Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Church And Nature’S Cathedral: Catholics, Protestants, And The Yosemite Chapel, Adam Hogan

Eastern Sierra History Journal

John Muir saw nature and national parks as religious symbols themselves. Since Muir’s day, generations of Americans have worshipped in the outdoor sanctuaries. However, while much scholarly attention has focused on national parks as symbols or religious icons, scholars have paid far less attention to the actual church services that have taken place in America’s national parks. Yet, a church in a national park presents many complications, and Adam Hogan explores these dilemmas through a history of the controversies surrounding who could pray in the Yosemite Chapel.

Social Workers’ Lived Experiences Of Trauma-Informed Training, Ashley Ann Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social workers report limited formal training in trauma-informed approaches, and implementation of trauma-informed care varies widely across settings, with inconsistent training uptake and organizational support for sustained practice change. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of social workers in trauma-informed training. The study was guided by trauma-informed care principles and an experiential learning framework. The research question examined how social workers develop trauma-informed competence and how systemic factors influence practice. Data were collected through 11 semi structured interviews with social workers and analyzed using thematic analysis. Three key themes emerged: (a) trauma-informed competence …

Evaluating The Motivations Of Participants In Online Equine Extension Courses, Sarah Vos

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Traditional program evaluations emphasize participant demographics, knowledge gain, behavior change, and program impact. However, evaluating participant motivation can provide addition insight into why participants enroll in extension programs and help explain participant engagement and persistence throughout a program. The purpose of this study was to evaluate participant motivation in two online equine extension courses and examine potential relationships between motivation, demographics, and course delivery method, and describe participant engagement in Virtual Horse Judging Camp (VHJC). This cross-sectional study utilized convenience sampling of participants in two online equine extension courses, Horse Adult Leader Training and Educational Resource (HALTER) and VHJC. The …

State Medicaid Expansion And Mental Health In The Poorest States: Examining Differences In States That Expanded Medicaid Compared To Those Which Did Not, Steven Kyle Yates

Master's Theses

Medicaid expansion is a contentious issue in U. S. political debates, especially regarding its impact on public health outcomes. The Republican Party often shows hesitation to support government funding initiatives, citing concerns about creating dependency on entitlement programs like Medicaid. As a result, state legislatures have significant authority to shape their Medicaid programs, including setting eligibility requirements and defining the scope of benefits and services. In this study, I examine disparities in mental health indicators between economically disadvantaged states that expanded Medicaid and those that did not expand Medicaid. The dependent variables include medical costs, measured by how often individuals …

A Brand With A Brand: Constructing Lived-In Identity In Kylie Cosmetics And Khy, Nicole Obiukwu

Communications and Digital Media Theses

Celebrity-owned brands benefit from the visibility and recognition of their founders, but celebrity ownership alone does not necessarily establish authenticity. This study examines how celebrity-owned brands communicate authenticity through a comparative case study of Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics and KHY. Using directed content analysis, 75 Instagram posts from Kylie Cosmetics, KHY, and Jenner’s personal account were analyzed alongside relevant contextual materials. The analysis focused on four dimensions identified through existing literature: Consistency of Self, Evidence of Use, Environmental Alignment, and Evolution Over Time. Findings showed that Kylie Cosmetics demonstrated greater accumulated continuity with Jenner’s established public identity, drawing on shared …

Faculty Tenure Program Book Selections 2026, Leatherby Libraries, Office Of The Provost

Faculty Tenure Program Book Selections

The Leatherby Libraries Faculty Tenure Program, in collaboration with the Office of the Provost, recognizes Chapman University faculty who have recently been awarded tenure. Each newly tenured faculty selects a book of their choice and a brief statement on why this book was selected. This collection of monographs are accessible in physical format and located in the Book Nook on the 1^st floor of the Leatherby Libraries.

Investigation Of A Novel Behavioral Assessment Of Challenging Behavior In The Context Of Medical Necessity And Disability Theory, Madison S. Walker

All NMU Master's Theses

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities often engage in challenging behaviors that interfere with daily functioning and community participation. Many standardized assessments focus on indirect, descriptive measurements that emphasize frequency, while providing limited information about medical severity, ongoing management strategies, and functional outcomes. This misalignment may limit the clinical utility of assessments, as scores may not consistently align with medical necessity criteria or arguments supporting the maintenance of current treatments. The first study extends on Reyes-Martín et al. (2022), which reviewed 24 assessments of challenging behaviors, by further evaluating assessment characteristics relevant to clinical decision-making and treatment justification. Findings highlight variability across …

Issue 26: Labour, Poverty, And Health Concerns Of Migrant Women And Girls Working As Kayayei In Ghana's Urban Centres, Comfort Baidoo, Robert Mcleman

International Migration Research Centre

Over the past four decades, growing numbers of women and girls have left northern Ghana for the country's cities, drawn by the promise of work, independence, and a chance to support their families. Many end up as kayayei, head porters who carry goods through Accra's crowded markets for a negotiated fee. Their labour keeps the informal economy moving, yet it comes at a steep personal cost: unpredictable earnings, punishing physical strain, unsafe housing, and a healthcare system that too often leaves them out. This brief draws together the available evidence on the economic and health conditions of kayayei in Greater-Accra. …

Content Mapping: An Experimental Analysis Of Missing Message Content, Jeannette Sutton

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

The Warning-Response Model recommends the inclusion of five key content areas in warning messages to reduce information seeking that can lead to warning response delay: the message source, hazard (including its impact), affected location, recommended guidance, and time. Research has found that complete messages, that is, those that include all of five recommended content areas, help people make decisions about the protective actions they may take.  Unfortunately, a large majority of WEA messages omit information from one or more of the recommended content areas. This study examined the impact of omitting each of the five recommended content areas on message …

Dynamics Of High-Growth Young Firms And The Role Of Venture Capitalists, Yoshiki Ando

Research Collection School Of Economics

Motivated by the substantial growth and upfront investments of venture capital (VC)-backed firms observed in administrative US Census data, this study develops a life-cycle firm dynamics model. In the model, startups choose the source of financing from VC, angel investors, or banks, depending on their growth potential, and invest in innovation. The calibrated model explains the life-cycle dynamics of firms with different sources of financing and suggests that venture capitalists' managerial advice accounts for around 22% of the growth in VC-backed firms. A counterfactual economy without VC financing would experience an aggregate consumption loss of around 0.46%.

Semiparametric Cointegrating Rank Selection For Curved Cross-Section Time Series, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

Cointegrating rank selection is studied in a function space reduced rank regression where the data are time series of cross-section curves. Consistent cointegrating rank estimation is developed using information criteria extended to curve time series environments. The asymptotic theory involves two-parameter Gaussian processes that generalise the standard limit processes involved in cointegrating regressions. Simulations provide evidence of the effectiveness of consistent rank selection by the BIC criterion and the tendency of AIC to overestimate order as in standard lag order selection in autoregression, as well as in reduced rank regression with multiple time series.

When Your Neighbours Are A Reminder Of Your Ageing, Cynthia Tan, Yi Wen (Chen Yiwen) Tan

ROSA Journal Articles and Publications

In a commentary, Cynthia Tan, a retired senior corporate leader, and Tan Yi Wen, a Senior Research Fellow at SMU’s Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA), questioned whether the low demand for community care apartments is because seniors do not want only other seniors for company. They noted that most older people do not spend their days dwelling on ageing until everyone around them reminds them that they are growing old. They added that prolonged exposure to such an environment may carry subtle emotional and psychological consequences. Citing a national survey by ROSA, the writers mentioned that eight in …

Sex Buying, Sex Trafficking, And Organized Crime: Introduction To A Special Issue, Marcel Van Der Watt, John A. Winterdyk

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The Confluence Of Conflict-Induced Vulnerability, Organized Crime, And Sex Trafficking In Receiving States: A South African Civil Society Perspective, Monique Emser

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The crime-conflict nexus has been well-documented in conflict-affected and post-conflict states. Criminal networks make use of manifold methods and strategies to exploit individual and structural vulnerabilities, particularly those affected by war, displacement, and precarious migration journeys, forming the backbone of most conflict-induced trafficking ecosystems, whether in countries of origin, transit, or receipt. This article examines the intersection of sex trafficking, diaspora communities, and organized crime within South Africa as a receiving state from a civil society perspective. It underscores the deficiencies in traditional, reductionist, enforcement-based approaches to counter-trafficking by the state, where nested subsystems, such as those produced by endemic …

Behind The Screen: Online Sex Buyer Networks And The Organized Criminal Promotion Of Exploitation, Ava Kamdem, Vanessa Bouché, Ben Silver, Nick Freeman, Justin Euteneier

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This study investigates the extent to which online sex buyer communities in the United States function as organized criminal networks pursuant to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’s definition of organized criminal groups. Drawing from theories of organized crime, social network analysis, and digital ecosystems, we conceptualize sex buyers not as isolated actors but as participants in coordinated, mutually reinforcing networks that share information to facilitate exploitation, mitigate risk, and sustain criminal behavior. To test this framework, we scraped over 1.2 million posts from a publicly accessible sex buyer forum, comprising 72,974 unique users and nearly 800,000 direct …

A Simulation Assessment Of The 'Law Of One Price', Caleb Wilkins

Computational and Data Sciences (MS) Theses

The ‘law of one price’ is an appealing notion regarding pricing of tradeable commodities that are priced in different currencies. It states that the prices of the same good in different markets should be equal after adjustment for exchange rates and that equality should persist through exchange rate fluctuations.

My research simulates the market conditions that should precipitate the ‘law of one price.’ Data was obtained from the simulated trade between algorithmic artificial intelligence agents that operated under induced boundedly rational market behaviors. Trade took place in two initially separate markets, a high-price market with a higher equilibrium price and …

Before Urgent Fury: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Grenada During The Ford And Carter Administrations, Nicholas Jake Durell

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

When the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1973, it experienced a military and psychological defeat unlike any in its modern history. Following President Richard Nixon’s resignation from the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford, the House Minority Leader who had become Vice President, now assumed the presidency of a deeply fractured nation. As the Cold War persisted, Washington struggled to reassert its superpower status globally while desperately avoiding further foreign entanglements. Consequently, the Ford administration adopted a cautiously detached approach to foreign policy, a strategy vividly illustrated by its posture toward the Eastern Caribbean. This calculated ambivalence, continued by the …

Issue 25: Beyond Blame: Gender-Based Violence Prevention And African Diaspora Communities In The Waterloo Region, Halima Ahmed, Valdrin Dragusha, Stella Omonigho, Fadhilah Balogun

International Migration Research Centre

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a critical social, public health, and governance challenge in Canada, particularly for migrant and refugee women (Tastsoglou, 2025). This is increasingly prominent at the local level in the Waterloo Region, particularly for African and racialized diaspora communities navigating settlement, integration, and institutional access. While multi-level governance and frameworks exist at the city, regional, provincial, and federal levels to address GBV, they tend to work in silos, and local implementation gaps persist. The gaps are shaped by cultural stigma, fragmented service delivery, precarious immigration status, formalinformal networks of support, and unequal access to culturally responsive support systems. …

Exploring Discretionary Benefits’ Impact On Michigan Public Sector Employees, Sydnie N. Smith

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

Productivity, well-being, and retention are factors that impact organizational success and goal attainment; in the public sector in Michigan, employees are the most valuable asset. This research paper seeks to answer the following question: How does the adoption of unlimited PTO policies shape workforce morale, productivity, and retention in public sector employment? Current research into paid leave policy’s impact on employees is scant, it is further limited in the scope of public sector employees. This paper believes that research is needed to determine the relationship between paid leave benefits and employee productivity, well-being/morale, and retention as it could improve public …

Ai-Ready Libraries Require Ai-Ready Librarians: Building Organisational Capability For Digital Transformation, Salihin Mohammed Ali

Research Collection Library

Academic libraries worldwide are rapidly experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance research, learning, discovery, operations, and user engagement. However, many institutions continue to approach AI adoption primarily through isolated pilots, individual experimentation, or technology-centric initiatives. While these efforts generate innovation, they often struggle to scale sustainably without corresponding organisational capability development. This presentation argues that AI-ready libraries require AI-ready librarians and proposes an organisational capability approach for sustainable AI transformation in academic libraries. Drawing from the development of a library-wide AI strategy plans at Singapore Management University, the presentation explores how AI capability-building can be operationalised across diverse functional …

The Black Student Union At Northern Michigan University: Leadership, Community, And Institutional Change Through Student Activism, Marlanaysia Rosser

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

This paper explores how the Black Student Union (BSU) at Northern Michigan University (NMU) has influenced and contributed to the development of support systems for Black students in alignment with broader historical movements. Through archival records and four interviews with former BSU leaders, this study examines the impact of student activism on institutional change, leadership development, and community. The findings revealed that student activism at NMU reflected many of the concerns and strategies occurring across the nation during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. While the experiences of BSU members and institutional support shifted across generations, BSU remained a …

Wisdom In Counseling And Psychotherapy: A Conceptual Model For Practice, Mitchell Waters

Posters

Wisdom is increasingly recognized as an important construct in counseling and psychotherapy, yet its clinical application remains underdeveloped. This article presents an integrative model of wisdom as a dynamic, context-sensitive capacity that coordinates cognitive, affective, temporal, and spiritual processes in response to complex life challenges. The model includes four dimensions: (a) cognitive-affective integration, combining emotion and reason; (b) temporal integration, linking past experiences with future possibilities; (c) intrinsic spirituality, fostering meaning-making and reducing egocentric bias; and (d) regulatory flexibility, enabling adaptive shifts among domains. Implications for therapeutic practice, outcomes, and future research are discussed.

More Than A Profession: A Calling In Social Work, Paulette Lingle

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

"In Any Other Circumstance I Am Not In Work Mode. I Am Clocked Out": Chappell Roan And The Objectified Persona, Aubry Louise

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

It is known that celebrities have influence on their audience’s attitudes and behaviors. Within the last few decades, multiple celebrities have created distinctions between their public/stage self and their private self, however, less is known about the ways that they differentiate between the two. This paper looks at celebrity public persona’s and how these persona’s influence their audience. I use Kayleigh Amstutz, otherwise known as Chappell Roan, as my case study. This thesis offers an analysis of how Amstutz talks about Kayleigh differently than Chappell within social media posts, interviews, and commentary from media outlets. I use the concepts of …

Impact Of Repeated Serotonin 6 Receptor Activation On Weight And Anxiety In C57bl/6j And Btbr Mice, Pedro Flores

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) are the most common form of medication prescribed to people with anxiety disorders. One of the most common side effects is weight gain. This weight gain often leads to the suspension of treatment. This has led to studies focusing on specific serotonin (5-HT) receptor targets for modulating depression and anxiety. Studies examining 5-HT6 antagonist treatment have shown that they reduce body weight as well as produce brain specific changes. Less is known regarding 5-HT6 receptor agonists, although previous literature has shown that exposure to high doses produces weight loss but not at lower doses, while …

Role Of Stigma On Engagement In Mental Health Services For Latinxs With First-Episode Psychosis (Fep), Livia J. Padron Briceno

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Psychotic patients often endure stigma in their daily lives (Corrigan, 2018). Psychotic patients are understood as individuals who are experiencing psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and disorganized speech (Arciniegas, 2015; Breitborde et al., 2017; Moskowitz et al., 2019) and have been diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria with a psychotic disorder (e.g. Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder). Stigma refers to negative perceptions held about an individual experiencing mental illness. While public stigma refers to the negative views adhered to by members of communities (e.g., sociocultural group, family units) about people with mental illness, self-stigma …

The Relativity Of Education: Student Perspectives On Artificial Intelligence In Community College, Ashley Greta Magana

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This hermeneutic phenomenological study examined how diverse community college students experience and make meaning of the integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into their educational contexts. Although AI is quickly transforming higher education through automated grading, personalized learning systems, and new models of assessment, the discourse surrounding its implementation remains dominated by administrators, faculty, and institutional stakeholders, while the perspectives of students, specifically community college students who are often historically underrepresented and economically marginalized, are systematically excluded. Most existing research is quantitative and centered on universities, leaving a critical gap in qualitative understanding of the most diverse population in higher …

The Price Of Possessiveness: How Parental Materialism Undermines Child Psychological Wellbeing, Miao Li

Sociology Publications

Materialism, a value system that places the pursuit of possessions at the core of happiness and life meaning, is a dominant cultural force in modern societies. While its associations with individual well-being are well-documented, its intergenerational implications remain understudied. This study conceptualizes materialism as a potential family stressor contributing to the intergenerational transmission of stress. An intergenerational crossover model of materialism was tested using data from 1,996 parent-child pairs in Zhengzhou, China. Results indicate that higher parental materialism is associated with stronger materialistic values in children, weaker family relationships, and more frequent parental comparisons, each of which is linked to …

Understanding College Student Expectancies Of Simultaneous Engagement In Multiple Risk Behaviors: A Measurement Development And Model Testing Study, Shelby Whalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Risky behaviors, actions that may cause physical, psychological, social, or economic harm to oneself or others, are prevalent among college students. While significant research has focused on single high-risk behaviors of alcohol use, drug use, gambling, and gaming separately, students frequently engage in multiple high-risk behaviors simultaneously, such as drinking alcohol while gambling. Research shows that students have distinct and specific expectancies about what happens when they engage in a risk behavior, however, minimal research has examined students’ perceptions or reasons for simultaneous poly-risk behavior engagement. This multi-phase project characterized students’ outcome expectancies for simultaneous poly-risk behavior combinations, developed and …

The Memphis Gambling Screen: A Clinical Validation Study Of An Enhanced-Readability Self-Report Measure For Gambling Disorder, Natasha Bourgoin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Precise identification of gambling disorder can be difficult when commonly used screeners vary in clarity and diagnostic accuracy. The Memphis Gambling Screen (MGS) was developed as an enhanced-readability self-report measure to improve item comprehension and strengthen the diagnostic accuracy of DSM-5 gambling disorder. This study evaluates the psychometric properties and diagnostic accuracy of the MGS with a combined sample of individuals seeking treatment for problem gambling or substance use disorder and college students with a recent history of gambling (N = 232). Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the MGS, and another commonly used measure, the Problem Gambling Severity Index …