Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Qualitative Examination Of Player Perspectives On Corruption In Indian Cricket, Shareen Mann

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In a nation of 1.2 billion people, divided by 29 states, 18 languages and various different religions; the sport of Cricket seems to be the only love the country shares. So intense is the power of Cricket that India’s political inclination towards other countries can be assessed from its Cricket schedule. It is a source of pride, economic benefit and political power; however the sport is currently facing numerous corruption scandals. The purpose of this study is to examine the popularity of Cricket related to the corruption issues currently facing the administrators, coaches and players. Specifically, this qualitative study examined …

Fearless: Class Of 2014, Center For Public Service

SURGE

We recognize all of the Gettysburg College graduates who will use what they learned and experienced over the past four years to fearlessly promote change, seek justice, and challenge inequality after leaving Gettysburg College. The following list contains the names of all of the members of the class of 2014 who have been recognized by other members of the campus community as leaders for change, and we are proud to claim these fearless and inspirational students as our own. We know, however, that we do not have everyone who deserves to be recognized listed below, so feel free to continue …

Self-Referencing Effects Of Social Networking On Judgments In An Employment Context, Abigail Lewis

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This study examined how various components of a social networking website (SNW) as well as rater characteristics can impact employee evaluations. Participants were presented with a job description, an applicant résumé, an applicant SNW profile, and a survey to measure rater characteristics. Professionally-oriented Facebook profiles received higher ratings than their counterparts, evaluations differed based on rater characteristics (e.g., personality), and raters varied in their perceptions of the relative value of SNW profiles. As these findings demonstrate that SNW profiles influence employer judgments to varying degrees based on rater characteristics and perceptions, organizations should use caution when viewing SNW profiles until …

Achievement Unlocked! A Digital Badge Primer & Workshop, Emily Ford

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Video of the workshop is available online at: http://vimeo.com/96035501

Digital badges--much like their analog predecessor the scouting badge-- can tell us a lot about a badge bearer’s accomplishments and skills. We all know that someone who has earned a First Aid badge is proficient in doctoring small wounds, and perhaps even providing CPR! Digital badges function the same way. They certify and communicate an individual’s knowledge, skills, and/or achievements.

Digital badges have been adopted by social media sites such as 4Square to recognize users’ achievements and are growing in popularity. They are being used by educational institutions as a way …

Pedestrian Safety And Culture Change, Ron Van Houten

PSU Transportation Seminars

This session will describe the process and results of a NHTSA study that showed a change in driver culture of yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks on a citywide basis. The research won the Pat Waller award from the National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Board in January of this year. The approach to changing road user behavior focused on an integrated approach that include Enforcement, Engineering, and Educational efforts that were designed to be dovetailed together and that included a social norming component. Additional information will be provided on engineering solutions that can facilitate changes in pedestrian level of service …

Smartphones And Face-To-Face Interactions: Extending Goffman To 21st Century Conversation, Omar Bradley Ictech Ii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Smartphone is a technological innovation that has transformed for the better how billions of people live by enabling them to transcend time and space to remain socially connected to potentially millions of others despite being thousands of miles apart. Although smartphones help people connect from a distance, there has been much concern about how they affect face-to-face interactions. This study explored, drawing on Goffmanian concepts, how and why smartphones affect face-to-face encounters. The findings show there are three types of smartphone cross-talk: exclusive, semi-exclusive, and collaborative. With the addition of smartphone play and solo smartphone activity, interactants can engage …

Professional School Counselors And Relational Aggression: Training, Perceptions, Barriers, And Interventions, Catherine G. Mcdermott

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Relational aggression (RA) is a type of bullying in which the relationship is used as the agent of harm (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). RA behaviors are intended to impair or ruin reputations, friendships, and feelings of inclusion in a peer group (Putallaz et al., 2007). Professional School Counselors (PSCs) are charged to be social justice advocates for students; RA is a social justice issue because the effects of RA bullying, victimization, and bullying/victimization lead to poor academic achievement. Recent literature suggests that PSCs do not perceive the effects of RA to be as serious as the effects of physical and …

Contested Road Space: Public Narratives And Bus Rapid Transit In Indore, India, Lucien V. Bruno Iv

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has a demonstrated capacity to improve safety, mobility and accessibility for multiple types of road users. In India, where road safety is an ongoing problem, the national government has supported cities’ efforts to implement BRT as a cost-effective tool to improve urban travel. The case of Indore’s iBus attests to the cultural and institutional barriers that Indian cities may face in gaining public support for BRT. After a contentious implementation process, the High Court ruled to open the dedicated bus lane to private automobiles, resulting in drops in ridership and increases in accidents and travel delay. …

Patriotism Or Financial Stability--What Drives Young Men And Women To Join The United States Armed Forces, Hannah Brantley

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The purpose of this project is to determine why men and women continue to join the Armed Forces. I looked at different factors that may be associated with why people join the Armed Forces, and used an online survey to help determine what factor(s) had the most influence on the participants to join. This research focuses on patriotism and benefits. The benefits were then broken into different categories: education, healthcare, housing, and retirement. This research, if conducted on a much larger scale, theoretically could help the Armed Forces understand soldiers’ reasoning for joining so that they could put resources and …

Transatlantic Cooperation On Cyber Security: Data Privacy And Cybercrime, Allison Feikes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Internet is a vital part of the global economy considering an estimated 8 trillion United States dollars flow through global e-commerce each year. However, this new, innovative tool is not only used to benefit the people; the Internet has become a place for criminal activity as well. With over one million victims of crimes globally every day, the United States works closely with the EU to ally against this Lernaean Hydra. This thesis explores how Transatlantic cooperation can be improved through formalized regulation especially in regards to organized research in tracking child exploitation, Safe Harbor Privacy Principles, and reducing …

Building A Better Office Of Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Change And Educational Outreach At Wku, Andrew Salman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This research documented the transformation of the house at 503 Regents Ave. in Bowling Green KY into a model home of sustainability by the WKU Office of Sustainability as a case study. Using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Core Concepts, the benefits of weatherization (window upgrades, insulation, sealants) to the building, the addition of a solar energy array and utility grid intertie, and the transformation of the back yard into an edible landscape and community garden to mitigate stormwater flooding issues were assessed. Collaboration between the Office of Sustainability, students, university entities, and community members were encouraged …

Counselor Education Doctoral Students' Experiences With Multiple Roles And Relationships, Kristen N. Dickens

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of counselor education doctoral students who participated in multiple roles and relationships. Random purposeful sampling was used to conduct in-depth interviews with current doctoral students in CACREP-accredited counselor education programs who had completed at least one year of full-time enrollment as a doctoral student, participated in a minimum of two multiple roles that were provided in an a priori list, and had access to videoconferencing software in order to participate in the study.

The participants in this study reported and described perceptions of their lived experiences as counselor …

Market Frictions And The Efficiency Of Capital Allocation, William J. Hippler Iii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation contains two unique empirical studies that contribute to the overall literature in the field of Financial Economics in the areas of mutual fund investing and financial intermediation and regulation. The first Chapter, entitled “The Impact of Macroeconomic Stress on the U.S. Financial Sector”, examines the relative impact of macroeconomic stress on financial and non-financial U.S. firms. Empirical results show that macroeconomic shocks appear to have a larger impact on financial firms. Additionally, the sensitivity of financial firms to macroeconomic events can be traced to the influence of non-depository institutions, or “shadow banks”, like finance and investment companies, …

Spatial Analysis Of Post-Hurricane Katrina Thermal Pattern And Intensity In Greater New Orleans: Implications For Urban Heat Island Research, Aram P. Lief

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s diverse impacts on the Greater New Orleans area included damaged and destroyed trees, and other despoiled vegetation, which also increased the exposure of artificial and bare surfaces, known factors that contribute to the climatic phenomenon known as the urban heat island (UHI). This is an investigation of UHI in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which entails the analysis of pre and post-hurricane Katrina thermal imagery of the study area, including changes to surface heat patterns and vegetative cover. Imagery from Landsat TM was used to show changes to the pattern and intensity of the UHI effect, …

Social Theory And The Occupy Movement: An Exploration Into The Relationship Between Social Thought And Political Practice, Jahaan Chandler

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the 21st century, this planet has experienced an explosion of social movements and protests. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement, global protests had become such a prominent feature of the first decade of the new millennium that Time Magazine named the protester as its person of the year in 2011. This project examines the relationship between social theory and political practice in an attempt to gain further insight into contemporary social movements. In particular, it examines the theoretical assumptions underlying the Occupy Movement in the United States and compares these assumptions with 19th century individual and collective …

Women Rule, But Do They Make A Difference? Women In Politics, Social Policy And Social Conditions In Latin America, Erika Del Pilar Burton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Since the transitions to democracy in Latin America, women in the region have undergone major changes in their roles in society. From traditionally only present in the home to participating in collective action efforts, and finally participating at increasing numbers in governments, women have made incredible strides in the Latin American region. Latin American countries have successfully advocated for the inclusion of women in government, but few studies in academia focus on determining whether their inclusion has made a difference in government processes or in society. Borrowing from the literature positing that women are behaviorally different from men as well …

Leadership And Communication As Opportunities For Growth: Refining Discipline With Cross Cultural Relationships Beyond The Classroom, Sabrina D. Sanchez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Overt disciplinary tactics disproportionately affect scholars of color. This field project aims to shed light on discipline policies across a variety of learning environments and provide scholars of color with the opportunity to self-advocate. I utilize a culturally relevant pedagogy in my framework component to stress the need for reciprocal relationships based on dignity and mutual respect. I provide effective alternative strategies, framed by culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and Gregory and Mosely’s theory of culturally relevant discipline (CRD), for addressing misconduct that emphasize stronger communication and greater leadership opportunities. My project consists of three parts: a modified communications policy in …

Finding Cathartic Beauty In Trauma And Abjection, Christy R. Kirk

Graduate School of Art Theses

Inspired by the dichotomy of beauty and the grotesque in relation to the female body, I set out to both find a balance and interrupt the balance between the two with my artistic practice. Defining beauty as something more significant and meaningful than a pretty image and the abject as something that inspires repulsion, I sought to find connection between the two. Through creating abject textures surrounding nude female forms, I discovered an underlying trauma latent in the artistic expressions of my work. The process of creating abject works of art has lead to catharsis and posttraumatic growth in my …

In Pursuit Of Distant Horizons, Whitney Polich

Graduate School of Art Theses

Our lasting human desire to rationalize the phenomena of nature manifests as ceaseless attempts to fix fluid landscapes within the rigid boundaries of an image. Each landscape with its own physical language, rooted in the temporal and subjective particularities of sense—taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight—requires a lived immersion to be read and as such, eludes static interpretation or expression. The physical horizon provides both a physical and metaphorical reminder of the limits we constantly find ourselves confronted with—those limits of perception, language, and knowledge—as we seek to expresses the immediate experience and profound vastness of a world far exceeding …

Community Structures In Bipartite Networks: A Dual-Projection Approach, David Melamed

Faculty Publications

Identifying communities or clusters in networked systems has received much attention across the physical and social sciences. Most of this work focuses on single layer or one-mode networks, including social networks between people or hyperlinks between websites. Multilayer or multi-mode networks, such as affiliation networks linking people to organizations, receive much less attention in this literature. Common strategies for discovering the community structure of multi-mode networks identify the communities of each mode simultaneously. Here I show that this combined approach is ineffective at discovering community structures when there are an unequal number of communities between the modes of a multi-mode …

Assessing “Mixed-Use” - Evaluating New Urbanism In New England, Michael K. Daniels

Honors Scholar Theses

New urbanism is a movement in city and regional planning that is primarily based upon a return to mixed-use development. New urbanists contend that reintegrating land uses to make “walkable” urban neighborhoods will help increase residential financial diversity and make once downtrodden areas desirable again. It remains unclear if physical design changes can truly impact economic and social conditions. Is mixed-use development worth pursuing for cities looking to restore economic diversity? To investigate this question, I turn to two Southern New England cities of similar population which have faced parallel struggles: Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. I analyze the …

Moving Motherly: Raising Children In The Low-Wage Hospitality Industry, Anna E. Hackman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the hospitality industry, women with children are in a unique position. Government deregulation of corporate labor practices, the exit of manufacturing overseas, and the rise of the service sector economy in the United States has contributed to the development of a surplus, low-wage labor force. Tourism is one subset of this labor force that deserves further attention. Although there is substantial literature on the structure of low-wage labor in tourism economies (Herod and Aguiar, 2006), as well as the impacts on work-family balance (Liladrie, 2009), a less explored topic is the impacts hospitality labor has on mothering. The purpose …

Leap Of Faith: Clergy In State Legislative Elections, Victonio B. Spencer

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study expands the literature on clergy as political actors by shedding light on the relative electoral performance of clergy who hold office in state legislatures. Kinney’s 2008 study on the occurrence of clergy in local office, as well as other works showing the divergence in attitudes towards church-state separation among racial groups and religious traditions, illustrate potential factors affecting the performance of clergy in elections. The analyses examine the factors related to differences in vote percentages, margins of victory, and campaign funding between clergy and non-clergy. These factors include racial and religious traditions and how their effects interact. The …

The Relationship Between Implementation Of The American School Counselor Association National Model And Professional Secondary School Counselor Burnout, Kellie Giorgio Camelford

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between demographic and occupational variables, the implementation of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model, and burnout in professional secondary school counselors. Participants in this study were professional secondary school counselors who were members of ASCA (n=494). All participants completed the Secondary School Counselor Demographic, Implementation of the ASCA National Model, and Burnout Survey that was designed to assess counselors’ perceptions and practices related to the level of implementation of the ASCA National Model and the degree of burnout. The instrument combined a researcher-developed questionnaire with the School Counseling …

Tweeting The Boston Marathon Bombings: A Case Study Of Twitter Content In The Immediate Aftermath Of A Major Event, Rebekah Dawn Giordano

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects

The project explored and analyzed the use of the social media tool Twitter in the immediate aftermath of a major event. Tweets and re-tweets from the first hour following the Boston Marathon Bombings on April 15, 2013 were collected and analyzed. The project used the application SIFTER from the company Textifer to identify the related tweets by inputting sixteen previously documented keywords related to the Boston Marathon Bombing. The tweets were then divided into several categories and subcategories to be analyzed. The company Twitter Counter was used to obtain accurate information, such as followers on, for various individual Twitter accounts. …

Spirituality And Religion In Women's Leadership For Sustainable Development In Crisis Conditions: The Case Of Burma, Phyusin Myo Kyaw Myint

Dissertations and Theses

This research focuses on women's leadership roles for sustainable development in crisis conditions with particular attention to the foundations of the leadership roles of women based in spirituality and religion. The research question for this study ask: How do religious and spiritual traditions contribute to the leadership roles of women that can be effective in building sustainable development in crisis conditions? The study uses a content analysis of a key body of women's writings from Burma. The findings from the data explain some of the ways in which spirituality and religion have played significant roles in promoting the leadership of …

The Economic Impact Of Wheelchairs For The Disabled In Ethiopia, Justin L. Grider

Master's Theses

Abstract: How do wheelchairs impact income and the possible channels of employment status and time allocation for the physically disabled? In order to improve opportunities for people with disability, it is imperative to know the effect that a wheelchair has on the lives of the disabled. Estimates from 261 participants across Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were taken to estimate a wheelchair’s impact across numerous time, economic and distance variables. I demonstrate how nearest neighbor covariate matching methods can be used to estimate how wheelchair beneficiaries would have fared had they not been given a wheelchair. Results show that current wheelchair users …

Heterogeneous Effects Of Commodity Price Shocks On Inflation Rates. Evidence From A Panel Study., Odbayar Batmunkh

Master's Theses

Do commodity price shocks have heterogeneous effect on countries based on their export and import profiles? I address this question through a panel study of 142 countries using Export and Import Indexes aimed at differentiating the retail pass-through and fiscal balance channel of transmission of Commodity Price shocks on inflation. The results show that an increase in the Export Index leads to a decrease in contemporary inflation while an increase in the Import Index leads to an increase in inflation in the next year. Average causal mediating effect of the Export Index on Inflation through the Fiscal Balance was shown …

Typhoons And Lower Birth Weight In The Philippines, Sarah Morrow

Master's Theses

Do typhoons impact birth weights of infants exposed to a typhoon while in utero? This research exploits the exogeneity and randomness of typhoons in the Philippines to estimate the impact of typhoon exposure as determined by wind speed on birth weights. Using four waves of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from the Philippines combined with temperature, precipitation, and rainfall data from the Philippines, I can empirically estimate the impact of a 1 m/s increase in wind speed on birth weights. I find that for certain subgroups of the population, specifically children born to mothers with primary education or …

Impact Of Mobile Money Usage On Microenterprise Evidence From Zambia, Laura I. Frederick

Master's Theses

Mobile money payment systems have spread rapidly around the world in the last decade. Given developing countries are powered by informal economies that traditionally have had limited access to information technologies, mobile payment system infrastructure has the potential to transform the way microenterprises conduct business. Through a pilot study in Livingstone, Zambia, I examine the effect of mobile money usage on microenterprise profits. I employ an instrumental variable strategy using the type of mobile operator as the instrument to address the selection bias in adoption, as mobile money services are available to everyone. In this urban context, I find initial …