Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Library News, Winter 2016, San Jose State University Library

Library News

No abstract provided.

United States Foreign Policy Toward Hiv/Aids In Africa: The Role Of Pharmaceutical Companies In The Formulation And Implementation Of The President’S Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (Pepfar) 2003-2008, Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula

Dissertations

During his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and asked Congress, over the next five years, to authorize the appropriation of $15 billion to provide treatment, prevention and care to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the existing pattern of neglect and indifference in U.S.-Africa relations and the Bush campaign’s statement in 2000 dismissing Africa from his foreign policy priorities, what then justifies his administration’s undertaking of this massive foreign policy change?

My dissertation offers insight into the role played by private US pharmaceutical companies …

Emature: Intergenerational Networks In Digital Media Spaces, Andras Lukacs

Dissertations

While the literature on adolescent usage of the Internet and mobile communication technology is burgeoning, the technological affordance of increased intergenerational contacts and intergenerational friendships received less attention. This project documents how intergenerational virtual networks operate in one particular massively multiplayer online game (World of Warcraft) from the standpoint of adolescent players. Online social worlds are similar to offline settings in a lot of ways. Users must obey certain behavioral standards and follow established rules and moral codes to participate. Despite accounts of online democracy and networked individualism, control and authority is central to the functioning of these environments. Power-relationships …

Performance Of Individuals And Teams On Cryptographic Tasks: Factors That Affect The Consideration Of Alternative Strategies, Joseph Bihary

Dissertations

The two studies presented here examined factors that might affect teams’ and individuals’ tendency to follow outside advice when attempting to solve a complex problem known as letters-to-numbers. Past research on group dynamics suggests that a lack of group consensus or homogeneity reduces group members’ confidence in their group’s abilities, and may lead members both to seek and accept advice from outside the group. Study 1 experimentally manipulated group diversity in task performance strategies in order to investigate whether dyads whose members have divergent perspectives are more likely than homogeneous dyads to consider and use a problem-solving strategy presented from …

Dating Violence Prevention Through A Change In Gender Norms, Katie Doud

Dissertations

Gender norms that promote male dominance and control lead to greater violence against females and deleterious health effects for males (Reed, Raj, Miller & Silverman, 2010). A strict adherence to female gender roles is associated with a greater likelihood to be in an abusive relationship and a greater length of time to leave an abusive relationship (Molidar & Tollman, 1998). Adolescence is a developmental time where boys and girls rigidly follow gender stereotypes (Alfieri, Ruble, & Higgins, 1996). Three-fourths of adolescents have been in a dating relationship by their senior year in high school (Carver et al., 2003). The combination …

Evaluating The Impact Of Integrative Mental Health Treatment In Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bella Etingen

Dissertations

High numbers of US Veterans experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but, many do not subsequently seek mental healthcare. Integrated mental health (IMH) models of treatment bring mental health professionals into the primary care setting, allowing Veterans to receive comprehensive treatment during primary care visits. The IMH treatment model may bridge the gap for Veterans with PTSD who need care and those who actually receive it. This study examined the impact that IMH has on Veterans with PTSD receiving care from VA. Using several methods of data collection (medical chart reviews, VA administrative databases, a mailed survey of patient perception of …

Social Skills In Youth With Spina Bifida: A Longitudinal Multimethod Investigation Of Bio-Neuropsychosocial Predictors, Christina Ehrman Holbein

Dissertations

Objective: Despite research documenting social dysfunction in youth with spina bifida (SB), little is known about the etiology of these social difficulties; most investigations identifying predictors of social deficits have concentrated exclusively on one domain. This longitudinal study examines the relative predictive power of neurocognitive (attention and executive function), family (cohesion and conflict), and health-related (body mass index, condition severity) variables on later social skills in youth with SB.

Methods: 112 youth with SB (T1 mean age = 11.19 years) and their families participated in study visits two years apart. Study variables were assessed by multiple methods (questionnaire, medical chart …

Cognitive And Neural Correlates Of Coping And Resilience In Depression, Catherine Lee

Dissertations

Depression is one of the most prevalent and devastating psychological disorders, often with a chronic or remitting/reoccurring course. The inability to effectively cope with stress and negative life events has been strongly linked to the development and maintenance of depression symptoms; yet, the cognitive and biological processes underlying the complex and multidimensional behavioral construct of coping are not well understood. Using a combination of self-report measures, computerized cognitive tasks, and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) methodologies, the present study investigated associations between specific executive function abilities (i.e., inhibition and set-shifting), underlying neural activity, coping strategy and flexibility, and depression symptoms. Results did …

Community Violence Exposure Among Urban African American Males: Understanding The “Buffering Effect” Of Adaptive Social Support Coping On Psychosocial Outcomes, Cynthia L. Pierre

Dissertations

The current study explored the moderating roles of support coping and support

quality in the predictive relationship between community violence exposure (ECV) and a

variety of psychosocial outcomes. Participants were 119 African American males (9 th –

12 th grade; mean age at baseline = 15.33). Participants completed measures of exposure to

violence, support-seeking coping, quality of support from friends and family, and a range

of psychosocial outcomes, and completed these same measures approximately one year

after baseline. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between

ECV and psychosocial outcomes, as well as the relationships between support coping and …

Changing Medical Education: Early Efforts To Integrate Women's Health Into Education And Training, Mary Katherine Rojek

Dissertations

This is an historical study about the development of women’s health curricula in medical education across the U.S. between 1983 and 2004, a period of a great deal of innovation. At that time, some physicians, medical educators, policy makers, and government officials became aware that most U.S. medical school curricula did not address women’s health in a comprehensive manner and did not attend to many problems that were the primary causes of mortality and morbidity in women. In addition, medical research and medical education were based on a normative male model. Studies of medical education indicate that medical schools are …

Exploring The Relationships Between Spiritual Well-Being, Team Regard And Turnover Intention Of Hospice Social Workers: The Mediating Role Of Job Satisfaction, Kimberly Lynn Sangster

Dissertations

According to the US census bureau there are approximately 15,500,000 million Americans over the age of 65 years in 2015. As the population ages and prepares to die, people will need access to quality hospice and end-of-life care. Key to delivery of quality care is experienced hospice social workers. Multiple regression and mediation analysis were applied to explain the path relationships involving the variables of spiritual well-being, an innovative operationalization of the concept of team regard, job satisfaction and turnover intentions of hospice social workers in Medicare-certified hospice programs in the state of Illinois. Other variables in this study included …

Social Learning Of Employee Engagement, Swati Sharma Srivastava

Dissertations

The influence of coworkers on workplace attitudes and behaviors is a well-researched and established occurrence in organizational psychology. Given that many of these relationships may be bi-directional, Social Learning theory is a fitting lens to examine these connections. One construct that consistently surfaces as a prominent topic in organizational research is employee engagement. The aim of this research was to investigate how social learning theory may be applied to the relationship between engagement levels of role models and observing employees. Results revealed some truly validating insights, primarily confirming the influence of coworkers on employee engagement. Model type (i.e., manager vs. …

The Relation Of Exposure To Community Violence To Self- Efficacy Based On Neighborhood, Family, And School Effects In A Community Sample Of Latino-American Youth, Arie Zakaryan

Dissertations

Community violence is considered a “public health epidemic” in the US. Latino youth and families are a burgeoning population in the United States, and many of whom live in neighborhoods exposed to community violence. Multiple contexts should be assessed identifying developmental assets youth use to adjust positively when exposed to violence. This study examines how different environmental contexts, i.e., home, school, neighborhood and acculturation, influence the relationship between exposure to community violence and self-efficacy for Latino youth. The current study uses an archival dataset of a larger longitudinal study (Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods). A confirmatory factor analysis …

A Game Industry Beyond Diversity: Systemic Barriers To Participation In South Korea, Florence M. Chee

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Digital gaming has become a prominent part of mainstream culture. However, as one may observe in the public exhibitions of this form of play, the multitude of reasons for participation in the games industry are especially divided along gender lines. This paper is an analysis of themes emerging from the critical ethnographic examination of South Korea’s1 online game culture that, upon closer and iterative analyses, point to additional socioeconomic complications and systemic barriers to women’s equitable participation in the game development and production. Using South Korea’s national context as a point of reference, the findings from this case study offer …

Communication Asset Mapping: An Ecological Field Application Toward Building Healthy Communities, George Villanueva, Garrett M. Broad, Carmen Gonzalez, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Sheila Murphy

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Guided by an integrated theoretical approach combining communication infrastructure theory with methods of assets-oriented community field mapping, this study reports the findings of an engaged scholarship project we term communication asset mapping (CAM). Ecological in orientation and participatory in practice, CAM represents a tool for analyzing urban spaces’ potential as mediums for building healthy communities. This article offers two case studies from different low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the first a researcher-directed CAM application and the second undertaken in collaboration with community health promotion workers. Both offer insights for researchers and practitioners interested in the intersecting roles of communication and …

Filipinos For Garcetti: Ethnic Political Organizing In Los Angeles And Asian American Civic Engagement In Cities, George Villanueva

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Marital Investments And Community Involvement: A Test Of Coser’S Greedy Marriage Thesis, Young-Il Kim, Jeffrey Dew

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

It is customary to test Coser’s greedy marriage thesis by comparing marital status groups. We propose a new approach that uses the marital dyad as the unit of analysis and examine whether investments in the marital relationship discourage community involvement through formal volunteering. Data from a U.S. national sample of 1,368 married couples revealed mixed support for the proposed relationship. Consistent with the greedy marriage thesis, wives’ soulmate view of marriage was negatively associated with their own and their husbands’ reports of volunteering. Although these associations were attenuated by religious service attendance, wives’ soulmate view had a more dampening effect …

Ecological Factors Promoting Academic Resilience Of Latina Students, Rebecca Testa-Ryan

Dissertations

To enhance the academic success of Latina students, researchers and educators must move away from focusing on deficits and risks and concentrate more on student potential and environmental support, which have been found to successfully open pathways to academic achievement. By shifting the focus, stakeholders can gain an understanding of the educational experiences of Latina students considered on a pathway of educational failure and the processes that can contribute instead to their academic resilience. In this qualitative study, I investigate the ecological factors that influence and impact the academic resiliency of Latina students. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory of Human …

The Impact Of Social Class Connectedness, School Belongingness, And Family Cohesion On Lower Class-Identified College Students, Kristen Eileen Adams

Dissertations

This study is one of the first to examine acculturative and enculturative factors as they relate to social class. Much of the extant literature surrounding acculturation and enculturation looks primarily at cultural factors such as race/ethnicity and/or immigration status. Due to the fact that social class is such a salient cultural identity in most individuals' lives and has a bearing on how one views and evaluates themselves in relation to others of differing social classes (Fouad & Brown, 2000), the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social class connectedness on subjective wellbeing (including positive and negative …

Self-Esteem And Critical Consciousness In The Relation Between Subjective Social Class And Subjective Well-Being Among College Students: Mediation And Moderated Mediation Models, Fatma Aydin

Dissertations

Subjective social class (SSC) and subjective well-being (SWB) are important indicators of mental health, and the scientific literature has indicated significant relationships between these variables. The purpose of this study is to examine the complex mechanisms by which SSC is related to SWB, using a sample of 275 college students. This study first explored whether SSC was indirectly related to SWB through the mediating effect of self-esteem. Three elements of SSC (economic resources, social power, and social prestige) and three elements of SWB (satisfaction with life, negative affect, and positive affect) were investigated. Using process analysis, the results showed that …

Defect Or Defend? Explaining Military Responses During The Arab Uprisings, Timothy Hazen

Dissertations

The Arab uprisings demonstrated that a military's response to the domestic unrest had a significant impact on whether the protests were successful and triggered regime change. In Egypt and Tunisia, the militaries defected from the incumbent regimes, and as a result the ruling leaders were removed, whereas in Bahrain, the military defended the regime and used violence against protesters, which led to the continuation of the government's rule. Scholars identify numerous factors to explain Middle East and North African (MENA) military behavior during the Arab uprising but overall these arguments tend to overemphasize individual case studies and fail to provide …

Individual Criminal Accountability After Civil Wars: Enforced Disappearances In Algeria And Turkey, Jessica Mecellem

Dissertations

Increasingly, around the world, individuals are being held criminally accountable for human rights violations (Olsen, Payne and Reiter 2010; Sikkink 2011; Kim & Sikkink 2010, 2012; Kim 2010, 2012; Sriram 2005; Lutz & Reiger 2009). Katherine Sikkink

(2011) characterized this change as a normative shift toward individual criminal accountability, which has resulted in a “justice cascade”, or a “revolution in accountability” (Sriram 2005). Much of the justice cascade literature has focused on the role of trials in democratizing countries. In contrast, this dissertation examines the impact of the norm of individual criminal accountability in two non-democratizing post-conflict contexts: Algeria and …

In Search Of Environmental Sustainability At The Base Of The Pyramid, Mark Heuer, Nancy E. Landrum

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper proposes a revision to Hart and Sharma’s 2004 model for corporate engagement with the base of the pyramid (BoP) by making the BoP community and the natural environment, not the firm, the central focus for engagement. The revised model proposes that core stakeholders must include the BoP community, the poor, weak, and illiterate, as they can benefit most from the community collective action model presented herein to address sustainability in the natural environment. These are the core stakeholders rather than fringe stakeholders, as indicated in the Hart and Sharma model. Our model recognizes the legitimacy of the firm …

Analyzing The Growing Islamic Radicalization In France, Virginia Ruth Brommer

Honors Theses

Islamic radicalization in European countries is becoming more and more prevalent, as evidenced by the number of recent attacks by Muslims in Europe. I argue that the social, religious, and psychological environment in France creates a unique opportunity for Islamic radicalization, particularly through social media and in prisons. After defining radicalization and explaining two radicalization processes as well as different types of radicals, I analyze the specific factors present in France that contribute to this radicalization. I use case study analysis to examine several French citizens who radicalized, either online or in prison, in order to show how the recruiter …

An Industry Giant's Struggles: Google's Relative Failure Within China, Zachary T. Cookston

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to understand and further explain the reasons culminating in Google's relative failure in the Chinese search engine market. By examining Google's tenure in China, Google's fairings in other large East Asian markets, and other Western corporations' troubles adapting to the Chinese market, this paper works to exhibit the reasons for Google's failure in China. Many of Google's high-ranking officers have claimed censorship as the most important factor in forcing the industry giant to vacate one of the fastest growing and most populous search engine markets in the world, but this paper seeks to exemplify that Google's approach …

Jeremiad Or Weapon Of Words?: The Power Of Emotive Language In Supreme Court Dissents, Amanda C. Bryan, Eve M. Ringsmuth

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Unable to directly control the policy articulated by the Supreme Court, dissenting justices are faced with the challenge of finding alternative ways to pursue their policy goals. We argue that one strategy available to them is to use their power over the language of a dissenting opinion to increase the media attention paid to a case. Our results show that cases with negative dissents attract more media coverage, which creates a variety of mechanisms through which a dissenter’s policy preferences could be realized, such as inducing Congress to take action, influencing public debate on the issue, and provoking further litigation. …

Social Work For Social Justice: Strengthening Practice With The Poor Through Catholic Social Teaching, Julia Pryce, Michael S. Kelly, Mary Lawinger

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Beyond Group Work Camp: A Bridge To Symposia And Conference Participation Via Professional Presentations, Shirley Simon

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this paper is twofold - to describe a Group Work Camp workshop that facilitates continued professional involvement beyond the camp experience, and to share the information offered in this session. The workshop provides information about developing peer-reviewed presentations for professional association conferences and addresses the benefits of such presentations. It identifies different presentation formats and describes the abstract preparation, submission and review processes. It addresses the dissemination of supplemental material related to the presentation. Detailed recommendations for navigating the preparation and presentation processes are shared with the hope of easing anxieties for new presenters. By scheduling the …

Guidelines For Affirmative Social Work Education: Enhancing The Climate For Lgbqq Students, Staff, And Faculty In Social Work Education, S. L. Craig, E. J. Alessi, M. Fisher-Borne, Michael P. Dentato, A. Austin, M. Paceley, A. Wagaman, T. Arguello, T. Lewis, J.E. Balestrery, R. Van Der Horn

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This report is intended to provide guidelines for the creation of social work educational environments that are affirmative of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning (LGBQQ) students, faculty, administrators, and staff. Creating affirmative social work educational environments for transgender and gender nonconforming populations is addressed in a companion document, Guidelines for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) Inclusive Social Work Education.

Managing And Leading A Diverse Workforce: One Of The Main Challenges In Management, Aya Shaban

All Works

In the recent years, there has been an increasing trend in organizations to give teams more responsibility to work on major tasks. More companies are getting to recognize that the best way to meet customer satisfaction, higher quality products, and faster service challenges is through coordinated efforts of employees. The increasing number of mergers, joint ventures and strategic alliances is bringing people from distinct cultures and types of organizations together. As a result, in the twenty first century managers have become more concerned with managing diversity in organizations. Diversity offers both potential costs and benefits for the organization. This research …