Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Essays On Public And Nonprofit Financial Dynamics, Yunjun Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation consists of three essays that explore different dimensions of financial dynamics in the public and nonprofit sectors. Each chapter examines how the fiscal behavior of neighboring jurisdictions, policy interventions, and financial practices influence fiscal decision-making and financial performance within these entities.

In the first essay, I investigate yardstick competition in local government spending in South Korea by leveraging the exogenous variation introduced by by-elections. This approach allows me to estimate the influence of neighboring jurisdictions on local expenditures. Contrary to previous empirical studies from other countries, my findings reveal no significant interdependence in spending among South Korean municipalities, …

Studying Conspiracy Theory After The (Current) Rise Of Right-Wing Populism, Mark Fenster

UF Law Faculty Publications

The American historian Richard Hofstadter intended his still-influential essay on the “Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which initiated the modern study of conspiracy theories, as a response to the mid-1950s rise of right-wing populism in the US. Reflecting on the lessons we can learn from the insights and weaknesses of Hofstadter’s timely intervention into contemporary politics, as well as the author’s three decades studying conspiracy theories, the chapter asks how current academic work, which takes place within and responds to another rise in rightwing populism, should understand and intervene in the present and prepare for the future.

Exploring Manifestations Of Pluriform Love In The Leadership Of Christian Early Childhood Communities: A Phenomenological Study 2019-2024 In New Zealand, Sharon Kaye Judge

Dissertations

Problem

This study responds to the need to explore and/or propose models of leadership for Christian early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings in New Zealand (NZ). While previous studies identify love and care as a priority there is a need to define and prioritize Biblical understandings of love that may align with the principles of the national ECE framework. The study represents an alternative narrative to the neo-liberal influences which dominate areas of ECEC leadership through the marketization and standardization of children’s services nationally and globally.

Purpose of Study

Many factors contribute to the purpose of this study which …

Second-Tier Marriages, Jeremiah A. Ho

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay interrogates the reasoning behind the retrenchment toward LGBTQ rights progress that has taken place since marriage equality. With marriage rights for same-sex couples now "on the books," the Supreme Court's treatment of same-sex couples in both Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm'n and 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis reveals the status quo's hesitancy to recognize same-sex relationships on equal footing. Retrenchment, however, only describes the moment itself; it alludes to but offers no comprehensive or satisfying theory that identifies the motives behind the moves. This Essay theorizes from within the context of the Supreme Court's LGBTQ …

Effects And Mechanisms Of Smartphone-Based Mindfulness Training On Emotional Experience, Polina Beloborodova

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional well-being is an important component of mental and physical health that includes both positive emotions and an absence of emotional symptoms (e.g., depressive- and anxiety-related). In this study, we examine psychological mechanisms that help to explain the effects of an digital mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on emotional states. We conducted a randomized controlled trial wherein undergraduate student participants vulnerable to decreased positive and increased negative affect received a 2-week smartphone-based MBI or a structurally equivalent coping control intervention. Emotional experience, including depressive feelings, anxiety, and happiness, as well as subjective social well-being, including loneliness and felt connection to others, was …

“Under The Influence Of Soviet Reality”: The Life And Work Of The Kgb Agent “Goroshko” (Chief Bishop Of The Pentecostals Of The Ussr Gavril Ponurko), Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article attempts to describe, based on top secret OGPU-KGB materials, the life and work of a KGB agent, a major Pentecostal authority, chairman, and later Chief Bishop, of the All-Ukrainian (in fact, of the all-USSR) Council of Christians of the Evangelical faith, aka Pentecostals (AUCCEF), Gavril Gavrilovich Ponurko (1889–1978). The article presents interesting, previously unknown, facts from the life of Gavril Ponurko, describes his life milestones and the reasons that led Ponurko to cooperate with the special services. The article also cites the dogmatic teaching of Pentecostals in relation to the Soviet and Nazi authorities, approved by them in …

"I Call Them Supermoms": Therapists' Reflections On The Impact Of Youth Sexual Offending On Latina Mothers, Mauricio P. Yabar

Theses and Dissertations

Families of youth who have sexually offended often suffer significant collateral consequences following the discovery of the sexual offense. Samples in research with these families disproportionately consist of mothers and other female parental figures. This is rarely acknowledged in the literature, and the experiences of these mothers have not been explicitly examined. In addition, research on the experiences of these families has largely ignored factors related to race and ethnicity. This is a significant oversight considering the prevalence of systemic racism and discrimination in the United States, particularly in the systems with which these families must interact (e.g., juvenile justice …

Evaluating The Role Of Interoceptive Awareness In Insomnia And Across The Sleep Health Spectrum, Lara Lobrutto

Theses and Dissertations

Interoceptive awareness, characterized by a non-judgmental and trusting attitude towards body sensations, is an understudied construct that is implicated in sleep and health outcomes. Interoceptive awareness is cultivated via contemplative and mindfulness-based practices. Given that it may be utilized to reduce pre-sleep arousal, which is a key mechanism in insomnia, interoceptive awareness is posited to be a protective factor for sleep health. A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate university students (N = 420) in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States to assess the association between interoceptive awareness and sleep outcomes. Participants received a survey link and completed …

Supporting International Students During Challenging Times, Anne Burnett, Szilvia Somodi

Articles, Chapters and Online Publications

Tips and best practices for law libraries working with international students.

Using Modern Motivational Theories As A Design Framework For Vr Gamification, Christopher Thomas Boardman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Virtual reality has shown promise as a tool for organizational training. Implementing gamification, the use of game elements, has been shown to further improve learning outcomes. However, gamification has shown inconsistent results when applied to VR. To investigate this, we used motivational theory as a framework to select, justify, and implement game elements based on each theory to create different versions of a virtual grocery store training. Our results did not indicate any differences on performance, persistence, or error rate between each training condition, and exploratory analyses investigated the link between perceived competence and VR program quality. We discuss potential …

Exploring The Needs Of College Students Experiencing Housing Instability, Sandy D. Dawoud

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study explored the needs and experiences of college students who have aged out of the foster care system and facing housing instability at a large public institution. The study explores the participants' pre-college experiences and college journey to identify challenges they faced, sources of support, and unmet needs impacting their education. Analysis of 14 individual interviews highlighted key themes related to motivations, obstacles, and desired assistance across areas like finances, mental health, academics, and support systems. This work has implications for implementing tailored institutional support, community partnerships, transition programs, and advocacy efforts to promote resilience and success for …

Values Integration And The Professional Counselor, Rebecca Randall

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study, informed by narrative inquiry, examined how counselors described the interplay of values in professional practice. Participant narratives highlighted the challenges they experience in the process of values integration, defined as counselors’ awareness and management of personal values in counseling processes. Participants often made value judgments that occurred rapidly and beneath awareness and only became aware as a result of discordance in the counseling relationship. They further struggled in skillfully working through values conflicts. These findings reveal that values integration is a developmental process that challenges counselors beyond the training years and thus requires an infrastructure that supports …

Beyond Coming Out And Queer Tragedy : How Julie Ann Peters, Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera, And Aiden Thomas Navigate Through The Spectrum Of Queer Representation, Jacqueline Carey

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In recent years, readers, critics and activists have recognized the importance of more inclusive storytelling, especially in young adult literature. This thesis explores how Julie Peters, Becky Albertalli, Aiden Thomas, and Adam Silvera diversify queer representation within the realm of young adult literature. Drawing on literary analysis, queer theory, and sociocultural perspectives, this thesis will explore how queer representation manifests in each of these works to challenge and complicate representational norms. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to contribute to the ongoing conversations surrounding the importance of having diverse stories that foster a more inclusive literary environment.

Circadian Rhythmicity Of Mood : An Exploratory Study, Mara Ashley Cohen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Human circadian rhythms are widely observed to fluctuate across the 24-hour circadian period, spanning cognitive, behavioral, and physiological domains. Circadian rhythm (CR) systems, particularly the sleep-wake cycle, are widely studied. Dysregulation of the sleep-wake cycle, common in shift work and mood disorders, diminishes mood regulation, resulting in increased negative mood or inappropriate mood responses. Although emotions have been investigated in the context of circadian variability in the sleep-wake cycle, circadian effects on emotional state per se have infrequently been examined. Previous studies suggest an increase in Positive Affect (PA) and decrease in Negative Affect (NA) as the day progresses, while …

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Rita Nealon, Sarah Neal

COPS/Metro

Sister Rita talks about the horrible conditions of the roads on the Westside of San Antonio back in the 1970 and how they were much better when she came back to San Antonio in the1990. Sister Rita tells a story of two girls who were very poor and had to walk home in 18 inches of water because of flooding and how their house door was made of particle board. Sister Rita also talked about how proud she was of the kids who became teachers and nurses despite their poor living conditions and parents being immigrants or not speaking english. …

How Black Undergraduate Students Experience Whiteness In Postsecondary Education, Karen Margaret Guettler-James

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Critical whiteness scholars have described whiteness as a system of oppression that privileges White identities above others and perpetuates White supremacy. On the college campus, institutional, social, and historical norms reinforce the educational status quo and work together to maintain a system of whiteness that marginalizes Black students. This study investigated perceptions of whiteness held by student participants who self-identify as Black undergraduate students. Through focus group interviews, participants were asked to share their lived experiences with whiteness on the college campus. With the words of the participants, I reveal how campus standards that align with White Eurocentric norms devalue …

The Value Of Descriptive, Multi-Level Rubrics, Thomas R. Guskey, Mctighe Jay, Susan M. Brookhart

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Single-point rubrics have become popular in schools, but they may be leading teachers astray.

Look Beyond The Satisfaction Survey: A Framework To Evaluate Results Of Professional Learning., Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Professional Learning evaluations consider five crucial levels of data to determine effects on teachers' instructional practices and student learning outcomes.

Exploring The Therapeutic Relationship In Mental Health Therapy With Queer And Disabled Adults, Rachel Womack

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Queerness and disability have been shown to be intimately connected, with members of the LGBTQIA+ community significantly more likely to identify as disabled compared to the general population. Though there are roughly 3-5 million queer and disabled individuals living in the United States, this remains a multiply marginalized and understudied population. Owing partially to stigma, minority stress, and discrimination, these individuals face an increased risk of a variety of mental health problems including depression, anxiety, self-harm, PTSD, and suicidality. Additionally, several barriers to mental health treatment exist, including inaccessible services, lack of provider knowledge, and outright discrimination from providers. Though …

Three Essays On Environmental Risk And Policy, Samuel Owens

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation comprises three essays that investigate different facets of environmental hazards and their implications for policy and governance. While each essay examines a different topic area, they are all linked by examining how entities respond to incentives at the intersection of environmental risk and public policy. Each chapter informs a distinct literature within environmental policy and utilizes different methodologies to examine largely unexplored research questions.

In the first essay, I examine how individuals respond to the low-visibility, long-term environmental risk presented by radon. I employ radon zone data from the Kentucky Geological Survey and home information from Zillow to …

Policy Brief, Zachary Owen

Libraries Award for Undergraduate Scholarship

The US grapples with a housing crisis, exacerbated in part by a shortage of conventional mortgage loans. Data from 2020 reveals a severe racial disparity, with 27.1% of Black mortgage applicants denied compared to only 13.6% of White mortgage applicants. These denial trends are highly correlated with homeownership rates. Current trends in homeownership by race mirror or exceed those present during the discriminatory practices of the 1960s. Lenders often cite low credit scores and high debt-to-income ratios as grounds for denial. Therefore, proposed solutions include mandating the inclusion of rental payment history in credit scores, offering free homebuying education, and …

Astrocyte Ca2+ In The Dorsal Striatum Suppresses Neuronal Activity To Oppose Cue-Induced Reinstatement Of Cocaine Seeking, Navid S. Tavakoli, Samantha G. Malone, Tanner L. Anderson, Ryson E. Neeley, Artin Asadipooya, Michael T. Bardo, Pavel I. Ortinski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Recent literature supports a prominent role for astrocytes in regulation of drug-seeking behaviors. The dorsal striatum, specifically, is known to play a role in reward processing with neuronal activity that can be influenced by astrocyte Ca2+. However, the manner in which Ca2+ in dorsal striatum astrocytes impacts neuronal signaling after exposure to self-administered cocaine remains unclear. We addressed this question following over-expression of the Ca2+ extrusion pump, hPMCA2w/b, in dorsal striatum astrocytes and the Ca2+ indicator, GCaMP6f, in dorsal striatum neurons of rats that were trained to self-administer cocaine. Following extinction of cocaine-seeking behavior, the rats over-expressing hMPCA2w/b showed a …

Southeastern Law Librarian Winter 2024, Seaall

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

“Just Hold On, You Can Do This”: Conceptualizing Familial Support For First-Generation Undergraduate Students Of Color, Stephany Cuevas

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study illustrates how parents, siblings, and extended family provide emotional, informative, instrumental, and appraisal supports to first-generation undergraduate students of color. Findings also suggest that families’ support is shaped by families’ understanding of the challenges first-generation college students face, their access to information about college and college life, and their consideration of students’ emerging adult developmental needs. Based on the experiences and perspectives of 12 family members, this study shows that families continue to be engaged in first-generation undergraduate students’ college education in essential ways, countering deficit perceptions of these populations, and providing new understandings of what family engagement …

The Intersection Of Asset Management And Geographic Information Systems For University Facilities Maintenance, Andrew Westerlund Beland

Masters in GIS Practicum Reports

This project describes a proof of concept for developing a digital asset management system dashboard for water backflow assemblies at Portland State University (PSU) using a modified ESRI ArcGIS Online backflow solution. Asset management is crucial for optimizing the lifecycle of tangible assets, which ensures cost-effective operational efficiency and regulatory compliance. PSU manages over 250 backflow assemblies spread across the 50-acre campus and has traditionally relied on manual processes, which can lead to inefficiencies and potential transcription errors.

The system links spatial data with asset attributes for backflow devices, enabling field staff to update inspection results directly from mobile devices. …

Spatially Allocated Population Characteristics For Oregon Counties From The 2017-2021 Acs Pums, Version 1.0" [Computer File], Population Research Center, Portland State University

Publications, Reports and Presentations

A novel dataset and documentation containing spatially allocated estimates based on analysis of the 2017-21 ACS PUMS for counties in the State of Oregon. Analysis was performed by iterative adjustment to the ACS weights such that results were consistent with selected tables generated from the full ACS sample published by the US Census Bureau. The data are delivered in two pipe-delimited text files. Each row represents one county, and columns represent standard data fields described in the codebooks. Oregon Department of Human Services supported the analysis and selected the indicators for production; race/ethnicity are reporting in a manner consistent with …

The Role Of Sexual Scandal In Politics & Policy, David Siracuse

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study aims to further our understanding of political scandal more broadly, as well as the classification of sexual scandal cases more specifically. With regards to sexual political scandal, the research looks to answer (1) How candidate evaluations of a politician under sexual political scandal are impacted based on aspects of their identity (gender and family values) and (2) How candidate evaluations of a politician under sexual political scandal impacted by an ever-shifting public-private divide (the exposure process). The dissertation begins with an interdisciplinary overview of the literature, which is organized into five distinct facets to create a new and …

Focal Concerns In China's Misdemeanor World: An Empirical Investigation Of Prosecutorial Dismissal Of Misdemeanor Cases, Dan He

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Drawing on the focal concerns perspective, this dissertation attempts to answer three research questions: (a) What are the prosecutorial considerations most relevant to dismissal decisions in misdemeanor cases? (b) How are those considerations relevant to dismissal? (c) What are the variations of dismissals in misdemeanor cases with respect to individual-level characteristics? An exploratory sequential mixed methods design is used and proceeds in the following manner: (a) focal concerns relevant to the Chinese context are derived from qualitative thematic analysis on 324 public hearings on misdemeanor cases under the prosecutorial consideration of dismissal, and the original focal concerns perspective has been …

A Validation Study Of The Occupational Depression Inventory In Poland And Ukraine, Krystyna Golonka, Karine O. Malysheva, Dominika Fortuna, Bożena Gulla, Serhii Lytvyn, Leon T. De Beer, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

This study examined the psychometric and structural properties of the Polish and Ukrainian versions of the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI). We relied on two samples of Polish employees (NSample1 = 526, 47% female; NSample2 = 164, 64% female) and one sample of Ukrainian employees (NSample3 = 372, 73% female). In all samples, the ODI exhibited essential unidimensionality and high total-score reliability (e.g., McDonald’s omegas > 0.90). The homogeneity of the scale was strong (e.g., 0.59 ≤ scale-level Hs ≤ 0.68). The ODI’s total scores thus accurately ranked individuals on a latent occupational depression continuum. We found evidence of complete measurement invariance …

National Integration And Institution Building, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

The mutual dependence between national integration and institution building is established in a formal model. It is shown that a decrease in transportation costs, but not necessarily an increase in population size, reduces the equilibrium number of states and the adoption of rule-based institutions. With endogenous transportation costs or endogenous population size, the unification process can feed on itself. The model is illustrated by the state of Qin's unification of China in 221 BC. During this process of national integration, transformations from relation-based governance to rule-based governance happened.