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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Excavation Of Transect 4 At The Eleanor Betty Site, A Submerged Classic Maya Salt Work, Belize, Taylor Aucoin May 2012

Excavation Of Transect 4 At The Eleanor Betty Site, A Submerged Classic Maya Salt Work, Belize, Taylor Aucoin

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Framing, Media Attribution Of Blame, And Negativity In Newspaper Coverage Of Failing Public Schools: Evidence And Implications For Policy, Amanda Briggs May 2012

Framing, Media Attribution Of Blame, And Negativity In Newspaper Coverage Of Failing Public Schools: Evidence And Implications For Policy, Amanda Briggs

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Traditional Ecological Knowledge (Tek) And Modern Natural Resource Policy In China: Pathways For Integration, Lauren Elizabeth Nyman May 2012

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (Tek) And Modern Natural Resource Policy In China: Pathways For Integration, Lauren Elizabeth Nyman

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Influence Of Communication And Rituals On Military Members’ And Spouses’ Growth Post- Deployment, Bryanna Zawodniak Apr 2012

Influence Of Communication And Rituals On Military Members’ And Spouses’ Growth Post- Deployment, Bryanna Zawodniak

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


The Question Of Development: A Case Study Of The Bui Hydropower Project, Virginia Richard Apr 2012

The Question Of Development: A Case Study Of The Bui Hydropower Project, Virginia Richard

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Amending The Stafford Act: Considerations For A Catastrophic Declaration, Ernest Brian Baudoin Apr 2012

Amending The Stafford Act: Considerations For A Catastrophic Declaration, Ernest Brian Baudoin

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Leader Psychology And Involvement In International Events, John Beieler Apr 2012

Leader Psychology And Involvement In International Events, John Beieler

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Linking Social Capital To Disaster Recovery, Ryan Gregoire Apr 2012

Linking Social Capital To Disaster Recovery, Ryan Gregoire

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Utilizing Opinion Leaders To Combat Racial Disparity In Breast Cancer: An Analysis Of A Community Health Advisor Model And Communication Techniques Used To Decrease The Racial Disparity In Breast Cancer, Heather Watts Apr 2012

Utilizing Opinion Leaders To Combat Racial Disparity In Breast Cancer: An Analysis Of A Community Health Advisor Model And Communication Techniques Used To Decrease The Racial Disparity In Breast Cancer, Heather Watts

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Development Of Modern Healthcare In Pre-1949 China With Emphasis On Geographical Relationships, Matthew Monroe Schexnayder Apr 2012

Development Of Modern Healthcare In Pre-1949 China With Emphasis On Geographical Relationships, Matthew Monroe Schexnayder

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Explaining Attitudes Toward Racial Preferences And Affirmative Action: A Multi-Racial Perspective, Rebekah Myers Apr 2012

Explaining Attitudes Toward Racial Preferences And Affirmative Action: A Multi-Racial Perspective, Rebekah Myers

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Modern Political Communication Challenges For The Central Chinese Government, Ryan Martin Mar 2012

Modern Political Communication Challenges For The Central Chinese Government, Ryan Martin

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Do Stimulant Medications For Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) Affect Memory Of Emotional Stimuli?, Jennifer Maul Jan 2012

Do Stimulant Medications For Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) Affect Memory Of Emotional Stimuli?, Jennifer Maul

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Man Without A Country: How Character Complexity Primes Racial Stereotypes, Ben Miller Jan 2012

Man Without A Country: How Character Complexity Primes Racial Stereotypes, Ben Miller

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the role character complexity plays in racial attitudes of television viewers. Previous research suggests that stereotypes and counter-stereotypes play vastly different roles in how people process information. Stereotypes act as automatic cues that call up pre-made judgments upon exposure to them. Meanwhile, counter-stereotypes actually work on a conscious processing level, forcing viewers to think more deeply about individuals when presented with them, skipping the automatic recall mechanism all together. By layering counter-stereotypes and stereotypes together in the same stimulus, this study examined whether the existence of there would be an appreciable difference between viewers exposed to solely …


Decoding Comics: Essential Elements For Transcription, Ni Tyjah Thigpen Jan 2012

Decoding Comics: Essential Elements For Transcription, Ni Tyjah Thigpen

LSU Master's Theses

Comics (plural in form but used with a singular verb as defined by Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, HarperPerennial) provides a fresh perspective on the interaction of culture and language and spans from simple one-frame comics to graphic novels. Speech in comics is fully interpretable only in relation to the other elements; therefore a transcription system that includes them all is necessary. I have developed a unique transcription method which incorporates all the salient aspects of comic art revealing the linguistic codes embedded within. I show that transcription techniques, while primarily focused on speech, can also be applied …


Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethics Of Rhetoric, Joseph E. Rhodes Jan 2012

Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethics Of Rhetoric, Joseph E. Rhodes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the writings of the American public intellectual and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). My project is a unique contribution to Niebuhrian studies in that I approach these works from the perspective of a rhetorical theorist. My intention is to parse from Niebuhr’s editorial commentaries, his philosophical inquiries and lectures, his theological treatises, and his sermonic essays an specifically “Niebuhrian ethics of rhetoric.” In order to accomplish this task I investigate the rhetorical situation Niebuhr was embedded in and to which he was responding to at the turn of the twentieth century. Part of the analysis of his rhetorical …


Constructing Wilderness: The Nexus Of Preservation And Ocean-Space In The United States, Ryan Orgera Jan 2012

Constructing Wilderness: The Nexus Of Preservation And Ocean-Space In The United States, Ryan Orgera

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ocean has long played a minor role in human geography; imagining it as natural space rather than an extractive space even less significant. This dissertation explores the most revered kind of American nature preservation: wilderness. Despite the millions of acres set aside as wilderness in the United States, no such designation exists for ocean-space as a discrete entity. Through the analysis of congressional hearings, bills, resolutions, public laws, and maps, this dissertation uncovers the complex constructs of the production of legal wilderness. Furthermore, it uncovers a novel vein of inquiry, that of the ocean as a preserved natural space. …


The Truth About Lying: The Memorial Effects Of Deliberately Producing Misinformation, Kathleen M. Vieira Jan 2012

The Truth About Lying: The Memorial Effects Of Deliberately Producing Misinformation, Kathleen M. Vieira

LSU Master's Theses

There are different ways of lying and these lies may have different impacts on memory. In this study, participants studied pictures of objects, and later lied and told the truth about these and other objects by describing them or by denying they had seen them. Forty-eight hours later, participants were tested on their source memory. Results revealed that participants had good memory for having falsely described a never-seen object, but poor memory for having falsely denied seeing a studied object. These results suggest that telling certain types of lies may make a person more likely to forget having lied at …


Black-Woman Identity Centrality And Interference: An Examination Of Political Efficacy And Policy Attitudes, Alexandra Ghara Jan 2012

Black-Woman Identity Centrality And Interference: An Examination Of Political Efficacy And Policy Attitudes, Alexandra Ghara

LSU Master's Theses

While much of the recent literature centers on a discussion of the “inner conflict” experienced by black women, political scientists have not measured this identity conflict or its political consequences. In this article I fill this gap in the literature by employing a black-woman identity interference scale (Settles 2006) to test whether black women experience particular difficulty aligning their racial and gender interests, and how identity conflict affects their political efficacy (internal political efficacy, external political efficacy, and group political efficacy) and policy attitudes. I find that while black women’s political efficacy is only affect by their race consciousness, their …


School-Wide Screening Of Student Involvement In Relational Aggression, Emily F. Patty Jan 2012

School-Wide Screening Of Student Involvement In Relational Aggression, Emily F. Patty

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the current project is to develop a universal screening instrument to detect the presence of relational aggression within schools. This research is important because relational aggression is a covert behavior that teachers cannot readily observe, and in order to inform treatment and develop interventions, assessment has to be possible. A screener should be quick, easy to administer, and accurate at finding kids at-risk for engaging in relationally aggressive behaviors or being victimized by these behaviors. To ensure adequate sensitivity and specificity of the screening instrument, both logistic regression and t-ROC curve analysis were employed. Furthermore, the screeners …


Psychometric Re-Evaluation Of The Spiritual Support Scale, Angela M. Bowman Jan 2012

Psychometric Re-Evaluation Of The Spiritual Support Scale, Angela M. Bowman

LSU Master's Theses

Informal caregivers provide a substantial amount of emotional, financial, physical, and social support to their loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s caregivers often report immense levels of burden, which are associated with the demands of their caregiving duties. Caregivers mediate this burden through various means of coping, including spiritual support. Individuals who successfully manage the negative stressors related to Alzheimer’s caregiving are often highly resilient. The purpose of this study was to re-evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Support Scale among a sample of Alzheimer’s caregivers. The Spiritual Support Scale was initially utilized to measure spiritual coping among a …


Advice In Troubles Talk Conversations Between Strangers: The Role Of Problem Seriousness And The Impact Of Advice On Helper Supportiveness And The Desire For Future Interactions, Andrea Jean Vickery Jan 2012

Advice In Troubles Talk Conversations Between Strangers: The Role Of Problem Seriousness And The Impact Of Advice On Helper Supportiveness And The Desire For Future Interactions, Andrea Jean Vickery

LSU Master's Theses

In troubles talk conversations, problems are disclosed and discussed. When responding to problem disclosures, advice is one common response where the respondent recommends how to think, feel or act in response to a problem. This thesis focuses on extending our understanding of advice messages, with a main research question focused on determining if advice occurs in initial interactions between strangers. Through an analysis of 125 transcribed conversations, advice was present in 38.4% (n = 44) of the conversations. Advice was offered in response to less serious problems, supporting the first hypothesis. There was no support found for the positive association …


Extending Job Embeddedness Theory To The Family Domain: Development Of A Construct And Measure For Family Embeddedness And Integration Through A Work-Family Balance Perspective, Tatiana H. Toumbeva Jan 2012

Extending Job Embeddedness Theory To The Family Domain: Development Of A Construct And Measure For Family Embeddedness And Integration Through A Work-Family Balance Perspective, Tatiana H. Toumbeva

LSU Master's Theses

The goal of this study was to extend theory and research on job embeddedness by conceptualizing a parallel phenomenon that also exists in the family domain, referred to here as family embeddedness. Work-family balance perspective was utilized to argue that job and family embeddedness facilitate successful role functioning by guiding the resource allocation process in both the work and family domains. There were two parts to this study. In Phase 1, a measure was developed and a nomological network was established for family embeddedness. In Phase 2, a model was tested to understand the process through which two types of …


An Examination Of The Relationship Between Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Functioning, And Social Skills In Children, Kimberly Tureck Jan 2012

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Functioning, And Social Skills In Children, Kimberly Tureck

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are the focus of a vast amount of research due to their recent rise in prevalence. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research looking at how ASD and IQ scores impact social skills. The present study aimed to extend the literature in this area by evaluating how ASD and IQ scores are related to ratings on a measure of appropriate and inappropriate social skills. Two groups of individuals participated: children without ASD and children with ASD. Two dependent measures of social skills (adaptive/appropriate social skills and hostile/inappropriately assertive social skills) were obtained using the Matson Evaluation …


Investigating The Role Of Genetic Variation In Long Run Economic Outcomes, Charles Justin Cook Jan 2012

Investigating The Role Of Genetic Variation In Long Run Economic Outcomes, Charles Justin Cook

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation empirically tests whether adaptations resulting from the Neolithic Revolution, or the widespread adoption of sedentary agriculture for sustenance, have led to economic differences. The development of sedentary agriculture constituted an environmen- tal shift from the previous sustenance method of hunting and gathering. This environmental shift resulted in the natural selection of certain traits. I seek to exploit differences in these traits to measure differing economic outcomes. Two main adaptations are considered in this work: the ability to consume milk, or lactose tolerance, and resistance to infectious Eurasian diseases, which is the result of genetic variation. The first essay …


Pressures, Centralization, Economics, Technology, And Ethics: Factors That Impact Public Information Officer - Journalist Relationships, Christopher Jon Mccollough Jan 2012

Pressures, Centralization, Economics, Technology, And Ethics: Factors That Impact Public Information Officer - Journalist Relationships, Christopher Jon Mccollough

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A study of public information officers (PIOs) in three states and the journalists that cover state government finds five primary factors that shape the working relationships between both groups. Institutional pressures on both PIOs and journalists impact the ability of both parties to meet the needs of the other party on a daily basis. High levels of centralization in state government communication limit the ability of PIOs to meet the needs of journalists, fostering journalists’ antagonism and a more combative working relationship. The economic decline of journalism is creating a dichotomous situation where PIOs can help journalists manage increasing demands …


Using Behavior Screening Data To Predict Scores On Statewide Assessments, Jeffrey Steven Chenier Jan 2012

Using Behavior Screening Data To Predict Scores On Statewide Assessments, Jeffrey Steven Chenier

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Federal and state initiatives (No Child Left Behind, 2001) require schools and districts to set high standards for student growth and achievement. Currently, student growth and progress are measured in Louisiana via statewide achievement tests. In 4th and 8th grades these assessments are considered to be ‘high-stakes’, as promotion and retention decisions are made based on how well students perform on these assessments. Making day-to-day decisions based on one assessment per year is not best practice (Jenkins, Deno, & Markin, 1979); therefore, screening instruments known as curriculum based measures (CBMs) were devised and tailored for school-based implementation. CBMs of academic …


Assessing Cost Efficiency And Economies Of Scale In The European Banking System, A Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Approach, Ana Maria Ichim Jan 2012

Assessing Cost Efficiency And Economies Of Scale In The European Banking System, A Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Approach, Ana Maria Ichim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cost e_x000E_fficiency of banks is a key indicator that provides valuable insight to researchers and policymakers about the functioning of the _x000C_financial intermediation process, as well as, the overall performance of the entire financial system. This thesis focuses on the cost effi_x000E_ciency of the European banking market for which we identify fourteen nation-specific frontiers and also perform cross country comparisons under a common frontier assumption. Our interest in the subject is twofold. At the nation level, cost e_x000E_fficiency influences the relative competitiveness of banks, setting the profile of the national banking industry with direct implications on economic growth. At the …


A Discourse On Geospatial Technology Applications In Predictive Analytics And Evidence-Based Decision Support For Disaster Research And Management, Steven Matthew Ward Jan 2012

A Discourse On Geospatial Technology Applications In Predictive Analytics And Evidence-Based Decision Support For Disaster Research And Management, Steven Matthew Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continued population growth and development in vulnerable locations across the world are creating a new geography of hazards and disasters. Increasing storm frequencies coupled with unrelenting efforts to control flooding through structural means will undoubtedly intensify the intersection between flood hazards and humans. Accordingly, the baseline capacity of places to prepare for and rebound from disaster events adequately is negatively impacted. Hurricane Katrina brought this reality to the forefront of disaster science and management in 2005. Concurrent with the increased awareness of evolving hazardscapes has been the identification of deficiencies in how components of disasters are studied and managed. The …


The Role Of Managers Within The Welfare System: How Race And Negative Stereotypes About Clients Affect Managers' Tolerance Of Caseworker Discretion, Alethia Marie Picciola Jan 2012

The Role Of Managers Within The Welfare System: How Race And Negative Stereotypes About Clients Affect Managers' Tolerance Of Caseworker Discretion, Alethia Marie Picciola

LSU Master's Theses

Previous research studies found differences in social welfare policy implementation based on the racial and ethnical differences of clients, workers, and managers. The public perception of welfare recipients being content with living on government money and unmotivated to become self-sufficient is a central theme throughout American culture. The current study examined whether parish-level managers’ personal beliefs about their clients are associated with their tolerance of frontline staff’s discretionary practices. Additionally, the author examined the role that the race of managers plays in the personal beliefs they hold about their clients as well as their tolerance of frontline discretion. This study …