Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Still A Hollow Hope: Significant Social Change, The Second Amendment, And State Political Culture, Anthony David Cooling

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation expands the literature on law, courts, and social change. The Supreme Court increasingly matters in American political life when those across the political spectrum look at the Court for relief from policies they oppose and as another venue for advancing their own policy agendas. This dissertation expands the volume of case studies that research the ability of Courts to make major political and social change to include the topic of firearms in the wake of the Supreme Court’s controversial and divided opinions in D.C. v Heller (2008) and McDonald v Chicago (2010). These decisions interpreted the Second Amendment …

An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Positive Self-Talk On Engagement With Feared Stimuli And Control Related Beliefs, Sara Louise Conley

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder characterized by obsessions and compulsions that causes noticeable impairment across multiple life domains. Various mechanisms have been implicated in the development of OCD, including maladaptive control-related beliefs related to: (1) individuals’ sense of control over any given situation, and (2) trait motivation for desire of control. Specifically, low levels of perceived control and/or an elevated desire for control have been linked to obsessive-compulsive symptoms across a variety of OCD subtypes, including contamination concerns. The current gold-standard treatment for OCD is exposure and response prevention (ERP), which requires individuals to yield control and confront a …

Reactions To Daily Abusive Supervision: Exploring Day-To-Day Fluctuations With A Justice Perspective, Rushika Nadia De Bruin

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Abusive supervision is a widely-studied phenomenon experienced by a multitude of workers across organizations. While abusive supervision is typically studied in terms of negative outcomes (i.e., supervisor-directed retaliation), there is some preliminary evidence that not all consequences of abusive supervision are negative. While there have been several studies exploring employee reactions to abusive supervision, they predominantly take a cross-sectional design perspective. The current study utilized 102 full-time employees from the U.S. who responded to 932 daily surveys assessing personality, workplace behaviors, and justice perceptions. The current study explored how perceptions of abusive supervision changed on a day-to-day basis and how …

Assessment Of “Meaning Made”: An Empirical Examination Of Factorial Structure And Measure Validity, Andrea M. Despotes

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Meaning-making theory posits that appraisal of a stressful event leads to distress if it is discrepant with one’s sense of “global meaning,” and such distress stimulates meaning-making processes aimed at eliminating the discrepancy. If meaning making leads to new meaning (i.e., “meaning made”), the stress-induced discrepancy is reduced, which generally is expected to result in positive adjustment. This study investigated the factorial structure of the meaning made construct using a sample (N = 372) of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers in the United States having “Masters” status and a minimum approval rating of 95%. Participants reported an average age of about …

Dekalb, Illinois, Muslim Women’S Agency Negotiating And Re-Affirming Their Muslim Identity, Sinta Febrina

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Post 9/11 American Muslim women are stereotyped as victims of their patriarchal religion and as perpetrators of terror. These conditions led to the discrimination of American Muslim women which requires them to continuously strategize and negotiate their identity. This thesis examined DeKalb, Illinois Muslim women’s agency to strategize and negotiate their identity in lager American society. In this study, fifteen Muslim women from three different categories were interviewed: American-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and immigrants. This study found that Muslim women’s various backgrounds (country of origin, education, socio-economic status, and immigration status) affected their strategy and agency to negotiate and re-affirm …

Minimum Dropout Age And Juvenile Crime In The United States, Md. Abdur Rahman Forhad

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation examines how an increased minimum dropout age (MDA) affects juvenile crime not only in the community, but also in school. I first empirically estimate the magnitude of the impact of a higher MDA on high school enrollment. I then develop an economic model of crime that explains the relationship between an MDA and contemporaneous juvenile crime and empirically examine how a higher MDA affects juvenile crime both in the community and in school. I find that raising the MDA from 16 to 18 significantly increases school enrollment by 2.57%. Next, I find that raising the MDA to an …

Exploring The Use Of Podcasts On Students’ Language Learning And Change Of Students’ Self-Efficacy About The Use Of Podcasts, Silvia Rehulina Ginting

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Similar to other types of mobile technologies, podcasts are believed to provide many advantages for language instruction, including English as a second language (ESL) learners’ listening skills and pronunciation and changes in their self-efficacy from using the podcasts for learning ESL. The convergent parallel mixed methods design used Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning and Bandura’s self-efficacy as foundations. It used 11 different instruments to collect quantitative data and qualitative data from two sections of an upper-intermediate ESL class at one university in Midwest United States. Quantitative data were collected using a pre-test, a post-test, and the note taking quizzes …

Caring High School Teachers: Promoting Students’ Social And Emotional Development, Roberta Jean Geosling

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

High school students are experiencing increasing numbers of social and emotional stressors in their lives. While Illinois and other states have adopted state standards to address social and emotional development in the classroom, care theorists posit that the answer may lie in positive relationships between caring teachers and their students. This study explores the perspectives of six teachers from a Midwest high school who were nominated by their students as being caring teachers. After a series of three 45-minute interviews and two to three 45-minute observations, data were analyzed within the framework of Noddings’ Theory of Care (1984) and the …

Examining The Utility Of A Brief Self-Compassion Intervention For Emotion Regulation In Individuals With Exposure To Trauma, Sara Jean Himmerich

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Research suggests that abilities to moderate and process trauma-related emotions may predict symptoms of posttraumatic stress, with the overuse of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies presenting a potential vulnerability to experiencing difficulties following trauma exposure. Self-compassion has been associated with the acceptance of negative emotions, with research finding evidence for positive associations between self-compassion and adaptive emotion regulation. Additionally, research suggests an inverse relationship between self-compassion and symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Self-compassion has been conceptualized and studied as a skill that can be learned, with studies finding support for improved abilities following targeted interventions. However, more research is needed to establish …

Effects Of Habitat Disturbance On The Teeth Of Propithecus Diadema In The Forests Of Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar: Implications For Species Viability And Conservation, Katie Susann Heffernan

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The accelerated transformation of Madagascar’s ecosystems is a direct result of habitat destruction which has devastating consequences for the viability of the island’s animals. This dissertation focuses on the critically endangered diademed sifaka, Propithecus diadema, living in the rainforests of Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar. Tsinjoarivo has been heavily impacted by slash and burn agriculture and transformed into isolated forest fragments. Previous research by Irwin and colleagues has demonstrated that the diet and group dynamics of Propithecus diadema differ between continuous and degraded forests, but whether fragmented landscapes provide tougher foods and lead to behavioral changes through increased tooth wear has not been …

Effects Of Tax Increment Financing On School Finance And Local Economic Development, Chaoran He

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a legislatively enacted economic tool that has been widely employed by local governments to promote economic growth. The motivation of this dissertation stems from a critical premise on the designation of TIF districts—the “but for” clause. State legislatures require that TIF initiators must demonstrate the subsidized development in candidate areas would not occur “but for” the subsidy. Such a requirement is inherently counterfactual in nature, which leads to a series of controversies on the fiscal status of overlapping taxing entities and the measurements of local economic development.

This dissertation separately investigates the effects of TIF …

The Good, The Bad, And The Uncivil: An Analysis Of Uncivil Members Of Congress From The 45th To The 113th Congresses, Nathan Lea Holm

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Incivility in Congress has often been attributed to partisan and ideological conflict, but there is a growing body of evidence that suggests incivility may hinge on factors concerning members’ personal attitudes as defined by their life experiences. To investigate this, background and experiential factors that may lead to incivility are tested, including variables such as family dynamics, religion, occupation, and education. All of these factors are tested on the basis that they could have formative influence on a legislator’s behavior and how they conduct themselves as a member of the US Congress. Seven members of Congress from the 45th to …

Cultural Models Of Democracy Among Burmese Residents In Chicago, Illinois, And Fort Wayne, Indiana, John Hillory Hood

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines implicit assumptions about democracy among Burmese residents in Chicago, Illinois and Fort Wayne, Indiana. A major focus of the research is the durability of foundational cultural models – basic, simple, widely-shared modes of thought – that may or may not change over time, measured in this study through length-of-residency. As such, I examined three distinct sample groups: temporary residents, immigrants, and adult offspring of immigrants. This research comprised methods of ethnography, semi-structured interviews, as well as a free-listing memory task. A key point of inquiry is intracultural variation occurring between sample groups. Particular attention was paid to …

The U.S. Corporate Tax Debate, Md Rafi Hossain

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation comprises of three essays in the field of public economics. The first essay investigates the employment effects of corporate taxation at the industry level; Specifically, do corporate taxes affect employment rates at the industry level and are the effects consistent across industries? This paper uses an identification strategy that exploits variation in corporate income tax rates across U.S. states and tries to understand how they impact industry employment at the county level with contiguous counties straddling state borders acting as controls. The results show that any change in the corporate tax rate affect the employment rate in goods …

Principals' Perceptions Of Professional Development And Caring Communities For English Learners, Sunny Sue Chang Jonas

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

A growing population of English Learners (ELs) have unique challenges when navigating the American educational system. In fact, there is an achievement gap such that EL students lag behind their native English peers in school outcomes. Accordingly, there is increased demand for professional development (PD) lead by principals to address the needs of the changing population of ELs. To support effective PD aimed at improved achievement for ELs, principals need embrace transformative thinking in their work. Although PD has the potential to be the driving force of change, traditional approaches to PD have limited impact on academic success of ELs. …

Temporal Dynamics Of Human Emotional Response To Aversive Stimuli, Joseph Lawence Kempel

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Emotions are an integral part of human expression and are often communicated nonverbally through behavioral actions. With advancements in electroencephalography (EEG) technology it is now possible to measure the dynamics of emotion generation in an individual on the basis of patterns in their brain activity. This thesis aims to model the temporal dynamics of human emotion generation upon exposure to aversive stimuli and measure the effect of external distractions as a viable emotion regulation strategy.

This research builds on previous work in the literature that has shown that the ability of humans to regulate their emotions intrinsically (based on their …

The Association Of Victimization And Depression: An Investigation Of The Implicated Factors Of Social Anxiety, Body Esteem, And Social Support, Jacqueline Jo Klossing

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Victimization is an experience that affects a substantial portion of the adolescent population, and it is well established that it is associated with a host of negative outcomes, including depression. While the relations between victimization and depression have been researched extensively, there are a number of factors that may contribute to this association. Furthermore, both internal and external factors can play a role. Internally, the unique attribute of being socially anxious as well as the perceptions one carries regarding their appearance (i.e., body esteem) are implicated as potential mediators between victimization and depression. Externally, the social support an adolescent perceives …

Impact Of Social Support During A Social Interaction On Post-Trauma Cognitions And Outcomes During A Trauma Analogue Design, Christy Elizabeth Allen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study utilized the trauma film paradigm to explore interpersonal processes in post-trauma social interactions and their relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms within the framework of social-cognitive theory. Social support following a traumatic experience has been consistently linked with posttraumatic outcomes and PTSD symptoms, yet the exact mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unconfirmed. One theory is that when trauma survivors emotionally and cognitively process the traumatic experience within positive supportive conversations, these conversations can result in fewer negative posttraumatic cognitions, beliefs, and appraisals that have been linked to symptoms of PTSD. Likewise, negative support can create and reinforce …

The Development Of Scientific Reasoning: Children’S Evaluation Of Experiments And Evidence, Taneisha Vilma

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This investigation examines scientific reasoning among elementary school students by assessing experiment and evidence evaluation. Previous studies have not fully distinguished these two abilities. The present study directly compared experiment and evidence evaluation within the same task and also examined the recognition of confounded variables.

Using a modified version of a science reasoning procedure, students in first-, third-, and fifth-grade (N = 54) were presented with two sets of problems: (a) 1-Variable problems examined recognition of the difference between conclusive and inconclusive tests, and (b) 2-Variable problems further assessed recognition that confounded variables make an experiment inconclusive. For the 1-Variable …

Counselor Self-Efficacy Re-Examined: Components Of Racial Identity Development And Impostor Phenomenon Among Counseling Graduate Students Of Color, Erica Denise Wade

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this study was to explore the relationships among racial identity development, impostor phenomenon, and counseling self-efficacy among counseling graduate students of color. There is evidence supporting the importance of a client’s racial identity. However, there is limited research exploring the impacts of a counselor’s racial identity and the development of counseling self-efficacy (Tomlinson-Clarke, 2013; Holcomb-McCoy, Hines, & Johnston, 2008; Owens, Bodenhorn, & Bryant, 2010; Crockett & Hays, 2015). The following research questions were used to provide a frame of inquiry for this study and each research question pertained to counseling graduate students of color: (1) What are …

An Experimental Examination Of Religious Teaching And Thought-Action Fusion, Johanna Anita Younce

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Scrupulosity is an understudied symptom dimension of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that involves moral- and religious-based obsessions and compulsions. There are several different underlying cognitive beliefs that have been shown to be related to the development and maintenance of OCD, but one—moral thought-action fusion (TAF-moral)—has been highly associated with scrupulosity. TAF-moral is the belief that thoughts are morally equivalent to actions, including thoughts that are intrusive in nature. It has been found that individuals from different religious traditions display different levels of TAF-moral and display different strengths of association between TAF-moral and religiosity. However, these differences have not been examined experimentally …

The Roadmap To Liberalization: Myanmar's Transition From Military To Civilian Rule, Nicole Amanda Loring

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

How did Myanmar’s military embrace liberalization more during 2011-2015 than in the 1988-2002 period? Myanmar has long been treated as an outlying case by studies on democratization, liberalization, and transitions from authoritarian regimes due to its longstanding military regime. Protests in 1988 led to pressure on the regime to hold elections in 1990, leading to an electoral victory for the opposition party the National League for Democracy (NLD), but the results were ultimately overturned, and Myanmar’s military regime persisted. The period of 2011-2015 showed marked similarities with the earlier 1988-2002 period, including protests and pressure for democratic elections. Despite the …

Examining Effects Of Hearing Aids In Job Interviews, Jesus Jose Martinez

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study attempted to examine the underlying processes of discrimination towards people with hearing disabilities in the hiring context. Previous research has used social identity theory, social categorization theory, social dominance theory, and social motives to explain discrimination toward others. Newer research has suggested that discrimination can be caused by distraction interfering with cognitive processes. There are instances in which both discrimination theories and distraction can be used to explain discrimination. This study tests a model that combines these two lines of research. The results of the study did not find support for this model. However, the results did find …

An Experimental Examination Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Hannah Faleer Martyn

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Anxiety is considered a fear response to threat, driven by the absence of certainty and elevated perceptions of the cost of harm. It has been suggested that exaggerated responding to uncertainty underlies all anxiety disorders. Although no longer classified under the anxiety disorders section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), anxiety still is considered a primary component of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a chronic, debilitating condition that affects multiple domains of functioning. The current gold standard of treatment for OCD is exposure and response prevention (ERP), a form of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. However, ERP is not effective for all …

How Two High School Teachers Conceive Of Student Voice, Value It, And Foster It, Katherine Mary Mccleary

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory study was to examine two high school English teachers’ experience as they worked together to purposefully implement increased student voice in their classrooms. The study focused on how a convenience sample of teachers designed, implemented, and reflected upon classroom assignments and lessons with the intention to increase student voice and ownership in the classroom. Teachers each participated in four individual interviews, four partnership observations and three classroom observations as they related to student voice implementation.

Data from the interviews, partnership observations and classroom observations were analyzed using qualitative methods and through the lenses of …

The Short-Term Effects Of Interstate Highways On Small Rural Communities: A Case Study Of I-39, I-49 And I-72, 1990 To 2000, John Paul Metelko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The presence of interstate highways in rural areas improves access to nearby rural

communities and changes those communities’ spheres of influence. Research into

understanding how improved access from interstate highways affects rural communities

is needed. This case study was designed to investigate how rural communities changed

on the basis of population, vacancy, median home value, and median contract rent in the

short term after an interstate highway was completed nearby in the early 1990s.

The communities included in this study are incorporated cities, towns, villages

and census-designated places in non-metropolitan counties with at least one incorporated

city, town, village and …

Contesting Consent: Consent, Sexual Scripts, And Gendered Power, Julia Kristine Metz

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Within the past decade, the United States has seen an upsurge of affirmative consent policies being introduced or passed within the legislation of state governments and universities (Laker and Boas 2015). However, in a moment when the President of the US has been recorded saying “Grab ‘em by the pussy,” two Supreme Court justices have been accused of sexual misconduct, and a Secretary of Education has rolled back Title IX policies that had made progress in curbing sexual violence in schools, the meaning of sexual consent is now being contested more than ever. However, there have only been a handful …

Trauma Memory: The Role Of Alexithymia And Emotion Regulation, Jennifer Milliken

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Alexithymia is a clinical term used to describe individuals who struggle to connect to their emotional experiences. Alexithymia is observed among individuals with a variety of mental health problems (Taylor, 2000; Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 1997), and may characterize more severe clinical presentations (e.g., Frewen, Dozois, Neufeld, & Lanius, 2008). In addition, alexithymia seems to be related to adverse treatment outcomes (Kosten, Krystal, Giller, Frank, & Dan, 1992; Ogrodniczuk, Piper, & Joyce, 2011). This study adds to the current literature by examining the effect of alexithymia and emotion regulation (i.e., emotion suppression; emotion acceptance) on variables associated with trauma memory …

Unsc Legitimacy As A Tool For Misdirection, Medha Monjaury

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration made clear to the American people that the United States was prepared to go to war if Iraq failed to comply with Resolution 1441 and disarm. However, during the process of drafting and passing Resolution 1441, the U.S. expended considerable time and energy maintaining to the United Nations Security Council that it would not use the resolution as a pretext to strike Iraq. Moreover, it appears that the Security Council was convinced of the U.S.’ stated intentions when it passed Resolution 1441 unanimously in November 2002, …

The Role Of Sensory And Affective Systems In The Semantic Processing Of Abstract Concepts, Jane Elizabeth Neal

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The role of modal, or embodied, systems in the semantic representation of abstract concepts, which are by nature not experienced by the senses, remains unclear. The experiments presented in this dissertation investigated the extent to which the activation of visual or affective systems may be modulated by context. Experiment 1 examined whether a verbal or visual memory load interfered with the semantic processing of abstract concepts paired with either a low or highly imageable adjective, and whether processing was similarly affected for concrete concepts. While the cognitive loads were effectively maintained, neither load type affected processing times for either concept …