Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Social Network And Attachment Bases Of Loneliness, David M. Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests Robert S. Weiss's 1973 theory of loneliness, which claims two types of loneliness: emotional and social. Emotional loneliness is the affective reaction to the absence of a close attachment bond. Social loneliness stems from inadequate integration into a social network. Undergraduate residents of a university dormitory completed questionnaires on loneliness, attachment, personality, and relationships with other dorm residents. Patterns of relational ties among participants were evaluated using social network analysis, specifically density, tie strength, and four forms of centrality. Results reveal that, while controlling for neuroticism, the network measure of outdegree and the two attachment dimensions accounted …

Picturing A Postcolonial Australia : Breaking The 'White' Norm In Contemporary Creative Practice, Rebekah Rousi

Theses : Honours

This dissertation is about addressing social issues relating to colonial encounters from the perspective of a 'White' colonial Australian artist. The discussion seeks to address representational imbalances which occur within image construction as the result of a history of Imperial investment in defining the 'civilised Self against the non-European 'primitive Other' (Said, 1978). The label 'White' is analysed in terms of its contradictions and generalisations, where it is linked to a culturally assumed 'Self' positioning of human centrality and neutrality. This centrality (humanity) was used by Imperialists to justify reasoning behind colonial expansion. The thriving mechanisms of Euro-centric perception are …

A Historical Geography Of The Bayswater Foreshore, Swan River, Susan Hames

Theses : Honours

This study examines the historical and present extents of native wetland-floodplain vegetation along the Swan River foreshore in the City of Bayswater, within the Perth metropolitan area. As a geographical history of native vegetation it is largely concerned with the contribution cultural values and modifications have made to ecological changes in foreshore biodiversity and the sustainability of the ecosystem. Adopted into the urban psyche, the Swan River forms a central artery in the cultural landscape and natural ecosystem; evocative and practical in combination. However, the contemporary foreshore is a modified environment with native vegetation, in terms of biodiversity and land …

Exploring Women's Experiences Of A Medically Necessary Caesarean, Michelle Cotterell

Theses : Honours

Caesarean delivery accounts for approximately one in four births both in Australia and on a global level. Examination of the experience of caesarean delivery is limited, although as caesarean delivery rates are increasing, a practical understanding of the constructs surrounding surgical birth needs to be gained. This review aims to present an overview of the current literature exploring the mother's experience of caesarean delivery. The different modes of medically necessary caesarean delivery, both unplanned and planned are defined. Societal views of caesarean birth as an easier and convenient mode of delivery in comparison to vaginal birth are described and it …

Under The Thumb : The Role Of Sms In The Forming And Maintenance Of Adolescent Dating Relationships, Jason Noble

Theses : Honours

The use of the mobile phone is a ubiquitous feature of many an individual's social life within contemporary society. Given this, it is somewhat surprising that little academic research has been undertaken into its effects on the social and cultural lives of key user populations. In particular, the Short Message Service- SMS texting- is a mobile phone application that has transformed the lives of large numbers of adolescent city dwellers. Moreover, teenagers and young adults, who represent the adolescent population, have adopted this mobile phone application and subsequently applied it to their social lives in ways that never would have …

Social Competence : An Exploration Of Children's Experiences Within The Home Environment, Mandie B. Shean

Theses : Honours

The acquisition of social competence is an important developmental task for children. This review examines how child effects and environmental effects contribute to children's achievement of social competence. Environmental factors are addressed through Bronfenbrenner's (1999) ecological systems model of the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem, The microsystem includes the home environment with parent-parent, parent-child and sibling relationships. The mesosystem includes the school environment with peer and teacher relationships. Finally, the exosystem incorporates indirect environments such as parent work, economic status and the media. Issues of reciprocal effects are addressed and the suggestion is made that social competence is the result of …

The Reporting Of The Tampa Incident In Australian And Norwegian Newspapers, Lene Sjobrend

Theses : Honours

The M/S Tampa in August 2001 was turned by the Australian government into a tool to fight the increasing numbers of boat people heading for Australia. But more importantly, it was a fight to win back votes before the upcoming federal election. Also in Norway an election was imminent, and even though the incident did not become an important part of the Norwegian election campaign, it played a role in Norway's involvement in the case. The media has a tendency to listen to authoritative voices, which can make the media a victim of political spin. Since the governments in Norway …

The Framing Of Iraq: How Newspapers Rely On Wire Services For Fact And Frameire Services For Fact And Frame, Ruth Callaghan

Theses : Honours

Traditional wire service studies have focused on how international events are judged as newsworthy in newsrooms reluctant to devote space to overseas stories. Studies of framing in reports of the same events usually rely on articles by different journalists from different news groups. During the recent Iraq war, however, considerable space was allocated to an overseas event and Australian newspapers relied on articles transmitted by the same wires. Thus the war provides the opportunity not only to look at how Australian newspapers use wire copy but how that copy is framed. This thesis concentrates on instances where wire copy was …

Welfare State Expenditures And The Distribution Of Child Opportunities, Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, Timothy M. Smeeding

Center for Policy Research

This paper estimates the redistributive effects of welfare state expenditures on social and economic disparities in the economic well-being of citizens in ten nations. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other sources for cash and non-cash social welfare benefits (health and education benefits from third parties) are used to describe differences in the size and nature of welfare states and their distributional effects. The OECD data are combined with micro data on household incomes from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) both to estimate the redistributive effects of the expenditures and taxes and to construct measures …

Taxes, Deadweight Loss And Intertemporal Female Labor Supply: Evidence From Panel Data, Anil Kumar

Center for Policy Research

Very few existing studies have estimated female labor supply elasticities using a U.S. panel data set, although cross-sectional studies abound. Also, most existing studies have done so in a static framework. I make an attempt to fill the gap in this literature by estimating a lifecycle-consistent specification with taxes, in a limited dependent variable framework, on a panel of married females from the PSID. Both parametric random effects and semi parametric fixed effects methods are applied. I find evidence of larger substitution effects than found in female labor supply literature with taxes, suggesting considerable distortionary effects from income taxation. The …

How Much More Does A Disadvantaged Student Cost?, William D. Duncombe, John Yinger

Center for Policy Research

This paper provides a guide to statistically based methods for estimating the extra costs of educating disadvantaged students, shows how these methods are related, and compares state aid programs that account for these costs in different ways. We show how pupil weights, which are included in many state programs, can be estimated from an education cost equation, which many scholars use to obtain an education cost index, and we devise a method to estimate pupil weights directly. Using data from New York, we show that the distribution of state aid is similar with statistically based pupil weights and an educational …

Maternal Employment And Adolescent Self-Care, Leonard M. Lopoo

Center for Policy Research

Mounting evidence shows that self-care produces deleterious consequences for adolescents in the U.S. Since descriptive evidence suggests that maternal employment is the primary explanation for adolescent self-care, maternal employment, it is frequently argued, is harming children. Heretofore, very little empirical research has actually investigated the impact of maternal employment on adolescent self-care, however, calling into question this assertion. This paper aims to fill this gap. The author uses the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 supplemented by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 to estimate the relationship between maternal employment and adolescent self-care. Unlike prior research, the author employs a …

Gender And Ethnic Differences In Perceived Stress As A Predictor Of Smoking Behaviors In Rural Adolescents, Lashanda R. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted to examine the impact of perceived stress on current and future smoking behaviors of rural Virginia middle school students. Data were analyzed for 685 sixth grade students and 554 seventh grade students. Sixth grade students were 52% male, 53% Caucasian American (CA), and 47% African American (AA). For 7th graders, the sample was 53% female and 56% CA (44% AA). Of the 685 sixth grade students, 7% reported that they had smoked cigarettes at least once during the past 30 days (n=46,63% male and 67% CA). By the 7th grade, the percentage of smokers …

Lego Mindstorms As A Training Tool For Software Development Methodology In Multimedia Education., Elias Wyber

Creative Connections Symposium @ BEAP2004 September 4, 2004

This paper outlines an approach to educating multimedia practitioners utilizing Lego MindStorms® which evolved out of a desire to bridge the technical and aesthetic worldviews. The approach focuses on three aspects of the development process. First, it examines the linguistic model of code production. In order to convey the act of writing code as a linguistic task, the students are introduced to several aspects of linguistic theory, with examples illustrating their application in spoken, programmed and Lego MindStorms® based languages. The second area of focus is object theory. Adopting a similar approach to the previous section, but giving only Lego …

Front Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Editor's Page, Scott Titsworth

Basic Communication Course Annual

Now 16 years old, the Basic Communication Course Annual continues to hold a unique and instrumental status among peer communication journals. Notably, the Annual is the only national communication journal devoted to research and scholarship pertaining to the basic communication course. What started as an infant in 1988 has grown into a bright young-adult with an admirable sense of self.

The success of the Annual is entirely attributable to the community of scholars who have supported the journal over the years. All of us should be thankful for the leadership provided by the previous editors: Deanna Sellnow, Craig Newburger, and …

Bias In The Evaluation Process: Influences Of Speaker Order, Speaker Quality, And Gender On Rater Error In The Performance Based Course, Paul D. Turman, Matthew H. Barton

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examines how variations in speaker order increase the potential for rater error in the performance based course. Seventy-six undergraduate raters were randomly assigned to one of eight treatment groups and asked to grade eight-week training course. Speaker order and presentation quality varied across groups and an ANOVA was used to examine significant differences across rater assessments, feedback quality and rater gender. Significant main effects were identified in each of the eight treatment groups suggesting that speaker order influenced rater scoring.

Written Speech Feedback In The Basic Communication Course: Are Instructors Too Polite?, Dana L. Reynolds, Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds, Craig W. Cutbirth

Basic Communication Course Annual

The present study investigates written performance feedback through the lens of politeness theory. Study 1 examined the types of comments instructors offer to students when they provide written feedback on speeches as well as the relationship between these comments and students' grades.

Results demonstrate that instructors used an overabundance of positive politeness messages and virtually no negative politeness messages. Students who received a higher grade were more likely to receive fewer face threats and more positive politeness messages than those students' who received a lower grade. The results also suggest that instructors are more willing to threaten a students' negative …

Communication Lab Peer Facilitators: What's In It For Them?, M. Tanya Bran-Barrett, Judith A. Rolls

Basic Communication Course Annual

Peer tutors have been used extensively within the communication discipline to enhance students' learning experiences (Hill, 1981; Webb & Lane, 1986). Research suggests that peer tutoring can have positive rewards for tutors and tutees (Goodland & Hurst, 1989; Topping, 1996). However, there is little to no research that explores the benefits received by peer tutors who run small group communication lab sessions for basic communication course students.

The qualitative data from focus group indicate that peer facilitators experienced: 1) self-development in terms of their self-esteem, confidence, and respect from themselves and others; 2) improved public speaking skills and better interpersonal …

Speech Laboratories: An Exploratory Examination Of Potential Pedagogical Effects On Studies, Adam C. Jones, Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds, Mark E. Comadena, John R. Baldwin

Basic Communication Course Annual

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects speech laboratories have on students enrolled in basic public speaking courses. Specifically, the researchers attempted to gain a student perspective about visiting a speech laboratory through qualitative methods. Ten semi-structured student interviews were conducted and the collected data were transcribed verbatim before being analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

The results of the analysis provide initial support that speech laboratories do, to some degree, assist students with their public speaking skills and help them manage their public speaking anxiety.

Creating A Dialogue For Change: Educating Graduate Teaching Assistants In Whiteness Studies, Kristen P. Treinen

Basic Communication Course Annual

Research indicates that minority students are underrepresented in our classroom curriculum (Churchill, 1995; Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1994). Our schools are often entrenched in the Eurocentric model of education from content to methodology. In this paper, I discuss antiracist pedagogy and whiteness studies, offer a justification for utilizing antiracist pedagogy with work in whiteness studies in the communication classroom, and provide one model for incorporating antiracist pedagogical practice with graduate teaching assistants. This essay is intended to help create a dialogue with GTAs, basic course directors, and communication faculty about antiracist practices in the communication classroom.

From Spectators Of Public Affairs To Agents Of Social Change: Engaging Students In The Basic Course Through Service-Learning, Lynn M. Harter, Erika L. Kirby, Katherine L. Hatfield, Karla N. Kuhlman

Basic Communication Course Annual

Much literature bemoans the attitudes of Generation X (and their successors) toward civic participation (e.g., Putnam, 2000) and indeed education itself (e.g., Sacks, 1996). However, we have found students to be highly engaged when they have opportunities for active learning, such as those found in well designed service learning projects. We see this pedagogy as a small antidote to the sense of powerlessness that often pervades our culture. Drawing on diverse literatures, we explore theoretical reasons for using service-learning and illustrate its usefulness in speech communication basic course. Our discussion is organized around two key themes: (a) connection of self …

Special Forum On The Philosophy Of Teaching Education As Communication: The Pragmatist Tradition, Chad Edwards, Gregory J. Shepherd

Basic Communication Course Annual

We take the basic course in communication to be a site where associated living is experienced, and where individuals practice the democratic art of referencing and articulating their own behaviors and beliefs to those of others. This democratic practice is associated living is, as American pragmatist and educational philosopher John Dewey insisted, communication itself -- "conjoint communicated experience." In this essay, we provide an overview of this pragmatist educational metaphysic and discuss a few consequences of metaphysical beliefs about education.

Teaching And Learning In The Spirit Of Friendship, William K. Rawlins

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article discusses how the ideals and practices of friendship can provide an edifying ethic for the interactions and relationships of educators and students in the basic communication course. It examines three facets of friendship in the Western tradition, four dialectical tensions of the educational friendship, a collection of six virtues associated with teaching as friendship, and some limitations of the educational friendship.

Native Virtues: Traditional Sioux Philosophy And The Contemporary Basic Communication Course, Daniel P. Modaff

Basic Communication Course Annual

Teaching and learning in the basic communication course can be informed by the traditional Sioux virtues of bravery, generosity, fortitude and wisdom. The virtues are forwarded as a set of ideas that may equip the reader with an alternative way to think about course material, pedagogical practices, and classroom interrelationships. The essay concludes with the limitations of an concerns with the virtues in the contemporary basic course.

Taking Risks And Embracing Difference, Margaret R. Laware

Basic Communication Course Annual

Thinking about the public speaking classroom as public space provides a generative metaphor as long as critiques of public space, particularly feminist critiques, and critical pedagogy theory are considered. These critiques recognize the importance of encouraging students to engage with the public world in such a way that they see their own paper to effect change. Risk-taking and confronting issues of racism and sexism are integral to this process.

Special Forum On The Philosophy Of Teaching: A Synthesis And Response, Jo Sprague

Basic Communication Course Annual

The ways that an individual professor, a department, or a campus talks about the basic communication course can be arrayed along a broad spectrum of attitudes. At one end of a continuum are those who look at the course with a blend of intellectual contempt and embarrassment (Burgoon, 1989) or who believe that an assignment to teach such a course counts as penance or banishment. For many or most of our colleagues the characterizations fall in a more positive central zone, construing the course as a rich source of student enrollment or a fertile recruiting ground for majors.

The authors …

Author Information

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.