Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons^™

The Role Of Peer Irrigators On The Choice And Intensity Of Efficient Irrigation Techniques, Noah Hayward

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

We evaluate the use and the proportion of farmland that uses prominent irrigation practices in Arkansas, USA. A bi-variate sample selection model evaluates the determinants of the share of irrigated land in a farm that uses each practice. We evaluate the relationship between the irrigation practices peers use and the intensity that another farmer utilizes that same irrigation practice(s). So, if a peer of an Arkansas Delta farmer uses center pivot irrigation, for example, it increases the probability that the farmer him or herself will use acreage using center pivot by 66%. Conversely, a peer using surge irrigation only results …

Getting Started: Training Modules For New Employees Of The Uno Bookstore, Abigail Kane

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) Bookstore does not currently have an established training program to help new employees integrate into the organization. Inconsistency in training can cause unnecessary stress on employees and management. This capstone project aimed to alleviate some of this stress by creating four training modules specifically tailored to the needs of the organization. A needs assessment was conducted with input from the management team and employees to identify module topics that meet the UNO Bookstore’s exact needs. The following topics were identified: Onboarding Information, Conflict in the Workplace, Inter-organizational Communication, and Use of Technologically Mediated Communication. …

The Ceibalitas In Uruguay: How Digital Educational Technology Affects Social Cohesion, William Bradford

Honors Theses

Digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become a focal point in improving worldwide education. There have been many studies on the effects of ICT in schools on grades and careers after graduation, but not many have studied the social impact. This study focuses on the Plan Ceibal in Uruguay to see the impact of ICT in schools on social cohesion. The Plan Ceibal was the first Nation-wide one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) program in the world. For this reason, Uruguay can provide a look into the future for other nations as they implement OLPC programs of their own. This study uses data …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Covid-19 On Students At The University Of Mississippi: Family, Careers, Mental Health, Hannah Newbold

Honors Theses

This study analyzes the effects of COVID-19 on students at the University of Mississippi. For students, COVID-19 changed the landscape of education, with classes and jobs going online. Students who graduated in May 2020 entered a poor job market and many ended up going to graduate school instead of finding a job. Access to medical and professional help was limited at the very beginning, with offices not taking patients or moving appointments to virtual only. This would require that each student needing help had to have access to quality internet service, which wasn’t always guaranteed, thus producing additional challenges.

These …

Compassionate Support Training For Adults Impacted By Mental Illness: A Workshop Series Using Transformative Learning Pedagogy, Lindsay Bennett

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This professional project aims to translate current compassion academic research and scholarship for my client partner, the Cache County chapter of NAMI, to aid the family members of loved ones who live with mental illness.

Associations Between Adolescent And Parent Media Connection And Perceptions Of Emotional Climate In The Home, Laura A. Woodland

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An overwhelming increase in technology and media use this past decade has been found to affect family relationships in various ways. Devices such as cell phones, tablets, and computers, have been found to both be the means of bringing family members closer together by communicating from a distance, while also disrupting and straining family connection, in particular the adolescent to parent relationship. Data from the Flourishing Families Project was used to analyze the varying perceptions of adolescent and parents regarding technology communication with one another and their personal perception of the emotional climate in the home. Results from this study …

“We Just Didn’T Talk About It:” Strategies Of Stigmatized Grief Management, Claire D. Selleck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the experiences of people who have lost loved ones due to socially stigmatized deaths. Drawing from eight individual interviews, the author argues that the stigma associated with death due to drug overdose, suicide, substance abuse, or murder can cause traumatic or prolonged grief and can complicate the way the bereaved talk about grief as a part of their healing process. With the mortality rate in the U.S. rising, there is an epidemic of disenfranchised grief affecting millions of bereaved individuals. Using Coordinated Management of Meaning and Communication Privacy Management theories, the author uncovers strategies the traumatically bereaved …

A Discourse Analysis Of Student-To-Student Conversations In A Secondary School Physical Science Laboratory Setting, Jennifer Faith Oramous

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative grounded theory study applies Discourse Analysis (DA) to focus on the student-to-student (SS) “productive conversation” occurring within groups engaged in several activities in a physical science laboratory with a goal to identify aspects and patterns of such conversation. In this study, Student-to-Student Productive Talk (SSPT) stated in relation to the accepted definitions of classroom productive talk. SSPT is on-topic discussion between students that meet the requirements of productive conversation such as visible thinking and argumentation. The form of analysis applied in this study was derived from Classroom Discourse Analysis by Cazden (2001), Gee (2014a; 2014b), and Rymes (2016). …

Affinity-Seeking: Student Desirability And Motivation In The Classroom, Taylor D. Corlee

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Affinity-seeking research once provided teachers with effective strategies to create an overall better classroom environment. Over the last twenty years there has been no continuation of this research and the effectiveness of these strategies seemed to be agreed upon. The purpose of this study is to bring affinity-seeking research back into the modern era and see how motivation is affected for both in-person and online classes. This study is a contribution that adds to these strategies for effectiveness in both in-person and online classrooms.

Sex Differences In Communication During Times Of Conflict, Erin J. Snider

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Although current research indicates small effect sizes with sex differences in communication and some believe gender and culture to be the primary influence of conflict communication style, i.e., abstraction and perception, emotional talk, conflict management styles, capacity to empathize, and argumentativeness style, sex may be more responsible because of the biological properties of brain function and hormone effect. This research intends to compare male and female perceptual and behavioral reactions during communication in conflict. The measure of sex (i.e., the biological difference between men and women) in communication during conflict is used for this study. To ensure a homogeneous sample …

American Virtual Institute: Wellness During The Pandemic, Courtney Basinger

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

Two previous practicum ideas before AVI practicum suggested by Dr. Paul. Learning more about Hungarian culture, how they handle COVID-19, learn more about their wellness lifestyle and leadership.

Started off being a program to help high school students in Hungary learn about a multitude of topics to help allow them get credit towards their graduation. The topics included anything from sports, food, family, politics, and leisure activity and many more. There was supposed to be two sessions a 26-week program staring in October 2020 and ending in April 2021 and a 15-week program starting in February 2021 and ending in …

Tales Of Love's Perseverance: Family Bereavement Stories As A Means To Investigating Impacts Of End-Of-Life Care On Sense-Making, Cassidy Taladay

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The current study explored the stories of 25 participants who had lost an immediate loved one to a terminal illness one or more years ago. Through the lens of the retrospective storytelling heuristic of Communicated Narrative Sense-Making Theory (CNSM, Koenig Kellas, 2018), participants told their bereavement stories. Findings revealed seven themes of significant meanings, values, and beliefs that defined bereavement experiences which led to the development of a framework of three main types of stories told in bereavement which all centered on time: Past, Present, and Future. These stories reflected what was important to participants in their bereavement, such as …

Wisdom Narratives: Communicated Sense-Making In Emerging Adulthood Autoimmune Disease, Jacqueline Gunning

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Under the umbrellas of Communicated Sense-making (CSM, Koenig Kellas & Kranstuber Horstman, 2015), the current study explored 25 stories of illness told by assigned female at birth individuals with autoimmune disease. Using both the Theory of Memorable Messages (ToMM, Cooke-Jackson & Rubinsky, 2021) and Communicated Narrative Sense-making Theory (CNSM, Koenig Kellas, 2018), findings reveal helpful and harmful interpersonal memorable messages received across their illness journeys, as well as lessons learned and wisdom gained from disruptive chronic illness onset at a young age. Participants identified messages of belief, support, and interest as helpful while navigating disease, whereas they saw messages of …

Out With The Humans, In With The Machines?: Investigating The Behavioral And Psychological Effects Of Replacing Human Advisors With A Machine, Andrew Prahl, Lyn Van Swol

Human-Machine Communication

This study investigates the effects of task demonstrability and replacing a human advisor with a machine advisor. Outcome measures include advice-utilization (trust), the perception of advisors, and decision-maker emotions. Participants were randomly assigned to make a series of forecasts dealing with either humanitarian planning (low demonstrability) or management (high demonstrability). Participants received advice from either a machine advisor only, a human advisor only, or their advisor was replaced with the other type of advisor (human/machine) midway through the experiment. Decision-makers rated human advisors as more expert, more useful, and more similar. Perception effects were strongest when a human advisor was …

Forms And Frames: Mind, Morality, And Trust In Robots Across Prototypical Interactions, Jaime Banks, Kevin Koban, Philippe De V. Chauveau

Human-Machine Communication

People often engage human-interaction schemas in human-robot interactions, so notions of prototypicality are useful in examining how interactions’ formal features shape perceptions of social robots. We argue for a typology of three higher-order interaction forms (social, task, play) comprising identifiable-but-variable patterns in agents, content, structures, outcomes, context, norms. From that ground, we examined whether participants’ judgments about a social robot (mind, morality, and trust perceptions) differed across prototypical interactions. Findings indicate interaction forms somewhat influence trust but not mind or morality evaluations. However, how participants perceived interactions (independent of form) were more impactful. In particular, perceived task interactions fostered functional …

Effect Of Covid-19 On Elementary Students' Use Of Language Online, Emma Polen

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an unprecedented period of online communication among children. This paper aims to exemplify how the reliance on digital communication platforms compelled by COVID-19 affected elementary students’ use of language. Within the study, children used primarily visual language on digital sites with friends. There were two main forms of primary research in this study. The first consisted of a survey of 16 parents of elementary school children in my school district. The second was an observation of Zoom chat room activity among three eight-year-olds. Both methods of conducting research build on the existing understanding that digital …

Five Love Languages: Assessment Of Marital Satisfaction In African American Couples, Freddricka C. Lee

LSU Master's Theses

This mixed-methods study examined marital satisfaction among five (n = 10) heterosexual, African American married couples. In particular, this study examined how acknowledging a partner’s love language (Chapman, 1995) can affect these couples’ level of marital satisfaction. The participants were native to the South and ranged from 26-55 years of age. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data revealed couples were satisfied with their marriages. Although only marginally significant, the findings also revealed acknowledging a spouse’s love language was positively related to higher levels of marital satisfaction. Seven themes emerged throughout the interviews, namely communication; financial stability; understand a spouse’s …

Immunization Communication In ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’: Inoculation Theory, Health Messaging, And Children’S Entertainment Television, Josh Compton, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Entertainment education research has shown that television programs can communicate important health information to television viewers. Much of this research focuses on mass media effects (e.g., behavioral intention of viewers, post-viewing; attitudinal change, post-viewing). Less is known about the rhetorical strategies employed in such messaging. We review para-social and para-proxemics literature to describe the viewing context and then offer a detailed rhetorical analysis of immunization messaging on the children’s television program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” arguing that, aptly, Fred Rogers’ rhetorical framing mirrored that of the inoculation theory of resistance to influence, presenting “weak” challenges to his young viewers to help …

Global Studies Initiative Faculty Report: Interdisciplinary Collaborations, Leanne Cunningham

Global Studies Initiatives in Social Sciences 2020 - 2021

No abstract provided.

Assisting Nursing Students In Their Development Of Empathy: A Guide To Fostering Requisite Skills For The Art Of Empathetic Communication, Susan Mee

Open Educational Resources

This 7-week lesson plan is designed for use in clinical nursing courses. It is designed specifically for use by Nursing faculty teaching in the absence of state required patient facing clinical opportunity due to COVID restrictions. The lesson plan describes pedagogical techniques and provides video and education OER resources designed to help support the development of empathetic communication skills over 7 weeks. Refection and video debriefing techniques will be employed. Role play will culminate in the group presentation project of a brief video modeling effective therapeutic empathetic communication.