Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Presidential Domain: An Exploratory Study Of Prospect Theory And Us Climate Policy Since 1998, Hal T. Nelson

Dissertations and Theses

The Bush administration's decision to abandon the Kyoto Protocol can be explained by prospect theory. The change in federal climate policy between the Clinton and Bush administrations was due to the difference in domain that each president operated under. President Clinton operated under a domain of losses as he associated continued fossil fuel use with future socio-economic and environmental damages from climate change. This domain of losses increased President Clinton's risk tolerances and explains his pursuit of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Conversely, President Bush operated under a domain of gains where he did …

The Role Of Trust, Leader-Member Exchange, And Organizational Justice In Employee Attitudes And Behaviors: A Laboratory And Field Investigation, Rudolph Joseph Sanchez

Dissertations and Theses

The study of interpersonal relationships continues to be a major focus of theory and research in a wide array of disciplines. The present research examined one of the most prevalent and significant interpersonal relationships in the workplace context—the dyadic relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate. This research examined the relationships between trust, quality of the leader-member exchange relationship (LMX; a measure of the quality of the dyadic relationship), perceived organizational justice, and several employee attitudes and behaviors that are important to individual workers and the organizations in which they work.

Data were collected in both laboratory and field settings. …

The Transformation Of Civic Institutions And Practices In Portland, Oregon, 1960-1999, Steven Reed Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation I examine how the organizational framework for civic life in Portland, Oregon, changed between 1960 and 1999 and identify several key aspects of the transformation.

The most basic change has been in the type of organizations involved in civic issues. In 1960 civic life in Portland was dominated by traditional civic organizations: fraternal and benevolent organizations, women's clubs, voluntary and charitable organizations, ethnic cultural groups, and direct social service organizations. By 1999 traditional civic organizations were displaced by advocacy oriented organizations: identity interest groups, neighborhood associations, citizen interest organizations, and social service organizations that advocated for causes. …

A Critical Review Of Issues In Applying Restorative Justice Principles And Practices To Cases Of Hate Crime, Terri Lee Kelly

Dissertations and Theses

A restorative approach to justice focuses on accountability for healing the harm done to victims and communities as a result of criminal acts. Hate crimes are intended to send a threatening message to a particular group of people. There is enough reliable research on restorative justice principles and practices, and on the causes, meaning and impact of hate crimes, to bring together a representative selection of available literature for a critical review. This thesis critically reviews the literature of restorative justice principles and practices, and the literature of hate crime causes, definitions, laws, and typologies of offenders, using as a …

Discrimination And Nepotism Within Police Specialty Units, Robert Norvell Hollins Iii

Dissertations and Theses

A career as a police officer has served as a legitimate avenue for many Black Americans to elevate themselves from numerous low paying less prestigious jobs, to a more respectable better paying secured occupation that has a higher social economic status. The general perception related to the civil service position of a police officer, suggests that it is an occupation which should offer an environment free from discrimination and nepotism, thereby allowing fair treatment and equal access for advancement to all individuals employed within the police organization.

The concept of a police organization that offers fair treatment and equal access …

Forest Landscape Change Detection In The Meseta PuréPecha, MichoacáN, MéXico, John Malcolm Chase

Dissertations and Theses

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors converge in developing countries to stimulate high rates of deforestation. Forest conversion reduces biodiversity, contributes to carbon loading of the atmosphere, alters the global water balance, and degrades the quality of life for rural people. Mexico is the fifth most biologically diverse country in the world and temperate and tropical forests in Mexico are rapidly disappearing with environmental and cultural repercussions for people and ecosystems.

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors converge in developing countries to stimulate high rates of deforestation. Forest conversion reduces biodiversity, contributes to carbon loading of the atmosphere, alters the …

The Effects Of Parent Care And Child Care Role Quality On Work Outcomes Among Dual-Earner Couples In The Sandwiched Generation, Angela Rickard

Dissertations and Theses

Research has shown that more men and women are occupying multiple roles as employees and caregivers to a child or an elder. The proliferation of women in the U.S. workforce since the 1960's has resulted in a “typical” American family that no longer consists of an employed father and stay-at-home mother, but rather one in which the father and mother both work outside the home. Indeed, the “dual-earner” family is the dominant family form in the U.S. today and into the foreseeable future. The aging and increased longevity of the American population, coupled with changes in the level and timing …

A Qualitative Analysis For Sex Determination In Humans Utilizing Posterior And Medial Aspects Of The Distal Humerus, Veronica L. Wanek

Dissertations and Theses

Visual and metric analysis both provide accepted methods for sex determination in humans. Visual ascertainment uses differing morphological traits in males and females to establish sex. Researchers have continually sought accurate methods of sexing long bones when skulls or pelves are absent or fragmented. These long bone elements may not have sexually distinct characteristics, but tend to survive in the field quite well.

Metric analysis depends on size dimorphism between males and females to correctly assign sex. Metric methods fail where the sexes overlap or when skeletal elements cannot be assigned to their correct biological population. Under these conditions, visual …

Writing In The Contact Zone: Three Portraits Of Reflexivity And Transformation, Laurene L. Christensen

Dissertations and Theses

Culture is at the core of language teaching. Because classrooms are contact zones (Pratt 1991), teachers must have a well-developed sense of their own intercultural competence so that they may better facilitate the cross-cultural discovery inherent in language teaching. Teacher preparation programs need to provide opportunities for new teachers to increase their intercultural awareness. The purpose of this research was to qualitatively understand the experiences of pre-service teachers in a required culture-learning class at a large urban university. Specifically, the focus of this study was the completion of a mini-ethnography project designed to give the students a cross-cultural exchange. Since …

Patterns In Glass : The Interpretation Of European Glass Trade Beads From Two Protohistoric Sites In The Greater Lower Columbia Region, Gretchen Anne Kaehler

Dissertations and Theses

The issue of social status as it manifests in the archaeological record has long been a problematic one. Glass beads are often the most numerous class of historic artifacts recovered in protohistoric sites in the Pacific Northwest. Ethnohistoric accounts indicated that these beads might have functioned as prestige items and as a form of "primitive cash" among the aboriginal peoples of the Lower Columbia River in the early to mid 1800s. To what extent were glass beads indicative of status and can their spatial distribution within protohistoric sites be used to address this question?

The purpose of the present study …

Public Outreach And The "Hows" Of Archaeology : Archaeology As A Model For Education, Jon Darin Daehnke

Dissertations and Theses

There is growing awareness of the importance of public outreach in archaeology. Many professional archaeologists argue that in order to ensure continued funding we must communicate the relevance of our discipline to the public in a more effective manner. Furthermore, it is often argued that public outreach and education provides perhaps the only reliable defense against looting and rampant psuedoarchaeology.

Current outreach activities, however, tend to focus on what archaeologists have discovered about the past. While this type of outreach is important, a more effective model for public outreach would focus on the methods of archaeology, rather than the results. …

Identifying And Building On Strengths Of Children With Serious Emotional Disturbances, Michael Orval Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this study is to explore strengths assessments and the participation of parents in assessment of strengths and functioning of their children challenged by serious emotional disorders. The children in this study have a high level of exposure to mental illness, domestic violence and substance abuse in their biological families. These children are living with family members or foster families in the community, with the majority at continuing risk of placement outside of their homes and communities due to serious emotional and behavioral problems.

The research questions investigated are the concordance of families and professionals in assessment of …

Special Focus Programs, Magnet Programs And Schools, And Early Childhood Education Centers: Equal Access In Portland Public School's Elementary Options, Nancy Seidule Hauth

Dissertations and Theses

As parents and educators demand more choice programs in their school districts, it is important for district officials to govern issues around equal access. When specialty programs are designed by grassroots groups and school staff without district-level guidance or funding, as it is in Portland, Oregon, equal access provisions can be overlooked resulting in lower ethnic and socio-economic diversity.

The purpose of this study was threefold: to determine if all families in Portland Public School district have equal access to special focus/magnet programs at the elementary grades; to better understand the link between Portland's past desegregation policies and current choice …

A Dissertation On African American Male Youth Violence: "Trying To Kill The Part Of You That Isn’T Loved", Joy Degruy Leary

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is based on Sociocultural Theory, Social Learning Theory and Trauma Theory, as well as a new theoretical framework (Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome) which takes into account multigenerational trauma. Five research questions involving independent variables believed to predict violent behavior in African American male youth were investigated. The first three questions addressed stressors experienced by African Americans: violence witnessing, violence victimization, and daily urban hassles. The fourth and fifth questions concerned the sociocultural characteristics of racial socialization and prosocial attitudes toward respect. Participants were 200 African American male youth residing in inner Northeast Portland, Oregon who were recruited from …

Low-Income Homeownership In Portland's Albina Community: A Comparative Analysis Of Housing Quality In Market-Rate And Subsidized Houses, Carolyn Emily Collopy

Dissertations and Theses

Housing embodies much more than just a physical commodity. In addition to being an investment, it is our shelter, right to privacy, connection to community, and access to recreation and necessities. Homeownership has long been hailed by social and housing advocates as an economic stabilizer for low to moderate-income neighborhoods. For low and moderate-income residents (households earning 50-100% of the median income), homeownership is possible in two forms: affordable market-rate housing created by the filtering down of houses until affordable to low and moderate-income households, or through subsidized homeownership programs which develop new housing and offer financial assistance for low …

The Neoglacial History Of Mt. Thielsen, Southern Oregon Cascades, Martin Dietrich Lafrenz

Dissertations and Theses

Little Ice Age (LIA) deposits are recognized on Mt. Tbielsen, southern Oregon Cascades (43° 9' N, 122° 3' W), based on particle morphology and relative position. The initial advance, Lathrop 1, created a sharp-crested moraine and a protalus rampart within 200 m of the headwall. The retreat of the glacier and recent ice movement, Lathrop 2, is recognized by the deformation of the moraine and a mantle of "protalus till" creating a polygenetic "push-deformation'' moraine. Both the moraine and the protalus rampart have sparse vegetation, no lichens, and a lightly weathered Cox/C soil. This sequence is correlative with LIA Phase …

Dynamic Characterization Of Aluminum Softball Bats, Danny V. Lee

Dissertations and Theses

On January 1, 2000, the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA) imposed maximum bat performance limitations on commercial softball bats. The ASA adopted a testing standard defined by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) to determine the bat performance factor (BPF), a normalized coefficient of restitution that must be less than 1.2 for the bat to be eligible for ASA sanctioned events.

The ASTM standard requires that the softball strike the bat, which is free to rotate in the horizontal plane, at 26.8 mfs ± 0.3 mfs (88 ftfs ± 1 ftfs) with little or no spin. The …

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit : A Case Study Of Policy Learning, Coalition Building, And Paradigm Expansion, Terri Hinson Silvis

Dissertations and Theses

The goals of policy analysis include understanding the objectives of public policies, ascertaining how to structure policies to influence behaviors and fulfill stated policy objectives, and creating improved policy-making processes. Identifying underlying values that influence the behaviors and attitudes of policy makers and stakeholders is crucial to fully understanding public policies, and analysis procedures that seek to explore values should be operationalized within policy-making processes.

The intent of this study is to explore the potential for infusing value considerations in the policy assessment process by analyzing the federal low-income housing policy known as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit [the Credit]. …

Attitudes At The Bank : A Survey Of Reactions To Different Varieties Of English, Sean Wilcox

Dissertations and Theses

In the modem world of international communication, it is more common for speakers of different varieties of English to come into contact with each other on a daily basis. This can occur not only in face to face communication, but in telephone communication as well.

This study investigates the attitudes towards a non-native or Expanding Circle (ECE) variety of English held by telephone customer service representatives at a large American financial institution. The central question of this study asks whether or not these telephone representatives will rate a speaker of a Korean-accented variety of English higher or lower than a …

Black Women's Health: A Content Analysis Of The Journal Of The American Medical Association, The American Journal Of Public Health, And The New England Journal Of Medicine (1989-1998), Tonia Marie Burkett

Dissertations and Theses

According to the National Vital Statistics Report (1998), Black women age 45-64 are ten times more likely than white women of the same age to die from diseases of the heart. They are five times more likely to die from diabetes. The goal of this study was to examine how articles published in leading medical journals between 1989 and 1998 accounted for such differences in health outcomes among Black and white women.

The explanatory content of the articles was analyzed and coded according to four types of attributions: genetic/biological, cultural/behavioral, structural/socioeconomic and alternative. Each type of explanation derives from different …

An Evaluation Of Recidivism Rates For Resolutions Northwest's Victim-Offender Mediation Program, Karin Jewel Stone

Dissertations and Theses

Victim-offender mediation, a component of restorative justice, has been a valuable tool for rehabilitating juvenile offenders since the late 1970s. Victim offender mediation brings crime victims and offenders together to reach agreements for restitution and community healing. Resolutions Northwest, a non-profit organization in Multnomah County, offers a victim-offender mediation program to juvenile offenders and their victims.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the recidivism rates for juvenile offenders who went through Resolutions Northwest's victim-offender mediation program as opposed to offenders who went through the traditional justice system. It was hypothesized that the participants in this program would have …

Dialectics Of Control : The Origins And Evolution Of Conflict In Portland's Neighborhood Association Program, Matthew Witt

Dissertations and Theses

In 1974, the City of Portland established, by city ordinance, the Office of Neighborhood Associations (ONA). This ordinance also codified a set of commitments the City would make to involve citizens in local decision making pertaining to a wide variety of issues, from land use development policies to various service allocations.

Beginning with thirty active neighborhood-based groups in 1974, ONA helped organize thirty more neighborhood associations (NAs) over the next five years. Today, the City hosts over ninety active NAs. This dissertation chronicles changes that have occurred in Portland's Neighborhood Association program over a roughly 24-year period, spanning 1974–1998. A …

The Role And Performance Of Governmental And Nongovernmental Organizations In Family Planning Implementation : Jordan As A Case Study, Khalaf Al Hadded

Dissertations and Theses

The role of governmental and nongovernmental nonprofit organizations in population issues has become a familiar reality in contemporary Third World countries. A distinct irony lies in the increasing growth of the role of NGOs in implementing public programs that are conventionally assigned to government bureaucracy. In certain circumstances, these organizations become an outlet to deliver and do certain things that government agencies are not able to do. Although there is an extensive body of research and publications on nongovernmental and charitable organizations in the Third World, there are only a few cases where small NGOs are working directly with the …

An Examination Of Commercial Medicinal Plant Harvests, Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon, Shannon Michelle Campbell

Dissertations and Theses

During the past fifteen years, non-timber or special forest products have become an important economic resource in the Pacific Northwest. These products are primarily derived from understory species and contribute approximately $200 million to the regional economy. Medicinal plants are a little researched component of the non-timber forest product industry that relies on cultivated and wildcrafted (or wild-collected) medicinal plant species. This study examines the commercial extraction of wildcrafted medicinal plants from Mount Hood National Forest. Specifically, this study documents the medicinal plant species extracted from Mount Hood National Forest, their annual yield amounts, harvesting methods, and the changes in …

Cooking In Eden: Inventing Regional Cuisine In The Pacific Northwest, Amy Jo Woodruff

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines how regional cuisine is being self-consciously constructed in the Pacific Northwest and discusses the ways in which it contributes to identity in the region. I identify the characteristics--foods, dishes, and culinary practices--of this "new" Northwest cuisine, as well as social and cultural values associated with it, and explore how together they create a sense of regional distinctiveness and loyalty. Because this type of regional cuisine is closely associated with the professional cooking community, I look to restaurants in Portland, Oregon that self-identity as representative of the Pacific Northwest and to regional cookbooks, in order to pinpoint the …

Portland Dialect Study: The Story Of /Æ/ In Portland, Jeffrey C. Conn

Dissertations and Theses

This study reports on the hypothesized raising of the low, front vowel /æ/, which is characteristic of a regional dialect vowel shift found in cities of the Midwest and Eastern North of the United States. The raising of this vowel is the primary change in a series of vowel shifts that have traditionally been attributed to this region of the U.S. The purpose of this study is to document the production of this vowel by residents of Portland, Oregon, in order to see what light it can shed on dialect research of the Pacific Northwest, especially across age groups to …

Asiatic Cholera And Dysentery On The Oregon Trail: A Historical Medical Geography Study, Brian Lee Altonen

Dissertations and Theses

Two disease regions existed on the Oregon Trail. Asiatic cholera impacted the Platte River flood plain from 1849 to 1852. Dysentery developed two endemic foci due to the decay of buffalo carcasses in eastern and middle Nebraska between 1844 and 1848, but later developed a much larger endemic region west of this Great Plains due to the infection of livestock carcasses by opportunistic bacteria.

This study demonstrates that whereas Asiatic cholera diffusion along the Trail was defined primarily by human population features, topography, and regional climate along the Platte River flood plain, the distribution of opportunistic dysentery along the Trail …

Signs Of Popular Ecology In The Ecotourism Landscape Near Tikal National Park, Guatemala, Michael Mooradian Lupro

Dissertations and Theses

Ecotourism is a common conservation and development strategy in the Maya, Forest region. New sites of ecotourism consumption, such as El Rematé near Tikal National Park in Guatemala, are developing in response to consumer demand for budget accommodations in this attractive cultural and natural setting. This study analyzes new ecotourism infrastructure developments in El Rematé for signs that this tourism draws on ecological imagery as expressed in popular media - or popular ecology - not on the natural and cultural ecology of the region that is the target of international conservation efforts. Analysis suggests that ecotourism entrepreneurs who effectively associate …

Predictors Of Task And Contextual Performance: Frame-Of-Reference Effects And Applicant Reaction Effects On Selection System Validity, John Hunthausen

Dissertations and Theses

An employment process suprasystem contains human resource-related systems such as training, recruitment, performance appraisal, and personnel selection. Similarly, a personnel selection system consists of interdependent subsystems that work together to manifest its properties (e.g., the acquisition of qualified and high-potential individuals). Finally, each of these complex subsystems (e.g., applicant reactions to selection methods) have interdependent elements (e.g., procedural and distributive justice) that work together to manifest the properties of the subsystem (e.g., applicant fairness perceptions).

This dissertation takes such a systems approach to understanding the complexities of a personnel selection system to explore the interactions among three of its subsystems: …

Tribal Constructs And Kinship Realities : Individual And Family Organization On The Grand Ronde Reservation From 1856, Aeron Teverbaugh

Dissertations and Theses

This project examines marriage and residence patterns on the Grand Ronde Reservation between 1856 and the early 1900s. It demonstrates that indigenous cultural patterns continued despite a colonial imagination that refused to see them. Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde continued to live in family groups much as they had in the pre-reservation era. They continued to exhibit patterns of marriage and kinship that were described in the ethnographies and by the earliest explorers in the Oregon area.