Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review Of, The Evolution Of Human Cooperation: Ritual And Social Complexity In Stateless Societies, Kenneth Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviewed: The Evolution of Human Cooperation: Ritual and Social Complexity in Stateless Societies . CHARLES STANISH , 2017. Cambridge University Press , Cambridge . xiii + 336 pp. $110.00 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-107-18055-0. In this significant book, Stanish builds a model of how complex stateless societies solve collective action problems to benefit their members in the absence of coercive leadership--not in the absence of leadership but in the absence of coercive leadership. The model is framed by game theory, which is recast as anthropological game theory, and collective action theory, making the claim that humans are conditional cooperators. Crucial to successful …

Neighborhood Development Foundation: Homebuyer Locations And Purchase Dates In New Orleans (La) And Nearby Metro Parishes, 1986-2017, Michelle M. Thompson Phd, Gisp, Brittney Moore, Jennie Garcia

Planning and Urban Studies Reports and Presentations

The New America Public Interest Technology “Financial Inclusion & Citizen Participation” (FI&CP) project is focused on evaluating the public and private financial policies, tools and practice (FPTP) that impact the ability for people to increase their personal and family wealth. The FI&CP is evaluating the PFTP case study cities of New York (Bronx City), Chicago, IL, New Orleans, LA, and St. Louis, MO using big and small/community data to identify use and access to financial services such as credit cards and mortgages. The New Orleans case study focuses on p3GIS (public and private participation geographic information systems) in a dynamic …

(Lie)Alectics And The Discursive Dequeerification Of Political Spaces Based On Religious Freedoms: A Critical Rhetorical Analysis Of The Mormon And Gay Website, Myra N. Roberts

Communication ETDs

Over the past decade, sexual orientation and identity has increasingly been added to state and federal anti-discrimination laws, prompting a rhetorical situation by the Christian Right in attempts to exempt themselves from upholding anti-discrimination laws pertaining to sexual identity and orientation. This study analyzes the Mormon and Gay website—a website dedicated to advancing the position of the Mormon Church on issues of non-heterosexuality. Utilizing rhetorical textual analysis, I develop two theoretical frameworks: (lie)alectics and dequeerification to demonstrate how the discourse under examination attempts to appear non-homophobic while maintaining homophobic church doctrine. I argue that this model stands to influence the …

Investing For Peace And Peace For Investing: Motivations Behind China’S Involvement In U.N. Peacekeeping Operations, Fred (Wen Jie) Tan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to explore the motivations behind China’s increased involvement in international peacekeeping operations. Specifically, I seek to explore the motivations behind China’s increased involvement in international peacekeeping operations. This involves looking to the past to understand China’s actions, but also forecasting to the future to derive expectations for subsequent action. I also seek to determine if constructivist theories are able to explain China’s peacekeeping strategies. Using historical records, I first build a narrative of China’s peacekeeping ideology. I then examine China’s numerical contributions to peacekeeping to see how constructivist arguments might explain China’s strategy. Using regression analyses, I …

Habitat For Humanity’S Impact On The Homeowner In The Homebuying Process, Carmen Gills

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, April 18, 2018, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2018

Volume 150, Issue 33

Is Therapy Going To The Dogs? Evaluating Animal Assisted Therapy For Early Identified At-Risk Children, Leah Faith Brookner

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the historical context of human-animal relationships and examines the important ways that humans benefit from various types of interactions with domesticated animals. Therapeutic approaches that incorporate animals have been shown to have multiple benefits, including improved physical and mental health. Although this area of study is still largely overlooked in scientific fields of study, including social work, Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) has become increasingly prevalent in various mental health settings. Despite its popularity and anecdotal support, research on the benefits of AAT with children is minimal; there are no studies examining the ways in which this approach …

Who Will Stay, Who Will Leave: Decision-Making Of Residents Living In Potential Hurricane Impact Areas During A Hypothetical Hurricane Event In The Rio Grande Valley, Dean Kyne, Arlett Sophia Lomeli, William Donner, Erika Zuloaga

Sociology Faculty Publications

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) has been impacted by various hurricanes throughout history. While Hurricane evacuation has been studied extensively in other contexts, there is limited systematic research on the warning and response to a large-scale severe weather event in South Texas. This study attempts to understand the evacuation decision-making behavior of Southern residents in the event of a Hurricane making landfall over the Rio Grande Valley. The study uses an online survey questionnaire with 1060 participants: 275 students attending the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and the remaining 785 are members of the community. Throughout the course of the …

White Women, U.S. Popular Culture, And Narratives Of Addiction, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

The United States war on drugs has, for decades now, systematically targeted communities of color. This sustained attack on people of color is accomplished through the use of whiteness. Recently, mainstream news media and elected officials have called for a “gentler war on drugs” to address the opioid epidemic. While some may see this as a welcome change, we take a more critical view. Specifically, we examine the role of White women in two popular television series that feature narratives of addiction as a gendered instance of “white drug exceptionalism.” To do this, we conducted a systematic analysis of a …

Impulsive Behavior In Competition: Testing Theories Of Overbidding In Rent-Seeking Contests, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

Contests are commonly used in the workplace to motivate workers, determine promotion, and assign bonuses. Although contests can be very effective at eliciting high effort, they can also lead to inefficient effort expenditure (overbidding). Researchers have proposed various theories to explain overbidding in contents, including mistakes, systematic biases, the utility of winning, and relative payoff maximization. Using an eight-part experiment, we test and find significant support for the existing theories. Also, we discover some new explanations based on cognitive ability and impulsive behavior. Out of all explanations examined, we find that impulsivity is the most important factor explaining overbidding in …

Fostering A Civically Engaged Society: The University And Service Learning, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

As public administration is faced with the challenge of making governance work, the university is being called upon to become more involved in the civic engagement movement. Increasing civic engagement requires addressing one of the core problems contributing to its decline: deteriorating community caused by a lack of social capital. Although there is debate about whether there has been a decline in civic engagement or simply a change in the ways citizens participate, there is agreement about the need to increase engagement and to include universities in this process. One of the proposed solutions, advocated by Barber and Battistoni (1993) …

Structural And Compositional Investigation Of Pottery Samples From Guatemala, Pressley S. Nicholson

Undergraduate Research Conference

Purpose of investigation: The composition and characteristics of Mayan pottery samples from Guatemala was investigated.

Social Considerations For The Freshman 15, Noah Truong

Undergraduate Research Conference

For most college student going through their freshman year of college, many say the during your first year of college you will gain a significant amount of weight due to a multitude of factors or “The Freshman 15”. The goal of this study is the measure factors that may or may not contribute to fluctuation with a student’s weight. In this study we measure the following factors that may contribute to This hypothesis: hours of sleep, measurement of physical activity, distance from home, nutrition, stress level, financial status, and Sex and see how these factors correlate to the “Freshman 15”. …

A Lumberjack Sunflower, Blooming From Undergraduate Research, Robert J. Hurt

Undergraduate Research Conference

My research focus is a case study on my own self, blooming from the growth that I have experienced from #brfloodsfa, my School of Social Work, and the 2017 Undergraduate Research Conference.

Physical Therapy And Proper Sleep Positions Lead To Improved Hamstring Flexibility, Bailey Miley

Undergraduate Research Conference

Research Question: How effectively can physical therapy and correct sleep positioning improve hamstring flexibility and reduce pain, based on age and everyday activity?

Heteronormativity In Kindergarten Classrooms, Megan Martsolf

Undergraduate Research Conference

Heteronormativity is the belief that people fall into distinct and complementary genders with natural roles in life. The idea is that the culture within elementary schools influences the children’s academic, behavioral, and psychological well-being. During this period of a child’s life, heteronormativity develops. The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding of the prevalence of heteronormativity in elementary school classrooms, specifically kindergarten. To understand this process, I will systematically observe classrooms within kindergarten. The methodological approach of this research will include both qualitative and quantitative analysis, specifically interviews with teachers and content analysis of the classroom environment. …

A Study On The Development Of Robotic Prosthesis, Alexandra Knight

Undergraduate Research Conference

This paper is a multi-analysis study of the development of robotic prosthesis. There are many types of robotic prosthesis, some of which are already in circulation. However, true robotic prosthetics which can move in the exact fashion of the original limb are still in the early stages of prototyping. In experimenting there have been problems found in the methods of communicating movement and the manufacturing of sensory recording material. Using a comparison of the failed and successful experiments it is possibly to approximate the material that will be used and the cost of future market ready robotic prosthesis.

How Changes In Individual Relationship Status Effects Personal Preferences In Potential Partners, Natalie Smith

Undergraduate Research Conference

According to the relevant research on marriage, the leading variable associate with divorce in the United States is experiencing financial difficulty. The question guiding this research assess whether individual perception of attractiveness compared to individual perception on wealth changes according to a person’s legal relationship status?

Heteronormative Encouragement And Favoring Gender Roles Within School Systems In The Twenty-First Century, Chloe Rose Gasper

Undergraduate Research Conference

The purpose of this study is to analyze the predilection of heteronormative comportment within various school environments (elementary, intermediate, and high school). The extent of heteronormative encouragement, including favoring gender roles, will be determined through observational study. The psychological occurrences between students and teachers generally shape the perspectives of the pupils. While the curricula determine what the students learn concerning academics, the societal undertones that are implemented by the teachers are what affixes to the psyche of malleable minds. The study consists of three schools - two classes from each grade level of which will be photographed and carefully observed …

On My Own Terms: Effectiveness Of Death With Dignity Legislation In Oregon, Megan E. Russell

Undergraduate Research Conference

Social Issue: Today the elderly represent a growing segment of the population. This has resulted in a number of different controversies, including rising medical costs and end-of-life issues. In recent years, multiple states have passed legislation to provide guidance to the terminally ill regarding end-of-life issues. Oregon has led the way in providing dignified options for terminally ill individuals wishing to end their lives through the use of legal prescription medication. This issue of a 'death with dignity' has been a controversial topic on which individuals have a variety of strongly held views, and we have only just begun to …

Pretty Baby: The Conundrum Of Child Beauty Pageants, Taryn Lenert

Undergraduate Research Conference

The research question that drives this study is: If child beauty pageants may have dramatic and negative effects on some young girls, why do pageant mothers insist on having their daughters compete? In this poster, I explore both the pros and cons of life in the world of childhood pageant competitions using the television show, Toddlers and Tiaras as a backdrop for the discussion.

Gender Atypicality, Felt Pressure To Conform To Gender Norms, And Body Image In 6- To 10-Year-Old Girls, Abigail Cloudy, Jasmine Thompson

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Open Data Government Sites: A Comparative Study, Jayanta Kr Nayek

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The problems of open data government sites are mainly in the way data is presented by various government data repositories. There are no metadata standards, specifications, or protocols to achieve better discoverability and interoperability. This paper aims to find a way to solve the problems with open data government sites and propose a framework to provide web based data services which will be semantically structured and also propose a common metadata standard or mechanism for interoperability. Six data government sites have been selected for the study, according to the more number of dataset available and also to cover all continents …

Social Media: On Tech-Caves, Virtual Panopticism, And The Science Fiction-Like State In Which We Unwittingly Find Ourselves, Michael Major

Theses

Making use of three historic philosophical thought experiments, this paper blends psychological perspectives with philosophical reasoning to show how social media is corrupting our perception of reality, the result of which is ultimately detrimental to society as a whole. This is accomplished by first using Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to analyze and discuss the ways in which social media is limiting humanity’s access to real knowledge. Next, Michel Foucault’s analysis of punishment in its social context, Discipline and Punish, is used to discuss the ways in which social media is adversely affecting our behavior. Finally, Robert Nozick’s “Experience …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 93, No. 38, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Henderson, Andrew. Timothy Caboni Announces $16 Million in Cuts
• Ziege, Nicole. Dissolved – University College
• Deletter, Emily. First of Three Candidates for Provost Visit WKU - Jeffery Osgood
• Eiler, Olivia. Woman Reports Burglary, Assault in Bowling Green
• Editorial Cartoon re: Kern Alexander & College Heights Herald
• Save Student Newsrooms – Editorial Independence
• Dimeo, Chris. San Juan Smokehouse: A Plate Where Two Worlds Meet
• Leonard, Nicole. The Rise of Identity Politics in Society
• Eaton, Tyler. WKU Athletes Make Up 5 Percent of C-USA Honor Roll
• Stahl, …

Spartan Daily, April 17, 2018, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2018

Volume 150, Issue 32

Ua12/2/1 The Hill In Review, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter recapping the top stories of the week.

The Variability In The Morphological Active Width: Results From Physical Models Of Gravel‐Bed Braided Rivers, Sarah Peirce, Pauline Leduc, Peter Ashmore

Geography & Environment Publications

The morphological active width, defined as the lateral extent of bed-material displacement over time, is a fundamental parameter in multi-threaded gravel-bed rivers, linking complex channel dynamics to bedload transport. Here, results are presented from 5 constant discharge experiments, and three event hydrographs, covering a range of flow strengths and channel configurations for which morphological change, bedload transport rates, and stream power were measured in a physical model. Changes in channel morphology were determined via differencing of photogrammetrically-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) of the model surface generated at regular intervals over the course of ~115 hours of experimental runs. Independent measures …

1918 - Geology And Oil Prospects Of Salinas Valley-Parkfield Area, California; Walter A. English

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

A 1981 report on an investigation undertaken partly to procure data for the classification of public lands located in the Salinas Valley-Parkfield area of California withdrawn from entry pending classification, and partly to determine areas in which the geologic conditions were favorable for oil prospecting so as to prevent useless expenditures in drilling dry holes in unfavorable areas. The work on which the report was based was done during the field seasons of 1915 and 1916.

The Prospector, April 17, 2018, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: The Earth Day Issue: One Project at a Time