Sociology Commons^™

Earthy Bride, Melissa S. Foerster

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There are nearly 2.5 million couples getting married in the United States each year (Harrison, 2008, pg. xi). That breaks down to more than 6,300 weddings in a single day. The average wedding in the United States “produces 63 tones of CO2 and 400-600 pounds of trash” and therefore, newlyweds are creating over 3,500,000 pounds of trash in a single at their weddings (Harrison, 2009, ¶ 2)! The green movement is on the rise and wedding industry needs to implement it to meet new demands. In order to do people need to be informed of the importance, benefits and savings …

Using The Internet To Survey Small Towns And Communities: Limitations And Possibilities In The Early 21st Century, Jolene D. Smyth, Don A. Dillman, Leah Melani Christian, Allison C. O'Neill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Researchers who are interested in small towns and rural communities in the United States often find that they need to conduct their own sample surveys because many large national surveys, such as the American Community Survey, do not collect enough representative responses to make precise estimates. In collecting their own survey data, researchers face a number of challenges, such as sampling and coverage limitations. This article summarizes those challenges and tests mail and Internet methodologies for collecting data in small towns and rural communities using the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File as a sample frame. Findings indicate that the …

Learned Workers: Predicting Adult Education In The Labor Force, Alian S. Kasabian

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In a highly competitive labor force, human capital is a marketable resource. However, the human capital model fails to explain the substantial number of adults pursuing education after they enter the workforce. Not only are increasing numbers of adult students pursuing credentials in the form of degrees and certificates, they pursue other types of education as well. Using the 2005 National Household Education Survey on adult education, I predict participation patterns in workers over the age of 25 using queuing and intersectionality theories to explain gender, race and age variations. For adults pursuing education, employer support demonstrates racial/ethnic differences across …

Preserving The Past And Planning The Future In Pasadena, Riverside And San Bernardino, Charles Conway Palmer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines how three Southern California cities—Pasadena, Riverside and San Bernardino—used the processes of urban renewal and historic preservation as development strategies for their downtown business districts. The ways in which these processes were employed has both reflected and shaped the cities‘ evolving definitions of community. These ideas of community were both inclusive and exclusive, favoring certain ethnicities and cultural practices over others to advance a particular civic image. The case studies are representative of cities in the region that are ―other than Los Angeles; those founded in the nineteenth-century after the Spanish and Mexican periods, but prior to …

Fire On The Mountain: Growth And Conflict In Colorado Ski Country, Michael W. Childers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines the environmental, economic, and cultural conflicts over the private development of ski resorts in Colorado's National Forests between 1910 and 2000. Downhill skiing emerged as an increasingly popular winter activity during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in western state such as Colorado. A part of the a larger outdoor recreational boom throughout the United States' during the interwar years, downhill skiing challenged the Forest Service's ability to meeting the public's growing appetite for year-round recreational opportunities. These challenges increased following World War II as the nation's growing population and affluence drew millions to their …

African American And Caucasian Males' Evaluation Of Racialized Female Facial Averages, Rhea M. Watson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The answer to what makes a face attractive has been debated for generations and studied in different disciplines. The current study investigated African American and Caucasian males' evaluation (attraction) to racialized female faces. Faces varied from 100% African American to 100% Caucasian (and included variations that were 25% of either group, or 50% of both groups). Twenty African American and 30 Caucasian men each viewed ten faces, and evaluated them in terms of their appearance and the likelihood that the men would interact with (befriend, date, or marry) the person pictured. Findings revealed that African American men found the 100% …

Creating A Wellness Program For Hotel Front Desk Employees, Karima Abdel-Moty

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The majority of hotel front desk employees fulfill their job demands in generally similar ways, in terms of workplace conditions. The demanding and hectic nature of this job results in very tangle physical and emotional effects on the employee. Through an analysis of current literature, guidelines on implementing a wellness program suited specifically for hotel front desk employees will be created. Through successful implementation of an employee wellness program, management will be able to provide effective job resources that will result in engaged front desk employees, and consequently, higher levels of customer service, productivity, and profitability.

Innovative Data Collection Strategies In Qualitative Research, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Nancy L. Leech, Kathleen M.T. Collins

The Qualitative Report

This article provides an innovative meta-framework comprising strategies designed to guide qualitative data collection in the 21st century. We present a meta-framework comprising strategies for collecting data from interviews, focus groups, observations, and documents/material culture. We present a template for collecting nonverbal data during interviews and discuss the concept of debriefing the interviewer. We identify types of data that can be collected in focus groups in addition to the actual statements made by the participants and provide templates for categorizing these data. Also, we outline the role that social networking websites can play in focus group interviews. Further, we provide …

A Meta-Summary Of Qualitative Findings About Professional Services For Survivors Of Sexual Violence, Donna S. Martsolf, Claire B. Draucker, Christina B. Cook, Ratchneewan Ross, Andrea Warner Stidham, Prudencia Mweemba

The Qualitative Report

Sexual violence occurs at alarming rates in children and adults. Survivors experience myriad negative health outcomes and legal problems, which place them in need of professional services. A meta-summary was conducted of 31 published qualitative studies on adults' responses to sexual violence, with a focus on survivors' use of professional services. Combined samples included 46 men, 984 women, and six couples who had experienced sexual violence at any point in their lives. Findings indicated that qualities of professional service providers and outcomes of professional services were perceived either positively or negatively (rather than neutrally) by survivors, regardless of the provider's …

Review Of Three Qualitative Studies Of Family Presence During Resuscitation, Bonnie Schmidt

The Qualitative Report

Despite recommendations to allow family presence during resuscitation, mixed attitudes and practices persist in clinical practice today. The findings of three recent qualitative research studies are presented in this review. These phenomenological studies explore the lived experience of family presence from different perspectives. Miller and Stiles (2009) describe the experiences of hospital nurses, Maxton (2008) focuses on parental perceptions, and Mcmahon-Parkes, Moule, Benger, and Albarran (2009) study the attitudes and beliefs of patients themselves. This article presents an analysis of these study findings and overall conclusions related to family presence during resuscitation.

Homelessness: Selecting Mitigation Strategies To Address The Needs Of The 'At Risk' Population, Stephanie Johnson

All Theses

The objective of this research was to establish a method of identifying locations with a high concentration of individuals `at risk' of becoming homeless in order to select mitigation strategies that target the specific needs of the individuals. Each state was evaluated based on the concentration of characteristics that may contribute to homelessness. These characteristics include: low median incomes, high unemployment rates, high housing cost-burdens, high concentrations of veterans and single-mother households, and high rates of mental disabilities and substance abuse reports. A differentiation was made between temporary and chronic homelessness as the mitigation strategies that prove to be the …

Art Therapists’ Strategies For Improving Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Qualitative Study, Jennifer Lauren Barnette

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to interview art therapists who work with an adolescent population in a variety of settings, to acquire an in depth understanding of what various therapeutic approaches and art-making strategies they utilized to improve adolescents’ self-esteem. Six art therapists were interviewed. The interviews, which were transcribed, generated information about the art therapists’ theoretical orientation, how they addressed self-esteem with their clients, and what processes and materials they find to be most effective for improving such a goal. Themes were extracted from the interviews in order to acquire a further understanding of work with adolescents as …

An Art-Based Self-Study Of Immersion In Amish Culture: Implications For Art Therapists, Alison R. Hunt

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Literature reveals that cross cultural experiences can be beneficial to therapists in terms of personal growth and cultural competency (Finlay, 2005). This heuristic study employed Moustakas’ (1990) six stages of initial engagement, immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis to examine the impact of immersion in Amish culture on my sense of myself as an art therapist. Data collection included keeping a visual journal and making art during the immersion stage. The data was evaluated using qualitative techniques of categorizing, interpreting, and integrating (Ansdell & Pavlicevic, 2001). Themes which emerged from the artwork were reported in a narrative format and …

An African-American Breast Cancer Survivor’S Journey With The Use Of Visual Journaling, Kristen Spellman

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative case study guided one female breast cancer survivor through a 6-week art therapy visual journaling experience. The art therapist taught the participant about the purpose of visual journaling and the potential benefits, as well as the basic methods used to journal. Qualitative data consisted of the visual journal entry (containing both images and writing) that she made in each session and entries made between sessions. Through content analysis, the following themes emerged from the data: breast cancer treatment, anger, family, body image, and depression. The sessions appeared to be beneficial to the participant, and she was enthusiastic and …

Art Therapy And Anorexia: A Heuristic Self-Study From Treatment To Career, Katie Kiskinis

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this self-study was to explore the personal experience had during treatment for anorexia nervosa that included an art therapy component and what impact this has had on subsequent recovery, current healthy functioning, and the career decision to become an art therapist.

The total duration of the study was 13 weeks. Thirty-minute reflection sessions supplemented with writing were scheduled for the first four days of the study, during which there was a submersion in artwork made during treatment (Treatment Artwork) for anorexia nervosa and any related memories. On the fourth day, eight themes were identified to be the …

Alessandro Bonanno And Douglas H. Constance, Stories Of Globalization: Transnational Corporations, Resistance, And The State, Ariel Brovont, Emily Reiersgaard

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of Stories of Globalization: Transnational Corporations, Resistance, and the State, by Alessandro Bonanno and Douglas H. Constance

Editors' Preface, Gene L. Theodori, Douglas H. Constance

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

introduction to Journal of Rural Social Sciences by new editorial team

How Farmers Learn: Implications For Agricultural Educators, Nancy Franz, Fred Piercy, Joseph Donaldson, Robert Richard, Johnnie Westbrook

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In this participatory action research, guided by a steering committee of farmers and agricultural educators, we examined how farmers learn and identified implications for agricultural educators. Since most educators teach the way they prefer to learn, this research could shape agricultural educators’ practice with farmers. Focus group interviews and surveys with 115 farmers and agricultural educators helped us understand how and why farmers learn and the role of agricultural educators, especially Extension educators, in farmer learning. Farmers articulated a learning process that relies mostly on first-hand experiences motivated by saving time and money, learning about cutting edge research, and engaging …

Quality Of Life Trends In The Southern Black Belt, 1980-2005: A Research Note, Dale W. Wimberley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Previous research shows that the Southern Black Belt compares badly to the rest of the U.S., in terms of poverty, median incomes, mortality, unemployment rates, and educational levels. This study updates those earlier studies with 2000 and 2005 data to statistically assess these problems’ recent severity, and examines trends since 1980 to assess the Black Belt’s progress or regress relative to the rest of the South and the NonSouth. I used Census and other federal data for the analysis. The Black Belt’s education levels have improved substantially, nearly catching up with other regions. Yet compared with the rest of the …

Thomas F. Pawlick, The End Of Food: How The Food Industry Is Destroying Our Food Supply-And What You Can Do About It, Yang Zhang

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of The End of Food: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Food Supply-And What You Can Do about It, by Thomas F. Pawlick

Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide To World Food, Rachel Kelly, Timothy Ledoux

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Roberts

Extending The Concept Of Community Interaction To Explore Regional Community Fields, Courtney G. Flint, A. E. Luloff, Gene L. Theodori

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Interactional approaches to community development routinely focus on the community field concept at a local level. This paper expands the field concept to a regional level of analysis. It suggests a regional community field emerges through interactions among communities at a regional scale, particularly in rural areas lacking a dominant metropolitan core. Recent contributions by human geographers highlight the emergent characteristics of regions in contrast to the static, bounded regions conceptualized in the past. Such logic is compatible with community field theory. This paper explores the generalizability of the community field concept and assumptions to larger levels of analysis and …

Nonmetropolitan Population Trends: Twenty-First Century Updates, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Population trends in the nonmetropolitan counties of the United States continue to be erratic. This study used 2008 population estimates to make comparisons of 2000-2008 population changes with those of the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Findings showed that population changes during the early years of the 21st century were more reminiscent of the 1980s than the 1990s, as overall population growth was minimal and the number of counties losing population exceeded the number of counties with population growth. It appears that the first decade of the 21st century can be labeled as the “Rural Rebound Reversal” decade. The …

Applying Craft For Sociological Practice: Place In Odyssey, George K. Floro

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In this presentation it is assumed that craft for sociological practice, an applied side of the discipline, could be expanded if sociologists knew how to do the craft or, if they already know, want to engage in the practice. Its potential is illustrated in one sector. The selection, when associated with decisions or action, comes out of public participation in collective life, often in the framework of an entire society or some action center in it. The name often associated with it is Sociological Imagination. An associated task is to identify “contradictions” and to explore ways to resolve them as …

Household Food Insecurity And Depression Among Single Mothers In Rural Alabama, Andrew A. Zekeri

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Although we live in a wealthy nation, food insecurity, whereby individuals and families have limited or uncertain access to food due to lack of financial resources, continues to affect millions of American families. The objective of this study was twofold: to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among single mothers in rural Alabama; and to determine the extent to which food insecurity is associated with depression. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 300 single mothers living in five rural counties in Alabama using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module and Center for Epidemiologic Study of Depression (CES-D) scale. About 36% …

What Makes A Meaningful Universe?, Todd Duncan, James Butler

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

A common line of thinking says that although we feel subjectively that our thoughts and actions matter in some way, this perception is an illusion. According to this view, an honest look around at the universe shatters this myth and reveals that our lives are ultimately meaningless. If we are to be hard-nosed realists, limiting ourselves to scientific, evidence-based reasoning, then we must accept that human existence is an inconsequential accident of no ultimate significance in the grand scheme of things. Is this attitude really justified by the evidence? We'll explore this question by taking a step back and asking …

Intersections And Implications Of Feminist And Marxist Critical Theory In Jane Austen: Persuasion, Pride And Prejudice, And Mansfield Park, Sarah Sheber

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Economic Restructuring And Education In The Nonmetropolitan United States, Don E. Albrecht, Carol Mulford Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Nonmetropolitan communities in the United States have historically depended on natural resources industries and manufacturing for their employment and sustenance. In recent decades, the number of jobs in these goods-producing industries has steadily declined, and this trend is likely to continue. The loss of goods producing jobs has been offset by increased employment in the service sector. A prominent concern resulting from this economic structure transformation is the impending mismatch in the education and skills of nonmetro workers and the education and skills needed to obtain high quality employment in the service sector. The data presented in this manuscript show …

Belize As A Classroom, Jordan Norris, Molly Calico

Impact Belize

During the week of January 7-14, 2010, Molly Calico and Jordan Norris participated in the Impact Belize program through the College of Health and Human Services. This program took place in Gales Point, a rural, underserved community in Belize. Impact students provided medical, dental and public health services to the community in an interdisciplinary service-learning format. As Master of Public Health students, Molly and Jordan directed health education initiatives and served on the Leadership Team for the program. Having participated in January of 2009 as well, Molly and Jordan were well prepared to conduct public health research and to assume …

Somalian Immigration And Assimilation To Minnesota, Chantae Erickson

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

No abstract provided.