Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

An Evaluation Of A Physical Activity-Based Residential Treatment Program, Eric Alan Mikkelsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study evaluated a physical activity-based residential treatment program. It explored the current literature on adolescent treatment implementing physical exercise with parental participation, specifically at residential treatment centers. While the current literature strongly supports physical exercise and family involvement in adolescent treatment, research on combining physical exercise with family involvement is insufficient at best.

The data were obtained from Telos Residential Treatment Center, an all-boys treatment program that incorporates a triathlon into their treatment curriculum and keeps pre- and posttest scores of the Youth Outcome Questionnaire for their students as well as completed questionnaires from students' parents. Research questions addressed …

Patterns Of Attachment And Factors From The Neo Pi-R As Predictors Of Deviant Sexuality, Michelle L. Varon

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Research has shown that both personality factors from the Big 5 personality model and underlying attachment dimensions are related to deviant sexuality. Over 500 primarily Hispanic undergraduate college students completed the NEO PI-R, The relationship scales questionnaire, and a deviant sexuality measure, which was a composite of attitudes, intentions and behaviors. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that conscientiousness and agreeableness, combined with the underlying attachment dimensions of avoidance and anxiety, are useful in predicting deviant sexuality.

Predictors Of Pap Smear Utilization Among Female Mexican American College Students, Sylvia M. Morales

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Pap smear is a diagnostic screening test that detects abnormal cell growth, which may lead to cervical cancer. Pap smears are performed at a consistently lower frequency among Hispanic than non-Hispanic American White women, potentially contributing to a 70% higher rate of cervical cancer in Hispanic Americans. This study examined possible predictors of Pap smear utilization among 165 Mexican American female college students aged 18 to 30 attending the University of Texas-Pan American situated near Texas’s United States – Mexico border. Significant predictors were: recommendation by a health care professional; sexual activity; mother’s educational level; and external locus of …

School Public Relations: Relating With Lep Families, Annette Serventi Garcia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this paper was to examine newsletters disseminated by school public relations programs to their community in districts where Spanish is the primary home language. A content analysis examined district newsletters of school districts located in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The examination of district-issued newsletters determined the percentage of stories written in English or Spanish to compare with the demographic make-up, specifically the percentage of the non-English speaking parents of the district and the percentage of Limited English Proficient students. Stories were also analyzed to determine whether there were recurring themes in the English versus Spanish …

Emotion Understanding And Social Competence In Balanced Bilinguals And Language-Dominant Children, Katrina Meza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study investigated the development of emotion understanding and social competence among 106 culturally and linguistically diverse children (50 girls and 56 boys). It investigated if there were differences in the development of emotion understanding and social competence between balanced bilinguals and language-dominant children. Balanced bilinguals outperformed language-dominant children on two advanced tasks of emotion understanding, in which they evidenced an increased understanding that emotions can be based on desires and that emotions can be hidden. Balanced bilinguals and language-dominant children follow a similar developmental trajectory on emotion understanding. There were no significant differences between language groups in social …

Sibling Stress In Families Of Children With Autism, Valerie N. Moreno

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Siblings of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have an increased chance of experiencing more stress than siblings of typically developing children. Stress experienced by siblings of children with an ASD may be dependent on the adaptive and maladaptive behavior of the child with autism. A total of 30 mothers were recruited in this study. Results indicated that the difference in stress levels in siblings of children with an ASD and siblings of typically developing children were not statistically significant. It was also found that the stress levels in siblings of children with an ASD were not dependent …

Parenting Stress On Mothers Of Children With Autism, Janett Cantu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Recent research has underscored that having a child with autism can be particularly stressful for parents. The purpose of the current study was to identify sources stress in mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with mothers of typically developing children (TDC). A total of 33 mothers were recruited in this study; 18 mothers had at least one child with ASD and 15 mothers had at least one typically developing child. The results showed higher levels of stress in the ASD group compared to the TDC group. The main source of stress for the mothers in both …

Does Tactile Stimulation Attenuate The Adverse Effects Of Maternal Separations In Rats?, Nancy I. Salinas

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Handling has been used as a stressor and a stress-protector in research on development in rats. Tactile stimulation (TS), on the other hand, has consistently been shown to favorably affect the performance and exploratory behaviors of stressed rats in novel environments and this effect is usually interpreted as evidence of attenuating the developmentally-related emotional consequences of stress. In the present study, the effects of TS during maternal separation (MS) were explored during a critical period of development in rats. An open-field task to measure exploratory behavior was used as a dependent measure of anxiety at a pre-pubertal period. It was …

South Texas Journalism: A Case Study Of Historical Agenda-Setting, 1861-1865, Diana Rosa Ybañez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In a span of two decades, agenda-setting has been a topic of interest in the communication field. Despite this interest, agenda-setting studies lack attempts to make the concept of agenda-setting useful in an historical context. This content analysis was designed to determine what agenda South Texas newspapers set with the Civil War coverage between January 1861 and May 1865. The process of agenda-setting is described by quantity and kind of war coverage. The findings of this thesis lend support to the research question that South Texas newspapers did make the Civil War part of their agenda. This thesis indicates that …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Public Speaking Instruction On Students Cognitive Learning, Skill Development, And Communication Apprehension, Gilberto A. Castillo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of public speaking instruction on students’ cognitive learning, skill development, and communication apprehension. Participants in this study included 140 undergraduate students at a university in the Southwestern United States. Hypotheses and research questions focused on determining whether public speaking instruction makes a difference for students who receive instruction as opposed to students who do not on three learning outcomes: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. Results of the study are discussed. Conclusions, limitations, and topics for further research are addressed.

The Development Of The Basal Ganglia In Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Apella), Kimberley A. Phillips, C. A. Sobieski, V. R. Gilbert, C. Chiappini-Williamson, Chet C. Sherwood, P. L. Strick

Psychology Faculty Research

The basal ganglia are subcortical structures involved in the planning, initiation and regulation of movement as well as a variety of non-motor, cognitive and affective functions. Capuchin monkeys share several important characteristics of development with humans, including a prolonged infancy and juvenile period, a long lifespan, and complex manipulative abilities. This makes capuchins important comparative models for understanding age-related neuroanatomical changes in these structures. Here we report developmental volumetric data on the three subdivisions of the basal ganglia, the caudate, putamen and globus pallidus in brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Based on a cross-sectional sample, we describe brain …

Science And Practice Of Integrated River Basin Management : Lessons From North And Central American Unesco-Help Basins, Heejun Chang, Anne Browning-Aiken

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) program, a cross-cutting component of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP), has as its goal to facilitate dialogue among hydrologists, social and economic scientists, water resource managers, water lawyers, policy experts, and river basin stakeholder communities in setting a research agenda driven by local management and policy issues. HELP seeks to improve the benefits to society by applying the principals of integrated water-resources management to complex, interdisciplinary issues within catchments.

This Monograph is the culmination of a workshop held in 2010 in which the managers from the six North American basins …

Structural And Informal Knowledge Acquisition And Dissemination In Organisational Learning: An Exploratory Analysis, Siu Loon Hoe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

PurposeThe topic of organizational learning is populated with many theories and models; many relate to the enduring organizational learning framework consisting of knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge use. However, most of the research either emphasizes structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination as a composite construct, or focuses solely on the structural aspect of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. The primary objective of this study is to develop and test a model of organizational learning that incorporates both structural and informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination and as separate processes. The predictors of these processes are also proposedDesign/methodology/approachA model of organizational learning that …

Global Project Management: Pedagogy For Distributed Teams, Benjamin Kok Siew Gan, Randy Weinberg, Selma Limam Mansar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper reflects on pedagogy for teaching collaborative global projects across universities in different countries. Over a period of four years, students at three universities - one in the United States, one in Singapore and one in the Middle East - enrolled in a course called "Global Project Management". In this course, coordinated across locations, students experience a global project with distant team members. We describe the course experience and student perceptions of the requisite skills, collaboration tools and challenges bearing on effective global project work.

The Effects Of Two Different Post-Exercise Stretching Modalities On Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness In Adults, Ryan P. Mcgrath

Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, research suggested that post-exercise stretching may reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in those who exercise; however, newer research indicates that stretching has no effect on DOMS. However, it appears that the effect of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching on preventing DOMS has not been adequately studied. The primary purpose of the study was to research the effect of PNF stretching on DOMS. The secondary purpose was to evaluate if one’s level of flexibility had a correlation with high levels of DOMS. The study was a posttest-only control group design. Participants were randomly assigned into a stretching group …

A Question Of Investment: Is Prevention Worth The Price?, Scott B. Smith, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

In today’s calculus of public and private budgeting, an ounce of prevention may no longer be worth a pound of “cure.”

“Prevention” takes many forms: Preparing one’s family for an emergency. Buying life and property insurance. Buying corporate insurance. Having a sufficiently-sized and well-trained security workforce at your workplace. Supporting law enforcement efforts to get one step ahead of the bad guy (whether a criminal or a terrorist). Supporting entities like UNLV’s Institute for Security Studies whose sole raison d’etre is to make Las Vegas and Nevada a safe and secure place to live, work and visit.

Prison Reformation: A Five- Step Plan And Evidence Of Community Support, Nicole Borger

Honors College Theses

The federal prison model is one that provides better service than state prisons for offenders both during and after their incarceration. I would like to lay out a plan for the New York State prison system that amplifies the federal prison system’s small scale ideas into ones that can reach thousands of offenders as well as prove, through a research study I, along with two colleagues Colleen Kelley and Adisa Alghali, conducted called “Effect of Information Regarding Mentally Ill Offenders on Community Perception of Sentencing,” that community support can be garnered for such a plan. This five-part plan includes the …

Voluntary Green Power Market Forecast Through 2015, Lori Bird, Ed Holt, Jenny Sumner, Claire Kreycik

Publications (E)

Voluntary markets for renewable energy in which consumers purchase renewable energy from their electricity providers or from renewable energy certificate (REC) marketers have existed for more than a decade. Going forward, various factors will influence the development of these markets, including potential climate policies, state and federal renewable portfolio standards (RPS), renewable energy prices, the level of consumer interest in purchasing green power, and the interest on the part of utilities in offering new green options and in continuing to promote existing programs.

This report presents estimates of voluntary market demand for renewable energy or green power through 2015. The …

Non-Sacrificial, Anti-Graffiti Coating 2009 Evaluation, Nevada Department Of Transportation Materials Division

Publications (T)

Graffiti eradication is a problem for the Nevada Department (NDOT). Over 12,000 man-hours are spent on graffiti eradication each year. One recognized graffiti abatement method is the use of non-sacrificial, anti-graffiti coating. NDOT uses non-sacrificial, anti-graffiti coating as an abatement strategy to easily remove graffiti from the public's view. NDOT conducts an annual evaluation of non-sacrificial, anti-graffiti coatings in order to keep current with industry innovation and improved product formulations. Products that meet NDOT's performance expectations are added to the Qualified Product List.

Fourteen products from twelve participating suppliers were evaluated on three different substrates. Of these products, three were …

Ethnography Of Communication: A Case Study Of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, “Air Command South”, Gregory B. Long

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study is an ethnography of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization‟s (NATO), “Air Command South” (ACS). Using components from Dell Hymes‟ (1964) Ethnography of Communication, this five month ethnography describes the organization and the communication that occurs within ACS, a multinational and multicultural military extension of NATO. Made up of members from seventeen nations, ACS fosters a uniquely diverse environment where a mix of cultures collide within the organization to create a new organizational culture complete with communication codes, practices, norms, and routines. The review of literature covers subjects and issues that assist in understanding the issues involved in such …

Transformative Pedagogy In Conversation: The Role Of Instructor Interventions In Peer Feedback For Speech Outline Development, Michael J. Stasio

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the efficacy of written and oral peer feedback used as an instructional strategy to support student learning in speech outline development. One hundred seven students from a California Community College participated in a mixed-methods evaluative quasi-experimental study conducted in a two-fold process with both quantitative and qualitative measures. Existing literature on peer-centered learning has various gaps. These include four areas of uncertainty: implementation interventions, trust, self-perceived benefits, and contexts. Overall perceived learning benefits and four specific instructor intervention variables were measured in this study: (1) creation of a safe space for collaboration, (2) student training on the …