Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Audiovisual Afterlives: The Soundtrack Of Liberal Nostalgia, Max W. Kaplan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Following the 2016 American Presidential election, celebrity endorsements proved to be a more narrow gauge of public opinion than ever. The symbolic alignment with popular musicians, which had long abetted the Democratic Party’s standing with youth and particular identity groups, seemed only to reaffirm the party’s establishment status, drawing disavowal in a wave of anti-establishment sentiment on both the left and right. ‘Retromania,’ a term first coined by Simon Reynolds in 2010, can be tracked conceptually from the nostalgic inclinations of twenty-first century popular culture to the ideological sphere, where nostalgic, essentialized constructions of community, identity, and progress have coalesced …

Macroeconomic Adjustments Of Global Convergence: Real Exchange Rate Response Of Asia-Pacific Growth, Kumarappan Annamalai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1 : PURCHASING POWER PARITY, REAL EXCHANGE RATE, PRICE LEVEL INDEX and HARROD-BALASSA-SAMUELSON EFFECT: LITERATURE SURVEY

In the light of the concepts explained in the introduction section, this chapter explores the seminal papers on the Purchasing Power Parity principle, the Real Exchange rate, and the Price Level Index, showing the evolution of PPP and the methodologies adopted in exploring the characteristics of PPP and the real exchange rates. Various characteristics might be stationarity or non-stationarity of the real exchange rates (RER), variance, correlation, half-life measures, linearity versus non-linearity, etc. Various methodologies adopted were …

A Survey Study Of Speech-Language Therapists’ Experiences With Teletherapy At The Onset Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Jason A. Rosas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study aimed to understand how delivering pediatric treatment services via ‘teletherapy’ affected speech-language therapists (SLTs) during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in 2020. SLTs reported on their experiences with the change from in-person to remote service delivery via two national surveys distributed at the start of the pandemic between April 2020 and July 2020. To explain SLTs’ survey responses, this dissertation introduced the Professional Adaptation Model (PA Model). The PA Model facilitated evaluation of the SLTs’ professional environment and the psychological constructs of their professional identity believed to influence the transition to speech-language teletherapy. Specifically, …

The Relative Cost Of Codeswitching: An Electrophysiological Study Contrasting Language Switching Versus Lexical Predictability, Iris Strangmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neurophysiological sentence processing studies are inconsistent about the additional costs that language switching within sentences (i.e., codeswitching) may bring about (cf. Valdés Kroff et al., 2020; Yacovone et al., 2021). There is discussion about whether there are, in fact, additional costs and, if so, about the origins of those costs, since some findings are consistent with effortful processing when comprehending single-language (not switched) words observed in monolingual studies. Specifically, studies are divided on whether codeswitched words are more difficult to lexically access than single-language equivalents of similar semantic predictability, as indexed by an increased N400 effect. The same studies, however, …

Dietary Regulation Of Silent Synapses In The Dorsolateral Striatum, Allison M. Meyers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Obesity and drugs of abuse share overlapping neural circuits and behaviors. Cravings for drugs of abuse increase during abstinence, a phenomenon known as incubation. In obesity, increased craving is observed in individuals during dieting. Diets often fail, with return to- or increase above- original weight. The extent to which this reflects an incubation phenomenon has not been carefully examined. One mechanism underlying incubation is the reemergence of a developmental mechanism called silent synapses. Silent synapses are 'temporary' synapses that are important for remodeling brain circuits. They are prevalent during early development but largely disappear by adulthood. Drugs of abuse increase …

Virtual Reality Supplement To The Peers Social Skills Intervention For Adolescents With Asd, Kevin Ambrose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to replicate findings of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relation Skills (PEERS) parent-assisted social skills training program for a diverse group of adolescents with historical autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses in an urban locality. Additionally, this study sought to pilot a 3D multi-user virtual environment for adolescent participants and an online learning community for parent coaches; both hypothesized to reinforce the social skills curriculum. A randomized controlled trial of PEERS was completed with 12 adolescents diagnosed with ASD with some participation from their caregivers. Results show that participants who received the …

The State Of The Unions 2022: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

New York City leads the recent uptick in private-sector union organizing at companies like Starbucks and Amazon. A new report released by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, State of the Unions 2022: A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, analyzes new union membership and union election wins across the nation’s major cities. The report also details the geographic, demographic, and occupational makeup of union membership in New York City, New York State, and the nation.

The Moral Economy Of Ordinary Belarussians And A Critical Examination And Re-Evaluation Of The 2020 Post-Electoral Uprising, Geoffrey Blank

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is three studies in one: First, a qualitative study of the moral economy of ordinary Belarussians based on E.P Thompson’s class-based economic conception of moral economy, as applied to complex socio-economic systems by Reinarman (1987). Second, a critical and broad examination and re-evaluation of the August 9, 2020 post-electoral uprising. And third, an examination of both the West’s hostility toward Belarus’ largely state-owned socially-oriented economic model (often considered market socialism) and toward President Lukashenka, and, of the West’s commitment to overthrowing President Lukashenka and Belarus’ largely state-owned socially-oriented economic model, through its sponsorship of color revolution, “democratization,” regime …

Essays On Federalism And Local Finance In China, Jiakai Zhang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that cover topics on federalism and local finance in China.

Chapter 1 - Economic Growth, Fiscal Inequality and Fiscal Decentralization: Evidence from China.

This paper investigates the impact of inequality in the geographic distribution of fiscal resources on regional economic growth under fiscal decentralization policy in the context of China's experience, using panel data for 28 provinces over the period 1987–2010. In the recent past, the structure of decentralized government in China has undergone two significant fiscal reforms: the ``Fiscal Responsibility System" (FRS) in 1987-1993, and the ``Tax Sharing System" (TSS) in 1994. I …

Teaching Revolution: Women Primary School Teachers, Race, And Social Reproduction In Cuba, Angela M. Crumdy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In November of 2018, Dr. Miriam Nicado García was appointed Rector of the University of Havana, making her the first woman of color to hold the position in the institution’s 209-year existence. This is undoubtedly a historic event that serves as a starting point to consider the intersections of formal education and social difference on the island from the perspective of education workers. Despite claims that Cuba is a racial democracy in which all citizens are unified by a shared national identity, an assessment of the education system through the experiences of women educators can be used as a diagnostic …

Essays On Impacts Of Women Empowerment On The Health Outcomes Of Children, Sagnik Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: Taking cognizance of the lack of representation of women in politics, the Indian government in 1993, enacted the 73rd constitutional amendment which led to a sudden increase in the representation of women in the local governments. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the timing of implementation of the 73rd amendment across the states, I study the spillover effects of this mandated empowerment of women on the health outcomes of children by using nationally representative survey data and employing a difference-in-difference estimation strategy. In this study, I find evidence of a positive impact of mandated women empowerment on the survival …

Lost In Digitization: Physical Products Are Vessels For Social Meaning, Oden H. Groth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The explosion in digitization means that consumers increasingly have the opportunity to choose between digital and physical versions of products — for example, between an eBook and a paperback book. However, despite the popularity of digital objects, many people nonetheless prefer physical equivalents. This dissertation explores one reason why this may be the case; namely, that physical versions of objects and products are better vessels for social meaning. In chapter 1, explore the specialness of physical objects, and posit that materiality is critical for holding and embodying significance. In chapter 2, I investigate the effects of product format on perceptions …

Coercive Control And Trauma-Coerced Attachment In Commercial Sexual Exploitation: A Mixed-Method Examination, Kendra Doychak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Commercial sexual exploitation (i.e., sex trafficking) can lead to myriad negative consequences for its victims, including exposure to coercive control and the development of trauma-coerced attachments. Scholars have offered theoretical conceptualizations of the relation between coercive environments and traumatic attachments, but this relationship is rarely empirically examined. The current study used data from 68 semi-structured interviews with former victims of sex trafficking to first, formally identify coercive control and second, empirically classify trauma-coerced attachment in this population. Mixed-method analysis were used to identify associations between coercive control and TCA in order to better explain how this abuse dynamic leads to …

Three Lenses Of Contrapower Sexual Harassment, Michael L. Ekema

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Contrapower sexual harassment refers to sexual harassment incidents where the perpetrator has less formal power within the organization than the person being victimized. Although the potential for inverse power dynamics were already identified in the early stages of sexual harassment research, the prevalence and antecedents of contrapower sexual harassment have rarely been examined. In addition, prior sexual harassment research has overwhelmingly prioritized gender as the focal variable of interest. This dissertation seeks to contribute to the literature on workplace incivility, organizational deviance, and counterproductive work behaviors by looking at contrapower harassment through three different lenses: The perspective of harassment targets, …

Microaggressions, Imposter Phenomenon, And People Of Color: A Quantitative Analysis, Rukiya King

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated the impact of racial and ethnic microaggressions on marginalized groups. However, research has not established the presence of imposter phenomenon as a consequence of microaggressions. Imposter phenomenon has been described as intense and pervasive self-doubt experienced by individuals of marginalized identities. Although imposter phenomenon was first conceptualized as an experience among high achieving women, researchers have demonstrated its presence in other marginalized groups, particularly people of color. However, research on imposter phenomenon has mostly focused on perceived racism and racial identity within people of color. The current study examined the relationship between microaggressions, imposter phenomenon, and mental …

A Pilot Feasibility Trial Of Mindfulness And Modification Therapy For Males Who Use Aggression, Jenny Mitchell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Physical aggression incurs substantial harm to victims and witnesses, particularly when it occurs within close relationships such as family, friendships, or intimate partnerships. Men who use aggression against partners and other adults frequently experience high levels of psychopathology, including depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxious/insecure attachment, paranoia, bipolar disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, personality disorders, and substance abuse, which contribute to use of aggressive behaviors. However, existing treatments for aggression often do not address these symptoms. It is important that treatments for aggression are grounded in theoretical literature and backed by empirical support in order to increase treatment engagement and effectiveness. Treatments …

Mitigating The Harm Of Public Mass Shooting Incidents Through Situational Crime Prevention, Emily Greene-Colozzi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation used environmental theoretical frameworks to understand how public mass shooting incidents are impacted by aspects of the crime situation and opportunity. Predatory, public shootings perpetrated by individuals with evidence of mass intent were examined in the United States between 1966 and 2019. This project progressed in several distinct steps with discrete aims: (1) establish an open source database of public mass shooting incidents meeting definitional criteria; (2) perform statistical analysis, including latent class analysis, regression modeling, and structural equational modeling to assess research questions; and (3) perform comparative case studies and crime script analysis to assess situational crime …

Refusing Rehabilitation: Outlaw Epistemologies And The Carceral-Therapeutic State In Nyc, Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During an historic re-articulation of incarceration in New York City, Refusing Rehabilitation: Outlaw Epistemologies and the Carceral-Therapeutic State explores how gender, race, and class have been transformed at the intersection of criminal legal system reform and the overdose crisis. I take up how multiracial groups of criminalized women—thrown together by the state, not by choice—refuse forms of state control and violence, and imagine together alternative “outlaw” horizons of justice, healing, drug use, and escape from carceral-therapeutic capture. Countering the individualizing mandate of rehabilitation, women in rehab articulate visions of healing grounded in interdependence, collective safety, and an end to structural …

Expulsive Greening: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Green Gentrification In The Resilience Paradigm, Brooklyn 2010–2020, Rose Jimenez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: This project analyzes the spatial coincidence between gentrification typologies and urban greening in Brooklyn, New York from 2010 to 2020. Assets formed under the NYC Green Infrastructure Program were chosen as a proxy for urban greening to represent the spatial practice specifically within the 21st-century climate change resilience paradigm of development. Methods: First, five indexes measuring variations of economic and demographic conditions related to gentrification were applied to Brooklyn for comparative analysis: NOAA’s Social Vulnerability Indicators of Gentrification Pressure, The NYC Heat Vulnerability Index, The Small Area Index of Gentrification, Typologies of Gentrification and Displacement, and The Housing Risk …

Essays On Machine Learning Methods In Economics, Mani Bayani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters on machine learning modeling in economics. Chapter 1 - Robust PCA Synthetic Control: In this chapter, I propose an algorithm for comparative studies called robust PCA synthetic control. My algorithm builds on the synthetic control model of Abadie et al., 2015 and the robust synthetic control model of Amjad et al., 2018. I apply all three methods (robust PCA synthetic control, synthetic control, and robust synthetic control) to answer the hypothetical question, what would have been the per capita GDP of West Germany if it had not reunified with East Germany in 1990? I …

The Politics Of Media Freedom, Kyong Mazzaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Democratization theories assume that democracy and media freedom go hand in hand. However, in democracies, politicians and individuals who have a stake in political battles often attack journalists. How can political and electoral incentives that are at the heart of democracy create a minefield for journalists? Examining cross-national patterns of censorship and the experiences of journalists in Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil captured in over 4,600 case narratives, 30 field interviews, and historical documents, I study the circumstances under which political rivalries result in anti-media violence. I show that state and non-state actors are more likely to target journalists as a …

Unexpected Arousal Suppresses Memory And Metamemory Predictions During Associative Face-Name Recognition Task, Sameer Sabharwal-Siddiqi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Successful recognition often depends on probabilistic estimation of memory-signal. Arousal has been shown to offset the influence of heuristic evidence on memory prediction. We conducted three experiments that tested whether arousal also suppresses predictions relevant to memory confidence. Experiments employed associative face-name memory tasks that included retrospective (Experiments 1 and 2) or concurrent (Experiment 3) judgements of confidence. During test, subjects were presented with a masked-affective face on a subset of trials. By timing the masked-affective face to precede a recognition judgement (Experiment 1), we replicated the finding that unexpected arousal offsets the influence of heuristic evidence on expectations of …

Countertransference And The Patient's Experience: Exploring How Engagement With Affect Is Related To Short-Term Psychotherapy Outcomes, Ariel R. Westerman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Therapist focus on affect in the here-and-now can facilitate a patient’s emotional experience as well as expression of affect, both of which are associated with better outcome over the course of treatment (Diener et al., 2007). A therapist’s use of her own experience of the patient can serve as a signal to intervene in the here-and-now. While “countertransference” was historically seen as an obstacle to a therapist’s neutrality and therefore efficacy (Freud, 1910), shifts in the field toward a two-person psychology model led some to reconsider it as a potential source of clinical data (Winnicott, 1947; Heimann, 1950; Racker, …

Anomalous Self-Experiences And Aberrant Salience In Schizotypy, Victoria Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Within this investigation, the self-disorder hypothesis of schizophrenia was assessed via an illusory perceptual paradigm. It has been proposed that alteration of basic (minimal) selfhood may underlie cognitive and perceptual disturbances in psychosis (Sass, 2014). Disturbed corporeality (i.e., anomalous experience of one’s body) is an identified component of basic self-disturbance. As it is difficult to empirically capture the spontaneous occurrence of anomalous bodily experiences as they arise, the Pinocchio Illusion (PI) has been employed to capture variations in the plasticity of bodily self-experience (specifically, body boundary plasticity) (Michael & Park, 2016). The PI paradigm provides for the sensations of arm …

Examining The Linguistic Ideology "Throaty Sounds Are Bad For Performers": The History Of Negative Attitudes Towards Glottal Stops And Laryngealization In English, Dayle M. Towarnicky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes explicit metadiscourse (Johnstone et al 2006) on throaty sounds, primarily focused on glottal segments and non-modal constricted voice quality in English. Authors contributing to this metadiscourse are argued to be an offshoot of the speech chain network which valorized and circulated the English accent known as RP or Received Pronunciation, studied by Agha (2003). The evaluated texts center on English-speaking elocution, singing training, voice, speech, and voice care. The analysis shows glottal and guttural articulations are framed negatively and often discouraged by appeals to both health and aesthetics. Many authors in this performance speech chain network …

Essays On Social Mobility And Distribution, Luis A. Monroy Gómez Franco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the relationship between immutable characteristics of a person (also known as circumstances) and the intergenerational social mobility experienced by them, as well as their human capital accumulation. It pays particular attention to the role played by the economic resources of the household of origin in producing differences in the economic outcomes across persons.

In the first chapter, I show that the decomposition of intergenerational persistence indicators into their structural and positional components offers a clearer understanding of the determinants of heterogeneity in subnational mobility rates. The crucial element for the separate analysis of …

From Perfect Victims To Collateral Damage: How Nigerian Women Are Implicated In And Impacted By Contemporary French Anti-Trafficking Policies And Discourse, Oladunni Patricia Oduyemi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although the Nordic Model has been embraced by the international anti-trafficking movement, recent studies, and closer examinations of France’s approach to the issue of sex trafficking reveal a strong anti-migrant and anti-sex work bias. In this thesis, I use studies of the impacts of France’s 2016 anti-trafficking bill on migrant sex workers, feminist critiques of neo-abolitionism and the Nordic Model, and examples of France’s hypocritical anti-migrant position, to explore how Nigerian women are harmed by the contemporary French fight against sex trafficking. The pervasive influence of anti-sex work radical feminism on anti-trafficking protocols which define the sex industry as analogous …

The Differential Effects Of Acoustic Discriminations On Operant Learning Performance And Neurogenesis In Male And Female Zebra Finches, Kristena L. Newman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Adult neurogenesis, the creation of new neurons, occurs throughout the lifespan in most organisms. However, though neuronal proliferation occurs daily, most of these neurons do not survive to become incorporated into preexisting neural circuitry and become fully functioning neurons. In the mammalian brain, adult neurogenesis occurs within the hippocampus, a brain region known to be important in learning and memory. In rats, successful acquisition of certain learning tasks increased new neuron numbers when the learning was sufficiently challenging (Curlik and Shors, 2011). It has also been demonstrated that a spatial discrimination task requires new neurons when the discrimination is more …

Antisocial Behavior And Callous Unemotional Traits In Youth: A Biosocial Approach, Yong Lin Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Early life presence of antisocial behavior (e.g., aggression/delinquency) and psychopathic/callous-unemotional (CU) traits (lacking empathy/remorse, shallow affect) are precursors to juvenile crime and criminal offending in adulthood. Etiological research on antisocial/CU tendencies has implicated both neurobiological (e.g., alterations in brain function and structure) and environmental (social adversity, prenatal stress) underpinnings. It has been proposed that reward and punishment processing deficits may induce problematic traits and behavior, such that antisocial/CU tendencies may be linked to hypersensitivity to rewards and hyposensitivity to punishment. Studies in this area have generated inconsistent findings and focused primarily on adult and clinical samples, leaving youth and community …

Operation Lone Star: The Spectacle Of Immigration Federalism, Danielle Puretz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to respond to the “crisis” at the United States/Mexico border. While in the US immigration is usually thought of as a federal responsibility, different states have worked to expand their capacity to welcome or exclude immigrants. Operation Lone Star is an example of how one state is working to restrict immigration to the US and build notoriety for its republican governor. Drawing on press releases, executive orders, news articles, opinion pieces, and other sources I highlight the performative politics within this initiative. Operation Lone Star is an example of …