Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Going Vertical Together: An Interdisciplinary Infusion Of Information Literacy With Research Writing In The Disciplines, Debra Frank Dew, Nora Belzowski, Trisha Mileham, Jonathan Bull

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

See presentation description.

Management As A Liberal Art (Seattle), C. William Pollard

C. William Pollard Papers

In these opening remarks recorded for a fall seminar at Seattle Pacific University, Pollard outlines Peter Drucker's theory of management as a liberal art and details the ways in which it was implemented in the ServiceMaster organization. He also notes why such a vision is important for contemporary management education.

Health And Social Problems Associated With Prescription Opioid Misuse Among A Diverse Sample Of Substance-Using Msm, Mance E. Buttram, Steven P. Kurtz, Hilary L. Surratt, Maria A. Levi-Minzi

CAHSS Faculty Articles

This study examines associations between prescription opioid misuse and demographics, substance use, sexual behavior, and related health and social problems. Baseline data were collected between 2008 and 2010 from 515 high risk men who have sex with men, ages 18–55, in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan area who reported heavy substance use and HIV risk in the past 90 days. Prescription opioid misuse was associated with other substance use, drug injection, substance dependence, and history of arrest. Implications, limitations, and directions for future study are discussed.

Fearless: Maurice Phiri, Maurice W. Phiri

SURGE

As the class of 2017 joins Gettysburg College, we recognize first-year student, Maurice Wezi Phiri, who already has already showed his fearless commitment to social justice. [excerpt]

Moral Principles And Political Ideology: Exploring The Mediating Role Of Abstract Value Endorsements, Anthony N. Washburn

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Much research has examined the association between political ideology and endorsement of distinct moral principles (e.g. Goren, 2005; Haidt & Graham, 2007; Haidt & Joseph, 2004). The associations that have typically been observed show that political liberals tend to endorse moral principles that place the individual at the center of concern, resulting in judgments of right and wrong based on caring for individuals and promoting fairness (individualizing foundations); while political conservatives tend to endorse moral principles that include the group as an equally worthy recipient of concern and priority (binding foundations), resulting in moral judgments based on maintaining and preserving …

Cultural Preservation And Modern Development In The Amazon, Eric W. Linton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the summer of 2009 indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon headed a major grassroots movement against the national government in an effort to protect their lands and lifestyles. The protests brought due international attention to issues of human rights and land ownership that had previously been a local matter. Several months previous to the movement a colleague and I ventured to the Putumayo region of the Peruvian Amazon in an effort to understand the issues being faced by the people of those regions. Specifically, we aimed to understand the importance of self determined rights as a means to preserve …

Do Grandparents Matter? The Relationship Between Emotional Closeness And Adolescent Prosocial Behavior, Jami Jackson, Dr. Jeremy Yorgason

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Grandparental emotional closeness is important for both grandparents and grandchildren (e.g. Bowers & Myers, 1999; Drew & Silverstein, 2007; Crosnoe & Elder, 2002). However, in many of the studies given, the measure of intergenerational closeness has come from the grandparent (e.g. Fingerman, 2004; Drew & Silverstein, 2007). In cases where the measure has come from the perspective of the grandchild, much of the data have been collected from college‐aged young adults (Dubas, 2001; Harwood, 2001). The purpose of this study is to measure adolescents’ reports of emotional closeness to a grandparent, and to study the relationship between grandparental closeness and …

You Raise Me Up: The Social Identity Underpinnings Of Campaign Contributions, David Lassen, Dr. David B. Magleby

Journal of Undergraduate Research

A record number of individuals financially contributed to presidential candidates during the 2008 election cycle. Many academic researchers and pundits have speculated on why these individuals chose to participate in this manner, often asserting that donors likely anticipated a personal material or policy reward for their support. Others have suggested that social similarities between donor and candidate may have played an important role. Little research exists, however, on the impact that an individual’s affiliation with an “apolitical” social group can have on their contribution decisions. I use the term here to characterize a group whose primary purpose is something other …

Likely Voters, Low Response Rates, And Little Coverage Error: Advances In Internet Preelection Polling Methodology, Ashley Burton, Dr. Quin Monson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of my research was to determine if internet preelection surveys administered to a probability proportionate to size (PPS) sample are able to reduce coverage error by including likely voters, even if the response rates are low. This research was conducted during the Utah 3rd District primary election in June 2008 and again in the Utah November 2008 general election. The experimentation was repeated in November to improve the sampling method and to generalize the findings to primary and general elections alike.

Pornography Use In Non-Clinical Couples: Basic Frequencies From The Flourishing Families Project, Stephanie Blickfeldt, Dr. Randal D. Day

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Purpose Pundits, popular press, political groups, and religious organizations make the claim that the current rate of pornography use is a determinant to society and individuals in family life (Kretchmer & Carveth, 2001). Due to the concerns expressed by such figures and my own personal concerns with the seemingly increasing rates of pornography use through the internet, my professor and I found it important to explore its actual presence. Through this venture, I was personally responsible for completing an extensive review of literature to discover what past social science research has contributed to this subject.

Researching English Language Instruction To The Deaf In Germany, Brooke Harding, Dr. Mark W. Tanner

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The principle question this research was to address is how instructors for the deaf in Germany are approaching English language and literacy development in deaf students. (The term deaf is used in this paper to denote both deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals). English language instruction is part of the standard curriculum in schools for the deaf in Germany as a prerequisite for students to receive the secondary school certificate of completion (RealschulabschlujB) or to take the college entrance exam (Abitur). However, language learning presents deaf students with significant challenges. Language in its spoken form is virtually inaccessible to the deaf which …

The Wired Generation: Academic And Social Outcomes, Wade Jacobsen, Dr. Renata Forste

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Electronic media (EM) include social networking sites (SNS), instant messaging (IM), text messaging, email, television and movies, and video and online games. Though the use of these devices has recently exploded among college students, little research has been conducted to explore the influence they have on academic performance and face to face social interaction. We addressed this gap in the literature using survey research methods. First, we constructed an internet survey using Qualtrics online survey software. We distributed the survey, including a short questionnaire and three day time log, to all entry level and transfer students in their first year …

Are We Making A Difference? The Effects Of Club Membership On Youth Attitudes And Behavior, Collin Flake, Dr. Renata Forste

Journal of Undergraduate Research

After several discussions with my faculty mentor and a thorough review of the existing research, I set out to examine the effectiveness of after school programs in Utah, specifically the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Greater Salt Lake area. The purpose of my research is twofold. The first is to identify the complex behavioral, academic, and mental and physical health issues that challenge youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. The second is to evaluate the effectiveness of current community programs in addressing these issues.

Evaluating Demographic Influence On Parenting Style In Taiwan, Kevin Handley, Dr. Niwako Yamawaki

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Of all the research studying the influence of stressors on parents, only a few studies have actually addressed demographic factors as stressors. Even then, there has yet to be a study that specifically seeks to delineate exactly which demographic factor predicts which type of parenting style. This project sought to delineate which demographic factors (e.g. area of residence, SES, age, and education) are predictive of maladaptive parenting styles, and which factors are predictive of adaptive parenting styles. The intent was that if certain demographics were found to be highly predictive of maladaptive parenting styles, then perhaps governments could be persuaded …

Body Image During Pregnancy: Abstract, T. Anna Halistrom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Pregnancy is a time of tremendous physical change for a woman. In light of recent research concerning how women’s opinions of their bodies affect behavior and emotional well-being, it is reasonable to ask how women feel about these physical changes during pregnancy and what factors are associated with more positive or negative body images.

Ambivalent Sexism And The Law: The Myth Of Gender Equality, Jennifer Edgley, Dr. Niwako Yamawaki

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The women’s liberation movement of the sixties and seventies has ushered in several important social and political changes in the United States. Gender inequality, however, remains an enduring problem in various institutions (Lips, 2007). The theory of Ambivalent Sexism conceptualizes and may be the key to understanding the residual occurrences of gender inequality within social institutions. Theorists Glick and Fiske (1996) believe that prejudice, though traditionally considered to be antipathy towards a certain group (Allport, 1954), can contain both positive and negative features. They contend that sexism is not simply hostility towards women, but also subjectively positive behavior toward women. …

Determinants Of Weekly Review Session Attendance And The Effect Of Review Sessions On Student Performance In Economics 110, Bradley Hunter, Dr. Eric Eide

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Every semester, each of the fifteen teaching assistants for Economics 110 classes hold two weekly review sessions, during which they solve practice test questions, discuss the implications of lecture material, and help students solidify difficult concepts. These review sessions, while provided at a relatively low cost by the Economics department (approximately $4500), also constitute for an estimated 100 student-hours per week in just one of BYU’s six sections of Econ 110.

Collateral Consequences: The Impact Of State-Level Policies On Perceived Stigma And Stigma Coping Strategies Among Ex-Offenders, Bronwyn Anne Hunter

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Incarcerated individuals have many needs that are not addressed while incarcerated or upon return to the community. These needs are exacerbated by the 'collateral consequences,' and 'invisible punishments' of a criminal conviction which are the state and federal social policies that limit formerly incarcerated persons opportunities for voting, employment, housing, financial benefits, and education, among others. The stigma associated with a criminal conviction may impact offender reentry and reintegration and be compounded by reentry policies. For example, studies have demonstrated that ex-offenders' perceive stigma related to the ex-offender label and that perceived stigma often leads to adverse coping strategies. Furthermore, …

Desegregation And Teenage Pregnancy, Ryan Fairchild, Dr. Joseph Price

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the United States, two out of three teenagers have sex before graduating from high school. As a result there is a high probability that young women are at risk to become pregnant while still in high school . Studies have shown that teenage pregnancy is associated with a number of adverse outcomes for both mother and child, including less human capital investment and lower future wages . Because of this, factors that could lower teenage pregnancy are important in improving the lives of both young women and future generations. Over the last 50 years, researchers have investigated various mechanisms …

Dendroarchaology: Using Tree Rings To Document Utah’S Historic Pioneer Structures, Robert Karl, Dr. Matthew Bekker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Pioneer history is a heritage of Utah. Utah was founded on the premise of pioneers venturing from the east and settling throughout Utah. Very few of these historic pioneer structures have been dated in the state of Utah and for many of these structures there exists only a rough idea of when they were built. Other structures have been dated but the information is unpublished and therefore unavailable to the general public and the scientific community. And, though the use of tree rings in archaeology has a rich history in the southwestern United States , most research has focused on …

Trends In The Spatial Distribution And Characteristics Of Korean-Americans, Megan Knowles, Dr. J. Matthew Shumway, Ruth Kerry

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In Human Geography minimal research has been done regarding the immigration and spatial distribution of Korean-Americans. Historically there has been a detectable relationship between the degree of spatial concentration of a specific population and their degree of social assimilation. Few studies have been conducted regarding Korean-Americans as a separate ethnic group, and these studies most often focus on economic, health, and cultural aspects of the community and tend to be more local in scale.

Twelve-Month-Olds’ Discrimination Of Monkey Faces: Evidence For Perceptual Narrowing?, Ross Magnum, Dr. Ross Flom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Experience plays a critical role in the development of infants’ perceptual abilities. Studies have shown that during the early stages of development, about six months of age, infants are capable of discriminating between a large number of faces, including faces from different species or races (Pascalis, 2002). Some time after 6 months of age, infants begin to develop a facial “prototype” according to the various faces towards which they have the most familiarity. While they gain expertise on this particular face type, they lose their generalized ability to discriminate between broad ranges of different faces, a phenomenon known as “perceptual …

Student Absences And Academic Achievement, Ian Filmore, Dr. Eric Eide

Journal of Undergraduate Research

While researchers have explored a wide variety of measures designed to improve student performance, the obvious issue of absenteeism has gone largely ignored. This is even more puzzling when we consider that most policy measures implicitly rely on the students’ physical presence in the classroom in order to work. We view this project as a first step toward understanding the role of absenteeism in shaping student outcomes.

School-Level Predictors Of Student Office Disciplinary Referrals, Andrew Martinez

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Student misbehavior has become a problem gaining much warranted national attention. To monitor student behavior problems schools are increasingly relying on student office disciplinary referral (ODR) data to identify and monitor students who may be at-risk for future behavioral problems. While research has examined individual-level predictors of student disciplinary referrals, few studies have examined multilevel models, which take into account the nested nature of these data (e.g., students within schools). The current study draws upon Social Disorganization Theory to guide an investigation of student office disciplinary referrals. This study examines office disciplinary referrals among 1,501 students across 13 schools in …

Mentoring Youth With Emotional And Behavioral Problems: A Meta-Analytic Review, David Aron Meyerson

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Our current service delivery models are falling short of helping youth with mental health problems. Mentoring is one option that may be effective at helping us address this shortcoming. Youth mentoring theory and research have typically treated mentoring as a prevention intervention (i.e., preventing school dropout, academic decline, psychopathology development, etc.), and research has found youth mentoring to be effective in a variety of domains. The benefits of mentoring may also be applicable to youth with known mental health problems. Research has begun to tackle this question. This meta-analysis addresses the questions of the effectiveness of mentoring programs targeting youth …

A Range-Frequency Theory Account Of The Effects Of Mood On Evaluations, Megan Marie Lombardi

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Parducci's Range-Frequency Theory (1965) is applied to the discussion of the effect of mood on evaluations. Consistent with prior research on the effect of mood on judgment, the current study predicts that evaluations of overall satisfaction will be higher among participants experiencing happy moods and lower among those experiencing sad moods. Contrary to prior research, however, it is further hypothesized that evaluations of specific attributes will be lower for participants experiencing happy moods and higher for those experiencing sad moods, which is consistent Frequency Theory. with principles outlined in Parducci's Range-Frequency Theory.

Individual And Community Factors Associated With Thriving Among African American Adolescents In The Context Of Stressors, Adia Shani Gooden

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation used the transactional-ecological framework along with principles from positive youth development literature to examine naturally occurring individual and contextual factors

that promote thriving among African American adolescents. Specifically, this study examined how religiosity, religious support, racial identity, and communalism relate to thriving. This study

also assessed the negative influence of stressors on thriving in order to understand how thriving manifests in the context of risk factors. This cross-sectional study included 152 youth

participants who were surveyed at five Black churches on the south side of Chicago. Structural equation modeling was used to assess whether the proposed model fit …

Using A Resiliency Framework To Examine Natural Mentoring Relationships And The Coping Efficacy As Buffers Of The Negative Impact Of Stressors On Academic Outcomes In Urban, Low-Income Ethnic Minority Youth, Rachel M. Feuer

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This paper used Resiliency theory to examine natural mentoring and coping efficacy as protective factors that may buffer the negative impact of stressors on academic and psychosocial outcomes in urban, low-income, Latino youth. Research has demonstrated that natural mentoring may serve a protective role for youth who are experiencing high levels of stressors, and that coping efficacy may correlate with positive outcomes. The present study used Structural Equation Modeling to test the compensatory and protective factors models of resilience to examine the ways in which stress, coping efficacy and natural mentoring interact to predict a variety of academic outcomes for …

Identifying Barriers And Facilitators Of Successful School-Based Mental Health And Behavioral Programs Delivered In The Context Of Urban Poverty: A Qualitative Exploration Of Perspectives From Service Providers And Youth, Farahnaz K. Farahmand

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to identify the barriers and facilitators of successful mental health and/or behavioral programs implemented within inner-city schools. The impetus for this study came from prior meta-analytic research which demonstrated programs being offered within inner-city schools, as a whole, showed very low effect sizes, with many of the programs offered to youth within these settings showing iatrogenic effects. The use of qualitative methods, specifically a phenomenological approach, provided an in-depth understanding of 1) service providers' experience(s) delivering mental health and/or behavioral programs in inner-city schools; and, 2) low-income, urban youths' experience(s) with receiving school-based mental …

Exposure To Community Violence And The Trajectory Of Internalizing And Externalizing Problems In A Sample Of Low-Income Urban Youth, Jeremy Jay Taylor

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Intro: The transition from childhood to adolescence is a period of increased risk for psychological problems (e.g. Keiley, & Martin, 2002). Exposure to community violence, may impact the degree to which psychological problems emerge during adolescence (Grant et al., 2004). Previous research also indicates that low-income urban youth are disproportionately exposed to severe community violence, leaving them at higher risk to experience psychopathology (Grant et al., 2004). However, recent longitudinal research suggests that this elevated risk may decline throughout the adolescent years (Murphy et al., 2000) especially for internalizing problems (J. Twenge & S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). The current research hypothesizes …