Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Modern Rock To Postmodern Hard Rock: Cambodian Alternative Music Voices, Linda Saphan

Ethnic Studies Review

Cambodian modernity was driven by the political agenda of the Sihanouk government beginning in the 1950s, and Cambodian rock and roll emerged in the 1960s in step with Sihanouk's ambitious national modernization project. Urban rockers were primarily upper-class male youths. In. the postcolonial era rock and roll was appropriated from abroad and given a unique Cambodian sound, while today's emerging hard rock music borrows foreign sociocultural references along with the music. Postmodern Cambodia and its diaspora have seen the evolution of a more diverse music subculture of alternative voices of hard rock bands and hip-hop artists, as well as post-bourgeois …

Effects Of Simultaneous Speech And Sign On Infants’ Attention To Spoken Language, Jonathan Y. Ting, Tonya R. Bergeson, Richard T. Miyamoto

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Objectives: To examine the hypothesis that infants receiving a degraded auditory signal have more difficulty segmenting words from fluent speech if familiarized with the words presented in both speech and sign compared to familiarization with the words presented in speech only. Study Design: Experiment utilizing an infant-controlled visual preference procedure. Methods: Twenty 8.5-month-old normal-hearing infants completed testing. Infants were familiarized with repetitions of words in either the speech + sign (n = 10) or the speech only (n = 10) condition. Results: Infants were then presented with four six-sentence passages using an infant-controlled visual preference procedure. Every sentence in two …

The Interaction Of Political Capacity And Economic Growth To Attract Foreign Direct Investments At The Provincial Levels Of Developing Countries, Murniz Allen Vasay Coson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation will explore how developing provinces within countries attract foreign direct investment. The policy implication to this study is important because it could account for the uneven distribution of growth in developing countries that so frequently leads to dual economies. To attract foreign direct investments, provincial governments compete among themselves trying to appeal to international investors. There is consensus in the economic development literature that both economic and political variables interact to advance a nation's economy. The ability for a country to provide a free market economy to exchange goods and ideas makes the environment more favorable for investors, …

The Impact Of A Video Game Intervention On The Cognitive Functioning, Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem, And Video Game Attitudes Of Older Adults, Giovanni W. Sosa

CGU Theses & Dissertations

While a well-established body of empirical work indicates that engaging in mentally stimulating activities is linked to positive physical and mental health outcomes, relatively few studies have specifically examined the impact that video game training can have on cognitive functioning and well-being. Given the substantial implications that such work has for an ever-growing older adult population, this area of research has begun to pique the interest of researchers world-wide. The present study employed an experimental paradigm to explore the impact of a Nintendo DS video game, Brain Age, on the cognitive functioning, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and video game attitudes of …

Essays On Regional Economic Integration In East Asia, Teerasak Sapwarobol

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the pattern of trade and portfolio investment in East Asian economies and how trade integration can affect the level of bilateral asset holdings. On the trade side, the determinants of bilateral trade flow is examined at the product level, not the aggregate, so as to assess the impact of RTAs across product types as well as the nature of the home market effect and the role of similarity of demand structures. On the financial side, the dissertation synthesizes analyses of the composition of cross-border portfolio holdings in East Asian economies, focusing on the importance of …

Fearing The Uncertain: A Causal Exploration Of Self-Esteem, Self-Uncertainty, And Mortality Salience, Zachary P. Hohman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) is one of the most influential social psychological theories of group behavior and intergroup relations. Early social identity research focused on many different group processes; however, the motivation behind group identification was not fully explored. Researchers have proposed a variety of accounts for why people join and identify with groups. This dissertation unravels the relationship between, on the one hand, mortality salience, self-related uncertainty and self-esteem, and on the other group identification and ingroup defense. The general hypothesis derived from uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2010) is that uncertainty and not fear of death or …

Toward Understanding The Nature Of Leadership In Alleviating State Fragility, Ajay Tejasvi Narasimhan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Approximately sixty countries have been designated `Fragile States' by international development agencies. Home to two billion of the world's poorest people, these fragile states are characterized by violence, weak institutions and shattered economies. Not only do they pose a challenge to regional security, they often become the breeding grounds for terrorism.

Donor agencies pour billions of dollars annually into these countries - through policy advice and conditional loans - to alleviate fragility and promote development. Development, however it is defined, involves economic, social and political transformation. Such a transformation is shaped by ideas, engages multiple interests, and proceeds within rules …

Africa's Unresponsive Democratization: The Relationship Between Regime Type And The Quality Of Life In Africa, Caryn Anne Peiffer

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Scholars and policy makers alike argue that leaders of democracies should find it in their interest to provide high levels of social services due to a fear of being voted out of office. Yet, I find that Africa's newer democracies provide levels of social services strikingly similar to what the continent's existing non-democracies supply. This dissertation seeks to explain why this is the case.

I start by exploring the determinants of Africa's most recent wave of democratization, and find that much of Africa's 1990s democratic wave can be attributed to changes in foreign circumstances rather than from pressures from domestic …

Gossip And The Group: A Self-Categorization Perspective, Dana Turcotte

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Gossip is a little studied topic and even fewer studies have examined gossip from the perspective of social identity and self categorization theories. However, many of the functions of gossip have significant implications for group processes, including bonding, norm transmission and reinforcement, marginalization of deviants, and social influence. Particularly for those on the margins of the group, gossip may be used as a tool to gain acceptance in the group, as gossip is an effective way to express group loyalty and adherence to group norms. Study One investigated the extent to which being a prototypical member of one's group was …

Mortgage Default In Southern California: Examining Distressed Borrower's Decision Making And Market Contagion, Michael Wilkerson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on mortgage defaults in Southern California during the housing bubble of the 2000s. The rapid decline in the housing market that precipitated the current recession has been accompanied by an unprecedented number of loan defaults and foreclosures. Recent studies have identified two major theories of default--the "double trigger" hypothesis, where negative equity and an income shock are necessary conditions for default--and "strategic default" where negative equity is a sufficient condition for default. This paper adds to the default literature by adding short sale as another possible outcome of mortgage default.

The primary goal is to analyze the …

Seeing Stars: Emotional Trauma In Athlete Retirement: Contexts, Intersections, And Explorations, Scott P. Tinley

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Few areas of modern sport are as misunderstood in popular and academic literature as that of retired professional and elite athletes. While the subject has been studied, the case of the retiring athlete has yet to be fully explored in a detailed, qualitative, and interdisciplinary study focusing on nuanced contexts affecting the quality of an athlete's exit from sport. Utilizing 3 participant groups--29 elite athletes (16 sports, 18 males, 11 females), 9 professional sport administrators, and 8 sport media journalists--over an 18-month period, extensive semi-structured interviews resulted in 1,436 raw data themes that constituted 13 direct, 3 indirect, and 3 …

Systematics, Biogeography And Leaf Anatomy And Architecture Of Bursera Subgen. Bursera (Burseraceae) In The Greater Antilles And The Bahamas, María Cristina Martínez-Habibe

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study on the origin and evolutionary relationships of the species of Bursera in Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and the Bahamas. The goals of the first chapter were to test monophyly of the group, revisit a recent transfer of two species of Bursera to Commiphora, and place recently discovered mainland species using the reconstructed phylogenies. Additionally, divergence estimations using fossils were used as independent tests of several hypotheses regarding the arrival of the modern biota to the Greater Antilles and Bahamas (GAB). I conclude that all endemic taxonomic entities of the genus in this region belong …

Stylizing, Commodifying, And Disciplining Real Bodies: An Examination Of Wwe Wrestling, Isamu Horiuchi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines professional wrestling in the U.S., in particular, live and television shows produced by the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Through the examination, it addresses complex issues of authenticity, audience, commodification, and discipline in contemporary popular culture and media.

I use three approaches in this study. First, I apply the theory of culture industry, developed by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, to understand WWE wrestling. I examine how the WWE thoroughly stylizes its products to attract fans and condition them to repeat the same calculable reactions. However, contemporary fans often refuse to react as the WWE wants them …

Theory Building Through Praxis Discourse: A Theory- And Practice-Informed Model Of Transformative Participatory Evaluation, Michael Allen Harnar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Stakeholder participation in evaluation, where the evaluator engages stakeholders in the process, is prevalent in evaluation practice and is an important focus of evaluation research. Cousins and Whitmore proposed a bifurcation of participatory evaluation into the two streams of transformative participatory and practical participatory evaluation (T-PE and P-PE respectively). T-PE stems from a social justice perspective and P-PE has more of a use orientation. T-PE is an underdeveloped evaluation theory with relatively low operational specificity. Case examples provide some understanding of it in practice, but comprehensive empirical support is still forthcoming. This study aims to develop a greater understanding of …

Courtroom Discussions About Children's Sexual Abuse: An Examination Of Prior Conversations About Disclosures, Non-Disclosures And Perpetrator Statements To Children About Abuse, Stacia N. Stolzenberg

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the content of courtroom conversations about children's prior discussions regarding sexual abuse. Sixty felony child abuse trial transcripts including child testimony and reviewing court opinions were collected from the Court of Appeal and from court reporters. Information was obtained from under Section 288 of the California Penal code (sexual abuse of a child under 14 years of age) filed in Los Angeles County from 1997 to 2001. For this study, transcript testimony was transcribed, extracted for the necessary information, coded, assessed for reliability, and analyzed. The findings indicate that conversations about children's prior disclosure conversations, non-disclosure conversations, …

Effects Of United States Monetary Policy On The Capital Flows To The Latin America Countries, David Rene Samayoa Gordillo

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In the latest time, the US has had an easy Monetary Policy. Because of the increasing link among the countries through interconnections on international trade, financial, and labor markets, such policy has not only had effects in the US economy, but also in the rest of the world. So many countries, especially emerging and developing countries, have suggested that such a policy has been causing an excessive flow of funds out of the US which are disrupting the exchange rate and competitiveness of those countries. An innovation of the analysis is that capital flows are divided in "Firm related" (direct …

Investigating Young Children's Music-Making Behavior: A Developmental Theory, Paul G. Morehouse

CGU Theses & Dissertations

We have many developmental theories contributing to our understanding of children as they meander steadfastly toward maturation. Yet, none have reported on how young children interpret the qualitative meaning and importance of their own music-making experiences. Music created by average, not prodigious, young children is perceived by adults as “play” music rather than “real” music. But do young children take the same view as adults? When Piaget speaks of the young child’s qualitatively unique view and experience of the world (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988), can we assume that his statement encompasses young children’s predispositions related to music-making?

Music is understood …

Idealism And Actualization. Saint-Just In Theory, Practice, And Exigency, Craig R. Schamel

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Louis-Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (1767-1794) was a revolutionary, a statesman, and a political philosopher, yet it is largely only as a revolutionary that he is remembered. As a political person who occupied these three different but overlapping roles, Saint-Just is ideal as the subject and center of a study of actualization, the taking of political ideals into reality. Saint-Just’s political philosophy was that of an idealist, and yet he, by force of circumstance, ability, and audacity, had the opportunity in his short life to attempt to establish and put into practice his political ideals. In his work as a political …

Linked Working: Generating Success On The World's Largest Professional Networking Website, Frank Agin, Lewis Howes

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The following book excerpt comes from Chapter 2 of the eBook LinkedWorking. The book is available in digital bookstores and on www.linkedworking.com.

The Use Of Space At The Late Woodland Shady Grove Site (22-Qu-525), Stephen George Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Very little previous work has been done at the Late Woodland Shady Grove site. This thesis will examine and reconfirm some of the previous conclusions about this site's placement within the temporal framework of the Northern Yazoo Basin. The Late Woodland and Mississippian occupations of the site used the same space in decidedly different ways. How the use of space has changed through time will be examined from several different perspectives, including geophysical survey and the intra-site distribution of artifacts.

King Of The Hill's Souphanousiphones, The New Model Minority, And The Subversive Model Minority, Robert Reece

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though the term "model minority" was only coined in the 1960s to apply to Asian-Americans, in the white imagination, a "model" way to be a minority has always existed. This model has gone through various iterations from the "happy" blacks of the antebellum years to supposedly over-achieving Asian-Americans of the 1960s. I argue that we are witnessing the emergence of a new model minority that includes not only Asian-Americans but other high-achieving minorities as well. This model minority is characterized by economic success, formal education, American values, and conservative racial politics or a complete silence about race. Because an inability …

The Impact Of Online Collaboration Spaces On Virtual Team Outcomes, Anil Ustun, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

With the emergence of information technology, organizational teams often work virtually, relying on different technologies to successfully complete tasks. This paper investigates the influence of online collaboration spaces on team performance and team affective outcomes such as satisfaction with the process. An experiment will be conducted in which teams of 3 participants will work together on a survival decision-making activity (Lost at Sea). Teams will be collaborating in a web-conferencing (Adobe Connecta™) space and a 3D (three-dimensional) virtual space (Second Life). Based on Social Presence Theory, we expect that the avatar-based 3D environment will provide a richer environment for social …

My Community, Their Community Our Community: "Musings" On Development, Grace Leonard

VA Engage Journal

This reflection explores the collision of anthropology and civic engagement, a combination that has come to define my senior research. My fieldwork at educational NGOs in Northern Richmond and Northern Ghana caused me to question the local relevancy of NGO management strategies. How can white, middle class teachers appropriately improve educational outcomes for low-income black students in Richmond? Is compulsory education appropriate training for Ghanaian farmers? Academic theories criticize “development” for furthering power against the oppressed, while the qualitative work of NGOs is quantified to fit the needs of grant writers. I find policy can never prescribe perfectly. In order …

Tracking A Lifelong Service Commitment In Alumni Of The College Of William And Mary, Emma C. Merril

VA Engage Journal

In order to better understand the development of a commitment to service, this paper explores the lives of alumni of the College of William and Mary as case studies. It is valuable to students and academic institutions alike to track a student‟s service commitment to see if his or her college experience was able to deepen that commitment. William and Mary is an exemplar in service-learning, which is why its alumni were interviewed and used as case studies. The College of William and Mary has an Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) that has connected students with community partners since 2009 …

Clinical Decisions, Margaret Fish

VA Engage Journal

From the very beginning of my experience in the dental hygiene program, patient care has been the central focus. Not just in administrating dental hygiene services, but in their safety. Every patient presenting to the clinic for treatment has their blood pressure measured. I would like to compare two very similar incidents with two different responses by the clinic staff I have experienced while on external rotation.

Catholic Relief Services 2012 Annual Report, Crs

Global CWD Repository

Wherever people reach out with love to help one another, that is where God is. And through your faith, compassion and generosity, that is where you will find Catholic Relief Services.

Where God is, you find expectant mothers receiving care for their unborn babies. Where God is, there are children receiving a lunch that takes them through their day and an education that fuels them for a lifetime. Where God is, there are women saving money for the first time, starting small businesses that will help their families and communities thrive.

Where God is, you find farmers using irrigation and …

Data Envelopment Analysis Of Productivity Changes In Higher Education For-Profit Enterprises Compared To Non-Profits, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

Data envelopment analysis is used to compare private for-profit colleges to publicly owned colleges in terms of their operating efficiency and productivity. Academic year 2005-09 panel data is used for two-year institutions in the U.S. Results indicate that for-profit efficiency exceeded that of public colleges. Malmquist index results show that colleges in both sectors increased managerial and scale efficiencies, but that both were hindered by technological regress to the extent that overall productivity declined. 2007-08 created efficiency declines across the board, but for-profits managed large technological gains that produced the only annual productivity improvement for either sector. The results are …

Cost Inefficiencies And Rankings Of Ivy Universities: Stochastic Panel Estimates, G. Thomas Sav

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper employs stochastic frontier analysis in providing estimates of the operating cost inefficiencies of private non-profit and public ivy universities in the U.S. Panel data for academic years 2005-09 is used to estimate cost frontiers under two alternative specifications that lead to estimated gross and net inefficiencies. Time varying inefficiencies are reported for each academic year and used to calculate university inefficiency rankings by sector. The results suggest that private ivy universities are less inefficient or more efficient than their public counterparts. However, public ivies appear to have made significant inefficiency adjustments perhaps in response to the global financial …

Reliability And Factor Structure Of The Psychological Maltreatment And Neglect Scales Of The Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (Cami), Cindy L. Nash, Sarah A. Hayes-Skelton, David Dilillo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Psychological Maltreatment (PM) and Neglect subscales of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI; DiLillo et al., 2010). The CAMI is a retrospective self-report measure that assesses multiple forms of child maltreatment (i.e., sexual, physical, psychological, neglect, exposure to interparental violence) retrospectively from adults. The CAMI’s PM and Neglect subscales were administered to a geo-graphically diverse sample of 400 college students and a sample of 412 newlyweds. Exploratory fac-tor analyses were conducted for each group separately by subscale. Represented in the PM factor structures were items that …

Book Review By John Gale: Invited Review Of "Free Burma: Transnational Legal Action For Corporate Social Accountability" In The Book Of Perspectives On Politics, Tun Myint, John G. Gale

Political Science Faculty Work

No abstract provided.