Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Resource Competition Among The Uinta Basin Fremont, Elizabeth A. Hora-Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Archaeologists describe the Uinta Fremont (A.D. 0 – 1300) as a mixed foraging-farming society that underwent a dramatic social change from A.D. 700 – 1000. Researchers observe through different architectural styles and subsistence activity a change from large, aggregated settlements to more dispersed and defensively oriented villages and hamlets. The Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) model provides an explanatory framework through which to interpret these changes. IFD predicts the order in which people or animals will occupy habitats based on a habitat’s relative suitability and suggests hypothetical behaviors that people or animals might engage in to improve or maintain the relative …

Using Ecological Momentary Assessment To Clarify The Function Of Hoarding, Jennifer Krafft

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Experts have argued that hoarding disorder occurs in part because hoarding behaviors help individuals avoid distress and feel positive emotions in the moment. For example, when people who hoard choose to save something rather than discard it, they may avoid feelings of anxiety, and when people who hoard acquire something new, they may feel excited. However, no previous studies have examined whether or not these changes actually occur in the moment. These processes could also potentially be altered by how individuals respond to their emotions in the moment. For example, individuals who hoard may have stronger emotional reactions, distinguish less …

Tanf Funding Allocation Differences In Red Vs. Blue States: Emphasis On Out-Of-Wedlock Births And Divorces, Camille Mindrum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The 1996 welfare reforms were part of a bipartisan consensus led by Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress about the downfalls of the existing United States welfare system. Under these reforms, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which was an entitlement program that had been in effect since 1935. Similar to AFDC, TANF intended to serve as a safety net that provides cash assistance to needy families, but it also aimed to reduce government dependence by attempting to instill values in welfare recipients through stricter work requirements and eligibility criteria. …

Maternal Depression In The United States: A Geographic Comparison Between Geographic Regions And Rurality, Samantha J. Patterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Health disparities exist between rural and urban areas but geographic comparisons of mental health are less studied and conclusive. Maternal depression has not been examined by region or rurality in the United States but might be influenced by geographic locations due to the variance of social support and healthcare available in some locations compared to others. The research focuses on (1) whether rurality increases a mother’s risk of experiencing depression and (2) if region impacts a mother’s risk of depression. I used the NESARC-III data that included three general depressive disorders: major depressive episode, major depressive disorder, and dysthymia. Regions …

Renewable Portfolio Standards And Environmental Goals, Josh T. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are one of the most common state policies meant to encourage clean energy use. They require that utilities purchase electricity from certain qualifying electricity generators, usually with no reference to the cost of that electricity. AlthoughRPS are meant to clean up electricity generation through using clean energy sources instead of fossil fuels, they may not do so effectively. Further, some energy companies may lobby state legislators to include their energy sources regardless of their actual environmental benefit. The actual relationship between enacting an RPS and a state’s emissions from energy production is unclear. I explore RPS …

The Heat Is On! Perspectives And Practices Regarding Extreme Heat Risk, Emily D. Esplin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Remembering negative experiences with extreme heat may promote future protective actions and provide insight to improve heat risk awareness and communication practices. This two-part thesis found 1) that experiencing heat-related health symptoms predicted what Americans would do to protect themselves and others during subsequent heat waves; and 2) that Utah professionals regard heat-related experience as an important factor in how they responded to extreme heat events.

In the first study, a US national survey showed that personal experience with heat-related health symptoms was related to the tendency to say that one engaged in different protective behaviors, while other factors like …

Comparing The Predictive Power Of Executive Function Assessment Strategies On Preschool Mathematics Performance, Jacob A. Esplin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A child’s executive function (aspects: working memory, response inhibition, and set-shifting between sets of rules) capabilities have been found to strongly relate to their mathematics skills. However, while the relationship has been strongly supported by researchers, a consensus has not been reached regarding the specifics of the relationship between executive function and math skills, including which executive function aspect is most predictive of mathematical performance and the differences in said relationship that might be found when examining both numeracy, such as counting skills and basic operations, and geometry skills. The lack of consensus may be in part because researchers have …

Interest Groups And Supreme Court Commerce Clause Regulation, 1920-1937, Barrett L. Anderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Did interest groups influence the Supreme Court’s interpretation of federal economic regulatory authority under the Commerce Clause leading up to the Supreme Court’s 1937 reversal? Recent scholarship has begun a renewed study of this tumultuous era seeking alternative explanations for the Court’s behavior beyond the conventional explanations concerning Roosevelt’s court packing plan. I build on this literature by extending the discussion to the influence that interest groups may have had on the Court. I propose that interest groups served as a supporting and influential audience for the Supreme Court as the justices’ institutional legitimacy became threatened by both the political …

A Requiem Of Retribution At A Black Mass: Whitey Bulger And Prisoner Welfare, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

On October 31, 2018, crime boss Whitey Bulger was found beaten to death in a West Virginia prison. Bulger was infamous for racketeering, committing murder, and evading capture for 16 years. His place on the FBI’s most wanted list was second only to Osama Bin Laden. He was finally captured in 2011 at the age of 81. He was convicted for his crimes and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, but served only six years before more than one fellow inmate beat him to death with a padlock stuffed inside a sock. Bulger was infamous for his crimes and was …

The Ethics Of Play And Participation In A Tween Virtual World: Cheating Practices And Perspectives In The Whyville Community, Yasmin B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, Estee Ellis

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Much attention has been paid to young people’s increased participation in digital publics and its potential impact on their development and learning. However, few studies have examined the ethics in online play and their interactions as a critical aspect in the development of youth digital culture. In this paper we turn to the issue of cheating, a widely accepted practice in many online communities, including Whyville.net, a virtual world with over 5.5 million registered players ages 8-16. Our analyses focused on culturally-relevant examples such as player-written articles on cheating and player-produced YouTube cheating videos associated with Whyville from 2000 to …

Efficient Exploration Of Many Variables And Interactions Using Regularized Regression, Tyson S. Barrett, Ginger Lockhart

Psychology Faculty Publications

The prevention sciences often face several situations that can compromise the statistical power and validity of a study. Among these, research can (1) have data with many variables, sometimes with low sample sizes, (2) have highly correlated predictors, (3) have unclear theory or empirical evidence related to the research questions, and/or (4) have difficulty selecting the proper covariates in observational studies. Modeling in these situations is difficult—and at times impossible—with conventional methods. Fortunately, regularized regression—a machine learning technique—can aid in exploring datasets that are otherwise difficult to analyze, allowing researchers to draw insights from these data. Although many of these …

Neighborhood Bystander Intervention In Intimate Partner Abuse: The Role Of Social Cohesion, Jessica Lee Lucero, Jennifer Roark, Andrea Patton

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This study examines the relationships among individual beliefs about intimate partner abuse (IPA), attitudes about IPA reporting, social cohesion, and the intention of intervening in neighborhood IPA. Data for this study come from a larger cross‐sectional, community‐based study in which participants (N = 1,626) were surveyed face to face using stratified random sampling in targeted communities in a Mountain West state (i.e., drop‐off, pick‐up method) and online using social media outreach in targeted communities. Linear regression results indicated that participants were less likely to intervene in IPA situations in their neighborhood if they held beliefs about the private nature …

Rethinking Modification Of The Natural World, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Aristotle famously pointed out that humans stand out from other living beings because humans are rational. To live a flourishing human life is to live in accordance with the dictates of reason. Much of the philosophical thought about the essence of man going forward was heavily influenced by what Aristotle had to say on this point. It is hard to deny the importance of rationality for the survival of the human species. Because we can reason, we can use language, make plans, satisfy obligations, know things about the world, and, importantly, we can change the world as we see fit …

The Condition And Trend Of Aspen, Willows, And Associated Species On The Northern Yellowstone Range, Charles E. Kay

Political Science Faculty Publications

Aspen (Populus tremuloides), willows (Salix spp.), and other deciduous shrubs and trees occupied a relatively small portion of the primeval Northern Yellowstone Range (hereafter referred to as the Northern Range1). However, these plant communities provided critical habitat for diverse flora and fauna. Consequently, aspen, willows, and cottonwoods were vitally important for biodiversity across the landscape, and these plant communities played a pivotal role in how the primeval ecosystem functioned sustainably since the last Ice Age.

Efficient Sampling For Ecosystem Service Supply Assessment At A Landscape Scale, Franfisco Javier Ancin-Murguzer, Lorena Muñoz, Christopher Monz, Per Fauchald, Vera Helene Hausner

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Decision makers and stakeholders need high-quality data to manage ecosystem services (ES) efficiently. Landscape-level data on ES that are of sufficient quality to identify spatial tradeoffs, co-occurrence and hotspots of ES are costly to collect, and it is therefore important to increase the efficiency of sampling of primary data. We demonstrate how ES could be assessed more efficiently through image-based point intercept method and determine the tradeoff between the number of sample points (pins) used per image and the robustness of the measurements. We performed a permutation study to assess the reliability implications of reducing the number of pins per …

Street Life And The Built Environment In An Auto-Oriented Us Region, Keunhyun Park, Reid Ewing, Sadegh Sabouri, Jon Larsen

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Urban planners and designers believe that the built environment at various geographic scales affects pedestrian activity, but have limited empirical evidence at the street scale, to support their claims. We are just beginning to identify and measure the qualities that generate active street life, and this paper builds on the first few studies to do so. This study measures street design qualities and surrounding urban form variables for 881 block faces in Salt Lake County, Utah, and relates them to pedestrian counts. This is the largest such study to date and includes suburbs as well as cities. At the neighborhood …

An Ecological Assessment Of The Northern Yellowstone Range: Introduction To The Special Issue, Jeffrey C. Mosley, Joseph Fidel, Harold E. Hunter, Peter O. Husby, Charles E. Kay, John G. Mundinger

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Northern Range (a.k.a., Northern Yellowstone Range) is 380,000 acres of rangeland and forest in northwestern Wyoming and south-central Montana within and adjacent to Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Sixty percent of the Northern Range is within YNP and 40% is north of YNP on federal, state, and private lands in Montana (Fig. 1). Inside YNP, about 60% of the Northern Range is rangeland and 40% is forest. Outside YNP, the Northern Range in Montana is mostly foothill grassland and sagebrush steppe, while the bottomlands are dominated by irrigated pastures and hayfields. The Northern Range outside YNP is a working landscape …

Human Influences On The Northern Yellowstone Range, Jeffrey C. Mosley, Peter O. Husby

Political Science Faculty Publications

Humans have continuously inhabited the Northern Yellowstone Range (hereafter referred to as the Northern Range1 ) inside and outside Yellowstone National Park (YNP) for at least 11,000 years.2–5 Across these many years, humans have actively used, abused, and conserved the natural resources of the Northern Range. Human actions helped shape the vegetation and wildlife present on the Northern Range from prehistoric times to present day.

Winds Of Change – Predicting Water-Based Recreationists' Support And Opposition For Offshore Wind Energy Development In The Great Lakes, Michael D. Ferguson, Samantha L. Powers, Nate E. Trauntvein, Jeffrey B. Jacquet, Alan R. Graefe, Andrew J. Mowen

Kinesiology and Health Science Faculty Publications

This study examined the factors influencing water-based recreationists' perceptions of support and opposition towards off-shore wind energy development (OWD) on Lake Erie. Much of the proposed or future Lake Erie OWD infrastructure may either be within or adjacent to public lands, waters, and protected areas, raising concerns about the potential environmental and social impacts upon recreation stakeholders. The limited body of OWD research within the United States has suggested there are numerous factors that may influence overall perceptions of support and opposition such as political orientation and beliefs in climate change. Moreover, recent research has proposed that the perceived recreation …

Engaging Parents In System Design To Reduce Loss To Follow-Up, Dana V. Yarbrough, Kathleen Watts, Daphne Miller, Susan Murdock

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention: Volume 9 Issue 1, pages 1-53

This article provides an overview of Virginia’s 1-3-6 Family Educator Project involving the induction and integration of parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing as leaders in systems change, and the investment of Virginia’s Early Hearing Detection & Intervention program in the project. The article describes the role of the 1-3-6 Family Educators and their success in collaborating with audiologists and hospitals, helping parents get timelier rescreenings of infants who did not pass the newborn hearing screening, and providing peer-to-peer support to parents. Details are provided about the 1-3-6 Family Educator Project to allow other states to …

Predictors Of Early Numeracy: Applied Measures In Two Childcare Contexts, Belinda Blevins-Knabe, Jacob Esplin, Ann Berhout Austin, Shawnee M. Hendershot

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current research was: (1) To assess differences in early numeracy, phonological awareness, receptive language, executive functioning, and working memory for children in two childcare settings (family and center); (2) To determine whether applied measures of phonological awareness and executive functioning could serve as predictors of numeracy performance. Children (N = 89) ranging in age from 39 to 75 months were recruited from state-licensed childcare centers and family childcare homes. Teacher ratings of executive functioning were significantly related to early number skills, phonological awareness, and receptive language, but none of the parent ratings were significantly related to …

Modeling Landowner Interactions And Development Patterns At The Urban Fringe, Jennifer Koch, Monica A. Dorning, Derek B. Van Berkel, Scott M. Beck, Georgina M. Sanchez, Ashwin Shashidharan, Lindsey S. Smart, Qiang Zhang, Jordan Smith, Ross K. Meentemeyer

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Population growth and unrestricted development policies are driving low-density urbanization and fragmentation of peri-urban landscapes across North America. While private individuals own most undeveloped land, little is known about how their decision-making processes shape landscape-scale patterns of urbanization over time. We introduce a hybrid agent-based modeling (ABM) – cellular automata (CA) modeling approach, developed for analyzing dynamic feedbacks between landowners’ decisions to sell their land for development, and resulting patterns of landscape fragmentation. Our modeling approach builds on existing conceptual frameworks in land systems modeling by integrating an ABM into an established grid-based land-change model – FUTURES. The decision-making process …

Bounded Rationality And The Choice Of Jury Selection Procedures, Martin Van Der Linden

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

A peremptory-challenge procedure allows the parties to a jury trial to dismiss some prospective jurors without justification. Complex challenge procedures offer an unfair advantage to parties who are better able to strategize. I introduce a new measure of strategic complexity based on level-k thinking and use this measure to compare challenge procedures often used in practice. In applying this measure, I overturn some commonly held beliefs about which jury selection procedures are strategically simple.

Women, Representation, Revolution, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

As the midterm election rapidly approaches, one thing is obvious—the number of women running for office is truly historic. There are 256 women running for Congress, 234 for seats in the House and 22 for seats in the Senate. The majority of the women running are Democrats. There are 197 Democratic female candidates and 59 Republican female candidates. The previous record for Democratic female nominees to the House was established in 2016, when 120 women were nominated, a record that is shattered by this year’s numbers. Historically, women have never comprised more than one-fourth of the House or the Senate. …

Decisions For The Dead: The Moral Dimensions Of Body Disposal, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

When Monique Martinot died of ovarian cancer in 1984, her husband, hoping to achieve immortality for his wife through cryonics, placed her body in an industrial size freezer in his chateau in the town of Neuil–sur–Layon, France. When the husband, Raymond Martinot, realized, years later at the age of eighty, that his own death was imminent, he conveyed to his son that he would like to be frozen alongside his wife until such time that their bodies could be revived. French courts objected to this method of body disposal and demanded that both bodies be removed from the freezer and …

What Is In Those Compact Shelves? Auditing And Quantifying A Government Documents Collection, Jen P. Kirk

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

• Background & Purpose
• Methodology
• Planning & Resources
• Survey Instrument & Implementation
• Limitations
• Outcomes & Lessons Learned

Use Of The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory With Social Workers: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Jayme E. Walters, Aaron R. Brown, Aubrey E. Jones

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Burnout among social workers continues to be a relevant issue as it can lead to major problems: personal health issues, service deterioration, and turnover. This study examined the use of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory with U.S. social workers (N = 1774) in direct-service and non-direct-service roles. The CBI is a no-cost alternative to the commonly employed Maslach Burnout Inventory. Results revealed that the CBI is a suitable tool to measure burnout among social workers regardless of position. Screening, identifying sources, and action planning to reduce burnout are critical steps for organizations to ensure a quality atmosphere for employees and clients.

Can You Scan This For Me?: Making The Most Of Patron Digitization Requests In The Archives, Jennifer Duncan, Andrea Payant, Darcy Pumphrey

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Despite Our Best Intention: Students Relate How Social Promotion Hurt Them And What Changes They Believe Will Help Them, Toby Mcmahon

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Student Research

The paper researches the practice of social promotion, where students who fail due to a lack of comprehension of grade level material are promoted along with their classmates who passed. Student and parent interviews, student surveys, and data from students’ graduation records are used to determine that social promotion does not improve the students’ education, instead students who are socially promoted are more likely to dropout of high school, less likely to graduate high school on time or at all, and the alternative practices are needed if students are to be successful and graduate high school.

Is Uber A Substitute Or Complement For Public Transit?, Jonathan D. Hall, Craig Palsson, Joseph Price

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

How Uber affects public transit ridership is a relevant policy question facing cities worldwide. Theoretically, Uber’s effect on transit is ambiguous: while Uber is an alternative mode of travel, it can also increase the reach and flexibility of public transit’s fixed-route, fixed-schedule service. We estimate the effect of Uber on public transit ridership using a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation across U.S. metropolitan areas in both the intensity of Uber penetration and the timing of Uber entry. We find that Uber is a complement for the average transit agency, increasing ridership by five percent after two years. This average effect …