Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Athens Regional Library News And Notes

Georgia Library Quarterly

Recent news from the Athens Regional Library System.

Gwinnett County Library News And Notes

Georgia Library Quarterly

Recent news from the Gwinnett County Library System.

Does Unconscious Thought Outperform Conscious Thought On Complex Decisions? A Further Examination, Scott Andrew Withrow, Todd J. Thorsteinson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Two experiments examined the benefits of unconscious thought on complex decisions (Dijksterhuis, 2004). Experiment 1 attempted to replicate and extend past research by examining the effect of providing reasons prior to rating the options. Results indicated no significant differences between the conditions. Experiment 2 attempted to replicate the findings of Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, and van Baaren (2006) and determine if a memory aid could overcome the limitations of conscious thought on complex tasks. Results revealed that a memory aid improved decisions compared to the conscious thought condition. Participants in the unconscious thought condition did not perform significantly better than did …

Segregation, Racial Structure, And Neighborhood Violent Crime, Danielle Corinne Kuhl, Lauren J. Krivo, Ruth D. Peterson

Sociology Faculty Publications

Drawing on structural racism and urban disadvantage approaches, this article posits a broad influence of citywide racial residential segregation on levels of violent crime across all urban neighborhoods regardless of their racial/ethnic composition. Multilevel models based on data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study for 7,622 neighborhoods in 79 cities throughout the United States reveal that segregation is positively associated with violent crime for white and various types of nonwhite neighborhoods. Nonetheless, there is a lack of parity in violence across these types of communities reflecting the larger racialized social system in which whites are able to use their privileged …

Nemo News, Volume 5, Issue 4, Uno Library Science Education

NEMO Newsletter

This issue of NEMO News features Announcements, Advice from the Frontlines from Robin Clark, Student Spotlight on Sean Story, Free Journal Access, Contact Info, and Goodbye Erin, Hello Alyx!

A New Model Of 4-H Volunteer Development In Science, Engineering, And Technology Programs, Bradley S. Barker, Neal Grandgenett, Gwen Nugent

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

New initiatives centered on science, engineering, and technology (SET) in 4-H may be moving away from the long-established adult volunteer delivery model. This shift in delivery may be due to a lack of availability of adult volunteers who possess the necessary SET competencies to effectively lead 4-H clubs. One way to offset this trend may be to blend traditional face-to-face training with continuous training efforts that include asynchronous on-line training modules, synchronous Web-based meetings, and self-directed learning. This new 4-H SET Volunteer Competencies Training Model is being tested in the Nebraska 4-H Robotics and GPS/GIS program.

Children's Health Insurance Program: The Dynamics Of Federalism And Health Care Policy, Erik White

Political Science Theses and Capstones

On February 4^th, 2009, President Obama signed into law the reauthorization of the Children Health Insurance Program. The federal government will now spend 30 billion dollars towards the goal of ensuring that more children in the United States are insured. I investigate this particular health care policy and look at the different dynamics that affect the ultimate goal of universal health insurance for children. Because this program allows for state flexibility under broad federal guidelines, one is able to look at individual states, and their particular actions and characteristics, to determine the best approach to insuring the most …

Educational Vouchers And Academic Performance, Nicole Kvidera

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Every time our elected representatives are looking at budget, or election time rolls around, or a family is considering moving, the topic of education is in the thoughts and on the minds of many. Over the years there have been many different education reforms and proposed ideas. This presentation will go in-depth into one such educational reform idea. Educational vouchers have been studied in various ways over the years; the data for this study comes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and gathered over the course of years. The data gathered allows one to compare students in Milwaukee Public Schools and students that …

The Samurai's Rebirth - Japan's Increasing "Offensive" Security Capabilities, Patrick Bright

Political Science Theses and Capstones

This thesis studies the increasing "offensive" nature of Japanese security capabilities in nation which has major restrictions on military capability. There are regional tensions in East Asia that have the potential to escalate to armed conflict. Other countries in the region have increased their levels of armament but how has Japan reacted? I look at three major acquisitions by Japan that have created controversy, then examine the role public opinion has towards issues of defense, including external and domestic considerations. Two major data sets on public opinion, the Global Attitudes Project and the Asia Barometer, are used. I find that …

Letter To The Editor, Deborah S. Manget

Georgia Library Quarterly

The author reflects on the celebration of the 2009 Library Day held at the state Capitol of Georgia. The author expresses that she felt an obligation to make a strong participation in the event. The author talks about the purpose of the special event. The author encourages the leadership of the Georgia Library Association to reconsider the reason for celebrating the Library Day.

The Compass Rose Vol. Xxiii, No. 1, University Of Texas At Arlington Library Special Collections & Archives

The Compass Rose

The purpose of The Compass Rose is to raise awareness of Special Collections' resources and to foster the use of these resources. The newsletter also reports significant new programs, initiatives, and acquisitions of Special Collections. The issues included here are scans of print newsletters from the 1990s and 2000s. Current issues and posts of The Compass Rose can now be accessed on the UTA Libraries Compass Rose Blog.

Why Urbanists Need Religion, Joshua D. Ambrosius

Political Science Faculty Publications

This essay summarizes a conference paper presented at the October 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. The paper was reviewed by several leading scholars.

Acceptability Of Interventions To Staff In Long-Term Care Settings For Older Adults: Comparing Ratings And Hierarchical Selection, Jonathan C. Baker

Dissertations

Older adults and their caregivers generally prefer behavioral interventions over medications in treatment acceptability studies (Osterkamp, Mathews, Burgio, & Hardin, 1997). However, previous acceptability studies have primarily examined ratings, which did not force the responder to select between treatment options. Additionally, recent advances in behavioral treatment technologies (Carr & LeBlanc, 2003) and pharmacotherapy (Schneider, 1999) warrant revisiting treatment acceptability for older adults. The present investigation examined treatment acceptability of behavioral, pharmacological, and sensory interventions using a treatment acceptability rating scale, treatment selections, and direct report of treatments used in a six-month window. Fifty-six staff from nursing homes in the Mid-West …

Explaining Incivility In The Workplace: The Effects Of Personality And Culture, Wu Liu, Shu-Cheng Chi, Ray Friedman, Ming-Hong Tsai

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines individual and cultural antecedents of incivility in the workplace, using a sample of MBAs and EMBAs from Taiwan and the United States. We predicted that individual achievement orientation would enhance incivility, based on Dollard’s frustration aggression hypothesis, and that those who were higher in direct conflict self-efficacy (i.e., beliefs in one's skills in managing direct conflict) would be higher in incivility. These predictions were supported. We also predicted, and found, that collectivism orientation constrains these main effects, so that for those high in collectivism, the impact of achievement orientation and direct conflict self-efficacy is weak or nonexistent. …

Treating Words As Data With Error: Uncertainty In Text Statements Of Policy Positions, Kenneth Benoit, Michael Laver, Slava Mikhaylov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Political text offers extraordinary potential as a source of information about the policy positions of political actors. Despite recent advances in computational text analysis, human interpretative coding of text remains an important source of text-based data, ultimately required to validate more automatic techniques. The profession's main source of cross-national, time-series data on party policy positions comes from the human interpretative coding of party manifestos by the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP). Despite widespread use of these data, the uncertainty associated with each point estimate has never been available, undermining the value of the dataset as a scientific resource. We propose a …

Principal Components And Long Run Implications Of Multivariate Diffusions, Xiaohong Chen, Lars P. Hansen, José Scheinkman

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We investigate a method for extracting nonlinear principal components. These principal components maximize variation subject to smoothness and orthogonality constraints; but we allow for a general class of constraints and multivariate densities, including densities without compact support and even densities with algebraic tails. We provide primitive sufficient conditions for the existence of these principal components. We characterize the limiting behavior of the associated eigenvalues, the objects used to quantify the incremental importance of the principal components. By exploiting the theory of continuous-time, reversible Markov processes, we give a different interpretation of the principal components and the smoothness constraints. When the …

City-Assisted Evacuation Plan Participant Survey Report, John Kiefer, Pamela Jenkins, Shirley Laska

CHART Publications

The survey of participants in the City Assisted Evacuation Program (CAEP) indicated a variety of perceptions about their evacuation experience during and after Hurricane Gustav. While the CAEP was generally regarded by most participants as successful, there are some aspects that were identified as needing improvement. Some of these can be improved by the city; some improvements are under the purview of the state or the federal government. Some can be fixed expeditiously; some will require a long-term commitment.

2009 April Newsletter, Nancy Rockey

Human Subject Research Archive

No abstract provided.

Candles In The Wind: Resisting Repression In Liberia (1979-2003), Robert Press

Faculty Publications

Scholars have been extending social-movement analysis beyond its base in the industrialized West to Latin America and Asia, but rarely to Africa. Social movements resisting repression in nondemocratic settings have usually had the help of external "opportunities" or favorable circumstances. This study, however, examines a peaceful social movement in Liberia, a movement that resisted repression under two regimes, advocating for human rights and democratic freedom without such "opportunities." How did this happen? The study finds four explanations: the formation of a microsocial movement with no formal leadership and only loosely connected strands of resistance, which were harder to control; a …

Investigating The Effects Of Observer Presence And Feedback On Individuals' Work-Related Behavior, Angela R. Lebbon

Dissertations

Direct observation procedures have been widely used by applied behavior analysts to examine the effects of various interventions, however, recent research examining the effects of the observer's presence on behavior has found that participants behave in ways that are not representative of their behavior in the absence of an observer. Furthermore, recent research has demonstrated that both reactivity and habituation are idiosyncratic and it remains unclear which variables mediate reactive effects with individuals. Researchers have discussed the necessity of identifying and measuring reactive effects in order to discover variables (e.g., discriminative stimulus properties) that may mediate reactive effects. Previous research …

Training The Execution Of Single-Case Research Methodology Skills In An Early And Intensive Behavioral Intervention Setting, Jessa R. Love

Dissertations

Early and intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for children with autism is a fruitful area for conducting research on clinically relevant problems in an attempt to investigate some of the unanswered questions about which procedures are most effective and efficient. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that therapists providing these services have received adequate training in conducting relevant single-case design research in this area. Providing such therapists with the skills needed to implement single-case design research protocols could improve the use of the scientist-practitioner model in these settings and greatly expand the base of scientific knowledge in the area.

Behavioral Skills Training (BST; …

Student-Athlete Worldview: A Qualitative Discovery Of Student-Athletes' Outlook Of The World Through Their Athletic Experiences, Lara Preacco

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore Athletic Identity (AI) by looking at its essence, and learn about how student-athletes perceive and experience themselves and the world through their athletic experiences; or Student Athlete Worldview (SAWV). A phenomenological study was conducted to investigate and describe the common and emerging themes of SAWV. Initial interviews, journaling, and follow-up interviews were conducted with nine student-athletes competing in NCAA Division I, non-revenue, individual and team sports. Student-athletes offered a revealing picture and identified three aspects of being a student-athlete: intrapersonal, interpersonal and restrictive/sacrificing aspects. These aspects were combined to develop an integrative …

Comparing The Accuracy Of Performing Digital And Paper Checklists Using A Feedback Package During Normal Workload Conditions In Simulated Flight, William Gene Rantz

Dissertations

This study examined whether pilots completed airplane digital or paper checklists more accurately when they received post-flight graphic and verbal feedback. Participants were 6 college student pilots with instrument rating. The task consisted of flying flight patterns using a Frasca 241 Flight Training Device which emulates a Cirrus SR20 aircraft. The main dependent variable was the number of checklist items completed correctly per flight. An alternating treatment, multiple baseline design across pairs with reversal, was used. During baseline, the average percent of correctly completed items per flight varied considerably across participants, ranging from 13% to 57% for traditional paper checklists …

A Preliminary Study Into The Contracting Out Of Services By Municipalities, Olufunmbi Akinluyi

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The contracting out of services, by municipalities, while not quite a new phenomenon, is still relatively new, that it provides a rich source of study for public administration scholars and students. Some of the arguments that proponents of privatization make, are that: contracting out is more efficient, that it makes it possible for municipalities to take advantage of specialized skills, which are lacking in the workforces of municipalities, and contracting permits a quicker response to new needs and facilitates experimentation with new programs, to name a few.

Critics of privatization say that the contracting process in the end tends to …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Public Resource Online Auctions, Chunxiang Zhang

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The purpose of this study is to provide an exploratory analysis of public resources’ allocation through online auctions. Online auctions are new ways of public resource allocation in China, but they are promising because of its broad participation and low transaction costs. In addition, compared to traditional administrative allocation mechanisms, auction methods could resolve the rent-seeking problem. One important point for an online auction is to design a certain set of rules to attract the targeted people to realize the rule-maker’s goal. But why can a certain set of rules affect the participants’ actions? To answer this question, it is …

China’S African Economic Policies Evaluation, Chuan He

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

During the semester of spring 2009, from February 08, 2009 to April 18, 2009, I interned at the Institute for Global Initiatives (IGI). Global Initiatives is a recognized global learning leader at Kennesaw State University. It provides services, programs, research and scholarship to Kennesaw State University’s faculty, students, and communities to promote global learning and studies. My supervisor, Dr. Akanmu Adebayo, is the executive director of the department. He is also a historian and focuses on African and African Diaspora studies.

What I do during the internship are: 1) collecting the information about trade, communication, cooperation between China and Africa; …

Culture Industry Policy In China And The United States: A Comparative Analysis, Guan Ping Qin, Hao Wei, Xi Wang

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

It is a consensus that culture industry is assuming a more important economic development function in most countries of the world today. As a result of this consensus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate, through a comparative analysis, how China can improve its existing public policies to nurture an environment where culture industry develops and prospers. The paper focuses its discussion on the difference between China and the United States with emphasis on each country’s efforts in funding culture industry in order to participate in the global competition among different culture industries.

In the middle of the twentieth …

Government And Non-Profit Relations, April White

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

No abstract provided.

Project Management And Program Evaluation For Study Abroad Program Evaluation, Hongchun Lin

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The purpose of this paper is to report on my internship experience at the Office of International Services and Programs (OISP) of the Kennesaw State University (KSU) based on the Public Administration theories. The author did his internship from January to April, 2009. This paper is divided into two sections: the first part provides an in-depth description of the OISP, and the second part details my internship assignments and experience.

The internship report first provides a general introduction to the Office of International Services and Programs (OISP) in terms of its history, purpose, principal functions and its productivity. From the …

Government Procurement: A Comparative Analysis Of China And The United States, Keguang Guo, Fangfang Ning

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Government procurement has been getting more attention by many countries and China is not an exception. In fact, government procurement has been gaining much development since it was adopted in 1996 in China. But there are still many problems existing in government procurement in China. As the most developed country in the world, the United States has adopted government procurement for several centuries. There is a perfect government system in the United States. Compared to the United States, government procurement in China is still rather backward, there is a great gap between government procurement in the United States and China. …