Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Returning To Learn: Research And The Prodigal Student, Emily Ford, Meredith G. Farkas, Molly Blalock-Koral

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Returning students - those with a significant lapse in time during their formal education - make up a large and growing percentage of the student population at Portland State University (PSU). Over 40% of PSU undergraduates are over 26 years of age and 21% of graduate students over 39. Given returning students’ experiences in the work force, motivations for learning, and the lapse of time since conducting academic research, returning students may approach research differently than traditional students. Despite the size of this student population at PSU and the growth of the returning student demographic in higher education, very little …

Attachment And Covert Relational Aggression In Marriagewith Shame As A Potential Moderating Variable: A Two Wave Panel Study, Charity Elaine Clifford

Theses and Dissertations

Using a two-wave APIM Structural Equation Model, this study investigated how husband and wife attachment styles predict husband and wife covert relational aggression one year later with husband and wife shame as potential moderating variables. Data was taken from 308 married couples in waves three and four of the Flourishing Families project using self-report and partner report of spouse questionnaires. Findings showed that an individual's attachment insecurity predicts their use of relational aggression. Wives' relational aggression is predicted by an increase in husbands' relational aggression. An increase in wives' insecure attachment had less of an impact on husbands' relationally aggressive …

Batch Editing: Software And Regular Expressions At Uk Libraries, Julene L. Jones

Library Presentations

No abstract provided.

Erm Maintenance: Mapping, Maximizing And Marketing Multiple User Access Methods, Susan A. Massey

Library Faculty Presentations & Publications

The proliferation of discovery layers to access library materials poses challenges for electronic resource record loading, maintenance, display, and marketing of multiple user portals. Centralized discovery systems promise to reduce data silos but may complicate electronic resource management activities and mask the importance of the library as a data provider. Electronic resource maintenance must include cross-departmental cooperation for tracking statistics, making purchased titles available to the user, updating subscription changes, verifying metadata display and access in multiple user interfaces, storing metadata files for potential future system migrations, deduplication of processes, and crosswalks between discovery layers. This presentation uses the University …

Flip This Class: Using A Flipped Classroom Approach To Teach Information Literacy, Nancy E. Fawley

Library Faculty Presentations

What is a flipped classroom?

• Pedagogical model that reverses lecture and homework
• Students view or listen to lecture material on their own time, while class time is spent reviewing and applying what they learned
• Combines synchronous and asynchronous learning
• Students are not passive participants in the classroom
• Focus is on “just-in-time” instruction
• Promotes better student-teacher (or librarian) interaction

Survival Of The Fittest: The Evolving Nature Of Metadata Creation For Digital Collections, Silvia B. Southwick, Amy Hunsaker

Library Faculty Presentations

The evolving nature of metadata is exemplified through a pictorial timeline that expands over a decade, identifying the development of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries digital collections, the context of their development, and the various factors that emerged later on that have influenced revisions of metadata decisions.

Canada’S Immigrant Families: Growth, Diversity And Challenges, Sharon M. Lee, Barry Edmonston

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Discussion Paper Series/ Un Réseau stratégique de connaissances Changements de population et parcours de vie Document de travail

As immigration continues to be the main factor in Canada’s recent population growth, the number and proportion of Canada’s immigrant families have also increased, to almost one-fifth of all families in Canada by 2006. We begin with a comparison of immigrant families with non-immigrant families on several sociodemographic characteristics including family type and size and home language to show similarities and differences. Next, we highlight diversity of immigrant families along selected characteristics including place of birth, period of immigration, and socioeconomic characteristics such as education and employment. Finally, we identify some challenges for immigrant families and topics for future research, …

Governance & Sustainability: Does Democracy Beggar Thy Future?, Nathanael D. Peach

Faculty Publications - College of Business

Findings:

An increase in political stability:

• Higher levels of natural resource depletion
• Higher levels of adjusted net savings (ANS) i.e. contributes positively to sustainable growth

Increase in democracy:

• Lower levels of natural resource depletion
• Impact on sustainability is conditional on the economic and political context

Fearless: Gettysburg Allies, Gettysburg Allies

SURGE

In celebration of the Supreme Court’s decision to declare DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act)unconstitutional, the revocation of Prop 8, and Hershel Genfer’s fantastic blog, we’d like to highlights Gettysburg’s fearless ALLies Club headed by Ann Sasala ’15 and Adrienne Ellis ’14. This past year Erin Duran, the Residence Life Coordinator for West Quad, also began his partnership with ALLies as the college’s first LGBTQA advisor. [excerpt]

Investigating Where Japanese Political Loyalties Lay Through The Candidate Selection Processes, Yoshiki Matsunaga, Dr. Jessica Preece

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The goal is to find out the candidate selection/nomination process for Japanese political parties, and then we will test whether differences in these processes impact Japanese Legislators’ voting behavior.

Promontory Culture: The Faunal Evidence, Lindsay Deanne Johansson

Theses and Dissertations

Following excavations in the Promontory Caves and at several open sites in the Provo River Delta region, Steward (1937) characterized the Promontory culture as large game hunters. He based this on the high number of bison bones recovered within the Caves. Excavations at additional Promontory sites along the Wasatch Front contain faunal assemblages which differ significantly from those in the caves, showing that people living at open sites relied more heavily on small game, waterfowl, and aquatic resources than large game. These differences have been mostly attributed to Steward's sampling strategy and lack of screening, but faunal material recovered during …

Leveraging Technology And The Wisdom Of Crowds, Robert Morello, Dr. Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

A structural problem plagues the delivery of foreign aid: the beneficiaries have little ability or means to inform the donors of the projects’ initial needs, progress, or effects. As development projects are typically executed, donors carry out assessments that often involve surveys or other before-and-after appraisals. But the approach is nearly always observational, and thus the results are likely biased toward positive findings. Thus, the feedback mechanisms that could regulate public spending in domestic contexts are broken or missing when it comes to foreign aid. Some scholars have identified the absence of feedback as the key reason why aid sometimes …

Hovering Parents: Is Helicopter Parenting A Unique Form Of Parental Control?, Gregory Nichols, Dr. Laura Walker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Emerging adulthood is a stage of development encompassing the years between 18 and 25 during which individuals strive for self-reliance despite the instability in their education, employment, and housing status (Arnett, 2007).

Sociology As Theodicy, Robert Meldau, Dr. Stan Knapp

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to use the works of Freidrich Nietzsche, Max Weber, and Charles Taylor to construct a critique of Sociology. Our intention was to argue that Sociology (and all of social science) is a secularized theodicy; an attempt to explain why humans experience suffering. Using the works and ideas of these theorists, we believed we could formulate an argument that questions the legitimacy or correctness of social science’s desire to understand itself as a disinterested, objective endeavor. Our goal was to co-author a paper for publication in a major Sociological journal.

Learning To Change In Autism, Tiffani Newton, Dr. Mikle South

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) include a collection of severe neurodevelopmental symptoms related to social interaction and communication. In addition to these core symptoms, co-occurring anxiety is seen in up to 70% of diagnosed individuals (Reaven, 2010). Anxiety-inducing situations for ASD individuals include changes to the environment or daily routines. Difficulties responding to such changes may lead to debilitating and negative consequences for ASD children and their families. Understanding the mechanisms that lead to such difficulties may improve the specificity of treatment for these symptoms.

Multiple Sclerosis And Brain Waves: Degree Of Impact, Tyler Nickle, Dr. Ramona Hopkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. Studies show that 40-70% of individuals with MS have cognitive impairments in memory, executive functioning, attention, and processing speed (Rogers and Panegyres, 2007). Quantitative Electroencephalographic peak alpha frequency (PAF) is used to measure physiological markers of cognitive performance between healthy and clinical individuals. High peak alpha frequency is a measurement of spectral density within 8-12 Hz and has been associated with cognitive preparedness and may be an indicator of cognitive functioning (Angelakis and Lubar, 2004). This project attempts to describe the relationship between Quantitative Electroencephalographic (qEEG) peak alpha, …

Predicting Alcoholism Through Individual Temperament, Bobbi Padro, Dr. James Higley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to determine a correlation between the temperament of rhesus macaques and the amount of alcohol they consume. This project looked specifically at 16 juvenile rhesus macaques. Each juvenile had been tested to determine its temperament through the Biobehavioral Assessment (BBA) at the University of California Davis collected by Dr. John Captianio. The BBA data is collected while subjects are infants. Half of the monkeys tested were determined to have high anxiety and the other half low anxiety. Determining whether a correlation exists between temperament and alcohol consumption can help intervention programs and preventative programs …

Quality Of Lunch On Cognitive Performance, Corbin Miller, Dr. Joseph Price

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of my project is to discover whether or not there is a link between the nutritional quality of food served for elementary school lunch and test scores. Our hypothesis is that eating a more healthy meal prior to taking a test will improve cognitive performance. The two sources of data that are required for this project to succeed are the school lunch menu data and the corresponding test scores. I have already retrieved the school lunch menu data from Westridge and Rock Canyon elementary schools in the Provo School District. We are currently waiting on permission to access …

Pvc-Lot-054-Ce-001, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-054-Cd-005, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-054-Cd-004, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-054-Cd-003, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-000-N40-W10-001, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-000-N40-05w-001, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-000-N40-05e-001, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

Pvc-Lot-053-Ca-012b, Edward Schortman

Four Valleys Archive

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Inquiry Into The Treatment Experience Of Adolescent Females In A Relationally Based Therapeutic Boarding School, Douglas S. Marchant

Theses and Dissertations

Individualism, the assumption that persons are self-contained and primarily act for the sake of the self, is prevalent in American culture and has arguably perpetuated numerous psychological and societal ills. Relationality, the assumption that persons are always and inextricably constituted by relationships, has been posited as a philosophical and practical alternative to individualist culture. Several scholars, both inside and outside of psychology, have developed relational concepts and practices, including some who have elucidated a relational approach to psychotherapy (e.g., Slife and Wiggins, 2009). This study examines the implications and effects of this therapeutic approach, particularly exploring relationality's therapeutic success in …

Behavioral Analysis Of Anxiety In Autism, Megan Christensen, Dr. Mikle South

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication. Anxiety is also an extremely common feature with approximately 81% of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder also qualified for at least one other anxiety disorder (Amaral et al., 2003). Amaral et al. (2003) have shown that monkeys with bilateral amygdala damage lack of fear in typically threatening social situations. Blanchard et al. (2001) have shown that humans react to hypothetical fearful scenarios in much the same way that rats do in actual threatening situations, i.e. “freezing” or run away depending on the level of danger.

Does Marriage Therapy Improve Health?, David Marsh, Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of marital quality on certain cardiovascular health risks, including diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Relationships, including that of marriage, have long since been known to correlate with these physiological markers (Wickrama, 1997). Our study, however, is different, as it is the first study to include a marriage therapy intervention. This type of study carries with it more weight than just a correlation study, but obviously brings with it more difficulty. We are in the final stages of gathering data. We have studied more than 210 participants and anticipate being …

Research Brief: "Supporting The Education Goals Of Post-9/11 Veterans With Self-Reported Ptsd Symptoms: A Needs Assessment", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This research undertook a needs assessment for educational support among post-9/11 service veterans with self-reported PTSD symptoms, and found a need for age relevant services that assist with: education planning and access, counseling for the G.I. Bill, accommodations for PTSD symptoms, and more. Administrators should work to ensure that educational services are customized to meet individual needs of student veterans, as well as policies that ensure veterans have access to peer mentors in their age group. This can provide social opportunities and support from veterans who have successfully transitioned from active duty to civilian life. Future research should include more …