Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Case Studies In Applied Behavior Analysis: Using A Desensitization Procedure To Decrease Problem Behavior Towards Peers And Using A Treatment Package To Increase Time Spent In A Small Group, Mallamy I. Camargo Pena

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, the author will report the procedures and results for two case studies: Using a desensitization procedure to decrease problem behavior towards peers and using a treatment package to increase time spent in a small group. Both case studies took place in a clinic setting with participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a 4-year-old male and a 9-year-old female. The first case study evaluated the effectiveness of a desensitization procedure to decrease problem behavior and increase tolerance of peers in the environment of a 4-year-old boy with ASD. The case study was successful in decreasing problem behavior …

Directing Attention In Second Language Phonological Contrast Learning, Laura Conover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Why are some people better at learning new languages than others? There is a rich body of research examining this issue from multiple perspectives and at all levels of language. This study attempts to add to that knowledge at the most fundamental level of language by examining potential influences on the learning of novel phoneme contrasts. The purpose of this study was to explore whether individual differences in attentional capabilities would help adults learn a non-native phonological contrast, and whether providing explicit directions that would guide the learners’ attention could help boost their performance. VCV recordings of the Thai /p/ …

Gao Bid Protests By Small Business: Analysis Of Perceived And Reported Outcomes In Federal Contracting, David M. Snyder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to better understand GAO bid protest outcomes, if they are perceived as effective by stakeholders particularly small businesses, and what implications perceptions of outcomes have for small businesses. As a small business owner in the U.S. Federal government contracting space, the rationale for this research improves my business’s performance and inform other small business practitioners of the practical utility of GAO protests. The GAO protest system is well intended American innovation in accountability of government agencies’ acquisition of supplies and services.

The GAO reports protest outcome rates are reflected as moderately effective at approximately …

School Professional Coaching On Facilitation Of Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (Ptr) Model For Students With Persistent Problem Behavior, Rachel Ayres

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the process and outcomes of the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model implementation with school professionals’ facilitation for elementary school students with problem behavior. Two school professionals (behavior specialist and student support staff) were trained through a 2-phase coaching process to facilitate the PTR implementation: co-facilitation and independent facilitation. Four elementary school classroom teachers and four students with challenging behavior participated in this study spanning across two schools. Following coaching, school professionals independently facilitated the PTR process with fidelity which led to desired changes in student behavior. Results indicate that a multi-step coaching process is effective in training school professionals …

Learning To Be Human: Ren 仁, Modernity, And The Philosophers Of China's Hundred Days' Reform, Lucien Mathot Monson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a period of deep political division, insurrection, opium addiction, foreign conflicts, and economic distress, three intellectuals, Tan Sitong 譚嗣同 (1865-1898), Kang Youwei 康有爲 (1858-1927), and Liang Qichao 梁啓超 (1873-1929), developed philosophical systems to identify the source of China’s problems and to devise solutions. With these philosophical theories, they enacted a political movement to reform Chinese government and society known as the “Hundred Days’ Reform” (wuxubianfa 戊戌變法) of 1898. While scholars like Chang Hao, Wing Sit-chan, and Joseph R. Levenson have all written on all or some of these reformers, they have done so largely from the perspective of Chinese …

How Race Is Made In Everyday Life: Food, Eating, And Dietary Acculturation Among Black And White Migrants In Florida, U.S., Laura Kihlstrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how race impacts everyday food decisions and experiences among Black and White migrants in Florida, United States. The study is rooted in scholarship on food and immigration, which asserts that dietary acculturation or the “Americanization” of diets adversely affects the overall health status of migrant populations in the U.S. To date, the majority of this literature has focused on the experiences of Latinx migrants and has not centered race in its analysis. Building on participant observation and semi-structured interviews (n=49) completed over a period of 13 months in the Tampa and Miami Metropolitan areas among Ethiopian and …

Evaluation Of Structural Equation Modeling (Sem) Fit Indices In Distinguishing Between Circumplex And Other Factor Models, Andrew J. Thurston

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The circumplex offers a useful paradigm for simultaneously modeling relationships between latent variables and visually representing an individual’s profile. Previous research has demonstrated the Circular Stochastic Process Model (CSPM) can establish the presence of the circumplex in sample data using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), allowing researchers to test the circumplex with familiar global fit indices such as the Confirmatory Fit Index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and Unbiased Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMRu). However, it is not yet clear if these fit indices are sensitive to detect circumplexes under a variety of conditions. …

A Review Of Manualized Behavioral Parent Training Interventions For Young Children With Problem Behavior, Khendal I. Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral parent training (BPT) interventions have been developed to aid in the treatment of children with problem behavior. The goals of these interventions are to reduce child specific problem behavior and improve skills, and enhance parenting skills and competence. However, more information is needed on the manualized BPT interventions in particular, on children and parents who benefited from the BPT interventions, any individualized cultural adaptations made for families from diverse cultural backgrounds, and training provided to the parents to help them address their children’ problem behavior during family routines. Therefore, this study reviewed literature on BPT interventions, in particular, single …

A Macro Analysis Of Illegal Hunting And Fishing Across Texas Counties: Using An Economic Structural Approach, Leo J. Genco Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this disseration is to examine the distribution of illegal hunting and fishing violations across Texas counties in respect to the economic structure. Illegal hunting plays a part in the extraction of resources that are overly withdrawn, and criminologists have ignored this form of deviancy that has large ramifications for the environment. To view this criminal phenomenon, the study uses the Treadmill of Production theory to determine economic structural factors and whether those factors explain the distribution of illegal hunting and fishing. Using regression analyses and SatScan, the findings suggested that while there are significant factors related to …

Esol Educational Programs For Secondary Slife: Planning For Educational Equity, Terri L. Mossgrove

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) are a sub-group of English Learners (ELs). Policies related to the language education programming for secondary SLIFE in United States public brick and mortar schools were examined through applied policy research using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) for document analysis. Documents for this analysis included the 1990 Florida Consent Decree, District English Language Learner (ELL) Plans, as well as district English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Programs, and a sampling of school based ESOL program information shared on public facing websites. The study focused on current practices in one state related to secondary …

Eav Fleet Management In Transportation And Power Systems, Dongfang Zhao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrical vehicles (EV) by the nature of the technology assume a dual role of supplying transportation mobility and storing electric power. Thus, operations of EV impact both transportation and power grid systems. The design of infrastructure and operations of EV fleet is critical to the benefit of both systems to the society. Thus, this study proposes three models to investigate the optimal design of the infrastructure in both systems and the operations of EV fleets: 1) a dynamic and time-continuous optimization model seeking the optimal design of charging station location and EAV deployment is developed in a station-based car-sharing service …

Cannabis Capitalism In Colorado: An Ethnography Of Il/Legal Production And Consumption, Lia Berman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coloradans have changed their fundamental views on illegal substances since the decriminalization of cannabis in Colorado. Since the legalization of medical cannabis in 2014, state-sold dispensary cannabis products have straddled the line between legal and illegal network systems in a hybridized “il/legal” market system, a term designed to be ambiguous of the formal and informal economies that it represents (Nordstrom 2007, xxvii). The cannabis commodity chain has proved both familiar and strange when it comes to its production, consumption, and distribution of a federally illegal substance. Colorado’s history as a pioneer in culture and legislature has been repeated with cannabis …

Essays On Snap Participation, Bmi, And Food Purchasing Decisions, Samaneh Ghadyani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation estimates the SNAP-eligible individuals’ Body Mass Index (BMI) changes by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) in Chapter 1. It also examines whether the food packages’ nutrition fact tables’ refinements improve SNAP-recipients’ healthy food purchasing decisions in Chapter 2. Below, the summary of these chapters are provided:

• Chapter 1: The Effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of SNAP-Eligible Individuals
• Chapter 2: Do Changes in the Nutrition Facts Labels Affect SNAP-Participants’ Food Purchasing Decisions?

Chapter 1 studies the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act …

Educational Experiences Of Congolese Refugees In West-Central Florida High Schools, Michaela J. Inks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since 2016, refugees from the Congo Wars (RFCWs) have been one of the largestpopulations of refugees resettled in the United States. High-school aged RFCW students are, however, dropping out of Florida public high schools are alarmingly high rates. This study uses ethnographic methods such as interviews and participant observation to investigate educational challenges experienced by RFCW youth. This study has three objectives: to learn more about refugees with discontinuous education and the barriers to graduating from public high schools after resettlement; to better understand Tampa bay area programs that serve culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students; and to use ethnographic …

The Communicative Constitution Of Environment: Land, Weather, Climate, Leanna K. Smithberger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My project examines the communicative constitution of environment: how we mediate environment in discursive practice, and arrange chaotic and complex timeplaces into organized relationships of agents and objects which act and are acted upon. Climate scholars across disciplines are calling for a paradigm shift in how we understand, study, inhabit, and relate to Earth’s varied environments. In this dissertation, I demonstrate how communication practices do the work of constituting the environment as we know it, and therefore conclude with the hopeful suggestion that these same practices can be used to do the work of a paradigm shift — that is, …

Aspiring To “Make It Work”: Defining Resilience And Agency Amongst Hispanic Youth Living In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Sara Arias-Steele

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored how Hispanic youth (ages 13-21 years) living in low-income neighborhoods of Florida defined resiliency and expressed agency navigating personal challenges and neighborhood adversity in pursuit of success. From the standpoint of the participants, this study focused on how youths: 1) judge the quality of life in their neighborhoods and the opportunities available for them, 2) identify personal aspirations for themselves and 3) identify what resilient factors allowed them to face the challenges and barriers of their daily lives to pursue this aspiration. This study takes into account the structural barriers that create inequities to examine how personal …

Of Body And Mind: Bioarchaeological Analysis Of Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century Anatomization And Institutionalization In Siena, Italy, Jacqueline M. Berger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Institutional bioarchaeology is a growing sub-field within bioarchaeology, particularly social bioarchaeology as informed by the biocultural approach. However, the majority of studies in this vein have primarily addressed English-speaking contexts, to include analyses of institutional assemblages preserved archaeologically, and anatomical collections. The present study examines of the Siena Craniological Collection (SCC) - located in Siena, Italy. The collection was assembled between 1862-1931, and originally contained remains of 1,122 patients from both the general and mental hospitals in operation in Siena during this period (Brasili-Gualandi & Gualdi-Russo, 1989a). In addition to demographic analysis of the Siena Craniological Collection as a whole, …

Struggling Against The Odds: Social Movements In Pakistan During Authoritarian Regimes, Sajjad Hussain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation extends scholarship on the role of social movements against authoritarian regimes. It argues that movements turn into popular mobilizations and achieve successful outcomes when they occur in the consolidated phases of authoritarian regimes. Using the political opportunity structure framework, the dissertation maintains that a regime’s stability instils confidence in it to substitute coercion with incentives wherein it allows limited but strictly regulated freedoms for oppositional politics. This creates new openings for the challengers, enabling mobilization with an increase in size and scope. Unlike the initial phase, when the regime is consolidating and repressing collective action in a ruthless …

Parent Engagement In An Online Behavioral Parent Training Program: A Case Study, Natalie A. Hofmann Leedy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Behavioral parent training (BPT) is considered a frontline intervention for challenging behaviors in early childhood. Research on outcomes in behavioral parent training include an emphasis on participant engagement, defined as attendance, cognitive readiness, and task completion (Chacko et al., 2016; Gearing et al., 2014; Nock & Ferriter, 2005). Barriers to treatment attendance and engagement include logistical barriers, perceptions that treatment is burdensome or irrelevant, poor therapeutic alliance, and inaccurate or poor expectations for treatment (Kazdin, Holland, & Crowley, 1997; Nock & Kazdin, 2001). This case study examined parent engagement and barriers to treatment in a BPT program called Developing Our …

Peminist Performance In/As Filipina Feminist Praxis: Collaging Stand-Up Comedy And The Narrative Points In Between, Christina-Marie A. Magalona

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project documents the interdependent effort between performers, authors, and texts, through re/theorizing the role of the personal narrator in autoperformance as both an individual, and a part of a political collective. Through a scripted and staged performance, studied as the data, I critically engage with representations of first-generation women of color via comediennes (Ali Wong and Cristela Alonzo) and their personal narratives, and dialogically consider moments of dis/identification as a Filipina American.

Rooted in performance in/and communication studies, the overarching method employed is conspicuous aesthetic performance, via a scripted and staged narrative performance. I join performance and other methods …

Impact Of Health It On Practice Of Medicine, Deepti Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on three key facets of health IT impact on the practice of medicine: (1) Clinical impact on practitioner outcomes through malpractice claims, (2) Socio-economic impact on patient outcomes through the clinical treatment of social determinants of health (SDOH), and (3) Organizational impact on Long-Term Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) Facilities. The first dissertation essay (Chapter 1) investigates the impact of Health IT on the nature and severity of malpractice claims reported in Florida from 2009-2016. The essay empirically examines the treatment effect of federal initiatives, specifically the Meaningful Use program, on medical practitioners enrolled in the Medicare program and …

Stop-Motion As Theory, Method, And Praxis: Arresting Moments Of Racialized Gender In The Academy, Sasha J. Sanders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this autoethnographic qualitative study, I introduce “STOP-motion” as a Black feminist organizing concept, methodological approach, and praxis to examine the twinness of arresting moments when disruption, displacement, disorientation, or disembodiment prompts critical reflection and transforms outsider-within moments into movements of resistance and collective empowerment. I recount three ARRESTING moments of racialized gender I have endured in white-dominated academic spaces: being STOPPED in a breakfast line at a conference, STOPPED in a department bathroom, and STOPPED by a large promotional department banner that exhibited myself and two Black colleagues. Relying on Black feminist aesthetics, I experiment …

Racialized Morality: The Logic Of Anti-Trafficking Advocacy, Sophie Elizabeth James

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How race shapes the lenses that anti-trafficking advocates use to promote client interests is critical to the successful reintegration of survivors and their access to the right resources. Any threat to rapport building can have adverse effects to the recovery of survivors. Cultural oppression (or the denial of racism) when considering micro-level interactions of anti-trafficking advocates and survivors, not only compounds victims’ trauma but creates the reality where black and brown bodies continue to be violated and victimized.

Due to these nuanced tensions at the intersection of race and gender, my thesis research examines whether and to what extent anti-trafficking …

The Domestic Reality Of Foreign Policy: The 1994 Clinton Administration Response To The Crises In Rwanda And Haiti, Camara Kemanini Silver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Domestic politics steered The 1994 Clinton Administration's response to the violence in Rwanda and Haiti. This dissertation takes a novel approach by employing a case study method to gauge the political capital of domestic variables such as the news media, interest groups, and public opinion. This dissertation argues that domestic variables' presence and absence can explain foreign policy outcomes in a post-Cold War era. The fear of another version of a "Black Hawk Down" forced the Clinton Administration to streamlined its support in foreign policy decisions requiring domestic input. The 1994 crises in Rwanda and Haiti offer two case studies …

Political Ideologies, Political Party Affiliation, And Treatment Decisions Of Clinical Mental Health Counselors, Aaron L. Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literature in the counseling profession has emphasized the importance of recognition of the potential impact of counselor bias on clinical care for decades. A large body of research has been developed on the potential for the personal, social, and religious beliefs of clinical mental health counselors (CMHCs) to impact their work with clients, but comparatively little research has been conducted on the potential impact of the political beliefs of CMHCs and their clinical practice, creating a gap in the professional literature. The present study sought to bridge the gap in CMHC literature by examining the relationship between the political ideologies, …

Blue Rage: A Critical Cultural Analysis Of Policing, Whiteness, And Racial Surveillance, Wesley T. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an interpretive project deploying critical media analysis and interpretive qualitative methods to examine televisual and cinematic performances of policing. I use interpretive qualitative inquiry to explore blue rage, policing, and whiteness. By highlighting the racial surveillance which undergirds policing, I analyze blue rage as a critical race concept that addresses the affective policing of racial resentment and racial solidarity among law enforcement. My media analyses demonstrate the ways that whiteness is operationalized through law and order and criminal justice. Analyzing cinematic and televisual depictions of the police and racist surveillance, I address policing—as a profession, as a …

Making Change In The Nickel City: Food Banking And Food Insecurity In Buffalo, Ny During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sarah E. Bradley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In March 2020, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began to spread across the United States. The pandemic disrupted the food system in an unprecedented fashion, exacerbating existing inequalities and contributing to increased rates of food insecurity and charitable food use. This research project considers the food system of Buffalo, New York and seeks to capture the way in which both food insecure households and the food pantries that serve them adapted to the pandemic. Using data from 75 client surveys, 52 qualitative semi-structured interviews with food pantry staff and clients, and 15 participatory GIS mapping interviews, this mixed-methods project describes …

Self-Protection In Cyberspace: Assessing The Processual Relationship Between Thoughtfully Reflective Decision Making, Protection Motivation Theory, Cyber Hygiene, And Victimization, C. Jordan Howell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study, using structural equation modeling, assesses the processual relationship between thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM), theoretical constructs derived from protection motivation theory (PMT), cyber hygiene, and online victimization to determine the cognitive decision-making process that leads to the adoption of online self-protective behaviors, which reduces the occurrence of victimization experiences. Findings, derived from a general sample of Internet users in the United States, reveal: (1) engagement in cyber hygiene practices, as a form of target hardening, decreases Internet users’ experiences with online victimization; (2) thoughtfully reflective decision makers, in the face of cyber threats, develop higher threat appraisals …

Moving Science To Practice: Exploring Implementation Practice Capacity In Community Settings, Enya B. Vroom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the significant prevalence of mental and substance use disorders in the United States, the push for the development and implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) has grown exponentially in the last 30 years. Community-based organizations (CBOs) (i.e., self-governing and/or not-for profit) have been identified as significant providers of behavioral health services. However, there are gaps in the literature surrounding CBO implementation capacity, meaning their ability to adopt, implement, and sustain EBPs. There is a need for more research examining capacity training initiatives that specifically target CBOs and implementation practice. The purpose of this dissertation research was to investigate how …

Case Studies In Applied Behavior Analysis: Self-Management Package To Increase Walking Behavior And Class Pass Intervention To Decrease Off-Task Behavior, Michelle Wood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Case Study 1: Sedentary lifestyles are part of an increasing problem of social significance in the United States. Behavioral interventions can be used to effect change in this area and the target behavior of increase can be physical activity. Multiple behavioral change techniques used within an umbrella of a self-management intervention package were utilized to increase physical activity, more specifically walking behavior, for one participant. The study results showed that the self-management intervention package was effective in increasing walking behavior for the participant, and future research is discussed.

• Applying behavioral interventions to the area of physical activity can assist clinicians …