Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Development And Validation Of The Adolescent Thought Control Questionnaire (Tcq-A), Reanna (Sara) Elise Whiting

LSU Master's Theses

Despite receiving widespread attention in the adult literature, virtually no information about the effects of thought suppression currently exists using a developmental psychopathology perspective in adolescents. The current study describes the development and preliminary validation of The Adolescent Thought Control Questionnaire, a self-report measure of thought suppression strategy use among adolescents. A principal factor analysis revealed an identical factor structure to the adult Thought Control Questionnaire (Wells & Davies, 1994) and included subscales measuring Distraction, Reappraisal, Social, Worry, and Punishment strategies. Adequate evidence of internal and test-retest reliability was obtained. The TCQ-A evidenced strong validity when tested for relations to …

Children's Representations Of Parenting Behaviors, Basic Negative Emotions, And Negative Self-Conscious Emotions In The Narrative Story Stem Technique, Loredana Apavaloaie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The current study examined middle childhood aged Romanian children’s representations of parenting behaviors, basic negative emotions, and negative self-conscious emotions in the Narrative Story Stem Technique (NSST; Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990). More specifically, the research objectives of the study were a) to identify the frequency of the representations that were reflected in children’s narratives, b) to identify the specific stories that elicited the greatest number of representations, c) to identify possible relationships among children’s representations, their age, and amount of time that parents spend with their children, d) to identify gender differences in representations, and e) to evaluate the …

Louisiana Social Workers: A Study On Attitudes Toward Lgbt Youth, Rachel Kathleen O'Pry

LSU Master's Theses

Social workers in most professional practice settings will encounter young clients who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). It is therefore important that variables influencing levels of homophobia and transphobia among these workers be analyzed. In this study, the author sought to examine the attitudes and perceptions of social workers in Louisiana toward LGBT youth. These attitudes and perceptions were then compared to individual variables such as religion, previous training on sexual orientation and gender identity, and race. The Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI), Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS), and Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuals (HATH) scale were completed by …

An Administrative Mess: A Case Study From The Officiating Community, Stacy Warner, Jacob K. Tingle, Pamm Kellett

School of Business Faculty Research

This case is written for instructors of classes focused on strategic management, organisational behaviour, human resource management, and/or an officiating course. The case highlights the numerous administrative processes a new employee in a sport organization would face. Although the case is fictional it is based on the authors’ personal and professional experiences in athletics administration and officiating, and further draws upon the authors’ research in the area of officiating. Consequently, this case study was constructed based on first-hand observation, interviews and conversation with numerous officials and administrators, and through the examination of documents frequently used to manage officials. As a …

Back From The Brink: Reconstructing An Organizational Social Media Presence, Alexandra Gallin-Parisi, Anne Jumonville, Amy Nicole Roberson

Library Faculty Research

Presentation given at EDUCAUSE West/Southwest Regional Conference 2012.

Topics: Assessing the Social Media Landscape, Strategies & Examples, Challenges & Opportunities, and Next Steps.

http://libguides.trinity.edu/socialmedia

A Synthetic Document Image Dataset For Developing And Evaluating Historical Document Processing Methods, Daniel Walker, William Lund, Eric Ringger

Faculty Publications

Document images accompanied by OCR output text and ground truth transcriptions are useful for developing and evaluating document recognition and processing methods, especially for historical document images. Additionally, research into improving the performance of such methods often requires further annotation of training and test data (e.g., topical document labels). However, transcribing and labeling historical documents is expensive. As a result, existing real-world document image datasets with such accompanying resources are rare and often relatively small. We introduce synthetic document image datasets of varying levels of noise that have been created from standard (English) text corpora using an existing document degradation …

Amendment Of Articles 8, 9, 10, 21 And 78 Of The International Code Of Zoological Nomenclature To Expand And Refine Methods Of Publication, International Commission On Zoological Nomenclature

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has voted in favor of a revised version of the amendment to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature that was proposed in 2008. The purpose of the amendment is to expand and refine the methods of publication allowed by the Code, particularly in relation to electronic publication. The amendment establishes an Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature (with ZooBank as its online version), allows electronic publication after 2011 under certain conditions, and disallows publication on optical discs after 2012. The requirements for electronic publications are that the work be registered in ZooBank before it is …

United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Integrity Policy

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Integrity Policy (2012).

Cultural Construction Of Success And Epistemic Motives Moderate American-Chinese Differences In Reward Allocation Biases, Angela K. Y. Leung, Young-Hoon Kim, Zhi-Xue Zhang, Kim-Pong Tam, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

When the relative contribution of the self and the group to a group success is unclear, Americans tend to exhibit a self-serving bias (rewarding the self more than what the self deserves), whereas the Chinese tend to exhibit an other-serving bias (rewarding the group more than the group deserves). In a study comparing the reward allocation biases of Americans and Chinese in different group outcome conditions, the authors showed that the abovementioned cultural difference is found (a) only for culturally congruent success experience (attaining approach goals for Americans and avoidance goals for Chinese) and (b) among individuals who are motivated …

Effect Of Embalming On The Decomposition Of Pigs, Michael Anne Keaton

LSU Master's Theses

Numerous studies have been conducted on the taphonomy of human remains since the inception of forensic anthropology. Through these studies, the rates of decomposition, animal activity, and insect activity have been investigated in a diverse range of situations. One area where few studies have been carried out concerns embalmed bodies left to decompose in the open. This study considers the effect of embalming fluid on the decomposition rate of bodies. Using the pig as an experimental model, three juvenile specimens were injected with increasing levels of formaldehyde –1%, 5%, and 10%– and a fourth pig, the control, was not embalmed. …

Black-Woman Identity Centrality And Interference: An Examination Of Political Efficacy And Policy Attitudes, Alexandra Ghara

LSU Master's Theses

While much of the recent literature centers on a discussion of the “inner conflict” experienced by black women, political scientists have not measured this identity conflict or its political consequences. In this article I fill this gap in the literature by employing a black-woman identity interference scale (Settles 2006) to test whether black women experience particular difficulty aligning their racial and gender interests, and how identity conflict affects their political efficacy (internal political efficacy, external political efficacy, and group political efficacy) and policy attitudes. I find that while black women’s political efficacy is only affect by their race consciousness, their …

Communicating While Stimulated: The Effects Of Sensory-Processing Sensitivity On Behavior And Relationships, Christopher Charles Gearhart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In light of claims made by Aron (1996, 2000; Aron & Aron, 1997), this dissertation tested the influence of sensory-processing sensitivity on communication via two sets of research questions. First, are highly sensitive persons more easily aroused by stimulation, and if so does this necessarily cause a decrease in affect recognition? Results of an experimental study (N = 342) indicate that highly sensitive persons (HSPs) were more distracted by audio stimulation, causing more errors in accuracy judgments on non-verbal decoding tests, most noticeably for facial expression detection. The implication is that, when aroused by stimulation in their environment, HSPs may …

Pressures, Centralization, Economics, Technology, And Ethics: Factors That Impact Public Information Officer - Journalist Relationships, Christopher Jon Mccollough

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A study of public information officers (PIOs) in three states and the journalists that cover state government finds five primary factors that shape the working relationships between both groups. Institutional pressures on both PIOs and journalists impact the ability of both parties to meet the needs of the other party on a daily basis. High levels of centralization in state government communication limit the ability of PIOs to meet the needs of journalists, fostering journalists’ antagonism and a more combative working relationship. The economic decline of journalism is creating a dichotomous situation where PIOs can help journalists manage increasing demands …

Regional Effects Of Monetary Policy, Taehee Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A key element of this dissertation is the examination of the regional and state level effects of monetary policy. The first essay compares two broad approaches to identifying the monetary policy shocks that are used to estimate the regional effects of monetary policy. One approach that has been used in the previous literature assumes that monetary policymakers respond to shocks to regional personal income but do not respond directly to shocks to national income. A second general approach assumes that monetary policymakers respond to shocks to national income but do not respond directly to region-specific income shocks. This assumption is …

School-Wide Screening Of Student Involvement In Relational Aggression, Emily F. Patty

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the current project is to develop a universal screening instrument to detect the presence of relational aggression within schools. This research is important because relational aggression is a covert behavior that teachers cannot readily observe, and in order to inform treatment and develop interventions, assessment has to be possible. A screener should be quick, easy to administer, and accurate at finding kids at-risk for engaging in relationally aggressive behaviors or being victimized by these behaviors. To ensure adequate sensitivity and specificity of the screening instrument, both logistic regression and t-ROC curve analysis were employed. Furthermore, the screeners …

Drought In Georgia: Water Scarcity Issues And Implications, Samantha Kay Chaisson

LSU Master's Theses

Population growth and hydrological drought threaten the water supply of Atlanta, Georgia. In Georgia, water policy changed rapidly due to stress on the resource, regulation increased, and the state promoted a “culture of conservation” to combat water scarcity. This study examines how regulatory measures, including legislative acts and Governor’s executive orders, have impacted the population’s attitudes and behaviors towards water consumption. Furthermore, public spaces are used to measure public perception of water policy, and serve as a physical representation of the culture shift.

Relationship Between Adult Mentors And Placement Outcomes Among At-Risk Youth, Meagan Curtis

LSU Master's Theses

Approximately 1.3 million students drop out of school each year (National Guard Youth Foundation, 2012). The Youth ChalleNGe Program, which caters to at-risk youths who have dropped out of high school, utilizes a mentoring program. This study examines the relationship between the youth having regular contact with a mentor and the youth’s placement outcomes. The sample of this study included 215 youths who graduated in September of 2008 from the Youth ChalleNGe Program (YCP) at the Gillis W. Long Center in Carville, LA. Data regarding each youth’s placements during the post-residential phase and the number of contacts with his or …

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation And Blending: A Comparison Of Two Methods, Michael John Schafer

LSU Master's Theses

Phonemic segmenting and blending is seen as one of the most critical skills necessary for the development of good reading skills in beginning readers. Research has shown that teaching phonemic skills results in improved reading for both trained (familiar) and untrained words when compared to teaching word-recognition reading strategies. Within the field of phonemic awareness teaching, results have been mixed as to the most effective methods of teaching phonemic skills, but it is generally agreed that explicit instruction in both segmenting and blending is better than instruction focusing on onset/rime or rhyming methods. The purpose of the current study is …

Evaluation Of The Check In/Check Out (Cico) Intervention For Students With Internalizing Behavior Problems, Katherine K. Hunter

LSU Master's Theses

Internalizing behaviors are directed inward at the child and are often overlooked in classrooms compared to outwardly-directed externalizing behaviors. When internalizing behaviors are identified, Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBIs) are the go-to targeted interventions. However, CBIs are time-consuming and require considerable training to implement. An efficient and time-effective targeted intervention for internalizing behaviors is needed. Check In/Check Out (CICO) has been shown to be an effective targeted intervention for children with externalizing behavior problems. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate CICO as a targeted intervention for kids with internalizing behavior problems. Four elementary school students with internalizing behavior …

The Existence Of Preference Outlier Committees In The 1999-2008 Louisiana House Of Representatives, Trisha Mari Sandahl

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years the complexity of understanding the politics of committee assignment, has led to lively scholarly debates. At the heart of this debate lie three theories of legislative committee development: the distributive, informational, and major party cartel theory. Each of these theories attempts to explain legislative committee assignments through one single legislator motivation: legislator interest, party, or institutional interest. This dissertation argues that one single motivation as espoused in the distributive, informational, and major party cartel theory is not likely to explain all legislator committee assignments. Instead, Legislators committee assignments are likely to be a reflection of multiple motivations, …

Climate Change Displacement And Global Governance: A Case Study Of Three Intergovernmental Organizations And The Conflict Between The Member States And Bureaucracy, Andrea C. S. Berringer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is a topic most often broached by environmental scientists and activists and its effects are discussed in terms of animal populations and atmospheric events. However, its direct effect on human life is yet to garner such attention. A changing climate will affect how people are able to use their environment, if at all. Sea level rise and desertification will force a shift in human habitation. How the world seeks to deal with this shift is yet to be seen. The global governance of climate change-induced displacement is currently at the stage of ad hoc development. Legal and conceptual …

Splitting A Pair: Playing The Gender Card And The Race Card In American Politics, Amy Ladley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

More than any election before, the 2008 Presidential race revealed a persistent discussion of “race cards” and “gender cards.” In spite of the reported consensus that these alleged cards were everywhere, we know relatively little about those situations where the “card” label was applied, and even less about how this label influenced voters. In fact, among key electoral sources – political elites who use identity as a campaign tool, the journalists who cover and narrate elections, and researchers who make sense of elections-based behavior – there is no consensus regarding what a card is, how or when they are played, …

En(Gendering) Policy: Gender Policies In Former Soviet Republics, Natasha Lachelle Bingham

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines gender policies in former Soviet republics. Gender policies are depicted as traditional policies (including such policies as child support, spousal support, and inheritance rights), violence against women policies (domestic violence, marital rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment), and human trafficking policies. It builds upon previous works with a multi-methodological approach (content analysis, logistical regression, and qualitative survey analysis). The focus here is on the factors that influence adoption of formal policies in former Soviet republics from 1993-2008. I explore variance across both countries and policy areas, assessing whether (and why) certain post-Soviet states are more likely to …

Advice In Troubles Talk Conversations Between Strangers: The Role Of Problem Seriousness And The Impact Of Advice On Helper Supportiveness And The Desire For Future Interactions, Andrea Jean Vickery

LSU Master's Theses

In troubles talk conversations, problems are disclosed and discussed. When responding to problem disclosures, advice is one common response where the respondent recommends how to think, feel or act in response to a problem. This thesis focuses on extending our understanding of advice messages, with a main research question focused on determining if advice occurs in initial interactions between strangers. Through an analysis of 125 transcribed conversations, advice was present in 38.4% (n = 44) of the conversations. Advice was offered in response to less serious problems, supporting the first hypothesis. There was no support found for the positive association …

Composing A Method: Écriture Féminine As Performance Practice, Brianne Waychoff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall aim of this project is to theorize and invent a method of performance based on écriture féminine. This method is meant to be useable, generative, and transferable to other practitioners. Following a heuretic practice of reading selected texts for what they suggest about making new texts, writerly method that invites expansion in future research is revealed. This project is but a beginning of an articulation and proposes only one path through these texts. The tracking of the process of reading and experimenting with performance provides a space for reflection that illuminates gaps to be explored in future work. …

"Faith Is Life": A Qualitative Study Of Christian Faith And Chinese Immigrant Families, Yaxin Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on religion and family in the United States has increased in the last two decades. With the increasing immigrant population, studies on minorities including Chinese immigrant families are also important. Religious faith has significant influences on some Chinese immigrant families. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between Christianity and Chinese immigrant families. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two highly religious Chinese Christian couples in the Southern United States. Twenty-two open-ended questions were asked to understand their conversion processes and how the Christian faith influenced the participants’ marriage and family life. Most of the participants …

Spiritual Support As Coping Among Alzheimer's Caregivers, Mary Katherine Schillings

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of spiritual support on Alzheimer’s caregiver’s perceived burden. This study will examine the relationship between spiritual support and burden among Alzheimer’s caregivers. The collection of data was accomplished by a packet of surveys mailed to Alzheimer’s caregivers. For this study the population is separated and difficult to survey as a whole, therefore, a smaller cluster sample is surveyed from a specific organization. The global score of the burden measure is negatively correlated with the global score of the Spiritual Support Scale. In this study, spiritual support is not the sole …

From The Viewbook To Facebook: A Content Analysis Of Universities' Facebook Posts To Measure Organization-Public Relationships, Aariel Roxanne Charbonnet

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined StudentAdvisor.com's top 25 social media colleges to determine the ways in which these universities communicated with their various publics on Facebook. Using Hon and Grunig's models of public relations as frameworks, a quantitative content analysis was performed. The study considered each individual post on the universities' Facebook walls (n=709) over the course of a three-week period. The study's research questions were based on whether the posts promoted Hon and Grunig's relationship indicators, as well as what public relations models the posts resembled. Results indicated that posts were least likely to resemble the two-way symmetrical model and seldom …

An Investigation Into Technology And Motivational Influences On Creativity And Product Output In Apparel Design Students, Charles Freeman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of a social psychological theoretical framework to the study of creativity in apparel design, with a focus on technological engagement and motivational factors. A sample of 32 apparel design students from two major southeastern universities were selected to complete a self-report instruments regarding motivation and technological engagement. Students completed the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) as well as a design brief. Design illustrations were evaluated by a panel of expert judges in the field of apparel design using a consensual assessment technique (CAT). Results indicate levels of technology and …

Extracting Information From French Obituaries, Deryle W. Lonsdale, David W. Embley, Stephen W. Liddle, Joseph Park

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses ongoing efforts to develop a system for extracting information from French obituaries. The approach is based on prior work on ontology-based English obituary extraction, which we first summarize. Then we mention sources for, and characteristics of, typical French obituaries. We sketch ongoing knowledge source development and the relevant tools, as well as an evaluation procedure we intend to follow for quantifying performance of the French system. Throughout we mention some lessons learned in the process.