Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Perceptions And Their Role In Consumer Decision-Making, Raman Khaddaria

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an empirical investigation into the roles that different quantifiable and measurable perceptions play in defining individual behavior across a variety of decision-making contexts. In particular, the focus lies on smokers and the choices they make with regard to smoking and beyond. Chapter 1 analyzes a nationally representative sample of adults (23 years and older) in the United States, pertaining to the Annenberg Perception of Tobacco Risk Survey II (1999-2000). It is observed that three dimensions to smoking behavior viz., risk, temporality and addiction, interact to determine the smoking status of an individual. Although previous studies mostly looked …

Three Essays On Applications Of Intrahousehold Resource Allocation Models, Santikorn Pamornpathomkul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topic of intrahousehold resource allocation models. The first chapter tests the unitary and general collective models of intrahousehold resource allocation for various household compositions. I find that, for the quasiquadratic Engel curve specification, the overall results support the previous findings in the literature that the unitary model fails to explain how resources are allocated for all household types. However, when using the QUAIDS specification, the results can reject the unitary model only for smaller-sized households. The general collective model, on the other hand, cannot be rejected in either quasi-quadratic or QUAIDS and …

Colorado's Large Snow Events' Impact On Tree Ring Growth And Dillon Reservoir, Katrina Leona Marzetta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Meteorological observations from 1894 through 2010 suggest that 17 historically large snow events occurred in the mountains of Colorado within Denver's water supply region. Of these 16 events, 14 can be identified in precipitation sensitive tree ring records as positive climatic pointer years. If these storms were to occur today, they would have the potential to fill reservoirs in Denver Water's supply system, even after years of sustained drought. These "drought busters" have the potential to refill Dillon Reservoir by increasing average yearly inflow up to 146% of the previous year's inflow. Such drought busters can help Denver recover from …

Performing An Embodied Feminist Aesthetics: A Critical Performance Ethnography Of The Equestrian Sport Culture, Dawn Marie D. Mcintosh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While this research appears to be about horses and riding, it is really a project about the conditions of White women, White femininity, and feminist futurities. Driven by my investment in imagining possibilities of dismantling Whiteness and heteropatriarchy, this research begins to mark the dominant performances of White femininity and those fleeting moments of disruption by White women. My intentions for this project were to stage performances of feminist futurities that imagine feminist aesthetics as relational probabilities towards feminist alliances.

The research was drawn from a six month critical performance ethnography of a local Hunter/Jumper barn. This critical performance ethnography …

Porting Transmedia Storytelling To Journalism, Kevin Timothy Moloney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the methods of transmedia storytelling emerging in the entertainment industry might be used in a journalism context. Journalism is facing many crises, not the least of which is a loss of readership and perceived relevance to its public. Presented with an ever-expanding array of media with which to interact, the public is more difficult to attract to a socially relevant issue or a politically important story. Faced with similar issues, the entertainment industry has developed a means to engage with fans in a way that draws them across multiple media platforms, better captures their imagination and …

Products Of Their Environment? Nuclear Proliferation And The Emerging Multipolar International System, Jonathan David Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The world is shifting from a unipolar system following the end of the Cold War to a multipolar system that is ushered in by "the rise of the rest." This change in the global structure has led some analysts to predict an increase in nuclear weapons proliferation caused by increased uncertainty and a decrease in alliances and security assurances. Nuclear proliferation, however, will not increase because these types of predictions are founded upon realist assumptions that inaccurately predict the characteristics of the emerging multipolar system as well as inaccurately understanding calculations of states with regard to nuclear weapons programs. I …

Language Acculturation Discrepancy In Latina/O Families And Its Relationship With Emotional And Behavioral Problems, Jonathan P. Muther

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study is an assessment of whether a language acculturation discrepancy (LAD) within families is most predictive of emotional and behavioral problems for Latina/o youth when relevant variables are controlled. A sample of predominantly Mexican American parent-child dyads was recruited to complete a language-based measure of acculturation and parent participants completed an assessment of their child's emotional and behavioral functioning. Results indicated a total difference value between parent-child levels of language acculturation to be most predictive of the outcome. Additionally, the child's level of language acculturation, independent of that of the parent, was also found to account for a …

First-Generation College Students' Experiences With Social Class Identity Dissonance, Amber Nicole Olson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study explored the differences in experiences of social class identity dissonance between first-generation college students and non-first-generation college students. Additionally, this study aimed to examine the effect of social class identity dissonance on psychological distress in first-generation college students, as well as, whether an anti-social dominance orientation partially buffers the relationship between social class identity dissonance and psychological distress.

A total of 1,109 college students from two local, four-year institutions participated in the study. The first research objective was to examine the differences between first-generation college students and non-first-generation college students on reported levels of social class identity …

Palestinian Women: Mothers, Martyrs And Agents Of Political Change, Rebecca Ann Otis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the role of women as political actors in the rise of Islamo-nationalist movement in Palestine. Using a historical and ethnographic approach, it examines the changing opportunity structures available to Palestinian women in the nationalist struggle between 1987 and 2007. It looks into the sites of political engagement of Palestinian women as mothers, organizers and political candidates, suicide bombers, and nonviolent activists with attention paid to the evolution of the Islamist ideology within these four pathways for political participation. The goal of this work is to engage the question of how some Palestinian women who appear …

Instability In The South: The Implications Of Mexican State Failure On U.S. National Security, Shadd Allen Pease

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the implications of Mexican state failure on United States national security. The growing instability in Mexico due to the actions of the various drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), government corruption, possible human rights abuses and Mexican insurgent groups is examined in order to understand why the Mexican state may fail.

This thesis explores the implications of Mexican state failure on U.S. national security by providing possible scenarios such as continued operations into the United States by Mexican drug trafficking organizations, DTO relationships with American street gangs, regional instability, possible exploitation of the Mexican homeland by terrorist organizations, U.S. …

Distribution Shifts And Declines In Autonomous Consumption: A Great Recipe For A Great Recession, David Michael Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Great Recession has been drawing the attention of many due mainly to its global impact that has been considered very similar to the Great Depression. So have been the root causes. Among the competing explanations, the present study focuses on two of them that were the same factors - among others - to explain the root causes of the Great Depression: the dramatic shift in income distribution and the sudden drop in autonomous (or wealth-based) consumption. Accordingly the present study examines first, the role of income distribution shifts to demonstrate the fact that such a shift placed a significantly …

Who's Doing The Dirty Work? Development And Preliminary Validation Of A Measure Of Housework, Jocelyn Nicole Petrella

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study developed a new instrument for measuring couples' attitudes and behaviors regarding housework. This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase focused on developing reliable subscales that would reflect various dimensions of housework. Phase one consisted of 199 individual participants in committed relationships who were working at least 20 hours per week and shared a single home address with their partner. Participants answered questions related to housework through an online survey. An exploratory factors analysis (EFA) revealed eight dominant factors from the housework questionnaire, labeled as: 1) Fairness, 2) Value of Housework, 3) Gender Role Attitudes, …

A Research Study Examining Forgiveness, Empathy, Commitment, Trust, And Relational Satisfaction Among Adult Friends After Relational Transgressions, L. Lori Poole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project examined how forgiveness was managed by adult friends after relational transgressions. It studied how the emotion of empathy promoted the act of forgiving and why the construct of commitment related to trust and relational satisfaction among friendship dyads. Isolating the specific emotion empathy in regards to forgiveness heightened the understanding of what emotional behaviors were used to maintain friendships once a relational transgression was experienced. Measuring and analyzing the interaction between commitment, trust, and relational satisfaction helped to determine how these constructs promoted forgiveness among adult friends.

Specialty Service Lines In The United States Hospital System: Old Wine, New Bottles, Michael Sajovetz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of specialty service lines in the United States health care system presents many significant questions regarding the access to, provision of, and financing of healthcare. In general terms, specialty service lines represent the newest development in several important trends in the American hospital system and reflect important trends in the wider economy. Many claims have been made regarding the effect of physician-owned specialty hospitals, from their exemption from self-referral prohibitions, their diversion of services away from general hospitals that use high profit margins to subsidize the "safety net," and concerns regarding the over-provision of technologically complex treatments in …

The Lgbt Community And Public Space: A Mixed Methods Approach, Emily L. Sanschagrin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public space researchers have created a body of literature describing how women feel in and access public spaces and have briefly explored men and race in public space, but have not explored other identities adequately including sexuality. Geographical queer theory provides a foundation for public space research, but literature is limited to the creation of and contest over space. The goal of this research is to explore LGBT feelings in public spaces in St. Louis, MO. There are three components including a survey, interviews, and hand mapping of emotional associations within the city. Overall, feelings in public space were found …

U.S. Foreign Policy In Lebanon: Adapting To Regional Threats Today And Promoting Stability For The Future, Robert Michael Shelala Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1800s, the United States has sought to advance its interests in what currently exists as the Lebanese Republic. This assessment will look at the shape that policy has taken since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in the context of historical relations. After doing so, three questions will be addressed: What have been the policies of Iran and Syria toward Lebanon during this time period, how effective has U.S. policy been since 2006 in undermining Iranian and Syrian influence and what policies should the United States adopt to offset future destabilizing influence from these countries. It is concluded that the …

The Social Determinants Of Hiv/Aids In Cambodia: Is It Too Early To Call Micro Medical Efforts A Success?, Matthew Aaron Sherwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cambodia, a least developed country (LDC) with a recent history of civil war and genocide, has been widely considered to be a success story when it comes to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Within a few years of the first HIV positive blood test in the kingdom in 1991, it quickly became the country with the highest prevalence in the region, with estimates of as many as 4% of the population being infected at one point.

In recent years, Cambodia's HIV/AIDS infection rates have plummeted to below 1%, with most of the credit being given to the implementation of micro-medical measures, …

Family Involvement Within Assisted Living: Care-Receivers' And Caregivers' Roles And Relationships, Rachel Vineet Solomon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Family systems providing informal care and support to their aging relatives, who were residing in assisted living systems and receiving formal care were central to this study. A broader understanding of family involvement, with respect to exploring both care-receiver and caregiver roles and relationships, within the regulatory and environmental context of assisted living was sought through a qualitative research process. This study employed a phenomenological approach to conduct in-depth interview sessions with eight pairs of participants, comprising elderly residents in five assisted living facilities and their respective caregiving family members, typically a daughter or son and, in one case, a …

Blue Lines, Greenbelts, And The Effects Of Growth Management: The Geographical Effects Of Growth Management Policies In Boulder, Colorado, Anna Talucci

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates and describes the effects of growth management policies, established by the city of Boulder, Colorado, for the city and the surrounding region. A variety of techniques contribute to this evaluation, including remote sensing analysis of land-use change for the region, mapping of commuter flow patterns, and analysis of the distribution of housing values, housing units, number of jobs, and income values. Growth management policies focus on planning for development to ensure continuous, adjacent growth, while preventing haphazard, leapfrog development. In cases such as Boulder, when planning is implemented unilaterally by a city as opposed to on a …

Museveni's Centralization Of Power: The Political Economy Of Development In Uganda, Nathan Vasher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops a model of structural power in society that builds upon Weber's notion that several types of power exist in societies and that these types of power operate differently within societies. The purpose of this model is to help explain the political economy of development during Museveni's tenure. The thesis argues that Museveni has centralized power through a complex system of patronage and repression. Furthermore, Museveni's transformation from the leader of a cadre of `new breed leaders' to `just another African big man' results from his choice to centralize power as a means of achieving his revolutionary goals. …

Parented Emotion: A Study Of Adult-Children's Emotion Socialization And Family Communication Patterns, Joseph Grant Velasco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the General Theory of Family Communication Patterns (FCPT) and Emotion Regulation Theory (ERT) of Meta-emotion, Parenting, and Child Outcomes, this dissertation sought to investigate adults' emotion socialization in their family of origin through an examination of multiple family schemata. Furthermore, the interactions of parental meta-emotions, family communication patterns, and family communication environments were investigated. Two surveys were used in this study. First, 228 adult-children across two universities in the western United States responded to items retrospectively describing the family communication patterns and family communication environments within their home of origin during their adolescence. Additionally, adult-children described the meta-emotion philosophies …

Modeling Social Participation As Predictive Of Life Satisfaction And Social Support: Scale Or Index?, Anne T. Zelenka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social participation in late adulthood through activities such as volunteering with charities, playing sports, and joining clubs can increase life satisfaction, directly by providing enjoyable engagement and indirectly by increasing a person's sense of social connectedness. When reported levels of different types of activities are used to measure social participation, conventional measure development procedures based on classical test theory lead to a proliferation of small participation subscales that don't show good reliability, don't have theoretical power, and don't match researchers' conceptions of the dimensions of participation. Based on the poor performance of conventional approaches, some researchers have suggested that social …

A Communication Approach To Understanding Rapid Responses To Others: The Importance Of Flexibility Across Goal Conditions, Betsy App

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two studies evaluated the communication approach to rapid display responses (RDRs) to others by 1) examining the influence of specific communicative goals on RDRs and, 2) identifying the social outcomes associated with correspondence between communicative goals and responses. Both studies showed that people in general can change the magnitude of their most rapid responses according to communication goals to either respond or suppress responses. For some stimulus-response pairs, the ability to flexibly deploy RDRs to align with goals is associated with positive social outcomes for those who are socially active. In Study 1, individual differences among socially active first-year college …

Development And Validation Of The Children's Social Competence Scale, Annette Irene Nuñez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Few scales exist that assess social competence in children with Asperger's and high functioning autism (AS/HFA). Due to the nature of the disorder, the current social competence measures that do exist are not designed to assess the social difficulties that many children with AS/HFA encounter. To meet this challenge a scale was developed to better understand social competence in children with AS/HFA, the Children's Social Competence Scale (CSCS). Two studies that report the development and initial validation of the scale were conducted with children between the ages of 3 and 8 with and without a diagnosis of AS/HFA. First, an …

Re-Examining The Stop-Signal Task To Test Competing Theories Of Ad/Hd, Laura E. Santerre-Lemmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study tested two competing models of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), the inhibition and state regulation theories, by conducting fine-grained analyses of the Stop-Signal Task and another putative measure of behavioral inhibition, the Gordon Continuous Performance Test (G-CPT), in a large sample of children and adolescents. The inhibition theory posits that performance on these tasks reflects increased difficulties for AD/HD participants to inhibit prepotent responses. The model predicts that putative stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) group differences on the Stop-Signal Task will be primarily related to AD/HD participants requiring more warning than control participants to inhibit to the stop-signal and emphasizes …

The Effects Of Commercialization On The Perception Of Hip Hop Culture And Black Culture In Mainstream Culture In The United States, Chris A. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is examines how the perception of a sub-culture can be altered by a dominant culture. Specifically this project addresses the effects resulting from the assimilation of Hip Hop Culture by mainstream culture in the United States, and its subsequent use as a marketing tool. Because Hip Hop Culture originated in Black Culture, the perception of Black Culture as reflected by hip hop music is also discussed. All of these themes are addressed creatively through a narrative script project.

The Impact Of Shyness On Loneliness, Social Anxiety, And School Liking In Late Childhood, Charity M. Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shyness is associated with several emotional, social, and academic problems. While there are multiple difficulties that often accompany shyness, there appear to be some factors that can moderate negative effects of shyness. Research has demonstrated that certain parenting factors affect the adjustment of shy children in early childhood, but there is minimal research illuminating the effect of parenting factors in older age groups. The first purpose of this study was to examine relationships between shyness and loneliness, social anxiety, and school liking. The second purpose was to investigate whether the quality of the relationship between a parent and a 10- …

Interpersonal Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress And Depression, Brennan J. Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dating aggression is common among emerging adults, and women who experience aggression from a dating partner are at risk for elevated depression and posttraumatic stress (Dutton et al., 2006). Although some women end their relationships as a result of aggression, other women remain committed to their partner, and aggression tends to escalate over time. The current study explored the role that depression and posttraumatic stress play in ending aggressive dating relationships as well as changes in these symptoms after ending such a relationship. The current study also sought to identify factors predictive of individual differences in emerging adults' commitment to …

The Relationship Between Vicarious Traumatization And Job Retention Among Child Welfare Professionals, Jennifer S. Middleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study examined the relationship between vicarious traumatization and job retention among 1,192 child welfare professionals in five different child welfare organizations. Propositions from Constructivist Self Development Theory (CSDT) were utilized to examine the differential factors influencing the impact of vicarious trauma on child welfare professionals' intent to leave their organization, including coping strategies, professional efficacy, and professional satisfaction. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to assess the degree of fit between the observed data and several hypothesized theoretical models examining the relationship between vicarious trauma, coping strategies, professional efficacy, professional satisfaction, and retention. Findings from SEM analyses revealed …

Structured Finance And Its Effects On Macroeconomic Stability, Brian Charles Fahey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The tools and techniques of structured finance have changed banking remarkably over the past twenty years. This area grew to become larger than the sum total of traditional banking deposits in 2007. Despite this, the field is poorly understood and its connection to macroeconomic stability was underestimated until the credit crisis. This paper explores the structured finance market in three phases. First, the market is broken into parts based on the incentives and motivations of each of the three major agents in the field. Next, a critical review of pricing models that are used to justify the valuations of the …