Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Supporting Informed Learners In The 21st Century, Christine S. Bruce, Hilary Hughes, Mary M. Somerville

University Libraries Librarian and Staff Articles and Papers

This article elaborates the concept of informed learning and locates it in educational, workplace, and community settings. Drawing on existing research into people’s experience of information literacy, it identifies critical experiences of informed learners in each of these three settings. It also explores the support required in educational, community, and workplace contexts, which makes informed learning possible. Recognizing strong implications for policy makers in different sectors, the article presents a set of guiding principles for developing informed learning and learners. The idea of informed learning represents and advances understandings of information literacy that incorporate the broader concept of using information …

Information Systems Procurement Process Risk And Control: Insights From A Public Sector Organization, Gary Pan, Manjari Mehta, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This case highlights the specific risks and issues that may be encountered in the information systems (IS) procurement process in a country where bribery and corruption are more common. PSO is a large Indian public sector organization involved in energy-related business. Being financially deprived, PSO relied on government funding to build its infrastructures. Besides the funding support, PSO also inherited the bureaucratic structure and the corruption practices. Lately, PSO was involved in several IS infrastructure and applications upgrading projects and wanted to review its IS procurement process. Does PSO understand the process risks in public IS procurement? Does PSO have …

Book Review Of Heather Mccrea, Diseased Relations: Epidemic, Public Health, And State-Building In Yucatán, Mexico, 1847-1924, Autumn L. Quezada-Grant Dr

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Diseased Relations is an impressive work succinct in its focus on the topic of public health history in the Mexican state of Yucatán. Adding to a growing body of scholarship on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book offers a new lens through which to consider the mechanics of state formation. In this turn to the study of disease and public health, McCrea pulls in the unfolding story of science’s understanding of the origin and spread of diseases and reflects upon the dialogue between national officials and state or local officials in the Yucatán. By choosing to focus on …

Overcoming Poverty Through Digital Inclusion, Marco Figueiredo, Paola Prado, Mark Cramer

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

A growing body of research is showing how digital inclusion can help communities overcome poverty and injustice. The main challenge lies in how best to achieve this goal. The authors argue that digital inclusion must occur in two distinct stages. The first stage is digital literacy, accomplished with the Symbiotic Computer (SC)-smartphones and tablets. The second stage will be professional capacity-building, accomplished with the more traditional Personal Computer (PC).

Focused Brief Group Therapy Treatment Manual, Jennifer Elaine Lotz

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Focused Brief Group Therapy (FBGT) was developed in a college counseling center in order to meet the mental health needs of the student population effectively within an 8 session limit. The model was developed to address pragmatic concerns by integrating best practice (AGPA, ASGW) and the local scientist model (practice based evidence). The goal of FBGT is measurable change in a focused area of interpersonal distress. The interpersonal circumplex, an empirically derived and scientifically validated model of interpersonal functioning, is used. Assessment is used to inform and guide treatment as well as to measure change. The model has been honed …

Development And Evaluation Of An Ecological Display For The Detection, Evaluation, And Treatment Of Cardiovascular Risk, Timothy Ryan Mcewen

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Ecological interface design (EID; Vicente & Rasmussen, 1992) is a discipline that emphasizes the necessity of understanding the laws and constraints of a domain in order to make meaningful design decisions. We applied EID principles to create an ecological interface aimed at helping physicians with the detection, evaluation, and treatment of cardiovascular disease risk (specifically for hypertension and hyperlipidemia) and then evaluated it in two exploratory studies. In the first study, twenty-three internal medical residents participated viewed data from twelve patients (in six blocks) in a repeated measures study that measured which risk factors participant felt required follow-up and if …

Leveraging Learning To Improve Disaster Management Outcomes, Denise D. P. Thompson

Publications and Research

Disaster management agencies should be exemplars of learning given the volatility of their operating environment. However, there are cognitive, social, and organizational barriers that prevent these organizations from learning. The purpose of this article is to use the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) as an example of an organization that achieves double-loop learning in spite of known barriers. This research shows significant learning variations in the CDEMA organization from the regional to the national level. The results demonstrate that the CDEMA Coordinating Unit and a few national member agencies achieve double-loop learning, while the opposite is true for …

Citizen 2.0: Public And Governmental Interaction Through Web 2.0 Technologies (Preface), Kathryn Kolby, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

Preface to Citizen 2.0: Public and Governmental Interaction Through Web 2.0 Technologies

Understanding Delinquency With Friendship Group Religious Context, Amy Adamczyk

Publications and Research

While much research has examined the link between personal religious beliefs and practices and delinquency, little research attention has been given to the influence of friends’ religious beliefs for explaining teen delinquency. This study fills this gap in the literature by examining the role of individual and friends’ religious beliefs and born-again identity for shaping delinquency. Methods. Two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and measures taken from individuals and their friends are used to examine the influence of individual and friends’ religiosity and born-again identity for violent and property offending. Results. Friends’ private religiosity …

Extracurricular Activities And Teens' Alcohol Use: The Role Of Religious And Secular Sponsorship, Amy Adamczyk

Publications and Research

Much research has found that more religious youth are less likely to engage in riskier health-related behaviors. However, very little research has examined the role that religion may play in shaping the health-related behaviors of secular youth. There is reason to think that more and less religious youth may gain some health-related benefits from involvement with religious organizations through activities such as basketball and volunteering. Using two waves of data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, this study finds that involvement in religion-supported secular activities is associated with less alcohol use for all involved teens. The number of …

Religion And Sexual Behaviors: Understanding The Influence Of Islamic Cultures And Religious Affiliation For Explaining Sex Outside Of Marriage, Amy Adamczyk, Brittany E. Hayes

Publications and Research

Social scientists have long been interested in how cultural and structural characteristics shape individuals’ actions. We investigate this relationship by examining how macro- and micro-level religious effects shape individuals’ reports of premarital and extramarital sex. We look at how identifying with one of the major world religions—Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, or Judaism—and living in a nation with a Muslim culture shape the likelihood of sex outside of marriage. Using hierarchical modeling techniques and cross-national data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, we find that ever married Hindus and Muslims are less likely to report having had premarital sex than are …

Health Risk Behaviors In Insured And Uninsured Community Health Center Patients In The Rural Us South, K. Bryant Smalley, Jacob C. Warren, Jeff J. Klibert

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Introduction: The impact of health behaviors on the leading causes of death across the USA has been well demonstrated. However, limited focus has been placed on the leading health risk behaviors of rural Federally-Qualified Health Center (FQHC) patients, a particularly underserved group. The current study was undertaken to examine the most common risk-taking behaviors of rural FQHC patients and to examine if risk-taking behaviors vary between insured and uninsured patients.

Methods: A convenience sample of 199 patients was recruited at an FQHC in the rural US South. Participants completed a battery of demographic and health risk behavior assessments. …

Impression Management Across Applicant And Incumbent Contexts: The Effect On Job Performance, Jenna Noelle Filipkowski

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Social desirability (impression management) scales often accompany personality measures in selection to detect those who might be engaging in response distortion. Applicants' personality scores may be corrected or eliminated based on scores from the impression management scale. My studies test the effectiveness and usefulness of having social desirability measures in personnel selection. Study One examined whether social desirability (impression management) scales are able to detect faking behavior. The hypotheses were tested on an archival dataset of participants who took personality measures on two separate occasions as incumbents or applicants. Those identified by the faking indicator, who raised their scores beyond …

An Ecological Investigation Into The Effects Of Interface On Asynchronous Group Conversations, Peter Venero

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Asynchronous group communication refers to the activity of multiple people communicating when they are separated by both time and space. Online groups (OG) and email are two settings that facilitate these interactions. While both of these settings accomplish this task, they do so in slightly different ways. Email organizes all of the posts by putting the new posts on the top of the display and the older posts towards the bottom. The OG interface uses a tree structure; putting the new posts in a subordinate post relationship to a previous post. How these two technologies present the posts to the …

An Examination Of Ceo Emotion's Relationship With Organization-Level Performance, Elizabeth J. Peyton

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My study examined the relationship between CEO emotions and organization-level performance. I also tested the feasibility of using FACS in a business setting. Lastly, I explored the nature of CEOs' expressive styles. I found support for a relationship between CEOs' positive emotion displays and organization-level performance, but not a relationship between CEOs' negative emotion displays and organization-level performance. My results also supported the idea that CEOs have a unique and consistent expressive style that remains independent of displayed emotion and that researchers can use FACS to measure this expressive style.

The Effects Of Chinese Petroleum Diplomacy On Us Energy Policy Objectives In Nigeria (1993-2010), Jennifer Lynn Leapley

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The United States and China have turned to Africa as an additional source of oil to ensure reliable, secure access to oil supplies in the future. While China stresses noninterventionist foreign policies, the US, at least rhetorically, if not in practice, links its energy policy in Africa to its foreign policy goals. China's petroleum diplomacy in Africa has raised concern among some scholars and policymakers about the effect an increased Chinese economic presence will have on American foreign policy objectives.

The question arises: What impact has Chinese petroleum diplomacy had on US foreign policy objectives? More specifically, how strongly, if …

The Concurrent Validity Of The Shipley-2 And The Wais-Iv, John K. Lodge

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The recently developed Shipley-2 was compared to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th edition (WAIS-IV) in order to determine the former's level of concurrent validity as a test of intellectual ability. A convenience sample of 25 clinical subjects were administered both measures at two participating outpatient clinics, and the sum results of this testing were tabulated and then correlated through the use of a statistical software package. Results showed very strong levels of correlation between the five Shipley-2 scores (Vocabulary, Abstraction, Block Patterns, Composite A, and Composite B) and the Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) of the WAIS-IV (r = .549 …

Exploring Infidelity: Developing The Gem Rim (Gemmer's Risk Of Infidelity Measure), Stephanie J. Gemmer

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Divorce rates in America have soared with many divorces in the United States caused by infidelity; it is the number one reason cited for divorce. Due to the severe consequences of infidelity, researchers have attempted to determine its causes. For example, researchers from evolutionary theory, socialization theory, attachment theory, and investment theory have attempted to explain infidelity from a theoretical perspective. Conversely, based on a literature review Blow and Hartnett (2005) provided numerous categorical findings for infidelity including attachment and infidelity, attitudes towards infidelity, types of infidelity, and numerous demographic variables related to infidelity. Given the vast amount of research …

Juror Decision Making: The Impact Of Attractiveness And Socioeconomic Status On Criminal Sentencing And An Examination Of Motivated Reasoning In Mock Jurors, Jennifer M. Kutys

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Individuals are bombarded with stereotypes every day in the United States. It is impossible to eliminate the effect of these stereotypes in any situation; however, the criminal justice system strives to find ways to minimize the impact of these stereotypes in the courtroom. In this study, the effects of socioeconomic status and attractiveness of a female defendant on sentencing severity, perceived recidivism, and deservedness of punishment in a murder trial were examined. The study was also designed to investigate how jurors may engage in cognitive processes such as motivated reasoning when biases are pointed out to them. Attractiveness and socioeconomic …

Challenging Rust: Race And Rightsizing In Detroit, An American Post-Industrial Context, Andrienne Palchick

Geography Honors Projects

Cities in the American Rustbelt face the considerable challenges of depopulation and economic decline, but they are also increasingly viewed as places ripe with opportunities for innovation and an exciting re-imagination of urban space. This paper examines the Detroit Works Project, a re-envisioning and revitalization initiative in Detroit, to explore larger questions of accessibility and inclusion in U.S. post-industrial cities. It is an investigation of how to structure these revitalization efforts within cities where networks of actors, who invested in urban industrial growth, created policies which built the geographies of unequal access, racial segregation, and systemic marginalization that persist today.

The Ethics Of Library Resource Sharing In The Digital Age, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline ethical implications of the practical challenges facing resource sharing practitioners in the digital age.

Design/methodology/approach – The author presents an overview of major ethical challenges related to digital resource sharing using a framework of four key ethical theories: justice as fairness; utilitarianism; rights theory; and common good theory.

Findings – When administrators, publishers, lawmakers, or the public dictate policies and rules that are inconsistent with librarian values and norms, librarians should turn to ethical reasoning in defense of their work.

Social implications – Resource sharing practitioners everywhere will find …

Linguistic Discrimination In Writing Assessment: How Raters React To African American “Errors,” Esl Errors, And Standard English Errors On A State-Mandated Writing Exam, David M. Johnson, Lewis Vanbrackle

Faculty Articles

Raters of Georgia''s (USA) state-mandated college-level writing exam, which is intended to ensure a minimal university-level writing competency, are trained to grade holistically when assessing these exams. A guiding principle in holistic grading is to not focus exclusively on any one aspect of writing but rather to give equal weight to style, vocabulary, mechanics, content, and development. This study details how raters react to “errors” typical of African American English writers, of ESL writers, and of standard American English writers. Using a log-linear model to generate odds ratios for comparison of essays with these error types, results indicate linguistic discrimination …

Social Movements' Emergence And Form: The Green Movement In Iran, Afsaneh J Haddadian

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Theories of social movements suggest that 'objective' changes in the structure of political opportunities and their interaction with mobilizing and framing mechanisms render a system vulnerable to mass protest. By examining the variables relevant to such interaction, this study seeks to account for the emergence and form of the 2009 Green Movement in Iran. This research uses the congruence method and process traces the movement adherents' activities, mainly their use of Information Communication Technologies, and investigates the so-called opposition leaders' activities and statements. The study argues that in accounting for emergence and form of the Green Movement, we need to …

'Counting Votes And Bodies,' Election-Related Conflicts In Africa: A Comparative Study Of Ghana And Kenya, Ibrahim Mahama Nambiema

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Since joining the 'third wave' of democracy in the 1990s, African countries have focused on elections. Some leaders conduct elections to legitimize their authoritarian rule. Many of Africa's transitional democracies are associated with flawed elections and violent conflicts. The literature on electoral conflict places little emphasis on election governance. It is my assumption that the high rate of non-credible elections in Africa can be associated with election management that has exacerbated societal cleavages. Is an effective and independent election management body a necessary prerequisite for election results to be credible? Are credible elections correlated with lower levels of conflicts? Kenya …

Examining Outcomes Following Batterer's Intervention: A Follow-Up Study Of The Path Program, Jessica B. Virzi

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This study will attempt to determine the effectiveness of the Preventing Abuse in the Home (PATH) batterer's intervention program through the collection of qualitative data from interviews completed by men who had previously had contact with the program. Interview questions were created based upon several variables that researchers were interested in gathering information on. Results highlighted differences based on how individuals who had completed the program and those who had not participated in the program spoke regarding their abusive behavior and behavior changes they had made. Results also indicated the importance of working with clients based on which stage in …

An Investigation Of Therapist Gender In The Intake Evaluation Of Male And Female Clients At College Counseling Centers, Harry Pitsikalis

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The current study examined gender as a potential contributing factor in the increase in psychopathology at college counseling centers. As university and college counseling centers are moving away from a developmental model and toward the medical model, the effect of gender and the increased use of the DSM-IVTR could influence the perception in an increase of psychopathology by mirroring DSM-IVTR base rates. This study attempted to discover if gender influenced therapists to diagnosed depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and adjustment disorders differently amongst the male and female clients. Results indicated that neither male therapists nor female therapists diagnosed depression, substance abuse …

The Impact Of Minority Faith On The Experience Of Mental Health Services: The Perspectives Of Devotees Of Earth Religions, Alison Niblick

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In response to an identified need in the psychological literature for research on minority religion, especially earth-centered religion, this dissertation was developed to 1) present an overview of the three main branches of contemporary earth religion, 2) illuminate the realities of minority religious identity in the United States of America, 3) collect data regarding the demographic and identity variables of devotees of earth centered religion, and 4) solicit feedback from the earth religious community regarding its understanding of psychological distress, preferred ways of coping with distress, and perceptions and experiences of professional mental health services. A total of 64 self-identified …

The Impact Of Film On The Construction And Deconstruction Of Mental Illness Stigmatization In Young Adults, Michael Perciful

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The current study examined the impact of film on participants' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards people with schizophrenia. Films viewed in the current study included a fear-based inaccurate, likeable-inaccurate, and an educational-accurate depiction of schizophrenia. A control group was included. A total of 106 participants were recruited. Participants completed pre and post questionnaires separated by a 45-minute excerpt of a film. A 2 x 4 mixed design ANOVA was implemented to determine the effects of the films on measures of knowledge and attitudes. A Chi-square analysis was used to determine whether or not the films would impact potential behavior. Manipulation …

Dating And Relationship Experiences Of Gay And Lesbian College Students, Aubrey D. Morrison

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In response to an identified need in the psychological literature for current research on topics related to same-sex dating and relationships, this Professional Dissertation was developed to gain a better understanding of contemporary gay and lesbian dating and intimate relationships within the college/university student population. A total of 159 self-identified gay and lesbian college/university students in the United States and Canada completed an online survey about their dating and relationship experiences. The survey was developed by the researcher based on a review of the literature and was designed to collect broad-based quantitative and qualitative data on the topic of study. …

The Role Of Relationships In Completed Suicide: A Gendered Analysis Of Suicide Notes, Kolina J. Delgado

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Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States. As such, it has been described as a major health problem. In the United States the male to female suicide ratio is approximately 4:1. Comparative analyses of suicide between men and women are needed to provide a more complete understanding of the suicide phenomenon. The current study built upon the literature related to gender and the role of relationships in suicidality. Through the analysis of suicide notes written by individuals who completed suicide, this study provides new insight into the role of gender and interpersonal dynamics in suicide …