Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Terrorism Conflict: How The United States Responds To Al Qaeda Violence And Expressed Grievances, Richard Craig Rosthauser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes how the United States responds to Al Qaeda's messages and expressions of grievances and how America's responses escalate the conflict between the United States and Al Qaeda.

After its first two attacks against America, Al Qaeda devised a strategy to draw America into a guerrilla war in Afghanistan, stating its intentions in its "Declaration of War" in 1996. Before this declaration, Al Qaeda worked from the shadows and denied reports it was either funding terrorism or participating in terrorism. Bin Laden continued his denials but took responsibility for some terrorist acts in his messages. President Clinton did …

Issues In Validity Generalization The Criterion Problem, Raquel Hodge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Schmidt and Hunter‟s validity generalization model poses seven sources of error variance affecting validation studies. Of the seven sources of error variance, only four sources have been tested. This study looks at an additional source of error variance, the difference between studies in the amount and kind of criterion contamination and deficiency, as proposed by Schmidt and Hunter. The current study proposes a method of evaluating criterion contamination and deficiency in criterion measures in order to minimize their effects on the relationship between criterion and predictor measures. Two unique criteria are used including a traditional subjective measure of current performance …

Interactive Text-Image Conceptual Models For Literary Interpretation And Composition In The Digital Age, Beth Nixon Weaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on text-image conceptual models for literary interpretation and composition in the digital age. The models investigate an interactive blend of textually-based linear-sequential approaches and visually-based spatial-simultaneous approaches. The models employ Gestalt-inspired figure-ground segregation models, along with other theoretical models, that demonstrate the dynamic capabilities of images as conceptual tools as well as alternate forms of text. The models encourage an interpretative style with active participants in openended, multi-sensory meaning-making processes. The models use the flexible tools of modern technology as approaches to meaning-making with art strategies used for research strategies as well as a means to appreciate …

Social Comparison, Self-Objectification, And Objectification Of Others Investigating The Vicious Cycle That Leads To Body Dissatisfaction And Disordered Eating, Danielle M. Lindner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test a new theoretical model that integrates self-objectification, objectification of others, and social comparison as contributors to the development and maintenance of body image disturbance and disordered eating behavior. Within the new theoretical model, self-objectification, objectification of others, and social comparison are conceptualized as a self-perpetuating cycle, rather than as processes that occur independently of one another. Four hundred fifty-nine female college students between the ages of 18 and 32 completed measures of self-objectification, objectification of others, social comparison, body shame, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder symptomatology. Structural equation modeling with nested model …

The Communication Implications And Related Experiences Associated With Transracially Adopting A Child From Vietnam, Lan Marie Malin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the communication experiences of adoptive parents of children transracially adopted from Vietnam. Though adoption has been extensively studied in communication research, transracial adoptions involving children from Vietnam has not. Thus, this study examined adoptive parent communication experiences using dialectic theory and relational dialectics. By examining adoptive parents’ communication with their adopted child and others, we can determine tensions that occur in different communication experiences. Data were collected through eight qualitative in-depth interviews conducted with adoptive parents of children from Vietnam. Openness with both strangers and the adopted child(ren) and preservation of key aspects of the adopted children’s …

Easing The Teasing The Effects Of Appearance-Related Feedback On Body Image Disturbance, Eating Pathology, Body Change Behaviors, And Self-Objectification, Elizabeth B. Schuster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appearance-related commentary can be positive or negative. Such commentary has been shown to negatively affect the mental health and well-being of women in a well-documented body of research. There is limited research on this topic pertaining to males. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of appearance-related commentary in men. Results indicate that men who receive more negative commentary are more likely to experience eating pathology, body dissatisfaction, distress from commentary, and participate in compulsive exercising and appearancechange behaviors. However, men that receive positive commentary are likely to experience more positive outcomes, reporting less dissatisfaction and pathology …

Improving The Adverse Impact And Validity Trade-Off In Paraeto Optimal Composites A Comparison Of Weights Developed On Contextual Vs Task Performance, Howin Tsang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent research in reducing adverse impact in personnel selection has focused on the use of various weighting schemes to balance levels of adverse impact and the validity of selection processes. De Corte Lievens & Sackett (2007) suggested the use of the normal boundary intersection method to create a number of weights that optimize adverse impact and criterion validity. This study seeks to improve the efficacy of this solution by looking at specific types of performance, namely task and contextual performance. It will investigate whether a focus on contextual performance will improve the trade-off by requiring smaller losses in validity for …

Evaluating An Online Personalized Family-Based Intervention To Promote Healthy Lifestyle Changes, Sharon Hayes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study evaluated the initial feasibility, efficacy, and acceptability of a motivationally-tailored family-based intervention designed to promote the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors associated with physical activity and nutrition. Parents (N=132) of children 6 to 11 years old were randomly assigned to the intervention or control condition, and they completed a series of online questionnaires. Intervention participants (n=61) received a single motivationally-tailored feedback report via e-mail. Control participants (n=71) completed measures and immediately received information about a free online resource that provides information about healthy lifestyle behaviors (www.mypyramid.gov). Feasibility data indicate that an online feedback program has high dissemination …

Marriage For Some: Explaining The Variation In Gay Rights And Marriage Policy And Opinion Among States And Individuals, Jeffrey Billman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to answer a simple question: Why are some individuals, and some states, more willing to extend protections to same-sex couples than are others? Drawing from the literature, I perform a battery of quantitative tests on variables most commonly associated with gay rights and gay marriage policy development: liberalism, education, age, religiosity, authoritarianism, tolerance, urbanization, and moral traditionalism. While I find that all of these variables have a relationship with gay rights and gay marriage opinion, I argue that those associated with religiosity have the strongest pull. However, religiosity does not act alone; moral traditionalism, age, and ideology …

A Realist Interpretation Of U.S.Relations With China, Xiansheng Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Realism theory provides the most powerful explanation for the state of war and the rise and fall of great powers. It expounds the important concepts and themes like national sovereignty, security, survival, interests, balance of power, balance of terror, alliance, dominance, hegemony and polarity. Realism can be classified as classical realism, structural realism and neoclassical realism. In recent years, liberalism, globalism and constructivism also have greatly influenced academics and policy-makers under the new phenomena of globalization and terrorism. This paper explores how classical realism theory has been applied to and revealed in the issue of American policy towards China. The …

The Response Of Administrators And Instructors In The Orange County, Florida Public High School System To Dating Violence Preven, Denise Crisafi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent dating violence occurs in high schools at an alarming rate. To educate adolescents about dating violence, some public high schools have incorporated prevention programs into their curriculum. These programs, which are predicated upon empiricism and behavioral theories, tend to produce limited results. In order to improve prevention programs, it has been suggested that schools should play a larger role in their development and implementation. However, dating violence studies have yet to examine how much school personnel know about adolescent dating violence and prevention strategies. The current study surveyed administrators and instructors at six public high schools in Orange County, …

University Leadership In Sustainability And Campus-Based Environmental Activism, Joshua Roosth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the development of environmental sustainability on 194 of the wealthiest colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Campus-based environmental organization membership data, organizational profiles, participant observation, and sustainability grades (from the Sustainable Endowment Institutes College Sustainability Report Cards 2009) are used to examine the relationship between campus-based environmental organizations and sustainability of higher educational institutions. Linear regression is used to analyze the overall university sustainability grades as an outcome variable. Overall university sustainability grades are impacted by campus-based environmental activism social movement organizations, high endowment per student, the age of the university, and the presence …

A Content Analysis Of Elite U.S. Newspapers' Coverage Of Iran, 1979 And 2005, Melissa Kamal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a quantitative content analysis of the New York Times and Washington Post coverage of Iran during the period surrounding the Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension to power in 1979 as well as the period surrounding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election in 2005. The results showed that coverage of Iran in the elite American print media as it related to terror was higher in the period after Khomeini came to power and also in the period after Ahmadinejad's election than it was in the period immediately preceding their respective ascensions. The results also showed that there was more coverage of Iran as …

The Effects Of Power Distance, And Gender On The Use Of Nonverbal Immediacy Behaviors In Symmetrical And Asymmetrical Power Cond, Vincent Santilli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous cross-cultural research in nonverbal immediacy indicates that nonverbal immediacy behavior varies across cultures, and some researchers have suggested that power distance might serve as a moderating variable, however no research has systematically set out to determine whether that is the case. This study assessed the perceived use of nonverbal immediacy under symmetric and asymmetric power conditions, as well as gender, in three cultures: Brazil, Kenya, and the United States. Quantitative data was collected from 527 participants who completed a nonverbal immediacy measure and an individual power distance measure under either a symmetric or an asymmetric power condition. Results related …

Ideological Voting On The Supreme Court: An Analysis Of Judicial Activism On The Burger And Rehnquist Courts, 1969-2004, Tiahna Larsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The influence of ideology and attitudes on the decision-making process of Supreme Court justices has been well documented, such that the attitudinal model has emerged as the dominant paradigm for understanding judicial behavior. When ideology and personal preferences seem to eclipse legal factors, such as adherence to precedent and deference to the democratically-elected branches, outcries of 'judicial activism' have occurred. Previous studies (Lindquist and Cross 2009) have operationalized judicial activism and have provided measures for studying behavior that may be considered activist (as opposed to restrainist), further supporting the premise that ideology trumps other extra-attitudinal and legal factors in the …

Bullying: Out Of The School Halls And Into The Workplace, Lucretia Cooney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study is to identify those people at most risk of being bullied at work. While much research is being conducted on school bullying, little has been conducted on workplace bullying. Using data gathered from a 2004 study conducted by the National Opinion Research Center for the General Social Survey, which included a Quality of Work Life (QWL) module for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), linear regressions indicated significant findings. As predicted, workers in lower level occupations, as ranked by prestige scoring developed at National Opinion Research, are more likely to be …

Theorizing Ambivalence In Ang Lee's Transnational Cinema: The Discourse Of Chinese Identity Between The Local And The Global, Chih-Yun Chiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using ambivalence as a theoretical framework, this study examines Ang Lee's cinematic discourse of Chinese identity, which is co-constructed with the audiences from different cultural communities. I focus on Ang Lee's transnational films Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution as my two case studies. By analyzing the audience discourse from Taiwan, Mainland China, and overseas Chinese communities, I am able to conceptualize their reactions as communicative moments that co-construct the meaning of the film text. I suggest that ambivalence is a self-representational strategy for the ethnic "Other," who is historically denied access to representation, to contest and subvert the …

Parents As Change Agents In Their Schools And Communities: The Founding Of Families For Early Autism Treatment (Feat), Bethany Kristin Mickahail

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative research highlights how parent driven "communities of support" create lasting change in schools and communities, through the unique blend of the two methodologies, oral history and educational criticism and connoisseurship.

In recent years, schools and communities are unusually impacted by an escalating wave in the diagnosis and treatment of persons with Autism. In 2010, the Center for Disease Control's Report stated 1 in 110 U.S. children are diagnosed with Autism. Yet long before this official report, parents and professionals affected by Autism and other disabilities were busy during the last half of the 20th century, seeking out ways …

Feminine Identity Confined: The Archaeology Of Japanese Women At Amache, A Wwii Internment Camp, Dana Ogo Shew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1942, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were evacuated from the West Coast to ten different internment camps in the interior of the United States. One of these camps was the Granada Relocation Center, otherwise known as Amache, located in southeastern Colorado. Through the analysis of archaeological material, archival documents, and oral histories, this thesis explores the experiences of Japanese American women interned at Amache. Feminine identity was greatly changed and redefined during confinement. These changes in feminine identity are examined in the public and private arenas of daily life within confinement. The construction of new and altered individual …

Item Order Effects On Attitude Measures, Pei-Hua Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effects of altered item order on attitude measures for both computerized adaptive and conventional survey formats. Based on items modified from a dissertation/thesis completion survey (Green & Kluever, 1997) with three scales, three survey versions were generated with items ordered by difficulty as hard-to-easy (H-E), easy-to-hard (E-H), and five medium trait level items presented first followed by randomly ordered items (M-R) for conventional survey format. Significant differences in item difficulty and item discrimination were found for two of the three scales. Differences in scale reliability were detected for the procrastination and …

Climate Change And Indigenous Peoples In Latin America, Amy C. Rademacher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the detrimental effects of climate change on indigenous peoples in Latin America. Indigenous peoples throughout the region tend to live subsistence livelihoods, which tie them closely to their land and the surrounding environment. This close relationship often means that indigenous peoples acutely experience the effects of climate change and are more susceptible to its negative outcomes than other populations. Further, indigenous peoples in the region lack the mitigation and adaptation capacities to deal with damaging climatic effects.

This research was designed to view the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples through a human rights framework, …

A Study Of The Coping Strategies Of Financially Vulnerable Families Facing The Child Care Cliff, Susan J. Roll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many families child care is a necessity for economic self sufficiency, as without it caretakers cannot enter and stay in the workforce. However, for many low-income families childcare expenses are so high that they often cannot afford it without government support. The focus of this study was to understand how families make decisions about childcare in relation to government support. Of specific interest are low-income families who receive the government supported child care subsidy in Colorado known as the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP).

CCCAP is a part of work support benefits that are provided by the State …

Cripping The Workspace: Performing Physically Disabled Professional Identity In Personal Narrative, Julie-Ann Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a performance of identity analysis of 26 physically disabled professionals‘ open-ended personal narratives. Through adapting Riessman‘s five steps to narrative analysis to a performance methodology and applying Bamberg‘s narrative positioning, this study crystallizes the ongoing formation and re-formation of physically disabled professional identity in time, space, and discourse and the possibilities to reiterate, dismantle, and transform these meanings in future interactions. From a performance perspective, a story not only reflects reality, but is its own reality, constituting meaning and understanding in time and space. Physical disability is at once a personal experience and a shared cultural creation …

Empirical Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Eye Tracking-Based Search Performance Diagnosis And Feedback Methods, Meredith Carroll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's complex combat environments, troops are often faced with increasingly challenging tasks different from those experienced in the past. Warfighters must be trained in adaptive perceptual skill sets, such as search strategies that enable them to detect threats across any number of environmental, cultural, and situational conditions. The goal of the present study was to explore how advanced technology, specifically eye tracking, can be used to increase understanding of perceptual processes such as search and detection and provide tools that can be used to train search skills. Experiment 1 examined a method of diagnosing perceptual performance in order to …

Young Adults' Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage And Polygamy As A Function Of Demographic, Gender, And Personality Variables, Catherine Pearte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Based on a sample of 814 university students, pro- and anti-same-sex marriage and polygamous marriage groups were established based on students scoring >1 SD above (n = 145; n = 132, respectively) and > 1 SD below the group mean (n = 127; n = 126) on the Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage Scale (ATSSM: Pearl & Paz-Galupo, 2007) and Attitudes Toward Polygamy Scale, which was generated by modifying the ATSSM (ATPM). Compared to pro-same-sex marriage students, anti-same-sex marriage students were significantly more prejudiced against gays and lesbians, authoritarian, religious, and politically conservative. Anti-same-sex marriage students also had less contact with and …

Ageist Perceptions In Personnel Selection Decisions: A Prejudice-Reduction Intervention, Justin Marcus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether older job applicants are discriminated against relative to younger job applicants when changing careers, and to investigate whether an intervention designed to reduce stereotyping and prejudice could alleviate such unfair discrimination, if it was found. A between-subjects laboratory experiment with three factors was conducted, including age (young vs. old job applicant), career-transition type (within- vs. between-career transition), and a dual-identity based recategorization intervention (control vs. intervention), totaling 8 experimental conditions. Data were collected and analyzed from 157 undergraduate student participants. Participants were informed that they would be evaluating the viability …

How Business Climate And Political Climate Influence Economic Growth And Economic Development In The American States, James H. Black

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Economist Joseph Schumpeter’s examination into the relationships between business cycles and periods of economic expansion defines the government’s role in markets as limited. However, he viewed government intervention as a precursor to improving the levels of economic growth and expanding an individual’s quality of life. This study examines how measures of business and political climate might explain variations in the level of economic growth and development across the states. Economic growth is gauged from the microeconomic perspective of the individual (per capita income) and from the macroeconomic viewpoint of the state’s economy (gross state product). Economic development is defined by …

Fairy Forts And The Banshee In Modern Coastal Sligo, Ireland: An Ethnography Of Local Beliefs And Interpretations Of These Traditions, Brian Tillesen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines issues of cultural identity and modernity, and the anthropology of spirituality and sacred sites by conducting ethnographic research on fairy beliefs in contemporary Ireland. Irish folk belief has traditionally identified a spirit world intertwined with our own which is inhabited by spirits, often collectively referred to as fairies. Belief in these spirits was once widespread. My research sought to determine the prevalence of these traditional beliefs among modern Irish people within my research area, as well as differences in belief across variables including age, gender, and religious preference. I conducted eight weeks of ethnographic fieldwork during June-August …

Alternative Weekly And City Magazine Under One Roof: Contemporary Media, Inc.'S “Memphis Flyer” And “Memphis” Magazine, Cory Taylor Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies the media of alternative weekly publications through a case study of the Memphis Flyer and its relationship with sister publication Memphis magazine, both under the umbrella of Contemporary Media, Inc. History of the publications, targeted demographics and business models will be taken into account to answer proposed research questions. The publications prominence in local media as well as their relationship to the traditional city paper, The Commercial Appeal, is recognized, along with the company's plans for adaptation to new trends in online journalism.

The Effect Of De-Contextualized Multimedia Software On Taiwanese College Level Students' English Vocabulary Development, Yaw-Liang Yan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Computer technology has been applied widely as an educational tool in second language learning for a long time. There have been many studies discussing the application of computer technology to different aspects in second language learning. However, the learning effect of both de-contextualized multimedia software and sound gloss on second language students had been rarely explored. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of computer-assisted language learning (call) on de-contextualized multimedia software vocabulary learning and retention for college level students in Taiwan. One-hundred-fifty-five participants completed this experiment. The control group class was taught in a regular classroom. …