Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Content Analysis Of Relationships And Intimacy In Teen Dramas On Television, Sara Valoise Lamb

Theses and Dissertations

Television programs continue to play a significant role in a teenager's life as they become involved in dating relationships. Adolescence is a pivotal period of life. Teenagers' usage of media, especially television, provides a source of norms and scripts of what a relationship looks like. The portrayals of sexual content in teen programs has become a source of sexual information instead of parents and peers. Many parents are unaware of the sexual content teen programs deliver to their audiences. This study analyzes how teen dramas create expectations through their portrayal of relationships and intimacy on television. Five teen television programs …

Nonprofit Public Relationships On Social Media: The Public's Perspective, Brooke Lauren Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This work explores the effect of social media on expectations held by nonprofit publics as they seek to build and maintain relationships with nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the context of expectancy violation theory, social capital, and the situational theory of publics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 individuals who follow a nonprofit on social media to understand the public perspective on nonprofit organizations' relationship building and maintaining behaviors on social media. The study found that nonprofit publics do have specific expectations for how NPOs should build and maintain relationships on social media (i.e., high-quality posts, level of interaction being limited …

Does The Scientist-Practitioner Gap Have Ontological Roots?, Eric Alexander Ghelfi

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the nature and extent of practitioners' dissatisfaction with the psychotherapy research literature will first be described. A case will be made that a deeper analysis needs to be conducted to fully understand this dissatisfaction. Next, this dissatisfaction will be framed in the context of a particular ontology that seems to have largely contributed to it. Most importantly, several features of this ontology will be described and connected to practitioners' dissatisfaction. Finally, an alternative framework for understanding practitioners' dissatisfaction will be tentatively proposed, and it will be suggested that this alternative could help researchers and practitioners understand their …

Article 1- "God Will Glorify Your Marriage": Marital Satisfaction And Relational Spirituality In Religious Black Couples Article 2- "A Godly Man": A Qualitative Exploration Of The Influence Of Religion On Black Masculinity And Fatherhood, Travis James Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggest that Black couples tend to marry later, with less frequency, have marriages that do not last as long, and are more prone to divorce than other racial categories. However, religion may play an important role to counteract the negative marriage trends among Black heterosexual couples. As a growing subfield of family psychology this study examines the influence of religion on marital sanctification and relational spirituality among 33 Black married couples (N = 66). In-depth qualitative interviews with Black married couples were analyzed to see how religion informed and shaped perceptions of marital sanctification as well as unique relational …

The Effect Of Common Factor Therapist Behaviors On Change In Marital Satisfaction, Li Ping Su

Theses and Dissertations

Couple therapy has been proven to be successful in treating marital distress and mental health problems; however, not everyone benefits from couple therapy. Although research suggests that some couple therapists are more effective than others, little research has explored the in-session behaviors of effective couple therapists. The purpose of this study was to code the therapist behaviors of therapist warmth, empathy, validation, presence, collaboration, systemically-based techniques, and session structure in the first session of 17 Emotionally Focused Therapy cases of couple therapy to examine their ability to predict pre-therapy to post-therapy change in male and female marital satisfaction. The seven …

The Beef Basin Occupation As An Extension Of The Northern San Region: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Ceramics In Beef Basin, Utah, Jaclyn Marie Eckersley

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a summary of the methods and key results of my analysis of 7,997 sherds from 14 sites in Beef Basin, Utah. I discuss physical attributes of the collection, the results of mean ceramic dating, the results of neutron activation analysis, and the results of refiring a sample of nips in an oxidizing atmosphere. I briefly summarize the architecture at each site , as well as possible Fremont cultural material found in and near Beef Basin. I conclude that Beef Basin was likely occupied in the early Pueblo III period and that the occupation was sudden and brief. …

Hope For Utah:? Exploring The Long-Term Impacts Of Peer-Based Suicide Prevention Among Adolescents, Meagan Rose Rainock

Theses and Dissertations

Current research studies on the success of peer-based outreach programs for adolescent suicide prevention are inconclusive (Mann et al. 2005; Gould et al. 2003). Fewer still have measured the feelings and experiences of the peers who are responsible for reaching out to suicidal friends within such a program. This exploratory research study examines the experiences and perspectives of past participants of an adolescent peer-based outreach program, Hope4Utah. Findings from this mixed-method study of Hope4Utah support that peer-outreach suicide prevention programs have far-reaching benefits, on both the participants and their surrounding communities, which extend into adulthood. Themes that emerged from analysis …

U.S. Racial/Ethnic/Cultural Groups In Counseling Psychology Literature: A Content Analysis, Jared Mark Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

Research on ethnic/racial/cultural (REC) groups can contribute to reducing mental health risks and treatment disparities among REC minorities. Content analysis is a way to measure the quantity and quality of REC-focused research within a given field. For this study, counseling psychology was chosen for its leadership in multicultural and social justice issues. Three journals (Journal of Counseling Psychology, The Counseling Psychologist, and Journal of Counseling & Development) were coded for several variables, including REC-minority focus, article topic, geographic location of sample, urban/rural setting of sample, and inclusion of ethnic identity and acculturation measures. The results showed that 490 (21.3%) of …

The Moderating Role Of Best Friendships On The Longitudinal Relationship Between Parental Psychological Control And Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, And Identity Exploration In Emerging Adulthood, Lauren Elizabeth Cook

Theses and Dissertations

Parental psychological control has been linked to numerous negative outcomes among emerging-adult children. Given that emerging adulthood is a time for young people to become autonomous, explore their identities, and begin to feel like an adult, controlling parenting that limits these necessary developmental experiences can be particularly harmful to emerging adults. Given this vulnerability, the current study aimed to understand how parental psychological control affects emerging adults' adjustment (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, identity exploration), explore a moderating factor (i.e., best friendships) that could help these struggling emerging adults, and examine how these relations could differ by parent and child …

Longitudinal Change In Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexuality, Laura M. Padilla-Walker

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Research suggests that parents can be important sources of sex education for their children, but we know little about how this type of communication changes developmentally. Thus, the current study explored longitudinal change in child-, mother-, and father-reports of parent-child communica- tion about sexuality, and how change might be associated with behaviors indicative of sexual risk.

Methods: The sample included 468 adolescents (52% female, 67% white) who participated every year from age 14 to 18, and their mother and father. Results: Growth-curve analyses revealed relatively low and stable levels of parent-child communication from all three reporters, with some differences …

Longitudinal Change In High-Cost Prosocial Behaviors Of Defending And Including During The Transition To Adulthood, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Madison K. Memmott-Elison, Matthew G. Nielson

Faculty Publications

Despite high profile examples that are highlighted in the popular media, we know little about high-cost prosocial behaviors such as defending and including, and how these behaviors might change over time and vary by individual. Thus, this study explored defending and including behaviors across the transition to adulthood by assessing growth and profiles of these high-cost prosocial behaviors over a four-year time span. In addition the study explored gender, emotional (sympathy), cognitive (personal values), individual (self-esteem), and relational (maternal warmth) factors during adolescence that predicted profiles of defending and including during the transition to adulthood. Participants were 469 individuals (52% …

Separating The Wheat From The Chaff: Weeding The Collection Is A Collaborative Affair, Gregory M. Nelson, Meg F. Frost, Betsy S. Hopkins, Mark W. Jackson, Jed Johnston, David Pixton, Michael C. Goates

Faculty Publications

A library construction project led our library’s Science & Engineering Department to take on a massive evaluation of the entire science print collection and reduce the collection footprint by at least 36% within a 12 month period. In order to improve access, reduce the footprint, strengthen the robustness of our collection, and complete the project in an effective and timely manner, a methodology of how to choose, select, evaluate, and move the entire collection of over 360,000 items had to be established and vetted. A plan was developed between the library’s Science & Engineering Department and teams from collection development, …

Virtual Reality: A Survey Of Use At An Academic Library, Megan Frost, Michael C. Goates, Sarah Cheng

Faculty Publications

We conducted a survey to inform the expansion of our current Virtual Reality (VR) service in the library. We were primarily interested in user experience, demographics, academic interests in VR, and methods of discovery.

The Effects Of Lds Pubic Affairs Campaigns On The Perception Of Mormonism From 2001-2015, Abby Eyre, John Waltz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The French have found Mormons fascinating since 1860. Jules Verne depicted Mormons as utopian menaces in his 1863 novel Paris in the 20th Century¹, French cartoonists illustrated polygamous and mixed-race Mormon couples as satire, and French outcasts occupied Nauvoo after the great Mormon exodus west. In the time since the early days of the American church, little changed regarding the perception of Mormons until the internet allowed real-time flow of information. My own experience as a missionary and as an intern in France piqued my interest in how French people viewed Mormons. I met people who had never …

Preserving Oral History: Utah Nippo’S Influence On Second Generation Japanese Americans, Akiko Chau, Joel Campbell

Journal of Undergraduate Research

A Japanese newspaper called Utah Nippo which headquartered in Salt Lake City became an integral part of the establishment of Japanese American community in Utah in the 20th century. Founded in 1914, Utah Nippo was one of the four newspapers in the U.S. that were allowed to continue its publications throughout World War II years under strict surveillance. During the wartime, Issei, the first generation Japanese Americans, was informed of the war progress and news from the relocation camps through the paper. Utah Nippo also announced local activities and happenings important for Nisei, the second generation Japanese Americans, which continued …

Agency In Action: Exploring User Responses And Rhetorical Choices In Interactive Data Displays, Jacob D. Rawlins, Gregory D. Wilson, Kate Crane

Faculty Publications

n 2014, Rawlins and Wilson proposed a typology of agential interactions between users and designers of interactive data displays. This article tests that typology by studying 20 users working with three different types of interactive data displays and answering questions, which were coded by verb and actor and analyzed for themes. The authors show that rhetorical agency is marked by thoughts, actions, and language. Affordances by the designer open a shared rhetorical space where user and designer are coparticipants. As interactivity increases, participants see themselves as rhetorical agents in a community of rhetorical agents rather than as conduits of information.

The Influence Of Context On Distinct Facial Expressions Of Disgust, Peter J. Reschke, Eric A. Walle, Jennifer M. Knothe, Lukas D. Lopez

Faculty Publications

Face perception is susceptible to contextual influence and perceived physical similarities between emotion cues. However, studies often use structurally homogeneous facial expressions, making it difficult to explore how within-emotion variability in facial configuration affects emotion perception. This study examined the influence of context on the emotional perception of categorically identical, yet physically distinct, facial expressions of disgust. Participants categorized two perceptually distinct disgust facial expressions, "closed" (i.e., scrunched nose, closed mouth) and "open" (i.e., scrunched nose, open mouth, protruding tongue), that were embedded in contexts comprising emotion postures and scenes. Results demonstrated that the effect of nonfacial elements was significantly …

A Framework For The Performance Analysis And Tuning Of Virtual Private Networks, Fridrich Shane Perez

Theses and Dissertations

With the rising trend of personal devices like laptops and smartphones being used in businesses and significant enterprises, the concern for preserving security arises. In addition to preserving security measures in outside devices, the network speed and performance capable by these devices need to be balanced with the security aspect to avoid slowing down virtual private network (VPN) activity. Performance tests have been done in the past to evaluate available software, hardware, and network security protocol options that will best benefit an entity according to its specific needs. With a variety of comparable frameworks available currently, it is a matter …

Stack The Deck: An Intervention For Regulating Verbal Participation In Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Katherine Ensign Montgomery

Theses and Dissertations

Some students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with social reciprocity, or the ability to engage in chains of back-and-forth conversation, interfering with other students' ability to respond to a question that is posed by the teacher in classrooms. The participants were 11 fifth grade students with autism spectrum disorder. We used a simple differential reinforcement intervention within a token system in direct instruction sessions for math to help balance the participation in a class of children with ASD as well as lower the number of talk-outs made by all students. Using a single-subject design, data were analyzed for changes …

Social Outcome Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Meta-Analysis, Jonathan James Mietchen

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Children and adolescents with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at increased risk for developing social incompetence and impairment in broad psychosocial functioning. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between history of TBI, social competence, and broad psychosocial functioning using meta-analytic methods. Methods: Studies relating to social outcome following pediatric TBI were searched for using scientific, academic databases. Sixteen studies (N=2,005) met inclusion criteria, and relevant data relating to social functioning was extracted. Meta-analytic methods were used in order to obtain Hedges's g effect size data for mild, moderate, and severe TBI groups. …

Tuning Out Security Warnings: A Longitudinal Examination Of Habituation Through Fmri, Eye Tracking, And Field Experiments, Anthony Vance, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Bonnie Brinton Anderson, Daniel K. Bjornn, C. Brock Kirwan

Faculty Publications

Research in the fields of information systems and human-computer interaction has shown that habituation— decreased response to repeated stimulation—is a serious threat to the effectiveness of security warnings. Although habituation is a neurobiological phenomenon that develops over time, past studies have only examined this problem cross-sectionally. Further, past studies have not examined how habituation influences actual security warning adherence in the field. For these reasons, the full extent of the problem of habituation is unknown. We address these gaps by conducting two complementary longitudinal experiments. First, we performed an experiment collecting fMRI and eye-tracking data simultaneously to directly measure habituation …

A Q-Method Study Of Visual Metaphors In Advertising, Mckenzie Joell Madsen

Theses and Dissertations

Visual metaphors in advertising have been researched extensively because of their ability to persuade. However, few studies have investigated why they are persuasive from the perspective of the consumer. The purpose of this study was to identify why viewers are attracted to visual metaphor ads and provide a better understanding of the types of consumers who view them, revealing their subjective opinions and attitudes. Through the use of Q-method, four factors were identified: "Highbrows," who prefer metaphors that are classy and refined, "Connectors," an emotional group that focuses on interpersonal relationships and the relevance of the metaphor to the advertised …

A Comparison Of Qualitative And Quantitative White Matter Methods In Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, Kacie Larae Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Magnetic resonance imaging is used to assess white matter (WM) abnormalities including total WM volumes and WM hyperintensities (WMHs). Comparisons between several qualitative and quantitative methods to assess WM that are used in research and clinical settings are lacking in pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study 1) WM methods including Scheltens ratings, manual tracings, NeuroQuant®, and FreeSurfer; (2) compared total WM volumes and WMHs to assess potentially similar reporting of WM integrity; and (3) assessed the relationship between cognitive functions (intelligence, attention, processing speed, and language) and WM in pediatric TBI.Sixty participants (65% male) between ages 8-13 years old, …

Informing Social Impact: Enabling Everyday Changemakers Through Research, Marissa Getts

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite a lack of expertise regarding social impact, laypeople make many important decisions about social good by starting or supporting organizations or social businesses, voting for or against legislation and policymakers, or spending their money and time on volunteering or service trips. Unfortunately, many people base their interventions or analysis of interventions for any given social issue on overly simplistic understanding or incorrect information regarding social impact. This keeps them from developing interventions with positive, sustainable impact. Ballard Brief is a publication based on a framework intended to inform the layperson about social issues and interventions.

This thesis is comprised …

Examining Large Game Utility And Transport Decisions By Fremont Hunters: A Study Of Faunal Bone From Wolf Village, Utah, Spencer Francis Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

This analysis of faunal bones from Wolf Village focuses on large game and its utility, as evidenced by what is known as the modified general utility index (MGUI). The MGUI proposes that bones at sites reflect transportation and butchering choices made by hunters at kill-butchering sites. According to the assumptions associated with the MGUI, hunters should select animal portions with high food value. The MGUI has been used in Fremont archaeology to provide a rough measure of site function. The expectation is that faunal bones would accompany the prized cuts of large game meat at habitation sites – and the …

Friction Bit Joining Of Similar Alloy Sheets Of High-Strength Aluminum Alloy 7085, Matthew R. Okazaki

Theses and Dissertations

Friction Bit Joining (FBJ) is a new technology used primarily in joining dissimilar metals. Its primary use has been focused in the automotive industry to provide an alternative joining process to welding. As automotive manufacturing has continually pushed toward using dissimilar materials, new joining processes have been needed to replace traditional welding practices that do not perform well when materials are not weld compatible. FBJ meets these needs perfectly as it provides strength as well as the ability to join materials of almost any kind.The purpose of this research was to explore different applications of the FBJ process. Traditionally FBJ …

The Feasibility Of Augmenting A Fixed-Gap Bobbin Friction Stir Welding Tool With Cutters To Join Enclosed Castings, Adam Baxter Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

Bobbin Friction Stir Welding (BFSW) is a new application of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) that can be used to join materials together with little to no axial forces. This eliminates the need of a backplate or anvil needed to apply counter pressure against the tool. The applications of BFSW are growing every day. This new technology is helping the automotive industry and many other industries join materials more effectively and efficiently. This technology can be used to join materials with high strength to weight ratios to make cars lighter to increase fuel efficiency. This will also greatly reduce the cost …

Lean Six Sigma's Impact On Firm Innovation Performance, Austin Michael Strong

Theses and Dissertations

Following Toyota's dramatic rise to prominence within the automotive industry in the late 1980's, firms around the globe have widely sought to adopt Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a means of reducing costs, improving quality, and gaining an overall competitive advantage. While the operational benefits of LSS are largely undisputed, there are criticisms of the movement with regards to its effect on firm innovation capability. Prior academic studies investigating the relationship between LSS and innovation are largely conceptual in nature, rely heavily on qualitative data, and display a high degree of variability in results. The objective of this work was …

Parent Reciprocal Teaching: Comparing Parent And Peer Reciprocal Teaching In High School Physics Instruction, Jonathan Jacob Welling

Theses and Dissertations

Effective strategies are needed to help parents become more involved in the education of their teenage children. Parent Reciprocal Teaching (PRT) is proposed as an effective strategy to increase parent involvement and help students increase academic performance. 120 students in a 10th-grade high school physics course participated in either the PRT homework assignments or traditional reciprocal teaching (TRT) assignments. The PRT homework assignments required students to teach their parents/guardians at home, while the TRT assignments required students to teach a peer during class time. Data was collected though test scores and surveys sent home to parents and students. Findings indicate …

Like And Shout: Brand Loyalty, Framing, And Fan Interactions On The Byu Football Facebook Page, Zachary Anderson Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This research is intended to provide the stewards of social media for Brigham Young University's football program with information that will allow them to make better decisions on what kind of content will maximize engagement and enhance brand loyalty among fans and consumers on Facebook. Using several variables, including the type or theme of content, post frequency, and sponsorship, content was compared against that from the University of Oregon's football program for the 2017 season. The results, found using quantitative data analysis, reveal that some variables have a significant impact on the quantity of engagement from viewers for both programs …