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“It’S Just A Girl Thing”; The Feminization Of Work Groups And The Effect Of Numerical Composition On Group Hierarchy, Miriam E. Verploegh 2022 University of Iowa

“It’S Just A Girl Thing”; The Feminization Of Work Groups And The Effect Of Numerical Composition On Group Hierarchy, Miriam E. Verploegh

Great Plains Sociologist

Women have recently shown higher rates of attendance and graduation in college, a reversal of a long-standing educational status quo that could alter gender relations in society. Given recent trends of female achievement in higher education, how will this shift in gender composition shape processes of stratification in academic work settings? To answer this question, this study looked at 78 videos men and women working in three person groups, who had been videotaped for a previous laboratory study. Examination of these videos provided the qualitative data to investigate how group composition and gender shapes stratification within academic groups. Systematic observation …


A Graphic Representation Of The Minnesota Dakota Diaspora, Ronald G. Stover 2022 South Dakota State University

A Graphic Representation Of The Minnesota Dakota Diaspora, Ronald G. Stover

Great Plains Sociologist

By the early 1800s, the Sioux of the upper Great Plains had divided into three main sub-divisions: the Dakota, the Nakota, and the Lakota. The Dakota occupied most of the territory now known as the state of Minnesota. Throughout the 1800s, they were slowly deprived of much of that territory. By the end of the 1800s, they had not only lost most of their land, they had lost the legal right to live in Minnesota. This manuscript presents a graphic representation of that diaspora.


Using Humor With Dying And Bereaved Children, Gerry Cox 2022 University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Using Humor With Dying And Bereaved Children, Gerry Cox

Great Plains Sociologist

Both adults and children may suffer from complicated grief. Strategies that are effective for adults often do not work as well for children. Individuals suffering from complicated grief typically feel overwhelmed, unable to adapt, engage in behavior that is repetitive, or experience extensive interruptions of the healing process that abnormally lengthens their grieving. For children, complicated grief may be presented by the complete absence of grief reactions. Although many strategies exist to aid those suffering from complicated grief, the use of humor may be used to aid both children and adults be more receptive to other forms of grief management. …


Society And The Individual: A Theoretical Exploration Of The Contemporary Era, Daniel Bartholomay 2022 University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

Society And The Individual: A Theoretical Exploration Of The Contemporary Era, Daniel Bartholomay

Great Plains Sociologist

The theoretical discussion of the relationship between society and the individual is fundamental to the field of sociology. A shift into the contemporary era of social theory begins to accredit the individual with a greater sense of agency in terms of interacting with and recognizing the impact of structures rather than being unconsciously controlled by them. The following work discusses the positions held by seminal contemporary theorists regarding the relationship between the individual and society. A comparative analysis among a number of the theorists highlights similarities and differences in approaches and illuminates the core concepts, terminology and theoretical perspectives generated …


A Comparative Approach To Promotional Methods For Seasonal Influenza Immunizations To Dorm Dwelling College Freshmen, Gina Aalgaard Kelly, Carolyn Townsend 2022 North Dakota State University

A Comparative Approach To Promotional Methods For Seasonal Influenza Immunizations To Dorm Dwelling College Freshmen, Gina Aalgaard Kelly, Carolyn Townsend

Great Plains Sociologist

Introduction: Comparing tailored e-mail messaging to mailed postcards promoting seasonal influenza immunizations for dorm dwelling college freshmen is important for early health prevention and promotion. Dorm dwelling college students are particularly at risk of viral diseases due to the close proximity of their living conditions. Understanding influences with health care decisions and practices is therefore also important with the college dorm dwelling population. Method: A convenience sample was used to collect data from influenza clinic participants on a Midwest college campus over three seasonal flu periods. A Health-E card was sent in 2010 via university issued student e-mail accounts informing …


Quality Of Life In Nursing Homes: A Theoretical And Empirical Review, Gina Aalgaard Kelly 2022 North Dakota State University

Quality Of Life In Nursing Homes: A Theoretical And Empirical Review, Gina Aalgaard Kelly

Great Plains Sociologist

Quality of life is a complex and multi-dimensional notion which individuals and their families try to attain. This paper provides an overview of quality of life literature guided by Lawton’s (1983: 351) “Four Sectors of the Good Life”.” This model of organization demonstrates a multidimensional conceptual view of quality of life in which theoretical and empirical domains were recognized in the literature. Parameters used to understand quality of life and how it is studied provide the framework of the review, specifically in the nursing home setting. Quality of life is of growing importance because people are living longer and population …


Hearing Social Structure: A Musical Exercise In Teaching Introduction To Sociology, Roxanne Gerbrandt, Preston Gilmore 2022 Austin Peay State University

Hearing Social Structure: A Musical Exercise In Teaching Introduction To Sociology, Roxanne Gerbrandt, Preston Gilmore

Great Plains Sociologist

This article details employing music as a pedagogical tool to enable introductory students to relate personal experiences to larger social structures such as class, race, and gender through a creative yet rigorous exercise. The authors review earlier uses of music in the classroom, and expand on that framework, adding a number of crucial elements. The exercise includes the selection of a song by students, then a review of the sociological frameworks influencing the song, culminating in a formal research paper to enhance critical thinking and a presentation where students educate their classmates. The exercise enables the popularity of music to …


Book Review: A Disability History Of The United States By Kim E. Nielsen, Jack Trammell 2022 South Dakota State University

Book Review: A Disability History Of The United States By Kim E. Nielsen, Jack Trammell

Great Plains Sociologist

Nielsen, Kim E. A Disability History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2012, 272 pp., $26.95 hardback.


Book Review: Reshaping The Work-Family Debate: Why Men And Class Matter By Joan C. Williams, Kurt Osborne 2022 South Dakota State University

Book Review: Reshaping The Work-Family Debate: Why Men And Class Matter By Joan C. Williams, Kurt Osborne

Great Plains Sociologist

Williams, Joan C. Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter. Harvard University Press, 2012, 304 pp., $18.95 paperback.


A Day At The Morgue: Student Interpretations Of Death And Reality, Jason L. Karsky, Pamela M. Everett, Donald E. Arwood 2022 Wayne State University

A Day At The Morgue: Student Interpretations Of Death And Reality, Jason L. Karsky, Pamela M. Everett, Donald E. Arwood

Great Plains Sociologist

This study involved the reflections of 15 college students six months after a visit to a morgue. After witnessing the various aspects of death at the morgue (e.g. morgue intake of bodies, significant time spent in a very large storage cooler for corpses, as well as an autopsy) a qualitative inquiry was conducted to determine whether or not the participants’ experiences were “real” or “surreal.” Analysis revealed that most determined their experience to be surreal. The students’ lack of experience with death, to the extent they experienced it at the morgue, no doubt resulted in more subjects determining the experience …


The Ritual Of Riots: An Examination Of University And College Riots, 1990 – 2009, Sandra Marker 2022 Black Hills State University

The Ritual Of Riots: An Examination Of University And College Riots, 1990 – 2009, Sandra Marker

Great Plains Sociologist

Between 1990 and 2009 a wave of student riots washed across 52 college campuses and communities in the United States. Over 100 riots erupted from student festivities and sporting events. On a cursory level, today’s student riots in contrast to past Vietnam War Era campus riots that had a specific goal (i.e., ending the war), seem to have no particular aim nor objective other than the consumption of alcohol. This has led researchers to presume that excessive student drinking is a significant causal factor to these events; however, findings from initial student riot studies indicate that alcohol is neither a …


An Examination Of Geographic And Socio- Demographic Impacts On Private Industry Job Change In The Dakotas, 2002 – 2008, W. Trevor Brooks, Jake Cummings, Joshua J. Turner 2022 Austin Peay State University

An Examination Of Geographic And Socio- Demographic Impacts On Private Industry Job Change In The Dakotas, 2002 – 2008, W. Trevor Brooks, Jake Cummings, Joshua J. Turner

Great Plains Sociologist

This study examines geographic and socio-demographic factors associated with private industry job change in North and South Dakota from 2002 to 2008. We conceptualize private industries as enterprises or businesses that are individually or corporately owned and operated outside the public sector. County-level occupational data were captured using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). Results indicate that percentage of workers commuting to another county for work, median household income, the percentage of residents identifying as American Indian and Alaska Native, and population change were significant predictors of county-level private industry job change.


Book Review: Debating Sex And Gender By Georgia Wamke, Laura Colmenero-Chilberg 2022 Black Hills State University

Book Review: Debating Sex And Gender By Georgia Wamke, Laura Colmenero-Chilberg

Great Plains Sociologist

Warnke, Georgia. Debating Sex and Gender. Oxford University Press, 2011, 144 pp., $19.95 paperback.


Book Review: Fat Matters: From Sociology To Science Edited By Gina Tsichlia And Alexandra M. Johnstone, Brittney Hansen 2022 University of North Dakota

Book Review: Fat Matters: From Sociology To Science Edited By Gina Tsichlia And Alexandra M. Johnstone, Brittney Hansen

Great Plains Sociologist

Tsichlia, Gina and Alexandra M. Johnstone (Eds.). Fat Matters: From Sociology to Science. M & K Update Ltd., 2010, 144 pp., $45.00 paperback.


Voters Reframe The Abortion Policy Debate: A Theoretical Analysis Of Abortion Attitudes In South Dakota, Pamela Carriveau, Linda Colmenero-Chilberg 2022 Black Hills State University

Voters Reframe The Abortion Policy Debate: A Theoretical Analysis Of Abortion Attitudes In South Dakota, Pamela Carriveau, Linda Colmenero-Chilberg

Great Plains Sociologist

Since the Supreme Court’s announced its decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), individuals and groups opposed to legalized abortion in the United States have battled to reverse the ruling. Using established political processes, incremental steps such as parental consent requirements and/or twenty-four hour waiting periods have been strategically advanced as they charted the path to their real goal – an all-out abortion ban. Contemporary South Dakota Pro-Life activists abandoned this incremental approach in 2006, in the belief that the time was ripe for a voter-supported broadbased abortion ban that could be used to challenge the Supreme Court decision. They failed, …


Understanding Workday Housework Participation: Testing Three Theories, Krista Lynn Minnotte, Matti Grotte 2022 University of North Dakota

Understanding Workday Housework Participation: Testing Three Theories, Krista Lynn Minnotte, Matti Grotte

Great Plains Sociologist

In this study we examine the usefulness of three theories (time availability theory, gender ideology theory, and relative resources) in predicting workday housework performance among partnered and married mothers and fathers. In doing so, we incorporate an extended version of time availability theory that considers the use of flexible scheduling and the presence of nonstandard work hours in addition to number of hours worked. Our hypotheses are addressed with data from a nationally representative sample of employed adults. Our results show that none of the theories are useful in predicting fathers’ workday housework performance; however, two theories are beneficial for …


Structural Conditions And Migration In The Dakotas, Joshua J. Turner, W. Trevor Brooks, Donald E. Arwood 2022 Mississippi State University

Structural Conditions And Migration In The Dakotas, Joshua J. Turner, W. Trevor Brooks, Donald E. Arwood

Great Plains Sociologist

This study examines the influence of selected structural conditions on the county-level net-migration trends of North Dakota and South Dakota. Key principles from Lee’s Theory of Migration (1966) and Wallerstein’s World Systems model (1974) were integrated to explain how geographic context, economic dependency, and pace of economic development combine to serve as the main catalysts behind the migration patterns in these two states. Results indicate that commuting patterns, the percentage of workers employed in extractive industries, the percentage of workers employed in manufacturing, and job change rates were significant predictors of county migration patterns.


Book Review: School Of Dreams: Making The Grade At A Top American High School By Edward Humes, Jake Thomas 2022 South Dakota State University

Book Review: School Of Dreams: Making The Grade At A Top American High School By Edward Humes, Jake Thomas

Great Plains Sociologist

Humes, Edward. School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003. 400 pp. $14.00 paperback.


An Exploratory Study Of Job Satisfaction Among Mail Handlers And Sorters In A Package-Delivery Organization, A. Olu Oyinlade, Carla Garay 2022 University of Nebraska at Omaha

An Exploratory Study Of Job Satisfaction Among Mail Handlers And Sorters In A Package-Delivery Organization, A. Olu Oyinlade, Carla Garay

Great Plains Sociologist

This is an exploratory study of the correlates and predictors of job satisfaction among mail handlers and sorters, in a package-delivery organization, used as case study. Job satisfaction has been widely studied, but most studies have largely neglected manual laborers. This study is a shift from traditional research participants (health care providers, the military, scientists) of job satisfaction studies to manual workers. A research framework consisting of a theoretical and a demographic model was used to establish correlates and predictors of job satisfaction. Findings of correlation analyses and three regression models (used for triangulation) showed that ten variables were correlated …


A Test Of Social Disorganization On Juvenile Property And Violent Crime Rates By Zip Codes Within Two Nonmetropolitan Counties, Mario T. Hesse, Susan M. Hilal 2022 St. Cloud State University

A Test Of Social Disorganization On Juvenile Property And Violent Crime Rates By Zip Codes Within Two Nonmetropolitan Counties, Mario T. Hesse, Susan M. Hilal

Great Plains Sociologist

This study tests the effects of social disorganization on juvenile crimes rates by zip code within two nonmetropolitan counties. It does so by examining the relationships between the selected social disorganization indicators of nontraditional family, residential mobility, and socioeconomic status (poverty) and violent and property crime among juveniles through the use of ANOVA testing. Secondary data obtained from the South Dakota Department of Corrections on adjudicated juveniles and their associated crime and residential location, as well as data from the United States Census Bureau is used and analyzed to test three main hypotheses. Findings indicate that areas characterized by poverty …


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