Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Religiosity, Family Sexual Communication & Gender As Predictors Of Attitudes Toward Oral Sex Among College/University Students In The United States, Antoinette Napier

Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether religiosity, family sexual communication and gender were predictors of attitudes toward oral sex among college/university students in the United States.

Method

Participants completed several surveys, which measured participants' personal religiosity, family sexual communication, and attitudes toward oral sex. A path analysis model was used to analyze the relationship between the proposed variables.

Results

The path analysis hypothesized model resulted in a poor fit for the data. The model was respecified by removing three items which showed weak beta weights. The respecified model produced a good fit for the data. The …

Digital Equity: Difficulties Of Implementing The 1:1 Computing Initiative In Low-Income Areas, Demetric D. Williams

Dissertations

Successful One-to-One Computing Initiative implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate effectively with everyone in the learning community. However, other factors such as teacher’s professional development, student’s perception, and parent’s perception often affect the implementation of the One-to-One Computing Initiative. School districts, which serve low-income areas in Mississippi, have difficulties ensuring students and communities have access to the information technology they need to participate outside the school setting. The concept is often called digital equity. However, when officials do not address the capacity, there is a vital threat to the participants’ civic, cultural, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential …

The Influence Of Parent-Child Relationships On Female Sexual Functioning: A Review Of The Literature, Laura Tillman

Dissertations

This literature review is an examination of the impact of parental communication of sexual functioning in women. Women have many commonalities of sexual experiences and receive similar messages as children and adolescents in regards to their sexual behavior. Current attitudes towards women’s sexuality and sexual functioning and the outcomes that a lack of communication can warrant are areas of importance for this literature review. This Clinical Research Project (CRP) examines how frequently parents communicate about sexual topics with their child, how parents communicate, and parental feelings surrounding discussions. Parenting models and attachment styles are reviewed and how childhood experiences shape …

Promoting Information Exchange: Open-Minded Group Cognition And A Function Of Motivation And Task Type, Jeremy Ryan Winget

Dissertations

Open-minded cognition is a cognitive processing style that influences the manner inwhich individuals select and process information. An open-minded cognitive style is marked by a willingness to consider a variety of intellectual perspectives, values, attitudes, opinions, or beliefs, even those that contradict the individual’s prior opinion. However, people also process information and make decisions within groups, and their individual cognitive styles can influence how the overall group processes and shares information. Therefore, the present paper integrates the open-minded cognition and group decision making literatures, proposes and agent- based model of open-minded group cognition, and empirically tests the antecedents and consequences …

Evaluating The Impact Of Marriage Renewal Workshop On Marital Satisfaction, Communication, Conflict Management, And Forgiveness: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Hien T. Kim Nguyen

Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of the Marriage Renewal Workshop (MRW) program for relationship satisfaction, communication skills, conflict resolution skills and levels of forgiveness among Vietnamese American married couple participants and their perceptions of the program's impact regarding these outcome variables. This evaluation mixed-method study employed a group of 64 participants who participated in before, after (using 4 closed-ended and open-ended questions) and six-week follow-up surveys and a group of 11 program participants who volunteered for in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were examined by using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann-Whitney U Test, whereas qualitative …

Discursive Leadership: Exploring The "Black Box" Challenge In Transcultural Leadership Studies, Christopher Patrick Brown

Dissertations

The increasingly globalized U.S. workforce includes significant numbers of adult immigrants integrating into the North American professional sphere. As such, it is important to have concrete ways to study and interpret different cultures’ thinking about teamwork, and their models of enacting shared leadership and communication in a multicultural context. Since 2006, hundreds of millions in federal grant funding has been invested in university-based language and culture programs focused on training government personnel and heritage populations in the languages and cultures of the Middle East and Central and Southeast Asia. Little is known about the performative strengths and challenges of the …

Exemplary California School District Superintendents Leading The Social Media Charge, Jamie Hughes

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify the social media tools used and the role of social media when communicating with parents as perceived by exemplary California school district superintendents. In addition, the purpose of this study was to describe the benefits and challenges perceived by exemplary California school district superintendents when using social media to communicate with parents.

Methodology: A mixed-methods study was applied to identify the social media tools used, the role of social media, and the benefits and challenges of using social media to communicate with parents as perceived by exemplary California school district …

Trolling Twitter, Eric Vorst

Dissertations

Political polarization is a defining feature of the contemporary American political landscape. While there is little doubt that elite polarization levels have risen dramatically in recent decades, there is some debate over the existence of a corresponding rise in mass polarization. Recent scholarship on mass polarization has cited evidence related to citizens’ positions on public policy issues, party sorting, and geographic polarization; however, questions remain as to the nature and extent of mass polarization in online spaces. Specifically, more needs to be known regarding how expressions of elite polarization influence the formation of polarized communities within social media.

This dissertation …

Pragmatic Understanding Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Use Of A Two-Way Communication System, Pepper Reid Hanna

Dissertations

Pragmatics focuses on how a communication system is used to achieve a communicative goal, the social context of the communication, and the organizational structure of communications (Horn & Ward, 2004; McLaughlin, 1998). There is evidence of pragmatics within animal communication systems. For example, context appears to be an important component in both signal production and a receiver’s response in vervet monkeys (Seyfarth et al. 1980).

MA Thesis: http://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/170/

The current study used an underwater keyboard to establish a two-way communication system between humans and dolphins. The purpose of this study was to determine if, under these conditions, dolphins displayed pragmatic …

Transforming Conflict: A Grounded Theory Study Of Six Behavior Domains Of Leaders In Five Different Fields, Scott A. Dick

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this grounded theory research consisting of five collective phenomenological studies was to generate a theory that explains how exemplar leaders from five different fields use six domains of conflict transformation behaviors to establish common ground and produce breakthrough results. The six domains of behavior are communication, collaboration, ethics, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and process. Methodology: The sample was composed of 75 exemplar leaders from five different professional fields and included an analysis of over 1,300 pages of interview transcripts as the main data source for the study. Findings: The results found that exemplar leaders establish, build, …

The Voice And Action Of Service: Exploring Nonprofit Volunteerism From A Dual Perspective, Colleen L. Mestayer

Dissertations

Key factors emerged for communicating with volunteers and staff in the nonprofit sector using a mixed methods approach in two phases. Phase I sought to explain volunteer satisfaction through the development of a new model that included motivation, identification with the nonprofit organization, attachment to the nonprofit organization and its mission, and the impact of interpersonal relationships formed between staff members and volunteers. Findings indicated that the model was an accurate predictor of volunteer satisfaction, and all variables were significantly correlated to volunteer satisfaction. Phase II sought to discover the communication patterns used by internal stakeholders of the nonprofit organization …

Examination Of Common Errors Committed During Eoc Operations: A Content Analysis Study, Michael Kenneth Ryan

Dissertations

One of the key aspects in the learning process, whether it is at an individual or organizational level, is the ability to recognize where errors occur. This is especially important in the field of public safety where small errors can present a serious threat to the safety of first responders and victims of disasters. Up to this point, there has been no systematic study to identify the most common errors that occur during emergency operations center (EOC) activations at the local level of government. Following the introduction, one chapter explores the history of emergency management and the difficulties local jurisdictions …

Overcoming The Loss Of Nonverbal Cues Encountered By The Adventitiously Blind: Reconstructing Relationships And Identity, Vernon Floyd Humphrey

Dissertations

In this study, couples shared their experiences adjusting to one of the members loss of sight. Through interviews, their narratives expressed their values, actions, inactions, successes, failures, needs, obstacles, and feelings. Participants explained their standpoint/perspective about vision loss, when it happened, how it affected them, how they reacted and responded, through hindsight how they thought they should have responded, and how they reconstructed a shared interpersonal relationship. Narratives about situations and events after the loss of sight revealed descriptions of their relationships and interactions with each other and other people in their circle. Through constant comparative analysis the individual narratives …

The Use Of Fantasy Theme Analysis To Describe The Group Communication And Creative Problem-Solving Skills Of University-Level Students As They Prepare For Destination Imagination Global Finals Competition, Elizabeth Morgan Armstrong

Dissertations

Problem and Purpose

In order to meet the growing needs for efficiency in the workplace, industry is turning to group-work and collaboration. Successful teams are in demand because they not only meet the efficiency needs, but also provide the kind of bonding that creates convergence in the members. The chemistry or recipe for this kind of success is difficult to pinpoint, however, and several aspects of group communication and skills, need to be re-examined using communication theory. The purpose of this study is to describe one of those aspects—group creative problem-solving—in order to see how the communication used in that …

Central And Secondary Struggles In Social Interventions: The Impact Of Group Relations Learning On Real Life Practices, Ole-Kristian Setnes Phd

Dissertations

Recently, there has been considerable research focusing on outcomes of Group Relations conferences as a unique form of adult experiential learning. Most of the focus has been on participants' learning during and immediately after conferences with less attention paid to applications of learning outside conferences in participants' professional and/or personal lives. The San Diego group relations/ case-in-point model is integrated into the University of San Diego's graduate leadership studies program. Participants in this study included 10 individuals who had participated in this model's experiential learning as teaching assistants. The methodology that was implemented, Relational Qualitative Research, synthesizes elements from several …

The Effects On Students' Intercultural Competence From Intensive Intercultural Service-Learning Through The $100 Solution™ Model, Nadia De León Sautú

Dissertations

This study evaluates the effects of an intensive intercultural service-learning program on the intercultural competence of undergraduate students enrolled in Cultural Diversity in the U.S., a general education course at Western Kentucky University. This program utilized The $100 Solution™ model, in which groups of students partnered with local immigrant and refugee families, to teach them about U.S. culture, learn about their cultures, and implement a project to assist them in their integration process. The program included two hours of out-of-classroom work for over twelve weeks. Through the principle of reciprocity, The $100 Solution™ model provided an interaction framework in which …

A Value-Added Study Of A Federal Grant Program In Mathematics For Military Dependent Students, Jay C. Marquand Phd

Dissertations

Closing the achievement gap in public education means all students are expected to be learning at grade level. In response to federal mandates requiring schools to attain specific student achievement benchmarks, many schools are placing greater resources into support programs designed to increase student achievement. Military dependent students experience unique challenges including, ongoing parent absences, extended parental deployments, and frequent moving and relocation. In California Unified School District (CUSD) where 37% of the student population is military connected, these challenges can place military dependent students at risk of failing socially, emotionally and academically. As a result, CUSD implemented an individualized, …

The Experiences Of Expatriate Teachers In International Schools: Five Ethnographic Case Studies, James S. Anderson Edd

Dissertations

An increasingly global economy has produced a growing demand for teachers to work in international schools. However, data about teachers who elect to move abroad and work in international settings are limited. The lack of research in this area is surprising, given the relatively large number of expatriate teachers who work in international schools. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how expatriate teachers perceive their experiences in international schools and the role that these perceptions may play in their decisions to continue at a school or to seek other employment. In order to explore …

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Intergenerational Communication In Workplace, Yan Guan

Dissertations

This study investigates intergenerational relationships in organizational settings and uses Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to examine the influence of age, power, culture, and self-construal on young workers' perceptions of intergenerational communication. According to CAT, communication is stereotypical due to outgroup bias, people favor their own age or power group more than other age or power groups. CAT research showed that young Asians' perceptions of intergenerational communication may be more negative than their Western counterparts. Self-construal was studied to understand the nature of culture's influence. Research and theory supported nine hypotheses and three research questions.

A study using self-report measure was …

Communication, Crisis, And Identity: Dialectical Tensions In Family Narratives About Hurricane Katrina, Laura Poole Rogers

Dissertations

In this study victims of Hurricane Katrina ordered their experiences with the crisis into meaningful themes which expressed their values, actions, inactions, occupations, needs and losses, and feelings. In interviews participants explained what happened, when it happened, how they responded, how they thought they should have responded, and how they handled situations surrounding the storm. Narratives about situations after the storm revealed descriptions of their and others' relationships in interactions with representatives of larger social units. The dialectical analysis revealed dialectical tensions that emphasized participants' dynamic and changing relationships and identities. Dialectical analysis of narratives about those relationships revealed dialectical …

Communication And Leadership: Faculty Perceptions Of The Department Chair, Kathleen Czech Edd

Dissertations

With department chairs providing a critical link between faculty and administration, their leadership impacts universities on a broad level. However, chairs often report dissatisfaction with the position and experience rapid turnover. In an effort to help understand the role that communication plays in effective leadership for department chairs, this study provides an empirical test of Gibb's theory of defensive vs. supportive communication. As such, this project investigated the communication and leadership behaviors of university department chairs as evaluated by their faculty members. Specifically, 202 randomly selected faculty members from colleges and universities affiliated with the Council of Independent Colleges, Washington, …

Linking Succession Planning To Employee Training: A Study Of Federal Employees, Douglas E. Fenner Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether differences emerged in federal male and female middle managers and supervisors' perceptions concerning organizational career development culture, succession planning components used for linking employee-training activities, reasons for succession planning and barriers impacting succession planning within their organization. Quantitative methodology supported this research study. A test-retest of the eighty-two-statement survey instrument was conducted for reliability among 40 participants (20 male and 20 female). The survey was then administered to 300 federal middle managers and supervisors (150 male and 150 female). Participants' grade level ranged from general schedule (GS) GS-12 to GS-15. Of …

Wresting And Arresting Sense In Academe: The Complicated Discursive Structures Of Female Assistant Professors, Alana M. Nicastro Edd

Dissertations

Women in academe often become entangled in an intricate equation of sensemaking as they work to balance the professional demands of teaching, research, and service, while at the same time learning the political and moral meanings of being a scholar. Structuration theory offers avenues for closely examining communicative strategies women utilize to navigate their roles as assistant professors. Through intensive interviews with seven female assistant professors this research investigates their process of wresting and arresting sense of the complicated roles, rules, and structures in academe. Analysis of interview data reveals the multiple discourses that frame organizational practices that facilitate and …

A Case Study Of Shared Governance At Imperial Valley College, Gregorio A. Ponce Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze and synthesize the perceptions and experiences of individuals and groups responsible for implementing shared governance at Imperial Valley College. Consequently, this investigation sought to establish (a) who was directly involved with the governance process, (b) how the process was operationalized, and (c) the benefits, drawbacks, and unresolved issues for implementing the governance process. The design of this investigation was a qualitative case study. Noting that the use of multiple sources of data collection adds to the reliability and validity of a study, interviews, observations, documents, and the professional literature on governance were …

A Study Of The Impact Of A Quality Circle On A Public Secondary School In Southern California, Ronald E. Williams Edd

Dissertations

The goal of this research was to establish a quality circle at a Southern California public high school and to determine what effect the quality circle process would have on problem resolution and communication at that specific institution. The circle was composed of eight faculty members who volunteered plus an administrator who served as the facilitator. The circle met weekly for one school year. The objectives of this study were twofold. The first was to utilize the quality circle as a process to identify, analyze, and solve specific school concerns selected by quality circle members. The second objective was to …