Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Work Hope And Work Volition: Exploring The Influence Of Community College Students’ Rurality And Socioeconomic Status, Jesse A. Wingate

Theses and Dissertations

Data from a sample of community college students (N = 478) in Virginia were used to examine relations among rurality, socioeconomic status, work hope, and work volition. Socioeconomic status, work hope, and work volition were positively associated. However, rurality, measured both as a continuous and categorical variable, was not correlated with work hope or work volition. Additional analyses showed convergence between measures of work hope and work volition confirming construct similarity. Results, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future study are included.

Development Of A Strengths And Empowerment Focused Group Intervention For Marginalized Populations With A Focus On Women, Low-Income, And Racial-Ethnic Minorities, Kristin Goradietsky

Theses and Dissertations

Members of marginalized groups face numerous stressors, including racism, discrimination, and a lack of access to quality mental health and medical care. Members of marginalized groups are also at a higher risk of developing mental health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. There is a lack of literature regarding effective mental health treatment for members of marginalized groups, including those who are homeless or low income; Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); and women. A literature review indicated interventions based in empowerment, positive psychology, mindfulness, and critical consciousness may be particularly applicable to vulnerable populations. Therefore, …

The Role Of Mirror Neurons In Relational Dysfunction In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Andrew Walker

Theses and Dissertations

American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has created a new generation of veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It has repeatedly been noted that these returning veterans have a particularly difficult time reconnecting with family and friends. Because of these findings, the impact of multiple deployments and prolonged combat exposure is shifting from the individual veteran to its effects on their ability to reestablish intimate relationships after the completion of their service.

Over the last 20 years, numerous studies have directly observed the firing of the same neurons of non-human primates while seeing a member of their species …

What Role Can Social Cognitive Neuroscience Play In Promoting Prosocial Behaviors In Organizations, Lynne Forbes-Zeller

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to establish a correlation between the integration of Social Cognitive Neuroscience (SCN) frameworks (e.g., The SCARF model) into day-to-day social interactions in the workplace. The study also sought to determine whether SCN practices can increase prosocial behaviors and improve a leader's influence. This qualitative study had four phases: an educational video, a self-assessment, a learning workshop, and an experiential learning exercise. Data were collected through eight interviews. This study revealed that understanding the brain's influence in social environments increased prosocial behaviors and positively impacted leader thoughts and actions. Data showed taking the self-assessment, learning …

Leadership Development In East Africa: A Case Study Of A Multi-Year College Student Leadership Program, Gregory Armen Muger

Theses and Dissertations

Effectual and ethical leadership is a top need throughout all sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa (Adadevoh, 2007; Ncube, 2010). Unfortunately, there is currently very scant literature on Sub-Saharan African leadership theory or programming (Bolden & Kirk, 2009). A large Christian nonprofit organization operated a multi-year servant leadership-based Christian leadership program for thousands of college students throughout sites in East Africa called the Leadership Development Program (LDP). The LDP endeavored to groom local, ethical, and capable leaders. Therefore, studying the LDP model and its impacts could add significant value to Sub-Saharan African leadership practitioners as well as add to the limited body …

Best Leadership Practices Of Female Film Directors, Sara Carraway

Theses and Dissertations

Female film directors are highly underrepresented within the U.S. film industry, especially within narrative film (S.L. Smith, Pieper, & Choueiti, 2013). In 2019, only 12% of directors in the top 100 grossing films were female (Lauzen, 2020). There are several obstacles female directors face in their careers. Financing is more difficult to obtain for female directors due to stereotypes of women as risky investments (P. Smith et al., 2013). Closely tied to financing, gendered networks and homophily can prevent women from making relationships with gatekeepers and accessing the same opportunities as men (Jones & Pringle, 2015; Wing-Fai et al., 2015). …

The Effect Of Participative Management On Workplace Belonging, Hannah Nichols

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine how participation affects employee perceptions of belonging within nonprofit organizations. A mixed-methods design was utilized that included a survey of 24 employees' perception of participation, belonging, and relationship with their supervisor, and 10 semi-structured interviews. A regression analysis showed that participation had a strong positive relationship to workplace belonging and that generally interviewees felt invested in and supported because of their participation. There was also a strong positive correlation between perceived participation and the quality of the supervisor-employee relationship. The main conclusions of the study were participative management affects workplace belonging and …

Science And Spirituality As Applied To Od: The Unique Christian Science Perspective: A Qualitative Research Study, Charlotte Booth

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study researched Christian Science principles, a blended approach of science and spirituality, and their relevance and contribution to the field of Organization Development. Data was gathered as to whether or not Christian Science principles should be considered a resource for handling business challenges. The 14 individuals who participated in this study were asked 15 questions that correlated to the primary three research questions. Participant's answers were collected and coded in order to analyze and determine reoccurring and prominent points in the data. The study found that some current OD methods and tools are similar in context to Christian …

Treatment Of Infidelity As A Clinical Issue In Couple Therapy: A Critical Review Of The Literature, Wilhelmina Emma Stamps

Theses and Dissertations

Infidelity is perhaps the most challenging issue confronting couple therapists and has a high prevalence amongst couples in both clinical and community settings. Despite significant expansion of this field of research in recent years, there has not been a comprehensive review of the literature since 2005. Without such a review, it is problematic for clinicians and researchers to determine best practices and areas needing further inquiry. This article builds on the two most recent reviews (Allen et al., 2005; Blow & Hartnett, 2005) and provides a systematic critical review of the literature on infidelity published in the last 15 years. …

A Phenomenological Study Of Flourishing In Mid-Career Professionals, Sohyun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research shows that mid-career professionals experience more negative emotions such as regret, confusion, disappointment, frustration and anger than positive feelings. Yet, many mid-career professionals are flourishing in their careers and not experiencing such negativity. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of five professionals who self-identify as flourishing in mid-career. This study also addressed the literature gap concerning mid-career professionals who are flourishing. Prior studies did not utilize the up-to-date model of flourishing and specifically, Seligman's well-being theory and its PERMA-H (positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, achievement, and positive physical health) model, …

How Does Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (Emdr) Work? An Examination Of The Potential Mechanisms Of Action, Sara Forster

Theses and Dissertations

A mounting body of evidence suggests that Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is successful in reducing the impact of posttraumatic symptoms. Although the exact mechanisms of action remain unknown, theories from the psychological to the neuroscientific continue to emerge, expand, and evolve. This study will examine four of the most prominent theories to date and weigh the evidence for and against each one. It will also review, compare, and contrast the theories, evaluate the research supporting each one, and propose the most likely explanation for EMDR's success given the state of the research. Neurobiological mechanisms and correlates as …

Understanding Gender Roles In The Workplace: A Qualitative Research Study, Andrea Michel

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored female leaders' experiences with gender norms, implicit bias and microaggressions that they have experienced over the course of their careers. Research questions explored what gender norms exist, how they show up behaviorally in the workplace, and how gender norms, implicit bias and microaggressions impact women. 12 women participated in the study and were asked 12 interview questions. Participants' answers to these questions were coded to highlight themes. Themes were identified as communication diplomacy, leadership style, family commitments, physical appearance, and pink roles for data analysis. Key themes were summarized, and key research findings were discussed. Key …

Strategies Aimed At Helping African American Male Students Succeed In United States Secondary Schools: A Metasynthesis, Chibuzo N. Azinge-Walton

Theses and Dissertations

The persistent disparity in graduation rates between Black and White male students in U.S. secondary schools (the achievement gap) despite repeated efforts to even it out, is a thorn in the flesh of educators, the country over. The elimination of this continuous disparity through viable solutions, is the focus of this study. A problem is ninety percent solved when it thoroughly understood, with its comprehension necessitating a large investment of thought, time, and resources (Einstein, 1879-1955). To fully grasp the inner pinning of the achievement gap dilemma, this researcher selected, read, and reviewed 50 subject matter-related archived articles/studies obtained from …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Training And Supervision Provided To Spanish/English Bilingual Graduate Students, Sonia Venegas Mezquita

Theses and Dissertations

Spanish/English bilingual graduate students (n = 7) completed interviews evaluating language variables, training variables, and supervision related experiences. Experiences were gathered through the use of open-ended questions which focused on participants' linguistics abilities, program coursework, training experiences, and supervision experiences. A phenomenological research design was applied to analyze the collected data from the qualitative interviews. A phenomenological research design uses the collection of qualitative (open-ended) data in response to the research question (Mruk, 2010). Results indicated that the most common areas in the program which graduate students identified as most helpful in preparation for working with Spanish-speaking Latinx clients were …

Assessing The Impacts Of Work-Related Applications Of Improvisation Training On Psychological Safety In Teams, Marne Maykowskyj Nordean

Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses improvisational training (IMPT) and psychological safety and seeks to find if the former impacts the latter. For this study, improvisation has four main tenets: ensemble / co-creating, 'yes, and' / accept and heighten, authenticity / celebrating failure, and listening and communication skills. Psychological safety is defined as the shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking and a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. This confidence stems from mutual respect and trust among team members. It is described as …

Flooding And Industrial Swine Farming In North Carolina: Implications Of Natech Hazards On The Assessment Of Environmental Justice, Jacob Ramthun

Theses and Dissertations

“Natech” events, in which natural hazards trigger anthropogenic hazards, are becoming increasingly common. Methodologies for measuring the impact of natech events on environmental justice assessments are lacking, particularly in rural scenarios. This study used additive, multiplicative, and z-score threshold methods of combining the density of industrial swine farms in eastern North Carolina and the presence of flood risk to determine whether or not natech risk exhibits emergent socioeconomic indicators and whether areas of high natech constitute environmental injustice. The multiplicative and z-score threshold methods generated variables representing natech risk to compare to socioeconomic indicators, as well as statistically significant hotspots. …

A Gis-Based Risk Assessment For Fire Departments: Case Study Of Richland County, Sc, Tracy Whelen

Theses and Dissertations

Risk assessments enable fire departments to be better prepared for future incidents and to engage in more effective prevention activities. A combination of physical, demographic, and behavioral risk factors combined form a community’s level of risk. This research shows how spatial and nonspatial statistical methods can be used within a GIS framework to create such a risk assessment, with the Columbia-Richland Fire Department in Richland County, SC being used as a case study. Hot spot analysis and thematic mapping of incident rates were used to assess the first research question – what is the spatial variability of structure fires, carbon …

A Longitudinal Study Of The Influence Of A Stem Career Planning Course And Perceived Stress On Career Search Self-Efficacy And Retention In Engineering Undergraduate Students, Autumn Randell

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated a) the influence of a STEM career planning course on undergraduate engineering students’ career search self-efficacy, b) the influence of perceived stress on building students’ career search self-efficacy, and c) the relationship career search self-efficacy had in predicting students’ odds of persistence in an engineering major. The researcher analyzed students’ week 1, week 6, and week 14 scores of career search self-efficacy and perceived stress. Data were collected from the Spring 2019 and Fall 2019 cohorts of a STEM career planning. As a result, the analysis included (N = 286) undergraduate engineering students. Repeated measures multilevel …

Understanding The Contributions Of Discrepant Parent-Adolescent Views Of Parenting Practices And Peer Deviance To Adolescent Problem Behavior: A Cross-Lagged Polynomial Regression Approach, Mallory Stephenson

Theses and Dissertations

The present study used autoregressive cross-lagged models to examine the processes through which peer deviance and discrepant parent-adolescent views of monitoring-related communication, involvement, and positive parenting influence one another and contribute to physical and relational aggression, substance use, and delinquency. Participants included 535 adolescents (64% male) who were identified as prone to aggression and socially influential by their sixth-grade teachers during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years; participants self-identified as African American (69%), Hispanic (14%), White (9%), Multiracial (5%), or another race (3%). Contrary to expectations, parent-adolescent reporting discrepancies were not related to peer deviance, physical aggression, substance use, and …

“Is Therapy For Me?” Perceptions Of Therapy Inclusivity And Willingness To Seek Help Among Black Emerging Adults, Randl B. Dent

Theses and Dissertations

Mental health issues are prevalent among Black emerging adults; however, they tend to underutilize mental healthcare services. The goals of the current study were to examine whether: (1) perceived therapy inclusivity would predict willingness to utilize mental healthcare services and (2) the relationship between perceived therapy inclusivity and willingness would be moderated by two indices of racial identity (i.e., centrality and private regard). Results provide evidence that greater perceptions of therapy inclusivity are associated with greater willingness to seek mental health services even after controlling for factors, such as gender, self-stigma, and previous mental healthcare utilization. Additionally, there was no …

A Randomized Trial Of Cbt4cbt For Women In Residential Treatment For Substance Use Disorders, Sydney S. Kelpin

Theses and Dissertations

Women with substance use disorders (SUD) face unique barriers to substance use treatment, and as a result, are less likely than their male counterparts to seek treatment for the disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment known to reduce relapse rates by teaching clients to recognize and respond to their cues for substance use. Recent research suggests CBT may be particularly of benefit to women. Despite the effectiveness of CBT, its dissemination in clinical practice is limited due to a range of barriers (e.g., time, cost). Computer-based training for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT4CBT) offers an opportunity to improve …

Phenotype Extraction: Estimation And Biometrical Genetic Analysis Of Individual Dynamics, Kevin L. Mckee

Theses and Dissertations

Within-person data can exhibit a virtually limitless variety of statistical patterns, but it can be difficult to distinguish meaningful features from statistical artifacts. Studies of complex traits have previously used genetic signals like twin-based heritability to distinguish between the two. This dissertation is a collection of studies applying state-space modeling to conceptualize and estimate novel phenotypic constructs for use in psychiatric research and further biometrical genetic analysis. The aims are to: (1) relate control theoretic concepts to health-related phenotypes; (2) design statistical models that formally define those phenotypes; (3) estimate individual phenotypic values from time series data; (4) consider hierarchical …

Dna Analysis And The Postmortem Submersion Interval From The Microbiome Of Waterlogged Sus Scrofa Skeletal Remains, Claire Cartozzo

Theses and Dissertations

Following water-related deaths, soft tissue on victims’ remains may be entirely absent after a temperature dependent period of time. Due to their physical and chemical components, which protect them from environmental deterioration and biological attack, bones preserve DNA for longer periods of time. Therefore, the ability to both identify an individual and estimate the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) may depend on DNA obtained from skeletal remains. The goals of the dissertation were to examine differences in both the degradation of skeletal DNA and the microbiome inhabiting bone in freshwater aquatic environments (e.g., Henley Lake and the James River). At each …

Predictors Of Mental Health Need And Treatment In Safety Net Primary Care, Kristen O'Loughlin

Theses and Dissertations

Many mental health (MH) needs go unidentified in primary care, and certain patients appear to be at higher risk of needs going unidentified and subsequently untreated. Little is known about patterns of detection and treatment in clinics with integrated mental health services. The purpose of this study was to characterize the prevalence of MH needs and evaluate patient characteristics as predictors of both the presence of a MH need and type of MH services received. Subjects were patients receiving care at two safety net primary care clinics with integrated mental health services (N=816; 52.7% Latinx, 15.9% African American), …

Associations Between Stress, Racial Discrimination, And Cytokine Levels In Black Americans, Takia Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Inflammation is a common pathophysiological pathway for a number of chronic diseases and is influenced by exposure to stress. Although there are racial disparities in health outcomes, relatively little is known about factors that may influence the inflammatory response in Black American individuals. This study examined whether racial discrimination and other forms of stress are associated with the balance of pro- and anti- inflammatory cytokines in Black American adults. Data from 22 participants were drawn from a larger study of Black American children (ages 5-12) and their primary caregivers drawn from low income neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia. Caregivers reported demographics, …

Psychometric Developments Of The Ace-Iq: Understanding The Trauma History Of Latine Immigrants, Jorli K. Swingen Dr.

Theses and Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a profound effect on an individual’s physical and mental health. The World Health Organization has recently updated the ACE questionnaire so it could be used with international populations. The Adverse Childhood Experiences-International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ), has not been translated to Spanish or used with Latine immigrants.

This study translated the ACE-IQ into Spanish, evaluated the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, and collected data on 184 four adult English Language Learners in Chesterfield County, VA.

There is evidence of internal consistency for the ACE-IQ as a whole (α = .908) and within subscales. Three factors were identified …

Empathic Anger And Personal Anger In Response To Fairness Violations: Relations To Self And Other-Oriented Motivation And Behavior, Athena H. Cairo

Theses and Dissertations

Prosocial behavior research has shown that empathy-elicited compassionate concern often motivates actions performed with an ultimate goal of helping others even at cost to oneself, whereas empathic distress motivates low-cost help with an ultimate goal of helping oneself. Less is known about the motivational outcomes of empathic anger felt when witnessing injustice or harm to others. Though empathic anger predicts third-party compensation and punishment, it is unclear whether this motivation is ultimately self or other-oriented. Three experimental studies examined the empathic anger-altruism hypothesis, that empathic anger evoked when witnessing another being treated unjustly would evoke altruistic motivation to help the …

From The Margins To The Center: Legitimation Strategies From An Alt-Right Case Study, Lauren C. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Despite a growing interest in understanding Donald Trump’s election in 2016 as part of the historical trajectory of white racial identity politics, we do not know much about how ideas deemed “radical right” become mainstreamed. My study builds on extant research that implicates the emergence of the think tank industry by viewing one such right wing think tank as a racialized organization. My analysis focuses on the organizational strategies of the National Policy Institute (NPI). Google searches for NPI spiked in 2016 with their vocal support of Trump and visible organizing in D.C. Using Williams’ (2018) theoretical framework of organizational …

Hopeless Heartland: Space And Labor In Virginia, Katrina Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

In the US, labor market conditions vary by demographics and space. Though space has been shown to be highly related to labor force outcomes, lower-level analyses are under-utilized as statistical workforce analyses tend to rely on national or state-level data. This study addresses variability in labor markets by taking a spatial approach, using cluster analysis and logistic regression to explore variations in labor market variables across census tracts in Virginia. Cluster analysis reveals several hot and cold spots of key labor market indicators: rates of marriage, poverty, educational attainment, and income. In many cases, poor social conditions, such as low …

A Girl Is A Girl Is A Girl, Paige Lizbeth Morris

Theses and Dissertations

It is well known that Western society uses men’s visual pleasure as a means to determine womxn’s value; her success is dependent on her compliance with culturally determined beauty standards. This process turns womxn into commodities and reinforces notions of gender complementarity, perpetuating a lifetime of servitude to patriarchal ideologies. It reminds the non-male that she is incomplete, insufficient, insignificant, and so easily dismissable. It forces her to be dependent, to shut up, to sit down, and to enjoy it.

In an effort to reject these presumed histories and narrow connotations of womxn, I have analyzed my gender performance in …