Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Mouse Who Ruled His Kingdom: An Agenda Setting Analysis Of The Walt Disney World Company, Jacob Overbey

Masters Theses

People are seeking their news in more social environments, but very little research has been conducted on agenda setting and online environments. This thesis examined the agenda setting relationship between an organization on Twitter, @WaltDisneyWorld (i.e., The Walt Disney World) and public opinion on Twitter. The relationship was examined using Twitter's database of tweets to measure public opinion on Twitter. Since the news media is losing steam on the ability to break news, and social media is growing rapidly, this study tested the value of the agenda setting theory on social media. To this end, this thesis qualitatively examined the …

States' Rights Apogee, 1760-1840, Ryan Setliff

Masters Theses

America's states' rights tradition has held much influence since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. In late 1798, in response to the Federalist administration's adoption of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were formally adopted by the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky respectively. These resolutions set a lasting precedent for state interposition and nullification. As well concurrence with these doctrines can be found in the Virginia Resolves of 1790, the constitutional debates of 1787-1790, and all throughout the colonial-revolutionary period of the 1760s to 1780s. In time, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions would gain …

The Effects Of Reinforcer-Paired Stimuli On Operant Behavior: Review, Demonstration, And Conceptual Analysis, Timothy Lowell Edwards

Masters Theses

The presentation of stimuli that have been paired with reinforcers may function as a motivating operation in that the efficacy of the reinforcers appears to increase and the class of responses that have been historically followed by those reinforcers increases in strength. This phenomenon has important implications for a number of behavioral concerns including drug addiction and eating disorders. A review of the existing literature examining this phenomenon presented herein suggests that the phenomenon is reliable and robust but that it is reinforcer-specific. In the animal study that is subsequently described, rats show a higher proportion of responding on average …

An Analysis Of Personal Adornment At Fort St. Joseph (20be23), An Eighteenth-Century French Trading Post In Southwest Michigan, Ian B. Kerr

Masters Theses

Since 1998 Western Michigan University archaeologists have investigated Fort St. Joseph (20BE23), an 18th century mission, garrison and trading post located in present day Niles, Michigan. The project’s research directive focuses on exploring notions of identity formation and its material expression in light of the prolonged and persistent cultural contact between Native Americans and Europeans at the site.

This thesis seeks to further this directive by exploring how personal adornment materiality both structures and broadcasts individuals’ social identities. By employing an intrasite spatial analysis of the assemblage of adornment artifacts from recognized domestic contexts at Fort St. Joseph this thesis …

The Global Debt Minotaur: An Analysis Of The Greek Financial Crisis, Steven Alfonso Panageotou

Masters Theses

Since November 2009, Greece has been mired in financial crisis with little indication that it will be solved in the near future. Research and media accounts have faulted Greece for sowing the seeds of its own financial crisis through fiscal mismanagement extending back to the 1980’s. Successive Greek governments have been criticized for racking up an unsustainable amount of foreign debt. Due to the prevalence of such accounts, European officials and Greek politicians have adopted a nationally oriented strategy to resolve the current crisis. This strategy means that the brunt of the reform effort falls on Greece to neoliberalize its …

Daniel Hannan, Thomas Paine, And The Rhetoric Of Outrage, Danae Brack

Masters Theses

The purpose of this rhetorical study is to examine the textual charisma of Thomas Paine's Common Sense and Daniel Hannan's speech "The Devalued Prime Minister of a Devalued Government" and how that charisma made these artifacts successful in spreading outrage surrounding the historical and political events of their respective eras. The author uses Weber's theory of charisma filtered through Rosenberg and Hirschberg's expanded theory identifying lexical charisma, or the charisma of messages. The author analyzes Paine's and Hannan's use of persuasiveness, believability, and powerfulness, translating each of these characteristics into specific cues that can be identified in the individual texts. …

Law Enforcement, Communication Training & Verbal Judo, Lorna F. Keathley

Masters Theses

This study incorporated a mixed method approach using qualitative and quantitative methods to capture a deeper portrayal of Verbal Judo. Verbal Judo emphasizes the use of both verbal and non-verbal communication tactics by the officer (influencer) with specific discourse structures to influence the individual to comply with the officer’s requests in compliance-gaining. This study determined that specific Verbal Judo compliance-gaining tactics must be used to try to prevent conflict such as physical force. Successive repetition by officers (with matching non-verbal tone) of strategic Verbal Judo language when dealing with a difficult person appears to be a major key in diminishing …

The Mother-Infant Dyad Study: A Grounded Theory Inquiry Into The Day-To-Day Experiences, Between First-Time Mothers And Their Infants, That Influence Feeding Practices, Jennifer Jean Helvey

Masters Theses

Background: Inappropriate infant-feeding practices linked to excessive, rapid, early weight gain, are potentially powerful intervention points for reducing risk of later obesity. Understanding how and why these behaviors begin is currently the topic of much research. Because breastfeeding has been found to be somewhat protective against early rapid gain, and because low-income, Southeastern U.S. populations are significantly less likely to initiate and maintain breastfeeding, it is critical to focus efforts in these populations. Grounded theory methodology provides the optimal theoretical underpinnings for exploring development of these practices.

Research Objective: The objective was to explore, using grounded theory methodology, the set …

Adulthood Animal Abuse Among Men Arrested For Domestic Violence, Jeniimarie Febres

Masters Theses

The effectiveness of batterer intervention programs at reducing future intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration is limited. Learning about perpetrators to more comprehensively address issues relevant to their aggressive tendencies could aid in the development of more effective treatments. This study examined the prevalence of adulthood animal abuse perpetration and its association with psychological and physical IPV perpetration, antisocial traits, and alcohol use in a sample of men arrested for domestic violence (N = 307). Forty-one percent (n = 125) of the men committed at least one act of animal abuse since the age of 18, in contrast to …

Feasibility Of On-Farm Milk Processing, Packaging, And Marketing For Tennessee Dairy Farmers, Jonathan Joel Moss

Masters Theses

The Tennessee dairy industry has experienced a milk price and feed cost squeeze over the past several years, resulting in declining dairy farm numbers. Many dairy farmers are looking for ways to capture more of the food dollar. One alternative is employing a value-added enterprise. With added managerial and financial responsibilities, it is important that a market and financial feasibility be examined prior to entering into such an undertaking. This study focused on the feasibility of on-farm processed milk, cheese, and yogurt. The feasibility analysis consisted of two major components: market potential and financial feasibility. Market potential was examined for …

Creating A Millennial Generation Contextualized Church Culture, Christopher Deitsch

Masters Theses

The Millennial generation, or Generation Y as some people know them, is the biggest generation in the United States of America history. As they flood schools, universities, and the job market it is easy to see that there are major differences between them and previous generations. Simultaneously, the church in America has hundreds of individual churches each year closing and tens of thousands each year declining; most churches are ceasing to grow. The inability to reach Millennials is one of the reasons for this decline. This thesis purposes to give a snapshot of the Millennial generation, overview a few of …

Effectiveness Of Antismoking Campaign Strategies On Smoking Cessation Of Chinese Smokers: An Application Of Taylor’S Six-Segment Message Strategy Wheel, Xizi Cai

Masters Theses

China has the largest smoker population in the world. Since 2006, with China as a member country of WHO FCTC (World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control), the country has seen more and more antismoking campaigns on various kinds of media both national and local. However, the effectiveness of these antismoking campaigns is still not clear, especially within Chinese traditional smoking culture background.

Adopting an in-depth interview approach, this study explores how different antismoking campaign strategies in terms of Taylor’s Six-segment Massage Strategy Wheel could influence smoking cessation of Chinese adult smokers who have quitting experience. Research questions focus …

Essays On Spatial Analysis Of Policy Impacts, Daegoon Lee

Masters Theses

This thesis is composed of two essays under the theme of spatial analysis of policy impacts. The objective of the first essay was to analyse how population dynamics affect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The effects of population redistribution resulting from the South Korean government’s decentralization efforts on GHG emissions were assessed. Simulation results suggest that the direction of change in total GHG emissions depends on the share of the population redistributed from higher to lower population density regions. If the entire redistributed population of 877,000 persons expected from the government’s decentralization project were from the Seoul Area, annual CO_{2 …}

Green In A Sea Of Pink: Environmental Reframing Of Mainstream Breast Cancer, Amy Elizabeth Scanzillo

Masters Theses

As a contested illness, breast cancer has mainstream and alternate narratives that vie to shape related scientific research and legislative policy. The mainstream breast cancer movement (MBCM) shapes the dominant discourse of breast cancer risk, prevention, and cure through the utilization of the conventional biomedical model of knowledge. The environmental breast cancer movement (EBCM) contests the mainstream breast cancer narrative because EBCM activists argue that it supports an unequal power dynamic and does not adequately reflect breast cancer risk and prevention. Through the incorporation of citizen science and the precautionary principle into breast cancer research and policy, EBCM activists reframe …

Justice, Truth, And Community Organizing In Boston, Ma, Melanie Ann Barron

Masters Theses

In 2010, community organizers in Boston, MA began to lay the groundwork for a truth and reconciliation process about the long-term impacts of the violence and racism surrounding the desegregation/busing crisis in the 1970s. Organizers believe that the busing crisis still presents impediments to the ability of communities of color in Boston to live well and participate in public life. I contextualize their efforts first as a response to the failures of the liberal democratic reforms that marked the civil rights movement. Rather than truly reforming the structures that permit the existence of racialized inequalities, I argue that the liberal …

Varying Degrees Of Difficulty In Melodic Dictation Examples According To Intervallic Content, Michael Hines Robinson

Masters Theses

Melodic dictation has long been a daunting task for students in aural skills training. Research has found that interval identification is a factor when taking melodic dictation. Research has also found that some intervals are easier to identify than other intervals. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether the difficulty of melodic dictation examples can be categorized by their intervallic content. A popular aural skills text was used as the source for the melodic dictation examples. The adjacent intervals in each melodic dictation example were counted and recorded by interval type. The analysis of the melodic dictation examples …

Perform + Function: A Proposal For A Healthy Public Housing Community, Brandon M. Harvey

Masters Theses

PERFORM+FUNCTION: Proposal for A Healthy Public Housing Community

Architecture exists in Place, the integrated context of both the built and natural environments, including socio-economic, cultural, and political climates that influence our growth, development, and survival. As architecture necessitates around human purposes, it is important that architecture is built for and sited in an environment compatible for human well-being. My thesis focuses on human habitation and its immediate relationship with human health, assessing the performance and functionality of Place that have an impact on human health. Using public housing as the vehicle of my investigation, I will seek the appropriate application …

The Role Of Consequentiality In The External Validation Of Stated Preference Methods, Sharon Bowen Watson

Masters Theses

This study examines consequentiality and information effects of stated preference methods by taking advantage of a unique opportunity to compare survey responses with a parallel, financially binding public referendum held in the Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts, concerning the adoption of a conservation and preservation policy to be funded by a property tax surcharge. Our survey setting departs from previous work in this area in that (1) many survey respondents were unaware of the upcoming referendum and (2) the survey “referendum” mirrors that of the public referendum. The survey and analysis are designed to elicit and control for respondent beliefs regarding …

Maternal Responsiveness In Infancy And Early Childhood Among A Burundian Refugee Community, Erin Lane Gangaware

Masters Theses

Post-migration contexts often provide many challenges for refugee families’ integration into a host society such as language barriers, mental and physical illness, social and community relationships (Berry, 2001; Daud, 2008; Weine, 2011). Traumatic life events, loss, and depression have all been shown to negatively impact parenting (Daud, Skoglund, & Rydelius; Diener, Nievar, & Wright, 2003, Evans, 2006; Garmezy, 1987). These environmental and emotional factors often prevent parents from providing adequate care. Not only does the quality of parenting affect children’s social-emotional development, many contextual factors such as family SES, social supports, and neighborhood have also been shown to impact social-emotional …

The Role Of Attention In The Other-Species Effect In Infancy, Dantong Zhang

Masters Theses

Infants experience a gradual decline in the ability to discriminate other-species faces during the first year of life (Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson, 2006). It is possible that this decline is due to infants distributing more attention to human faces than to other-species faces. The current study explored the effect of modifying the distribution of 9-month-old infants’ selective attention during the processing of monkey faces. After familiarization with monkey faces with successively highlighted internal features, infants showed significant preference to novel faces in paired-comparison tasks. In contrast, infants in a control group with no highlighting during familiarization did not show …

Short-Term Missions: Reinforcing Beliefs And Legitimating Poverty, William Vaughan Taylor

Masters Theses

Every year more than a million short-term missionaries travel abroad. Many encounter intense poverty. Popular discourse suggests short-term missionaries return home radically changed. Social movement theory shows collective experiences can transform participants. In this thesis I explore the narratives of short-term missionaries to understand how they understand the poverty they encounter abroad. I have found short-term mission participants think about encounters with the poor in ways that produce contradictory beliefs and legitimate poverty. Interviewees consistently employed deficiency and fatalistic theories of poverty that provide little moral or practical justification for helping the poor. However, these beliefs conflicted with religious convictions. …

The Interaction Of Neuroticism And Stress In Predicting Infidelity In A Newlywed Sample, Maria Moana Rowley

Masters Theses

Crisis theories (e.g., Hill, 1942; Karney & Bradbury 1995) suggest that the reciprocal interaction between long-term vulnerabilities and stressors predict relationship outcomes. This model might partially explain an individual’s choice to engage in an extramarital affair. In particular, neuroticism may be an individual vulnerability that can lead to chronic stress, and when this chronic stress is combined with acute stressors, the individual’s resources may be overwhelmed. Thus, the addition of acute stressful events may lead to infidelity as an emotion regulation strategy. The data for this study were drawn from two larger studies assessing newlywed couples’ marital interactions. Participants in …

Factors Influencing Precision Farming Technology Adoption Over Time In Southern U.S. Cotton Production, Pattarawan Watcharaanantapong

Masters Theses

This study analyzed factors of farm and farmer characteristics that influenced the timing of PF technology adoption using Trivariate Tobit models for three PF technologies. Data from the Cotton Incorporated Southern Precision Farming (PF) Survey conducted in February and March of 2009 for the 2008 crop year were analyzed for PF adoption by Southern U.S. Cotton Producers. The number of years a cotton farmer had used yield monitoring (YMR), remote sensing (RMS) and grid soil sampling (GSS) were the dependent variables and farm and farmer characteristics were the independent variables.

Results of Trivariate Tobit model for YMR suggested that younger …

The Effects Of Merit Awards On District-Level High School Graduation: Evidence From Michigan, Brandon Lee Harrison

Masters Theses

This paper considers the effects of the Michigan Merit Award, a college scholarship program, on high school graduation rates. Students qualify via a standardized high school proficiency exam. Identification is achieved through difference-in-differences estimation using both a broad set of controls and a stricter set of controls. The effects on graduation rates differ depending on the model specification, as some significant results show a positive correlation between the introduction of the program and graduation rates, while others a negative effect. Where it appears the award increased graduation rates, pinpointing the exact impact of the award on graduation levels is difficult …

Feasibility And Impact Analysis Of An International Grain Reserve, Haijing Zhuang

Masters Theses

Recent price surges have caught the attention of the entire society, and have put food reserve policy back into the political spotlight. However, few studies have investigated the operation of a grain reserve on a global scale. Therefore, the objectives of my research are to model and compare alternative operational price bands of an international grain reserve, and determine the relative feasibility and impact of the alternative price bands.

A global economic model was modified by building the capability to analyze alternative price bands of an international grain reserve. The feasibility of alternative price-band scenarios were evaluated by comparing: 1) …

Evaluating The Contribution Of Infrastructure To U.S. Agri−Food Sector Output, Tingting Tong

Masters Theses

The effect of infrastructure investment or capital on private sector output and productivity has been widely discussed over the past two decades. However, only limited studies have focused on the contribution of infrastructure to the output of U.S. agricultural and food sector. Considering the importance of agriculture in U.S. economy and its strong dependence on infrastructure, two empirical analyses were made in this thesis to evaluate the output impact associated with infrastructure in agricultural and food sector in the United States. The first study examines the spillover effect of two major transportation modes, roads and rails, on agricultural output across …

Response Of Inland Lakes To Climate Change Across The Tibetan Plateau Investigated Using Landsat And Icesat Data, Zewen Liu

Masters Theses

The Tibetan Plateau experienced tremendous climate change during the past four decades. Due to the large size, widely distribution of cryosphere, and diverse landforms, different parts of the plateau may experience different climate and cryosphere changing patterns. The changes of inland lakes within the plateau are important indicators of climate change as these lakes are fed by precipitation, permafrost degradation, and glacier melting that are all sensitive to climate change. To examine the spatial and temporal differences of lake variations across the Tibetan Plateau, Landsat images and ICESat/GLAS altimetry data were used to extract the changes in surface areas of …

When Black Meets White In The Heart Of Worship: A Case-Study Of Musical Changes In A Multiracial Church, Serge Volpe

Masters Theses

The Worldwide Church of God began as a denomination relying on certain Jewish practices and other Euro-centric distinctions to define its' identity. In the New York City area, African-American churchgoers exceeded that of whites; yet church liturgy retained its European-American flavor. When the denomination underwent transformation in the 1990s, many congregants were unable to accept changes, including new musical styles, and reacted in a manner inconsistent with what church leaders had hoped for. This thesis examines what some African-Americans experienced during this period when liturgy changed to include music representative of their culture. Interviews were conducted with African-American churchgoers from …

"Nevermericans?": How Communication Issues Shape The Perceptions Of Self And The Perceptions Of American Identity Among The International Students, Lyudmyla Pustelnyk

Masters Theses

This study of Intercultural communication and identity uses Cultural Contracts theory and Narrative theory to explore how international students communicate about their understanding of self (identity) and how this understanding is influenced and changes during their studies in the United States. Research participants who have, or are currently studying in the U.S., from Eastern and Central European countries were interviewed about their communication experiences while in the U.S., resulting in different expressions of identity - in-between identity, feeling Americanized, global citizen, and crystallization of native identity - which developed as the result of their U.S. university studies. Their narratives also …

Archaeological Investigations Of Control And Autonomy At The Colony Farm Of The Michigan State Asylum, 1880-1950, Alison Thornton

Masters Theses

This project is designed to look into mechanisms of control and patient autonomy in institutional confinement, using Colony Farm in Kalamazoo, Michigan as a case study. I have chosen to specifically examine landscape, architecture, foodways, and personal goods/dress as avenues in which to parse out information regarding control and autonomy. The main themes throughout this paper are work as a cure, patient labor, and the blurring of roles between patients, staff members, and paid hired workers. These themes are intertwined with landscape, architecture, foodways, and personal goods/dress and highlight the contradictions inherent in institutional confinement, especially in the context of …