Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

China And Latin America: A Match Made In Trade Heaven Or Dependency Reloaded?, Meghan Skira

Senior Honors Projects

China’s economy is expanding rapidly, and the emerging powerhouse is searching for energy resources, raw materials, and markets to maintain its economic growth. China has shown an insatiable appetite for Latin American natural resources, commodities, and agricultural products, from oil to lumber to copper to soybeans. Trade values between the two regions increased greatly from $1.3 billion in 1980 to about $13 billion in 2000 to over $50 billion in 2005. Latin America has the raw materials that China needs to fuel its economic expansion and offers a large market for cheap Chinese manufactured goods. Many analysts claim that Sino-Latin …

The Evolution And Impact Of Documentary Films, Amma Marfo

Senior Honors Projects

Long considered either high art or the bane of every student’s existence when a substitute teacher came to class, documentary film has developed into a popular and visible form of entertainment. As a result, they are starting to have a bigger effect on society, as they begin to address issues with the goal of informing the public and pushing for social change. This project will first address historical documentaries, the reasons that they were made, and what techniques were established that have carried through to documentary film today. My paper will then examine today’s documentary films, what techniques they use …

The People Of Bear Hunter Speak: Oral Histories Of The Cache Valley Shoshones Regarding The Bear River Massacre, Aaron L. Crawford

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Cache Valley Shoshone are the survivors of the Bear River Massacre, where a battle between a group of US. volunteer troops from California and a Shoshone village degenerated into the worst Indian massacre in US. history, resulting in the deaths of over 200 Shoshones. The massacre occurred due to increasing tensions over land use between the Shoshones and the Mormon settlers. Following the massacre, the Shoshones attempted settling in several different locations in Box Elder County, eventually finding a home in Washakie, Utah. However, the LDS Church sold the land where the city of Washakie sat, forcing the Shoshones …

Palestinian Refugees And Canadian Sanctuary: A Way Through The Protection Gap?, Rounwah Adly Riyadh Saeed Bseiso

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of A Treatment Approach For Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder And Borderline Personality Disorder: A Case Study, Jo Anne Esfahani

Theses and Dissertations

This case study evaluates the effectiveness of psychopharmacology and psychotherapy with a focus on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the treatment of an adult female diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder in a community based mental health agency. The client's psychosocial assessment is presented and the empirical treatment literature related to the client's diagnosis is reviewed. A variety of outcome measures were used. Results indicated the treatment was effective: the client experienced significant reduction in the severity of her symptoms. However, further treatment is needed to improve parenting skills, maintain healthy interpersonal relationships and to reduce residual …

The Relationship Between Uncertainty And Desire For Feedback: A Test Of Competing Hypotheses, Filip Anseel, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The relationship between uncertainty and desire for feedback was investigated in 2 studies. Results of Study 1 showed support for a curvilinear relationship. People were interested in feedback at high and low levels of uncertainty, as opposed to moderate levels of uncertainty, indicating the activation of both uncertainty reduction and self-verification motives. In Study 2, the curvilinear relationship with uncertainty was replicated for indirect feedback-seeking behavior. In contrast, we found a negative relationship between direct feedback seeking and uncertainty, moderated by certainty orientation. People seemed more motivated by self-verification vs. uncertainty reduction strivings, depending on their certainty orientation. These findings …

Ideology Or Isolationism? Russian Identity And Its Influence On Orthodox-Catholic Relations Part Ii: Russian Identity And Roman Catholicism, Catherine Clare Caridi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Liturgy And Revolution Part 1: Georgian Baptists And The Non-Violent Struggle For Democracy, W. Benjamin Boswell

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Mandala As A Measure Of Change With Adult Residents Of A Homeless Shelter, Mary W. Cochran

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Homelessness in the United States is a problem that continues to be addressed at the local, state, and federal levels. Diverse solutions to the problem of homelessness include emergency shelters, transitional shelters, and long-term housing. Shelters for families have become a common shelter type, offering diverse programs and types of services. Art therapy with the homeless has concentrated on the aspect of building self-efficacy through the creative process, however, there is limited research concerning the use of art products as a measure of change for the homeless. This study explores the use of mandala drawings to assess changes occurring in …

Visitors' Delayed Responses To Interpretive Talks And Interpreters' Expectations For Visitor Responses, Lisa Machnik

All Dissertations

National Park visitors' delayed responses to interpretive talks are examined and compared to professional interpreters' expectations for visitor responses to interpretive talks. The premise is that through an understanding of visitors' delayed responses, interpretive programs can be refined to further the goals of visitor learning and appreciation as well as the development of a sense of stewardship. Informal learning theory, schema theory, and constructivist learning theory provide a conceptual and theoretical framework for the research.
Visitors to nine U.S. National Parks participated in a computer-assisted telephone survey/interview eight months after attending an on-site interpretive talk (n=283, response rate 86%). Questions …

Death And Taxes: The Impact Of Government Policy On Health, Anca Cotet

All Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the impact of various government policies on health. First, I study the effect of labor income taxes on health. Labor income taxes are predicted to affect health through their impact on the value of time, which is at the same time an important input but also the output of health production. Using variation in labor income tax rates among US states, I find that both higher taxes and more progressive taxes keeping tax liability constant lead to a decline in health.
Second, I challenge the common wisdom that non-economic damage caps on malpractice awards have a positive …

Three Essays In Political Economy, Melissa Yeoh

All Dissertations

The first essay provides a theoretical framework that informs the ongoing debate regarding the effect of conservation easement subsidies on local property tax revenue. Supporters claim that conservation easements increase property tax revenue by providing environmental amenities that increase the value of adjacent properties. Critics argue that they decrease property tax revenue by lowering land values and shrinking the tax base. In instances when local property tax revenue decline due to the income tax deductibility of conservation easements, the decline is larger when the demand for land is more elastic, the proportion of non-agricultural land in the county is larger, …

Meaningful Learning At A National Historic Site: How Interpretive Tour Message Content Affects Visitor Learning Transfer, Christine Van Winkle

All Dissertations

This study examines meaningful learning transfer at a historic site. Transfer is the ability to apply knowledge to a new situation or setting and can be divided into near and far transfer. Near transfer is characterized by the ability to transfer knowledge to a similar situation, whereas far transfer is the ability to transfer knowledge to a different situation. This between-subject post-test only field experiment investigated the effect of interpretive message design on visitors' ability to transfer leaning from an interpretive audio tour at a heritage site. Interpretive messages were designed to examine the effect of message organizers (i.e. presence …

Secrets And Hiding Places: The Worth Of Women In Nicholas Nickleby, Elizabeth Redmond

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In early Victorian England, married women were denied the legal right to own property, and social convention remanded them to ostracism if they chose to remain single. Likewise, jobs that were available to women failed to pay a living wage, so women were placed under tremendous economic and social pressure to marry. In Charles Dickens' novel, Nicholas Nickleby, he depicts how marriage becomes manipulated within the working and middle classes as a means to acquire wealth. Dickens also compares the repression of women to the abuse suffered by school children in the Yorkshire schools, which had a reputation for neglecting …

Leadership And The Politics Of Religious Conflict In Northern Nigeria, Clement Kagoma

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Northern Nigeria has become a boiling point lately where Christians and Muslims kill each other in the name of God. Within the last four years, over 10,000 people had lost their lives. This research seeks to investigate the relationship between political leadership and the causes of religious conflict in Northern Nigeria. Using the survey method 150 questionnaires were sent to different parts of northern Nigeria and 40 to Nigerians living in the United States. 117 questionnaires were analyzed at the end with 99 coming from Nigeria. The results revealed that there is a significant relationship between political leadership and religious …

Exploring Predictors Of Parent Involvement For Rural Head Start Children, Benjamin E. Wynn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the present study we examined parent participation in an extrafamilial context (Head Start) and the family and child development conditions that predicted such participation.

Participants included 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds and their parents in the Northern Utah and Southeastern Idaho areas. The families were grouped according to the child's previous Head Start experience: those who had received home-based services in year one followed by center-based services in the second year (HB to CB); those who had received no services in year one and home-based services in year two (HB only); and those families who had received no services in …

The Effect Of Taxes On Saving: Evidence From 29 Oecd Countries, Caihua Zheng

All Theses

Despite an extensive literature on the determinants of savings, the effects of tax policy on saving behavior have not been resolved conclusively. The purpose of this thesis is to estimate the impact of tax policy on both national and private saving rates using panel data collected for 29 OECD countries spanning a thirty year period from 1975 to 2005. Using tax rate changes to reflect tax policy changes, the cross-section and the panel data models incorporate the statutory value-added tax rate, the average and top personal income tax rate and the top corporate income tax rates as indicators of tax …

The Effects Of Group Initiatives In Collegiate Leisure Skills Courses, Ryan Hegreness

All Theses

Leisure skills classes are offered to students at Clemson University with the intent of helping students to develop new skills in various leisure-time activities. If a leisure skills class is successful, a student's sense of efficacy in that skill should be greater at the conclusion of the semester. This study attempted to determine whether leisure skills classes at Clemson University can become more effective in increasing self-efficacy through the addition of group initiatives as a part of the course curriculum. This study utilized a quasi-experimental design to examine whether there is a significant difference in general self-efficacy and leisure skills …

Nighttime Pedestrian Conspicuity: The Effects Of Pedestrian Movement, Orientation And The Configuration Of Retroreflective Material, Stacy Balk

All Theses

Most fatal collisions between vehicles and pedestrians occur at night; inadequate visibility is a key factor. Previous research has shown that positioning reflective markers on pedestrians in a manner that depicts biological motion greatly enhances conspicuity. This on-road experiment examined the conspicuity advantages of a full biological motion configuration relative to that provided by an ANSI class II safety vest. 120 healthy young participants were driven along a 3.5 mile route and pressed a button when they were confident they saw a pedestrian. A test pedestrian on the left shoulder of the roadway wore black clothing with either an ANSI …

The Presidential Crisis Rhetoric Of September 11th, 2001 And Hurricane Katrina: Examples Of Charismatic Leadership Or Not?, Kelly Davis

All Theses

This study investigates the influence of crisis on the use of charismatic rhetoric. Using computerized content analysis, the speeches and radio addresses of President Bush were examined during four time periods, including pre- and post-September 11th and pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina. Theoretical characteristics of charismatic leadership were examined through the development of eight charismatic rhetoric constructs (collective focus, temporal orientation, followers' worth, similarity to followers, values and moral justifications, tangibility, action, and adversity). Results from MANOVA tests reveal that the rhetorical leadership of President Bush became more charismatic following each of the crises, which suggests that the increased charisma was …

Cause-Related Marketing For Breast Cancer:Investigating Tools For Partnerships, Katherine Hunter

All Theses

The thesis outlines cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns and examines the effectiveness and implications for the organizations involved. CRM campaigns are when corporate entities partner with philanthropies in order to advance the 'cause' for which the philanthropic organization supports. SWOT methodology is used to analyze three cases: a short term success, a long term success, and a 'failure.' From these three cases, best practices and learning points are observed which can be used to develop successful campaigns. Ethical implications such as Yoplait's tactics in the 'Save Lids to Save Lives' campaign are discussed to better understand CRM's repercussions. The conclusion addresses …

Income, Scheduling Flexibility, And Diversity Policies: An Experimental Investigation Of Recruiting Older Workers, Holly Geldhauser

All Theses

A number of surveys have tapped the interests of older employees as a way to understand the factors that encourage extended employment (Bass, 1995; Sterns, 1998). The current research has two purposes. The first is an applied goal; to determine the organizational factors that are most attractive to older workers seeking employment. The second purpose is to investigate the predictive strength of these variables through a controlled experimental design rather than using survey methodology. We chose to examine the importance of pay, work flexibility, and diversity policies as determinants of interest in the return to work among white collar employees. …

The Effects Of Landmark Information On Navigation Performance, Attention To The Driving Environment, And Vehicle Control, Rachael Daniels

All Theses

Recent research has helped confirm that landmarks are used as strong navigational signals and assist with way-finding strategies. Current in-vehicle information systems however, use little information in the way of landmarks, and instead rely heavily on distance information in order to direct drivers to their destination. It has been suggested that our spatial knowledge of an environment rarely uses distance information accurately. Although, recent research has shown that landmarks are helpful, a deeper understanding of what specific types of landmarks help with navigation is lacking in the literature. The current study attempts to fill in this gap in the literature …

The Role Of Exigencies In Marketing: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Three Online Social Networks, Greg Martin

All Theses

Over the last few years, the use of online social networks has increased exponentially, and some of these 'virtual communities' are among the most visited sites on the Internet. With this boom in popularity has also come a rise in the need for marketing within these spaces, and very little academic literature exists on how to best utilize this new and budding arena for advertising ventures. Traditional business approaches to marketing are no longer adequate because of the radicalization of new media found within online social networks. This thesis, therefore, provides a new metric of success for social network marketing, …

Identities Matter: Identity Politics, Coalition Possibilities, And Feminist Organizing, Erica Townsend-Bell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the processes of identity construction and deployment among Uruguayan women and organized women’s groups. I employ narrative analysis and process tracing methodology to analyze the question of why attempts to create multi-racial gender coalitions are frequently unsuccessful among Uruguayan women’s groups. I find that identity is constructed differently for women along the lines of race and class, even in a South American setting where racial attributes are supposedly of little import. These competing identities result in conflicts among the gender-based organizations that women form; as a consequence there is a reduction in coalition possibilities for otherwise similarly …

Minimum Wage As A Poverty Reducing Measure, Kevin Souza

Master's Theses - Economics

With the recent increase in the Federal minimum wage, it is important to consider the impact of minimum wage in order to assess its effectiveness as a poverty reducing measure. While an increase in the minimum wage will increase income, the increased labor cost may cause an increase in unemployment. Greater unemployment may negate any benefit derived from the change in the minimum wage. Also, the minimum wage could put upward pressure on all wages. By using data from the Census and Bureau of Labor and Statistic’s 2006 March Supplement, it is possible to develop a model that empirically tests …

An Analysis Of The Application Of Club Good Models To Determine Carrying Capacity Of National Parks, Rachel Smith

Master's Theses - Economics

The National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 requires that park managers develop and implement a plan regarding visitor carrying capacity. In response, econometricians have developed models that may be helpful to park management in regards to meeting this goal. The focus of this paper is to highlight some of the earlier work done by Buchanan (1965) and Ng (1973) in regards to modeling club goods and then to examine more recent attempts by Turner (2000) and Prato (2001) in applying these models to help determine carrying capacity of national parks. Turner (2000) and Prato’s (2001) models will then be …

The Impact Of Hiv On Economic Development, Kate Jones-Smith

Master's Theses - Economics

This paper estimates the impact of the HIV epidemic on the economic development taking place around the world. The focus is put on the World Bank measurements taken of various countries and other significant populations in 2003. Through these measurements, the annual growth rate is compared with the HIV prevalence rate in order to determine the impact. Even though the effect is only marginally significant, the data does show a slight negative effect on the economic growth around the world. These results suggest that as the pandemic increases in severity, the development of areas around the world will be adversely …

An Analysis Of The Economic Impact Of Biodiesel Production In Illinois, Kelly Uphoff

Master's Theses - Economics

The production of biodiesel in the United States has expanded greatly in recent years. A factor contributing to the growth of this industry is the perception that renewable fuel production is an economic boon to state and local economies, particularly those of rural areas. This study estimates the economic impact of biodiesel production in the state of Illinois. Through input-output analysis and by simulating the industry using IMPLAN, the impact of a 10 million gallon per year plant using soy oil as its only feedstock is modeled. The estimated effect on output, employment, and other parameters is substantial. However, the …

An Exploratory Qualitative Study Of Dual-Earner Couples In Great Marriages: The View From The Empty Nest, Reva C. Rosenband

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dual-earner couples raising children face stress that can interfere with marital happiness. Some of these couples seek help from marriage and family therapists, but many therapists claim they are not well trained in the issues facing these couples. In order to determine what might help therapists. researchers in the past have traveled two scholarly paths: (a) studying dual-income couples who still have children at home and are dealing with the stressors of this lifestyle with varying degrees of success, and (b) asking long-term, happily married couples what helped them stay together successfully. This study combined both approaches. Dual-earner couples whose …