Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

201014 Obiter Dicta: April Showers Bring May Flowers 2010, Steven Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

201015 Obiter Dicta: Pomp And Circumstance, Steven Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Female Condom Knowledge, Attributes And Behavior: Barriers To Use And Potential For Acceptance Among Sexually Active Undergraduate Students, Paige Nuzzolillo 6368479

Honors Scholar Theses

Minimal research has been conducted on the acceptability of the female condom among college populations despite its existence in the world market since 1992. The FC2, an improved version of FC1, has recently been released in the United States, thus prompting the need for further acceptability studies. Due to increasingly high rates of STDs among those aged 15-24, every method of protection against STDs/HIV and pregnancy must be utilized. This study involved a campus-wide survey which examined University of Connecticut (Uconn) main campus (Storrs) undergraduate students’ knowledge of the female condom, perceptions of and attitudes towards the female condom as …

Are Juries Representative? An Examination Of The Representativeness Of Jury Panels In Hamilton County Tennessee, Brandy L. Hemmer

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Under the United States Constitution, a defendant has the right to a trial by jury composed of his or her peers. The intent is for the chosen jurors to be representative of the defendant‟s community. This study examined whether the jury panels in State Court in Hamilton County, Tennessee are representative of the community. A sample of 375 citizens who appeared for jury duty were given a questionnaire that measures the same demographic characteristics that appear in the United States 2010 Census. The results show that compared with the Census, the jury panels are not representative of the citizens who …

Views Of Justification And Blame Of Violent Interpersonal Dating Relationships, Christina Policastro

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There is an abundant amount of literature dedicated to examining perceptions of domestic violence. Despite the substantial amount of literature, few studies have focused on attitudes toward domestic violence in dating relationships. This study uses a large convenience sample of college students to investigate how college students assign responsibility when presented with two domestic violence scenarios that vary contextually. One scenario depicts a conventional male on female case of intimate partner violence while the other is a more ambiguous scenario involving behaviors that could be construed as “mutual violence.” Bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed to analyze the effects of …

Assessment Of Strategy Inventory Of Language Learning (Sill) In Students Learning A Second Language, Adam M. Russell

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Language learning strategies (LLS) employed by students learning a second language are evaluated for frequency of use and relationship to measures of linguistic competency and grades. LLS are measured here by use of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), version 5.1 for native English speakers learning a second language. This thesis evaluates the usefulness of the SILL at predicting LLS usage and second language performance. It also provides statistical analyses of the SILL to evaluate construct validity of the subscales designated within the SILL. Overall and subscale reliability of the SILL were confirmed to be consistent with previous findings, …

Bridging The Gap: Intercultural Friendship Between Chinese And Americans, Zhuo Feng Li

Masters Theses

This research aims to explore Chinese and American students' intercultural friendship experiences on a U.S. campus. Twenty-five Chinese international students and twenty-five U.S. nationals participated in the study. Q-methodology was adopted in this research. Three of Hosftede's cultural dimensions (low/high power distance, individualism/collective, and masculinity/femininity) and Hall's concept of low/high context culture were used as a theoretical framework for this study. First, qualities that Chinese and Americans consider important in their friendships in each of their own culture were identified. Then this study found out that long-established expectations and understanding of friendship of both Chinese and Americans were challenged while …

I Know "I Can": A Validity Study Of A Foreign Language Self-Assessment, Libby Marie Byers

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers are aware of the numerous benefits of self-assessments in the realm of secondary language learning. Additionally, self-assessment measures have provided substantial insight into the performance of students in foreign language learning. The Foreign Languages and Literatures Faculty at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga were interested in developing a self-assessment measure that would gauge the knowledge and progress of their students’ learning. Using objective goals from the Foreign Languages and Literatures Departments outcomes statement, a pool of items was created by the faculty and then reduced to a 35-item survey, the “I Can” survey. In order to determine if …

Examining Perceived Subordinate Support, Timothy Paul Clayton Jr.

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Support relationships within organizations have been the subject of numerous empirical studies. Much of this research has focused on the influence of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support and their effects on subordinates. To date, however, no research has focused on how supervisors are influenced by their beliefs about support from their subordinates. I define perceived subordinate support (PSubS) as the extent to which a supervisor feels subordinates are concerned with the supervisor's well-being and value the supervisor as a leader. Previous research suggests that subordinates’ opinions and behaviors do influence supervisor behavior. In the present study, a measure …

A History Of The American Film Institute, Deborah Jae Alexander

Dissertations

The American Film Institute (AFI) is a highly politicized, powerful organization. To date, most historical documentation and recording of AFI events and activities has been disseminated to the mass media from within the organization through its own publications or in other historical documentation as incidental history in relation to another topic. This dissertation, written as an overview, is the first comprehensive, independent historical examination of the AFI. The examination begins with an exploration of the development, activities and decline of the American Council on Education‟s original AFI and other film organizations that existed prior to the present day AFI. It …

A Study Of The Effectiveness Of A Pilot Training Program In An Organizational Setting: An Intervention For Work Engagement, John Joseph Kmiec Jr.

Dissertations

This study measured the effects of a learning intervention designed to enhance the capabilities of immediate managers to increase the level of work engagement in line employees at a small manufacturing firm in south Mississippi. The study answered the call of researchers to investigate the impact of innovative management practices on work engagement (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, & Taris, 2008). The firm’s Production business unit managers participated in a 90-day learning program based on five skills outlined by Flagello and Dugas (2009); the Maintenance business unit managers did not participate in the learning. At three intervals during the intervention, the researcher …

An Examination Of Hurricane Emergency Preparedness Planning At Institutions Of Higher Learning Of The Gulf South Region Post Hurricane Katrina, Caterina Gulli Ventura

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine hurricane emergency preparedness planning at institutions of higher learning of the Gulf South region following Hurricane Katrina. The problem addressed the impact of Hurricane Katrina on decision-making and policy planning processes. The focus was on individuals that administer the hurricane emergency preparedness plans and processes at universities. The research sought comprehension of the complexity of responsibilities while aspiring to build more effective policy. The research procedures consisted of two phases. The first phase of the research used the hurricane emergency preparedness plans of universities and colleges in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to …

Later Life Decision-Making: Experiential Adult Learning And Successful Aging, Shauna Pearce Breland

Dissertations

The focus of this study was on how aging adults make critical life decisions such as those involving health care and health care benefits, living arrangements for later life, and organizing personal affairs. The participant group consisted of 8 sexagenarians and 4 septuagenarians who had recently made or were currently making these critical life decisions.

The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used to allow the researcher to examine the phenomena of decision-making and aging within the context of the life experiences of the individuals being studied. Each subject participated in a single in-depth …

Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (Pbss) Across Racial Groups, Sasha Joy Lambert

Dissertations

Alcohol consumption among college students, and the negative alcohol-related consequences that accompany that consumption, have been consistent concerns for colleges and the general public for several decades. Protective behavioral strategies are emerging in the literature as a potentially effective means of reducing harm to students; however, psychometrically sound measures for protective behavioral strategies are only in a development stage at this point. One such measure, the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS), showed particular promise in this area, but previous research suffered from sample limitations, particularly very low sampling of students of color. In the current study, additional items were added …

Negotiating Everyday Islam After Socialism: A Study Of The Kazakhs Of Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia, Namara Brede

Geography Honors Projects

Using ethnographic interviews and participant observations from the Kazakh community of Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia in June 2009, this study examines how Islamic discourses, practices, experiences, and scales of influence are negotiated in post-socialist Central Asia. To do this, local, national, and transnational dynamics of Mongolian Kazakh religious practice are considered alongside the individual-scale mediating roles of personal preference, social position, life course, power, and social networks. Islam in Bayan-Ulgii is shown to be integral to community and ethnic identity but also multifaceted, dynamic, and multi-scalar, militating against essentialist portrayals of Islam as monolithic or dichotomously split between “high” and “low” forms.

Black And White On Black: Whiteness And Masculinity In The Works Of Three Australian Writers - Thomas Keneally, Colin Thiele, And Patrick White., Matthew Israel Byrge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

White depictions of Aborigines in literature have generally been culturally biased. In this study I explore four depictions of Indigenous Australians by white Australian writers. Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) depicts a half-caste Aborigine's attempt to enter white society in a racially-antipathetic world that precipitates his ruin. Children's author Colin Thiele develops friendships between white and Aboriginal children in frightening and dangerous landscapes in both Storm Boy (1963) and Fire in the Stone (1973). Nobel laureate Patrick White sets A Fringe of Leaves (1976) in a world in which Ellen Roxburgh's quest for freedom comes only through …

A Work To Inspire And Assist Women In Mid-Life Re-Enter The Workforce, Barbara Gruppos

Creative Studies Graduate Student Master's Theses

This project has allowed me the opportunity to create a workshop of exploration for women in mid-life, as they reenter the job market. The main purpose of the workshop was to foster a means of self-discovery for these women through the creativity that lives inside them. Through the use of creative concepts and tools we were able to focus on the need for empowerment and self-confidence, in order to face some of the challenges in our current day workforce. It was also designed to provide clarification of their choice to partner with our agency, Everywoman Opportunity Center, Inc. while working …

Building A Bridge To A New Career, Lydia Rose Pettis

Creative Studies Graduate Student Master's Theses

The purpose of this project is to explore the possibility of becoming a life coach. It pulls together readings in key areas of personal interest that contribute to the development of a personal philosophy of coaching: visualization, questions, and humanistic psychology. The project documents an integrative process. As one cycle comes to an end I am reaching into the near and distant past, and combining skills, talents, and abilities in a new (and some would say surprising) way. The project is intended to lay the groundwork for starting a coaching practice in the near future.

In The Most Friendly & Conciliatory Manner: A Proposed Final Version Of The Treaty Of Fort Laramie With Sioux, Etc., 1851, Charles D. Bernholz, Brian Pytlik Zillig

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The Treaty of Fort Laramie with Sioux, etc., 1851 was one of the most important contracts formed between the federal government and the Indian tribes of the Great Plains. It served as more than just a continuation of federal Indian policy, initiated by the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Rather, it was an attempt to protect those involved in the ever-increasing American expansion into the West by eliminating intertribal animosities and by setting rigid territorial boundaries for the tribes. Unfortunately, this critical document was never published in a correct final state. A Web site …

A General-Purpose Parallel Raster Processing Programming Library Test Application Using A Geographic Cellular Automata Model, Qingfeng Guan, Keith C. Clarke

Geography Program: Faculty Publications

A general-purpose parallel Raster Processing programming Library (pRPL) was developed and applied to speed up a commonly used Cellular Automaton model with known tractability limitations. The library is suitable for use by geographic information scientists with basic programming skills, but who lack knowledge and experience of parallel computing and programming. pRPL is a general-purpose programming library that provides generic support for raster processing, including local-scope, neighborhood-scope, regional-scope, and global-scope algorithms as long as they are parallelizable. The library also supports multi-layer algorithms. Besides the standard data domain decomposition methods, pRPL provides a spatially-adaptive quad-tree-based decomposition to produce more evenly distributed …

The Ground They Walk On: Photography And Narrative Inquiry, Diane Ketelle

The Qualitative Report

In this project, the author explores a novel variation on an established social science research method, photo-elicitation. The author photographed eight school principals during a two-year period and asked the principals to respond to the photographs by writing narratives below each. The author uses photography, reflections, and her own memories to construct descriptive narrative snapshots of the eight principals. Further, the author argues that this approach underscores how photographs are both technically and socially constructed and through the use of photo-elicitation new ways of understanding self and others in relation can be explored.

A Hockey Night In Canada: An Imagined Conversation Between Theorists, Curtis Fogel

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, various methodological issues surrounding the sociological study of sport are explored. Through an imagined dialogue between two graduate students at a hockey game, this work brings together three divergent approaches to social enquiry: Positivist Grounded Theory, Constructivist Grounded Theory, and Actor-Network Theory. This paper challenges conventional writing on method in two ways: (a) assembling three divergent approaches within a single work, and (b) employing a scripted narrative as a means of exploring methodological issues. Through this innovative approach, many of the overlaps and tensions between these theories/methods are captured. In so doing, numerous methodological questions about the …

Screening Culture: Is Western Media To Blame For “Tainting” Traditional Third World Values?, Angelina M. Campbell

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This thesis questions the idea that, through globalization, American media infiltrates Third World countries and subsequently changes or "taints" traditional culture.

Taiwanese Adolescent Psychosocial Development In Urban And Rural Areas, Chien-Ti Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate Taiwanese adolescent psychosocial development (i.e., autonomy and identity development) based on psychosocial theoretical models developed in western societies. Data were collected from both public senior high and vocational high schools in both urban and rural areas in Taiwan. Adolescent participants, with an average age of 17 years old, included 447 (about 54% were females) from urban areas, and 702 (62% were females) from rural areas. The results of this study revealed that Taiwanese adolescents from both urban and rural areas were similar to adolescent developmental ranges suggested in western theories. There were …

The Ability Of The Coping Competence Questionnaire To Predict Resilience Against Learned Helplessness Among Undergraduate College Students: An Experimental Study, Cindy L. Ollis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Coping Competence Questionnaire (CCQ), based on the reformulated learned helplessness theory, was designed to assess a general stress resistance versus a propensity towards learned helplessness with a brief, 12-item self-report questionnaire. In this study the CCQ was administered to 247 undergraduate students, who were then paired, in groups of around 24 at a time, and then randomly assigned to either success or failure conditions on the computer game TetraVex. Mood was pretested using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) depression subscale; the experimental condition, success or failure at TetraVex was conducted; then outcome measures including 20 five letter anagrams …

The Comparison Of Five Different Cattle Feeding Enterprises: A Stochastic Simulation On Expected Returns And The Effects Of Lrp Insurance, Caleb H. Bott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This was a study on the Utah cattle industry which compared five different feeding enterprises. These feeding enterprises included feeding cull cows, finishing beef yearling steers, finishing Holstein yearling steers, backgrounding beef steer calves, and backgrounding Holstein steer calves. The main purpose of this study was to determine which feeding enterprise was the most profitable for Utah cattle producers.

Another objective of the study was to determine if LRP insurance lowered the volatility in the returns to these feeding enterprises. In order to answer these two questions of interest, a historical analysis of Utah cattle and feed prices was conducted …

Commitment, Rituals, And Initiator Tendency In Married Couples, April Bakker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine and make explicit the relationships between commitment, rituals, and initiator tendency. Past research and theory suggests that these ideas are related. Two research questions guided the study: (1) How are initiator tendency and the number of rituals a couple participates in related to the commitment style?, and (2) How are initiator tendency and the meaningfulness of rituals related to commitment style?

Data were obtained from 55 couples who completed a questionnaire to measure participation and meaningfulness of rituals, initiator tendency, and commitment. Final analyses were performed with only 39 of these couples …

Language Brokering In Latino Families: Direct Observations Of Brokering Patterns, Parent-Child Interactions, And Relationship Quality, Kee J. E. Straits

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the growing percentage of immigrant families in the USA, language transition is a common immigrant experience and can occur rapidly from generation to generation within a family. Child language brokering appears to occur within minority language families as one way of negotiating language and cultural differences; however, the phenomenon of children translating or mediating language interactions for parents has previously been hypothesized to contribute to negative outcomes for children, such as role-reversals and parentification, emotional distancing and lack of communication, increased parent-child conflict, and increased internalizing/externalizing disorders. The current study used direct observations of 60 Spanish-speaking parent-child dyads (30 …

Latter-Day Saint Religiosity And Attitudes Towards Sexual Minorities, Cory John Myler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Existing research has revealed a robust relationship between high religiosity and negative attitudes towards sexual minorities. To date, however, there have been few studies investigating this relationship within the membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church). The unique history, doctrine, and organization of this religion, along with its large size, rapid growth, and sizable influence, indicate that a study of homophobia among church members will provide additional information about the relationship between religiosity and negative attitudes. These data will shed additional light on the make-up and nature of homophobia, offer insight into the relationship …

The Effects Of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia On Social Competence: An Investigation Into The First Three Months Of Treatment, Rachel L. Duchoslav

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children under 15 years of age. Despite a growing survival rate for childhood cancer, psychological research of this population has lagged behind medical advances in treatment. The research that does exist in the psycho-oncology literature is plagued with inconsistency in conclusions and methodological limitations. Focus has been given to measuring maladaptive symptoms with few firm conclusions. Conclusions in the area of social competence of children with cancer have been considerably more reliable than in other domains. Previous research suggests that children with cancer exhibit significant difficulties in the areas …