Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Who’S To Blame? Blame Attributions And Obesity-Related Law And Policy, Lindsey E. Wylie

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Obesity is a foremost public health concern that has received considerable attention. Because of this so-named “epidemic,” law-makers are challenged with implementing effective policies that the public supports. Little is known, however, about the antecedents and consequences of these policies—especially attributions of blameworthiness. Study 1 developed the Obesity Blame Attribution Scale (OBAS). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that controllability, responsibility and dispositional blame were separate constructs and were part of a higher-order dispositional blame factor. Situational blame was a separate higher-order factor, not correlated with dispositional blame, consisting of blame toward the food industry and towards government policy. Using the OBAS, …

Economic Freedom And Participation In Physical Activity, Joshua C. Hall, Brad R. Humphreys, Jane E. Ruseski

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and influences a variety of health outcomes. A recent paper has found economic freedom to be positively associated with greater participation in physical activity in a sample of 34 European countries. We empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and physical activity across U.S. states. Contrary to the cross-country results, we find that states with higher levels of economic freedom have lower rates of participation in physical activity.

Three Essays On The Supply Of Long-Term Care Services To The Elderly In The U.S., Kanika Arora

Dissertations - ALL

Situated in the context of a rapidly aging population, this dissertation examines the implications of supplying long-term care (LTC) services to the elderly in the United States. The first two essays investigate private costs of LTC assistance borne by adult children of elderly parents. In contrast, the third essay focuses on the cost of publicly-provided, formal LTC services.

The first essay analyzes whether adult children devote less time to exercise as time allocation in parental caregiving increases. The empirical model is a system of four correlated equations, where the dependent variables are hours spent caregiving, frequency of moderate and vigorous …

Meeting At Mom's: The Crisis Of Identity Within The Black Community In Syracuse, New York, Anne-Margaret Childress

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

This thesis uses a multi-sited ethnographic methodology based on interviews conducted in Syracuse, New York to examine the multiracial identity and living conditions of persons of African descent. The theorization in this project utilizes the Black Arts Movement and African Conscious theater frameworks to create an analytical play in which the black community becomes aware of itself through artistic expression that centers on what Larry Neal once described as the &;#8220;black aesthetic.&;#8221; Moreover, it examines identity within the black community &;#8211;identity that is not the product of mainstream societal conceptions of race and color, but is the result of …

Breaking Binge: Exploring The Effects Of Binge Watching On Television Viewer Reception, Lesley Lisseth Pena

Dissertations - ALL

The modern television viewer enjoys an unprecedented amount of choice and control - a direct result of widespread availability of new technology and services. Cultivated in this new television landscape is the phenomenon of binge watching, a popular conversation piece in the current zeitgeist yet a greatly under-researched topic academically. This exploratory research study was able to make significant strides in understanding binge watching by examining its effect on the viewer - more specifically, how it affects their reception towards a television show. Utilizing a uses and gratifications perspective, this study conducted an experiment on 212 university students who were …

Indexing The White House Statements Regarding Snowden And Nsa: A Content Analysis Of U.S. Elite Newspapers’ Opinion Pieces, Elena Sorokina

Dissertations - ALL

The current study aims to advance knowledge about indexing and elite debates by examining and comparing coverage of a complex issue in the official government statements and opinion sections of two elite American news organizations. More specifically, this research examines whether or not The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal used any news frames promoted by The White House regarding the former NSA contactor Edward Snowden and his whistleblowing attempts. Results of the textual analysis of The White House Statements and selected opinion pieces indicate that indexing did not occur and a variety of opinion took place. Listed …

Constructing A Counter-Discourse: Agroecological Formação At The Mst's Milton Santos School, Marian Li Turniawan

Dissertations - ALL

The Brazilian Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (Movimento Sem Terra, MST) is one of the largest social movements in the world. Situated in a country with extremely unequal land distribution, the MST was originally concerned with obtaining land for agrarian reform settlements through the occupation of latifúndia (large estates of the landed elite). However, after realizing its struggle over land rights was rooted in deeper structural issues in Brazilian society, the MST broadened its goals to seeking wider societal change. Over the past thirty years, it has evolved into a movement that pursues social justice by challenging dominant capitalist discourses. This …

Generalization Programming And The Instructional Hierarchy: A Performance Feedback Intervention In Writing, Rigby Dawn Malandrino

Dissertations - ALL

National assessments have indicated that a large number of students in the United States are underperforming in writing (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012; Persky, Daane, &;; Jin, 2003). Accordingly, there is a clear need for research to identify appropriate interventions targeting writing. One intervention that has received empirical support is performance feedback (Van Houten et al., 1974, 1975, 1979). However, few performance feedback studies have explicitly targeted generalization. The primary purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which 116 third-grade students, randomly assigned to a generalization programming (n = 39), performance feedback (n = 38), …

Review Of The Book Polish Roots: Korzenie Polskie, 2nd Ed., John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Polish roots: Korzenie Polskie, 2nd ed.

Reynolds School District Population And Enrollment Forecasts, 2015-16 To 2024-25, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Scott Stewart

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

This report presents the results of a demographic study conducted by the Portland State University Population Research Center (PRC). The study includes analysis of population, housing and enrollment trends affecting the Reynolds School District (RSD) in recent years and forecasts of district‐wide and individual school enrollments for the 2015‐16 to 2024‐25 school years.

The Lesson Plan As A Tool For Library Instruction, Michelle Price

Lavery Library Faculty/Staff Publications

A lesson plan is the backbone to a library instruction session, no matter what the time length, teaching methods, location or media used. When well-constructed, a lesson plan can provide a seamless integration of library instruction with a classroom assignment and can help create intrinsic motivation for students. Also, it can serve as a guide to scale the lesson objectives and activities to the time available. This living document can also expand and contract with each new session as different situations arise, allowing you to quickly adapt to different time or technology restrictions. It can also help to differentiate the …

Differential Effects Of Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (Mdpv) And Mephedrone In Rats Trained To Discriminate Mdma Or A D-Amphetamine+Mdma Mixture, Eric Louis Harvey

Masters Theses

Recent reports on the abuse of novel synthetic cathinone derivatives call attention to serious public health risks of these substances. In response to this concern, a growing body of preclinical research has characterized the psychopharmacology of these substances, particularly mephedrone (MEPH) or methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), noting their similarities to MDMA and cocaine. The present study employed drug discrimination methodology to assess the discriminative stimulus effects of MEPH and MDPV in male Sprague-Dawley rats trained to discriminate 1.5 mg/kg 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or a mixture of 1.5 mg/kg MDMA and 0.5 mg/kg d-amphetamine (MDMA+AMPH). After establishing dose response functions with each training …

Effects Of Altering Motivation In Pigeons Performing A Titrating-Delayed-Matching-To-Sample Task, Zachary J. Zimmermann

Masters Theses

In order to better understand the role motivating operations (MOs) serve in preceding and evoking behavior, it is useful to examine the effects of whether manipulating motivation can influence performance on tasks with known behavioral outcomes. It is well established that altered stimulus control is responsible for changes in responding on tasks of generalization and discrimination. Therefore, if stimulus control could be influenced by MOs, then perhaps stimulus discriminations could be improved by manipulating the relevant MO. To this end, the effects of altering motivation via food deprivation were examined in pigeons using a titrating-delayed-matching-to-sample task. Additional pharmacological variables (i.e., …

Compared To What? Judicial Review And Other Veto Points In Contemporary Political Theory, David Watkins, Scott E. Lemieux

Political Science Faculty Publications

Many democratic and jurisprudential theorists have too often uncritically accepted Alexander Bickel’s notion of “the countermajoritarian difficulty” when considering the relationship between judicial review and democracy; this is the case for arguments both for and against judicial review. This framework is both theoretically and empirically unsustainable. Democracy is not wholly synonymous with majoritarianism, and judicial review is not inherently countermajoritarian in the first place.

In modern democratic political systems, judicial review is one of many potential veto points. Since all modern democratic political systems contain veto points, the relevant and unexplored question is what qualities might make a veto point …

Prioritizing Urban Sustainability Solutions: Coordinated Approaches Must Incorporate Scale-Dependent Built Environment Induced Effects, Matei Georgescu, Winston T. L. Chow, Z. H. Wang, Anthony J. Brazel, Barbara Trapido-Lurie, M. Roth, Valeria Benson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Because of a projected surge of several billion urban inhabitants by mid-century, a rising urgency exists to advance local and strategically deployed measures intended to ameliorate negative consequences on urban climate (e.g., heat stress, poor air quality, energy/water availability). Here we highlight the importance of incorporating scale-dependent built environment induced solutions within the broader umbrella of urban sustainability outcomes, thereby accounting for fundamental physical principles. Contemporary and future design of settlements demands cooperative participation between planners, architects, and relevant stakeholders, with the urban and global climate community, which recognizes the complexity of the physical systems involved and is ideally fit …

Pockets Of Participation: Bureaucratic Incentives And Participatory Irrigation Management In Thailand, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite a history of participatory policies, Thailand’s Royal Irrigation Department (RID) has had little success in developing water user organisations (WUOs) capable of facilitating cooperation between farmers and the irrigation agency. Even so, pockets of participation exist. What can explain these rare successes? What policy lessons can they provide? Comparing nine WUOs, I identify factors that contribute to the emergence of relatively successful groups. Most importantly, I show that successful WUOs are contingent on the actions of local irrigation officials. These findings emphasise the important role of street-level bureaucrats in implementing participatory policies. The incentive structures provided by the RID, …

An Occult Primer: Investigating Goth, Satanic, & Other Alternative Belief System Related Crimes, Gordon A. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

After reading this chapter you should be able to do the following:

• discuss the impact of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution upon the investigation of possible Occult related crime
• define the terms “Cult Cops” and “Ghostbusters” and their evolutionary impact upon the investigation of possible Occult related crime
• explain the impact that “Satanic Panic” and the “CSI Effect” upon these types of investigations
• describe the characteristics of individuals involved in negative or dangerous types of Occult behaviors
• discuss the factors involved in the identification and investigation of a possible Cult, Occult, Alternative Belief Crime Scene
• discuss the possible …

National Quality Awards In Healthcare And Actual Quality In U.S. Hospitals, Beth M. Beaudin-Seiler

Dissertations

This study examined performance outcome data from the Medicare Compare Hospital database for differences in performance between national award-winning hospitals and non-national award-winning hospitals. Specific variables examined were related to clinical care and were identified in literature as well as professional medical associations and societies as being quality indicators. National award-winning hospitals were defined as those having received the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in Healthcare or the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence. The characteristics of highly reliable organizations were also used to align the indicators of excellence for Malcolm Baldrige and Healthgrades recipients. Finally, a closer examination of data …

Psychological And Social Variables Impacting Young Adults Caring For Severely Mentally Ill Mothers, Courtney Gale Deloney

Dissertations

This dissertation study examined the psychological and social functioning of young adults who care for their severely mentally ill mothers; in doing so this study examined the independent variables coping style, perceived stress, quality of life, and resilience. The dependent variables considered were race, socioeconomic status, support group participation, and living in the same household as one’s mother. Young adulthood was examined as a distinct period of human development. The policy of deinstitutionalization led many families to become caregivers for their severely mentally ill relatives. While some knowledge on this exists, little is known about the experiences of young adult …

Three Essays On Capital Regulations And Shadow Banking, Diny Ghuzini

Dissertations

The shadow banking sector is a sector that is comprised of financial intermediaries that do not have access to central bank funds and performs their activities outside the regular banking system. This sector had been rapidly growing in most developed economies. This dissertation focuses on the behavioral difference and interaction of the traditional and shadow banking sectors as displayed by the relative asset position of both sectors, their risk-taking positions, and their business-cycles properties.

The first essay examines the impact of minimum capital requirements on the share of shadow to total banking assets. Previous literature has argued that increased regulation …

Tongues Untied Truth Revealed: Body Image, Social Media, Identity Development, And Meaning-Making In Overweight And Obese Black Gay Msm, Amari Ja-Lynn Enam

Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored the meanings attributed to internalized messages about body image within the context of identity development from the perspectives of overweight/obese men of African descent (OMAD) among a group of 6 men who have sex with men (MSM). I was interested in those messages that have been incorporated, adopted, or integrated into OMAD-MSM’s sense of self. Informants shared body image-related experiences from interactions with family, friends, dating/sex partners, and the media/social media.

Academic literature has explained identity development processes among African Americans through various lenses but research has not adequately explored the convergence of multiply oppressed social …

Structural Controls On The Distribution Of Groundwater In Southern Sinai, Egypt: Constraints From Geophysical And Remote Sensing Observations, Lamees Mohamed

Dissertations

An integrated (Very Low Frequency [VLF] electromagnetic, magnetic, remote sensing, field, and Geographic Information System [GIS]) study was conducted over the basement complex in Southern Sinai (Feiran watershed) for a better understanding of the structural controls on the groundwater flow. The increase in satellite-based radar backscattering values following a large precipitation event (date: 17, 18 Jan 2010; amount: 34 mm) was used to identify water-bearing features, here interpreted as preferred pathways for surface water infiltration. Findings include: (1) The distribution of the water bearing features (conductive features) correspond to that of fractures, faults, shear zones, dike swarms, and wadi networks; …

Testing Mean Stability Of Heteroskedastic Time Series, Violetta Dalla, Liudas Giraitis, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Time series models are often fitted to the data without preliminary checks for stability of the mean and variance, conditions that may not hold in much economic and financial data, particularly over long periods. Ignoring such shifts may result in fitting models with spurious dynamics that lead to unsupported and controversial conclusions about time dependence, causality, and the effects of unanticipated shocks. In spite of what may seem as obvious differences between a time series of independent variates with changing variance and a stationary conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) process, such processes may be hard to distinguish in applied work using basic …

Greater University Circle Initiative: Year 4 Evaluation Report, Ziona Austrian, Kathryn W. Hexter, Candi Clouse, Kenneth Kalynchuk

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report evaluates the fourth year of the Economic Inclusion program of the Greater University Circle Initiative (GUCI) in Cleveland, Ohio, namely the activities and accomplishments during 2014. The GUCI combines the economic power of anchor institutions with the resources of philanthropy and government to create economic opportunity, build individual wealth, and strengthen communities in the neighborhoods around University Circle and the Health Tech Corridor of Cleveland. The program, spearheaded by The Cleveland Foundation, is based on the premise that anchor institutions and residents share an interest in revitalizing their neighborhoods and by working together they can create jobs, income, …

Mapping Adult Migration In Cleveland, Ohio, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Eamon Johnson

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Associations Between Credibility Assessments And Information Use Tasks With Respect To Document Genres In The Context Of University Teaching, Min-Chun Ku

Dissertations - ALL

Higher education requires intense information practices for knowledge diffusion, application, and innovation. Faculty assess and use a variety of documents when they teach their students. They make complex credibility assessments, and they use information with varying degrees of perceived credibility to achieve their teaching goals. Unfortunately, existing credibility research often stops once documents are selected. Our knowledge of the associations between credibility assessments and information use remains limited. Additionally, scholars agree professional tasks are associated with the genres of the documents used to accomplish these tasks. For example, instructional genres – including tutorials and lesson plans – are particularly useful …

Three Essays On The Impact Of Student Assignment Policies, Sun Jung Oh

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is comprised of three essays, which study the impact of student assignment policies. The first two papers investigate the impacts of the removal of school desegregation plans on school racial segregation and on ninth grade repetition rates in the U.S. The third paper examines the impact of the school choice policy in Seoul, Korea on school segregation by academic performance levels.

Over the last two decades, half of school districts that were subject to court desegregation orders in the U.S. were released from those court orders. In response, many school districts modified student assignment plans that had been …

Negotiating Formal Schooling, Multiple Identities, And Community Advocacy: (Counter)-Narratives Of Somali Bantu Refugees In The United States, Vivian Fiona Guetler

Dissertations - ALL

"Negotiating Formal Schooling, Multiple Identities, and Community Advocacy: (Counter)-Narratives of the Somali Bantu Refugees in the United States" examines the educational experiences of Somali-Bantu refugees resettled in Upstate, New York. It explores how they negotiate their multiple identities - race, gender, class, religion, culture, language, accent, and immigrant status -within the formal school setting and environment. Additionally, it highlights the role of the Somali Bantu community organizations in advocating and implementing resettlement services and academic resources for their people. Using critical race theory as theoretical lens and methodology, a qualitative research was conducted to collect data from nine Somali Bantu …

The Effects Of Schedule Density Of Reinforcement For Alternative Behavior On Resurgence, Kathryn M. Kestner

Dissertations

Resurgence is the reemergence of a previously extinguished response when an alternative response no longer produces reinforcement. Although returning to previously successful methods for obtaining reinforcement is likely advantageous, resurgence also occurs in the form of treatment relapse. An individual may return to problematic behavior (e.g., aggression, self-injury, drug use) when an alternative behavior (e.g., communication response, coping skill, social behavior, etc.) is no longer successful at producing a reinforcer. Behavior analysts rely on treatments based on differential reinforcement of alternative behavior, and resurgence has been demonstrated following changes to reinforcement schedules due to errors in treatment integrity or intentional …

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Compared To Watchful Waiting For Enhancing Social Connectedness: A Randomized Clinical Trial With A Diagnosed Sample, Daniel W. M. Maitland

Dissertations

The efficacy of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) has not yet been show in randomized controlled trials in any population. The current study utilized a stratified randomization technique conducted by a computer system to assign twenty-three college students recruited for difficulties in interpersonal functioning who scored one standard deviation below the norm on the Fear of Intimacy Scale and met diagnostic criteria via independent assessment for Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder, or Dependent Personality Disorder to either a FAP condition or a Watchful Waiting Condition to assess the conditions ability to increase social relating …