Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Expressive Individualism In A Midwestern Situated Youth Subculture Group, Jeffrey Michael Webb

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In a Midwestern city of, according to the 1990 census, 34,000 people (97% "white"), fifty all Caucasian, mostly middle class, predominantly high school, youth subculture group members (32 males; 18 females) were qualitatively studied in public places. I utilized participant observation, intensive interviews, field notes, color photographs, diary entrees, and electronic mail to gather data on why these particular young people appeared and behaved in manners different from their peers and the larger culture. Such difference centered on hair color, nonmainstream body piercing, tattoos, baggy clothing, pranking behavior known as "garfinkeling," and some psychedelic drug use. The design of the …

Another Look At Social Learning Theory And Dating Violence, Samantha Smith O'Hara

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Interpersonal violence is a common social problem in American society. Heightened interest in the topic of domestic violence has been sweeping the country as a result of conscience-raising efforts by the feminist movement and others in the late 1960s and early 1970s (White & Koss, 1991). The "closed door" that has protected the secret of violence in the home has slowly begun to open (O'Keefe, Brockopp, & Chew, 1986).

An Exploratory Look At University Students' Attitudes Toward Welfare Recipients, Glen Leonard Lantz

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to discover if university students use victim blaming explanations to gain understanding as to why someone receives welfare assistance. A sub-problem in this study was to discover the extent that university students employ individualistic, familial, structural, and fatalistic explanations in their attempts to comprehend why some families are recipients of welfare. Also, the study attempted to find if relationships exist between victim blaming and other personal characteristics such as cultural estrangement, social criticism, affiliation, income, and political orientation.

The subjects of this study were 245 individuals attending the University of Northern Iowa, both graduates …

The Aftermath Of Teenage Childbearing : The Characteristics Of Successful Adjustment, Sarjo Sanneh Patrick

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This exploratory qualitative study provides a description of how. and an understanding of why a subset of teenage mothers go on to attain higher educational and economic success, thus becoming self-supponing in their adult lives. A standardized pre-structured interview was conducted with IO Caucasian women aged 21 to 56 who had had their first children at or below age 19. Participation in the study was voluntary. A conceptual framework was advanced suggesting how social control theory was able to explain the processes involved in the anamment of later-life academic and economic success among early childbearers. The women confirmed that strong …

Negative Affect, Explanatory Style, And Stressful Life Events In An Elementary School Population, David Taylor Johnston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The prevalence of childhood depression is largely unknown due to widely discrepant methods, different assessment instruments, varying definitions of childhood depression, and different populations under investigation. Theoretical arguments have been made to suggest that gifted children are a population at risk for emotional and psychological disruption. Specifically, their advanced cognitive abilities are considered an emotional liability that could increase the chances of a depressive episode or even suicide. In addition, there have been theoretical articles to suggest that two correlates of depression are stressful life events and explanatory style. Students who experience more stress in their lives are more likely …

Aboriginal Students And Postsecondary Education: A Participatory Exploration Of Experiences And Needs At A University And Community College In Northeastern Ontario, Wendy Darlene Young

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aboriginal people are increasingly seeking forms of post-secondary education that meet their cultural, political, social and spiritual needs. Universities and colleges have a responsibility to become involved in the decolonization process by taking a proactive stance in relation to the changes which are required to meet these needs. The research described in this dissertation is a bicultural, participatory action project which sought to document the experiences and needs of Aboriginal students at a university and community college in North Bay, Ontario in order to lay the groundwork for new programs and services which might be developed. Research Circles and Individual …

Adaptation During The Transition From High School To University: An Examination Of Selected Person, Environment And Transition Perception Variables, Sheldon Jacob Birnie-Lefcovitch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Drawing on conceptual knowledge regarding normative life transitions and primary prevention and using a panel-design survey methodology, this study investigates factors that continue to student adaptation during the move from high school to university. All participants were first-time, full-time, first-semester students enrolled in biological or environmental science programs at a mid-size publicly funded university located in southwestern Ontario. Participants were surveyed twice: once prior to university entry and a second time following completion of their first-semester. The study determined that the vast majority of students view this transition as a normative life event, with most feeling ownership for the decision …

Living With A Memory-Impaired Spouse: (Re)Cognizing The Experience, (Re)Storying Support, Deborah Lynn O'Connor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Dementia, of which Alzheimer's Disease is the most common, results in severe cognitive deterioration and the victim will become increasingly unable to manage his or her own care needs. Someone else will be required to take on responsibility for attending to these needs. If married, the person most likely to be implicated is the spouse. Research has documented that these spouses are at high risk in the caregiving role, yet are the least likely of all caregivers to utilize formal support. To date, this low use of services has been poorly understood despite concerns that without assistance, these spouses may …

Religious Liberty And Democratic Politics, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

Some time ago, President Clinton talked to a gathering of religious journalists about abortion. He said that he did not believe that the biblical passages often cited by those who are "pro-life" indicate· clearly that abortion is wrong and should be prohibited. The reasons many people have for wanting abortion to be prohibited, or for allowing abortion, relate to their religious convictions. These people, for the most part, regard it as perfectly appropriate that religious perspectives help determine public policy on abortion in the United States. Others object. They say that the religious views of some people should not be …

Religious Expression In The Public Square – The Building Blocks For An Intermediate Position, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

The problem of religious expression in the public square is not primarily legal in a narrow sense. We are not talking about whether people are allowed to voice certain kinds of opinions or to vote on certain kinds of grounds. The problem is about how citizens and officials in liberal democracies should act. My own position on this problem is an intermediate one, in a sense I shall shortly explain. Its plausibility depends on some sense of the strengths and weaknesses of positions at each end of the spectrum. I shall begin with a thumbnail sketch of these.

Therapist Orientation And Circularity-Linearity Of Causality, Responsibility, Intentionality, And Blame For Clinical Problems, Helen Alexander Jones

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Differences in circularity of attributions of causality, responsibility, intentionality and blame for clinical problems by therapists of psychodynamic, behavioral and systems orientations, a psychiatrist group, and an attorney control group were investigated using the Circularity-Linearity Attribution Scale (CLAS). Respondents' judgments about the sufficiency of a single cause for the problem, circular conceptualization of the problem, and linear conceptualization of the presented problems were also solicited. Responses were compared for two problems, schizophrenia and domestic violence. It was hypothesized that the systems-oriented therapists' attributions would be more circular than those of other therapist groups on all dependent variables. It was also …

An Evaluation Of The Norfolk Interagency Consortium's Community-Based System Of Care For At-Risk Youth, Melody Bingman Wilt

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The primary purpose of this research was to design and to implement an evaluation model for the Norfolk Interagency Consortium (NIC). The research design employed in this study focused on four areas of investigation: program clarification, processes and activities, outcomes, and cost. The study utilized qualitative and quantitative methods and procedures.

The program clarification stage of the research served as a pre-evaluative phase. An evaluability assessment was incorporated to define and clarify the NIC'S program components and goals, and determine which goals were evaluable. Data regarding the target population also were collected.

The processes and activities investigation used a survey …

The Role Of Firearms In Violence "Scripts": The Dynamics Of Gun Events Among Adolescent Males, Deanna L. Wilkinson, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the use and deadly consequences of gun violence among adolescents has reached epidemic proportions. At a time when national homicide rates are declining, the increasing rates of firearm deaths among teenagers is especially alarming. Deaths of adolescents due to firearm injuries are disproportionately concentrated among nonwhites, and especially among African-American teenagers and young adults. Only in times of civil war have there been higher within-group homicide rates in the United States. There appears to be a process of self-annihilation among male African-American teens in inner cities that is unprecedented in American history. Unfortunately, few studies have examined …

Melancholy Reunion: A Report From The Future On The Collapse Of Civil-Military Relations In The United States, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Psychological Status Of Phonological Analyses, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

This paper casts doubt on the psychological relevance of many phonological analyses. There are four reasons for this: 1) theoretical adequacy does not necessarily imply psychological significance; 2) most approaches are nonempirical in that they are not subject to potential spatiotemporal falsification; 3) phonological analyses are established with little or no recourse to the speakers of the language via experimental psychology; 4) the limited base of evidence which most analyses are founded on is further cause for skepticism.

Gvsu Graduate Bulletin, 1996-1997, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 1996-1997 graduate bulletin published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

Gvsu Undergraduate And Graduate Bulletin, 1996-1997, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 1996-1997 undergraduate and/or graduate bulletin published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

Historical Roots Of Structural Ambiguities In English: A Survey Of Some Selected Grammatical Features, Dallin D. Oaks

Faculty Publications

English is a language with many possibilities for wordplay, and word lay has been exploited by entertainers and advertisers. At times it involves simple puns, and at other times complex structural plays on words. Important developments in the history of the English language contribute to the current possibilities for word play. This article will examine some of these developments that have contributed specifically to wordplay involving structural ambiguities.

Review Of Kimball Young On Transition Of Sociology, 1912-1968: An Oral Account By The 35th President Of The Asa, Carol Ward

Faculty Publications

According to Kimball Young, "My five quarters at Chicago fixed me for life." This account of Kimball YOung's career begins with his experience at the University of Chicago where he obtained an A.M. in 1918. These early experiences with the founders of the Chicago School had a lasting impact on his career in sociology. Young's memoirs focus on his relationships with his mentors, colleagues and students at Chicago and at the subsequent colleges and universities with which he worked. This oral history offers remarkable insights into the lives of scholars who shaped sociology in the first two-thirds of the century.

Christian Feminist Publications And Structures Of Constraint: A Comparison Of Daughters Of Sarah And Exponent Ii Within The Contexts Of Neo-Evangelicalism And Mormonism, Sasha S. Cluff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses content analysis to compare two conservative Christian feminist publications: Daughters of Sarah, produced by neo-evangelical feminists, and Exponent II, produced by Mormon feminists. Findings are based on insights from three main theories: Debra Minkoff's organization-environment perspective, Nancy Folbre's model of collective action based on structures of constraint, and the church-sect typology from the sociology of religion literature. Although both organizations similarly endeavor to integrate feminist and religious identities, the loose boundaries of evangelicalism allow Daughters of Sarah to explore a more liberal feminist agenda and interact with broader feminist sources while still remaining within the …

A Framework For Assessing The Economic Benefits And Costs Of Workplace Literacy Training, Kevin Hollenbeck

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Many individuals are grappling with the issue of whether to provide workers with training that upgrades the workers' basic academic skills. The corollary questions that flow from this issue are how to provide the training, how much training should be provided, and who should pay for the training. Workers are interested in this issue because they want to sustain productive, well-paying careers that will support adequate standards of living. Not receiving training may jeopardize their careers and earning power. Employers are interested in this issue because their economic role is to maximize corporate profits for stockholders. In most companies, worker …

Making Justice Culturally Sensitive: Project Implementation Report, Paul Omaji, Nara Srinivasan

Research outputs pre 2011

The Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training (as it was then called) funded Edith Cowan University from the 1995 National Priority (Reserve) Fund to direct a project to identify courses for educating and training personnel employed by justice agencies on multicultural issues; identify course content for a program to educate NESB and Aboriginal peoples on various aspects of the Australian justice system; and develop training packages for the justice agencies and NESB and Aboriginal communities. The Project was conceived against the background of an increasing concern about the well-being of minority groups within the justice system.

The University, through …

The Tacit Dimension Of Organizational Learning, Thomas Reeder Robinson

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research was conducted to observe the self-reflections of an organizational participant group to further understand the organizational learning phenomenon. The participant group consisted of the 15 managers, spanning three levels of management, of a large engineering group in the southeastern United States.

The intent of the research was to generate theory, rather than to test theory. To accomplish this objective, a qualitative research methodology in a participatory action framework was modeled from Keating's (1993) Organizational Learning Process (OLP) to co-construct participants' organizational reflections. The methodology included individual interviews designed to elicit spontaneity that co-generated organizational perspectives. These perspectives were …

Economic Interdependence Along A Colonial Frontier: Capitalism And The New River Valley, 1745-1789, B. Scott Crawford

History Theses & Dissertations

Historians have generally placed the beginning of capitalism in the United States in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. This assumes that the industrialization of the New England states fostered in a modern economic environment for the country as a whole. However, evidence of modern economic principles existed on the Virginia frontier as early as the mid-eighteenth century. As frontier settlers aspired to emulate eastern society, they not only sought to recreate a lifestyle similar to the one they left behind, but also set up similar governing practices, which in turn created social stratification similar to that which existed in the …

An Empirical Analysis Of Alcohol Addiction, Ismail Sirtalan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is an empirical application of the rational addiction theory to the consumption of alcohol and heavy drinking. The model, developed by Becker and Murphy, emphasizes the interdependency of past current and future consumption of an addictive good. This is different than myopic addiction models where the current consumption is dependent on past consumption but not on future consumption. The data employed is the Monitoring the Future Survey, a panel representative of young adults between seventeen and twenty-seven years old, over a period of fourteen years from 1976 to 1989. Since alcohol abuse is most prevalent in this age …

The Politics Of Economic Integration In Latin America: A Case Study Of The Andean Group, 1969–1995, Julio J. Chan-Sanchez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines and confirms the hypothesis, through the study of the evolution of the Andean Group (a subregional economic integration unit in South America), that economic integration is a quasi-cyclical process involving phases of progress, stagnation, and decline. It is not a smooth linear progression. This quasi-cyclical evolution is fundamentally determined by the governments of the member countries. As such, the individual governments are the most important actors in setting the evolution of the economic integration process.

The integration process will progress when all the governments of the member countries find the Andean Group useful for attaining some of …

An Examination Of The Socio-Economic Determinants Of Punishment Using Abductive Polynomial Networks, Farrukh Behzad Hakeem

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research is to examine aspects of the relationship between socio-economic conditions and imprisonment in a particular historical setting. Previous research suggests that this relationship is problematic and situationally variable. The approach taken in this dissertation reflects a belief that earlier studies can be faulted for their failure to take account of the fiscal climate of the state as an influence on the size of prison populations.

This analysis will employ the Marxist model, as developed by Rusche and Kirchheimer (1939) and widely applied (though with mixed results) in research conducted over the last half-century. This model …

A Qualitative Evaluation Of The S.A.I.F. Programme, Anne Blair

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis describes an evaluation of Sexual Assault in Families Inc., Perth, Western Australia (the SAIF programme) which offers therapy and counselling to families where one or more of the children have been sexually abused by one of the family members. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate the use of a triangulated qualitative research methodology in order to determine whether the programme is achieving its objectives in terms of service delivery. It adopted a phenomenological approach in which participants were acknowledged as expert informants who were capable of identifying valued aspects of the programme. The participants were twelve …

Politeness And Paradigms Of Family: A Perspective On The Development Of Communicative Competence In The Japanese Esl Speaker, Christopher J. Conlan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the issue of linguistic politeness in English with specific reference to Japanese ESL speakers. It develops a theoretical framework that sees shared assumptions concerning the marking of social-power and social-distance differentials as crucial. Developing the notion that linguistic politeness is a function of a status-dependent and context-dependent variety of language usage, it argues that there are four fundamental types of utterances, and that speech acts conforming to any of the power and distance configurations by means of which these four utterance types are defined can be considered to be polite if-but only if -both speaker and hearer …

Identification As A Motivator Of Environmentally Responsible Tourist Behaviour, Steve Sertis

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examined the use of information in motivating environmentally responsible behaviour. In light of the ineffectiveness of traditional educational methods that have focussed upon affecting behaviour by changing attitudes through the manipulation of cognitive variables, an attempt was made to produce a sense of identification with the Rottnest Island Quokka using the tripartite model of motivational bases of attitudes developed by Hills (1993 ). This model used to determine whether different kinds of information would produce changes in environmental behaviour. Three groups of tourists were given either no information; factual information, consistent with current educational techniques used to influence …