Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Power Of A Podcast, Breanna Donlon

Communication Senior Capstones

This paper examines the correlation between the Your Own Backyard podcast and the rebooting of the Kristin Smart missing persons case. This case had gone cold and seemingly ignored for nearly 25 years, until 2019 when the podcast was created. The host conducted immense amounts of research to try and figure out what happened to Kristin, and in doing so, brought her case back to to the public’s attention. The actions of the podcast host caused the police to become more active on the case again. Because of the podcast, the prime suspect was finally arrested and will be held …

Molding Malleable Minds, One Poem At A Time, Rebecca C. Bendzick

Communication 300 Papers

The Neo-Aristotelian approach to Rhetorical Criticism allows individuals with the chance to analyze pieces of rhetoric and evaluate how influential that piece was on its audience members. Maya Angelou was a poet, writer, civil rights activist, and above all a master performer. She captivates her audiences with every complex word or phrase, and has the ability to reach listeners of all backgrounds. By evaluating Maya Angelou’s performances in “On the Pulse of Morning” and “Still I Rise” through the Neo-Aristotelian approach and applying the Five Cannons of Rhetoric were able to uncover many hidden treasures of her work and legacy.

A History Cannabis As A Cultural Communication Artifact, Morgan L. Harper

Communication Senior Capstones

This essay aims to detail the mechanics, structure, history, and ideology of cannabis from a socio-cultural perspective within the United States. However, it does contain some content that I believe will correlate with an international perspective. My emphasis in conducting this research is to look at the ways in which cannabis acts as a societal communication artifact, and in doing so, how it has formed a vast and highly identifiable culture. I believe that Cannabis acts as a communication tool both socially and interpersonally, with both notions being equally important to the culture overall. Cannabis has language, looks, and sounds, …

The Misrepresentation Of Women In The Media And Women’S Rights, Hannah M. Endicott

Communication Senior Capstones

This paper is centered around the misrepresentation of women in the media and the implications that it has had on the treatment of women’s rights in society. The media is defined as television, movies, advertisements, etc. Women have been represented as being oversimplified through their stereotypical portrayal as housewives and mothers in the media, alongside being hypersexualized through their clothing and body image. Both of these forms of portrayals have had negative effects on women. Young girls are now being targeted as well through the explicit tones that the advertising of children’s toys creates. This paper aims to demonstrate how …

Ripe For Consumption: Separating Women From Autonomy, Nicole Kasandra Stibbard

Communication Senior Capstones

This proposed position statement privileges the notion that the male gaze is a damning and damaging force for identifying women in both Western societies as well as within patriarchal societies. This particular exploration is driven by my perceived lack of the true effect that this gaze has socially and intrapersonally over women. The male gaze not only strips women of bodily integrity, bodily autonomy, but autonomy holistically. Beyond the stripping of autonomous worth, the male gaze, i.e. objectification and an autonomous reduction to body parts alone, all result in psychological and physiological damage for identifying women. Previous research in the …

Healthy Environmental Communication Practices, Michelle Monique Magana

Communication Senior Capstones

The goal of my academic research is to highlight the importance of appropriate, scientifically correct and accurate communication when discussing Environmental Health. If we want to begin making changes to help our environment to become more sustainable and ultimately provide more years of existence we must stop the lies, propaganda and spread of misinformation. “Communication constructs a social world that is relational, collaborative, strategic, symbolic, and adaptive” (Learning Outcomes in Communication). The objective is to understand the discourse on environmental issues and try to use our communication discipline to engage and dissect this issue from a Communication perspective. Our standards …

Dissecting Ideologies Embedded In Ford Advertisement, Sidney Rain Shabnam Afsarzadeh

Communication Senior Capstones

The goal of this paper is to exemplify rhetorical criticism to examine an artifact. Specifically, this paper will use the method of ideological criticism to identify ideologies embedded in a commercial. In the case of this paper, the commercial being examined is a Ford truck commercial titled, Ford for the Builders, Built for America. This paper will identify and explain the ideologies used to advertise Ford trucks. It is important to be able to identify ideologies embedded in things like commercials in order to not be blind to cultivation theory. Which is a theory created by Professor George Gerber in …

Rhetorical Analysis Of Choosing To Go To The Moon "And Do The Other Things", Skyler M. Kona

Communication 300 Papers

On September 12, 1962, president John F. Kennedy visited Rice University in Houston, Texas, and delivered what is commonly known as one of the most iconic speeches in American history. The speech, titled “Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort”, but more widely known as “We Choose to go to the Moon”, was an attempt to gain further support for the nation's efforts in the Space Race against the Soviet Union. In his speech, Kennedy uses various techniques in order to further boost the audience's understanding of the situation, as well as, crucially, inspiring them to lend their …

How Biden Wants Us To Think About Ukraine’S Conflict, Rainer Shea

Communication 300 Papers

President Joe Biden’s rhetorical style when talking to the American people about the conflict in Ukraine is one which can be compared to that of President George W. Bush in regards to the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks. During Biden’s speech about Ukraine in March of 2022, he conveyed an idea parallel to that which Bush conveyed: an enemy of the United States has committed a transgression which can’t go unpunished, and the “free world” needs to fight back at any cost. In order to make this case, Biden used the speech to counter Putin’s arguments for a …

Children’S Film Media’S Influence On Gender, Race, And Identity, Sara M. Kovis

Communication Senior Capstones

Whether conscious of it or not, media images have been working our entire lives to construct our attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around us. What is the significance of the relationship between media consumption and how we interact in society? Applying communication theories and research into traditional and digital media is vital in understanding the realities around us. It explains where societal norms and values stimulate and how they trigger new behavioral changes. Ideologies are the mixed concepts and elements that create meaning in society. Today, people's ideological feelings produce pre-dated ideologies rather than their ideas. These are …

Challenges Faced By Recently Emancipated Youth, Williams Peña, Jerry Walter Butkiewicz Iii

Communication Senior Capstones

In this academic research paper, we will be exploring the challenges faced by recently emancipated youth. We chose this topic because of the fact that this is not often spoken about or taught to the general public. This lack of attention to these issues creates hurdles when attempting to solve these sensitive issues. Considering this, we thought it would be a strong choice for further research and review. We explored many obstacles these new adults face. One such issue that we would like to touch on is the unstable housing situation of these recently emancipated individuals. Another prudent example is …

Interpersonal Communication From Student To Host Family, Tajma R. Magee

Communication Senior Capstones

This research project aims to improve interpersonal communication between international students and their host families. Existing research and data shows that students can have a difficult time adjusting to their life abroad, whether it be within their host home or within the institution they are studying at. This can greatly affect their overall studying abroad experience and can affect the way they communicate with the members of their host family. Factors like the student’s academic performance in school and behavior in school may be affected as well. Identifying the issues that contribute to a negative experience in a host family’s …

Data Capitalism, Digital Health, And Marxism, Samantha C. Stanger

Communication Senior Capstones

Abstract

When immersed in a capitalist society individuals often fail to see the ways in which they are exploited, and when these discussions do come into discourse they are often geared toward workplace labor. Less commonly do we consider the ways in which these problems arise in conjunction with free labor, mainly performed in digital spaces. While less often considered or discussed, the exploitation occurring in the digital world is real and has substantial consequences, particularly when the digital spaces involve sensitive information and data. This paper aims to address how data capitalism functions in three different digital health spaces: …

Towards A Psychological Science Of Abolition Democracy: Insights For Improving Theory And Research On Race And Public Safety, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Phillip Atiba Goff

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We call for psychologists to expand their thinking on fair and just public safety by engaging with the “Abolition Democracy” framework that Du Bois (1935) articulated as the need to dissolve slavery while simultaneously taking affirmative steps to rid its toxic consequences from the body politic. Because the legacies of slavery continue to produce disparities in public safety in the U.S, both harming Black people and the institutions that could keep them safe, psychologists must take seriously questions of history and structure in addition to immediate situations. In the present article, we consider the state of knowledge regarding psychological processes …

“Labor For Love, Labor To Heal:” Human Rights Activism As A Politics Of Refusal, Angela E. Fillingim

Societies Without Borders

The literature on social movements centers demands made on the state and theorizes collective action as rooted in specific times and the nation-state. I ague that this literature is analogous to “the veil,” a concept developed by W.E.B. Du Bois. Indigenous theorizations of a “politics of refusal” provides us with a foundation see beyond the veil. This paper brings together “Du Boisian Sociology,” Latina Feminisms, and indigenous theories of collective action to develop a robust theorization of human rights activism, and social movements more broadly. This paper asks: What can we gain from analyzing movements from beyond the veil by …

The State, The Udhr, And The Social Construction Of Family In Human Rights: The Case Of The Scarborough 11, Abbey S. Willis, Mary C. Burke, Davita Silfen Glasberg

Societies Without Borders

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (UN 1947:34) declares in Article 16(3) that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to the full protection by society and the state.” However, the UDHR does not define family, but rather presumes it is defined by traditional heteronormative marriage in a nuclear family. The failure of the UDHR to consider a more expansive view of family leaves the definition of family centrally in the hands of the state, and affects the ability of all but traditional nuclear family forms to access other human rights. We …

Transforming Sociology Courses With Human Rights Education: Curriculum, Pedagogy, And Classroom Environment Considerations, Karie Jo Peralta

Societies Without Borders

Sociology courses have significant potential to liberate students. A promising way to achieve this aim is by grounding courses in human rights principles such as respect, equity, equality, and democratic participation. Using a college-level, introductory sociology course as an example, this paper explores how a human rights education (HRE) framework can serve as a foundation for the teaching of sociology. The purpose is to show how sociology educators can relatively easily embed HRE into the learning experience. To begin, I will present a HRE framework. Then, I will illustrate how common course topics, teaching methods, and classroom conditions can be …

Would An India-Us Trade Agreement Be Beneficial For India?, Neetu Kaushik, Niloufer Sohrabji

International Review of Business and Economics

This paper examines the potential impact of an India-U.S. FTA on India’s trade. We use two approaches to estimate trade effects, compound annual growth analysis and Gravity model estimation. Our sample spans the period from 1992 to 2019 and consists of seven bilateral trade agreements and three multilateral trade agreements which include 24 countries as our treatment group. In both cases we compare the impact on India’s trade following a trade agreement with a control group which we create by including those countries whose trade share exceeds one percent of India’s total trade (in 2019). Our CAGR analysis shows that …

Exploring Blockchain Adoption Supply Chains: Opportunities And Challenges, Adrian V. Gheorghe, Omer F. Keskin, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In modern supply chains, acquisition often occurs with the involvement of a network of organizations. The resilience, efficiency, and effectiveness of supply networks are crucial for the viability of acquisition. Disruptions in the supply chain require adequate communication infrastructure to ensure resilience. However, supply networks do not have a shared information technology infrastructure that ensures effective communication. Therefore decision-makers seek new methodologies for supply chain management resilience. Blockchain technology offers new decentralization and service delegation methods that can transform supply chains and result in a more flexible, efficient, and effective supply chain. This report presents a framework for the application …

Understanding Factors Impacting Volunteer Firefighters' Work, Family, And Volunteer Balance To Serve, Christopher Schultz

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The volunteer fire service in the United States is experiencing a decline, presenting the opportunity to study factors impacting current and former volunteer firefighters' ability to serve. A qualitative case study of volunteer fire service organizations in southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania was undertaken through semi-structured interviews with 13 volunteer fire service members to understand this phenomenon. The findings of this study reveal that volunteer firefighters balance their time commitments through prioritization and self-regulation. The findings also indicate that volunteer firefighters are uncertain whether their communities understand the fire service delivery model serving their communities, the potential challenges the …

Sparking Debate: Private Or Public? The Effect Of Ownership On Electric Utility Performance, Joseph Pazzalia

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The privatization of municipal electric utilities has prompted the public vs private debate among local government leaders. Private utilities want to increase their profits by expanding their territory and municipalities hope to see an influx of cash from the sale of their utility. Public administrators are left with questions about how this will serve their community. This research addresses the topic of performance differences between public and private ownership among electric utilities in Florida. Specifically, the research question is, Does ownership type (public or private) affect the performance of electric utilities in the State of Florida? All of Florida’s 19 …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Pennsylvania Wine Industry With Actionable Recommendations For Industry Improvement And Growth, Seth Porter

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Local wine industries are vital engines of agricultural economic growth, rural development, and sustainable long-term tax base creation. While the Pennsylvania wine industry has made admirable progress, the industry still has a poor collective reputation, high variance in product quality differential, and a perceived regulatory environment that creates negative externalities for local wine, agricultural production, and auxiliary enterprises. This comprehensive analysis attempts to diagnose and remedy all primary public policy, regulatory, state, non-profit, and non-state private actions that have impeded the Pennsylvania wine industry. A methodology of grounded theory qualitative processes, furthered by texting mining and document analysis techniques, were …

Assessment Limitations And The Disparate Impact Of Tax Policy On Minoritized Communities, Michael Fouassier

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Public policies that limit assessment increases have created a system where more valuable homes are taxed at lower rates than less valuable homes. This tax regressivity is found not only between neighborhoods but also within neighborhoods such that lower-value homes in wealthier areas are also taxed at higher rates. The research presented in this dissertation, just one line of inquiry that adds to the ongoing discussion of tax equity, provides evidence that minoritized communities will not experience the greatest benefits of assessment caps. The legislative intent of New York State Senate Bill S7000A was to protect homeowners. What has occurred, …

Windfall Payment Savings: An Examination Of Act 13 Disbursements In Pennsylvania, Corey Young

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

State and local governments occasionally receive positive exogenous payments or windfalls that have a significant impact on their budgets. However, few works examine how budget-makers allocate such payments or if they are consumed in a manner consistent with other revenue streams. Prior research suggests that multiple factors, including the size of a windfall payment, impact how much of the funds are saved and spent. Using data from the Act 13 Unconventional Natural Gas Impact Fee in Pennsylvania, this study examines the relationship between windfall payment size and savings rates between 2011 and 2019. The results of the study indicate that …

The Impacts Of Learning 2 Breathe On Rumination, Adessa Flack

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The present study examined the impact of Learning2Breathe (L2B), a mindfulness-based stress reduction program developed for use with adolescents on rumination. The program was applied to rumination in college-age men and women. Our experiment utilized a quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 50 undergraduate students that were placed in either the experimental or control group. Data was collected pretest and posttest through a variety of measures including the Rumination Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ) which consisted of a rumination and reflection subscale, and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). A two-way mixed ANOVA design was used to analyze data. There was no …

Predictors Of Future Gendered Play Practices, Caroline Guzi

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Gendered play is defined as the socialization of children to expectations of culturally determined gender roles via the mechanism of play. This study tested hypothesized links between undergraduate students’ childhood experiences and current beliefs to determine predictors of their future plans for gendered play as parents. Results indicated that men and women recall experiences of gendered play during their childhoods, consistent with past research. Most men and women did not plan to engage in gendered play with their own children in the future. Past play with toys stereotyped for girls was the strongest predictor of women’s plans for gendered play …

Can It Heal And Hurt?: Survivors Of Sexual Assault Share The Benefits And Challenges Of Sexual Assault Support Group Participation, Brittni Gettys

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Research exploring the relationships among trauma survivors is largely non-existent. This study aimed to explore the effects of relationships among individuals with a shared experience of sexual trauma within the group therapeutic context of sexual assault support groups. This study sought to examine the potential buffering and supportive effects of social support between sexual assault survivors, while also exploring the potential negative effects of shared trauma that may occur from the potentially triggering nature of seeking support from other sexual assault survivors. These complex dynamics were explored through examining the relationships and experiences of sexual assault survivors who have attended …

The Lived Experience: Collective Realities Of Black Maternal Healthcare, Rhonda Parham

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Maternal health has become an increasingly important public health issue in the United States due to the country elevated levels of maternal mortality rates. As the patient experience which entails a wide variety of interactions between patients and the healthcare system becomes more associated with patient outcomes, it is important to explore how the patient experience is affecting maternal health outcomes. This study consists of in-depth interviews to investigate their experience receiving maternal healthcare in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The study aims to figure out what are black women experiences while receiving maternal healthcare in southeastern Pennsylvania and are those experiences negative. …

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of African-American City/County Managers And The Impact Of Mentoring On The Profession, Johnny Mays

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

ABSTRACT

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Exploring the Lived Experiences of African-American City/County Managers and the Impact of Mentoring on the Profession

Literature regarding African-American City/County manager's experiences in local governments is limited, and any available resources primarily focus on the profession. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore the experiences of African-American city/county managers from their viewpoints. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, this investigative research attempted to shed light on the lived experiences of Black City/County managers pursuing their professional goals to lead a municipal organization. The study also aimed to understand the impact mentoring has on the profession.

Data …

Dogs Produce Distinctive Play Pants: Confirming Simonet Et Al. (2001), Shelly Volsche, Hannah Gunnip, Cameron Brown, Makayla Kiperash, Holly Root-Gutteridge, Alexandra Horowitz

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Identifying meaningful vocalizations in nonhuman animals can help explain the evolution of human communications. However, non-speech-like sounds, including laughter equivalents, are not well studied, although they may be meaningful. In this pilot study we investigate whether dogs perform a domain-specific pant during play by capturing vocalizations and behaviors during three interactions: training, play, and rest. Sixteen human and dog dyads participated in a session that included all three interactions in the same order: training, play, rest. During these sessions, each partner wore wireless microphones that transmitted to a receiver and digital recorder, while a standalone digital camera captured video of …