Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Phenomenological Theories Of Crime, Peter K. Manning, Michael W. Raphael

Graduate Student Publications and Research

The distinctive aspect of phenomenological theories of crime is that they are based upon a stated epistemology: how things are known and a specific ontology—the nature of social reality. This specificity aligns itself with neo-Kantian concern with forms of knowing, interpretation, and meaning, as well as with 20th-century concern with perception, cognition, and the framing of events. While there are influences of phenomenological thinking on varieties of theorizing, such as symbolic interactionism, critical theory, queer theory, and gender-based theories of crime, these ideas are refractions and are inconsistent in their reference to and understanding of the foundational phenomenological works. A …

A Few Thoughts On Evidence In Social Work, Gary Holden, Ellen Tuchman, Kathleen Barker, Gary Rosenberg, May, Sofie Kuppens, Katie Watson

Publications and Research

Social work practitioners must act every working day in the face of uncertainty. This uncertainty arises in part because knowledge is often difficult to locate or sometimes lacking regarding: the systems context the population being served; the particular client system; the set of problems the client system is experiencing; as well as the various interventions that could be selected. It seems reasonable to explore ways to reduce the experience of uncertainty, and narrow, if not eliminate, the knowledge gaps that arise in such situations. The generic idea of evidence based practice has been advanced for some time as an approach …

Speech And Language Therapy Service Evaluation Report, Noirin Hayes, Siobhán Keegan, Eimer Goulding

Reports

Based in Tallaght West, CDI is the result of the professionalism, passion and persistence of a group of 23 concerned individuals and organisations living and working in the community who had a vision of a better place for children. Through innovative partnerships, they brought together an approach which drew on both the science and the spirit of best practice in order to meet the identified needs of children and families. A partnership was agreed between the Government and The Atlantic Philanthropies, and the consortium’s first piece of work was a needs analysis entitled How are our Kids? (CDI, 2004). A …

A Contextual Approach To Social Skills Assessment In The Peer Group: Who Is The Best Judge?, Kyongboon Kwon, Elizabeth Moorman Kim, Susan M. Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Using a contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group, this study examined the criterion- related validity of contextually relevant social skills and the incremental validity of peers and teachers as judges of children’s social skills. Study participants included 342 (180 male and 162 female) students and their classroom teachers (N = 22) from rural communities. As expected, contextually relevant social skills were significantly related to a variety of social status indicators (i.e., likability, peer- and teacher-assessed popularity, reciprocated friendships, clique centrality) and positive school functioning (i.e., school liking and academic competence). Peer-assessed social skills, not teacher-assessed social …

Randomized Trial Of A Broad Preventive Intervention For Mexican American Adolescents, Nancy A. Gonzales, L. E. Dumka, R. E. Millsap, A. Gottschall, D. B. Mcclain, J. J. Wong, M. German, A. M. Mauricio, Lorey A. Wheeler, F. D. Carpentier, S. Y. Kim

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective—This randomized trial of a family-focused preventive intervention for Mexican American (MA) adolescents evaluated intervention effects on adolescent substance use, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and school discipline and grade records in 8th grade, one year after completion of the intervention. The study also examined hypothesized mediators and moderators of intervention effects. Method—Stratified by language of program delivery (English vs. Spanish), the trial included a sample of 516 MA adolescents (50.8% female; M =12.3 years, SD=.54) and at least one caregiver that were randomized to receive a low dosage control group workshop or the 9-week group intervention that included …

Film: The Trial Of Socrates Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Marcello Pera: Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Marcello Pera’s Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians provides a framework for understanding the moral crisis of our age represented by liberalism’s diversion from its foundations in a Christian culture and its conversion into a corrupter of that culture through what he calls “the secular equation.”

Covert Behaviors Occurring In Childhood And Adolescence: Predictors Of Adult Sexual Orientation And Sexual Identity, Shelia Ramona Robinett

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examined the influence pre-adulthood overt and covert same-sex sexual behaviors had on adult sexual orientation and the influence post-adulthood overt and covert same-sex sexual behaviors had on sexual identity in both women and men. Retrospective data were gathered via a computer-assisted self interview on 1281 non-transsexual female (age range 18-78) and 804 non-transsexual male (age range 18-84) participants for the outcome of sexual orientation and 1086 non-transsexual female and 692 non-transsexual male participants for outcomes of sexual identity. Same-sex romantic emotional attachment experience before adulthood predicted adult same-sex sexual orientation in both women and men. Such experiences occurred …

Deconstructing Sex: An In-Depth, Qualitative Exploration Of Women’S Sexual Experiences And Difficulties, Madalena Grobbelaar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Epidemiological research on sexual difficulties in women has reported high rates of sexual problems and dissatisfaction across the lifespan. Nevertheless, feminist scholars and social science researchers argue that an absence of research exploring women’s subjective interpretations of their sexuality and sexual difficulties exists, since prevalence studies do not address how the range of diverse socio-cultural, relational, biological and psychological processes interact to influence women’s sexuality across the lifespan. The current study aimed to narrow this research dearth by presenting an in-depth, qualitative exploration of heterosexual women’s accounts of their sexual experiences and their perceived sexuality. A phenomenological approach was utilised …

A Proposal For A Feasible, First-Step, Legislative Agenda For Divorce Reform, Alan J. Hawkins

Faculty Publications

American sociologist Andrew Cherlin argues that the institutional boundaries of marriage have shrunk; marriage no longer effectively governs intimate associations before marriage, or structures "proper" pathways to the desired goal of healthy, stable marriage. Personal development and individual emotions are at the core of modern marriage, rather than societal expectations and religious and civil norms. Accordingly, marriages are held together now by internal, psychological forces rather than external, societal forces, and these bonds are substantially weaker. As a result, divorce is common, with about half ending within twenty years; second marriages have even higher rates of disruption. While the divorce …

Community-Based Programs Serving Fathers, Erin Kramer Holmes, Sean Brotherson, Kevin Roy

Faculty Publications

Community-based programs have been an important vehicle for the promotion of father involvement in the lives of children over the past decade. There is little available research, however, on the effectiveness of these programs in promoting involvement, or on the experiences of men and staff in building such programs. Despite the emergence of a new generation of federally-funded, state-funded, and locally-funded programs for the fathers and families, a lack of available research means researchers and practitioners run the risk of losing valuable insight to inform better practices for fathering. Devoting a special issue of Fathering to these efforts is our …

Medical Identity Theft, Whitney Walters, Axton Betz

Consumer Sciences Faculty Publications

The purpose of this position paper is to provide in formation on medical identity theft. Secondary purposes of this paper are to describe signs of victimization, consequences of victimization, and how to recover from medical identity theft. An additional secondary purpose is to describe how individuals can protect themselves from becoming victims of medical identity theft. More robust public policy need to be developed. And, more educators in the fields of consumer education, business and finance along with those from economics and family services need to develop detailed lessons and programs on medical identity theft and its effects on the …

Beyond Practice And Constraint: Toward Situating Female Sexual Agency On St. Croix, Usvi, Jamae F. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women are shaped by the social structure, but they are not simply passive products. They act. They respond. They pursue. This holds true for many aspects of women's complex and dynamic lives, including their sexual health. Daily, women negotiate social expectations, individual proclivities and desires, and the need to provide for themselves and their families. Through the use of ethnographic methodology, focusing on three major social pillars--the regulation of the female body, the organization of social space, and the structuring of gender--this investigation, based on the island of St. Croix, USVI, seeks to offer an ethnographic assessment of women's attempts …

Selling Masculinity And Profiting From Marginality: Sex Work And Tourism In A Jamaican Resort Town, Lauren C. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography explores the practice of sex tourism in Negril, Jamaica, and its sociocultural, economic, and health impacts on the popular tourist destination. Transactional sex with female tourists has become a popular income generator for some young Caribbean males who are excluded from formal employment in the region's leading industry. Like other resort locales, Negril draws both men and women from various parts of the country who choose to engage in sex work in order to benefit from the tourist dollars spent in Jamaica's third most popular resort area. Through the analysis of observations, interviews with residents, tourists, government officials, …

Schooling, Community, And Identity: The Perspectives Of Muslim Girls Attending An Islamic School In Florida, Vanessa Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the number of Islamic institutions increases in America, the need for greater understanding of the Muslim community, and the challenges faced by this minority, increases as well. This project seeks to provide such knowledge by exploring one of these rapidly growing institutions founded and funded by Muslims, private Islamic schools. Absent from media and literature is an understanding of Islamic schools and the experiences of youth as their attendees. This project addresses this gap through an ethnographic focus on female students at one Islamic school. Data was collected via interviews, focus groups, observation, and participant observation. This student-centered approach …

Parental Leave: Policy And Practice, Amanda Parr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parental leave is a broad term that encompasses maternity and/or paternity leave to care for an infant. Parental leave provides job protection for workers and may be paid or unpaid, with provisions varying throughout the world. Every industrialized nation offers some form of paid parental leave, with the exception of the United States, whose only federal policy regarding parental leave is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a law that allows eligible workers to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job protected leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

This research project explored how parents understand …

A Family Affair: The Effects Of Familial Relations On Offender Recidivism, Kenneth Tarez Kelso

Wayne State University Dissertations

Prisoner recidivism has and continues to impact families and communities. Traditional methods aimed at reducing this phenomenon have had little success in curtailing this problem. One obvious but often overlooked tool that may play a significant role in dealing with this issue is the importance of family relationships. This dissertation quantitatively examines offender's perceptions of the importance of family relations, specifically the relationships with the offender's children, spouse or significant other. These relationships are analyzed to determine their level of impact on prison misconduct and parole recidivism.

Response data from 102 male ex-offenders from the years of 2009 to 2010 …

René Girard: The Goodness Of Mimetic Desire Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Michael Oakeshott: Lectures In The History Of Political Thought Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Are Subcompact Cars Driving Consumers Towards Sustainable Transport, Enda Mcgovern

WCBT Faculty Publications

Access to private transport is a critical component of the modern industrialized world but it is also recognized as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, one of the global warming gases contributing to climate change. This paper looks at increased use of subcompact cars as a key component in developing a sustainable transport policy. These cars benefit the environment by emitting reduced levels of carbon emissions due to their smaller engines. This empirical research explores the opinions of Smart car owners in a focus group study. Smart car owners are primarily focused on reducing their costs due to difficult …