Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Spread Like Wildfire: Assessing The Utility Of Local Facebook Groups To Inspire Citizen Communication During A Disaster, Colby Riehl

Dissertations and Theses

As traditional sources of local news and information decline, community-oriented social media services (e.g. Nextdoor, Facebook groups) are expanding (Masden, Grevet, Grinter, Gilbert, and Edwards, 2014). Thus far, community-oriented social media use remains relatively understudied. Not only do we not understand how citizens utilize these resources, we are also generally unaware of the content that they create and access using them. A survey of residents of Oregon City, OR and its environs, which were impacted by the Oregon wildfires of 2020, was conducted to assess the differences among citizens who use a local Facebook group & those who do not. …

Rowing Concerns: Collaborative Governance And Stakeholder Determination In The Central Oregon's Deschutes Basin, Noel Vineyard

Dissertations and Theses

In 2019, a coalition of irrigation districts in central Oregon's Deschutes Basin submitted the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan to the US Department of Fish and Wildlife. This Habitat Conservation Plan purported to have been constructed through a collaborative governance structure between the irrigation districts and various community stakeholders who all had interests in basin management, however segments of the Basin's river recreation community began to raise concerns that their voices were not included. The purpose of this research was to investigate how stakeholder status in the Deschutes Basin is created through collaborative water governance processes like development of the …

Judicial Review As An Instrument Of Natural Rights Theory: An Intellectual History, James M. Masnov

Dissertations and Theses

The unique and antidemocratic power of judicial review by the United States Supreme Court is not a bug, but a feature. Its role was critical in establishing and affirming a separation of powers horizontally among the federal branches as well as vertically between the federal government and the individual states. More than this, the Court's power of judicial review acts as an instrument of rights theory and is informed by a rich and rarely-discussed intellectual history. Though judicial review as a mode of constitutional law and the legal history surrounding it has been discussed by various legal scholars, political scientists, …

Racializing Discourses: An Exploration Of Moreno Subject Formation In Oaxaca, Mexico, Juan Salvador Sepulveda-Figuereo

Dissertations and Theses

Processes of Black racialization in Mestizo Latin America open a space to expose how subjectivities emerge and change while in tension with broader national ideas and transnational discourses. Morenos, typically dark skin individuals of African descent, inhabit the boundaries of mestizaje, Mexico's national racial ideology which emphasizes indigenous and Spanish ancestry. As a result, regional narratives subject morenos to racialization processes that align with the historical erasure of people of African descent, effectively excluding morenos from the nation. Nevertheless, morenos incorporate themselves into the regional and national narratives through various mechanisms and (re)formulations of established discourses.

I propose a …

E(Raced): Race And Use Of Self Amongst Bipoc Social Workers, Anita Reinette Gooding

Dissertations and Theses

Use of self is defined as the social worker's instrument, and involves an intentional engagement of one's personhood in ways that facilitate client change (Heyt & Sherman, 2005). This dissertation argues that race is one component of the social worker's self that is visible, and that can affect how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) social workers use self in their practice. Using Critical Race Theory, Social Identity Theory and an Interpretive Description methodology, this dissertation engages 27 BIPOC field instructors in semi-structured interviews in order to answer the following research questions: a) What are the components of use …

Open Crime Maps: How Are Police Departments Doing So Far?, Khaing Sandee Lynn

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, some police departments have started providing open crime maps depicting select crime-related data. However, there has been no studies so far evaluating map delivery sources, the type of maps delivered, and why agencies might be doing so. Using a random, stratified sample of 1,677 police departments from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the current study examines how many police departments provide access to online crime maps as well as how they are delivered (externally or internally) and prevalent map types (dot, density, choropleth, etc.). Furthermore, whether or not agencies provided a justification(s) …

Perceived Value Of Technology Product Features By Crowdfunding Backers: The Case Of 3d Printing Technology On Kickstarter Platform, Nina Chaichi

Dissertations and Theses

Crowdfunding is an activity that gathers funds by drawing on a relatively small contribution from a relatively large number of individuals using the internet. One of the crowdfunding purposes is to fund entrepreneurial ventures. Modern crowdfunding activities--that utilize the internet--go back to 1997 and gained popularity in the music and video community. However, the most common platforms for entrepreneurial activities, including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, have been established as recently as 2008. Thus the understanding of crowdfunding's dynamic is in its infancy.

Crowdfunding has been studied from various perspectives, primarily focusing on the factors that increase the platform's participation and determinants …

Neoliberalism, Civic Identity, And Resistance: An Ethnographic Case Study Of A Community Development Organization, Erin Layne Elliott

Dissertations and Theses

Research on the marketization of the nonprofit sector and how it has come to operate in more business-like ways has been well documented in recent years. This research has largely focused on how marketization has pervaded the nonprofit sector, yet little research has been done on how business-like values and modes of acting are manifesting in nonprofits. Even less understood are the impacts marketization may have on foundational civic values in the nonprofit sector. As marketized discourses proliferate, concerns have been raised about threats to nonprofit autonomy and the sector's important civic role. This dissertation aims to fill this gap …

The Digital Divide And Health: Examining Digital Access As A Social Determinant Of Health, Elizabeth Melissa Withers

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is comprised of three papers that consider ways in which one's level of digital access may impact self-rated health. Data are from multiple years of three separate nationally representative cross-sectional surveys: National Health Interview Survey, General Social Survey, and Health Information National Trends Survey to address the primary overarching research question: Is there an association between digital access and health? The examination of the relationship between digital access and health is situated within a social determinants of health perspective and draws on van Dijk's (2005) causal and sequential model of digital access. Education, income, race and ethnicity, work …

Understanding Financial And Human Resource Capacity Challenges Among Small Nonprofits In Oregon: How To Overcome Challenges Unique To Size And Urban-Rural Divide, Anindita Mukerjee

Dissertations and Theses

Nonprofit and voluntary organizations are part of the political economy that add to the services of public and private sectors by addressing civic interests, participation in democracy and providing social programs that improve quality of life. This sector is mostly comprised of small organizations whose impact is more than their budget size. At the advent of this study, information existed about the needs and capacity challenges of Oregon nonprofits in general but lacked specifics on smaller organizations, especially differentiating the urban rural distinction. The aim of this research was to explore the financial and human resource capacity of small nonprofit …

Exposure Characterization And Assessment Of Airborne Chemicals And Sars-Cov-2 Transmission In New York City Nail Salons, Amelia P. H. Watkins

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Currently, there are 156,000 people employed as manicurists or pedicurists in the United States. Employment in this sector is expected to grow by 10% over the next decade. Exposure assessments have revealed that salon workers are chronically exposed to a variety of substances that cause respiratory sensitization, developmental problems, contact dermatitis, blood, liver, and kidney issues, as well as nervous system impacts. Most recently, the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has raised the issue of the vulnerability of nail salon workers to airborne infectious diseases as well. This dissertation aims to characterize and assess the chemical exposures that nail salon workers …

Agency, Sense Of Place, And Knowledge On The Zumwalt Prairie: A Social Study Of Place-Based Conservation And Resilience, Dana Elyse Hellman

Dissertations and Theses

Shifting and often diminishing environmental conditions, due to climate change, resource loss, and ecosystem degradation, pose a significant concern to both social and ecological systems. The field of conservation science has attempted to address environmental threats through varying approaches, transitioning from fortress conservation and complete human exclusion to community-based and co-managed models which incorporate human actors and social dimensions in the conservation process. The latest iteration of conservation scholarship, place-based conservation, is deeply rooted in interdisciplinary, social scientific thinking, and calls for significant practitioner engagement with local knowledge, practices, social constructions, and place meanings. It is an approach which emphasizes …

Identifying The Cost Of Preventable Chronic Disease In Prison: Can Illness Prevention Of Adults In Custody Save Money?, Molly Bineham

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the cost of preventable health problems and ailments when compared to other costs of incarceration. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of imprisonment on the costliest chronic illness. The health of adults in custody related to the general population and the overall fiscal cost of the deadliest chronic illness among incarcerated adults is discussed. Linear regression is used to analyze the occurrence of heart disease and diabetes among adults in custody while controlling for other factors. The results of this analysis provide insight that chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes should be …

Claiming Miscommunication To Justify Rape: The Role Of Liking The Perpetrator, Alyssa Marie Glace Maryn

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, four experiments tested whether sharing an ingroup with a sexual violence perpetrator (vs not sharing an ingroup) makes individuals more likely to view the survivor's consent refusal as insufficient. Although most people communicate sexual consent indirectly and nonverbally, individuals often report that indirect and nonverbal consent refusals are an insufficient form of non-consent. These claims of consent miscommunication might be used to justify instances of sexual violence when an individual is motivated to do so. I hypothesize that sharing an ingroup identity with a perpetrator might motivate individuals to justify sexual violence, leading them to report that …

Urban Lakes: Ecosystem Services And Management, Laura Costadone

Dissertations and Theses

Lakes provide a variety of ecosystem services and benefits that greatly contribute to urban sustainability. Despite the growing interest in integrating freshwater systems into management and policy decisions, urban lakes are often overlooked in land-use planning. Nutrient and pollutant runoff from the surrounding urbanized watershed result in water quality deterioration that negatively impact the lake ecological functions and related ecosystem services. The vulnerability and degradation of these urban ecosystems should be a matter of concern, especially considering that, in rapidly growing metropolitan areas, the demand for aesthetic and recreational services provided by urban lakes is increasing. The overall goal of …

Preventing Sexual Violence Through Understanding Perceptions Of Sexual Offenders, Judith G. Zatkin

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, I present three complete manuscripts. I utilize social and community psychological theory, as well as criminological theory to better understand those who perpetrate sexual violence in two domains: child sexual abuse and college campus sexual assault. All three studies are conducted with an eye toward the prevention of sexual violence. In the first study, I conduct a complete psychometric analysis of the Modus Operandi Questionnaire, a comprehensive quantitative tool that examines offending patterns and tactics of those who commit child sexual abuse (Chapter II). An updated factor structure for this tool is presented, as well as recommendations …

Exploring The Relationships Between Community Experiences And Well-Being Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness, Katricia Stewart

Dissertations and Theses

The current dissertation presents two published empirical studies and one new study informed by the findings and recommendations of the first two. The first study investigated how intrapersonal factors (self-esteem, psychological distress, and optimism) and social-contextual factors (social support, sense of community, and empowerment) relate to the psychological well-being of 100 youth experiencing homelessness. The results indicated that all six variables were significantly related to well-being, but the intrapersonal factors had a stronger association with psychological well-being than the social-contextual factors. The second manuscript is a qualitative study investigating what community means to youth experiencing homelessness, what communities they are …

Portland Urban Coyote Project: A Review Of Citizen Science's Utility For Researching Urban Canids And The Human Environment, Keith David Vanderbrooke

Dissertations and Theses

The Portland Urban Coyote Project (PUCP) is a citizen science project that allows community members to upload coyote (Canis latrans) sighting data to a database that is used to create a public web map; contributors often add observations as well. I analyzed one year of PUCP comment data in order to assess the utility of the citizen science methods used by PUCP for urban carnivore research. I code and summarize findings from PUCP's data, compare the extracted data to other research studies of urban coyote from other regions, and find that results from this analysis supports conclusions made …

The Mode Less Traveled: Exploring Bicyclist Identity In Portland, Or, Christopher Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores bicyclist as a social identity in Portland, OR and a relatively under researched topic in the existing literature about transportation mode choice. The results indicate that bicyclists in Portland do have an understanding of what it means to be a bicyclist and particularly the normative behaviors associated with that social identity. Results also indicate that barriers to entry into this social group are quite low but the path to becoming someone who regularly chooses bicycling as a mode of transportation is not straightforward and is fraught with barriers that could easily discourage new group members. Bicyclists in …

Climatic Controls On The Kinematics Of The Hooskanaden Landslide, Curry County, Oregon, Kara Kingen

Dissertations and Theses

Slow-moving earthflows represent major sources of sediment transport and erosion and are problematic for the management of critical infrastructure. The Hooskanaden Landslide -- a slow-moving earthflow on the southwest coast of Oregon -- crosses US Highway 101 and has been a site of continued interest to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) due to the weak lithology, erosive environment, and recurrent surge behavior (every ~15 years). Past surges, including the most recent (2019), have occurred during the winter, suggesting that velocity changes are predominantly controlled by climatic inputs. To examine the response of the Hooskanaden Landslide to seasonal and other …

"B-Ing Flexible" : Examining Creativity In Bisexual Employees, Megan Jane Snoeyink

Dissertations and Theses

Creativity is essential for organizations to remain competitive and profitable. Past evidence suggests diversity in organizations promotes creativity, however, the mechanisms through which diversity promotes creativity in the workplace are not yet understood. Diverse populations' unique experiences may promote creativity, particularly through cognitive flexibility. I investigate the potential for heightened creativity in diverse populations within the context of bisexuality. Specifically, I use the flexibility model of bisexuality to explain why bisexual employees may have greater cognitive flexibility and subsequent creativity than heterosexual employees. Additionally, I seek to understand the moderating role of supervisor support in this relationship. Participants were recruited …

Values Of Young Adults In An Increasingly Secular World, Joseph Daniel Eichenlaub

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines data from a religion and values survey entitled Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG) conducted in the spring of 2018. The data for this research comes from a sample of college undergraduates from diverse nations, Portland State being one of the sites sampled. This research investigates three main research questions: Do the values of college-age youth tend to be more individualistic, the less religious that they are? Do the irreligious still maintain moral values? And is irreligiosity related to a cosmopolitan-humanitarian outlook? This research finds that the overall sample is individualistic while still holding …

Evaluation Of Manual And Semi-Automated Deep-Seated Landslide Inventory Processes: Willapa Hills, Washington, Tiffany E. Justice

Dissertations and Theses

Recent advances in remote sensing data and technology have allowed for computational models to be designed that successfully extract landforms from the landscape. The goal of this work is to create one such semi-automated model to extract deep-seated landslides located in complex geomorphic terrain. This is accomplished using geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) techniques, considered by leaders in the field of image analysis to have an advantage over traditional automated classification methods. GEOBIA methods can mimic human visual interpretation by including more characteristic features used to assess the relationship between image data and the ground surface such as color reflectance …

Public Perception Of Air Quality Risks In Portland, Oregon, Dawn Nolan

Dissertations and Theses

The availability and demand for localized air quality information from communities are on the rise. However, not all information and not all communities are the same. Effective engagement and communication strategies will depend on a community's existing knowledge, opinion about air quality, individual experiences with inequities, and more. This study aims to understand how people living in Portland, Oregon understand and experience air pollution as an environmental risk and examine the extent to which those risk perceptions relate to confidence in science and technology. This gap is critical because of the complex interaction between air pollution and the risk perception …

Returning To Rejection: Outcomes And Boundary Conditions Of Mental Illness Stereotypes, Stefanie Fox

Dissertations and Theses

Mental illness is a common condition in the United States, with over 20% of working age adults managing a mental illness condition in a given year. Disclosure of mental illness is often required for workers to take advantage of employer-provided resources (e.g., accommodations), yet use of resources is exceedingly low (less than 10%). Negative stigma-related outcomes are a top reason for which individuals delay the use of resources. Using an experimental design in an online data collection of 242 participants over two time points, the current study builds on existing organizational diversity literature to examine the stereotypes associated with mental …

Short-Term And Long-Term Effects Of New Light Rail Transit Service On Transit Ridership And Traffic Congestion At Two Geographical Levels, Huajie Yang

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation quantitatively examines the effect of new Light Rail Transit (LRT) services on transit ridership and traffic congestion over time at two different geographical levels: at the corridor level, this study conducts case studies of two LRT lines in the Portland, Oregon region; at the regional level, this study uses a synthetic control method to construct a "synthetic" control Urbanized Area (UA) that closely approximates the counterfactual transit ridership and traffic congestion scenario in the absence of light rail project in three UAs across America. The results of the corridor-level study suggest that both LRT lines increased transit ridership …

The Dark Triad And Impulsivity: Predictors And Correlates Of Workplace Representative Task Problem Solving And Decision Making, Peter Kendall Glazer Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

This research investigated group and individual differences in decision-making and problem-solving on workplace representative tasks, and whether certain personality traits correlated with or were predictors of participant strategy. In parallel studies done online (N = 214) and in-person (N = 80) with Portland State University undergraduate School of Business students, performance was measured on two workplace representative tasks under two different difficulty conditions. The Number Place experiment resulted in two major findings: First, when given a comparatively easy task, women had more Time Remaining than men. However, this was moderated by the difficulty condition, such that men had more Time …

The Soniferous Experience Of Public Space: A Soundscape Approach, Kenya Dubois Williams

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the awareness and perceptions of practitioners regarding the role of the soundscape in understanding and managing public spaces. Without considering the role of the soundscape as part of public spaces, urban planners, designers, and policy officials cannot accurately engage in placemaking that provides a complete sensory experience. The antiquated practice of enforcing noise codes has been the traditional approach to mitigate noise (unwanted sounds). However, sound is an overlooked element in the sensory experience of cities and how individuals and communities construct a "sense of place." This study considers the implications of the soundscape approach and soundwalks …

Biological Invasions In Coastal Marine Ecosystems: How Changes In Trade Are Linked To Ballast Water Delivery Of Nonindigenous Species, Danielle Elizabeth Verna

Dissertations and Theses

Globalization has escalated transfers of nonindigenous species (NIS) across natural dispersal barriers. The resulting biological invasions have become a leading global mechanism of ecological change. NIS are often transported between coastal marine ecosystems in the ballast water of commercial ships, and patterns of NIS introduction and establishment can be linked to global trade dynamics. Here I examined drivers of trade and ballast water across spatial and temporal extents of invasion. The analyses incorporated a variety of datasets on trade, industries, and ship behavior to identify fluctuations in globally transported commodities that lead to changes in maritime shipping patterns and frequency. …

Exploring "What Works" In Veterans Affairs Home-Based Primary Care, Elizabeth Catherine Hulen

Dissertations and Theses

Home Based Primary Care (HBPC) is an interdisciplinary care model involving comprehensive primary care services for patients with chronic illness who are unable to access clinic-based care. The largest HBPC program in the United States is run by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and provides team-based primary care service to Veterans with complex, chronic conditions. The VA HBPC model includes primary care visits from a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant, nurse care management, service coordination by a social worker, mental health services from a social worker or psychologist, nutrition counseling from a dietician, and help with medication management. …