Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Case Study Of A Jail Participating In An Animal-Assisted Crisis Response Program, Erica Schlau

Dissertations

A crisis state is often the result of being admitted to jail, due to the catastrophic impact incarceration can have on personal and professional lives. Unlike other studies, the present study focuses on inmates in jail rather than in prison. To address jail inmates in a crisis state, the current best practice is suicide prevention, which does not effectively consider the needs of jail inmates. Recently emerging in the literature is the use of animal-assisted crisis response (AACR) to serve individuals experiencing a crisis. There is a lack of research on the use of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) with the population …

Are We Globalized? Transformative Education And Internationalization Within Naspaa Programs, Li Cheng

Dissertations

In a globalized world, curriculum internationalization is gradually becoming important to higher education institutions. The importance of teaching and learning with a global perspective has been addressed in public service education. In particular, the purpose of having a global perspective in public service education is to broaden the knowledge, open the mind, and guide the future actions of public service students. Transformative learning theory has been developed over the past three decades to study the transformation of people’s perspectives and actions through learning experiences. The primary goal of this study is to understand the efforts that American public service programs …

A Program Evaluation Of The Parent Academy For One School District, Kathleen Gordon

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This program evaluation project addresses issues relating to low-parent attendance at one district’s parent academy. The process I used to gather information from the parents, administrators, board members, and business partners included individual surveys and interviews. The results indicated the biggest problems for mediocre parent engagement centered on transportation and the lack of parent involvement in the planning process. Improving the strategic planning process of the parent academy was the dominant need I identified based on my Change Leadership Plan. Included is a policy amendment regarding parent involvement in matters related to student achievement.

Positionality Matters: School Choice Decisions Based On Ethnographic Accounts Of African American Parents, Dr. Stacy L. Thomas

Dissertations

This research delves into experiences with reasoning and selected criteria for choosing the right school for their children. Beginning with a series of vignettes that assist with recognition of parental empowerment, this research archives acknowledgement of their own positionality when it comes to making life changing decisions. As selected parents of African American children grapple with the strategic balance and possibilities of educational outlets, family and finances, they offer ethnographic accounts of their successes and failures with school choice. Individual accounts of parental school choice decisions posing as data ascertained from interviews provided research that explored the critical frequencies and …

Effect Of Attentional Focus On Learning And Performance In Youth Sports, Justin Wright

Dissertations

Youth athletes are different from adult and elite athletes in several domains that include cognitive resources, working memory, automaticity of motor movements, conscious control for propensity, attentional focus, and acquisition of motor-skills. Due to significant differences between athletes, not all instructions and feedback provided by coaches are best suited for every player. Instructions and feedback may direct an athlete’s attentional focus and cognitive resources incorrectly leading to poor acquisition and performance of motor-skills. Clinical psychologists with knowledge of motor-skill acquisition, cognitive resources, learning theory, conscious control propensity, automaticity of motor movements, constrained action hypothesis, and attentional focus can follow the …

A Pilot Study: Identifying The Characteristics Of Postsecondary Offices Of Disability Services Associated With High Graduation Rates, Tiffany B. White

Dissertations

Students with disabilities are entering postsecondary education at higher rates than ever before, but they are graduating at lower rates than their peers without disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act have made it possible for students with disabilities to avail themselves of services in higher education to maximize their potential. To implement laws and provide equal access to students with disclosed disabilities (SWDD), many higher education institutions use central offices to serve students with disabilities. The survey in this study collects information from disability office directors regarding services provided and office characteristics.

The …

Analyzing Unemployment, Education-Occupation Mismatch, And Immigrant’S Participation In The Us Labor Market, Riyadh Naeem Arooq Arooq

Dissertations

Analyzing the factors that determine any labor market’s outcomes is important. That is because the results of these analyses can help policy makers to adopt effective labor market policies, and thus achieve the best outcomes of that labor market. In this study, I analyze three important factors: unemployment, education-occupation mismatch, and immigrants’ participation in the US labor market.

First, I analyze the problem of slow decline in the rate of U.S. unemployment after the last recessions. In this chapter, I examine whether the slow movement in U.S. unemployment is due to cyclical or structural factors. I contribute to the literature …

Exploring Workplace Spirituality And The Benefit It Has On Teams, Tracey Kimberly Johnson

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and understand the perception of nonprofit leaders on how spirituality in the workplace fosters a positive workplace culture.

Methodology: In this phenomenological qualitative study, data were collected using interviews of 12 nonprofit leaders. The essential data collection method for this study was in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interview questions, key informant interviews, and pilot study data interviews. After the data were collected and transcribed, the coding process began, and themes were identified.

Findings: The research on spirituality in the workplace and spiritual intelligence of nonprofit leaders has been completed. There is still …

The Influence Of Stressful Life Events On The Development Of Type 2 Diabetes, Joshua Minks

Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between distress and the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the presence of established risk factors. Distress secondary to mental health disparities, stressful life events, and work conditions has been shown to promote insulin resistance and the development of T2DM.

Subjects (N=79) diagnosed with T2DM within the previous six months were recruited from SSM Health Centers and VA Medical Centers in the greater St. Louis area. They completed the Recent Life Changes Questionnaire, ENRICHD Social Support Instrument, and a demographic survey and analyses were conducted to determine differences between the veteran …

Crisis Leadership And Management Of Superintendents During The 2017-18 California Wildfires, Dianna Kitamura

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods heuristic research study was to discover how school superintendents described their crisis leadership and management experiences during the 2017-2018 wildfires in California through the lens of the Five Critical Tasks of Strategic Crisis Leadership framework of sense making, meaning making, decision-making and coordination, learning, accounting (Boin, 't Hart, Stern, & Sundelius, 2017). Additionally, this study determined the extent to which school superintendents identify their use of the Five Critical Tasks of Strateby Dianna W. Kitamuragic Crisis Leadership framework.

Methodology: This explanatory, sequential mixed methods heuristic research study investigated a quantitative survey and qualitative …

A Dynamic Approach To Understanding Immigration, Ethnicity And Violent Crime In Chicago Communities, Saundra Trujillo

Dissertations

Once again, politically-driven events in the United States have brought the relationship between immigration and crime to the forefront in public, political, and academic discourses. Yet, despite proclamations made by a key U.S. political figure claiming that immigrants, specifically Mexican immigrants, are “bringing drugs...[and] bringing crime” (Trump, 2015) to U.S. communities, criminological research consistently finds that there is either an inverse relationship between immigration and crime- or no relationship at all (see Ousey and Kubrin, 2017 and National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, 2015 for review). Moreover, with decades of research on the relationship between immigration and crime, this …

Leading With Trust: A Phenomenological Study Of The Strategies Leaders In Certified B Corporations Use To Build Trust With Their Employees, Victoria Wodarczyk

Dissertations

Purpose:The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how senior management leaders of certified B Corporations (B Corps) build trust with employees, using the 5 domains of connection, concern, candor, competence, and consistency.

Methodology:Aqualitative phenomenological approach was used in this study to explore how senior leaders of certified B Corps build trust with their employees using The Values Institute (TVI; Weisman, 2016) trust framework and the accompanying domains of connection, concern, candor, competence, and consistency. Participants were purposely chosen based on study criteria of a senior management leader in a certified B Corp including leadership for at …

Meaning Makers: A Mixed-Method Case Study Of Exemplary Small Business Owner Leaders And The Strategies They Use To Create Personal And Organizational Meaning, Margaret S. Ohlhaver

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this replication of a thematic, mixed-method case study was to identify and describe the behaviors that small business owner leaders use to create personal and organizational meaning for themselves and their followers through character, vision, relationships, wisdom, and inspiration.

Methodology. Qualitative interviews with exemplary small business owners were conducted to capture their insights on how they used behaviors associated with character, vision, relationships, wisdom, and inspiration to create personal and organizational meaning. In a quantitative survey, followers of each small business owner leader participants were asked to assess how important each of the variable behaviors were …

Leadership Trust: A Phenomenological Study Of How Major Superiors Of Catholic Women Religious Institutes Build Trust With Professed Members, Mary Amanda Nwagbo

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to explore how major superiors of Catholic women religious institutes build trust with professed members, using the 5 domains of competence, consistency, candor, concern, and connection.

Methodology: The study used a qualitative phenomenological research design to explore the lived experiences and behaviors of leaders with reputations of trusting relationships with their members. The study sample included 10 major superiors of Catholic women religious institutes in Southern California who exhibit trusting relationships with their members. Data were collected using interviews, observations, and artifacts and analyzed with the assistance of NVivo software, revealing …

“The Zero To Three Years Are So Important” An Exploration Of The Needs Of Young Children In Ecec Settings From A Policy And Practice Perspective., Rosemary Brien

Dissertations

A strong body of evidence demonstrates that young children under the age of three are experiencing a critical period in their development which impacts long term mental and physical health. Responsive, secure and positive relationships between young children and their caregivers is integral to healthy social and emotional development.The principle aim of this study is to explore how the needs of children under the age of three are perceived and addressed in Irish early childhood education and care settings from a practice and policy perspective.A qualitative research approach was adopted utilising semi-structured interviews with managers of full day care settings …

The Contribution Of P. G. Wodehouse To The Field Of Gastronomy Through His Character, The French Chef, Anatole, Elizabeth Wilson

Dissertations

In her paper ‘A Cultural Field in the Making: Gastronomy in 19th-Century France’, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson argues that the field of gastronomy came into existence in the middle of the nineteenth century in France. This field of gastronomy was constructed from two elements, the significance that gastronomy, defined at the time as a structured set of culinary practices, had attained in France by the nineteenth century, but also, the contribution of writers of culinary discourse who wrote about this gastronomy. These writers came from different disciplines and included the realist fiction writer Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), whose work Ferguson describes …

The Social And Contextual Mechanisms Of Children's Learning In Museums, Lindsay R. Maldonado

Dissertations

This study explored the associations between immersive exhibit design, mother-child engagement, conversational interactions, and children's learning. Participants were 41 mothers and their 6-8-year-old children (Mage=7.15, SD=.79). A within-subjects, mixed methods approach was utilized, including naturalistic observations, interview data, and surveys. Mother-child dyads were video and audio-recorded as they visited four different exhibits: two low immersion exhibits and two high immersion exhibits. Interview data was collected from children immediately following the visit to assess learning. Survey data was collected from mothers to assess education, environmental predispositions, and science-related career. In high immersion exhibits, mothers and children spent more time and asked …

Prevalence And Potential Buffers Of Intergenerational Trauma In African American And Latinx Parent-Child Dyads, Kandace Thomas

Dissertations

Buffering intergenerational trauma (IGT) is of great interest to researchers, policy makers and interventionists working to reduce the experience of trauma across generations within the family. IGT has been well studied among families who experienced the Holocaust and there is emerging IGT literature describing the impact of historical events and societal-based adverse experiences across generations. This study expanded upon the IGT literature by exploring and confirming the existence of IGT in a sample of primarily low-income African American and Latinx parents and their 6-year-old children; exploring pre-existing strengths and qualities in parents, such as Contemplative Self-Care (CSC) and Parent Self-Efficacy …

An Exploration Of Managers’ Perspectives On Their Role In Managing Community Early Years Services : Influences And Insights, Jessica Lee

Dissertations

This exploration into theperspectives of managers of community Early Years services stems from the absence of a requirement of a qualification for supernumerary managers in Early Years services in Ireland and the resulting ambiguity of definedfunctions of such managers and contextually specific requirements. The aim of the study is to gain a deep insight into the perspectives ofthe participants on their roles in leading and managing their services. The objectives are to understand what internal and external factors have shaped their roles, to locate the dichotomies and harmonies between what iscontextuallyrequired of managersand what the true reality of a manager’s …

The Role Of Therapeutic Communities In The Process Of Desistance: A Figurational Analysis, Darragh Farrell

Dissertations

The therapeutic community (TC) is predominantly used for the treatment of substance users. Its approach, which focuses on a strong sense of community, relies on the peer group itself as an agent of change. In one Irish TC, desistance from crime appears to be an unintended outcome of the social processes and cultural forces existing there. The current study utilises qualitative data collected from a small cohort of seven male therapeutic community graduates. All participants had histories of involvement in serious crime and had desisted to varying degrees. Using a figuarational approach, concerned with social processes, analysis of the data …

An Exploration Of How Gardaí Perceive Whistleblowing In An Garda Síochána., Aodhán Healy

Dissertations

An Garda Síochána was established in 1922 as the national police force of the Irish state and has undergone organisational, developmental, growth and cultural change siical Unce inception in line with societal, legislative and governmental demands throughout the intervening 97 years. In more recent times and in tandem with this growth expansion and development, there has also grown a maleficent and damaging culture within the force where a culture of secrecy and lack of transparent function has emerged, whereby whistle-blowers of bad practice have been bullied and vilified for highlighting wrongdoing in the organisation. Following formal tribunals of enquiry and …

The Relationship Between Combat Experience, Veteran Pathology And The Pathology Of Their Intimate Partners: What Factors Predict The Pathology Of Veterans And Their Intimate Partners, Edwin A. Brennan

Dissertations

Problem Statement

Military members and their family members who are part of the Global War on Terrorism have experienced deployments and war for over sixteen years and with the resulting toll on both the veteran and their intimate partner. As a result, higher levels of pathology, such as PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression have been experienced by this population. While research has studied the effect of combat on military members, very little research has addressed the effects on family members. Further, no research that has been found by this researcher, has addressed the concept of resonating of pathology between the combat …

An Exploration Of Residential Care Managers Understanding Of The Professional Registration Of Social Care Workers And Its Implications For Their Role As Managers, Lorraine O’ Brien

Dissertations

The change that is referred to in this study is the professional registration of social care workers in the social care sector. The projected target date for the commencement of professional registration of social care workers is 2022 (CORU Presentation, 2019). This study explored CORU and residential care managers understanding of the implementation plan and their views of the implications professional registration will have on manager’s roles and responsibilities. Managers who play a key role in this change process need to be supported therefore residential care manager’s voices were at the heart of this study.

The Third Space: The Meeting Of Jew And Christian In The Act Of Remembering, Restoring, And Reconciling - A Case Study Of The Matzevah Foundation, Steven D. Reece

Dissertations

Problem

Due to long-standing religious, racial, and cultural tensions, a complex and challenging relationship exists between Jews and Christians. The resulting breach isolates and separates these two faith groups from each other. Consequently, they struggle to interact and engage in meaningful dialogue, which could repair the breach and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Dialogue bridges the gap between Jew and Christian allowing them to meet in the third space—the liminal space of the Jewish cemetery in Poland. Jews and Christians may deal with the evil of the past through what researchers term as "loving acts."

Method

This study was conducted …

The Influence Of Pornography Consumption, Religiosity, And Family Sexual Communication On Emerging Adults' Engagement In Hookup Culture In The United States, Angie Powels Horner

Dissertations

Purpose

The primary purpose of the current research was to understand the influence of considerable social-cultural factors, including pornography consumption, religiosity, and family sexual communication, on the sexual values and behaviors of the emerging adult population. Particularly, how pornography consumption, religiosity, and family sexual communication influence emerging adult engagement in hookup culture was examined.

Method

Participants completed several surveys, which measured participants’ pornography consumption, personal religiosity, family sexual communication, and engagement in hookup culture. A path analysis model was used to analyze the relationship between the proposed variables.

Results

The path analysis model indicated that the initial model was a …

Academic Libraries And Toxic Leadership, Alma C. Ortega

Dissertations

Toxic leadership has yet to be officially recognized as an area of inquiry in the field of library and information studies. Indeed, the literature on academic libraries is only now beginning to address the topic. None of this should be surprising because leadership, in general, continues to be an under-discussed topic in the library and information studies literature.

The topic of leadership, of course, is the central theoretical construct of the leadership studies field, and, in this field, toxic leadership has been systematically studied and discussed. This literature reveals the negative consequences of having a toxic leader as the head …

Variations In Individualistic And Collectivistic Cultural Orientation And The Protective Factors That Contribute To Resilience: Comparisons From Jamaica, Rwanda, And The United States, Stacey Nicely

Dissertations

Problem

Despite the advancement in resilience research, and although mental health professionals are encouraged to become culturally competent, it is still unclear how I/C cultural orientation influence various protective factors that contribute to resilience. Individualists emphasize independence and autonomy while collectivists emphasize interdependence and in-group consensus (Hofstede, 1991; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Therefore, it is expected that the protective factors that promote resilience will also operate differently for individualists as compared to collectivists (Triandis, 1995). Yet, mental health practitioners have very little information available to them to guide their intervention efforts with individualists and collectivists. When practitioners work with individuals …

An Exploration Of The Role Of Mentoring On The Leadership Skills Of African American Senior Leaders In A Corporate Setting, Regina A. Stephens

Dissertations

This study explored the lived mentoring experiences of African American senior leaders who report directly to Vice Presidents or Presidents in a corporate setting, and how those mentoring experiences played a role in their leadership skills. African Americans having the guidance to appropriately navigate an organization to acquire those positions continue to be perplexing. Mentoring could be one essential step to help African Americans to prepare to lead in a corporate setting. Mentoring is a growth and development technique that has been in existence for quite some time and has helped many to understand how developmental relationships have proven its …

Exploring The Leadership Experiences Of Male Military Spouses: An Exploratory Qualitative Inquiry, Christina L. Parsons

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the leadership experiences of male military spouses who serve as primary caregivers in the home. The primary objective of this research was to illuminate the voices of male military spouses from the various branches of military service to share their lived experiences and with specific regard to their leadership qualities. The goal of this research is to allow male military spouses to use their own words to describe their leadership experiences and to understand the context of that leadership inside the military culture. Pleck’s Gender Role Strain was used as the …

Human Resource Management And Innovation: Perceptions Of Hr Leaders, Jeremiah Nelson

Dissertations

Creativity and innovation are essential for organizations to identify, create and exploit their competitive advantages to succeed in an increasingly complex and dynamic business environment (Ceylan, 2013; De Tienne & Mallette, 2012; Sharifirad & Ataei, 2012). Human capital is an important source of competitive advantage, but little is known about how human resource (HR) managers, as the functional owners of this resource, perceive their influence of innovation. The roles of HR professionals have evolved. Where they were once strictly administrative, they now function as business partners supporting strategy and offering leadership. These changes can create situations of role ambiguity and …