Community-Based Research Commons^™

The Attributes Of Leadership In Southern Baptist Churches In West Texas, Tim Winn

Graduate Theses

This study deals with leadership attributes in Southern Baptist churches in West Texas. A review of literature indicated that leadership in the congregations would tend to reflect the perceived purposes of the group, would be elected by the church or arise to counter poor leadership by the elected leader(s), probably be relationship oriented, and that the selection of leaders would be affected by the size of the churches and the length of tenure of the pastors. The study attempted to determine if there were characteristics that set leaders apart from non leaders in the churches. Six variable clusters of characteristics …

Generic Strategies, Leader Attributes, Environmental Uncertainty, And Organizational Performance: An Empirical Investigation Of Contingencies And Configurational Outcomes, Tope Adeyemi-Bello

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The implications of strategy, environmental uncertainty, and leader attributes to the performance of organizations have been the subject of many research studies. The traditional interaction-based contingency approach that has typically been used in the management literature for examining the interrelationships between these variables, may very often be inadequate to capture the overall pattern of fit among them. A contemporary approach that allows researchers to examine sophisticated relationships between variables is configuration or systems theory— which suggests that inevitable relationships exist between strategic, environmental, contextual, and organizational variables and performance. This study used both the interaction and configuration-based approaches to determine …

Predictors Of Success In A Co-Correctional Halfway House: A Discriminant Analysis, Patrick G. Donnelly, Brian E. Forschner

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Considerable research and debate have focused on the effectiveness of community correctional programs. Much of the research does not address the issue of the effectiveness of programs for persons with different types of problems or criminal histories. This article utilizes discriminant analysis to determine the characteristics of persons most likely to succeed in one halfway house. The results indicate that strong socializing and integrating ties in the community and few previous contacts with the criminal justice system are major predictors of success in a halfway house program. The seven discriminators for females are used to accurately predict 87 percent of …

Relationships Between Podiatrists & Medical Doctors: An Examination Through Network Analysis, Neale Chumbler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis examines how a more powerful and a less powerful profession --allopathic medicine and podiatry -- are linked in a series of networks through patient referrals and practice activities. The importance of professional networks is that they link different professions such as podiatry and allopathic medicine in ways which direct attention away from ranking the power of fields or viewing them as endlessly in conflict over occupational turf (traditional research questions) to questions of the actual and regularized relationships diverse professions have with one another. This thesis analyzes professional training and activity variables related to the emergence of networks …

Aging And Social Policy, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Social planning has a long history in social work. It has gone from an early emphasis on community as the modal point to an emphasis on public policy planning at the state and federal levels and recently to an emphasis on organizational issues and initiatives. Social planning has been a primary tool in the long-term development of new institutions and practices brought about by the unprecendented increases in the size of the aged population. Probably the oldest intact social planning systems for aging in most American communities today are the networks of community planning which grew up in the voluntary …

A Study Of Pease Elementary School, Odessa, Texas; The Development Of The Pease Elementary School Neighborhood And Its Changing Demographic Characteristics, Harriet Jan Rudd

Graduate Theses

The economic development of the city of Odessa flourished when oil was discovered in the Permian Basin. Oil field service businesses opened which provided jobs for the educated as well as for the uneducated. These available jobs encouraged people to move to Odessa. In 1958, Pease Elementary was built. The area around the school was being developed by local developers. The city grew to the east which decreased development in west Odessa. There have been no significant residential developments in the Pease neighborhood since 1981. This neighborhood has basically been unchanged for ten years. During this time the properties have …

A Descriptive Study Of The Alternative Education Center, Ector County Independent School District, Jack H. Hargis Ii

Graduate Theses

No abstract was provided.

At-Risk Students' Reports Of Teachers' Instructional Behavior, Virginia E. Rios

Graduate Theses

This study investigated secondary teachers' instructional behavior from the at-risk students' perspective. The research concentrated on three areas— teaching styles, teacher encouragement, and homework assignments. A series of interviews with at-risk students yielded the following results: When dealing with at-risk students (1) most teachers use only two of four modalities (auditory and visual) in their teaching approach, (2) teachers do not encourage these students, and (3) teachers assign homework less than half of the time. When homework is assigned it is completed by students approximately half of the time.

The Phenomenon Of Hashish Consumption, Nashaar Hassan Hussein

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Commercial Gentrification: An Exploratory Case Study In Broad Ripple, Indiana, Stephen Ronald Degoosh

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study investigates the existence of a commercial form of gentrification. Seventeen characteristics of residential gentrification--developed empirically by researchers of that process--are advanced as working hypotheses and tested in Broad Ripple, Indiana. Methodology includes a questionnaire, direct interviews, and various other data sources. The research concludes that commercial gentrification exists, and is a private-market process which expands via contagious spatial diffusion. The study area was one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, had a unique physical character, was in a favorable location for commercial activity, was accessible to its market, contained sound, available, and affordable structures, and experienced a rapid increase …

Commonwealth's Choice: Results From The Massachusetts Public Opinion Survey, Barry Bluestone, Mary Ellen Colten, Thomas Ferguson

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

From November 11 through December 4, 1989, the Center for Survey Research of the University of Massachusetts at Boston conducted a random digit dial survey of adults aged 18 and over in Massachusetts. A total of 423 individuals were interviewed in a sampling procedure that yielded a 63 percent response rate. In contrast to most media polls, this survey was carried out over a period of four weeks permitting extensive efforts at locating and interviewing difficult-to-reach, reluctant, or less interested respondents. This survey is likely to be more representative of the true population of Massachusetts than most state polls.

A Follow-Up Study Of A Dropout Intervention Program Utilizing Experimental Counseling Strategies, Cynthia Sue Ferguson

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the long range effects of a seven week summer dropout intervention program. The program featured academic remediation, job skills training and random assignment to one of three counseling models: Multidimensional, group or individual. Twenty-four male and 24 female economically and academically disadvantaged students averaging 15.5 years of age were tested in a pre-test, post-test, follow-up format on measures of dropout potential, locus of control and academic achievement. The Demos Dropout Scale revealed no change in attitude over the nine month period. Results obtained from Rotter's Internal/External Scale revealed a general movement to …

To Tell The Truth: The Lesbian Herstory Archives: Chronicling A People And Fighting Invisibility Since 1974, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

A portrait of the Lesbian Herstory Archives by a volunteer, describing the archive in its original home in Joan Nestle's Upper West Side New York City apartment that she shared with Mabel Hampton. Originally published in Out/Week Magazine.

Altruism, Cooperation, And Type A Behaviors In Kindergarten And Third Grade Children, Pamela S. Martin

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships of altruism, cooperation and Type A personality types in school-aged children. It was predicted that older children and Type A children would be more competitive and show fewer altruistic behaviors. Forty third-grade students and fifty-two kindergarten students served as subjects. Teachers completed the MYTH on each child to determine his/her personality type. Subjects were then paired according to Type A or Type B profiles, AA, AB, BB. The children played two games, a marble pull and a teaching task. By the time all of the games were completed, each child …

Grade, Sex And Ethnicity Differences In Career Maturity, Level Of Career Aspirations And Decision-Making Of Adolescents, Diane Dougherty Rhoden

Graduate Theses

Grade, sex and ethnicity differences in career maturity, level of career aspirations and decision making of adolescents were examined. The subjects were one hundred and two students drawn from regular seventh through twelfth grade classes of three schools. The subjects were given the Career Development Inventory to assess career maturity. National Opinion Research Center prestige ratings for occupations were used to determine the subjects' level of career aspiration. The subjects were also presented with ten decision dilemmas. The responses to the dilemmas reflected willingness to delay temporal gratification for future goals and adherence to personal goals or deference to the …

Adult Illiteracy: A Survey Of The Material And Teaching Preferences Of Local Tutors, Mary Margaret Byrom

Graduate Theses

An overview of adult illiteracy in the United States from an historical and current perspective is presented. Regarding current efforts at improving reading ability, a study was conducted of local tutors whose names were supplied by the Midland Need to Read program. A survey form was used to indicate 1) the experience level of the tutor, 2) the preference of tutors as to the ability of students they preferred to instruct, 3) the reading series they found most effective, and 4) interesting and effective supplemental materials. Findings indicate that tutors with prior teaching experience have more confidence in instructing students …

Anger Control, Fred Berec Ongaga

Graduate Theses

This study was designed to assess the efficiency of anger control training with twenty-three institutionalized male delinquents evidencing verbal and physical aggression. The study employed a two group crossover design. After an initial test session assessing anger with a variety of measures, the immediate treatment group received anger control training. Following this training both groups participated in a test session. The delayed treatment group then received training and both groups were finally tested a third time. For a number of measures, both groups showed significant differences between the first and the second testing sessions. However no significant differences could be …

A Descriptive Study Of School Dropouts By Ethnicity, Socio-Economic Status, And Neighborhood Schools At Pecos High School 1983-1987, Albert Joe Bishop

Graduate Theses

An abstract was not provided.

The Desert Militants: Change And Modernizing Factors In Coptic Monasticism, Christiane Rathle

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ethnicity And Lifetimes: Self Concepts And Situational Contexts Of Ethnic Identity In Late Life, Mark Luborsky, Robert L. Rubinstein

Anthropology Faculty Research Publications

This chapter reports on finding from a study of ethnic older men, aged 65 an older (Jewish, Irish, and Italian) who were widowed from 2 to 8 years after a long-term study. It focuses on life reorganization after the initial bereavement period. It identifies key issues in the process concerning continuity and change in identity reformulation, changes in health and activity patterns, ethnic identity and lingering attachment to the deceased spouse. Ethnicity as a dynamic life course process, shaped by contextual and historical dimensions, and personal meaning processes are highlighted. Supported by NIH# R01-AG005204

Neighborhood Criminals And Outsiders In Two Communities: Indications That Criminal Localism Varies, Daniel Baker, Patrick G. Donnelly

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Most research on the mobility of criminal offenders examines distance travelled. This paper examines instead whether neighborhood boundaries are crossed. Comparisons of two neighborhoods in Dayton, Ohio, indicate community variations in criminal mobility. Juveniles from poorer, more transient neighborhoods are surprisingly less likely to stay in the neighborhood to commit their offenses than were adults.

From Social Welfare To Welfare Society: A Humane World Beyond Social Welfare?, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In the 1980's, the relationship of social welfare activities to the future has been dramatically altered. Until the conservative ascendency of the Reagan government, the future of social welfare was defined largely in terms of the incremental welfare state, characterized by gradual expansion of tax supported programs and benefits, with periodic policy refinements and extensions of benefits and coverages to new populations. Since 1980, all sorts of "doom and gloom" has been spread--mostly linked to short-term developments. This paper is an effort to propose a moderately optimistic alternative future for one segment of the social welfare system--personal care services. In …

A Comparison Of The Academic Success Of Ged Recipients And High School Graduates At Midland College In 1984, Barbara H. Gideon

Graduate Theses

Abstract not made available.

The Social Role Of The Church : Alienation Or Mediation?, John O. Umoh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research has a three-fold purpose: first, to assess the presence, or lack thereof, of alienation in a sample from the rural Farm population; second, to assess the role of the church in helping reduce feelings of alienation; and third, to determine the extent to which church membership and participation enhances personal empowerment and transformative action. The following questions are addressed in the study: 1. Is there evidence of alienation in this rural farm population? 2. If so, who are alienated? 3. Is alienation associated with church membership? 4. Is church membership associated with transformative action? 5. How are alienation …

Client Success Or Failure In A Halfway House, Patrick G. Donnelly, Brian E. Forschner

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Halfway houses today are diverse entities. Seiter, et al. (1977) found that almost 60 percent of the houses in the United States are private nonprofit organizations. One-third were state operations with the remainder being federal, local or private profit organizations. The programs in the houses varied from those providing supervision and custody to those providing a full range of intensive in-house treatments for particular client needs. Some halfway houses handle only particular types of offenders (e.g., drug addicts) while others handle a wide range of offenders.

Latessa and Allen (1982) suggest that the sociodemographic and criminal history backgrounds of clients …

Using Wiseman Documentaries For Social Problems Courses, Patrick G. Donnelly

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This report describes the use of seven films produced by Frederick Wiseman in a lower course in Modern Social Problems. The goals of the project were: to increase the student awareness and understanding of the day-to-day operations of several basic institutions in American society; to offer a creative and interesting undergraduate course; and to enliven cIass discussion. Since this was a course in social problems, faculty and students focused on the problematic features of the institutions portrayed in the films and on the social problems these institutions are designed to handle.

The Design, Field Test, And Description Of A Model For Collaborative Long-Range Community Planning, Ozzie D. Parks

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to design and field test a model for collaborative long-range community planning. A model was designed on the basis of research found in the literature, tested in a community setting, and evaluated regarding its effectiveness.

The problem delineated for the study was the lack of collaborative long-range planning in our society, particularly at the community level. A review of the literature in this field indicated that although long-range planning is considered to be important, it is seldom practiced successfully. The study's response to the problem was to design and field test a model which …

The Culture Of Bulaq As Viewed By Its Children, Iness Maurice Louca

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Adaptation To A Unique Environment: El Jebelya Of Saint Catherine, Iman Youssef Bastawisi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Combined Language Experience And Writing Approach To Reading Instruction For Below Grade Level Junior High Readers, Lori Beth Christiansen

Graduate Theses

No abstract was provided.