Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Neo-Colonial Elites’ Linguistic Violence And Monolingual Haitian Creole Speakers: Language Ideology, The Politics Of Linguistic Pluralism, The Crisis Of National Identity And Culture In Haiti, Frantzso Marcelin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Language is a very complex matter in Haiti. One of the most pressing issues related to language in Haiti is the aspect of violence. The violence that exists through linguistic means in Haiti today has for its basis the same mechanism that existed during the colonial era in Haiti. The same western concept of colonial social dualities, and unequal distribution of esteemed associates to African and European cultures are still at the forefront of linguistic violence. The only difference being that those ideas of colonial superiority, which informed those recurring acts of violence, are now self-imposed.

In Haiti, the nature …

Alcohol Expectancy Associates As A Probe Of The Motivational Processes That Lead To Drinking, Daniel C. Faraci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consistent with theory, within-person alcohol expectancies monitored across a day predicted alcohol consumption levels later that day. These correlational findings could have been a function of any number of "third variables" including social influences or temporal cycles in affective state. To strengthen the inference that changes in expectancies validly reflect changes in the motivation to drink, we experimentally manipulated expectancy activation and measured subsequent changes in expectancy reports. The evening before expectancy monitoring, participants were informed that later the next day—a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday—they would be participating in a solitary taste-test of either alcohol or soft drinks. Alcohol expectancies …

Using Geospatial Data To Predict The Locations Of Groundwater Discharge To Salmon-Bearing Streams, Alaska, Mary Gerlach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Identification and protection of groundwater resources are considerations of increasing interest as climate shifts but can be challenging to accomplish in remote areas. To that end, a series of GIS techniques and weight of evidence approach were applied to determine the feasibility of remotely identifying likely areas of ground discharge. Through the confluence of topographic analyses and a novel geologic dataset, these techniques were found to consistently identify areas characterized by either shallow subsurface or aquifer-fed groundwater discharge or evidence of ephemeral surficial water features. Two distinct GIS techniques to build spatial proxies of the effects of topography and geology …

A Sustainability Machine: The Incineration-Based Waste Regime In Tampa, Fl, Usa, Kevin P. Martyn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent history has seen some significant changes in terms of how society thinks about and deals with its wastes. Increasingly troubling indications of the immediacy of ecological concerns, now often described by the Anthropocene concept, have been provocative of a reinvigorated fervor for a sustainability transition. As a result, sustainability has become well-established as both an urgent pursuit and an eminently pliable buzzword. This research describes and explains one key aspect of society’s pursuit of some version of sustainability: our relationship with waste.

The site of this research is Tampa, Florida, a sunbelt city with a unique waste management system. …

Transfat Representation, Jessica "Fyn" Asay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study defines and analyzes representation of transfats, those who are both transgender and fat, through the examination of two popular media texts, Jabba the Hutt from The Return of the Jedi and Pat from the Saturday Night Live tv program in the 1990’s. I analyze these two texts using a queer feminist media studies lens to reveal the media construction of a transfat representation that is rooted in racism, transnormativity, and fatphobia and that positions the transfat body as non-normative and grotesque through the use of abject horror and fear. My analysis reveals how racism, transnormativity, and fatphobia shape …

'Golden Spike': Examining Atlanta United Fc Communications During The Launch Of The Team, Maria Tsyruleva

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atlanta United FC is a unique example of a U.S. soccer club that had set a record in the number of season tickets sold even before the team played its first game in Major League Soccer (MLS). This research constitutes a thematic analysis of the press releases created by Atlanta United during the period between the launch of the club in April 2014 through its first official game in MLS in March 2017, examining what communication strategies Atlanta United adopted as well as what brand attributes the team communicated to its audience, and how the organization did that.

The study …

On The Importance Of Context: Examining The Applicability Of Infertility Insurance Mandates In The United States Using A Mixed-Methods Study Design, Nathanael B. Stanley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accessibility of infertility services is disproportionately experienced in the United States. Although there exist state-based health insurance mandates for infertility services, these mandates contain language that disqualify people from using them. In order to better understand why these mandates are not able to reduce the financial burden and bridge the income disparity for using infertility services, the purpose of this study is to add context to the applicability of these insurance mandates through qualitative and quantitative inquiry. Using the Glass and McAtee model of risk regulators as an operational paradigm, this research explores the role of environmental context, or “place”, …

A Multi-City Investigation Of The Effect Of Holidays On Bikeshare System Ridership, Lori Palaio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bikeshare provides important first-mile last-mile, commuting, circulation, and sightseeing options in many cities. Bikeshare can also be healthy and convenient for users. Throughout the year, holidays occur which change typical bikeshare activity patterns. Existing literature shows mixed results relating to the ridership impacts of holidays, as some research shows that these days may result in higher ridership, while others show no effect. Because of variations in system locations and modeling methods, it is difficult to determine the reasons for these mixed results. To control for these aspects, this project consists of a multi-city study of the effect of holidays on …

Identifying Effective Systems And Processes To Promote Ethical Workplace Cultures In The Applied Behavior Analysis (Aba) Therapy Industry, Manuel Rodriguez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to identify methods and practices which encourages and enables ethics in organizations providing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapeutic services to individuals with development disabilities. The professional and organizations they represent must protect the consumer, the employees and the integrity of the practice as part of their ethical responsibilities. The specific focus of this research is the behavior analyst and the ABA industry. The behavior analyst is a practitioner who studies and applies behavior analysis, working with various populations such as individuals with development disabilities, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities. The subject …

A Fidelity-Based Integration Model For Explicit And Implicit Ensemble Coding, Ke Tong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human observers benefit from encoding summary statistical information from multiple similar stimuli, also known as ensemble coding. Empirical studies on ensemble coding have adopted paradigms with vastly different task requirements, raising questions about ensemble coding’s underlying mechanisms in different tasks. Are ensemble coding mechanisms task-dependent? How to model ensemble coding in different tasks? The current paper aims to answer these questions by systematically reviewing the ensemble coding tasks and models and proposing a computational model framework of ensemble coding in different tasks. The task review categorizes the tasks into two main types: Summary tasks (explicitly require observers to summarize ensemble …

Work Motivation In Wealth Management: The Role Of Self Determination Theory, Mark J. Mattia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, we use Self Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000A, Deci & Ryan, 2008) as the underlying theory to help determine the factors that may influence wealth advisors to consider leaving (or being committed) to their positions. Baard et al. (2004) established that Self-determination theory was relevant to motivation in the workplace. This quantitative study utilizes a survey instrument that incorporates many already proven reliable and valid items from Self-determination Theory to better understand the wealth advisor work motivation framework. This topic is important within financial services since positive work motivation has been tied to positive work outcomes …

Facilitating Early Intervention Through Teacher Training In Brief Functional Behavior Assessment, Casie L. Peet

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 30% of students who enter state-funded early childhood education programs exhibit significant problem behavior, putting them at risk for long-term adverse behavioral and academic outcomes. Tier 2 behavioral interventions might not be effective for all when delivered in a one-size-fits-all fashion suggesting that individualizing behavioral intervention to the student’s specific concerns may be. To do so, it is necessary to collect problem identification data indicative of each student’s concerns and function of problem behaviors. This question is particularly pertinent in early childhood settings where educators have a wide range of training experiences and backgrounds. Early childhood teachers are essential …

Cultivating Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective On The Relationship Between Moral Motivation And Skill, Ashley Potts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past twenty years, virtue ethics has seen a resurgence of interest in understanding how virtues are cultivated. Philosophers are now teaming up with psychologists to better understand how psychological research on skills can inform us about the relevant kinds of skills that aid in cultivating virtue. However, this promising line of research rests on a heavily-debated philosophical foundation. To what extent are the moral virtues like and/or cultivated by certain kinds of skills? One group of scholars, referred to as the “proponents of the moral motivation objection,” argue that the moral virtues are motivational dispositions that skills not …

Distributed Leadership: Leadership Teams And Implementing Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support, Joseph D. Latimer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary educational legislation in the last 30 years has reflected the age of accountability in which positive student academic outcomes and yearly student progress are the main goals of the school system. In addition to accountability legislation, schools are mandated to implement multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to provide a continuum of services for all students. To implement MTSS and the necessary system changes, many schools are using distributed leadership models and practices such as leadership teams to maximize the human and material resources available. This study examined the conceptualization and enactment of distributed leadership in a school that is …

Constructing A Neoliberal Youth Culture In Postcolonial Bangladeshi Advertising, Md Khorshed Alam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines the role of advertising in producing cultural narratives within the contemporary neoliberal economy and the historical context of Bangladesh. More specifically, based on thematic analysis of data collected from 73 in-depth interviews with Bangladeshi advertising practitioners, this study aims to understand the discursive production of youth culture in the country. The dialectical tensions between the global and local, universal, and particular inform this study. Using a postcolonial and cultural studies approach, this study investigates how Bangladeshi advertisers reconfigure, replace, or reinforce the notion of youth culture in Bangladesh. This study is significant because it: a) introduces a …

Exploring The Association Of Academic Psychological Capital And Experiential Learning With Academic Performance, Diane Kutz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study expands upon the body of research seeking to define the effect of Academic Psychological Capital (Academic PsyCap) and student Participation in Experiential Learning on one success measure of students, Academic Performance, as measured by grade point average (GPA). It also seeks to investigate the moderating effect of Experiential Learning on the relationship between Academic PsyCap and Academic Performance. The study argues that Social Cognitive Theory and Broaden and Build Theory supported a reciprocal relationship between Academic PsyCap and Participation in Experiential Learning Activities and the positive relationship between both constructs and Academic Performance.

The study was conducted …

Civic Engagement Amid Civil Unrest: Haitian Social Scientists Working At Home, Nadège Nau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unlike many of the autoethnographic accounts in world anthropologies discourse, this study employs critical educational ethnography to both address the geopolitics of Haitian anthropology while also spotlighting an understudied group: university faculty. This study addresses: What are the conditions of academic labor for anthropology professors working in Haiti? Moreover, what is the price of being an anthropology professor at the School of Ethnology at the State University of Haiti (UEH), and how do professors add meaningful value to their labor through sacrifice, ingenuity, and civic engagement? Despite professors’ work-related challenges and Haiti’s severe “brain drain” levels, for many professors, their …

Super Bowl Ads And The Donald Trump Culture War, Jessica Barron

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been studies that have looked at how television commercials represent or portray minorities such as gender or race. Very few have tried to look at how commercials compare to the culture, specifically in regards to a presidential term and the culture they promote. This present study examines Super Bowl commercials during the culture war led by the Donald Trump administration and looks to discover if these advertisements are becoming more diverse in comparison to the previous presidency. Using content analysis, the researcher analyzed and compared 50 commercials from three different time periods 2009-2010, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018. The categories …

"Courage Drives Us": Narrative Construction Of Organizational Identity In A Cancer-Specific Health Non-Profit Organization, Katie J. Hilderbrand

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Health care organization’s functioning and operating within the complex and shifting landscape of the U.S. health care system develop and publicize narratives that inform audience members about the organization, such as who is being served (clients/patients), what problems the clients are facing, what the clients need, and how they should be morally evaluated. For this study, I am focusing on the research questions: (1) What kinds of images of organizational work are promoted by publicly broadcasted stories of “typical clients”? (2) What types of work do these narratives do? I employ a narrative perspective to analyze publicly broadcasted stories featured …

An Ethnography Of Wash Infrastructures And Governance In Sulphur Springs, Florida, Mathews Jackon Wakhungu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the forces that shape the perceptions and practices in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) services in the community of Sulphur Springs, Tampa, Florida. It also explores how these forces, perceptions, and practices produce adverse experiences and inequalities in water, sewer, drainage, and laundry services. This ethnographic study combines participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, freelisting, oral history, and GIS to uncover the context, experiences, and perceptions about WaSH in Sulphur Springs. The study finds that the present conditions and perceptions about WaSH are embedded into the historical contexts—especially racial segregation, the construction of the interstate, and multiple economic downturns …

Facilitators And Barriers To Treatment Engagement In A Behavioral Parent Training Program, Holland Hayford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study sought to analyze caregivers’ perspectives regarding facilitators of, and barriers to, attending the behavioral parent training programs (BPTs) known as Helping Our Toddlers, Developing Our Children’s Skills (HOT DOCS) and Developing Our Children’s Skills K-5 (DOCS K-5). Participants included 43 caregivers who successfully completed their respective DOCS program. These caregivers answered two questionnaires which contained items addressing demographic variables (i.e., gender, race, ethnicity, household income, level of education, number of children, and program attendance) and logistic factors of the DOCS programs (i.e., course location, class length, time of day, course duration, availability of transportation, availability of childcare). …

The Effects Of The Use Of Task Clarification And Self-Monitoring In The Form Of Feedback To Increase On-Time Billing In Behavior Analysts, Christopher Sugiarto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The implications of untimely billing in an independent contractor model can be costly for both the contractor and the employer in terms of unpaid work hours and total income loss. Beyond these issues, both Medicaid and the Behavior Analysis Certification Board discuss the possible ethical dilemmas created by delayed billing. Due to the importance of the billing process, several studies have evaluated increasing job performance and on-time billing for a variety of professions using treatment packages including self-monitoring, task clarification, and feedback. However, prior to this study, none have evaluated self-management, in the form of self-generated feedback on increasing the …

Evaluating The Effects Of Multiple Exemplar Training On Mand-To-Tact Transfer In Children With Autism, Santiira Michelle Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often require direct instruction to acquire communication skills and such skills are targeted in intensive communication training programs using the principles of applied behavior analysis (e.g., Peters-Scheffer et al., 2010). Because such intensive training programs can be costly and time consuming (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2017), any research on collateral effects of communication training can be beneficial. Mands and tacts are among the verbal operants targeted in communication training and research surrounding the functional independence of mands and tacts has yielded mixed results (e.g., Twyman, 1996; Petursdottir et al., 2005). The current …

The Perceived Usefulness Of A Weather Radar Display By Tampa Bay Residents, Michelle E. Saunders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A weather radar display is a tool that provides spatially oriented, timely information about an impending weather event. While radar is frequently used by meteorologists, emergency managers, and pilots, this tool is now readily available for individuals to use on a variety of platforms including television, computer/laptop, smartphones and tablets. Most importantly, there are hundreds of mobile weather applications available as well as online sources that provide a weather radar display. However, little is known about how individuals use a weather radar display. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand why radar is sought out as a tool …

Using Optimization Methods For Solving Problems In Sustainable Urban Mobility And Conservation Planning, Zulqarnain Haider

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers three separate optimization problems related to sustainable urban and environmental systems. The first problem relates to the nightly relocation and recharging operations for Free-floating electric vehicle sharing (FFEVS) systems. Such operations involve a crew of drivers to move the shared electric vehicles (EVs), and a fleet of shuttles to transport those drivers. Mixed integer programs are used to model the relocation and recharging operations. Two approaches are devised: sequential and synchronized approaches. In the sequential approach, the movement of EVs is first decided, then the routing of shuttles and drivers is determined. In the synchronized approach, all …

Changing The Culture Of Consent: Teaching Young Children Personal Boundaries, Marlesha C. Bell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, eight states and Washington D.C. mention consent education in their sex education standards (Naide, 2020). Most school-based consent education curricula focus on teaching pre-teens through adults consent within the context of sexual contact (Planned Parenthood, 2016). However, consent may be relevant for behavior outside the context of sexual contact. Young children could develop a repertoire for consent skills and use it to set and respect boundaries. Furthermore, behavior analysis has teaching technologies that could be used to inform a curriculum for teaching consent, such as behavioral skills training (Johnson et al., 2006) and video modeling (Charlop & Milstein, 1989). …

Temporal Discounting And The Assessment And Treatment Of Academic Procrastination, Anthony Concepcion

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many individuals engage in procrastination at some point in their lifetime. Although procrastination is usually not detrimental, for college students, academic procrastination is correlated with adverse health effects (e.g., anxiety, depression, sleep hygiene) and poor academic performance (Akinsola, et al., 2007; Ferrari, et al., 1995). Furthermore, the prevalence of academic procrastination is high with reports of up to 95% of college students engaging in detrimental amounts of procrastination (Hussain & Sultan, 2010). Notably, students enrolled in online courses are likely to be at greater risk to experience adverse consequences associated with procrastination (Elvers, et al, 2003). Previous studies have focused …

Effects Of Inter-Male Status Challenge And Psychopathic Traits On Sexual Aggression, Amy M. Hoffmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual aggression (SA) is a serious social problem that has been linked to a variety of negative physical and mental health outcomes for survivors and produces significant monetary costs to society. In the past five decades, a wealth of research has improved our understanding of the individual and sociocultural factors that contribute to SA perpetration; however, epistemological differences in theoretical approaches to the subject (i.e., evolutionary, feminist) have resulted in gaps in the empirical literature. Informed by both feminist and evolutionary perspectives, this study attempts to examine the ways in which same-gender interpersonal interactions and individual psychopathology interact to produce …

Evaluating Public Posting, Goal Setting, And Rewards To Increase Physical Activity In Children, Bryon G. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Experiments 1 and 2 we evaluated a pedometer-based intervention consisting of public posting between two teams of students, with additional self-monitoring, goal setting, and reinforcement components, to increase physical activity during school recess. In the absence of self-monitoring, performance feedback alone did not increase physical activity levels above those observed during baseline. Additionally, higher levels of physical activity were observed when goal-setting was introduced, with the highest levels of activity observed when raffle tickets could be earned for exceeding a specified step-total goal. In Experiment 3 we removed the team component and evaluated similar intervention components across an entire …

The Impact Of Cues On Autobiographical Memory Recall In Depression, Ena Begovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies have consistently found autobiographical memory (AM) impairments in persons with depression. However, these studies have largely utilized generic word cues to elicit AM, yet word cues do not reflect how AMs are typically represented in the mind nor how AMs are usually cued in daily life. The current two-part study employed improved methodology to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of cues on AM recall and emotional functioning in depression. In part one, a set of word and image cues were developed and validated. In part two, twenty-one currently depressed and 31 never-depressed participants were instructed to …