Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Reproducing The Orient: A Critical Examination Of Western Media Representations Of China’S Uyghur Policies Between 2014 And 2021, R. Tiger Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the convergence of US state media and US-based mass media in news coverage of China’s policies in Xinjiang. Analysis of a sample of articles published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and CNN between 2014 and 2021 found that stories citing US state media, Uyghur exile advocacy groups, or non-government organizations receiving US funding were significantly more negative in tone than articles using other sources. Articles citing state media and exile advocacy groups tended to frame China’s policies as an ideological challenge while other articles were more likely …

A Survey Study Of Speech-Language Therapists’ Experiences With Teletherapy At The Onset Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Jason A. Rosas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study aimed to understand how delivering pediatric treatment services via ‘teletherapy’ affected speech-language therapists (SLTs) during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in 2020. SLTs reported on their experiences with the change from in-person to remote service delivery via two national surveys distributed at the start of the pandemic between April 2020 and July 2020. To explain SLTs’ survey responses, this dissertation introduced the Professional Adaptation Model (PA Model). The PA Model facilitated evaluation of the SLTs’ professional environment and the psychological constructs of their professional identity believed to influence the transition to speech-language teletherapy. Specifically, …

The Relative Cost Of Codeswitching: An Electrophysiological Study Contrasting Language Switching Versus Lexical Predictability, Iris Strangmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neurophysiological sentence processing studies are inconsistent about the additional costs that language switching within sentences (i.e., codeswitching) may bring about (cf. Valdés Kroff et al., 2020; Yacovone et al., 2021). There is discussion about whether there are, in fact, additional costs and, if so, about the origins of those costs, since some findings are consistent with effortful processing when comprehending single-language (not switched) words observed in monolingual studies. Specifically, studies are divided on whether codeswitched words are more difficult to lexically access than single-language equivalents of similar semantic predictability, as indexed by an increased N400 effect. The same studies, however, …

Dietary Regulation Of Silent Synapses In The Dorsolateral Striatum, Allison M. Meyers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Obesity and drugs of abuse share overlapping neural circuits and behaviors. Cravings for drugs of abuse increase during abstinence, a phenomenon known as incubation. In obesity, increased craving is observed in individuals during dieting. Diets often fail, with return to- or increase above- original weight. The extent to which this reflects an incubation phenomenon has not been carefully examined. One mechanism underlying incubation is the reemergence of a developmental mechanism called silent synapses. Silent synapses are 'temporary' synapses that are important for remodeling brain circuits. They are prevalent during early development but largely disappear by adulthood. Drugs of abuse increase …

Virtual Reality Supplement To The Peers Social Skills Intervention For Adolescents With Asd, Kevin Ambrose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to replicate findings of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relation Skills (PEERS) parent-assisted social skills training program for a diverse group of adolescents with historical autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses in an urban locality. Additionally, this study sought to pilot a 3D multi-user virtual environment for adolescent participants and an online learning community for parent coaches; both hypothesized to reinforce the social skills curriculum. A randomized controlled trial of PEERS was completed with 12 adolescents diagnosed with ASD with some participation from their caregivers. Results show that participants who received the …

The Cultural Battle Against The Dollar: Struggles Over Hoarding And Democracy In The Twilight Of Argentina's Soy Boom, Charles Dolph

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Argentina’s economy has undergone a profound transformation over recent decades from beef and wheat to soybeans and derivative products as the country’s main export commodity and source of foreign exchange. The dissertation traces this shift against the historical backdrop of the country’s peculiar class, territorial, and state formations as the only Latin American nation where agrarian reform has been altogether absent. This perspective on Argentina’s experience with the so-called Green Revolution in agriculture reveals it as an expansive project in which the U.S. dollar figures as an instrument of pacification and acquiescence to agribusiness hegemony. Amid an early twenty-first century …

The Moral Economy Of Ordinary Belarussians And A Critical Examination And Re-Evaluation Of The 2020 Post-Electoral Uprising, Geoffrey Blank

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is three studies in one: First, a qualitative study of the moral economy of ordinary Belarussians based on E.P Thompson’s class-based economic conception of moral economy, as applied to complex socio-economic systems by Reinarman (1987). Second, a critical and broad examination and re-evaluation of the August 9, 2020 post-electoral uprising. And third, an examination of both the West’s hostility toward Belarus’ largely state-owned socially-oriented economic model (often considered market socialism) and toward President Lukashenka, and, of the West’s commitment to overthrowing President Lukashenka and Belarus’ largely state-owned socially-oriented economic model, through its sponsorship of color revolution, “democratization,” regime …

Essays On Federalism And Local Finance In China, Jiakai Zhang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that cover topics on federalism and local finance in China.

Chapter 1 - Economic Growth, Fiscal Inequality and Fiscal Decentralization: Evidence from China.

This paper investigates the impact of inequality in the geographic distribution of fiscal resources on regional economic growth under fiscal decentralization policy in the context of China's experience, using panel data for 28 provinces over the period 1987–2010. In the recent past, the structure of decentralized government in China has undergone two significant fiscal reforms: the ``Fiscal Responsibility System" (FRS) in 1987-1993, and the ``Tax Sharing System" (TSS) in 1994. I …

Teaching Revolution: Women Primary School Teachers, Race, And Social Reproduction In Cuba, Angela M. Crumdy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In November of 2018, Dr. Miriam Nicado García was appointed Rector of the University of Havana, making her the first woman of color to hold the position in the institution’s 209-year existence. This is undoubtedly a historic event that serves as a starting point to consider the intersections of formal education and social difference on the island from the perspective of education workers. Despite claims that Cuba is a racial democracy in which all citizens are unified by a shared national identity, an assessment of the education system through the experiences of women educators can be used as a diagnostic …

Does A Neural Network Inflect Spanish Verbs In A Human-Like Way?, Elizabeth Garza

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How do children learn that a verb like negar-‘to deny’ / niego - ‘I deny’ diphthongizes the 1st person present indicative, while it’s near minimal pair, pegar-‘to stick’ / pego - ‘I stick’, does not? To pursue this question, three small experiments were conducted in Spanish, given its complex and rich morphology. The first experiment was conducted to determine whether the Tolerance Principle of the Rules & Competition model (Yang, 2018) can accurately determine the productivity of verb classes in Spanish, and whether any irregular verb classes are exhibit subregular productivity. The second experiment was conducted to determine …

The Bright And Dark Sides Of Upward Social Comparison: Knowledge Sharing And Knowledge Hiding Directed At High Performers, Soohyun (Ashley) Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present research investigated when and why employees might share or hide their work information from coworkers who perform better than themselves. Drawing from social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) and social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), I predicted that upward social comparison would lead to both pleasant reactions (inspiration, perceived gain of work resources) and unpleasant reactions (envy, perceived loss of work resources), which in turn would differentially affect knowledge sharing/hiding behaviors targeting high-performing coworkers. I further predicted that individual differences in directing behaviors toward goals (goal orientation) and task structures requiring reliance on coworkers (task interdependence) would moderate the relationships …

Essays On Impacts Of Women Empowerment On The Health Outcomes Of Children, Sagnik Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: Taking cognizance of the lack of representation of women in politics, the Indian government in 1993, enacted the 73rd constitutional amendment which led to a sudden increase in the representation of women in the local governments. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the timing of implementation of the 73rd amendment across the states, I study the spillover effects of this mandated empowerment of women on the health outcomes of children by using nationally representative survey data and employing a difference-in-difference estimation strategy. In this study, I find evidence of a positive impact of mandated women empowerment on the survival …

Lost In Digitization: Physical Products Are Vessels For Social Meaning, Oden H. Groth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The explosion in digitization means that consumers increasingly have the opportunity to choose between digital and physical versions of products — for example, between an eBook and a paperback book. However, despite the popularity of digital objects, many people nonetheless prefer physical equivalents. This dissertation explores one reason why this may be the case; namely, that physical versions of objects and products are better vessels for social meaning. In chapter 1, explore the specialness of physical objects, and posit that materiality is critical for holding and embodying significance. In chapter 2, I investigate the effects of product format on perceptions …

The Making Of A Bilingual University In The 21st Century, Michael Mena

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the southernmost tip of Texas, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) opened its doors on August 31, 2015 as a ‘bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate’ campus—the only one of its kind and at a scale never before attempted in the United States. This is a categorical achievement in the near 200 year-long quest for the educational advancement of Latinxs in Texas—a state historically structured by white supremacist ideologies, violent economic and political disenfranchisement, as well as a racially segregated education system designed to maintain exploitative labor practices (Montejano 1987; González 1990, 2013, 1999; Blanton 2004). This constitutes the …

From Sesame Street To Beyond: Multi-Domain Discourse Relation Classification With Pretrained Bert, Isaac R. Raff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research efforts in transfer learning have gained massive popularity in recent years. Pretrained language models have demonstrated the most successful results in producing high quality neural networks capable of quality inference after training across domains via transfer learning. This study expands on the domain transfer introduced in \cite{ferracane-etal-2019-news} exploring neural methods for transfer learning of discourse parsing between a news source domain and a medical target domain. \cite{ferracane-etal-2019-news} specifically discuss transfer learning from news articles to PubMed medical journal articles. Experiments in transfer learning in the current work expand to include three domains: Wall Street Journal articles previously annotated with …

Coercive Control And Trauma-Coerced Attachment In Commercial Sexual Exploitation: A Mixed-Method Examination, Kendra Doychak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Commercial sexual exploitation (i.e., sex trafficking) can lead to myriad negative consequences for its victims, including exposure to coercive control and the development of trauma-coerced attachments. Scholars have offered theoretical conceptualizations of the relation between coercive environments and traumatic attachments, but this relationship is rarely empirically examined. The current study used data from 68 semi-structured interviews with former victims of sex trafficking to first, formally identify coercive control and second, empirically classify trauma-coerced attachment in this population. Mixed-method analysis were used to identify associations between coercive control and TCA in order to better explain how this abuse dynamic leads to …

Three Lenses Of Contrapower Sexual Harassment, Michael L. Ekema

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Contrapower sexual harassment refers to sexual harassment incidents where the perpetrator has less formal power within the organization than the person being victimized. Although the potential for inverse power dynamics were already identified in the early stages of sexual harassment research, the prevalence and antecedents of contrapower sexual harassment have rarely been examined. In addition, prior sexual harassment research has overwhelmingly prioritized gender as the focal variable of interest. This dissertation seeks to contribute to the literature on workplace incivility, organizational deviance, and counterproductive work behaviors by looking at contrapower harassment through three different lenses: The perspective of harassment targets, …

Microaggressions, Imposter Phenomenon, And People Of Color: A Quantitative Analysis, Rukiya King

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated the impact of racial and ethnic microaggressions on marginalized groups. However, research has not established the presence of imposter phenomenon as a consequence of microaggressions. Imposter phenomenon has been described as intense and pervasive self-doubt experienced by individuals of marginalized identities. Although imposter phenomenon was first conceptualized as an experience among high achieving women, researchers have demonstrated its presence in other marginalized groups, particularly people of color. However, research on imposter phenomenon has mostly focused on perceived racism and racial identity within people of color. The current study examined the relationship between microaggressions, imposter phenomenon, and mental …

La Voz De Los Sures: Etnografía Glotopolítica Del Activismo Comunitario, Lara Maria Alonso Pinero

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The relevance of the strategic use of language and communication in the consolidation and action of a political subject has not yet been sufficiently analyzed. Drawing on a glottopolitical perspective, this research project aims to incorporate the object of study of the political dimension of voice and point out the importance of mastering linguistic and discursive practices in community activism. Based on the case of the Latino community of Los Sures in Brooklyn, NY, in this dissertation I embark on a journey through the communicative practices through which a group of people begins to conceive of itself as a community, …

Investigating Young Adult Cancer Survivors' Perspectives On Their Future And Interpersonal Relationships, Zeba N. Ahmad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For many young adults (YA, aged 18-39) who have recently survived cancer, planning and working towards goals for the future is a fraught process. Prior research consistently identifies the challenges of survivorship, including: rebuilding personal identity, accepting the impact of cancer-related interruptions on personal goals, navigating new roles in significant close relationships, and initiating new relationships as a survivor. However, there is limited research describing the mechanisms underlying these persistent challenges, which poses difficulties when tailoring evidence-based psychological intervention. The present study consolidates both established and newly hypothesized survivorship challenges into a novel conceptual model, hypothesizing that they are interrelated, …

A Pilot Feasibility Trial Of Mindfulness And Modification Therapy For Males Who Use Aggression, Jenny Mitchell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Physical aggression incurs substantial harm to victims and witnesses, particularly when it occurs within close relationships such as family, friendships, or intimate partnerships. Men who use aggression against partners and other adults frequently experience high levels of psychopathology, including depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxious/insecure attachment, paranoia, bipolar disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, personality disorders, and substance abuse, which contribute to use of aggressive behaviors. However, existing treatments for aggression often do not address these symptoms. It is important that treatments for aggression are grounded in theoretical literature and backed by empirical support in order to increase treatment engagement and effectiveness. Treatments …

Mitigating The Harm Of Public Mass Shooting Incidents Through Situational Crime Prevention, Emily Greene-Colozzi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation used environmental theoretical frameworks to understand how public mass shooting incidents are impacted by aspects of the crime situation and opportunity. Predatory, public shootings perpetrated by individuals with evidence of mass intent were examined in the United States between 1966 and 2019. This project progressed in several distinct steps with discrete aims: (1) establish an open source database of public mass shooting incidents meeting definitional criteria; (2) perform statistical analysis, including latent class analysis, regression modeling, and structural equational modeling to assess research questions; and (3) perform comparative case studies and crime script analysis to assess situational crime …

Refusing Rehabilitation: Outlaw Epistemologies And The Carceral-Therapeutic State In Nyc, Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During an historic re-articulation of incarceration in New York City, Refusing Rehabilitation: Outlaw Epistemologies and the Carceral-Therapeutic State explores how gender, race, and class have been transformed at the intersection of criminal legal system reform and the overdose crisis. I take up how multiracial groups of criminalized women—thrown together by the state, not by choice—refuse forms of state control and violence, and imagine together alternative “outlaw” horizons of justice, healing, drug use, and escape from carceral-therapeutic capture. Countering the individualizing mandate of rehabilitation, women in rehab articulate visions of healing grounded in interdependence, collective safety, and an end to structural …

Expulsive Greening: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Green Gentrification In The Resilience Paradigm, Brooklyn 2010–2020, Rose Jimenez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: This project analyzes the spatial coincidence between gentrification typologies and urban greening in Brooklyn, New York from 2010 to 2020. Assets formed under the NYC Green Infrastructure Program were chosen as a proxy for urban greening to represent the spatial practice specifically within the 21st-century climate change resilience paradigm of development. Methods: First, five indexes measuring variations of economic and demographic conditions related to gentrification were applied to Brooklyn for comparative analysis: NOAA’s Social Vulnerability Indicators of Gentrification Pressure, The NYC Heat Vulnerability Index, The Small Area Index of Gentrification, Typologies of Gentrification and Displacement, and The Housing Risk …

Cpted And The City: The Impact Of Privately Owned Public Spaces On Crime In Manhattan, Julia Von Ferber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Privately-Owned Public Spaces (POPS) are public recreational areas that are maintained and secured by a private owner. POPS contrast their surrounding environments of public streets in urban city centers, creating distinct social environments that influence pedestrian paths and behavior. This dissertation evaluates POPS and how their physical features influence the occurrence of various street crime types through the lens of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Empirical evidence supports CPTED as a crime prevention strategy framework, primarily in residential neighborhoods rather than city centers. To quantitatively assess CPTED in an urban context, this study examined 255 outdoor POPS with unrestricted …

The Impossible Situation? Impasse As Psychotherapeutic Paralysis, Possibility, And Progress, Leo Cancelmo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychotherapeutic impasse has long been understood in the clinical literature as treatment stagnation and even failure, both from one-person and two-person psychodynamic perspectives. However, there is a dearth of empirical research that delves deeper to understand this complex and rich phenomenon. Using semi-structured interviews with nine psychodynamic therapists speaking about individual adult patients, this study examined experiences of impasse to better understand treatments that become embroiled in a kind of paralysis. Qualitative analyses revealed dyads where patients were conceptualized as struggling chronically with negative feelings about themselves and others, and who experienced traumatic personal histories. Impasse in and of itself …

Essays On Machine Learning Methods In Economics, Mani Bayani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters on machine learning modeling in economics. Chapter 1 - Robust PCA Synthetic Control: In this chapter, I propose an algorithm for comparative studies called robust PCA synthetic control. My algorithm builds on the synthetic control model of Abadie et al., 2015 and the robust synthetic control model of Amjad et al., 2018. I apply all three methods (robust PCA synthetic control, synthetic control, and robust synthetic control) to answer the hypothetical question, what would have been the per capita GDP of West Germany if it had not reunified with East Germany in 1990? I …

The Politics Of Media Freedom, Kyong Mazzaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Democratization theories assume that democracy and media freedom go hand in hand. However, in democracies, politicians and individuals who have a stake in political battles often attack journalists. How can political and electoral incentives that are at the heart of democracy create a minefield for journalists? Examining cross-national patterns of censorship and the experiences of journalists in Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil captured in over 4,600 case narratives, 30 field interviews, and historical documents, I study the circumstances under which political rivalries result in anti-media violence. I show that state and non-state actors are more likely to target journalists as a …

Unexpected Arousal Suppresses Memory And Metamemory Predictions During Associative Face-Name Recognition Task, Sameer Sabharwal-Siddiqi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Successful recognition often depends on probabilistic estimation of memory-signal. Arousal has been shown to offset the influence of heuristic evidence on memory prediction. We conducted three experiments that tested whether arousal also suppresses predictions relevant to memory confidence. Experiments employed associative face-name memory tasks that included retrospective (Experiments 1 and 2) or concurrent (Experiment 3) judgements of confidence. During test, subjects were presented with a masked-affective face on a subset of trials. By timing the masked-affective face to precede a recognition judgement (Experiment 1), we replicated the finding that unexpected arousal offsets the influence of heuristic evidence on expectations of …

Countertransference And The Patient's Experience: Exploring How Engagement With Affect Is Related To Short-Term Psychotherapy Outcomes, Ariel R. Westerman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Therapist focus on affect in the here-and-now can facilitate a patient’s emotional experience as well as expression of affect, both of which are associated with better outcome over the course of treatment (Diener et al., 2007). A therapist’s use of her own experience of the patient can serve as a signal to intervene in the here-and-now. While “countertransference” was historically seen as an obstacle to a therapist’s neutrality and therefore efficacy (Freud, 1910), shifts in the field toward a two-person psychology model led some to reconsider it as a potential source of clinical data (Winnicott, 1947; Heimann, 1950; Racker, …