Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study On How Exemplary Community College Chief Human Resource Officers Lead From The Heart To Accomplish Extraordinary Results, Angela Love

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe how exemplary community college chief human resource officers lead from the heart using Crowley’s (2011) four principles (building a highly engaged team, connecting on a personal level, maximizing employee potential, and valuing and honoring achievements) to accomplish extraordinary results in their organizations.

Methodology: This qualitative study used a phenomenological method to describe how eight exemplary community college chief human resource officers lead from the heart using Crowley’s (2011) four principles (building a highly engaged team, connecting on a personal level, maximizing employee potential, and valuing and honoring achievements) to accomplish …

Life Histories Of Blackqueer Adults: Why And How They Support Blackqueer Youth, Javania Michelle Webb

Dissertations

To set the tone for this qualitative study and the enriched data discovered, bell hooks (2001) says, “if we love each other and embrace our diverse sexualities, we create an environment where there is no sexuality that cannot speak its name” (p. 207). This critical narrative analysis portrays the reasons why BlackQueer adults choose to mentor and embolden BlackQueer youth. Life History methodology brought their experiences to life. Lesbian, Gay, and Gender Nonconforming (LGGNC) youth learn to conceal certain attributes associated with being Queer. They are compelled to consider and give context to their family, K-12 school personnel, and community …

Testing Barriers To Non-Suicidal Self-Injury With College Students: Narcissistic Traits As Moderators, Philip Stoner

Dissertations

Research on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has produced mixed findings, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding these behaviors (Klonsky & Meuhlenkamp, 2007). To address this, Hooley and Franklin (2018) developed the Benefits and Barriers Model (BBM) to provide a comprehensive understanding of NSSI, in which they identified the barriers that commonly prevent people from engaging in these behaviors (e.g., self-esteem, shame, and peer-bonding motivations/social norms). They also identified adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as a distal predictor of NSSI, which aids people in overcoming the barriers to engaging in these behaviors. Recent NSSI literature has shown that college women in the …

Mental Construal And Alterations In Emotional Memory, Olivia D. Beers

Dissertations

Psychological distancing refers to a shift from a psychologically immersed perspective that involves thinking about the details of an event (concretely) or stepping back from it and watching the event from an outside point of view (abstractly)––this can help individuals change how they feel about the experience. Investigating how construal levels affect emotional memories may provide more insight into how individuals may potentially alter the recall of their memories. The current study reflects a new examination of the effect of primed high and low construal levels on the recall of positive and negative arousing stimuli. This study included a pilot …

Shattering Your Own Glass Ceiling: The Self-Sabotaging Behaviors Of Secondary Female Principals And Strategies Used To Overcome Them, Ashley Sandor

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to identify and describe self-sabotaging behaviors experienced by female secondary principals and to explore the impact these behaviors have on their career development. A secondary purpose of this study was to identify strategies used to overcome self-sabotaging behaviors.

Methodology: An explanatory mixed methods design was used to uncover the perspectives of 10 female secondary principals in Northern California who have experienced career impacting self-sabotaging behaviors and to examine strategies that exemplary female secondary principals use to overcome their internal barriers. The quantitative phase included a 51-item online survey about self-sabotaging …

Rural Pregnant Women’S Experiences With Substance Use Disorder: A Qualitative Study, Cami Weber

Dissertations

Rural pregnant women with substance use disorder (SUD) are an understudied vulnerable population that often experiences poor pregnancy outcomes (Higgins et al., 2019; Jumah, 2016; Kramlich et al., 2018; Shaw et al., 2015). Despite the high prevalence and high burden associated with SUD, rural women are less likely than non-pregnant women to seek addiction treatment and complete an outpatient treatment program during pregnancy (Shaw et al., 2015). This study aimed to give voice to rural Missouri women with SUD. The research questions explored the life experiences and motivations for seeking treatment using a qualitative, descriptive research design with grounded theory …

Market Segmentation Of Wine In Ireland: Are We Fostering A Desirable Consumption Culture?, Enea Bent

Dissertations

The aim of this research is to evaluate the wine sector in Ireland and its impact on the wine consumption culture that is being promoted here as a result. With supermarkets leading in terms of sales, this study evaluates the product offering of the various types of retailers and the attainability of the same to different demographics of consumer. A high level of government intervention in the industry is highlighted throughout the study, the intention and subsequent successes and failures are examined. A comparison to the rest of Europe and the United Kingdom is carried out to understand Ireland’s position …

An Interpretive Phenomenological Study Of Women’S Struggles, Hopes And Reasons For Participation In Professional Power-Based Community Organizing In Chicago, Mary Dungy-Akenji

Dissertations

Mary K. L. DungyLoyola University Chicago AN INTERPRETIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF WOMEN’S STRUGGLES, HOPES AND REASONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL POWER-BASED COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN CHICAGO Professional power-based community organizing is a practice of grassroots change in which paid organizers guide community members as they band together to make demands on elite groups to redistribute resources (Bobo et. al, 2001; Sites et al., 2007). Conflict-based tactics may be utilized to demand structural improvements from key stakeholders, usually towards progressive political ends that build towards a more just society (Bobo et. al 2001; Wilkinson & D’Angelo, 2019). Community organizing has some roots …

Supporting Latine Children’S Informal Engineering Learning And Spatial Thinking Through Tinkering And Storytelling, Diana Acosta

Dissertations

In the United States, the Latine community is the fastest growing minority group. Projections estimate that by the year 2060, they will represent 28% of the total population. Yet, Latines continue to be underrepresented and underserved in STEM fields and careers. Providing equitable informal STEM learning opportunities to young children may be a way to increase access and interest in STEM, to address the broader goal of increasing representation. Importantly, for these learning experiences to be truly equitable they must be meaningful and engage everyday cultural practices. Guided by a strengths-based approach, the current study examines how oral stories as …

Does Co-Speech Gesture Support Children’S Analogical Reasoning? An Investigation Into The Differential Effects Of Gesture On Learning, Katharine F. Guarino

Dissertations

Although the general consensus is that gesture supports learning across a wide range of learning contexts, nuances to gesture’s effects are found across the gesture-for-learning literature. The purpose of this body of research was to advance our understanding of gesture’s effect on learning. Specifically, we explored the utility of gesture in a domain that had not been considered in the gesture literature previously: analogical reasoning (Study 1). We aimed to understand whether gesture supports children’s analogical reasoning ability and why gesture might support this type of reasoning. Specifically, we investigated whether gesture could support learning through directing visual attention, thereby …

Unlocking Desistance: The Role Of Executive Functioning In The Rehabilitation Of Correctional Populations, Danielle Nesi

Dissertations

In a secondary analysis of data collected by Fishbein and Sheppard (2006), the current study sought to explore the relationships among age, executive functioning and antisocial behavior (e.g., changes in institutional infractions, self-reported aggression and reactivity) among a sample of incarcerated men enrolled in a correctional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program between 2003 and 2005. Specifically, the current study examined whether baseline executive abilities predicted misconduct and whether this relationship was mediated by treatment engagement. The relationships among age, treatment engagement, and changes in executive functioning post-treatment were also considered. It was predicted that improvements in executive functioning would vary …

Leveraging Moral Foundations To Increase Covid-19 Vaccination, Cara Elizabeth Ray

Dissertations

Despite the vast majority of the eligible U.S. adult population being vaccinated against COVID-19, geographical clusters of unvaccinated individuals pose a substantial risk of outbreak. It is important to encourage as many individuals as possible to vaccinate against COVID-19 to reduce its spread and severity. Past research has identified endorsement of the purity and liberty moral foundations – intuitive domains of moral concern – as predictors of vaccine hesitancy and political conservatism, while conservatism is itself associated with vaccine hesitancy. Across two online surveys, I examined the effects of a message invoking the purity and liberty foundations as well as …

It Doesn’T Get Better With Time: The Effect Of Housing Insecurity On Rearrest In Polk And Palm Beach County, Quintin Williams

Dissertations

Housing insecurity is one of the main drivers of poverty and inequality in contemporary urban society. We know that this insecurity contributes to poor outcomes for the individuals experiencing it. We know less about how this housing insecurity impacts contact with the criminal justice system. Using event history analysis, this study assesses the effects of housing insecurity in Polk County Iowa and Palm Beach County Florida. Results confirm that housing insecurity increases the risk of being rearrested each day a person is without stable housing. These findings reveal that lack of access to safe, affordable, and stable housing not only …

Broaching The Topics Of Religion And Spirituality In Therapy: Considering The Influence Of Therapist Competence And Organizational Competence, Papa N. Adams

Dissertations

Many individuals have identified religion and/or spirituality (R/S) as integral in the construction of their worldview and important in mental health. Research has demonstrated that clinicians hold positive attitudes towards integrating R/S into therapy yet reported low levels of actually integrating R/S into therapy sessions. This study examined therapist behavior in regard to broaching discussions about R/S in psychotherapy sessions. This study proposed that clinician broaching behavior would be correlated with the clinician’s R/S competence. Furthermore, the relationship between broaching and clinician’s competence would be moderated by the R/S competence of the clinician’s environment (defined as the organizational/institutional R/S competence). …

Defending Gender: Transprejudice As Gender System Maintenance, Linas Mitchell

Dissertations

The high levels of interpersonal and policy-based discrimination that transgender people face can be understood as a way of responding to transgender threats to gender systems. By understanding gender as a system of meaning and power, I apply System Justification Theory to interpret transprejudice as a form of gender system maintenance that may be influenced by one’s position in the gender system (gender) and general support for the status quo (conservatism). The present studies test whether transprejudice functions as a form of system affirmation/threat rejection. I found that exposure to system threat did not lead to greater transprejudice than a …

The Impact Of Democratically Elected Islamist Governments On The Implementation Of Foreign Policy: Cases Of Egypt, Morocco, And Tunisia, Taghreed Alsabeh

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to examine the foreign policy of elected Islamist parties in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia while in power and compare their foreign policy with non-Islamist parties from their respective countries. It seeks to answer the following questions: What is the role of democratically elected Islamist parties on the implementation of foreign policy? Does the foreign policy of Islamist parties differ from that of non-Islamist parties? Do Islamist parties apply their Islamist ideology to foreign policy? Finally, do Islamist parties in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia share similar foreign policy approaches? The study concludes that the difference in foreign policy …

Examining The Relationship Between Child Maltreatment, Executive Functioning, And Trauma Appraisal, Myshira Oliver

Dissertations

Problem

A current problem is that although child maltreatment has been demonstrated to be negatively associated with both executive functioning and trauma appraisal (leading to feelings of shame, self-blame, etc.), there is not an established model within the literature that explains the relationship between child maltreatment, executive functioning, and trauma appraisal. The purpose of this study was to develop a model that displayed the relationship between child maltreatment, executive functioning, and trauma appraisal. Additionally, this study sought to discover differences in trauma appraisal and executive functioning based on the type of child maltreatment experienced.

Method

This study employed a quantitative, …

Facing The Mass Exodus: Reconsidering The Moral Responsibilities For And Obligations Toward Large Numbers Of Refugees In An Age Of Global Crises, Muhammet Ali Asil

Dissertations

The global refugee crisis has revealed an essential moral question regarding helping the forcibly displaced persons in protracted refugee crises: how do we determine if our community has done “enough” for a particular refugee group? Different answers have been provided to this question. This dissertation takes up this question from a normative standpoint. It develops an ethics-based burden-sharing model, that is, a “meaning-based model,” as a method to determine our political communities’ moral duties toward different refugee groups in various refugee crises. The model challenges the conventional wisdom by claiming that not every community has the same moral obligations toward …

Constructing Engineering Knowledge Through Tinkering, Reflection, And Digital Storytelling, Lauren C. Pagano

Dissertations

Educators and researchers suggest that informal learning activities in museums, libraries, and families’ homes can promote children’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning (Sobel & Jipson, 2016). Tinkering, a form of hands-on problem-solving involving real tools and materials, is one way to engage families in engineering design processes. However, tinkering activities vary greatly in terms of the goals presented, the resources available, and opportunities to test (Bevan, 2017). Across three studies, we examined how variations in tinkering exhibit design and parent-child interaction relate to children’s memory and STEM learning. In Study 1, we examined the structure and content of …

Self-Efficacy And Job Satisfaction As Predictors Of Burnout Among School Psychologists In The Midwest United States, Elizabeth Mcknight-Romney

Dissertations

Problem

The concept of burnout is expressed as a syndrome evidenced by chronic exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout or work burnout syndrome is conceptualized as a prolonged process of emotional fatigue, involving loss of motivation and expectations, generating a feeling of failure affecting personal, work, and social levels (Maslach et al., 2001). Victims of burnout usually become exhausted, cynical about work-related matters, and question their capacity or ability to perform. Job burnout includes feeling exhausted physically, emotionally, and or mentally in the context of work (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The demanding profession of school psychology has …

Leadership Styles And Effective Leadership Among Higher Education Leaders In The North American Division Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Patrice A. Wright

Dissertations

Problem

Leadership has been shown to be crucial in the success of organizations, especially in higher education. However, little research has been done about leadership styles and effectiveness in North American Division (NAD) of Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) higher education institutions. My study examined transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership styles and leadership effectiveness in these higher education institutions.

Method

To examine leadership in Adventist colleges, I used the online MLQ-5X short form. I secured participation from 12 colleges and after repeated emails secured 168 responses. I analyzed the relationship between leadership styles, several leader characteristics and leader effectiveness, using SEM, …

Racial Identity, Hair Esteem, Hair Texture, And Hairstyle Choice As Correlates Of Psychological Well-Being Among Afro-Latinas In The United States, Marielsy Esther Pimentel

Dissertations

Problem

During the Colonial period, hair was one of the designated phenotypic markers of racial group membership used to assign or deny privilege. Privileges are still assigned to people based on their racial group membership and their proximity to Whiteness. As such, Hair remains a salient part of Afro-Latina women’s lives and identities, with its influences seen in the personal, social, and mental realms. How an Afro-Latina wears her hair can have legal, social, and intrapersonal consequences. The subsequent treatment of Afro-Latinas because of their hairstyle can affect how they view themselves and even how they relate to others, especially …

Schooled To The Streets? Exploring The Relationship Between K-12 Educational Experiences And Early Careers In Activism, David Abraham Castro

Dissertations

Since the late eighteenth century, organizing and activism have been part of the urban landscape, from the labor organizing of Eugene Debs in the early twentieth century to the community organizing work of Saul Alinsky during the 1950s and 1960s. The development of community organizers is strongly tied to local institutions such as factories, houses of worship, and schools. For many youths in Chicago, schools often become the sites of political and social awakening and lead to activism beyond the schoolhouse. Within the current context of urban education scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and community organizers alike agree that the perspectives of …

Understanding The Process Of Health Goal Achievement Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men (Msm) In Chicago: An Exploratory Qualitative Study, Anthony Johnson

Dissertations

Background: Over the last 30 years, Black men who have sex with men (MSM) have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS while accounting for only approximately 1% of the population of the United States. The majority of research with Black MSM has focused on HIV infection risk factors, but very little attention has been given to their overall health and well-being. The breadth of HIV-health related research that includes Black MSM tends to demonstrate high levels of racial, environmental, and economic disparities that need to be addressed. However, more research must be conducted to explicate the process of exercising strength and …

Church Planting: Exploring The Actual Experiences And Stories Of Four Church Planters Of The Plant1000 Evangelism Initiative In The North American Division Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Hyveth Williams

Dissertations

Problem. Plant1000 was launched in 2016 by the North American Division (NAD), the fifth largest of 13 divisions of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. Since then, it has been reported that over 1000 new church plants have been started, but we do not really understand how healthy most of these are, or not. We also do not know what they are actually experiencing in their developing into viable congregations. The focus of this dissertation is the story of four selected church plants that may be able to help us understand those dynamics that, at the moment, are little understood. -- …

A Study Of Teacher Burnout In Private Seventh-Day Adventist And Public Schools In Trinidad/Tobago And Michigan, Usa, Carla Copeland-Joseph

Dissertations

Problem

Burnout as described by Maslach and Leiter (2007) is a syndrome involving psychological processes that result from Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and diminished Personal Accomplishment in the workplace. It is represented as a stressful experience that is rooted in a person’s own interpretation of social relationships and needs. The aim of this study was to investigate teacher burnout and its interactions with individual factors (Gender, Years of Experience, Emotional Intelligence, Nationality), organizational factors (School Type, School Culture), and transactional factors (Technology Use, Teacher Self-Efficacy) for teachers in Trinidad and Tobago and the state of Michigan in the United States. The …

Academic Library Succession Planning In The University Of California (Uc) System, Crystal Goldman

Dissertations

The Library and Information Science (LIS) literature has made clear that academic libraries in the U.S. have experienced decades of hiring freezes and budget cuts that reduced staffing overall and eliminated many middle management positions. Consequently, now that baby boomer library managers and administrators are beginning to retire, there are few qualified applicants to replace them. Thus, many in the LIS field have called for better succession planning by top-level library administrators (e.g., Deans, Directors, University Librarians). Few studies, however, have directly addressed this issue by examining these administrators’ perceptions or behavior regarding succession planning. This study begins to fill …

The Souls Of Black Folks In The Twenty-First Century: Self-Efficacy, Grit, And Their Development In Low-Income Urban Black Youth, Amzie Moore

Dissertations

Self-efficacy and grit have shown to be internal resources for African American youth, particularly urban low-income youth living in high crime and high poverty communities. This dissertation is a quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and mix method study, which evaluated a cross-age peer mentoring program. This evaluation was to examine if youth mentors’ attendance in the program for one year predicted increases in their self-efficacy and grit. The results of the study revealed that age significantly interacted with youth attendance, predicting increases in self-efficacy. Findings from the qualitative analyses illustrated that the peer-mentoring program strengthened culturally-relevant self-efficacy and grit among youth mentors.

Development Of An Explainability Scale To Evaluate Explainable Artificial Intelligence (Xai) Methods, Stephen Mccarthy

Dissertations

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is an area of research that develops methods and techniques to make the results of artificial intelligence understood by humans. In recent years, there has been an increased demand for XAI methods to be developed due to model architectures getting more complicated and government regulations requiring transparency in machine learning models. With this increased demand has come an increased need for instruments to evaluate XAI methods. However, there are few, if none, valid and reliable instruments that take into account human opinion and cover all aspects of explainability. Therefore, this study developed an objective, human-centred questionnaire …

Crash Injury Severity Prediction With Artificial Neural Networks, Rima Abisaad

Dissertations

Motor vehicle crashes are one of our nation's most serious social, economic and health issues. They are the leading cause of death among children and young adults, killing approximately 1.35 million people each year. Providing a safe and efficient transportation system is the primary goal of transportation engineering and planning. To help reduce traffic fatalities and injuries on roadways, crash prediction models are used to forecast the injury severity of potential crashes and apply precautionary countermeasures accordingly. Most of these models are reactive as they use historical crash data to categorize crash-related factors. Recently, advancements have been made in developing …