Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Enhancing Therapists' Clinical Judgments Of Client Progress Subsequent To Objective Feedback, Michael M. Haderlie

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although it is intuitive that the judgments made by mental-health clinicians become increasingly accurate as they gain clinical experience, research has demonstrated only minimal effects of experience on clinical judgment. Feedback regarding the accuracy of judgments is widely considered to be an essential component in developing clinical judgment. However, very little research has systematically examined whether the provision of feedback following judgments leads to increased judgment accuracy. The current research explored the effects of providing feedback to therapists regarding client progress on the accuracy of therapists' judgments of change. The effect of feedback on therapists' confidence ratings regarding such judgments …

The Effect Of Endpoint Knowledge On Dot Enumeration, Alex Michael Moore

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study attempts to extend the principle tenets of the Overlapping Waves Theory (Siegler, 1996), a framework designed to explain the progression of trends in cognitive development, to adult participants’ performance in a dot enumeration task. Literature in the 0-100 number line estimation task (Siegler & Booth, 2004, Ashcraft & Moore, 2011) has revealed a pervasive trend in child estimation such that young children (especially those in kindergarten) respond with a logarithmic line of best fit, while children at the third grade and above overwhelmingly respond with linear estimates to this same range of numbers. A similar developmental trend is …

Nevadagives.Org: Building Website Capacity For Data Collection, Snezhanka V. Christy, Lisa E. Stamanis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the adoption of the Government Performance and Result Act of 1993, the same demand for accountability placed upon government agencies is also expected in the nonprofit sector (Poister, 2003). Also fueling the need for dependable nonprofit performance data, is the current economic environment where funding is scarce or non-existent. Along with providing routine information and services, developing a competent website to collect and make available performance data for stakeholders and patrons is a necessary practice in both the public and private sector. Nonprofit organizations fortunate enough to have functioning websites can maximize their potential by managing them as a …

Independent Living Program Evaluation For Rebuilding All Goals Efficiently, Patricia Armour, Debra Moulton, Araceli Pruett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper evaluates the outcome of independent living (IL) services provided to clients with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) by a local non-profit organization, Rebuilding All Goals Efficiently (RAGE). Agency services are directed at increasing client self-sufficiency, self-advocacy, and maintenance of least restrictive living environment. Secondary data provided by RAGE for 22 SCI clients who received services in FY10 was used in the evaluation. Outcomes were measured for living arrangement at case closure, impact of services on client’s life, and cost effectiveness of services provided. Descriptive statistical analysis of the data revealed successful outcomes for all 22 SCI clients. All clients …

Assessing A Combined Theories Approach To Climate Change Communication, Ted Greenhalgh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research examines the complexities of communicating climate change risk information and the underlying individual attitudes and message content that affect message reception. Using climate change messages incorporating fear appeals and normative information subject's reactions to the messages were evaluated using the Theory of Planned Behavior model. The study found that fear appeals did increase behavioral intention to adopt a lower carbon lifestyle among test group subjects. The Theory of Planned Behavior model showed that attitudes and self-efficacy were significant predictors of the behavioral intent to adopt a lower carbon lifestyle, while community norms were only marginally predictive. However, not …

Examining The Experience Of Recent War Veterans Who Report Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Neda C. Raymond

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that develops following exposure to a traumatic event, has long been associated with military combat. Despite the well-documented negative effects of PTSD, careful, in-depth accounts of the experience of those suffering from PTSD are rare. The present study employed Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) to explore the inner experience of seven Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) veterans with combat-related PTSD. Potential participants completed the PTSD Checklist - Military Version to determine the presence and severity of PTSD symptomatology. Participants who reported significant symptoms of combat-related PTSD participated in DES. A …

Traffic Safety: Modeling, Analysis And Visualization, Puneet Lakhanpal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traffic Safety has always been one of the major issues of concern in United States. Every year, stringent efforts are made by the national agencies and safety offices to uplift the traffic safety standards and build systems which can guide them in policy making, reducing crashes and routing the financial resources in an optimal direction. This thesis studies the traffic safety from three different angles: modeling, analysis and visualization. In the beginning, these three components are explored in the domain of Injury Severity. Later on, the focus is shifted towards the Traffic Safety related to Safety Belts. Factors and models …

Statistical Analysis Of Fatalities Due To Vehicle Accidents In Las Vegas, Nv, Annabelle Marie Mathis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this thesis is to investigate factors that affect the odds of having a fatality in a vehicle collision. We will be looking at characteristics of the driver that caused the accident (age, gender, behavior, actions, influences, and seat belt worn), the characteristics of the vehicle the driver drove (type of vehicle, and air bag deployment), the characteristics of the environment in which the accident occurred (weather, road condition, lighting, time of day, the day of the week, and month of the year), the characteristics of the crash (direction of accident and how many vehicles were involved), and …

The Relationship Of Ethnicity And Familial Factors In The Expression Of School Refusal Behavior In Clinical And Community Samples, Courtney Marie Haight

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Failure to attend school can have a devastating impact on a child’s social, emotional, academic, and later career development. Psychologists, educators, and researchers from other disciplines have produced large bodies of literature regarding problematic absenteeism. This has led to varying terminology, divergent approaches, assessment, and treatment of nonattendance. Additional research on contextual, proximal, and distal variables, such as culture and family, has been encouraged. The present study involved contextual variables related to school refusal behavior and contained a more representative sample of youth with attendance difficulties than previous studies. Contextual variables included youth and parent ethnic identity, family environment, school …

Redefining Security In Sub-Saharan Africa, Winta Sintayehu Gebremariam

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

New and challenging threats to humans are currently on the rise. These threats to human well being have been neglected and ignored within the traditional conception of security. Security studies have mainly focused on traditional threats, mostly military and political. Although still important, this perspective lacks the ability to address nontraditional threats that are killing and injuring millions each year. Each year, millions die of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hunger, and water related diseases among others. Although these threats are widespread throughout the world, Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of these threats. This thesis proposes an ecological approach …

Best Instructional Practices For Distance Education: A Meta-Analysis, Robin Michael Roberts

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recent meta-analyses on the efficacy of distance education have concluded that no significant difference exists between face-to-face and distance education. At the same time, these meta-analyses noted that considerable heterogeneity existed between the individual studies used in the meta-analyses. Investigation of moderators responsible for that heterogeneity suggested that four things other than media delivery were primarily responsible for the majority of variation between study outcomes: methodological quality, instructor involvement, type of interaction, instructional methods and time-on-task. A comparative meta-analysis was performed to further investigate these moderators. Methodological quality, maturational differences in students and any undetermined media effects were controlled for …

Indigent Women And Access To Prenatal Care, Zoe Ann Zelazny

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One aspect of America's health care system that illustrates the great need for health care reform, but receives little attention, is prenatal care. The United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world. Adequate prenatal care results in healthier babies, more full-term babies delivered, and a decrease in other serious problems related to pregnancy and health care costs. The purpose of this study is to examine the history of prenatal policy and how it has developed into what it is today, to understand why medically indigent women are not receiving adequate prenatal care, and to highlight …

In Quest Of A Dropout Theory: Examining The Utility Of An Ecological Approach Through Survey Research, Tiffany G. Tyler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the utility of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory as a metatheory of dropout. Using the NELS: 1988 dataset, the present study examined the relationship between dropout attributions and Bronfenbrenner's construct, the microsystem. Attention was given to accounting for students' attributions regarding their identity (e.g., demographic and profile characteristics) with environmental and regional contexts as possible moderators. In particular, the present study examined the responses given as reasons for dropout in view of how those responses could be categorized with Bronfenbrenner's theoretical structure and the extent to which the resulting categorization could predict dropout, considering related demographic variable.

This study …

E-Mail Management Of Japanese Hotels In Comparison With South Korean Hotels, Kyoko Morikoshi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There has been little study done concerning the service quality of Japanese hotels toward foreign guests; especially e-mail management in English has not been analyzed in Japan before. Since e-mail inquiries in English from foreign guests could be the first step for Japanese hotels to provide good service to prospective guests, managing English e-mails efficiently is a key to attracting more foreign guests. Therefore this study examined the actual condition of e-mail management at Japanese hotels by sending an English inquiry to them. Korean hotels were also included because South Korea and Japan have similar linguistic and economic backgrounds. A …

A Cultural Perspective On Motivation Factors Affecting Exhibition Participation, Young Ki Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With increasing global competitions, more opportunities transcending national boundaries may exist for the exhibition organizers and participants. This study offered an integrated approach to understanding how various motivation factors affect the participation in exhibition. The literature review included an introduction of push/pull motivation theories as one of the most representative motivation theories. The factor analysis of survey results supported the categorization of push/pull factors in exhibition industry. The paper concluded that the factor analysis procedures yielded the motivation factor dimensions with similar natures and four underlined motivation dimensions of exhibition participation were labeled. Furthermore, the cultural difference between Western and …

Cultural Acceptance And Its Effect On Tourism, I-Hsuan Shih

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This professional paper examines the relationship between cultural acceptance in conjunction with social perception and cultural tourism promotion strategies. It provides a matrix to evaluate the likely success of promoting a specific cultural aspect of a destination and suggestions for ways of dealing with a lack of cultural acceptance or negative perceptions. It underscores the need for tourism strategic planners to take into account the cultural acceptance of a proposed project by the host community before proceeding.

Program Evaluation: Bureau Of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region Business Lines And Focus Areas “Water Drop” Project, Adriana Vanbuskirk, Marion Biron, Kris Kirby, Theodore Anderson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper examines how familiar Bureau of Reclamation employees in the Lower Colorado Region are with the region’s goals and priorities and how well they understand their individual role in relationship to those goals and priorities. It also analyzes the effectiveness of the communication strategies in place to communicate the goals and priorities of the organization.

The Effect Of Working Memory And Math Ability On Decision Making, Jeremy A. Krause

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Previous research has indicated that people use various strategies when making decisions. A majority of the research has involved the idea that people use a heuristic when making decisions. Kahneman and Tversky have illustrated that there are instances that people respond with an answer that appears to be indicative of usage of the representativeness heuristic. One of the purposes of the current paper is to gain insight into the actual strategies that are used in these instances. Another purpose of the current experiment is to see if math ability and working memory capacity influence the strategy that a person selects …

Evaluation Of Interim Sessions In State Legislatures, Laurie Erin Russell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Various authors have analyzed the work of state legislatures during the regular session; however, there is a noticeable void in the study of the functionality of the legislative process during the interim session. The interim session refers to the time span between regular legislative sessions, which varies in duration dependent on the state. It should not be deducted that the lack of research devoted to the interim session evaluation is because the legislative workload is dormant during this period. The findings of this paper support the concept that interim session activity merits evaluation since it is a contributing factor to …

Playing With Fire Or Arson? Identifying Predictors Of Juvenile Firesetting Behavior, Mary Ellen Britt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Firesetting is a complex behavior that spans a wide range of developmental stages in childhood and adolescence and involves varying motivations and intents. A better understanding of this destructive behavior is critical to developing strategies to control its devastating effects. The purpose of this research project was to identify potential predictors of juvenile firesetting behavior by studying youth who were enrolled in a regional firesetting intervention program. Data collected from firesetting assessment instruments completed by parents or guardians of program participants were examined. In the analyses, special emphasis was placed on evaluating associations between juvenile firesetting behavior and the socioeconomic …

The Self: Your Own Worst Enemy? A Test Of The Self-Invoking Trigger Hypothesis, Bradley J. Mckay

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The self invoking trigger hypothesis was recently proposed by Wulf and Lewthwaite (2010) as the mechanism underlying the robust effects of attentional focus on motor learning and performance. The hypothesis suggests that causing individuals to access their self schema will negatively impact their ability to learn and perform a motor skill. The purpose of the present study was to provide an initial test of this hypothesis by causing one group of participants to activate their self schema in a straightforward manner. Participants (N = 32) were assigned to either a self-activated or control condition and asked to practice a wiffleball …

Child Advocacy Centers And Child Sexual Abuse In Nevada, Chrystal Ruggieri

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Child sexual abuse has gained significant attention from the medical, legal and social research communities over the last couple decades. Developed in the 1980s, Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) have been noted as one of the leading developments in combating child sexual abuse. Child Advocacy Centers bring together multi-disciplinary teams in a child friendly environment to improve resources for abused children and their families as well as aid in prosecution. The majority of states across the country have adopted aggressive legislation and funding initiatives to aid in protecting this vulnerable population. This study analyses Nevada's position on childhood sexual abuse and …

After The Fall: The Post-Apocalyptic Frontier In The Road And 28 Days Later, Jeffrey J. Lavigne

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Previous scholars have identified three scenes of the American frontier myth: the sea, the west, and space. This evolution of frontiers reflected key changes in the expression of America’s cultural identity. While Janice Hocker Rushing called space “the final frontier,” the prominent place in contemporary society held by zombies and other minions of the occult hint at the emergence of yet another scene of the American mythos: the post apocalypse. In contrast to previous frontiers, which are defined geographically, the post-apocalypse is much broader, for in the wake of a global cataclysm, everywhere is a potential frontier. This decentralization of …

An Examination Of The Grieving Processes Of Suicide Survivors, Sarah Van Der Pol

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The scope of this research serves to aid in the understanding and counseling of survivors of loved ones who have committed suicide. This study will examine the phenomenon of survivors; specifically, what occurs as survivors move through the experience of grief and loss, as well as their individual grieving processes. The grieving process of those who deal with suicidal deaths of loved ones will be examined. Themes that emerge within the experiences of the participants will be identified and examined. Further, recommendations for the clinical practice of current and future counselors for work with suicide survivors will be suggested. Recommendations …

Telework Within The Bureau Of Reclamation Lower Colorado Region Office, Theresa Lee, Lynne Arnold, John Wagner, Elias Samorano, Anita Morgan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A team of researchers from The University of Nevada, Las Vegas were invited by management to observe, assess, and offer recommendations. It was determined by the research team that the first step to improving participation would be to observe the functional telework policy, compare and contrast it with the Department of the Interior standards, and offer recommendations to generate data necessary to develop an updated telework policy by management. The recommendations made by this group include creating an employee eligibility list, tracking actual participation by creating a renewal policy for employees choosing to telework. It is also recommended that a …

Public Utilities Commission Of Nevada: A Research Design For Data Collection, Mario Heresi, Jamie Stout, Brandy Davis, Cheyenne Pasquale

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) needs tools to develop a system by which reliable data can be collected in order to assist in the regulation of public utilities in Nevada. Their particular emphasis is on low-income and elderly populations. The PUCN needs to have reliable data they can utilize to make decisions that are fact based. Part of their needs is to have a thorough understanding of the factors that affect both low-income and elderly populations. Like so many other organizations, the PUCN does not have a set system to investigate all issues and makes decisions on a …

Climate Change In Rural Nevada: The Influence Of Vulnerability On Risk Perception And Environmental Behavior, Ahmad Safi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this research, I examine the impact of vulnerability on risk perception, stated willingness to adopt individual mitigation behavior, and support for climate change mitigation policies. My major research question is, "Does vulnerability to climate change increase risk perception, encourage more energy-efficient individual behavior, and enhance support for climate change mitigation policies?" But to understand the role of vulnerability I also pursue answers to questions regarding its three components: Physical vulnerability; sensitivity and adaptive capacity. I investigate the following sub-questions:

• Do physical vulnerability, and sensitivity to climate change increase risk perception, encourage more energy-efficient individual behavior, and enhance support for …

The Hormonal Correlates Of Stress And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms In Female Veterans, Meghan Pierce

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the increase of female veterans serving in the military, a better understanding of posttraumatic stress disorder is needed to provide comprehensive treatment. This study examines salivary cortisol in female veterans with PTSD, female veterans without PTSD, civilian females with PTSD and healthy controls. The Posttraumatic Stress and Beck Depression Inventory-II were used to assess posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. Saliva samples were collected at bedtime and awakening, as well as in response to the Trier Social Stress Test. Significant results were not found for diurnal cortisol levels [ F (3, 11)= .979, p < .05] or stress cortisol levels (F (3,12) = 1.140, p >.05). …

Development Of A Scale To Assess Avoidance Behavior Due To A Fear Of Falling: The Fear Of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire (Ffabq), Cortney Durand, D. Shalom Powell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: A history of falls or imbalance may lead to a fear of falling which may lead to self-imposed avoidance of activity; this avoidance may stimulate a vicious cycle of deconditioning and subsequent falls.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire that would quantify avoidance behavior due to a fear of falling.

Design: This study consisted of two parts, questionnaire development and psychometric testing. Questionnaire development included an expert panel and 39 assisted living residents. Psychometric testing included 63 community dwelling subjects with various health conditions.

Methods: Questionnaire development included the evaluation …

Executive Function Profiles In Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, Erik Nelson Ringdahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traumatic brain injury is a common cause of disability and death among children in the United States. Insult to the frontal and temporal lobes are frequent in closed head brain injury. Cognitive deficits in a variety of domains are common sequelae of brain trauma. In many cases, trauma to the frontal and temporal lobe regions engender prominent deficits in higher-order cognitive processing, memory, and attention.

Higher-order cognitive processing, or Executive Functions are the grouping of cognitive processes necessary for organization of thoughts and activities, attending to the activities, prioritizing tasks, managing time efficiently, and making decisions (Alvarez & Emory, 2006; …