Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Saving Animals: Everyday Practices Of Care And Rescue In The Us Animal Sanctuary Movement, Elan L. Abrell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This multi-sited ethnography of the US animal sanctuary movement is based on 24 months of research at a range of animal rescue facilities, including a companion animal shelter in Texas, exotic animal sanctuaries in Florida and Hawaii, and a farm animal sanctuary in New York. In the last three decades, animal welfare activists have established hundreds of sanctuaries across the United States in an attempt to save tens of thousands of animals from factory farms, roadside zoos, and other sites of contested animal treatment. These facilities function as laboratories where activists conceive and operationalize new models for ethical relationships with …

Utilizing Linguistic Context To Improve Individual And Cohort Identification In Typed Text, Adam Goodkind

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The process of producing written text is complex and constrained by pressures that range from physical to psychological. In a series of three sets of experiments, this thesis demonstrates the effects of linguistic context on the timing patterns of the production of keystrokes. We elucidate the effect of linguistic context at three different levels of granularity: The first set of experiments illustrate how the nontraditional syntax of a single linguistic construct, the multi-word expression, can create significant changes in keystroke production patterns. This set of experiments is followed by a set of experiments that test the hypothesis on the entire …

Gendered Expression Online: Exploring Gendered Communication On Facebook And In A Collaborative Editing Task, Christina M. Shane-Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

College students are increasingly using digital media, such as social network sites (SNSs) and collaborative editing tools (Wikipedia), as identity exploration tools, aligning or distancing themselves from their offline selves through the online affordances of anonymity and agentic choice. The opportunities for gender fluidity available online (Armentor-Cota, 2011) provide college students with opportunities to experiment with and manipulate varied identities in a safe space where consequences of confronting identity norms may be less severe (Turkle, 1996; Shaw, 1997). Similarly, restrictive offline gender differences may diminish in online spaces, favoring a more flexible and androgynous enactment of gender (Martin, Cook, & …

A Developmental Perspective On Parental Cognitions And Emotions In The Context Of A Parent-Mediated Intervention For Children With Asd, Emily R. Hotez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research demonstrates that parenting-related schemas and perceptions, reflective functioning abilities, and emotional experiences (i.e., parental cognitions and emotions) play a pivotal role in predicting whether parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are actively involved in, and demonstrate capacity in, meeting their child’s needs in the context of intervention programs or services related to their child’s development. In light of these findings, researchers have focused increased attention towards investigating whether parent-mediated interventions that target children’s behaviors and developmental outcomes exert collateral effects on parental cognitions and emotions.

The current dissertation investigated a sample of 70 mothers of …

Participation Strategies In Low-Resource Settings And Their Impact On Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Skills: A Study In Four Different Geographical Regions, Magdalena Galazyn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In a global 21st century, positive social, cultural, emotional youth development is crucial. Theories of human development suggest that development is complex, contextual, and multidimensional. Thus, with changing conditions worldwide, it is important to understand the effects of young people’s activities in challenging circumstances and how different factors promote or hinder optimal development. Research shows that education provides positive benefits to child and youth development (Phillips & Lowenstein, 2011), but many individuals do not have equal access to resources and opportunities such as public or private schooling (Woodhead, Frost, & James, 2013), and thus show poorer outcomes on cognitive tests, …

Queering By Example: Sex Education In The Age Of Vlogging, Zoe M. Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The 1990s saw the rise of third wave feminism, queer theory and the digital age. This paper looks at how the three come together in YouTube video bloggers’ promotion of queer sex-positive ideology. Sex positivism is the belief that all safe, consensual sex is healthy, while queer theory emphasizes the diversity and instability of sex and gender identities. YouTube vloggers engaged in life-streaming profit from the entertainment value of revealing personal sexual information while framing their sexual revelations as healthy, shame-free sex positivism. In doing so, they also put their unique and sometimes changing sexualities on public display, in effect …

Boundaries And Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, And Psychoanalysis, Natalie C. Hung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation addresses a vexing problem. In psychology and psychoanalysis, Asian Americans are more often understood as a collective Other than as individual Selves, more frequently an object of study than a subject. Through two overarching aims, my dissertation sheds light on neglected aspects of Asian American selves, the meanings of the invisibility surrounding them, and implications for clinical practice.

First, the project challenges extant psychological perspectives on Asian Americans, which often implicitly assume a wide gulf of difference between Asian American cultural values and the Western epistemologies of psychology and psychoanalysis. Through the examination of academic research, clinical literature, …

Examining Victimization In South Korea 1993-2010: A Comparative Application Of Ecological Theories Of Crime, Jisun Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Theoretical approaches aimed at the understanding of population level criminal offending and victimization generally revolve around two major criminological theories: Social disorganization and routine activities/lifestyle theories. These theoretical frameworks were developed and have been examined extensively in a Western context (primarily in the U.S.) and provide evidence of both individual and aggregate indicators for the explanation of variations in crime. More recently, these approaches have been extended to the Eastern context as increasing numbers of studies have been conducted outside of the U.S. This application is relatively recent and the literature has yet to find conclusive supporting evidence for these …

Essays On The Economics Of Health And Risky Behavior, Markus Gehrsitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As Forrest Gump has ever eloquently pointed out: stupid is as stupid does. It turns out that most people engage in behavior that could reasonably be considered stupid, or at least risky. People overeat, chain-smoke cigarettes, drink excessively, consume harmful drugs, and drive too fast; if worst comes to worst they do some of these things simultaneously. This work evaluates three policy measures that are designed to promote health and less risky behavior: I evaluate the effects of penalties for speeding transgressions on future driving behavior, the effects of low emission zones on infant health and air pollution, and the …

Essays In Health Economics, Aigbokhai Unuigbe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is motivated by changes in health and labor policies of the United States that have occurred over the last two decades. It examines how these policies as well as public programs affect behavior and outcomes. These programs and policies have the potential to impact behavior directly at the individual level and could also have indirect effects at the household level. In addition, the effects on healthcare use and health status are also examined. This dissertation consists of three chapters.

The first chapter looks at the effect of changes in Medicaid policy on legal immigrant parents in the United …

The Relative Impact Of Psychosocial Well-Being And Mental Health On The Relationship Between Economic Circumstance And Religiosity, Veronica Momjian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Employing Norris and Inglehart’s concept of existential security as a theoretical framework, this dissertation utilizes three data points from the Americans’ Changing Lives study (1986, 1994 and 2011) to interrogate the link between the economic circumstance and religiosity. More specifically, the mediating impact of psychosocial well-being and mental health on religiosity are explored.

This dissertation hypothesizes that individuals employ religious coping strategies to deal with the stress of economic uncertainty; and when that uncertainty subsides, so too does religiosity. The results of this study show that, on average, religiosity increases during times of economic instability, and decreases when the economy …

On The Syntax/Semantics Of Korean Nominal Particles, Han-Byul Chung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I investigate the structural positions of i/ka-marked DPs and un/nun-marked DPs in the light of Kratzer (1988; 1995) and Diesing (1990; 1992). In Korean, unlike German (and English in part), vP-external subjects and vP-internal subjects are not distinguishable at the surface. However, by adopting Kratzer (1988; 1995) and Diesing (1990; 1992), we are able to distinguish between vP-external DPs and vP-internal DPs in Korean.

According to Kratzer and Diesing, syntactic position of a DP has affect in the interpretation of the DP itself, as well as the interpretation of the sentence …

Data-Driven Synthesis And Evaluation Of Syntactic Facial Expressions In American Sign Language Animation, Hernisa Kacorri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Technology to automatically synthesize linguistically accurate and natural-looking animations of American Sign Language (ASL) would make it easier to add ASL content to websites and media, thereby increasing information accessibility for many people who are deaf and have low English literacy skills. State-of-art sign language animation tools focus mostly on accuracy of manual signs rather than on the facial expressions. We are investigating the synthesis of syntactic ASL facial expressions, which are grammatically required and essential to the meaning of sentences. In this thesis, we propose to: (1) explore the methodological aspects of evaluating sign language animations with facial expressions, …

The Effects Of Globalization On An Emerging Economy: The Case Of South Africa, Oluwasheyi S. Oladipo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how globalization influences selected aspects of an emerging economy, using South Africa as a case study. The dissertation consists of three chapters: two microeconomic studies and one macroeconomic paper on the effects of globalization on some of the factors affecting economic growth. One micro paper explores the impacts of openness on inequality (Chapter 1), another investigates the impacts of trade liberalization on manufacturing sector wages (Chapter 2), and the macro study, which is the final chapter, examines the effects of inflation targeting on exchange rate pass through to domestic prices (Chapter 3).

In 1994, apartheid ended in …

Nondescript: A Web Tool To Aid Subversion Of Authorship Attribution, Robin Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A person’s writing style is uniquely quantifiable and can serve reliably as a biometric. A writer who wishes to remain anonymous can use a number of privacy technologies but can still be identified simply by the words they choose to use — how frequently they use common words like “of,” for instance. Nondescript is a web tool designed first to identify the user’s writing style in terms of word frequency from a given writing sample and document, then to suggest how the author can change their document to lessen its probability of being attributed to them. While Nondescript does not …

A Systematic Review Of Dual-Sensory Impairment In Older Adults, Abby F. Malawer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The elderly population (ages 65 years and older) in the United States is estimated to double between 2000 and 2030 to approximately 72 million people. Among this population, sensory impairment is a chronic disability. The combination of both hearing and vision impairment, referred to as dual-sensory impairment (DSI) is a chronic condition on the rise. The prevalence of DSI ranges from a low of 1.6% to as high as 22.5% depending on the population (Appollonio et al., 1995). Higher prevalence rates tend to emerge in populations receiving rehabilitative and hospital care. DSI impacts independent physical function and verbal communication, along …

Better Work And Global Governance, Paul Alois

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a case study of Better Work, a program run by the International Labor Organization and the International Finance Corporation. It aims to improve working conditions and productivity in the apparel industry. The purpose of this case study is to examine the role that international organizations can play in global governance. The research presented here comes from interviews, document analysis, and an examination of quantitative data on factories’ working conditions. In-person interviews were conducted in the United States, Switzerland, Vietnam, and Indonesia; many phone interviews took place with individuals in other countries. Both publicly available documents and internal …

Beaches, People, And Change: A Political Ecology Of Rockaway Beach After Hurricane Sandy, Bryce B. Dubois

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses restoration practices of Rockaway beach post-Hurricane Sandy as a lens to investigate tensions between nature and society on urban coasts. By focusing on this New York City beach, this dissertation aims to examine the interaction between the beach, residents, city and federal agencies, and local environmental grassroots stewards in their response to coastal flooding and erosion. This is an ethnographic case study of Rockaway Beach during the two years (October 2012-October 2014) following Hurricane Sandy. This case study is based on secondary data analysis of interviews with 52 key informants, field-notes from participant observation at community and …

Social Ties And State Formation In Post-Soviet Central Asia, David Siegel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines state formation in newly or recently independent states. Why are state authorities able to exert control over provincial areas in some cases but not others? How do the national authorities of newly independent states build centralized bureaucracies, control state cadre, and ensure deference among their regional subordinates? Why do they sometimes fail? I answer these questions by focusing on the social ties of state officials in the periphery. Specifically, I argue that where the state’s regional officials are socially embedded in local communities, the process of administrative centralization will proceed unevenly and incompletely. It is only by …

Development Of A Patient-Centered Health Literacy Toolkit For Audiology And Hearing Loss (The 'Hh Lit Kit'), Jennifer L. Gilligan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Patient-Centered Health Literacy Toolkit for Audiology & Hearing Loss (‘HH Lit Kit’) represents four years of inquiry into health literacy and Patient-Centered Care (PCC) in audiology. While awareness of health literacy continues to gain momentum in medicine and public health, there is a paucity of information on PCC and health literacy in audiology.

Low health literacy is linked to poorer health and poorer quality of life. Patients with hearing loss are at high risk for low health literacy. This presents a major concern because hearing loss affects the way information is processed, retained, and applied. Gaps have been identified …

Patterns Of Growth And The Economic Development Of China, Adam C. Watson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

By looking at the historical rise of modern China, starting with the end of the First Opium War (1842) through to the start of the war with Japan (1937), and then from the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms (1979) to the present, this work reveals the striking similarities between the earlier and the later periods of capitalist development. If the country had not been able to draw on the deep-rooted knowledge and skills which originated in Shanghai and the port cities in the mid-nineteenth century, and instead pursued only uninformed free market principles without the training to make these …

Mental Health Practitioners’ Understanding Of Informed Consent With Adolescents, Blanca I. Santana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of informed consent on the delivery of psychiatric services to adolescents and the way in which mental health practitioners understand and address informed consent in their treatment of adolescents. A key focus of this study examined how informed consent influenced adolescent mental health utilization and retention.

The study sought to explore the following questions: (1) How do practitioners understand adolescent informed consent? (2) How does informed consent affect adolescent access to mental health treatment and utilization as perceived by practitioners? (3) How do practitioners understand and describe the impact informed …

Loans’ Impact On International Relations: Venezuela As Lender And Borrower, Leonela C. Medina Baez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Foreign aid can be allocated through grants and loans each of them having different repercussions in the hierarchical relations between donor/recipient and lender/borrower. This study focuses on the effects of bilateral loans in international relations. The relation created through bilateral loans is conditioned by the payment or cancellation of the debt: a client-patron relationship between lender and borrower remains when there is not debt payment, conversely, when the borrower pays off its debt to the lender on time, the relation of domination does not take place. However, how the relation is transformed if one state is both lender and borrower? …

Effects Of Serveware Materiality On Food Perceptions, Consumption, And Waste, Sara Williamson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Three lab studies and three field studies indicate that food waste and consumption is influenced by serveware disposability. Studies indicate that consumers waste more food when eating with disposable plates and consume more food when eating with permanent plates. The effect persists whether participants choose their own type and quantity of food or are given the same amount of food, whether they are responsible for plate disposal or not, and whether the serveware is touched/held or not. Process level support is provided via an IAT test to explain this effect as a perceptual readiness to dispose of food when on …

Mobilizing For Capitalism: How Islamic Civil Society Makes A Market Economy Possible In Turkey, Dean G. Schafer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis asks how international actors – in this case, the IMF and World Bank – advance their neoliberal projects. Specifically, it looks at the local context. How do economic reforms pass from IMF policy into national law? Who does the IMF cooperate with? What strategies are used, and what makes them effective for enacting and legitimizing policy? It starts by looking at the history of political mobilization in Turkey after WWII, when it took its first IMF loan. Turkish political parties have commonly sought electoral success through populist economic policies built on patron-client relationships. However, economic populism is a …

Obesity Over The Life Course: Perspectives In Health And Mortality, Noura E. Insolera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation seeks to examine obesity in different contexts throughout the life course. Through empirical analyses, separate stages of the life course are considered: namely childhood through adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. By using a life course perspective, it is possible to consider longitudinal and intergenerational approaches to these questions, which will update and inform the current debates surrounding obesity.

Beginning with children, the intergenerational transmission of diet disease knowledge, socioeconomic status, and child health behaviors are considered in their associations with the outcomes of child diet in 2002, and in turn their associations with child obesity in 2007. Information …

Struggling To Learn, Learning To Struggle: Strategy And Structure In The 2010-11 University Of Puerto Rico Student Strike, José A. Laguarta Ramírez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

From April 2010 to March 2011, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) underwent a two-phase strike sequence against neoliberal austerity measures. Altogether, that process resulted in the eventual concession of all of the students’ main demands, an unprecedented feat at the UPR, and a rare one in Puerto Rican history in general. In this dissertation I seek to cast light on this improbable event by examining, first, how neoliberalization patterned and contoured the choices facing the century-old UPR student movement. Second, I explore how interactions within the movement, including the framing contest among leadership teams and their interaction with the …

Community Violence, School Climate, And Social-Emotional Well-Being In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Leighann Starkey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite abundant information on negative child outcomes related to school and community violence in Western nations, the impact of such violence is less well studied in low-income countries. Through secondary analysis of data from an impact evaluation of a school-based intervention in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, this study uses verbally administered questionnaires with students and teachers to examine the association between children's exposure to community violence and their social-emotional well-being, specifically concerning mental health problems and victimization by peers. In addition, this paper explores how this relationship between exposure to community violence and social-emotional well-being may be modified …

Bilingual Latino Middle Schoolers On Languaging And Racialization In The Us, Sarah Hesson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores bilingual Latino middle schoolers’ articulated understandings of their language practices as well as the links between language practices and processes of racialization and discrimination in the US. The research was conducted in the context of an after-school program whose explicit aim was to not only document students’ experiences, but to use those experiences as a basis for generating individual and collective critical understandings among participants. The findings of this case study center on the ways youth understand processes of racialization, translanguaging, and translation in the context of an English-dominant society, and how these understandings are connected to …

United In Political Solidarity: How Multicultural Endorsement And Group Identity Inspire Intergroup Political Solidarity Among Members Of Lower Status Groups, Justine Calcagno

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation tests a new theoretical model that describes when low status group members will work with members of higher status groups for social change, known as intergroup political solidarity. Research on intergroup political solidarity has focused on either the high status group’s orientation toward solidarity or when members of separate groups work together on behalf of a common low status group. There is thus a lack of research on intergroup political solidarity from the perspective of lower status groups.

It is proposed that recognition of group differences by the high status group influences orientations toward intergroup political solidarity. Specifically: …