Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Giving Together: Giving Circles’ Influence On Members’ Philanthropic And Civic Behaviors, Knowledge And Attitudes, Angela M. Eikenberry, Jessica Bearman, Hao Han, Melissa Brown, Courtney Jensen

Public Administration Faculty Publications

Giving circles are made up of individuals who pool their resources and then decide together where these should be distributed. They also include social, educational, and engagement components that seem to engage participants in their communities and increase members’ understanding of philanthropy and community issues.

This study examines if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ behavior related to giving, volunteering, and civic engagement. In addition, we asked if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ awareness or knowledge about philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, and community issues. Finally, we wanted to know if and how …

Southern Sudan Health Care, Amanda Giger

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Statement of Concept: The concept of my creative project was use pictures, film, and music, and to create short yet visually inspiring promotional videos for the John Dau Sudan Foundation (JDSF), a non-profit organization started by former Lost Boy of Sudan, John Bul Dau. These videos were made to serve a variety of purposes for JDSF including: helping John Dau in acquiring speaking engagements, assisting JDSF in raising money for the clinic, raising awareness on the inadequate healthcare and struggles for Southern Sudan, and serving as web content for JDSF’s website.

Context of Work: I have been working with John …

Implications For Sin And Psychology: An Investigative Study Of The Sin Awareness Scale, Keith A. Louwerse

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Though scientific psychology once attempted to distance itself from religious constructs, times have changed. It now seems clear that the clinical practice of psychology involves metaphysics as well as science (O'donohue, 1989, Jones, 1994). Recent research also shows significant relationships between religion, spirituality and health (Hill and Pargament, 2003, Richards and Bergin, 2005). Yet the body of psycho logy and scholarship largely overlooks the study of sin. As a result, there is a shocking absence of measurement tools for research on perceptions of sin. What are the psychological implications of a Christian view of sin? Before studying the religious notion …

Lower Crime Rates And Prisoner Recidivism, Stephanie Stravinskas

Honors College Theses

The transition from prison life back into society is not simple. The number of ex-prisoners that recidivate is alarming. Ex- offenders must find a residence, purchase life’s necessities and locate a job. In addition, many prisoners have not been rehabilitated, developed skills, or obtained an education while in prison. Focusing funds on rehabilitation programs instead of the construction of new prisons may be a more effective long-term strategy to reduce criminal activity. Strategies to reduce recidivism are discussed along with an analysis of what their implementation might entail.

Exploring Social And Group Identity Theories In The Profitability Of Online Communities Targeted Towards Older Adolescents, Daniel V. Giaccio

Honors College Theses

Qualitative research of in depth interviews and picture tests performed on older adolescents was the backbone of my study. A questionnaire was created that explored how older adolescents create and maintain identities on online communities.

My study found that older adolescents are using the internet to maintain their positive self identity yet explore group identities in order to find out where they fit in the world. It used these findings to create innovative implications and recommendations for marketers on how to create a successful online community business model targeting the older adolescent. The answer was simple. Since older adolescents are …

2009 May Newsletter, Nancy Rockey

Human Subject Research Archive

No abstract provided.

Test Anxiety, Depression, And Irrational Beliefs In College Students, Grace Boyers

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This study examined the relationship between test anxiety, depression, and four of Ellis's (1963) irrational beliefs (demand for approval, anxious overconcern, helplessness, and frustration reactivity). Participants completed questionnaires examining test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and irrational beliefs. It was expected that the first three beliefs would be predictive of students' test anxiety scores. Students with high test anxiety and high depressive symptoms were also expected to score high on frustration reactivity, in contrast to low scores found among high test-anxious, low-depressive students. Demand for approval and anxious overconcern were found to be significant predictors of level of test anxiety. However, no …

Examining The Impact Of Drug Court Participation For Moderate And High Risk Offenders, Kara Kobus

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of drug court participation among moderate and high risk offenders. While studies have found that intensive programs, such as drug courts, are more effective when focusing their services on high risk offenders, few studies have examined the relationship between offender risk and drug court effectiveness. Using the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) as a measure of offender risk, the study employed a quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes of drug court participants (n=228) and a matched sample of probationers (n=252). The analyses showed that drug court participants had lower rates of …

Internal Communication In Organizations And Employee Engagement, Lynn Kalani Terumi Hayase

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Employee engagement is a fairly new phenomenon that continues to gather the attention of and implementation into organizations. While communication has been identified as a factor affecting engagement, no scientific research has concentrated solely on the relationship between the two. Taking this into account this study sought to find whether there is a relationship between internal communication and employee engagement.

Results indicated that there is a positive relationship between factors of internal communication and factors of employee engagement. The current research found that internal communication is linked to commitment, discretionary effort, and meaningful work; all factors of engagement. In addition, …

Investigating The Emotional Intelligence Of Adolescents With And Without Disabilities, Leota Tucker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study involved an investigation of the emotional intelligence profiles of three groups of adolescents: those with learning disabilities, those with an emotional disturbances, and adolescents without disabilities. A 2 (gender) X 3 (group) X 4 (subscale) mixed design with repeated measures on subscale was used to determine whether differences in emotional intelligence, as measured by the BarOn EQi: YV, existed among these three groups of adolescents. Specifically, performance within the four subscales of intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management and adaptability as well as in the overall composite scores were compared to detect differences between gender, and disability groups.

A total …

Parental Abduction From The Perspective Of The Victims: Implications For Counselors, Mary Jo L. Gibbs

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This is a descriptive study that examined parental abductions from the perspective of the abductee. The results will help counseling professionals better to understand the psychological consequences of parental abduction, coping mechanisms that were used by the abducted children and counseling techniques and strategies that helped the children through this difficult time and after being returned to the left-behind parent.

A 32 multiple choice and short answer questionnaire was developed for this study. The survey consists of 12 closed answer (Yes or No) questions, three open ended questions, and seventeen demographic questions. The questionnaire was given through a phone interview …

Gray Zones Of Modern Genocide, Megan Dale Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Italian-Jewish chemist and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote in his work The Drowned and the Saved about the "Gray Zone," or holding place for all things difficult to categorize about his experiences in the Nazi camp Auschwitz. Because human tendency is to divide things in a rigid dichotomy, he argued, anything without a set role is brushed aside. I have extended this Gray Zone to include mutually shared situations from modern genocide including: the relationship of race/land to genocide, the "Forced Victim-Perpetrator" (victim forced to commit atrocities against his or her own people), and the complex international reaction to genocidal …

Organization By Form: Applying Systems Theory To Urbanization, Michael Patrick Howe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

I have come to believe that the core of our declining physical, mental and community health dwells in the current practice of land use based development. Although today's land use codes began as a legitimate response to protect people's health and welfare it has since devolved into an unsustainable process. The failure of land-use zoning is rooted in an informational disconnect created by the segregation of land into distinct uses while offering generic design standards. Whereas the current mode of land use-based zoning results in an unpredictable physical form, Form-Based Codes foster a connection between the individual to the available …

Torturing Terrorists For National Security Imperatives: Mediated Violence On "24", Michael D. Sears

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study analyzed mediated violent content as seen on the FOX television program 24. The study covered a seven year period, or six seasons, of 24 , with a sample set of 43 episodes and 445 individual acts ofviolence. Three research questions guided this study. The first research question sought to determine if a relation exists between heroic characters inflicting torturous violence and justifying the act with a national security imperative. The second research question examined the prevailing mode of violence and the use of nonlethal and lethal weapons. The third research question examined the portrayed efficiency of violence on …

Effects Of Script Fading On The Abilities Of Children With Autism To Reciprocate Information, Marc Alan Tedoff

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Teaching communication skills to children with autism is a primary concern because speech and/or language delay characterize autism. One method of teaching verbal communication skills to children with autism is script fading.

This study examined the effects of teaching children with autism to exchange information to peers about objects and pictures using script fading. Six children with autism were recruited from a special program for children with autism at a public elementary school. Participants were formed into dyads that remained intact throughout the study. Two dyads consisted of first grade students, one dyad consisted of a second and a fifth …

Examining Play Among Young Children In Single-Age And Multi-Age Preschool Classroom Settings, Mia Song Youhne

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Advocates for multi-age classrooms claim multi-age groupings benefit children (Brynes, Shuster, & Jones, 1994). Currently, there is a lack of research examining play among students in multi-age classrooms. If indeed there is a positive benefit of play among children, research is needed to examine these behaviorsamong and between young children in single-age and multi-age classrooms. The purpose of this study was to determine if young children benefit from increased play opportunities.

This qualitative study utilized observations, interviews, and questionnaires to gather data from teachers, parents, and children regarding play interactions in both single-age and multi-age classrooms. The intent of this …

Asthma Severity In School-Children And The Quality Of Life Of Their Parents, Noelle S. Cerdan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background . The everyday management of a child with asthma can affect the parent's quality of life. Past studies which examined the effects of asthma characteristics of the child on parental quality of life have not reached a consensus over findings. Few studies examine parent characteristics such as mental health and sociodemographics on the quality of life of parents of asthmatic children.

Purpose . To examine the effect of asthma severity of school-children and sociodemographic characteristics onthe caregiver's quality of life. It also investigates whether agreement exists between the caregiver's perception of asthma severity and physician-diagnosed asthma severity.

Methodology . …

Structural Attributes Associated With The Prevalence Of Hate Groups: A State-Level Analysis, Paula Jean Kutneski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the number of hate groups increasing 54 percent since 2000, it is important to understand what is triggering these groups to form in geographical areas. The current study examined whether structural characteristics predicted the number of hate groups within a state. Using hate group listings from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report and U. S. Census data from 2000, this study explored a state's racial and ethnic heterogeneity, economic disadvantage, and regional location to explain hate group existence within that state. Employing correlations, Chi-Square analyses, multiple and logistic regressions, and a conjunctive analysis, this study found that a …

The Sociology Of Scenes, The Sacramento Poetry Scene, Dana Nell Maher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For this ethnography, I use my feminist perspective, grounded theory, participant observation, and autoethnographic techniques to explore an urban poetry scene. I suggest that scene studies are a viable alternative to community studies and that we move our articulation of social experience to reflect it as it occurs, on a multitude of continuums. My goal with this project is to develop, use, and discuss the utility of a definition of scene that is intended to be useful to scene studies researchers. To this end, I both evaluate an outdated definition of scene (Irwin 1973 & 1977), and define the three …

The Relationship Between Benefit Satisfaction And Intent To Leave: A Study Of Finance Departments In Las Vegas, Jung-In Bae

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between benefit satisfaction and intent to leave among employees who work in finance departments in Las Vegas hotels.

Employee benefits have generally been assumed to be an effective way to attract and retain employees; in fact, 70% of 45 U.S. companies include the benefit packages in their retention strategies. That idea that competitive benefits packages can help firms to win the retention war is widely accepted.

The results of the study indicate that benefit satisfaction was significantly related to intent to leave; those who were satisfied with benefits were less likely to …

The Plunge Into Secession: The Presbyterian Schism Of The Reverends. Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell And Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Deborah Jane Rayner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Presbyterian Church had one of the largest pro-slavery clergy of any antebellum Protestant church. These men extracted verses and passages from the Bible to prove God sanctioned slavery. Many Southern Presbyterian ministers including Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer used the pulpit to defend slavery and advocate secession, collapsing political and religious boundaries. I focus on the 1855-1861 debates about slavery in the Presbyterian Church led by Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell, and Benjamin Morgan Palmer. I reorient the argument from the usual political and economic accounts of the antebellum secession discussions and build upon current …

Teacher And Student Perceptions Of Self-Determination, Jennifer L. Black

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For almost two decades, research efforts specific to self-determination have resulted in the development of curricula, assessments, instructional strategies, interventions, model programs, and proposed quality indicators (Field et al., 1998). Despite the combined efforts and perceptions of researchers, teachers, parents, employers, and college disability service providers related to these important aspects of self-determination research, limited attention has been devoted to understanding the perceptions of self-determination from secondary students with and without disabilities and their general and special education teachers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher and student perceptions related to self-determination. Teacher perceptions were measured with the …

Arid Climate Decomposition And Decay: A Taphonomic Study Using Swine, James William Munkres

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present project analyzes the taphonomic processes and variables involved in the decomposition and desiccation of animal remains in an arid/hyper-arid environment. The study and the derived data will assist in determining postmortem intervals for remains in modern contexts, inform judgments made regarding mortuary habits and techniques in archaeological contexts, and will improve our knowledge regarding taphonomic processes. Manner of deposition, the depositional surface/medium and arid-climate specific variables (temperature, water, insect activity, weathering, pH levels, and soil characteristics) were examined in this study. Reported observations are limited to the first ten months following death from early December through early October …

Women's Health And Fitness Magazines: An Accurate Portrayal?, Jennifer M. Shymansky

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study is a content analysis examining the representation of health information, particularly the leading causes of death, in cover story headlines of one year of the top women's health and fitness magazines: Prevention , Shape , Fitness , Self , Health and Women's Health. The study is grounded in social responsibility theory, a normative media theory. The findings show that women's health and fitness magazines' cover story headlines predominately discuss diet and exercise for weight loss, rather than the leading causes of death facing women. This under representation of actual societal health concerns can limit the vast readerships' health …

Decentralizing Police Detectives: Increasing Efficiency Of Property Crime Investigations, Jon M. Zeh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Beginning in November, 2007, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department implemented organizational changes to the Financial/Property Crimes Bureau by decentralizing all property crime detectives. Although no previous research was found on the decentralization of police detectives specifically, there is existing research on similar concepts that suggest at least two benefits of decentralizing police detectives: improved communication with patrol officers and increased efficiency of investigations. With these benefits in mind, the current study examines the following hypotheses: hypothesis 1: decentralizing property crime detectives will lead to improved quality of communication between property crime detectives and patrol officers; hypothesis 2: decentralizing property …

Program Evaluation Of Help Las Vegas Genesis Apartments, Shauna Davis, Bristol Ellington, Alexis Mussi, Jason Lamarr Wasden

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Our group conducted a program evaluation of HELP Las Vegas Genesis Apartments (HELP Genesis). We began the evaluation on November of 2008 and concluded May 2009. HELP Genesis is a permanent supportive housing facility for veterans and homeless with disabilities. It was a concern that they may be a transitional housing facility because of their turnover rate. We concluded that this was not the case.

We have identified the following limitations in our analysis. There was a lack of accessibility to the budget and accounting documents, limited access to key contacts for necessary information, and time constraints which prohibited us …

An Assessment Of Proposed Sex Offender Mobility And Residency Restrictions In Nevada, Samantha Dawn Beecher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research explores the impact of sex offender exclusion zones and residency restrictions proposed by Nevada Senate Bill 471. This law would prohibit sex offenders from being within 500 feet of places where children congregate and living within 1,000 feet of these places. Analyses conducted using Geographic Information Systems demonstrate the degree to which offender mobility, housing, employment, and access to social services may be restricted should the law be adopted and enforced. Data are also used to assess the potential impact of the law on victimization patterns. Policy implications, data limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

A Descriptive Study Examining Motivation, Goal Orientations, Coaching, And Training Habits Of Women Ultrarunners, Rhonna Zena Krouse

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Ultrarunners are people who participate in running events that exceed the 26.2 mile marathon distance. Currently, women make up approximately 20% of this population. To date, no studies have investigated female ultrarunners. The present study sought to describe these women (N = 344) by evaluating motivational factors for participation, goal orientations, training habits, and coach utilization. Motivation was measured using the Motivation for Marathoners Scale (7 point Likert scale). General health orientation (M = 4.71± 1.06) and psychological coping (M = 4.71±1.03) were the two categories most endorsed whereas social motives were least endorsed (M = …

Mortgage Lending Reform Finding Innovative State Responses To The Foreclosure Crisis, Leann Lu

Public Administration & Policy

In today’s American housing market, foreclosure can be seen as an epidemic resulting from the legal mass marketing of risky loan products and systematic overcharging of consumers in susceptible positions. Subprime mortgages are high-cost home loans intended for people with weak or blemished credit histories, and though they are intended to encourage and facilitate homeownership, not only did politicians create a flawed mortgage industry to push for this “American Dream” but it is arguably a manipulative industry that can easily be taken advantage of.1 Thus, current snapshots of the subprime market show that one in every five subprime mortgages made …

The Effect Of Teachers' Unions On Issues In School Reform, Katie Reed

Public Administration & Policy

The thesis is divided into a number of sections. Part II examines some of the relevant literature on teachers’ unions and reform in education (specifically, merit pay, charter school, and school voucher reforms). The literature review presented in Part II is split up into two sections itself; Section A which examines the actual effectiveness of the aforementioned school reform programs on student achievement, and Section B, which examines literature showing the ways in which teachers’ unions impact school reform. In Part III, primary sources, including direct statements and information from teacher union websites and newspaper articles, are analyzed to determine …