Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Involuntary Job Loss Among Former Newspaper Staff Photographers, Ryan K. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines former newspaper photographers' experience with being laid-off from their staff positions. The purpose was to identify emerging themes within the context of involuntary job loss, job satisfaction, and occupational identity via interviews with 8 photojournalists who experienced the phenomenon of being laid-off. The newspaper industry has long been considered both the starting point for young and aspiring photojournalism careers and the most consistent and stable venue for an income. Yet recent changes in the media landscape, particularly economic stress on traditional business models and rapid adoption of digital technology sway the occupational future of photojournalism within newsrooms. …

Estimation Of The Impact Of Single Airport And Multi-Airport System Delay On The National Airspace System Using Multivariate Simultaneous Models, Nagesh Nayak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Airline delays lead to a tremendous loss of time and resources and cost billions of dollars every year in the United States (U.S.). At certain times, individual airports become bottlenecks within the National Airspace System (NAS). To explore solutions for reducing the delay, it is essential to understand factors causing flight delay and its impact on airports in the NAS. Major causal factors of flight delay at airports include over-scheduling, en-route convective weather, reduced ceiling and visibility around airports, and upstream delay propagation. Delay at one airport can be passed on to other airports in the NAS, in another word, …

The Indigenous Movement And The Struggle For Political Representation In Bolivia, Angelica T. Nieves

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The theme of ethnic identity in politics is gaining importance in countries such as Bolivia, where people recently elected their first indigenous President. The Indigenous movement has been able to incorporate themselves in the state apparatus and have produced new political policies and constitutional instruments. They represent an alternative to the "white" political elites who governed them for many decades. This study analyzes the dynamics within the Indigenous social movement in Bolivia and how they reinforced a composite vision of a participatory democratic society through political representation. The results of this participation (and, moreover, political representation) can be seen in …

Training Deictic Relational Responding In People With Schizophrenia, John O'Neill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend recent findings in the functional contextual literature by 1) establishing complex deictic relational responding skills in 3 persons diagnosed with Schizophrenia and mild-moderate Mental Retardation and 2) assessing generalization through pre and post-instructional measures of Social Anhedonia and Theory of Mind functioning. Results suggest that increasingly complex levels of deictic relational responses were acquired and mastered by all 3 participants and that generalization extended to the Deceptive Container Task (ToM levels 4 & 5) and Hinting Task. Support is provided for the notion that perspective taking skills might be shaped …

An Evolving Dyke-Otomy: Lesbianism And Learning, Megan Pugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homophobia and prejudice against the lesbian community have been argued to be consequences of lack of education within academic and non-academic spaces. This study introduces a pedagogical model of gendered lesbian identity that can act as a tool for educators to understand lesbian experiences, and thus contribute to addressing issues related to homophobia and prejudices in the classrooms and beyond. Based on thematic analysis of data generated by a qualitative online survey of 29 participants, this study argues that notions of social norms, individual agency, and importance of advocacy are critical points of emphases in the proposed educational model. Although …

Occupational Stressors Among Providers Of Hiv Prevention And Support Services, Mackenzie Kaye Rapp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much literature has documented the high levels of burnout, stress, and grief in HIV physicians and nurses due to the challenging nature of the chronic, fatal disease with which they deal on a daily basis. Providers of social and HIV prevention services face similar challenges while working with stigmatized, terminally ill clients. However, since these latter occupations deal with social, rather than clinical interventions, their experiences may differ from those of medical personnel. Through open-ended interviews with HIV counselors, educators, case managers, and outreach workers, this exploratory study assesses the occupational stressors of providers of social and HIV prevention services …

The Effect Of Mortgage Liberalization On Housing Patterns In Tampa Bay, Jason Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to determine whether the process of mortgage finance liberalization, manifested in concurrent activities of securitization, deregulation, and neo-liberal policy, have resulted in changes to the tenure of residents in neighborhoods in Tampa Bay. It makes use of existing literature on gentrification and mortgage finance and compares those findings with three sample neighborhoods in and around the city of Tampa. To do so the thesis employs data collected from lenders pursuant to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, court records of sales and mortgages filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, and interviews with stakeholders …

Fit To Lead? Supervisors' Health Behaviors, Well-Being, And Leadership Behaviors, Kristin Saboe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes a model to test the relationships amongst supervisors' health behaviors and leadership behaviors. Specifically, 107 supervisor-subordinate pairs responded to a cross-sectional survey. Supervisors provided self-reports of their health behaviors (physical activity, diet, sleep, alcohol/tobacco use) and perceived well-being. Subordinates rated the supervisors' perceived leadership style and the quality of relationships they share at work. Results were mixed with support largely being found for previously established relationships between (a) physical activity, sleep duration and quality, and well-being, and (b) leadership behaviors and supervisor-subordinate relationship quality. The primary thesis of this study--that leaders with improved health behaviors and well-being …

Caregiver Training: Increasing Generalization Of Parenting Skills Through Teaching Caregivers To Recognize Child Behavior, Mary Rachel Sawyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of a behavioral parent training program for increasing the accuracy of trained skills; however, few studies have examined the extent to which those skills generalize to the natural environment (i.e., the home) and are used with the target individual (i.e., the child). In addition, little is known about the direct effect that caregiver implementation of the skills has on child behavior. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to (a) assess caregiver accuracy with implementation of three parenting skills, and (b) assess subsequent effects of the parenting skills on child behavior. Results demonstrated …

Sugar Consumption And Cognitive Aging In The Swedish Adoption/Twin Study Of Aging, Shyam Seetharaman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Consumption of foods high in sugar content has been linked with the development of metabolic abnormalities such as cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes, major sources of global health concerns. Although the detrimental consequences of high intake of sugar on abnormal metabolic processes are established, it is not known how this association affects (or accelerates) cognitive aging.

The current project was based on data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA) to test the hypothesis that high refined sugar intake contributes to accelerated trajectories of cognitive decline assessed longitudinally. Trajectories of cognitive change were assessed as a function …

Examining Teacher Identity And Prospective Efficacy Beliefs Among Students Enrolled In A Precollegiate Urban Teaching Academy (Uta), Marsha Simon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teacher recruitment and retention challenges facing urban school contexts provided the impetus for this study. High percentages of historically marginalized students, plagued by high poverty rates and low academic performance, as well as substandard facilities and inadequate material resources, serve as causative factors inhibiting recruitment and retention of credentialed teachers in urban schools (Education Commission of the States [ECS], 1999; Guarino et al., 2006; Horng, 2009; USDOE, 2003; 2004; Wirt et al, 2004). Schools and districts attempt to meet chronic teacher shortages in hard-to-staff urban schools by creating innovative teacher preparation schemes, such as the Urban Teaching Academy (UTA). This …

A Deadly Way Of Doing Business: A Case Study Of Corporate Crime In The Coal Mining Industry, Charles Nickolas Stickeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To this point, research on corporate crime has been, for the most part, overlooked by mainstream criminology. In particular, corporate violations of safety regulations in the coal mining industry have yet to be studied within the field of criminology. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the crimes of a coal mining corporation, a corporation whose business decisions led to the worst coal mining disaster in forty years, along with the deaths of twenty-nine men. This thesis will utilize a case study format in order to illustrate the crimes committed by this corporation. Previous literature covering the history of …

Cultivating An Engaged Workforce: The Roles Of Leader Personality, Motivation, And Leadership Style, Amy Marie Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the links between leadership style, leader personality, and motivation to lead, with employee engagement. Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and abusive supervision styles were examined in relation to levels of employee engagement via a sample of n=195 employees and n=130 managers. Consistent with findings from Christian, Garza, and Slaughter (2011), transformational leadership showed a positive link to employee engagement (r= .38, p< .05). On the opposite end, abusive supervision was negatively related to employee engagement (r= -.27, p< .05). Contingent reward leadership showed a positive link to employee engagement (r= .32, p< .05).

Relationships between personality and leadership style were framed according to the socioanalytic framework (Hogan & Shelton, 1998). This study did not find any significant differences in the relationships between the expected leadership behaviors and the traits …

The Mediating Role Of Regulatory Focus In The Relationship Between Transformational/Transactional Leadership And Follower Work Outcomes, Erin J. Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to integrate the areas of leadership and motivation by examining how leaders' behaviors affect their followers' regulatory foci. Specifically, a separate laboratory experiment and field survey were conducted to determine whether leader transformational and transactional behaviors shape followers' work-based promotion and prevention regulatory foci, which in turn affect followers' outcomes at work. Overall, there was limited evidence that inspirational motivation and contingent reward leader behaviors were related to follower work-based regulatory focus, and work-based regulatory focus was related to several work-related outcomes. The moderating role of chronic regulatory focus on the relationship between leader …

Mapping And Assessing Urban Impervious Areas Using Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis: A Case Study In The City Of Tampa, Florida, Fenqing Weng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The advance in remote sensing technology helps people more easily assess urban growth. In this study, the utility of multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) is examined in a sub-pixel analysis of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery to map urban physical components in Tampa, FL. The three physical components of urban land cover (LC): impervious surface, vegetation and soil, were compared using the proposed MESMA with a traditional spectral mixture analysis (SMA). MESMA decomposes each pixel to address the heterogeneity of urban LC characteristic by allowing the number and types of endmembers to vary on a per pixel basis. This …

Selling The Third Wave: The Commodification And Consumption Of The Flat Track Roller Girl, Mary Catherine Whitlock

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In an ethnographic examination of the "modern" roller derby movement that began in the early 2000s, I explore Women's Flat Track Derby in Florida. What does it mean to be a roller derby player? How is she conceptualized and commodified? Or more centrally, how is third wave feminism used as a catalyst of this commodification? In order to fully appreciate, understand, and even embrace roller derby, I look at roller derby leagues as social movement organizations (SMOs) in order to note how they frame themselves and maintain collective identity the commodification of third wave feminism. First, I will explore various …

The Effects Of Informational Prompts And Performance Feedback On Recyclign Behavior, Erin Marie Zandecki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recycling behavior was examined by the implementation of Informational Prompts and Performance Feedback. Prompts containing facts on recycling and waste along with group performance feedback were studied at The Florida Mental Health Institute at The University of South Florida (Tampa campus). Informational Prompts were introduced by placing informational facts about recycling and waste by 26 bins throughout the building. Performance feedback signs were placed by the same bins and included the frequency of recycled material and trash discarded in the recycling bins on a daily basis when the campus was open. The results showed that both interventions increased recycling. Informational …

Becoming The Corporate Native...Virtually: An Ethnography And Corporate Culture Assessment Of A Virtual Organization, Jennifer Laurel Avery

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents an investigation of a rarely studied business entity in the cross disciplinary literature on organizational culture, a completely virtually organized firm. Subscribing to a conviction that any culture can only be understood through an approach that uncovers the lived experiences of its members, I employ the traditional anthropological method of participant observation as my foundational data gathering technique. In an effort to help engage anthropology with the cross disciplinary organizational culture literature generally, I also use two well-known methods of corporate culture assessment from the management sciences. I provide a number of recommendations to the sponsors of …

A Framing Analysis: The Nba's "One-And-Done"Rule, Daniel Ryan Beaulieu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2006, the NBA introduced the "one-and-done" rule that restricted high school graduates to enter directly into the NBA draft following high school. In turn, a high school prospect would essentially now have the option of playing professionally elsewhere (most likely overseas), enter the NBA's Developmental League, or play NCAA basketball. The rule has proved to be quite controversial, as it has had a great effect on both NBA and NCAA basketball, as well as the players. Various media outlets have been quite vocal not only about the rule itself, but the perceived effects it has had on both collegiate …

Strategizing Relationships 2.0: An Analysis Of International Companies' Use Of Social Media, Jessica Marie Brightman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because of technological advances and the blurring of boundaries, the world is becoming a global community. Global communications have made it essential for multinational corporations to develop and maintain a consistent worldwide identity and brand image. It is no longer possible to classify people into simple and stable segments of customers; the world is evolving and so is the population. The purpose of this research is to bridge the gap between the academic and professional world of international public relations by expanding the stream of literature and incorporating a global aspect. Within the last few years, social media has seen …

Talking About Talk: The Problem Of Communication As An Object Of Study In Public Participation Research, Lauren Leigh Cutlip

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When citizens participate in risk assessment and decision-making for environmental and other issues that affect members of the public, more robust decisions may be made. Public participation in policy decisions is not only more democratic, but it also enables members of the public to contribute valuable expertise to the decision-making process. However, the development of an effective forum for such participatory projects has been difficult. Participation mechanisms that foster dialogue and interactive exchange between participants have been regarded as the most beneficial, but the practical application of these mechanisms has been observed to be problematic. The goal of this study …

The Relationship Between The Social Construction Of Race And The Black/White Test Score Gap In, Toriano M. Dempsey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This research is an investigation into the relationship between the resegregation of American

public schools and the social creation of race. This research is based on the popular notion that

American public schools are failing to produce students capable of competing in today's global society.

The proof most often used to assert the failure of American public schools is the Black/White Test Score

Gap. For the purposes of this research the Black/White Test Score Gap is defined as the gap between

the scores on academic standardized tests between Black public school students and White public school

students regardless of …

Impact Of Occupational Health Interventions In Indonesia, Hanifa Maher Denny

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although the Ministry of Health, Indonesia, has achieved some successful occupational health interventions, published literature on such interventions in Indonesia remains scarce.

This study utilized mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative research for the years 2010 and 2011. The qualitative study covered respondents in West, Central, and East Java Provinces to gather stakeholders' perspectives on the impact, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance, and barriers of occupational health services for informal sectors in Indonesia. The quantitative portion measured the impact of occupational health training for community health officers using Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) dimensions. West Java, as a province …

Task Comparison Between Career Counselors And Vocational Evaluators: What's The Difference?, Jill Flansburg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This investigation compared the essential tasks of career counselors and vocational evaluators by surveying experts and practitioners in each specialization. Although both services advise persons about their work and training options, career counseling often takes place in university career centers and vocational evaluation is made available in not-for-profit settings. The null hypothesis is that there are no differences in task importance or frequency between these two jobs. Previous literature and current job descriptions from Florida workplaces are used to identify tasks, which are then presented to experts for input regarding frequency and relative importance to job performance.

Tasks endorsed by …

Enhancing Training Outcomes In The Context Of E-Learning: The Impact Of Objective Learner Control, Training Content Complexity, Cognitive Load, Learning Goal Orientation, And Metacognitive Strategies, Benjamin P. Granger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Learner-controlled e-learning has become a preferred medium for the delivery of organizational training. While e-learning offers organizations and trainees many advantages, it also comes with several potential disadvantages. The aim of this study was to explore the relative efficacy of learner- and program-controlled e-learning for content that differs in its complexity. This study also explored cognitive load as a differential mediator of the interaction between learner control and training content complexity for predicting cognitive and behavioral learning outcomes. Finally, learning goal orientation was explored as a motivational individual difference that helps learners cope with complex, learner-controlled e-learning environments. Results suggest …

"People...Do Not Come With Standardized Circumstances": Toward A Model For An Anthropology Of E-Government, Marc K. Hebert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many Americans appreciate the availability and ease of using government websites to conduct their business with the state. What then of the most vulnerable in society? How do they access and use a standardized application process for government assistance, considering their potential resource, educational and physical constraints? Many go to public libraries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which shifts the responsibility to help applicants from the government agency administering the program to local actors whose primary duties lie elsewhere.

The aim of this research is to document the experiences of three groups of people, primarily located in a central Florida, urban …

Selling Masculinity And Profiting From Marginality: Sex Work And Tourism In A Jamaican Resort Town, Lauren C. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography explores the practice of sex tourism in Negril, Jamaica, and its sociocultural, economic, and health impacts on the popular tourist destination. Transactional sex with female tourists has become a popular income generator for some young Caribbean males who are excluded from formal employment in the region's leading industry. Like other resort locales, Negril draws both men and women from various parts of the country who choose to engage in sex work in order to benefit from the tourist dollars spent in Jamaica's third most popular resort area. Through the analysis of observations, interviews with residents, tourists, government officials, …

Being Present At Work And At Home: Can A Mindfulness-Based Intervention Reduce Work-Family Conflict?, Kaitlin M. Kiburz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Past research has found that work-family conflict is related to trait mindfulness, a unique disposition due to its amenability to change through training. This longitudinal study incorporated a mindfulness-based intervention including a mindfulness-based workshop and behavioral self-monitoring (BSM) in an attempt to reduce work-family conflict in employees. Trait mindfulness was correlated with work-family conflict across time. The intervention increased participants' trait mindfulness and decreased WIF, but did not reduce FIW. There was minimal support for the moderating roles of negative affect and perceived stress on the impact of the intervention. Overall the results provide support for the efficacy of mindfulness-based …

Semantic Feature Distinctiveness And Frequency, Katherine Marie Lamb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lexical access is the process in which basic components of meaning in language, the lexical entries (words) are activated. This activation is based on the organization and representational structure of the lexical entries. Semantic features of words, which are the prominent semantic characteristics of a word concept, provide important information because they mediate semantic access to words. An experiment was conducted to examine the importance of semantic feature distinctiveness and feature frequency in accessing the lexical representations of young and older adults in an off-line task using features of animals. The McRae, Cree, Seidenberg, and McNorgan (2005) feature norm corpus …

Schooling, Community, And Identity: The Perspectives Of Muslim Girls Attending An Islamic School In Florida, Vanessa Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the number of Islamic institutions increases in America, the need for greater understanding of the Muslim community, and the challenges faced by this minority, increases as well. This project seeks to provide such knowledge by exploring one of these rapidly growing institutions founded and funded by Muslims, private Islamic schools. Absent from media and literature is an understanding of Islamic schools and the experiences of youth as their attendees. This project addresses this gap through an ethnographic focus on female students at one Islamic school. Data was collected via interviews, focus groups, observation, and participant observation. This student-centered approach …