Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Determining Human Ecology On The Plains Through The Identification Of Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) And White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Postcranial Material, Jodi A. Jacobson

Doctoral Dissertations

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were widely utilized resources in North America during prehistoric and protohistoric times. The two species overlap in geographic space over a large portion of the Plains; yet mule deer and white-tailed deer utilize different habitats within that region. Identification of the two species from archaeological context could aid in interpreting human ecological use of an area by past cultures. Prior to this study, there have been no reliable means by which to differentiate between the two species through use of postcranial skeletal material. Techniques for differentiating between …

Cognitive Ability, Big Five, And Narrow Personality Traits In The Prediction Of Academic Performance, James Michael Loveland

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the degree to which the academic performance of adolescents could be predicted by cognitive ability, the Big Five personality traits, and the narrow personality traits of optimism, work drive, and aggression. The analyses were conducted using an archival sample of 542 sixth-graders and 446 ninth-graders. Results from a hierarchical regression revealed that cognitive ability produced multiple R’s of (.462; R²=23.2% ) and (.521, R²=27.2% ) in 6^th and 9^th grade samples, respectively. Entry of the Big Five in both samples produced an R² change …

The Effects Of Marital Conflict On Sibling Relationships, Allison Mercedes Caban

Doctoral Dissertations

In an effort to capture college students’ (N = 331, average age = 18.9 years, SD = 1.5 years, 87% Caucasian, 74% have married parents) perceptions of conflict between their parents, the Parental Marital Questionnaire (PMQ) was developed in Study 1 of this investigation. The PMQ demonstrated good full-scale reliability (α = .90) and good reliabilities for its three factors (Intensity α = .96, Negative Affect α = .94, and Support α = .96). Further, the PMQ also showed consistent validity with 9 established measures of family and marital relationships. Taken together, the results of Study 1 suggest that the …

The Effects Of Optimism And The Five-Factor Model Of Personality On Stress And Performance In The Work Place, Fung Ming Chan

Doctoral Dissertations

Occupational stress is an ever-increasing public health hazard and occupational risk factor. There are growing concerns around the world; people work harder and longer while injury and illness rates associated with occupational stress continues to grow. This field study explores the relationship among optimism, the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality (conscientiousness, openness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and extraversion), stress (perceived stress), and job performance variables (dedication, teamwork, self-responsibility, winning attitude, fit, quality of operations, guest promises/service) in employees of the service industry. It is hypothesized that the variable of optimism will be a better predictor than the FFM personality constructs for …

Spying On Search Strategies, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Only the most dedicated super-searchers are motivated to learn and control command systems, like DialogClassic, that rely on the user to input complex search strategies. Infrequent searchers and most end users choose interfaces that do some of the work for them and make the search process appear easy. However, the easier a good interface seems to be, the more complex the system underlying it must be. Google is popular not only because of its simple dialog-box interface but because users are typically satisfied with their results. This article compares and contrasts different ways to get search results and focuses on …

An Examination Of The Psychometric Properties Of The Casey Foster Applicant Inventory – Worker Version (Cfai-W), Gary S. Cuddeback

Doctoral Dissertations

Foster family applicants form the pool from which caregivers are selected for the day-to-day care of the many vulnerable children placed in foster care, but limited research exists concerning the reliability and validity of standardized measures for assessing the potential of foster family applicants to provide successful foster care. This dissertation examines the psychometric properties of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory – Worker Version (CFAI-W), a paper and pencil tool designed to assess the strengths and training and service needs of family foster care applicants.

Retrospective data were collected from 208 foster care workers who had at least one year …

An Empirical Examination Of Reactive And Proactive Aggression Subtypes Among Juvenile Delinquents, Rosine Lawanda Christmas

Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an archival examination of psychological differences among court-referred delinquent youth. There were 80 participants, with 56 males and 24 females between 13 and 17 years old. By using Ward’s hierarchical cluster analysis, juvenile offenders were grouped into four predetermined clusters of reactive and proactive aggression based on high and low scores obtained on scales measuring Internalization and Externalization dimensions from the Child Behavior Checklist Youth Self-Report (CBCL-YSR) and the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI).

Scales from the YSR and MACI, which were not used in forming the four clusters, along with the Stress Index for Parents of …

The Role Of The Acquisitions Editor In University Press Publishing, Emily M. Garman

Masters Theses

This study examines the changing role of acquisitions editors within university presses. The various factors that contribute to the changing role of acquisitions editors were examined through personal interviews of twenty-nine acquisitions editors from university presses across the United States. Twenty questions were presented to the editors on editorial responsibilities, book marketing, electronic publishing, education and job training, and author/editor relationships. This study concentrated on those questions, as well as on the evolving role of acquisitions editors when affected by variables such as library acquisitions, financial trends, electronic publishing, and rules for professorial tenure that affect changes in scholarly publishing. …

From 'Quackery To Mainstream': An Exploratory Study Of News Media Framing During The Diffusion Of Acupuncture, 1968-2002, Using Bibliometric Counts And Computer-Assisted Content Analysis, Gayla Kirksey Owen

Masters Theses

This exploratory study examines how the news media coverage of acupuncture changed during the first three and one-half decades of diffusion in the United States. It specifically looks at amount of coverage and framing. In doing so, this study is one f the few to date to examine framing during the diffusion process. This study compares changes in news media coverage to major milestones in diffusion in an attempt to determine if media lead or follow in the diffusion of an innovation at the societal level.

Acupuncture was introduced to mainstream American culture in the 1970s. This study examines its …

Frame Analysis Of The Living Wage Campaign And Social Work Implications, Katherine Ann Mcclernon-Chaffin

Masters Theses

The general aim of this study was to examine the living age movement and how frame alignment fits into social work practice. This research was developed from a limited empirical and theoretical base surrounding the living wage as a social movement. Frame alignment is becoming a tool that more and more people should know how to use. Frame alignment has been a key component in propelling social movements into society in order to effect change. This research is an examination of frame alignment, specifically the living wage movement and how it fits into effective social work practice.

The data were …

Determining The Data Needs For Decision Making In Public Libraries, Thena Slape Jones

Masters Theses

Library decision makers evaluate community needs and library capabilities in order to select the appropriate services offered by their particular institution. Evaluations of the programs and services may indicate that some are ineffective or inefficient, or that formerly popular services are no longer needed. The internal and external conditions used for decision making change. Monitoring these conditions and evaluations allows the library to make new decisions that maintain its relevance to the community.

Administrators must have ready access to appropriate data that will give them the information they need for library decision making. Today’s computer-based libraries accumulate electronic data in …

Treatment Outcomes Following Script Training For Two Women With Broca’S Aphasia, Heather M. Powers

Masters Theses

Empirical evidence from hundreds of research studies support the general effectiveness of aphasia therapy, however, it is not known what therapy works best for which client. Aphasia treatments may be generally classified as one of two approaches: traditional aphasia treatment, which attempts to restore linguistic abilities, or functional communication treatment, which focuses on restoring aspects of communicative functioning. This study furthers investigation of a treatment method that combines aspects of both traditional and functional methods with principles of instance theory of automatization; specifically, script training. This approach attempts to restore automatic, effortless, and natural context-specific expressive language production for individuals …

Organizational Correlates Of Negative Workplace Behavior: A Field Study, Graeme K. Mitchell

Masters Theses

This was a field study conducted in the entertainment industry in eastern Tennessee designed to investigate the relationship of perceived supervisor support and perceived pay equity with negative workplace behavior. Participants consisted of 171 employees of an entertainment company who completed a questionnaire with four scales, including one developed in this study. Results showed a significant, inverse correlation of perceived supervisor support and negative workplace behavior (r = -0.45, p< .01) and a significant correlation of pay inequity and negative workplace behavior (r = 0.33, p<.01) that demonstrated the negative consequences of perceived inequity or maltreatment. The correlations of perceived supervisor support and organization citizenship behavior (r = 0.48, p<.01), and pay equity and organization citizenship behavior (r = 0.23, p<.01) suggested that perceived pay equity or supervisor support led to behaviors that helped the organization. No relationship was found between the type of negative workplace behavior people engaged in and perceived pay equity, however, perceived supervisor support was inversely correlated with “withdrawal” (r = -0.31, p<.01). Perceived supervisor support had a very strong relationship with the LBDQ-XII factor “consideration”. Previous research has suggested people engage in negative workplace behaviors because they see inequities in their compensation or treatment at work, and this behavior was an attempt to restore equity. Future research should consider whether specific organizational factors predict discrete types of negative workplace behavior, what the impact of senior leader decision-making is on workplace behavior, whether one or many factors precipitate workplace behavior and whether organizational citizenship behavior and negative workplace behaviors are opposing or independent constructs.

Chinese Political Regime And The Rising Income Inequality In The Reform Era, Xiaoyang Hou

Masters Theses

This thesis probes the sharply rising income inequality in reform-era China under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) authoritarian regime. Accepting the premise that economic transition inevitably leads to the income inequality, my special focus in this thesis is to demonstrate how political factors contribute to the worsening income inequality in China.

This study shows that the skewed power structure generates the income inequality. I explore three factors pertaining to the political regime that lead to the widening income inequality in reform-era China, which are: first, the nature of Chinese political system, which includes: the CCP’s dominant position in party-state China; …