptions of inclusion and diversity. Using a survey, 211 participants answered measures assessing their …

Assessing The Validity And Reliability Of The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services 1.1, Sebastian Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

The PDC-HS is an informant-based assessment tool used by OBM practitioners in human service settings. An updated version known as the PDC-HS 1.1 has recently been released. The present study measured the validity and reliability of the PDCHS 1.1 by analyzing answers obtained while watching a video of a simulated interview between a consultant and a supervisor. Three video vignettes were created, each describing a performance concern in one or more areas of the PDCHS 1.1. Twenty-one participants watched all vignettes and filled out the PDC-HS 1.1 based on the answers provided. Validity was measured by calculating the percentage of …

Revealing The Dark Core Behind The Dark Triad, Cody Eric Harrell

Theses and Dissertations

Dark or malevolent personality traits (e.g., The Dark Triad) have gained increasing attention in recent years which has led researchers to explore the existence of a common factor of dark personality traits (Vize et al., 2020; Moshagen et al., 2018). A Dark Core was extracted from existing Dark Triad measures using principal component analysis and was subsequently analyzed in relation to other personality traits that are commonly studied in conjunction with common cores of maladaptive personality traits (e.g., agreeableness and honesty-humility; Vize et al., 2020; Moshagen et al., 2020b). A General Factor of Personality (GFP) was also extracted for statistical …

The Effects Of Teaching Children To Tact Their Emotions On Problem Behavior, Haley Nicole Harber

Theses and Dissertations

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle to understand and describe private events, such as emotions. When an individual cannot communicate appropriately, it can lead to various problem behaviors. Previous literature suggested that we teach children to tact their emotions (e.g., "I am sad," "I am angry") in an attempt to decrease their problem behavior. The primary purpose of the current study is to teach children with autism to tact their emotions. The secondary purpose is to evaluate the effects of empathy statements on problem behavior. Four children participated, three with problem behavior maintained by access to tangibles and …

Increasing Practical Verbal Behavior In Esports Players, Victoria Perry German

Theses and Dissertations

Verbal behavior, sports, and performance skills have been targeted in behavior analytic research in the past. However, no research to date has targeted Esports as a setting, nor has there been a substantial focus on communication as a target as opposed to more technical skills in sports, organizations, or similar settings. Esports is a large, growing industry of competitive videogaming, with a variety of games represented at different levels, many of which are team-based and require significant coordination and cooperation between players on a team. Thus, in this study we targeted verbal responses in a team of collegiate Esports players …

Integrated Behavioral Health And Primary Care: Refining A Determinant Framework, Ariel Michelle Domlyn

Theses and Dissertations

The integration of behavioral health and primary care is a best practice to improve patient outcomes and achieve health equity. However, the process of integrating is opaque, requiring organizational change and sometimes a complete system overhaul. Implementation science offers useful ideas for helping healthcare organizations to implement care. This field has identified potential environmental conditions and determinants of successful implementation; however, much is still unknown about how these factors may be relevant for organizations seeking to integrate care. To address the limited existing knowledge in this area, this dissertation gathers practice-based evidence using exploratory methods. Results are translated into an …

Neighborhood Change On The Mississippi Coast After Hurricane Katrina (2006 – 2019), Margot Habets

Theses and Dissertations

Hurricane Katrina was a historic event, forever changing many lives as well as altering impacted communities in the short and long term. In the fifteen years since the storm, patterns of damage, recovery programs and dollars, and existing neighborhood change have altered demographics in coastal Mississippi. This thesis investigates how population, median age, race, and education demographics have changed at the census tract level in the fourteen years since Hurricane Katrina (2006-2019) compared to pre-Katrina trends (1990-2000). A moving average using American Community Survey data as well as interval changes measure how different neighborhoods have been altered since the storm. …

Place Identity And Gentrification-Induced Social And Cultural Displacement Among Longstanding Black American Residents: Theory, Case, And Innovating Methodology, Brittany B. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have increasingly recognized the sociocultural impacts of gentrification on Black residents. However, the gentrification literature lacks an empirically tested theoretical model on the nuanced ways gentrification may socially and culturally displace longstanding Black residents. Limited attention has also been given to factors that may moderate social and cultural displacement. Since place identity (i.e., one’s sense of belonging to a place) encompasses residents’ social and cultural connections to their neighborhoods, conceptualizing social and cultural displacement in relation to place identity helps to understand a potential moderating factor. Furthermore, although space and place dynamics of gentrification have been well-documented, gentrification research …