Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Prehistoric Use Of Hubbards Cave, Warren County, Tennessee, Erin Elizabeth Pritchard

Masters Theses

Hubbards Cave, in Warren County, Tennessee, contains evidence of a prehistoric gypsum mine. Such evidence is rare in the southeastern United States and few caves have been identified as prehistoric mineral extraction locations. Evidence of mining at Hubbards was documented using a total station laser transit and ArcView ã GIS program in order to identify and evaluate prehistoric activities throughout the cave. While much of the archaeological evidence pertaining to the prehistoric occupation of the cave has been removed as a result of later saltpeter (KNO 3) mining, traces of prehistoric evidence are documented in an attempt to interpret prehistoric …

Expenditure Control And Traditional Budgets: Comparing Two Implementations, Angela Lauria Gunnink

Masters Theses

My research will entail examining the budget processes of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Fairfield, California. The difference between these two cities and their budgets is that Fairfield implemented an expenditure control budget, and Kalamazoo operates with a traditional budget. The purpose of this Master’s Thesis is to compare and contrast Fairfield's performance with their expenditure control budget to Kalamazoo, a city of approximately the same size in terms of population, square mileage, and local governance as Fairfield, but operates with a traditional city budget.

This study revisits the empirical claims made by Osborne and Gaebler (1992), which illustrates Fairfield, California as …

Using Performance Analysis To Increase Staff Compliance With Acquisition Programs For Children With Autism, Scott Traynor

Masters Theses

Improvement in the rate of learning on acquisition programs for individuals diagnosed with autism often depends on the quality of instruction delivered by direct-care staff The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a performance analysis on targeting environmental variables that were maintaining less than optimal staff performance for a least-to-most prompting procedure used to teach a hand-washing task to preschool children diagnosed with autism. Direct observations of technician/child dyads were followed by informant interviews with technicians, supervisors, and other key staff members that pinpointed variables that were maintaining/hindering staff compliance with a prompting procedure designed to promote child acquisition of …

Personality Differences Of First-Year Law Students Using The Theory Of Mental Self-Government, Charles Angelo Licata

Masters Theses

Thinking styles are described as ones conscious attempt to develop an awareness of stimuli within the surrounding environment. They reflect on the way we perceive, interpret, and integrate information, as well as influence the quality of information we supply to others. At the same time, personality traits have become important factors in understanding the preferences people may feel towards their careers, lifestyles, and quality of life. Furthermore, Myers and Briggs (1984) linked personality to the way we perceive and think about the environment by developing a new model of personality and thinking, which was based on the research and theories …

Pecos Revisited: A Modern Analysis Of Earnest Hooton’S, The Indians Of Pecos Pueblo, Katherine Elizabeth Weisensee

Masters Theses

The extensive data recorded by Earnest Hooton (1930) during his years of work on the analysis of the remains recovered from Pecos Pueblo provides an excellent database for reconsidering his conclusions within a modern context. The first issue addressed in re-examining Hooton’s data relates to the sex estimations made for the Pecos sample. Researchers, specifically Ruff (1991), questioned the highly biased sex ratio that Hooton reported for the sample. Using the craniometric and postcranial metrics data that Hooton collected it was possible to re-evaluate Hooton’s sex estimations by utilizing discriminant functionanalysis in order to establish a more accurate sex ratio …

First And Second Generations Of Urban Black Mayors: Atlanta, Detroit, And St. Louis, Harold Eugene Core

Masters Theses

This research attempts to create an understanding of generationality as it applies to successive black mayors in the urban setting. At a glance, the first black mayors of Atlanta, Detroit, and St. Louis received criticism for being anti-white and using racial conflict to accomplish their goals of diversifying the decision-making elites in each city. The black mayors immediately following in each city were criticized in the black community as being too accommodating to white interests as they attempted to find racial balance in the decision-making elite.

This research uses literature to establish the nature of early black mayors as believing …

A Geostatistical Screening Strategy For Assessing Contaminated Sediment, Yasuyo K. Makido

Masters Theses

Many environmental problems involve the collection and interpretation of spatial data. Screening methods attempt to develop efficient test procedures to determine the presence and absence of contaminants in samples. Screening methods can reduce monitoring costs and effectively identify contamination problems. Adaptive sampling has the flexibility to adjust for follow-up sampling based on the observed patterns in the population. Geostatistical method is employed for the adaptive sampling scheme. Geostatistics are statistical methodologies that use spatial coordinates to help formulate models used in estimation and prediction.

This study seeks to map Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) concentrations in sediment in Lake Allegan and Morrow …

The Impact Of The Program For Athletic Coaches Education (Pace) Certification –Mivca Coaching Association, Heather L. Sawyer

Masters Theses

This study identified the level of awareness, and perceived usefulness of the Program for Athletic Coach (PACE) by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association (MIVCA) (n=296). The study further examined: (1) the extent MIVCA coaches are engaged in PACE; (2) the relative importance of content delivered; (3) the important content to improve coaching; and (4) what the MIVCA coaches believed their personal investment should be in a coaching education program.

The participants were asked to complete a survey that ranked the importance of the domains and standards found in the National Standards for Athletic Coaches (NSAC). Results indicate a relatively …

This Is The Price We Pay: A Study Of Divorce In The U.A.E. From Divorced Women's Perspectives, Wadha Al Nuaimi

Masters Theses

This study aims to answer these questions: What is the process of divorce in the U.A.E? When do women in the U.A.E reach the point where they can't stay with their husbands? Why does a close intimate relationship break up? What are the connections between social, economic, and cultural environment in the U.A.E and the divorced women who live within them?

Qualitative methods based on interviews of 20 divorced women citizens who initiated the divorce process in the city of Al Ain have been used. The study showed that there are six stages in the divorce process: disillusionment, expressing concern, …

Privies, Pigs, Rubbish, And Quacks: The Archaeology Of Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century Public Health In Knoxville, Tennessee, Tanya Alexandra Faberson

Masters Theses

Progressive Era (circa 1890-1920) public health reformers attempted to regulate urban sanitation by supporting reactionary public health policies and laws. Archaeologists and historians have often assumed that legislation has immediate impact on behavior when the intended legislative outcome is beneficial. Even so, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence does not strongly associate implementations of sanitation legislation and changes in behavior. This suggests complex social processes underlying the reform movement and people's reaction to it in the urban sphere.

Using sanitation ordinances drawn from Knoxville City Council minutes and sanitarian literature, findings indicate that sanitation reform targeted specific social …

The Accuracy Of U.S. Age Estimation Standards When Used To Age U.S. And Bosnian Skeletal Samples, Megan Lagrou

Masters Theses

As forensic anthropologists are increasingly becoming involved in human rights work abroad, it is critical to evaluate the applicability of the established US.derived age estimation standards to other populations. This research examines the impact that population variation has on the accuracy of several skeletal age indicators, specifically, the rate of medial clavicular epiphyseal fusion (Webb and Suchey 1985), and the progression of morphological change of the sternal rib end (Iscan, et al. 1984b; 1985), and the pubic symphysis (Brooks and Suchey 1990).

Previous research by Simmons, et al. ( 1999) demonstrated that a Bosnian sample displayed a pattern of morphological …

Football Yobbery: The Social Organization Of European Soccer, Pakky M. Gerkin

Masters Theses

This study is an investigation of European football fans, known as hooligans. For this research, I went to the European Football Championships in the summer of 2000. During a two-month field research project, I observed the soccer games and the many fans who gathered for the tournament. In the course of the research, I spoke with several individuals and explored the existing literature in the sociology of sport. This work has been created through a combination of my own ethnographic work, and an extensive literature review. I have attempted to interweave both my own experiences and those of others to …

Reassessment Of Cranial Plasticity In Man: A Modern Critique Of Changes In Bodily Form Of Descendants Of Immigrants, Corey Shepard Sparks

Masters Theses

The reconstruction of biological relationships in humans using the cranium relies on the assumption that the multivariate distances derived from cranial data have a genetic component. This notion has been criticized by some authors based mainly upon one study of Franz Boas. This study focused on the idea that within one generation the cranial form of a population can be significantly altered by a sudden change in the environment. Boas.s original study has been cited for the past ninety years as evidence of cranial plasticity.

A modern critique of Boas.s original study has been long overdue and is pursued herein …

The Involvement Of The Forensic Anthropologist In Human Rights Issues, Sarah Catherine Hughes

Masters Theses

The theme chosen for the 2001 American Academy of Forensic Sciences meeting, War Crimes and Other Acts Against Humanity, has highlighted the recent involvement of scientists in the investigation of gross human rights violations. Genocide, political murders, and mass killings rage throughout the world: Rwanda, Bosnia, the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Kosovo being only the most recent examples. Forensic anthropology is a field that was established to aid in the identification of human remains once visual recognition is lost. Most often this applies to medico-legal investigations of unexplained deaths. Of recent, however, forensic anthropologists have become involved in identifying …

Development Of An Arc View™ Extension To Measure Local Fractal Dimension, Christopher Page Caird

Masters Theses

Texture is defined as the visible cue suggesting the smoothness or coarseness associated with image tone or color (Emerson, 1999). Fractal dimension (D) offers insight towards understanding texture in the spatial as well as spectral context of an image (Mandelbrot, 1982). Fractal dimension is best understood as a range of values between two and three that are used to quantitatively describe a surface. (D) values near 2.0 represent a uniform area containing similar pixel values. In contrast, (D) values near 3.0 represent a domain that is spectrally complex. This complexity stems from light and dark pixels in close proximity to …

“Welcome To Prime-Time, Bitch”: The Nightmare On Elm Street Film Series And The Social Problematic Of Mediated Quasi-Interaction, Jason Rapelje

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how scenes of conflict within the "Nightmare on Elm Street" film series articulate four problematic characteristics of mediated quasi-interaction. The exploration is achieved partly by turning these four problematic characteristics into four "metaphorical anxiety themes," the occurrence of which is kept track of as they appear within the conflict scenes. Afterward, select scenes of conflict are reinterpreted based around the concept of "pseudo-ontology," which is used to uncover the ideological significance of the main characters' actions. Overall, the findings display that the films' articulation of the four metaphorical anxiety themes, alone and in combination, decrease …

Gender Differences In The Career Paths And Wages In The Japanese Labor Market, Machiko Kitagawa

Masters Theses

This study examines the gender gap in career patterns in the Japanese labor force, with particular attention to the role of education. A chief concern regarding employment for women is the worsening situation of college-educated women in terms of wages and employment opportunities.

Two cohorts of age groups, 25-29 and 40-44, are used to examine gender differences in career paths by educational level. The latter section of study examines the determinants of the average monthly earnings of male and female regular employees.

Analysis revealed significant differences between men's and women's employment patterns and wages during the middle ages. The study …

Exploring The Social Dimensions Of Grog-Temper Use At The Ink Bayou Site (3pu252): A Plum Bayou Culture Site In Central Arkansas, Eric Chadwick Drake

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the social implications involved with the technological decision to use grog (crushed potsherds) as a ceramic tempering agent by potters affiliated with the Plum Bayou culture of central Arkansas. The analytical technique of point-counting ceramic thin sections is used to search for patterns of grog-temper use at a single Plum Bayou culture site, the Ink Bayou site (3PU252). While the thermal properties of grog-temper may help to explain the variability of use observed at the Ink Bayou site, the social implications of producing grog-tempered pots are best illuminated by the sequence of productive operations employed by the …

Diversity In The 21st Century: Perceptions Of Minority Professionals In Organizations, Nancy Greer-Williams

Masters Theses

We end this century at a unique moment for the United States, when our power and prosperity are greater than at any time in our history. However, there is one area where U.S. leadership is blighted: effective racial diversity in the workplace. In other words, the law mandates that organizations have a diverse workforce, but if the racial history is any indication, there will be resistance to this order, especially by the group in power: white males. This thesis takes a phenomenological approach and explores the traditional styles that organizations use to approach diversity, as well as the barriers minorities …

The Wreck Of The Rockaway: The Archaeology Of A Great Lakes Scow Schooner, Kenneth R. Pott

Masters Theses

During the 19th century, Great Lakes shipping played a vital role in the development of the economies of the United States and Canada. Regional shipyards built thousands of vessels to distribute coal, lumber, grain, iron ore and other goods throughout the Great Lakes network. In time, certain designs were selected for the advantage they offered over others employed in the same trade. The scow schooner was one class of carrier which attained a high level of use in the Lakes region.

This study examines the scow schooner Rockaway and the economic factors which influenced the building and use of this …

The Impact Of Peer Pressure On Self-Reported Alcohol And Other Drug Use, Daniel D. White

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of peer pressure upon eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade use of alcohol and other drugs. Data related to the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana were analyzed to determine the effect that peer pressure has on the use of these substances. Other relationships considered were sex, grade level, and race, based on the literature in this area.

The data that were chosen for this study included 141 Michigan public school districts and were based on the responses of 16,760 students in 1992-93, and 15,283 students in 1994-95.

The results indicate …

Is It Digitall? Who's Invited To The Digital Revolution?, Sarah E. Dempsey

Masters Theses

A significant issue surrounding the increasing dependence of U.S. society on technological products surrounds questions of equity. Research suggests that our increased dependence on technology has acted to further stratify our society in regards to gender. A growing body of literature which takes a critical stance of technology acknowledges that there are gaps between technology 'haves' and 'have-nots' (Aronowitz, 1988; Brosnan, 1998; Harvey, 2000; Loader, 1998; Millar, 1998), suggesting that utopian perspectives of technology need to be re-examined. Research has addressed issues regarding gender politics and technology (Caputi, 1988; Jansen, 1989; Millar, 1998; Zimmerman, 1983), yet little research has examined …

The Effects Of A Management System In A Non-Profit Association, Lori H. Miller

Masters Theses

The primary challenge for non-profit associations is carrying out the functions that meet the various needs of their members or Board of Directors with restricted income. In many non-profits there are numerous tasks to complete with few personnel. Existing literature on the topic of non-profit management has limited applicability regarding managing staff performance. The current study examined the effects of a management system that included weekly meetings, goals and feedback on the performance of four employees in a non-profit association.

This study was an ABC group design where Condition 'A' consisted of weekly meetings and goal setting, Condition 'B' consisted …

Adapting The Habitat For Humanity Model To Sabah, Malaysia, Rozita Abdul Manap

Masters Theses

Building sustainable housing and community developments through the Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) homeownership program, is one of the many ways that has successfully improved housing standards for low-income communities in the U.S. Findings show that this model can be used as a mechanism to stimulate serious programs and as an alternative to improve and solve housing problems.

This study focuses on how the Habitat for Humanity model can be applied towards increasing the benefits to the community in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Located on Borneo Island, Sabah is the second largest state in the Federation of Malaysia, but is regarded …

Examining Corrections Policy And Practice In Response To In Diana's Zachary's Law: A Regional Analysis, Janine A. Ralston

Masters Theses

This study provides an analysis of a criminal justice agency's policy and practice to examine if they reflect specific objectives of Indiana registry and notification laws. Prior research suggests that for objectives of sex offender registry and notification laws to be realized, they be reflected system-wide, and in policies and practices of criminal justice agencies. The agency selected for this study is the Indiana Department of Correction. A combination of policy and statistical analysis, interviews with key agency personnel, and compilation of agency documents provides a triangulated approach to addressing this inquiry.

This study found that while some policies and …

Development Along The Northwestern Boundary Of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Can The Park's 'Soft-Edge' Boundary Be Preserved?, Robert Edward James

Masters Theses

Development along the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's northwestern boundary threatens the "soft-edge" characteristics of its bordering communities. The "soft-edge" characteristics enable visitors to gradually transition from the urban to natural environment, and mitigate human impacts on the natural environment. Between 1970and 1994 the Knoxville Metropolitan Area population grew from 424,586to 631,097. Between 1988and 1997Park visitation increased from 8.8million to 9.9million. This thesis questions whether the "soft-edge" character of the Park's northwestern boundary can be preserved in light of the increasing population and development pressures on the bordering communities. In this thesis I have reviewed the roles of the parties …

Community Schools: Planning Space For Democracy And Civic Engagement, Jamey L. Dobbs

Masters Theses

American society in the twentieth century has been characterized by a decrease in voter turnout, a decline in membership in civic organizations, decreasing volunteerism, and a decline in several other indicators of civic engagement and social capital. Enhancing democratic civic engagement and civic space is worthy issue that has not typically been at the forefront of the agenda of planning. This study investigates the role of community schools as a catalyst for enhancing citizen interaction and community planning, and for creating civic space. While school space represents one of the largest investments of public tax revenue in most municipalities, it …

Gender Equality And Agricultural Development: Women And Agricultural Extension Programs In Malawi, Amanda Bigelow

Masters Theses

Since it gained independence, Malawi has struggled to produce enough food to feed its quickly growing population. As the Ministry of Agriculture has tried to implement new policies regarding agricultural development, it has restructured key organizations within the government.

Initially, women were largely ignored in governmental and international aid agencies' development plans. However, after several unsuccessful projects, most implemented by the World Bank, a new project created by USAID revealed statistics that attributed part of the failures to gender-related biases in planning. Once these biases were identified, the government of Malawi requested assistance in reaching women farmers for purposes of …

An Analysis Of The Lithic Assemblage From The Armintrout-Blackman Site (20ae812), Allegan County, Michigan, Arthur L. Desjardins

Masters Theses

Middle Woodland period Hopewell manifestations in western Michigan were mainly concentrated in the St. Joseph, Grand and Muskegon River Valleys. By constrast, the Kalamazoo River valley is lacking in a significant Hopewell expression, suggesting this area was peripheral to Hopewell developments elsewhere in western Michigan. The Armintrout-Blackman site (20AE812) is a Middle Woodland period encampment in the middle segment of the Kalamazoo River valley and has yielded artifacts bearing Hopewell stylistic attributes. More specifically, this thoroughly excavated site exhibits spatial separation of temporally sensitive ceramic components, reflecting early Havana-Hopewell through late Middle Woodland occupations. This project examines such a situation …

Nudists In The Know: Investigating Social Assumptions Of A Clothed Society, Sandra E. Schroer

Masters Theses

This work is an institutional ethnography on the ruling relations of clothing in society. Research was conducted through a standpoint methodology which combines interviews, participant observation and the first hand experiences of the researcher.

The interview data reveals nudists' belief in a social preoccupation with body ideals and the power structures created by some uses of clothing. The subjects in this research apply their experiences in both the clothed world and the non-clothed world to expose the implications of the social structures of clothing which appear to effect interpersonal relationships, gender and disability, inequality, prejudice and ageism.

In addition, the …