Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Queering The Nation Or Nationalizing Queerness?: How Lgb-Identified Soldiers Experience Belonging And Service Post-Dadt, Aaron Blasyak

Dissertations - ALL

At the core of this dissertation project lies the question: What forms of belonging and inclusions are made possible through liberal shifts in the laws governing the institutional contexts of sexual minorities? To answer this question, I draw upon 22 in-depth interviews with gay, lesbian, and bisexual (LGB) soldiers about their experiences of serving after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). More specifically, this dissertation focuses on three broad research questions to address these issues. First, I ask: What are the experiences of inclusion and acceptance of LGB-identified soldiers within the context of military service? How might these …

Autism Diagnosis Effects On The Relationship Between Communication Skills And Nonverbal Intelligence: A Moderation Analysis, Emily Watts

Dissertations - ALL

School psychologists have a responsibility to find, identify, and assess children with disabilities (IDEA, 2004) using assessment tools that are culturally responsive and developmentally appropriate (NASP, 2020). As autism is a neurodevelopmental condition listed as an educational disability category (IDEA, 2004) that impacts one in 31.25 people (Wallis et al., 2023), it is crucial that popular assessment tools be examined for suitability for the autistic community. Most school psychologists use the Weschler scales of intelligence to assess their autistic students (Aiello et al., 2017), despite previous research indicating that Weschler scales of cognitive abilities underestimate the intelligence of people with …

Promoting Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Through Collaborative Governance, Jiho Kim

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine how the performance of collaborative governance may affect the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in public administration. Using a variety of quantitative research methods, I systematically examine the actions (Chapter 2), outcomes (Chapter 3), and adaptations (Chapter 4) of multiple collaborative arrangements. The dissertation begins with an introductory chapter (Chapter 1) that lays the theoretical foundations for the three essays (Chapters 2 through 4) and concludes with the final chapter (Chapter 5) that summarizes the joint contributions and implications of the dissertation. The first essay (Chapter 2) explores how deliberation …

"When The Water Stops But The Bills Never Do”: Contentious Water Politics And Collective Action In El Salvador, Claudia Isabel Diaz-Combs

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores the water crisis in El Salvador, a small Central American country surrounded by abundant freshwater resources that is nonetheless plagued with chronic water shortages, contaminated drinking water, and expensive water bills. For nearly two decades, competing groups pursued water legislation intended to address these multi-faceted issues. Finally, in December 2021, President Nayib Bukele codified the Law of Water Resources, bringing the protracted struggle to a conclusion. Yet a few years later, water issues persist, and no one is satisfied with the policy. I approach this issue through the perspective of five different social groups: the environmental movement, …

Investigations Of Sorting And Non-Wage Market Clearing: Three Essays In Labor Economics, Andrew Smith

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is comprised of three essays in labor economics. The first investigates a natural experiment in the internal labor market policies of the US Air Force. The second bounds the causal effects of attaining a college double major. The third studies the causes and consequences of queueing for government sector jobs in Brazil. The US Department of the Air Force, like many large organizations with rigid and central- ized internal labor markets, has recently introduced an algorithmically-assisted person-job matching system to replace their older, manual procedure. This change has been touted as a way to improve both organizational efficiency …

Essays On Foreign Direct Investment, Trade, And Export Quality, Yinhan Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the exports of developing countries, drawing on evidence from China. It is composed of two chapters. In Chapter 1, I analyze the effects of R&D FDI on export quality, where R&D FDI is investments aimed at establishing offshore research facilities. I construct a novel dataset on China's outbound FDI using supervised machine learning. I analyze over 26,000 pieces of textual information on the primary business activities of Chinese overseas subsidiaries collected by the Ministry of Commerce and identify the objective of each outbound FDI project. I find a positive …

Researching Emotional Experiences As Discursive Elements – A Suggested Qualitative Method, Magnus Danielson

The Qualitative Report

As scholars in the fields of political science, media research, and social psychology endeavor to understand crucial aspects of emotionality in the media, there is a growing need to methodologically address the communicative and discursive aspects of affective constructions in media texts. This article argues that by breaking down mediated emotional experiences represented through language in a set of identifiable elements, such as subject, emotion type, valence, intensity, proposed action, and object, those experiences could be used as workable and potent units of analysis when studying discursive and ideological media constructs of emotionality. By connecting insights from emotion science, the …

Exploring Social Workers Potential Role In Mitigating Maternal Mortality Through Coordinated Care, Jena Brown-Talib

Honors Theses

Maternal health disparities persist as a significant challenge in Mississippi, particularly for African American women. This thesis explores the intersection of coordinated care models and social work interventions in addressing maternal mortality. Coordinated care involves collaboration among physicians, nurses, practitioners, social workers, community health workers, and other support services, aiming to maximize pregnant patients' overall health outcomes.

Analyzing strategies of social workers within coordinated care models is important for improving maternal health outcomes within this study. A qualitative approach was chosen to delve beyond statistics and illuminate the reality of maternal health disparities and the efforts to resolve them. Data …

Factors Influencing Fans To Attend Matches Amid Pandemic: Exploring The Role Of Trio Of Team Affiliation, Sportscape, And Team Quality, Shani Bashiru, Ahmed Jamal Iddrisu, Cyracus B. Bapuuroh, George Anane Takyi, Alhassan Bunyaminu, Zakari Bukari

The Qualitative Report

Football is a sport that has attracted global attention. Individuals who attend competitive football associate with teams and athletes to a point where they become ardent attendees. Post-pandemic, fans have returned in droves to watch live matches at stadiums following the relaxation of strict observance of safety protocols. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine the factors that prompt fans to attend matches during games by focusing on three main factors including team affiliation, sportscape and star players. We used a qualitative phenomenological approach to obtain deeper comprehension regarding factors that influence fans to crowd at stadiums to …

The Effects Of Multitasking On Reading Retention, Kylie Dillner, Shannon Kraemer, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Research has shown that multitasking depletes students' working memory and task efficiency. Our study analyzes the effect of media multitasking on students' reading retention results. Our hypothesis is that studying while multitasking results in a greater amount of energy spent on work and decreases in the quality of work.

Commit Suicide Or Die By Suicide, Emma Carmichael, Elsie Broersma, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Randomly assigned Bethel students had the opportunity to take an online 8 minute Qualtrics survey based on questions about Determinism vs Free Will. AT the end of the survey, participants had the option to pick the phrase "Die by Suicide" or "Commit Suicide" Me and my Co Researcher Elsie Broersma will do a JASP analysis on which phrase is more common to say and why.

Gender And Student Satisfaction: Men & Women Are More Similar Than Expected, David Grant, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Research on national norms show alarming gaps in academic performance and engagement between genders, with men and boys performing worse (Reeves, 2022). The Student Satisfaction Inventory is a tool used by universities across the U.S. to measure different aspects of student satisfaction. An examination of gender differences between Bethel found far more similarities than differences in satisfaction, importance and academic performance.

The Barnum Effect And Acceptance Of Personality Test Results, Gretchen Mugglin, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

A natural tendency of humans is to categorize things, including personality. Personality tests and types seem to be scarily accurate at times, but why? This study examines the Barnum Effect, a phenomenon in which individuals are overly accepting of vague, general personality statements, even if they are not specific to any one individual. College students were asked to take a shortened version of the Big Five Inventory analysis, and then either given results that were consistent with the test, or results that were the same for everyone in that condition-- vague and nonspecific.

College Student's Attitudes Towards Speech Disorders, Morgan Dean, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

This study investigated College Students and their attitudes toward Speech Disorders. The sample consisted of 42 college students from Bethel University aged 18+ or who had an approved parent consent form. Participants participated in this study through the SONA system as part of a research experience assignment or extra credit opportunity for a Bethel University course. The purpose of this study was to find differences in college student's attitudes toward speech disorders.

Estimation Of Anagram Solving Abilities For Peers And Self, Amia Hall, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Participants predicted personal and peer anagram solving abilities after either solving an anagram or being prompted with an anagram’s answers. Then, participants in the latter group solved an anagram as the former group had. We hypothesized there would be a greater mean difference in prediction of performance and actual performance among participants who made predictions after being provided anagram answers than after solving an anagram. Additionally, we hypothesized that participants would overestimate personal and peer abilities.

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment: The Role Of Perceived Locus Of Control And Sex, Ian Young, Ron Enos

Science Symposium

This study explored the extent to which anti-immigrant sentiment can be predicted based on the variables of gender and perceived locus of control. In order to obtain a more representative sample, three countries (United States, Brazil, and Taiwan) were chosen for this study from the 2017-2020 World Values Survey (WVS) due to their varied geographical and racial and ethnic composition. Due to the important implications of anti-immigrant sentiment, this study sought to expand previous research, which has generally neglected to consider how locus of control and gender both may be significantly related to hostile attitudes toward immigrants. Results of a …

Quality Sleep & Well-Being, Cayla Paumen, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Despite being a vital function, sleep is not usually given priority, particularly among college students. University students may suffer from sleep deprivation because it affects their ability to concentrate, remember things, control their emotions, and handle stress. Stress levels and the quality of one's sleep are inversely correlated. The great majority of research papers, if not all of them, on wellness interventions and sleep quality concentrate on the direct effects of stress reduction strategies on sleep quantity. The primary goal of the study is to determine whether undergraduate university participants who received quality sleep education, which emphasized teaching sleep hygiene …

Mind Over Matter: The Impact Of Mindsets On Performance, Joyce Ngwa, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Many researchers have examined the positive effects of adopting a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. In this study, 50 participants were randomly assigned to either a growth or fixed mindset message and then were asked to complete a word search puzzle under a 3-minute time limit. The number of words correctly identified was associated with the participants’ performance based on the mindset message they received. Participants' performance was analyzed along with respective demographic information and their results on a brief mindset questionnaire.

Sound Of The Mind: The Effects Of Music On Anxiety, Cassidy Yates, Joel Frederickson

Science Symposium

Anxiety is a growing condition around the world. People have a variety of solutions to mental illness. Maybe, our solution could be even more closely related to what we’re already doing. Bethel psychology students participated in this study, voluntarily, for credit in their psychology courses. 11 jazz listeners and 6 rock listeners had their heart rate monitored while listening to a song, all after participating in a state anxiety survey. The data reflect the heart rates before the song, 30 seconds into the song, 1 minute and 30 seconds into the song, at the end of 3 minutes and 1 …

Community Colleges And Global Environments: Increasing Visibility, Rosalind Latiner Raby

Critical Internationalization Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Professional Learning Communities During The Pandemic, Elizabeth Nichols

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

In 2019 the world experienced a medical emergency that impacted education across the world. Several states in the United States had professional learning communities introduced into their schools as a means to enhance academic achievement prior to COVID 19. In order to show support to the schools and increase student achievement, a state introduced a specific professional learning community (PLC) model to be followed as a guideline to improvement and sustainability during a crisis. This study compares the state specific PLC model schools to schools who did not follow the state specific PLC model to examine the statistically significant difference …

Federal Government: Assessing The Impact Of Lithium Mineral Resource Extraction On Indigenous Communities In The State Of Nevada, Zachary Johnigan

Student Research

The research topic for this project is lithium mining which holds significance to indigenous populations in the State of Nevada and mineral extraction companies seeking to mine there. My research objective is to gain a deeper understanding of the direct impacts that lithium mining has had on indigenous communities, throughout history and today. Overall, the purpose of the project is to expound upon the implications of lithium mining on indigenous communities in response to the recent higher demand for the critical mineral in the United States. If it can be understood exactly how lithium mining has affected Nevada’s indigenous population, …

No. 20: Informal Cross-Border Traders And Food Trade During The Pandemic In Zimbabwe, Abel Chikanda

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy in the 2000s resulted in the country relying largely on food imports from other countries, especially from South Africa. Informal cross-border traders have become crucial players in the country’s food economy, playing an important role in the importation of food as well as its retail across the country. Cross-border trading also provides employment opportunities to a large number of people in the country, especially women in an environment of depressed economic opportunities. The paper first uses data from a survey conducted by the Southern African Migration Program (SAMP) in 1997, 2007 and 2014 to document …

Mindful Instincts: Exploring Differences In Intuition Amongst Men And Women, Adam Bornstein

Honors Projects in Psychology

Intuition, or the ability to quickly interpret a situation and make a decision without the use of the conscious mind, is a phenomenon that has gained a lot of popularity amongst psychologists over the last couple of decades. The phenomenon, which has been a part of human life since neanderthal days, gained a lot of popularity in the early 20th century, thanks to the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Studies have shown differences in levels of intuition amongst various groups. The most profound differences observed have been those between men’s and women’s levels of intuition. This paper dives …

No. 19: Covid-19, Food Insecurity And South Sudanese Urban Refugees In Nairobi And Nakuru, Kenya, Cherie Enns, Samuel Owuor, Abbey Lin, Natasha Knebelow, Jacqueline Fanta, Cobby Achieng, William Kolong, Kristin Swardh

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The challenges and struggles of refugees are well documented, mainly within refugee camps. However, more needs to be documented and understood about the exertions and hardships of urban refugees, including the experiences of young South Sudanese urban refugees living in Kenya. Although Kenya is one of the major countries that hosts refugees from South Sudan, it has adopted disparate policies for refugees in camp settings and those outside the camps. This divergent approach placed urban South Sudanese refugee youth in highly precarious circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rampant food insecurity for refugee youth was one of the key negative consequences. …

Moral Agency In Flux: Rohingya Refugees Envisioning And Establishing A “Good Life” In Dallas, Texas, Nusaiba Chowdhury

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic project explores how refugee-serving staff and Rohingya refugees navigate the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), which focuses on refugees achieving self-sufficiency as its main metric of success. The goal of this research is to understand how refugee-serving staff perceive self-sufficiency, which is seen as synonymous with achieving a “good life,” and how Rohingya refugees envision and establish a “good life” in Dallas, Texas. This study is oriented around the historical and current experiences of securitization faced by Rohingya refugees, their experiences in the United States, the neoliberal design of the USRAP, the issues that refugee-serving staff have …

Are Clinicians Primed For Burnout?: A Multidiscplinary Approach To Exploring Counselor Wellness, Anastasha Homa-Earl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though clinician wellness is a “hot topic” in the field of counseling, the current models of examining counselors’ levels of burnout and engagement do not account for the likely role that perception plays the subjective experiences of these constructs. This project attempts to synthesize methodology from the fields of social and cognitive psychology with the latest in industrial-organizational theory on burnout and engagement by applying a priming methodology to the study of mental health professionals’ experiences of work-related burnout and engagement. One hundred sixty-two clinicians participated in a priming experiment disguised as a workplace perceptions survey in an attempt to …

Overregularization Of Irregular Spanish Verbal Morphology: The Cases Of 2sg Preterit And Irregular Past Participles, Elisabeth Baker Martínez

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation investigates a widely observed phenomenon in child language acquisition: overregularization, which occurs when a child applies a regular linguistic pattern where an irregular form is expected (Bybee, 2015), for example, when a child overregularizes irregular 1sg Spanish sé ‘I know’ as sabo. This dissertation adds to the research on the overregularization of Spanish verbal morphology. The population of focus is Spanish-speaking children ranging from the ages of 1;10 – 12;4 with different language backgrounds (e.g., monolingual Spanish children, U.S. child heritage speakers). The studies included address the development of two Spanish morphological forms by focusing on children’s …

Nonmarket Valuation Of Environmental And Agricultural Services: Renewable Energy, Wildlife Watching, And Index Insurance, Thaneshwar Prasad Paneru

Economics ETDs

The first essay examines the effect of individuals’ endogenously acquired beliefs about anthropogenic global warming on their support for renewable energy growth in the United States. Using the data from multiple rounds of National Surveys on Energy and the Environment for the falls of years 2015, 2016, and 2017. The results of the interval regressions show that those who believe in the existence of global warming are likely to pay more for renewable energy growth than those who do not and that those who believe that the primary cause of global warming is human activities are likely to pay the …

Unified In Christ, David Morris

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Statement of the Question/Problem

The United Methodist Church is facing a season of incredible struggle. The modern American United Methodist Church is facing a crisis of Division during this season of disaffiliation and restructuring. Division within church is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it is not new in the Methodist tradition. This repeating cycle of denominational fracture begs the question, “why does division in the church happen, and how can we avoid it in the future?” Currently the United Methodist Church is dividing supposedly over the issue of human sexuality. I would argue these divisions do not solely rely …