Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Differential Reinforcement Without Extinction: An Assessment Of Sensitivity To And Effects Of Reinforcer Parameter Manipulations, Hannah Lynn Macnaul

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often engage in problem behavior (e.g., aggression, property destruction, self-injurious behavior; Horner, Carr, Strain et al., 2002) that may limit access to traditional social and education settings, impact their health, and pose a risk to their safety and the safety of others. One of the most common interventions used to treat problem behavior is differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007), which are often used in combination with other interventions such as extinction (Shirley, Iwata, Kahng, Mazaleski, & Lerman, 1997). However, implementation of extinction may pose an ethical dilemma …

Assessment Of Land Cover Change In St. Martin’S Marsh Aquatic Preserve, Florida, Usa, Katie Wagner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

St. Martin’s Marsh Aquatic Preserve (SMMAP) is a 28,461 acre (115.18 km2) preserve located on the coast of Citrus County, Florida, USA. There has been no published research that focused on coastal change on this unique coast. This thesis research focuses on coastal land cover change that has occurred within the preserve from 1988 to 2018. Multitemporal Landsat images were classified using a support vector machine (SVM) classification, while changes in vegetation were evaluated using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Field research was conducted to examine nineteen sites for classification training and test data and notes on habitat composition. …

Roots In Antiquity: A Comparative Study Of Two Cultures, Lara Younes Freajah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted with the goal to provide an in-depth analysis of the analogous qualities of two very distinct yet similar cultures: the Arab and Sarakatsan cultures, with a particular focus on personal matters that deal with family and kinship. Despite the difference in religions, both groups demonstrate a substantive set of similar traits especially in terms of the interactions, dynamics, and functionality of family relations in addition to the highly-esteemed values that dictate everyday conduct. As a first-generation Arab Muslim who immigrated to the United States, I use the culture in which I am entrenched as a basis …

Villains Or Vermin? The Differential Effects Of Discrimination And Dehumanization On Immigrant Cardiovascular Responses, Mona El-Hout

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immigration has been pushed to the forefront of a national political debate, and immigrants are commonly portrayed as villains and vermin looking to invade and infest Western nations. These negative portrayals of immigrants may have negative implications for immigrant health outcomes. Among other negative health outcomes, studies have found that immigrant cardiovascular disease rates increase with time spent in the U.S. This phenomenon of decreasing immigrant health with extended U.S. residency has been labeled “the immigrant health paradox”, and discrimination has often been posited as a possible explanatory factor. In addition to discrimination, immigrants are often the targets of dehumanization, …

Motivation Matters: The Interaction Of Approach And Avoidance Alcohol Motivation And Self-Control Demands In College Drinkers, Becky K. Gius

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Failure in self-control has long been identified as a risk factor for problematic alcohol use among college students, as individuals who are less equipped or less able to regulate their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors use alcohol more frequently and are at greater risk for binge drinking. Recent findings suggest self-control depletion and motivation interact to determine performance on subsequent tasks that require self-control. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the ways self-control exertion and desires to use alcohol (approach inclinations) and desires to avoid using alcohol (avoidance inclinations) impact subsequent alcohol use behavior. Using ecological momentary assessment, …

Threat-Induced Alterations In Cognition And Associations With Disinhibited Behavior, Julia B. Mcdonald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When a threat is detected, brain networks associated with threat processing are activated while other processes are deprioritized. While this resource allocation is adaptive, it makes it especially difficult to effortfully direct thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (use cognitive control) during situations of high stress. Further, this threat response is most efficient in response to short-term or predictable stressors (“threats”) but loses its efficiency for ambiguous or unpredictable threats. Despite research that suggests that threat induces psychological states associated with breakdown in cognitive control processes, no study has directly examined how predictability of threat impacts neurocognitive indicators of cognitive control processes. …

Exploration Of Factors Associated With Perceptions Of Community Safety Among Youth In Hillsborough County, Florida: A Convergent Parallel Mixed-Methods Approach, Yingwei Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Youth perceived safety is not only linked to crime and violence in a neighborhood but is also associated with health risk behaviors and certain neighborhood characteristics. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to measure the co-occurring effects of individual and community risk factors by conducting a secondary data analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) and to explore reasons for youth feeling safe/unsafe in their community using photovoice methodology.

Methods: Syndemic theory/model served as the theoretical framework to guide this mixed-methods study with a convergent parallel design. The quantitative strand (first manuscript) utilized an existing dataset collected from middle …

People With Parkinson’S And Care Partners Of Pwps’ Uncertainty Management Through Information Strategies, Amy Haywood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how people with Parkinson’s (PwP) and care partners of PwP manage the uncertainty surrounding Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD causes both motor and cognitive decline in patients, which may affect each individual differently (Williamson, Simpson, & Murray, 2008). There is no-known cure or cause for PD, meaning it is shrouded in uncertainty from the first symptom to the ongoing management process. This disease also affects care partners because of its variability in symptoms and progression. For this reason, this research, which is part of a larger study, interviewed both care partners of PwP (n= 10) and those diagnosed …

The Role Of Influencer Endorsement In Consumer Brand Engagement On Sina Weibo, Xiaofan Wei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The strength and effectiveness of influencer advertising and influencer marketing make them becoming more and more popular on social media. Consumer online brand engagement, including consuming, contributing, and creating brand-related content, is closely related to a brand’s reputation and image. This study aims to determine how the two aspects related to influencer endorsement – influencer-follower parasocial interaction (PSI) and influencer-brand congruence -- affect three levels of consumer online brand-related activities (COBRAs) on Sina Weibo. Another purpose of the current study is to examine the mediation effect of personal identity (PI) and social identity (SI) in the relationship between influencer-follower parasocial …

The Effect Of Acute Interpersonal Racial Discrimination On Smoking Motivation And Behavior Among Black Smokers, Patricia F. Calixte-Civil

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In comparison to White smokers, Black smokers are more likely to report both discrimination and less success in smoking cessation. No previous study has tested the causal relationship between actual experienced racial discrimination and smoking variables associated with cessation. The goal of this study was to test the casual influence of interpersonal racial discrimination on smoking motivation (i.e., the urge to smoke cigarettes, cessation self-efficacy, and smoking behavior) using a controlled experimental design. We used a virtual ball-playing game to create a laboratory model of racial discrimination. A 2x2 between-subjects factorial design (inclusion/exclusion vs. ingroup/outgroup) was used to randomly assign …

Affect And Craving: Examining The Differential Influences Of Positive And Negative Affect On Inclinations To Approach And Avoid Alcohol Use, Jacob A. Levine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most research examining the role of affect in the etiology of alcohol craving has been limited to associations between negative affect and the desire to consume alcohol. This narrow focus has not only ignored the potential influence of positive affect on the desire to use alcohol, but has led to a failure to consider both desires to avoid using alcohol and motivational conflicts often thought to be present in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Additionally, research investigating the influence of affect on attentional bias in favor of alcohol cues in individuals who have an AUD has been limited. Using 60 individuals …

Counseling Skills And Behaviors Of Genetic Counselors: A Qualitative Study, Abigail Zale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research is needed to ensure the frameworks created to ensure best clinical practice for the genetic counseling (GC) profession align with current GC clinical practice. Nineteen practicing genetic counselors in prenatal, pediatric, or cancer specialties were interviewed to elicit their session goals and the counseling skills utilized within sessions and to determine how closely responses align with the Framework for Outcomes in Clinical Communication Services (FOCUS) and Reciprocal Engagement Model (REM). As part of a qualitative content analysis guided by FOCUS, quotes extracted and coded into key themes using RQDA software demonstrated consistency with REM goals and categories within the …

Effects Of Learning A Second Language On English Academic And Low-Frequency Vocabulary Acquisition And Metalinguistic Knowledge, Hayriye Karliova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the possible effects of learning a language from the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family as a second language (L2), namely Latin and Spanish, on English academic and low-frequency vocabulary acquisition and metalinguistic knowledge of native English speaker (NES) undergraduates in their first language (L1), English.

The study sought to attain two objectives: first, it aimed to discover the effects of learning Latin and Spanish as L2s with respect to the vocabulary acquisition of NES undergraduates; second, it aimed to detect the effects these L2s in terms of metalinguistic awareness. In both cases, the focus was …

Perfectionism, Negative Life Events, And Cognitive Appraisal: A Contextual Model Of Perfectionism’S Maladaptive Nature, Ansley M. Bender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Perfectionism is highly (Grzegorek, Slaney, Franze, & Rice, 2004; Rice, Ashby, & Gilman, 2011) and increasingly (Curran & Hill, 2017) prevalent. Alarmingly, perfectionism is associated with various concerning correlates and outcomes, including suicide ideation and attempts (e.g. Smith, Sherry, et al., 2018). Whereas it is clear that perfectionism presents as a vulnerability for suicide, very little is known about when its maladaptive features may be particularly activated or by what pathway such a relationship exists. A preliminary, but underdeveloped, area of research suggests a role for negative life events in potentiating the effects of perfectionism, operating under the assumption that …

A Social Network Analysis Of Online Gamers' Friendship Networks: Structural Attributes Of Steam Friendships, And Comparison Of Offline-Online Social Ties Of Mmo Gamers, Juan G. Arroyo-Flores

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study traces the boundaries of online-based social networks and its possible extensions and intersections with offline social networks. It focuses on the Massive Multiplayer Online gaming community. Most online gaming research has only addressed one side of the equation, i.e., the online aspect of social interaction, omitting the offline context. The primary objective is to look at both offline and online social contexts of gamers. The analysis suggests that overall offline ties are slightly more important than online. Still, this does not imply that online ties are not meaningful at all. The length of their online relationships plays a …

Walking Each Other Home: Sensemaking Of Illness Identity In An Online Metastatic Cancer Community, Ariane B. Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly, online settings serve as primary social contexts for patient interaction, playing a crucial role in ways participants access medical information and turn to each other for support. Stage IV (metastatic) cancer patients like myself know what it is like to be overwhelmed by the complex array of medical tests, treatments, and information we are expected to assimilate. My late stage disease status necessitates I routinely grapple with not merely the kinds of support I think I need or how those needs will be met, but also what meanings I assign to my experiences. Consequently, as a member of The …

Closing America’S Retirement Savings Gap: Nudging Small Business Owners To Adopt Workplace Retirement Plans, Peter W. Kirtland

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Small businesses, with 50 or fewer employees, rarely offer workplace retirement plans. The lack of effective retirement plan options leads to employee stress, financial strain, and social instabilities. The purpose of this research is to study why small business owners make poor decisions about workplace retirement plans. The study evaluates the information supply chain and determines that financial advisors are a critical information delivery mechanism. However, they do not take the time to discuss the various retirement plan options available with the small business owners which leads to lack of plan adoption.

Elaborated Action Design Research (eADR) research methods are …

A Method To Analyze Similarities Of Eye Movements: A Giscience Based Spatiotemporal Approach, Mehrdad Vaziri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Similarity analysis is the subject of several studies that primarily collect, process, and analyze movement data of various types, including animals, humans, vehicles, hurricanes, and eye tracking. The movement studies often focus on characteristics of a mobile entity (moving object) over time and space. Such studies usually are interested in tracking the changes to the moving object. Therefore, the size of the object becomes irrelevant. Each mobile object is considered a moving point through time and space. The points have all two attributes in common which are locations and timestamp of those locations. Despite the similarities between the movement datasets, …

Trajectory Based Traffic Analysis And Control Utilizing Connected Autonomous Vehicles, Yu Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent scholars have developed a number of stochastic car-following models that have successfully captured driver behavior uncertainties and reproduced stochastic traffic oscillation propagation. While elegant frequency domain analytical methods are available for stability analysis of classic deterministic linear car-following models, there lacks an analytical method for quantifying the stability performance of their peer stochastic models and theoretically proving oscillation features observed in the real world. To fill this methodological gap, this study proposes a novel analytical method that measures traffic oscillation magnitudes and reveals oscillation characteristics of stochastic linear car-following models. We investigate a general class of stochastic linear car-following …

Identifying Employees Who Fit With Electronic Communication Styles, Britany Telford Mills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electronic communication is no longer solely used by globally dispersed work teams. It is an integral part of today’s organizations whether they include remote workers or not. Therefore, it is important to understand how employees perceive electronic communication from their supervisor and the impact that perception has on the worker. Researchers have been adamant in the assertion that relationship-oriented communicated is better conducted face-to-face. The current study seeks to add to the existing body of research by (1) examining how the proportion of relationship-oriented communication that is electronic affects both subordinate perceptions of communication openness and subordinate job satisfaction, and …

Dynamic Prediction Of Runway Configuration And Airport Acceptance Rate, Yuan Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Automated prediction of runway configuration and airport capacity is critical for the future generation of air traffic management. In the future aviation industry, multi-sources weather forecast information will be available for air traffic decision-making units; how to use these data efficiently is key for overall efficiency of air traffic management. Currently, air traffic management personnel lack tools to assist them to translate weather forecast data into real-time airport capacity. Runway configurations and AARs of airports in a multi-airport system are determined by different air traffic controller personnel. The lack of synchronization may lead to the loss of efficiency of the …

The Progressive Transformation Of Medellín- Colombia: A Successful Case Of Women's Political Agency, María Auxiliadora González-Malabet

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Medellín, Colombia, once one of the most corrupt and violent cities in the world, is now one of the most progressive and democratic cities in South America. This transformation was due to the mobilization of women’s movements and the influx of women in the city’s executive branch. Female political agency and new urban development programs reshaped democratic practices for the citizenry. This research examines the robust association between women’s organizations, women from Compromiso Ciudanano (CC), and a solid and active civil society. The theoretical framework covers democratization, good governance, and Latin American/Indigenous Feminism. The sources include interviews, polls, news articles, …

Book-Sharing As A Context For Fathers And Mothers To Enhance Language Development Of Their Preschool Children, Yagmur Seven

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Poor reading levels is a pervasive problem in the US. For example, two of every three eigth grade students in the US are estimated to demonstrate insufficient reading comprehension skills. Early use of decontextualized language, in which the language expressed is removed from the here and now, serves as a precursor of academic language proficiency. Starting as early as the third year of life, decontextualized language is less likely to be practiced in lower socio-economic status (SES) households. Although storybooks offer a rich context for practicing the language with young children, reading storybooks alone is not adequate to promote conversational …

Highway Lane Management Policy For Existing And Connected Autonomous Vehicles, Md Mokaddesul Hoque

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Trucks carry major bulk of freight in the U.S. and are likely to continue doing so in the near future for various reasons. They have tremendous impact on highway pavement design and on the costs of pavement construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation. Current policy of truck lane restriction ensures that they mostly use the outside lane(s) on multilane highways. This practice has considerable impact on the cost of pavement construction and rehabilitation. Right now, all the highway lanes are designed and constructed according to the truck load on the outside lane even though the inside lanes receive significantly smaller quantity of …

Disciplinary D/Discourses: Navigating And Negotiating Disciplinary Paradigms, Michael R. P. Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past twenty-five years, in the United States, zero-tolerance policies that were initially implemented to deter gun violence and drugs in schools have expanded to include a wide range of discretionary offenses such as disrespect and defiance. As a result, many students have been denied access to educational opportunities, been excluded from their peers, and had their lives irrevocably changed due to systemic sanctioning of exclusionary practices. Educators, who are caught between competing societal demands, job expectations, and ethical beliefs about their profession are tasked with balancing the instructional and interactional components of their work in an attempt to …

Promoting Healthy Sleep Practices Among Parents Of Young Children: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial, Kristin Lynn Edwards

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the most significant and underrecognized public health concerns in young children is related to the consequences of inadequate sleep. Inadequate sleep may result in problems related to behavioral regulation, executive functioning, and academic performance. ‘Sleep hygiene’, a term that describes consistent daytime and nighttime practices that promote healthy sleep, has been found to significantly increase sleep duration and improve sleep quality in the pediatric population. Researchers have found that many parents have a poor understanding of sleep hygiene. The purpose of this study was to determine if an educational intervention increased parental knowledge and practices of sleep hygiene …

Educators' Perceptions Of Students' Academic And Social Growth In A Collegiate High School Program., John Matthew Legg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine educators’ perceptions of high school students’ academic and social growth in a collegiate college program. Collegiate high school programs afford opportunities to minorities and the economically disadvantaged, as well as first-generation college students (Aviles-Reyes, 2007). This research used a qualitative case study framework to collect information about educators’ perceptions of the academic and social integration of students in a collegiate college program. Data were collected in phases—educator focus group interviews and individual interviews—and subsequently coded and reviewed using thematic comparative analysis. The guiding question was as follows: What are educators’ perceptions of …

Health-Promoting Behaviors And Subjective Well-Being Among High School Students, Nicholas David W. Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In positive psychology, a greater emphasis is placed on the presence of indicators of both physical and mental health. This study examined the relationship between 12 health-promoting behaviors and subjective well-being (SWB; e.g., happiness) in a sample of 450 high school aged youth from five high schools in two states. Participants reported on their dietary habits, physical activity, abstinence from tobacco products, abstinence from alcohol, and sleep hygiene (i.e., 8 unique components) as well as a multidimensional assessment of SWB (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect). It was hypothesized that increased engagement in each of the health-promoting behaviors …

Using Critical Race Theory To Examine Race And Racism In Social Work Education, Ebony Nicole Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Race and racism have proven to be a core concept of U.S. society that impacts People of Color through a set of challenges which have created and maintained enduring racial disparities and inequities. The social work profession has a time-honored commitment to working with and advocating historically marginalized populations. Social workers work with individuals, groups, and communities to help assess needs, strengths, support networks, respond to crisis situations, and advocate for social justice. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the experiences of undergraduate social work educators (BSWEs) who teach to encourage the development of students’ knowledge, …

Reducing Underrepresentation: Promising Practices In Florida, Catherine A. Mullins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examined representation rates of gifted students from diverse backgrounds in Florida county school districts. Florida state legislation governing gifted student education allows for alternative identification methods to be used for students from underrepresented groups if plans for such identification are approved by the Florida Department of Education; however, this option, informally referred to as “Plan B” after subsection B of the legislation governing gifted services, is not a requirement that districts must follow. Consequently, there are large differences in the ways districts identify underrepresented students for gifted services. State legislation identifies underrepresented populations as students with …