Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Laterality Enhances Cognition In Australian Parrots, Maria Magat, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Cerebral lateralization refers to the division of information processing in either hemisphere of the brain and is a ubiquitous trait among vertebrates and invertebrates. Given its widespread occurrence, it is likely that cerebral lateralization confers a fitness advantage. It has been hypothesized that this advantage takes the form of enhanced cognitive function, potentially via a dual processing mechanism whereby each hemisphere can be used to process specific types of information without contralateral interference. Here, we examined the influence of lateralization on problem solving by Australian parrots. The first task, a pebble-seed discrimination test, was designed for small parrot species that …

Talking With Patients: How Hospitals Use Bilingual Clinicians And Staff To Care For Patients With Language Needs, Jennifer Huang, Karen C. Jones, Marsha Regenstein, Christal Ramos

Health Policy and Management Issue Briefs

Improving access to language services in health care settings has become a focal point for health reform and disparities-focused legislation, in recognition of the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity of individuals across the nation. Bilingual staff and clinicians can serve as enormously valuable resources to hospitals and other health care organizations, offering a critical set of skills to interact with individuals who require care in a language other than English. Bilingual clinicians can serve a vital need for hospitals by providing high-quality health care, improving patient safety, and meeting organizational priorities to provide linguistically and culturally appropriate care for patients. …

Xenophobia, International Migration And Human Development, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

In the continuing discussion on migration and development, the vulnerability of all migrant groups to exploitation and mistreatment in host countries has been highlighted along with an emphasis on protecting their rights. However, xenophobia has not yet received explicit attention although anti-migrant sentiments and practices are clearly on the rise even in receiving countries in developing regions. Despite gaps in existing empirical work, research and anecdotal evidence exposes pervasive forms of discrimination, hostility, and violence experienced by migrant communities, with the latter becoming easy scapegoats for various social problems in host countries. This study attempts to insert xenophobia in this …

Do You See What I See? : Making The Invisible Visible Through An Exploration Of The Intersubjective Experience Of Social Work Clinicians Working With Fat Clients, Lauren Polly Hanson

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study was designed with flexible research methods to explore experiences of clinical social workers in sitting with and developing relationships with fat clients. Using an intersubjective theoretical lens, this research investigates clinicians' countertransference or beliefs about fatness in the relationship building process with fat clients. An analysis of the literature revealed multiple meanings for fat, complex dynamics in therapeutic relationships and potential parallels between some racial oppressions and fat oppression using the concept of visible difference. This exploratory study presents findings based on nine semi-structured interviews with clinical social workers who see fat clients. Participants were asked about …

Women Among Men : The Experiences Of Female Staff In Residential Facilities For Adolescent Males, Jessica Rose Donahue

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This exploratory study was undertaken to examine women's experiences working in residential treatment facilities for adolescent males, and to better understand the existing gender dynamics in this particular setting. The research questions guiding this study were: How do gender stereotypes affect women's experiences working in residential treatment with adolescent males? How do women feel that they are perceived by co-workers and residents? Thirteen women participated in this qualitative study. Six women performed clinical roles, three were direct care staff, three were case managers, and one was a teacher. Through structured interviews, the participants provided narratives about their agency/job requirements or …

Antecedents And Outcomes Of Workplace Discrimination As Perceived By Employees With Disabilities, Jessica Bradley

All Dissertations

Even since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, employment is still a challenge for the millions of Americans living with disabilities. The unemployment rate for those with disabilities (13.7%) is much higher than that for adults without disabilities (8.9%; Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2009). In addition to the challenge of obtaining a job, individuals with disabilities can face discrimination and poor treatment once on the job. The current study is the first to empirically examine those factors that may influence perceptions of discrimination in the workplace for individuals with disabilities and predicts how organizational …

García V. The City Of Taft - The Struggle For Representation, Joseph J. Garcia

Chicano, Hispano, Latino Library Program

The case for this paper is based on García v. Taft, which was heard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division, Civil Action NO. C-84-230, in 1985. The final decision was made in 1989. The case addresses a gerrymandered, at-large election system in the City of Taft, which was used to keep African-American and Mexican-American residents from taking part in city elections. The gerrymandered city boundaries did not include a large portion of the city inhabited by the Mexican-American voting block. To this day, a large part of this voting block is …

Insurance Discrimination On The Basis Of Health Status: An Overview Of Discrimination Practices, Federal Law, And Federal Reform Options, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

Actuarial underwriting, or discrimination based on an individual's health status, is a business feature of the voluntary private insurance market. The term "discrimination" in this paper is not intended to convey the concept of unfair treatment, but rather how the insurance industry differentiates among individuals in designing and administering health insurance and employee health benefit products. Discrimination can occur at the point of enrollment, coverage design, or decisions regarding scope of coverage. Several major federal laws aimed at regulating insurance discrimination based on health status focus at the point of enrollment. However, because of multiple exceptions and loopholes, these laws …

Perirhinal Cortex Contributes To Accuracy In Recognition Memory And Perceptual Discriminations., Edward B O'Neil, Anthony D Cate, Stefan Köhler

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The prevailing view of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) holds that its structures are dedicated to long-term declarative memory. Recent evidence challenges this position, suggesting that perirhinal cortex (PRc) in the MTL may also play a role in perceptual discriminations of stimuli with substantial visual feature overlap. Relevant neuropsychological findings in humans have been inconclusive, likely because studies have relied on patients with large and variable MTL lesions. Here, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in healthy individuals to determine whether PRc shows a performance-related involvement in perceptual oddball judgments that is comparable to its established role in …

The Application Of The Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act (Emtala) To Hospital Inpatients, Lara Cartwright-Smith, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Karen Belli, Elaine Purcell, Tasmeen S. Weik

Health Policy and Management Issue Briefs

This issue brief provides a brief overview of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and focuses on its application to hospital inpatients. EMTALA applies differently to patients than non-patients, and also applies differently to patients admitted through the emergency department than patients admitted as regular inpatients. In addition, courts and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have differed in their interpretation of the statute. Depending on the specific facts of any particular case, EMTALA may or may not have implications for specialty-related transfers and discharges.

The Discriminatory History Of Gun Control, David Babat

Senior Honors Projects

Gun control is an issue that has been ingrained in the societal conscious as a measure to reduce gun violence. Many people, however, are unaware of the discriminatory history on which this legislation is based. The earliest instances of gun control in America can be traced to laws instituted by Southern colonies which explicitly banned African Americans from owning firearms. White slave owners feared an armed uprising and sought to keep weapons away from blacks. This trend continued even after the Civil War. Less explicitly racist laws were enacted, but the goal remained the disarmament of African Americans.

The North …

Not Just Mexico’S Problem: Labor Migration From Mexico To The United States (1900 – 2000), Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to “help countries like Mexico… do a better job of creating jobs for their people” as part of his plan to curtail undocumented immigration to the United States (Organizing for America). This idea – that the root cause of undocumented migration from Mexico to the U.S. is economic underdevelopment in Mexico – has currency in both popular and political discourse. But is it accurate? In this article, I synthesize historical, theoretical, and ethnographic scholarship to provide a transnational perspective on twentieth century labor migration from Mexico to the United States. These data show that …

Distributional Analysis Of Labor And Property Income Among New Seniors And Early Retirees: By Race, Gender, Region, And Intertemporal Cohort, 1965-2006, Patrick Leon Mason

Patrick L. Mason

The tables herein provide detailed descriptive statistics for changes in labor and property income during 1965 – 2006. We are particularly interested in secular changes in racial inequality since the demise of formal segregation during the mid-1960s. Accordingly, we construct an overlapping series of four synthetic intertemporal cohorts of new seniors (ages 50 – 64) and early retirees (ages 65 and above). Cohorts are separated by the troughs of recessions: 1974-75, 1981-2, 1991-92, 2001-02. As we move from the 1st to the 5th cohort, there is a decline in racial gap in the quantity of education, the quality of education, …

Labour Market Racial Discrimination In South Africa Revisited, Joanna Tyrowicz, Maciej Szelewicki

Joanna Tyrowicz

Discrimination is a significant issue in labour market economics across developed as well as developing countries. In this paper we inquire the actual size of wage discrimination in the Republic of Soutn Africa, accounting for large differences in endowments. We apply the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition as well as propensity score matching to adequately determine the size of the pay gap. Although the size of the absolute racial pay gap is enormous, amounting for more than 500%, the actual estimated effect non-attributable to other factors ranges between 45%-55%. This estimator however assumes homogenous discrimination across the wage distribution, while data suggest that …

Does The Perception Of Obesity Cause Discrimination In The American Workplace?, Kevin R. Anderson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis addresses the problem of discrimination facing the obese in America, specifically the discrimination the obese population contends with in the work place. The purpose of this study is to show the scope of the obesity problem across the United States, stigmas placed on the obese, sociological perceptions regarding the obese, and discrimination that the obese face in the work place.

Despite reports on the growing problem of obesity in America, little is known about the perspectives of the obese themselves, especially regarding discrimination in the work place. Literature is largely negative, relating the obese with undesirable traits and …

Testing Alcohol As A Discriminative Stimulus For Gambling Behavior, Ellen Meier, Cody Link, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Ph. D.

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

In two training sessions, participants consumed alcohol or a control beverage and then played a pair of slot-machine simulations programmed to pay off differentially as a function of the beverage that had been consumed. During test sessions, participants again consumed either alcohol or a control beverage and were given concurrent access to the two slot-machine simulations (which were now programmed to pay off equally). Results did not indicate that alcohol (or the control beverage) controlled participants’ choice behavior between the two slot-machine simulations during testing despite the history of differential reinforcement. A number of procedural details likely contributed to this …

Stereoscopic Discrimination Of The Layout Of Ground Surfaces, Robert S. Allison, Barbara J. Gillam, Stephen A. Palmisano

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Safe and effective locomotion depends critically on judgements of the surface properties of the ground to be traversed. Little is known about the role of binocular vision in surface perception at distances relevant to visually guided locomotion in humans. Programmable arrays of illuminated targets were used to present sparsely textured surfaces with real depth at distances of 4.5 and 9.0 m. Psychophysical measurements of discrimination thresholds demonstrated a clear superiority for stereoscopic over monocular judgments of relative and absolute surface slant. Judgements of surface roughness in particular demonstrated a substantial binocular advantage. Binocular vision is thus shown to directly contribute …

Perceptions Of Mental Health Stigma And Discrimination In A Mexican American Sample, Jeff D. Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stigma of mental health problems between Mexican Americans and White non-Hispanic European Americans was investigated and measured by attitudes toward seeking help and the amount of social distance desired from individuals with mental health problems. The stigma of mental health has been identified as a barrier to accessing mental health services among Mexican Americans and men in general. Men from both groups access mental health services at a significantly lower rate than women from both groups. This study contributed to research and practice by examining the possible differences in the level of stigma toward mental health problems between Mexican …

The Brazilian Paradox: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Battle For Human Rights, Adrienne Rosenberg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

With a rich religious history of Catholicism juxtaposed with a sexually liberal public, Brazil interacts with its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community in a very distinct and often conflicting manner. Although homosexuality has been legal in the state since 1823, save the armed forces, and civil unions are currently permitted in some areas, Brazil has functioned within this paradox as both worst transgressor, with a high record of hate crimes and discrimination, and as world leader, with a progressive domestic and global push for LGBT rights. In order to accurately assess these two opposing statuses, one must analyze the …

Violated: Women’S Human Rights In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kathryn Birdwell Wester

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In contemporary sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), women are facing human rights abuses unparalleled elsewhere in the world. Despite the region’s diversity, its female inhabitants largely share experiences of sexual discrimination and abuse, intimate violence, political marginalization, and economic deprivation.

Strong Claims And Weak Evidence: Reassessing The Predictive Validity Of The Iat, Hart Blanton, James Jaccard, Jonathan Klick, Barbara Mellers, Gregory Mitchell, Philip Tetlock

All Faculty Scholarship

The authors reanalyzed data from 2 influential studies — A. R. McConnell and J. M. Leibold (2001) and J. C. Ziegert and P. J. Hanges (2005) — that explore links between implicit bias and discriminatory behavior and that have been invoked to support strong claims about the predictive validity of the Implicit Association Test. In both of these studies, the inclusion of race Implicit Association Test scores in regression models reduced prediction errors by only tiny amounts, and Implicit Association Test scores did not permit prediction of individual-level behaviors. Furthermore, the results were not robust when the impact of rater …

Women’S Unequal Citizenship At The Border: Lessons From Three Nonfiction Films About The Women Of Juárez, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

There is no better illustration of the impact of borders on women’s equal citizenship than the three documentaries reviewed in this essay. All three deal with the femicides that befell the young women of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico between 1993 and 2005. Juarez is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. Performing the Border (1999) stimulates the viewer’s imagination regarding the ephemeral nature of borders and their impact on the citizenship of women who live at the intersection of local, regional, national and international legal regimes. Señorita Extraviada (2001) is an intimate portrait of the victims which illustrates why the …

Building On Our Strengths: A Framework To Reduce Racial Discrimination And Promote Diversity In Victoria, Y Paradies, L Chandrakumar, Natascha Klocker, M Frere, K Webster, G Berman, Peter Mclean

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Building on our strengths: a framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support diversity in Victoria has been developed through a partnership between the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the McCaughey Centre: VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing and the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit. The McCaughey Centre and Onemda are both in the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne.

Drawing on the best available evidence in Australia and internationally, this report outlines themes, strategies and priority settings for the development and implementation of activity …