Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rearing Children In Love And Righteousness: Latitude, Limits, And Love, Craig H. Hart

Faculty Publications

The First Presidency (1999) counsels parents to “devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church,” and further states that “no other instrumentality can take [the home’s] place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.” The proclamation on the family supports parents in magnifying their divinely designed responsibilities in the Father’s great plan of happiness (see Alma 42:8) by specifically identifying the principles that ultimately will make the most difference in their efforts.

Social Media And The Church, Danielle Nicolette Kelley

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Social Capital And Economic Opportunity: Implications For Increasing Social Mobility, Kalena Thomhave

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Social Security And Divorce, Marcus Dillender

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

People who have divorced are entitled to Social Security spousal benefits if their marriages lasted at least ten years. This paper uses 1985–1995 Vital Statistics data and the 2008–2011 American Community Surveys to analyze how this rule affects divorce decisions. I find evidence that the ten-year rule results in a small increase in divorces for the general population; however, the effects vary greatly by age. Divorce decisions change very little for people under the age of 35. For people 55 and older, however, divorces increase by approximately 20 percent around the ten-year cutoff, which leads to an increase in the …

Interest And Informational Preferences Regarding Genomic Testing For Modest Increases In Colorectal Cancer Risk, Wendy C. Birmingham, A E. Anderson, K G. Flores, Watcharaporn Boonyasiriwat, Amanda Gammon, Wendy Kohlmann, M D. Schwartz, J Samadder, K Boucher, A Y. Kinney

Faculty Publications

Background/Aims: This study explored the interest in genomic testing for modest changes in colorectal cancer risk and preferences for receiving genomic risk communications among individuals with intermediate disease risk due to a family history of colorectal cancer. Methods: Surveys were conducted on 272 men and women at intermediate risk for colorectal cancer enrolled in a randomized trial comparing a remote personalized risk communication intervention (TeleCARE) aimed at promoting colonoscopy to a generic print control condition. Guided by Leventhal’s Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation, we examined demographic and psychosocial factors possibly associated with interest in SNP testing. Descriptive statistics and logistic …

Relationship Quality And Oxytocin: Influence Of Stable And Modifiable Aspects Of Relationships, Wendy C. Birmingham, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Kathleen C. Light

Faculty Publications

Prior studies report that couples with higher relationship quality show higher oxytocin (OT) levels, yet other studies report those with higher distress have increased OT. This study investigated these competing predictions in the context of a support enhancement intervention among 34 young married couples (N = 68). Preintervention marital quality (Dyadic Adjustment Scale) was examined for associations with plasma and salivary OT levels 4 weeks apart and for changes between these time points within the intervention group. High relationship quality, not distress, was associated with higher OT in both saliva and plasma at both time points. No significant interaction …

Modeling Change In The Presence Of Non-Randomly Missing Data: Evaluating A Shared Parameter Mixture Model, Scott A. Baldwin, Nisha C. Gottfredson, Daniel J. Bauer

Faculty Publications

In longitudinal research, interest often centers on individual trajectories of change over time. When there is missing data, a concern is whether data are systematically missing as a function of the individual trajectories. Such a missing data process, termed random coefficient-dependent missingness, is statistically non-ignorable and can bias parameter estimates obtained from conventional growth models that assume missing data are missing at random. This paper describes a shared-parameter mixture model (SPMM) for testing the sensitivity of growth model parameter estimates to a random coefficient-dependent missingness mechanism. Simulations show that the SPMM recovers trajectory estimates as well as or better than …

Exploring The First Ground Stone Quarry Discovered In The Casas Grandes Region Using Ethnoarchaeology, Michael T. Searcy, Todd Pitezel

Faculty Publications

Several researchers have noted and studied the exquisitely formed manos and metates of the Casas Grandes region of northern Mexico. During a survey project in 2013, we located the first quarry ever discovered where these tools were manufactured of vesicular basalt using a suite of stone tools. This paper explores the morphology of the site, the toolkit of the metateros (metate makers), and ethnoarchaeological implications resulting from the study of modern metateros.

Research Data Management On A Shoestring Budget, Margaret Henderson, Regina Raboin, Yasmeen Shorish, Steve Van Tuyl

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In response to mandates from the federal government, many academic librarians face a new challenge to become service providers for research data management. A panel at RDAP14 convened representatives from Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University and a collaboration of seven New England libraries to discuss their strategies in response to the regulations when faced with limited resources. A common theme was to take advantage of work already done by others, including faculty surveys and existing data management resources such as DMPTool and Data Curation and Profiles Toolkit. Spreading the word on data issues to spark collaboration and gaining the …

International Perspectives On Sustainable Agriculture In Cuba, B. Danielle Smith

University Honors Theses

Since the economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba has restructured their agriculture with a greater focus on domestic production of domestically consumed produce, and a dramatic reduction of petroleum products in all aspects of food production. This overhaul has included the broad application of what is termed agroecology – agricultural practices which focus on principles of biodiversity and sustainability – and inter-farm cooperation facilitated by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) and Campesino a Campesino. Academics and journalists from within and abroad have critically examined aspects of the novel reforms developed in the country …

Why Restrictions On The Immigration Of Health Workers Are Unjust, Javier S. Hidalgo

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Some bioethicists and political philosophers argue that rich states should restrict the immigration of health workers from poor countries in order to prevent harm to people in these countries. In this essay, I argue that restrictions on the immigration of health workers are unjust, even if this immigration results in bad health outcomes for people in poor countries. I contend that negative duties to refrain from interfering with the occupational liberties of health workers outweighs rich states’ positive duties to prevent harm to people in sending countries. Furthermore, I defend this claim against the objection that health workers in poor …

Bringing Down The Island: Rebellion, Colonial Hierarchy, And Individualized Leadership In Nuñez’S Novel Prospero’S Daughter, Kristin M.S. Bezio

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

“Bringing Down the Island: Rebellion, Colonial Hierarchy, and Individualized Leadership in Nuñez’s novel Prospero’s Daughter” offers an analysis of Elizabeth Nuñez’s (2006) novel Prospero’s Daughter and Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest (1969), both of which draw upon multicultural tradition of European and Caribbean literatures, retelling Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611). The paper is concerned with the ways in which leadership has been transformed from the original story, through Césaire’s text, and into Nuñez’s. Each work acts as an agent of leadership in literary and social terms, attempting to enact paradigmatic shifts away from hierarchy and classification and toward individualized transformational leadership.

Research And The Professional : Navigating A Spectrum Of Legal Resources., Erin K Gow

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Legal research is complicated by the growing amount of information available, and there is evidence that legal practitioners require additional training in order to enhance their information literacy and legal research skills. Librarians have a key role to play in developing legal research training, and examples taken from Middle Temple's library are used to illustrate ways in which librarians can offer beneficial training to their library users. This involves assessing the skills, motivation, and needs of the average library user in order to design legal research training that is educationally sound and appealing to the target audience.

A Study Of Student Leaders' Facebook Use, Valerie Penn

Masters Theses

Facebook and other social media have changed the way that our society communicates. As student affairs professionals, it is important to understand how this shift in communication affects our students and their development. This study aimed to learn more about how students leaders use Facebook, how they perceive Facebook, and how their leadership position has impacted their use and perception. The researcher used an electronic questionnaire, a Facebook tracking log, and a personal interview to examine the Facebook use and perceptions of eight participants. These participants represented the following groups: Greek leadership councils, orientation leaders, resident assistants, and student government. …

"They Want All Of Your Kids To Be Gay And Oppose God": Incivility And Othering In Yahoo! News Comments, Emily Vajjala

Masters Theses

In 2004, many newspapers in the U.S. allowed public commenting on news articles posted to their websites, however since then, many U.S. news websites have removed public comment boards, ceased archiving public comments, or turned to moderators to edit or delete hateful or overly aggressive comments (Hughey and Daniels, 2013). Yahoo!, however, continues to utilize comment boards on Yahoo! News reports, in which incivility continues to run rampant. Utilizing critical discourse analysis, this study addresses incivility and "othering" in Yahoo! News article comment sections from news reporting on LGBTQ-related stories. From a sample of 1000 Yahoo! News comments using open …

The Effects Of A Pro-Eating Disorder Website Across Different Races, Lucrecia Ann Lawer

Masters Theses

This study sought to examine the effects of viewing a Pro-Eating disorder website and how the effects of this website vary across women of different races, what impact the website's racial content has, and what impact the ethnic identity of the participant has on the negative effects of viewing the website. In order to examine the effect of website content, two different Pro-Eating disorder websites were used - one containing images of Black women and one with images of Caucasian women. 93 Black and Caucasian female undergraduate students were recruited to participate in the research study, and the women viewed …

A Monetary Analysis Of Ghana: Examining The Relationship Between Monetary Policy, Price Stabilization, And The Real Exchange Rate, Nana Quaicoe

Masters Theses

The primary objective of this study involves evaluating the link between monetary policy, price levels, and the bilateral real exchange rate in Ghana. To make up for the sparse and inadequate monetary economics literature in Ghana, the study makes a substantial contribution by delineating between different monetary policy instruments. Using monthly data from 1992-2013, a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) is developed for exploring and measuring the relationship between monetary policy, inflation rate, and the bilateral real exchange rate in Ghana. The growth of broad money supply (M2) and the Monetary Policy Rate are used as the principal monetary policy …

Conditional Goal-Setting As A Mediator In The Relationship Between Mindfulness And Well-Being, Adam De Fina

Masters Theses

Mindfulness is defined as the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Current research on mindfulness has begun to focus on how mindfulness works by identifying the various mechanisms through which it facilitates well-being (e.g., Carmody, Baer, Lykins, & Olendzki, 2009; Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Hölzel et al., 2011). The present study examined if engaging less in conditional goal-getting (CGS) is one of the mechanisms of action of mindfulness. Conditional goal-setting (GCS) occurs when individuals have become highly committed to accomplishing certain concrete …

A Retrospective Study Of The Link Between Maternal Social Anxiety And College-Student Social Anxiety: Mediating The Role Of Maternal Cognitions & Behaviors, Kyung Won Kim

Masters Theses

Parental social anxiety is a well-established risk factor for child social anxiety. In addition to being passed along genetically, parental anxiety seems to be transmitted partially via environmental factors, such as parental cognitions and behaviors that convey negative expectations toward the child. This paper reviews the current literature linking maternal social anxiety, maternal cognitions, and offspring social anxiety. Using a retrospective design, a mediated model, examining the association between maternal social anxiety and later offspring social anxiety, with maternal cognitions and behaviors during childhood as a mediator was tested. Consistent with the hypothesis, maternal fear of negative evaluation served as …

Managing The Merger Of Archives And Special Collections : Setting Our Own Agenda., Caroline Daniels, Delinda Stephens Buie, Rachel I. Howard, Elizabeth E. Reilly

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

At the University of Louisville a merger of archives and special collections had been discussed for decades, but for a variety of reasons, always dismissed. There were practical reasons in favor of it, but there were some significant internal barriers that made it easier to keep things as they were. But in 2012 things changed. Heightened appreciation for the traditional and emerging roles of special collections in university libraries, institutional budget concerns, key retirements and gradual replacement of people resistant to change, and an inclusive approach to planning, all aligned to make the merger seem like a natural progression for …

Understanding Workplace Meetings: A Qualitative Taxonomy Of Meeting Purposes, Joseph A. Allen, Tammy Beck, Cliff Scott, Steven G. Rogelberg

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose - Meetings are a workplace activity that deserves increased attention from researchers and practitioners. Previous researchers attempted to develop typologies of meeting purpose with limited success. Through a comparison of classification methodologies, we consider a taxonomy as the appropriate classification scheme for meeting purpose. The goal of our study is to propose a taxonomy of meeting purpose. We then utilize the developed taxonomy to investigate the frequency with which a representative sample of working adults engaged in meetings of these varying purposes. Our proposed taxonomy provides relevant classifications for future research on meetings and serves as a useful tool …

Naturalistic Decision Making In After-Action Review Meetings: The Implementation Of And Learning From Post- Fall Huddles, Roni Reiter-Palmon, Victoria Kennel, Joseph A. Allen, Katherine J. Jones, Anne M. Skinner

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to add to our understanding of naturalistic decision making (NDM) in health care and how after-action reviews (AARs) can be utilized as a learning tool to reduce errors. The study focused on the implementation of a specific form of AAR, a post-fall huddle, to learn from errors and reduce patient falls. Utilizing 17 hospitals that participated in this effort, information was collected on 226 falls over a period of 16 months. The findings suggested that the use of self-guided post-fall huddles increased over the time of the project, indicating adoption of the process. Additionally, …

Linking Pre-Meeting Communication To Meeting Effectiveness, Joseph A. Allen, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nicole Landowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose – This study investigates the importance of communication that occurs just before workplace meetings (i.e., pre-meeting talk). We explore how four specific types of pre-meeting talk (small talk, work talk, meeting preparatory talk, and shop talk) impact participants' experiences of meeting effectiveness. Moreover, we investigate the role of participants’ personality in the link between pre-meeting talk and perceived meeting effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained using an online survey of working adults (N = 252). Because pre-meeting talk has not been studied previously, a new survey measure of meeting talk was developed.

Findings – Pre-meeting small talk was a …

Cultural Factors Associated With Utilization Of Antenatal Care Services In Rural India, Anjali Om

Undergraduate Research Posters

Despite vast economic growth in developing countries in the past few years, infant mortality continues to plague underdeveloped regions, particularly rural regions of India. Many of these deaths are caused by a lack of education and motivation in regard to utilization of antenatal and neonatal care services to prevent and treat consequences of unhygienic umbilical cord care.

For years, high incidences of neonatal tetanus have plagued rural areas of India as a result of cultural practices that encourage topical applications of cow dung to cut umbilical stumps either directly or by using ghee heated with cow dung to warm umbilical …

La Identidad De Los Carabineros De Chile: The Evolving Identity Of Chile's National Police Force And The 1973 Military Coup, Jeffrey O. Lamson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of Los Carabineros de Chile, Chile's national police force, from their origins under Carlos Ibáñez in 1927 until their involvement in the 1973 military coup against President Salvador Allende. Various presidencies primarily used this corps during this period as a weapon against popular mobilization and thus influenced the development of the Carabineros' institutional identity. To explore how this identity evolved, this thesis examines primary sources, mostly in the form of newspapers found in the National Archives in Santiago, Chile, that illuminate the Carabineros' relations with the public. The knowledge of the Carabineros' institutional identity contributes …

Privatization Of Florida Juvenile Residential Facilities, Katherine Hancock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Privatization of juvenile facilities and services has been the norm since the inception of the juvenile justice system. However, little research has been performed examining the impact of privatization on juvenile justice, despite the possible repercussions of this policy for the juveniles served. Prior research on privatization in other fields has tended to find a connection between privatization and outcomes; however, very little research has examined how privatization impacts operations, how operations impact recidivism, and how privatization and operations interact to produce juvenile justice outcomes. This exploratory study, informed by cybernetic systems theory and principal-agent theory, examined the mechanism by …

Leadership Distrust, Need For Power, And The Initiation Of Militarized Interstate Disputes, Gary Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Does a leader's psychology affect his/her likelihood of initiating a militarized interstate dispute? The study of leadership psychology has continuously found support for the central assumption that leaders matter in explaining a state's foreign policy behavior. However, many of these research projects have relied on small-sample case studies and experimental methods that have limited generalizability. In this paper, I use two variables drawn from the research program on leadership trait analysis (distrust and need for power) in a multivariate large-n study to explain the initiation of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). 1,601 cases are drawn from the Correlates of War MID …

The Effects Of State Leader Psychology On Civil War Lethality, Brandon Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Does a state leader's psychology influence lethality in civil wars? This thesis analyzes the aforementioned question during post-1945 civil wars. This particular subject, paying close attention to individual psychology at the state level, is gaining traction amongst scholars, though limited scholarly attention has addressed whether leader psychology is an indicator of conflict severity in terms of lethality. The psychology of the state leader in this thesis is assessed from leadership traits and operational code indices, specifically direction of strategy (I1) and interpretation of the nature of the political universe (P1). The data and cases used are pulled from datasets by …

The Modern Gender Gap In Partisanship And Ideology: A Cross-National Analysis, Tiffany Quick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis updates and expands upon the developmental theory of the gender gap in party and ideological identification originally posited by Norris and Inglehart (2000) to explain why women in advanced industrial nations are more likely to hold more leftist ideological identification than men. A comparative cross-national analysis using data from the World Values Survey (2004-2008) extends Norris and Inglehart's study, with an examination of the gender gap in advanced industrial, post-communist and developing nations. To further explore the nature of the gender gap in the United States, data from the American National Election Study (Cumulative File and 2012 cross-section) …

Traversing The Terrain: A Least Cost Analysis On Intersite Causeways In The Maya Region, Alexander Rivas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of ancient Maya causeways is crucial for understanding Maya social and spatial organization. Archaeologists have been interested in Maya causeways for decades, specifically documenting their locations. More recently, the use of Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, has been used for understanding the spatial organization of archaeological sites. GIS analyses on ancient Maya causeways however have been very limited. This thesis aims to evaluate ancient Maya causeways through GIS analysis. Specifically, five intersite causeway systems are looked at: the Mirador Basin, Yaxuna-Coba-Ixil, Uxmal-Nohpat-Kabah, Ake-Izamal-Kantunil, and Uci-Kancab-Ukana- Cansahcab. These causeway systems were evaluated using least-cost paths based on the terrain. …