Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Living On The Edge: Rethinking Pueblo Period: (Ad 700 – Ad 1225) Indigenous Settlement Patterns Within Grand Canyon National Park, Northern Arizona, Philip B. Mink Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This dissertation challenges traditional interpretations that indigenous groups who settled the Grand Canyon during the Pueblo Period (AD 700 -1225) relied heavily on maize to meet their subsistence needs. Instead they are viewed as dynamic ecosystem engineers who employed fire and natural plant succession to engage in a wild plant subsistence strategy that was supplemented to varying degrees by maize. By examining the relationship between archaeological sites and the natural environment throughout the Canyon, new settlement pattern models were developed. These models attempt to account for the spatial distribution of Virgin people, as represented by Virgin Gray Ware ceramics, Kayenta …

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Coming Out In An Alcoholic Family, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This piece invites readers inside emotional and relational dynamics of coming

out as gay in an alcoholic family system. Taking an interpretive approach to

research, focused on how participants make sense of and make meaning

from their lived experience, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” offers a longitudinal and

narrative ethnographic account of family secrecy and disclosure.

"Black Is, Black Ain't" : A Theoretical Exploration Of The Impact Of Systemic Racism On African American Adolescent Identity Development, Janae A. Peters

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This theoretical thesis explores the impact of systemic racism on the African American adolescent's ability to secure a cohesive and positive identity. Working from a symbolic interactionist frame influenced by critical race theory and social identity theory, this thesis explores the unique challenges African Americans face in this critical identity development process and seeks to explore explanations for the role of racism as an institutionalized system that hinders healthy development. This thesis aims to examine how the messages received by African Americans in all systems--ranging from schools to health services--privilege the dominant perspective and ideology and negatively impact racial identity …

Parental Perceptions Of Parent-Therapist Alliance And Adolescent Self-Disclosure On The Perceived Efficacy Of Adolescent Psychotherapy Treatment, Kara G. Maltese

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This quantitative study explored the impact of parental perceptions of adolescent therapy disclosures on parental perceptions of therapy and therapist. Questions examined were (1) whether parental perceptions of their adolescent's therapy disclosures, parent-reported closeness, and parent-reported warmth differ as a function of adolescent age and parent gender and (2) if parent-therapist alliance ratings, parent-reported closeness, and parent-reported warmth were associated with parental perceptions of treatment efficacy, and if perceived disclosures moderated this association. Participants were 42 parents who had adolescents (ages 12 to 18) who attended outpatient psychotherapy for a minimum of 6 weeks. Demographic information and perceptions of adolescent …

The Effectiveness Of Emdr Therapy On Clients With Addictions, Jennifer L. Franklin

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study was undertaken to determine how effective Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is in helping clients to lessen or end their cycle of SUDs and behavioral addictions in the long term. Secondly, this study aimed to determine whether or not EMDR therapy increases a client's likelihood of relapse, and whether or not relapse affects the outcome of treatment. Furthermore, this study looked at whether or not clients need to have abstained from their addictive substance for an extended period of time in order for EMDR therapy to be successful in their addictions treatment. The final question that …

Shifting Paradigms : The Embodied Intersubjective Matrix, Joanna Wiederhorn

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This theoretical thesis traces two paradigmatic shifts currently transforming psychodynamic theory and practice: the shift from a one-person to a two-person psychology and the shift from conscious cognition to unconscious embodied affect. These two shifts support a phenomenological understanding of the clinical encounter as inherently intersubjective and embodied. The concept of embodied intersubjectivity is explored by weaving together relevant literature from the fields of relational psychoanalysis, interpersonal neurobiology, contemporary developmental psychology, and body psychotherapy. The view is offered that, for some clients more than others, developing a deeper connection with one's embodied sense of self, and having that experience recognized …

The Implementation And Acceptance Of Yoga Techniques For Children With Complex Trauma Among Practicing Clinicians, Danielle S. Martineau

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This mixed-method study was undertaken to determine acceptance and utilization rates of yoga techniques in treatment with children ages 5-17, with complex trauma among practicing-clinicians. Secondly, it was to explore beliefs of effectiveness and barriers of implementation of yoga in a therapeutic milieu. An online survey was sent through mass emails of local agencies, online social media sites through groups associated with trauma and mental health to determine practicing therapists' interests, utilization, beliefs of effectiveness, and barriers of implementation of yoga techniques in therapeutic practice with children with complex trauma. To qualify to participate in this study, one had to …

Pregnancy, An Opportunity For Empowerment : A Trauma And Attachment Informed Approach To Creating A Corrective Relationship For Mothers With Trauma Histories And Subsequent Substance Abuse, Judith W. Kamara

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This theoretical thesis examined how the capacity of a healthy pregnancy and birth and positive attachment could be a corrective experience for mothers with histories of trauma and subsequent substance use. Socratic questioning was used to help trauma and attachment-informed clinicians approach mothers in this population as an asset to their infants rather than viewing them as a risk, hopefully challenging the socially prevalent belief that these mothers should be treated punitively rather than receive treatment. The phenomenon also focused on this population of mothers rather than their infants as primary victim, examining individual and systemic factors that contribute to …

Adoption And The Use Of Self-Disclosure : A Qualitative Inquiry Of The Clincial Professional, Heather L. Smith-Jackson

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

One of the intentional purposes of this study was to expand upon the limited research that is offered from a clinical perspective regarding self disclosure, but with a concentration on adopted mental health professionals. This study: explored the nature of therapeutic relationship, investigated continued controversial topic of self disclosure and explored specifically adoption identity formation and self disclosure grounded in social constructivism.

Twelve female participants who identified as mental health professionals completed in person interviews. The goal was to recruit 16 participants evenly divided between clinicians who were adopted and non adopted. However because of limitations, the sample consisted of …

Art As A Clinical Tool In The Treatment Of Complex Ptsd : A Theoretical Study, Emma T. Brenner-Malin

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This theoretical thesis explores how art-making can be used as a clinical tool in social worker’s psychodynamic treatment of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. A theoretical thesis was chosen in order to address the gap in the social work literature discussing the integration of creative action into trauma-informed care. D.W. Winnicott’s object relations theory and Trauma-informed art therapy theory are the two theoretical lenses applied and discussed. A review of the literature indicates that art created during therapy can function as a transitional object, facilitating the client’s ability to learn how to regulate their affect, recall dissociated affect and memories, bolster …

Examining Healthy Food Accessibility In Baton Rouge, Louisiana Using A Huff-Modified 2sfca Method, Xuan Kuai

LSU Master's Theses

Food accessibility refers to people’s ability to access the service of food providers. Disparities in healthy food accessibility have long been a public health concern. This study proposes a new approach modified from the popular 2-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method to measure spatial access. By incorporating a self-adaptive kernel density function extracted from the Huff Model, the proposed new method is termed the Huff-modified 2SFCA method. It is then applied to measure the healthy food accessibility in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The research accounts for the economically disadvantaged groups that may walk or depend on public transit for …

Best Practices For Talent Acquisition In 21st-Century Academic Libraries, Kimberley Bugg

Publications and Research

Building a qualified and capable staff to engage students, faculty, and staff in a 21st century academic libraries requires that libraries rethink traditional approaches to recruitment and retention. This article draws attention to four phases: strategic planning, branding, pipe-lining, and candidate experience as essential to talent acquisition.

Perception Of Librarians Of Color About The Relationship Between Retention & Advancement As Middle Managers, Kimberley Bugg

Publications and Research

This poster highlights the results of a study that explored the interrelationship between retention and advancement for academic librarians of color in middle management positions. Themes that emerged included: the prevalence of internal promotions, lack of interest in senior leadership, and emphasis on leadership institutes. Several recommendations are offered for how the profession might increase opportunities for librarians of color to advance beyond middle management and increase interest in filling openings in library leadership positions.

Using A Dependent Group Contingency To Increase Homework Completion And Accuracy In A General Education Classroom, Sarah Alexa Metallo

LSU Master's Theses

Current trends in homework research have sought to understand the importance behind homework assignment and completion as well as effective interventions to increase accurate homework productivity. Classroom contingencies have been shown to effectively increase a variety of academic behaviors in the classroom, but research remains limited on the efficacy of a dependent group contingency administered in a general education classroom to improve homework completion and accuracy. The study utilized a dependent group contingency in the general education classroom setting in southeastern Louisiana public schools to improve students’ homework performance. Teacher, individual student and classroom data were collected in order to …

"Operation Red Campus”: An Experimental Analysis Of Crnc Advertisements Targeting The Millennial Generation, Ellen Mullee Schmidt

LSU Master's Theses

Using an experimental survey design, this study evaluated an advertising campaign developed by the College Republican National Committee targeting Millennials in the 2014 midterm elections. Three particular advertisements from “Operation Red Campus” were selected and tested using a pre-survey and two post-surveys. Due to data constraints, only the results of the first post-survey were used in this analysis. This campaign was designed in response to the Republican Party’s continued problems of low youth turnout and poor party perceptions. This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of the strategies employed by the CRNC to target 18-24-year-olds with this campaign, adding to the limited …

An Investigation Of The Effect Of Irrelevant Sounds On Serial Order Recall In Children And Adults, Corey Ian Mcgill

LSU Master's Theses

Irrelevant sound is detrimental to performance on serial order recall for both adults and children. Many current models of the effects of irrelevant sound on serial order recall propose that the irrelevant sound interferes with rehearsal in adults. However a direct test of rehearsal on the irrelevant sound effect (ISE) had not been examined prior to the present study. Furthermore, the cause of the ISE in children remains unclear as children are less proficient at rehearsal, yet typically show larger effects. We examined how certain factors hypothesized to relate to the size of the ISE correlate to performance in both …

The Political Theology Of Dietrich Bonhoeffer And The Ethical Problem Of Tyrannicide, Brian Kendall Watson

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, I explore the relationship between political theology and the ethical problem of tyrannicide in the life and works of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Beginning with an examination of his theological views, I argue that Bonhoeffer’s Christo-centric worldview forms the basis of his subsequent ethical and political beliefs, as well as his motivation for participating in an assassination plot against Adolph Hitler. Bonhoeffer’s desire to connect his understanding of Jesus Christ to the entirety of human life leads him to develop an unsystematic theological approach to ethics and the relationship between church and government. Concluding with …

Engagement Across The Pond: The Nfl's Attempts To Increase Social Media Engagement Through The Cultural Targeting Of Messages, Isabelle Moore

LSU Master's Theses

With more and more sports organizations reaching saturation points in their current home markets, the search for new, untapped, international audiences is on. Reaching out to these new markets has been made much more simple by the digitization of communication, and particularly the global spread of social media. The NFL, as the United States’ most popular sports league has been targeting the United Kingdom as it’s next market since the mid-2000s, and has gone as far as setting up a separate UK branch of their communications division (NFL UK). The NFL faces several challenges in engaging new fans in this …

Binding Of Independent Contexts In Source Memory, Samantha Nicole Spitler

LSU Master's Theses

Within the present study the binding between two independent source dimensions in a multidimensional source memory paradigm was investigated. Specifically, I examined stochastic dependence between the retrieval of each source dimension. Previous work has defined stochastic dependence as the higher probability of correct source retrieval for one dimension contingent on previous correct retrieval of a second source dimension, versus when contingent on incorrect retrieval of the second source dimension. Evidence is mixed as to whether item information within source dimensions must be encoded simultaneously in order to demonstrate eventual stochastic dependence. The present study tested the binding of two cross-modal …

Measuring Primary Health Care Accessibility In Mississippi State Using An Extended Kernel Density 2sfca Method, Lijie Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

The accessibility of primary health care is fundamentally important to people’s life quality and wellbeing. Based on the block group level 2010 census data from the U.S. Census Bureau and primary health care data from Association of American Medical Colleges, this study focuses on measuring the primary health care accessibility using an extended kernel-density two Step Float Catchment Area method. The study area is the Mississippi State, which is ranked last state for health care. The objectives of this study are to calculate the accessibility and analyze the spatial and non-spatial disadvantages of communities in accessibility of primary health care …

Sexual Dimorphism In The Crania In A Norwegian Sample, Tonje Bakke Noack

LSU Master's Theses

Physical anthropologists strive to improve the accuracy of sex identification and to establish criteria of measurements within various populations. Different groups of native inhabitants show dissimilar results within cranial measurements and inaccuracies have been confirmed when comparing all populations to the common standard lineal measurements. This research examined 24 measurements on 120 crania from Norway and used statistical analyses to determine the sexual dimorphism between male and female crania. The study established the measurements with the most sexual dimorphism. These are the measurements of bizygomatic breadth, basion-bregma, biauricular breadth, glabella-opisthocranion, and upper facial breadth. The similarity of the values of …

Framing Theory And Its Application To The Fracking Controversy In St. Tammany Parish, Lindsay Colleen Rabalais

LSU Master's Theses

When Helis Oil & Gas Company announced it was interested in drilling for oil in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish, it ignited a firestorm. The proposed drilling project would use hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – causing some residents to voice their concerns for the parish’s wellbeing. My thesis looks to framing theory to analyze how local media covered the issue, as well as the effects those frames might have on public policy and the lawsuits that arose out of the proposed drilling operation. I performed quantitative and qualitative content analyses of local media coverage of this issue from April 2014 …

Library Director As Negotiator/Horse Trader: Analysis Two, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

In The Shadow Of Big Oil A Media Content Analysis Of The 'Big Oil' Stigma, Camille Nicole Ivy-O'Donnell

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined media frames newspapers use in their coverage of the oil and gas industry. A content analysis was conducted to analyze if the oil and gas industry was portrayed positively or negatively in Louisiana newspapers compared to Texas newspapers and how the coverage between states differs. This comprehensive content analysis of print media coverage analyzed newspaper articles and provided a detailed explanation of results about how the oil and gas industry was portrayed over a five-year period of time as compared to other studies, which only analyzed the industry during a crisis period. Through categorization of the frames …

Language Processing And The Artificial Mind: Teaching Code Literacy In The Humanities, Jerry Scott Weltman

LSU Master's Theses

Humanities majors often find themselves in jobs where they either manage programmers or work with them in close collaboration. These interactions often pose difficulties because specialists in literature, history, philosophy, and so on are not usually "code literate." They do not understand what tasks computers are best suited to, or how programmers solve problems. Learning code literacy would be a great benefit to humanities majors, but the traditional computer science curriculum is heavily math oriented, and students outside of science and technology majors are often math averse. Yet they are often interested in language, linguistics, and science fiction. This thesis …

Social Anxiety And Cannabis-Related Impairment: The Roles Of Anxiety Sensitivity And Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Emily Robin Jeffries

LSU Master's Theses

Cannabis use is associated with many negative consequences. Identification of factors associated with cannabis could inform prevention and treatment efforts. Social anxiety appears to be one risk factor for cannabis-related problems. Thus, it is important to identify malleable cognitive vulnerability factors that may play a role in the social anxiety-cannabis problems relationship. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is the fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations and is composed of three subfacets: physical, cognitive, and social concerns. AS is associated with greater social anxiety and may play a role in cannabis-related impairment. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) refers to a tendency to respond negatively to …

Dendrotempestology: Identifying The Statistical Relationship Between Hurricanes And Tree Growth In The Pine Savannas Of Coastal Mississippi, Clay Stephens Tucker

LSU Master's Theses

Hurricanes cause massive destruction of property and land through high wind speeds, high precipitation, and flooding from storm surge inundation. Hurricane Katrina produced nearly an 8.5 meter-high storm surge at Pass Christian, Mississippi. The envelope of high water from Hurricane Katrina covered a large area of the Gulf Coast including, but not limited to, the area from the Atchafalaya Bay in Louisiana to Mobile Bay in Alabama. This study assesses the relationship between hurricane characteristics (i.e., storm surge and maximum wind) and tree growth using coastal pine tree cores taken in Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR). GBNERR, an …

Natural Order: The Case For Applying Biomimetic Design Principles To Mass Communication Technology Design, William Glass

LSU Master's Theses

In this paper I tested the effectiveness of a biomimetically designed classifier algorithm in an effort to support a new argument for the systemic application of biomimetic design principles to mass communication technology. To supplement the purely system-level test, I conducted a series of interviews with interface-level designers regarding their own design strategies, generally accepted design strategies in the field of mass communication technology design, new design strategies, and the landscape of the field in general. The findings of my test lend strong credence to biomimicry's potential systemic contribution to mass communication technology design, and the tone of the interview …

Between Beauty And Duty: Ethics And Judgment In Camus And Kant, Alex Donovan Cole

LSU Master's Theses

The ideas of Albert Camus and Immanuel Kant are not often thought of as sharing pronounced similarities. However, both thinkers are deeply concerned with role of aesthetics in moral, and subsequently, political life. According to each, taste is a faculty whereby one is able to develop the “moral insight” needed for the flourishing of a robust, thoughtful, ethical individual. Yet, both Camus and Kant utilize highly divergent methodologies in going about this. Camus prefers the artistic form and poetic language offered by the novel and Kant prefers the logical rigor of critical philosophical arguments. This thesis hopes to reveal that …

What Female Candidates Need To Know: Current Research On Gender Effects In Campaigns And Elections, Lauren Michele Leist

LSU Master's Theses

Studies show that the vast majority of people have no problem voting for a woman and that when women run they win as often as men, yet female representation remains startlingly low in the U.S. Women are 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, but they account for merely 19.4% of the 535 seats in Congress, 24.5% of statewide executive positions, 24.2% of state legislatures, and 17.6% of mayors in cities with populations over 30,000 (Center for American Women and Politics 2015). There is certainly much research dedicated to gender and politics. But what is missing from current literature is an …