Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Experiences Of Historically Black And Traditionally Latino Fraternity And Sorority Members At A Predominately White Institution, Fred Mccall

Masters Theses

Research on college students and student groups is so important because student populations are continuously changing and administrators must keep up to meet the needs of evolving students. In particular, African American and Latino fraternities and sororities are different from majority Greek organizations. Their differences are sometimes clustered together although these are two very different cultural groups. Through interviews with these two groups of students, the principal investigator attempted to better understand the experiences of African American and Latino fraternity and sorority members as well as their similarities and differences. The examination of results identify several themes outlining the experiences …

The Effects Of Narrative Based Language Intervention On Children With Cochlear Implants, Ellie Carol Justice

Masters Theses

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of Narrative Based Language Intervention (NBLI) with children who have cochlear implants (Cis). The researchers sought to determine in a preliminary study whether a 6-week production-based intervention approach focusing on production of grammatical structure, as well as narrative content and form, would produce similar results in children with Cis as previously shown in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Participants: Three girls, ages 5;4 - 8;0, participated in the study. Participants were recruited from Child Hearing Services (CHS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). The children were …

Examination Of Secular Change In The Vertical Head Diameter Of The Human Femur In American Males And Females, Sandra Cridlin

Masters Theses

Secular changes in various aspects of the human skeleton can provide indications of environmental effects on growth and development. Temporal trends, as a reflection of fluctuations in health of a particular population over time, can provide evidence of how that population responds to episodic environmental transitions. Cohort comparisons of trends can reveal differing degrees of change experienced among groups within a single population or between different populations. The purpose of this study is to examine secular changes in the femoral maximum vertical head diameter of Americans male and females, and to investigate whether changes in head diameter size could be …

The Changing Landscape: The Urbanization Of Knox County, Tennessee, Charles Steven Brown

Masters Theses

Land use change, in the form of urbanization, is no longer limited to existing municipal boundaries. This change, however, is neither haphazard in direction nor unpredictable in scope. It is a series of highly evolved trends that have become one of the most highly studied and researched phenomenon in the social and physical sciences.

To examine land use change as urbanization for middle tier metropolitan area, Knoxville and Knox County Tennessee were chosen as sites for my research. While Knoxville still serves as the cultural, physical and governmental center for the area, residential and commercial development have scattered throughout the …

Century-Scale Trends In Climatic Variability For The Pacific Northwest From Western Juniper (Juniperus Occidentalis Hook. Ssp. Occidentalis) Tree-Ring Data, Christopher Aaron Underwood

Masters Theses

The history of the Earth’s climate shows many fluctuations, and there is reason to believe that climatic fluctuations will continue to occur in the future. Climatic shifts related to processes such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) initiate many environmental anomalies, including interruptions in traditional storm tracks, average precipitation, fire regimes, streamflow, and animal behavior. Our historical climatic records are too short to fully illustrate climatic fluctuations over long time scales. Proxy records are often used to extend these historical climatic records. In this dendroclimatological study, I used wester juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook. ssp. occidentalis) from central Oregon …

Methodological Considerations: Osteoarthritis And The Significance Of Porosity In The William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection, Kimberly Tenese Wren

Masters Theses

Osteoarthritis is one of many diseases that accompany the ascension into old age. It has been documented in animals and humans alike. The current research examines porosity’s relationship to osteoarthritis. European American females and African American and European American males from the contemporary William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection are analyzed.

The objective of this study is to determine whether or not a change in the relationship of osteoarthritis severity to porosity severity will occur as the criteria used to identify osteoarthritis changes from osteophytes alone (method I), to eburnation alone (method II), and then both osteophytes and eburnation (method …

Meth Epidemic In Rural Tennessee: Construction Of A Social Problem, Brian Harold Langley

Masters Theses

Social constructionists argue that what problems are recognized as social problems in a society reflect the efforts of various individuals and organizations to frame particular issues as deserving of public attention and action. Illegal drugs (heroin, LSD, crack cocaine) repeatedly have been identified as social problems harming innocent victims (e.g., crack babies) and leading to various forms of criminal activity. The focus of this project is how media, specifically newspaper coverage, rose as claims makers identified methamphetamine (meth) production as a serious problem in rural areas of the southeast. Although the drug had been available under various names for decades, …

Espn’S Ability To Get Fans ‘Inside Sports’: A Framing Analysis Of College Gameday, Melissa Lovette

Masters Theses

College Gameday is important and well-watched. It invents the perception of college football. It frames college football using four dominant themes—nostalgia, masculine identity, militarism and sports-as-corporation. All of these lead to its popularity and the reinforcement of ideas about college football. This study analyzes six episodes of ESPN’s College Gameday, which originally aired in the fall of 2006. The research questions are 1) based on Nauright’s work, how does College Gameday frame football in terms of nostalgia, national identity and masculine identity; 2) are there frames present that have not been identified by Nauright.

College Gameday frames college football in …

The Current Status Of Contributing Factors To The Digital Divide, Jennifer Lyn Blakley

Masters Theses

This study provides a current examination of the contributing factors to the Digital Divide. Breaking this divide down into three distinctly separate models –home computer ownership, home Internet access, and home broadband Internet access – provides the opportunity to see the effect of numerous independent variables on each aspect of the divide. Data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) for 2000, 2001, and 2003 further provides the opportunity to see if, and how, the divide changes over time. The results show that the divide has decreased with respect to computer ownership and shows little improvement with respect to …

Archaeological And Dendrochronological Investigations At Cagle Saltpetre Cave, Van Buren County, Tennessee, Sarah Anne Blankenship

Masters Theses

During the 19th century, the increasing demand for saltpeter, a vital ingredient in gunpowder, led to both large- and small-scale saltpeter-mining operations in caves throughout Tennessee. Although the general procedures in the historic processing of saltpeter are fairly well understood, very little archaeological research has been undertaken on specific saltpeter-mining sites. Historic documentation of mining activities within these caves is scarce, thus systematic studies of these sites are integral to a greater understanding of this early extractive industry. The research presented in this thesis is the first in the region in which archaeological and dendrochronological investigations were used in conjunction …

Effects Of Spatial Specific Neurofeedback Training In Anterior Cingulate Cortex, Rex L. Cannon

Masters Theses

This study examines the efficacy of a recently developed methodology of spatial-specific neurofeedback training in the cognitive division of the anterior cingulate gyrus and describes its relationship with cortical regions known to be involved in executive functions and attentional processes. This study was conducted with eight non-clinical students, four male and four female, with a mean age of twenty-two. Exclusion criteria consisted of prior head trauma, neurological or psychiatric disorders, medications and recent drug or alcohol use. Learning occurred in the ACcd at significant levels over sessions and in the anterior regions that receive projections from the AC. There appears …

A Page Of History: Front Page Design Of Newspapers Covering Three National Tragedies, Roger B. Hagy

Masters Theses

This study observed the news coverage of three historically significant and especially emotional national tragedies – the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – specifically regarding front page design, an increasingly important yet underrepresented facet of journalism research. Past research regarding newspaper page design on typical news days and research regarding the atypical, emotional coverage of the three tragedies fueled the researcher’s hypotheses that type, photographs, and layout on front pages covering the tragedies would be significantly different than those on typical news days. In an examination of 436 front pages …

An Analysis Of Tennessee Agri-Tourism Visitors’ Preferences And Expenditures, Christopher M. Lindborg

Masters Theses

Agri-tourism is a relatively new concept in the United States and Tennessee, but it is gaining popularity with agri-business owners as a source of additional income. Because agri-tourism is new, much is left to be understood about what motivates visitors to agri-tourism attractions. This thesis analyzes the results of a visitor survey of 6 agritourism attractions in Tennessee, with a focus on understanding the factors that are motivating people to visit agri-tourism attractions. It was found that the reasons for visitors to attend agri-tourism attractions encompass a complex web of both economic and social motives. Visitors who attend agri-tourism attractions …

The Meaning Of Community: Exploring The View Of Student Affairs Officers, David G. Luter

Masters Theses

Using Boyer’s six principles of community as a conceptual framework, this study examined perceptions of community among student affairs educators (SAEs). Additionally, this research inspected the extent to which perceptions of community influence policy, programming, and practice. Using one-on-one in-depth interviews and qualitative theme analysis, ten SAEs offered their perceptions of community and their applicability to professional practices. Results indicated general consistency in defining “community” as a concept. However, when asked about campus community, SAEs described factors that could either inhibit or enhance campus community. Eight factors emerged as being of concern to SAEs in this study: impact of globalization …

Discovery Of President Bush’S Professional Reputation In The Opinion-Editorial Section Of The New York Times, Chioma Ndukwe Marbrey

Masters Theses

Neustadt transformed academia’s fundamental conception of presidential leadership by arguing that extra-constitutional resources such as strategic persuasion, public prestige, and professional reputation are more critical to effective presidential governance than the simple application of the president’s constitutional powers. Professional reputation, which refers to political elites’ appraisals of the president as a leader, is a central yet scholastically understudied pillar of Neustadt’s theory. Neustadt argued that the “echoes” of a president’s professional reputation typically emerge from the newspaper columns of prominent political commentators (1990, p. 53-54). In essence, newspaper columns function as public forums where elites engage each other in interactive …

Building A Predictive Model For Paleo Indian Archaeological Site Location Using Geographic Information Systems, Zachary Jaime

Masters Theses

This research is a multi step method to predict unknown Paleoindian archaeological site locations within Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, situated in the southeastern corner of the state, using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The GIS technology is being used to predict Paleoindian archaeological site locations and will help demonstrate the geographic similarities and differences between already known Paleoindian archaeological sites and random non-site locations in the Pine Bluffs region. Using GIS, one can note the similarities and differences between the Paleoindian sites and the surrounding landscape and, with help of logistic regression analysis, one can predict the location of unknown Paleoindian …

Cheating Death: The Demedicalization Of Cpr, Michelle Nicole Erwin

Masters Theses

My research explores cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as a case study of demedicalization. I will use an instrumental case study method to examine the history and setting of CPR. In order to gain a stronger understanding of CPR in particular, I will look in depth at the actors and organizations involved in the development, medicalization, and demedicalization of CPR. The purpose of this study is to better grasp how demedicalization occurs in a more general context by looking through the lens of CPR. I will adapt a framework that is used for examining medicalization authored by Peter Conrad (1980), to allow …

Educating Fourth Grade Students In Michigan About Gray Wolves (Canis Lupus) Using A Teaching Trunk, Jessica Marie Wesel

Masters Theses

The Michigan Gray Wolf Recovery and Management Plan was signed on December 1997, and made residents aware that the population of gray wolves in Michigan would be on the rise. Because the number of wolf-human interactions eventually will increase, it is essential that people are educated about wolves to avoid the stereotyping and misconceptions that often are associated with wolves. A good place to start with this type of education is with children in elementary school.

A teaching trunk was used in two schools, one in Michigan's Lower Peninsula, and one in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Three classrooms from each school …

The Gyftakis Site: A Reevalutation Of A Middle Woodland Site After 30 Years, Michael R. Fournier

Masters Theses

This research is the catalogue and study of the Gyftakis Site (20MK51) excavated in 1973 by Dr. James Fitting. The first part of this study involves the cataloguing and description of the artifacts excavated by Dr. James Fitting at the Gyftakis site located on the Marquette Mission block in St. Ignace, MI.

The second part of the research involves using SPSS to analyze the decorative techniques used on the Gyftakis pottery. A chi-square test was performed first to see if the ceramic decorations were not just defined by a random distribution. After that the ceramic decorations were analyzed in both …

Banish Belly Bulge And Chisel Your Bis: A Semiotic Analysis Of Gender Representations In Fitness Magazine Advertising, Lauren A. Teal

Masters Theses

This study examined gender ideologies in the advertising of two popular fitness magazines, Shape and Men's Fitness, using Kress and van Leeuwen's visual semiotic theory (1996). The aim of this study was to determine how fitness magazine advertising participates in the construction of gender identities, and to identify what rhetorical and visual strategies are commonly employed.

Through an examination of the way gender identities are constructed by fitness magazines my research has concluded that advertising within both magazines promotes idealized body types and stereotypical gender identities for men and women. In Shape's advertisements, women are wives and homemakers; they …

The Independent Press In The Emerging Democracies: The Case Studies Of Poland, Ukraine And Russia, Lyudmyla Pustelnyk

Masters Theses

My research will entail the election coverage in the mainstream papers of Poland, Ukraine and Russia, these are the Gazeta Wyborcha, the Den, and the Izvestiya respectively. The diverse levels of media-freedom in the observed countries explain the difference between all three outlets in featuring political issues. The purpose of this Master's Thesis is to contrast and compare the state of the free press in Poland, Ukraine and Russia as well as the factors that determine the media-independence. In particular, these are the media-legislation, civil society and the economic performance.

This study revises the empirical claims made by …

The Effects Of A Still-Photo Computer Module Without Feedback On Ergonomic Behaviors, Rhiannon M. Fante

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a still-photo computer training module without feedback on safe positioning of individuals performing an assembly task and a lifting task using a multiple baseline design across behaviors and tasks. The study took place in an analogue office setting and participants were 6 college students. The dependent variable was the percentage of observations scored as safe and each session was recorded via a hidden camera. During each session, participants completed a 5 minute assembly task followed by 2 lifts and this task sequence was repeated a minimum of four …

The Effects Of An Education Program On Women's Knowledge And Behavior During Menopause, Diana L. Stenger

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Internet Pornography On Heterosexual Male University Students' Attitudes Toward Sexuality, Misty Baker

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Sororities Among Sorority Women, Deborah Denise Appleby

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Media's Portrayal Of Women: Impact On Aggressive Attitudes And Beliefs, Danielle Trezek

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Parental Religiosity And Parent-Adolescent Conflict, Courtney Crane

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Older Adults' Food Choices Associated With Cardiovascular Health, Sondra J. Clarkson

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Off The Welfare Rolls And Back Into Poverty: A Look At 11 Years Of Illinois Welfare Reform, Amber Williams

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Coming Out In The Workplace: Stigma And Boundary Management For Homosexual Men, Eric A. Evans

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.