Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

U.S Fans’ Identification With La Liga Teams, Pilar Barrio Sánchez

Masters Theses

This study explores LaLiga fandom in the U.S. by examining fan identification, loyalty, and commitment to their favorite LaLiga team. Moreover, the study explored the reasons why fans first choose their favorite team to support as well as their motives to watch or attend soccer games. To do so, a mixed method approach was used in which participants from LaLiga teams around the U.S. were asked to complete a survey questionnaire and participate in an in-depth interview. Based on the findings, the discussion identifies key strategic considerations and needs of future research for LaLiga to better adjust its communication strategies …

A Preliminary Investigation Of A Brief, Virtual, Behavioral Parent Training Program On Parents’ Self-Efficacy And Young Children’S Behavior, Taylor Daniels

Masters Theses

A single-case, multiple-baseline research design was used to evaluate the effects of a two-session, virtual behavioral parent training program on parents’ self-efficacy and their children’s compliance and appropriate behavior. Participants included five parent-child dyads recruited from a grant-funded preschool program in Northern Illinois. When the parent training program was implemented, parent self-efficacy increased across four of the five parent participants (using daily behavior ratings). Effect size comparisons for self-efficacy reflected large effects for three parents. Further, child compliance increased across four of the five child participants and child appropriate behavior increased across three of the five child participants (using daily …

Representation Of South Asia In American Television, Zahin Zaima

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Social Anxiety, Worry, And Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Yu-Jin Eun

Masters Theses

Numerous cognitive aspects of social anxiety have been examined. For example, the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) has been incorporated into the cognitive-behavioral model of Social Anxiety (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997), and more recently the Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) has received great interest (c.f., Weeks et al., 2008). Other relevant cognitive aspects of social anxiety have received less attention. Of interest, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is highly related to worry but also to social anxiety (e.g., Boelen & Reijntjes, 2009; Dugas et al., 2001). However, no research, to our knowledge, has examined whether social anxiety or worry accounts for …

Examining The Relationship Between Social Anxiety, Fear Of Negative Evaluation, Fear Of Positive Evaluation And Minority Stress In Lgb Versus Heterosexual Adults, Anvita Kamath

Masters Theses

Psychological research within the LGBTQ+ community is a relatively recent phenomenon due to the stigma that has been historically placed on this population. Sexual minority populations experience a plethora of mental health problems ranging from mood disorders to personality disorders and have a greater risk of suicide as compared to their heterosexual counterparts (Gilman et al., 2001; Meyer, 2003; Steele et al., 2017). Specifically, significant differences in social anxiety levels have been found while comparing sexual minority individuals to heterosexual individuals, which may be associated with factors such as Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE), Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) and …

Excess Capacity In The Banking Sector And Its Effects On The Sub-Saharan Economy, Fu-Ad Wumpaeh Alhassan

Masters Theses

The banking sector plays a critical role in driving economic growth and financial stability in any region. However, the issue of excess capacity within this sector can have a profound effect on the overall health of the economy. This study investigates the excess capacity in the banking sector within the context of the Sub-Saharan region and explores its implications on the economic performance of countries within this area.

This research employed a mixed methods approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Firstly, a review of existing literature on excess capacity in the banking sector and its impact on economies …

Predictors Of Attitudes About Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Claire Sullivan

Masters Theses

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are far less likely to enroll in secondary education than neurotypical students and students with disabilities (White et al., 2016). There is little research on the factors contributing to the reluctance of young adults on the autism spectrum to seek higher education. This study aims to answer two research questions. The first research question aims to determine if there is a predominance of negative attitudes towards ASD amongst present undergraduate college students. The second research question explores whether this could be a determining factor in a college determination for students with ASD. This current …

Social Anxiety And Substance Use In College Students: Understanding The Potential Role Of Substance Use Expectancies And Fear Of Evaluation, Devangi Pant

Masters Theses

The relationship between social anxiety and substance use among college students has been researched extensively, but it is difficult to understand this relationship due to the uncertainty imposed by mixed findings. However, most studies have found a positive link between social anxiety and alcohol use, as mediated by positive alcohol use expectancies. This study reviewed the literature on social anxiety and alcohol use expectancies and proposed a model that evaluated the predictive ability of social anxiety and alcohol use expectancies on alcohol use. Results indicated that social anxiety does not predict alcohol use and only negative alcohol use expectancies were …

Personal Branding, Reality Television, And Social Media: How Former Big Brother Contestants Create, Maintain, And Alter Their Public Image, Justin L. Richards

Masters Theses

This study interrogated how these theories were potentially used, or aspects of the theories used to create, alter, or maintain, the contestant’s personal brands on two social media platforms. Informed by previous literature on personal branding and impression management, 1,021 pieces of social media communication were analyzed, 499 pieces of communication from Taylor Hale, and 522 pieces of communication from Paulie Calafiore. This study determined that there were up to five different patterns on the kind of content produced that still qualified under these theories for Taylor Hale, and up to four different patterns for Paulie Calafiore. Some patterns appeared …

Does Need For Social Support Moderate The Relationship Between Perceived Availability Of Social Support And Depression, Anxiety, And Stress?, Katherine E. Whisenhunt

Masters Theses

This study was designed to determine whether the need for social support moderates the relationship between social support (both perceived and enacted) and depression, anxiety, and stress. The study tested the role of Need for Support in the context of both buffering and direct effect models of the effect of social support on mental health and well-being. If perceived availability of social support (i.e., PASS) had a direct effect on well-being, then a simple moderation was predicted. If a buffering effect was present, then a moderated moderation was predicted. This study also predicted a positive relationship between need for social …

Hiv/Aids Policy In Nigeria And Ghana: How Socio-Cultural Norms Prejudice Sexual Minorities And Adolescents, Jibril Richter

Masters Theses

Policy researchers tend to focus on policy change and policy actors. Rarely is attention given to the influence of dominant socio-cultural values on domestic policies. This research aims to draw a connection between HIV policy discourse and strategies, and the mainstream beliefs and norms of the society where they are developed. The significance of the study is to highlight the challenge that these dominant values could pose to the development of comprehensive and effective policies. The research uses Critical Discourse Analysis to draw a linkage between HIV policies developed in Ghana and Nigeria. The study finds that while mainstream norms …

Zoom Fatigue And Virtual Interviewing: The Effects Of Interpersonal Distance, Lillian Rose Schell

Masters Theses

"This research examines breaches of interpersonal distance, one of the proposed causes of Zoom fatigue, within the context of a job interview. It is proposed that when an interviewer perceives a job applicant to be close to them, Zoom fatigue increases and ratings of the applicant decrease. Participants completed a Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue scale before and after watching an asynchronous video interview in which the size of the job applicant’s face varied between conditions. It was found that breaches of interpersonal distance did not influence self-reported Zoom fatigue. However, breaches of interpersonal distance did influence ratings of the job …

Hey Girl, Feel My Thesis. Know What It's Made Of? Research Material., Mya Lynn Pritts

Masters Theses

As Generation Z becomes the newest generation to enter adulthood, it is valuable to understand their thought processes and communication patterns. Individuals of Generation Z are known to be digital natives, as they were born into a world of technology with the internet at their fingertips. Understanding Generation Z's use of memes is an area where little research has been done so far. The purpose of this study was to determine how Generation Z interprets and communicates with memes on the internet and social media platforms. Unlike previous research, this study analyzed the participants' perceptions, which further contributes to an …

“Americanized” Worship In Brazilian Churches, Leon C. Neto

Masters Theses

Motivated by the marketability of high-profile artists and bands, Christian churches worldwide may see the inclusion of profit-driven worship songs as a recruiting tool for their communities. This process of globalization or "Americanization" around the world, propagated by mass media, is yet to be thoroughly investigated. This trend is likely decreasing the use of indigenous styles in Christian worship. The primary purpose of this current study is to produce scientific data suggesting that “Americanized” worship is a trend in Brazil and is affecting the production of indigenous worship repertoire. An online questionnaire was developed and applied to Brazilian worship leaders. …

Bibliotherapy In The Helping Professions: A Heuristic Model For Intervention Design, Natalie Marie Haney

Masters Theses

I propose a new approach to examining bibliotherapy’s usefulness in the community-based care of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), focused on producing a heuristic that benefits helping professionals who offer non-clinical and non-psychiatric services. Meant for writers designing bibliotherapy interventions in the helping professions, I conceptualize bibliotherapy in a model against the backdrop of community-based care’s history. A model has the potential to allow each writer to conduct situation-specific inquiry, invent bibliotherapy intervention designs suited to the unique needs of the profession’s help-seekers, and reflect on knowledge generated for intervention reiteration. Referring to Dewey, Rosenblatt and Barnlund to create …

Childhood Food Insecurity In Rural America: Raising Awareness And Inspiring Action Through Art And Design, Julie Hansen Olson

Masters Theses

Children go hungry in America every day, particularly in rural communities, where statistics show food insecurity to be as high as 17%. This means one in six children in rural communities lacks nutritionally adequate food or the ability to acquire it on a daily basis. In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, this appalling statistic is unacceptable. But how do we mitigate food insecurity for children and its resulting effects on a child’s physical, mental, and social development? This project proposes to educate, raise awareness, and inspire and/or enable action by all stakeholders to reduce food insecurity, specifically …

Suicide At The Intersection Of Race And Gender, Marina Geider

Masters Theses

Sociological studies have examined suicide rate differences between groups since the work of Durkheim in 1897, and current literature still draws on his classic theories and methods. Although research has begun identifying the social factors that affect the suicides of Black and White populations differentially, little progress has been made towards an understanding of Black female suicide. The present study takes an intersectional approach to Durkheim's social integration-regulation thesis to bridge this gap. Several negative binomial regression analyses were employed to model suicide counts for Black men, Black women, non-Hispanic White men, and non-Hispanic White women in the United States. …

Body Size Interactions With Pubic Symphysis Age-At-Death Estimation: A Critical Analysis Of Senescence Of The Pubic Symphysis Components, Elizabeth A. Ronald

Masters Theses

Biological anthropologists struggle with accuracy and precision during age-at-death estimation when attempting to correlate biological age with chronological age, especially in older adults. Research has shown that intrinsic and extrinsic factors can cause this discrepancy. Anthropologists have recently found that body size may affect age-at-death estimation, with larger individuals being more commonly overaged and smaller individuals being underaged (Merritt, 2019; Wescott and Drew, 2015). This study elaborates on previous work in three ways. First, by applying Hartnett’s (2010) pubic symphysis phase method as the age-at-death estimation method used, which has not been assessed for body size interactions and is likely …

A Study Comparing “Better Body Bags” Versus Standard White Body Bags To Estimate Relative Preservation Of Human Genomic And Morphological Information, Serena A. Thariath

Masters Theses

In disaster scenarios, identification of the dead usually is delayed until after help is given to the living. During delays in recovery and transport of deceased individuals, decomposition of soft tissues will occur at a fast rate if individuals are not refrigerated. The Better Body Bag, or BBB, was designed for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with features such as a vacuum seal, reflective coating, and absorbent pad to help delay the onset of decomposition that could render someone unidentifiable. In this study, the BBB was tested to determine if the individuals placed within a BBB yielded …

Instagram Ideals: College Women's Body Image And Social Comparison, Paige K. Hill

Masters Theses

The present study unveils several themes that detail female college students’ experience, usage, and social comparison trends on Instagram, with a particular emphasis on body image. Compared to a study conducted by Meta Inc., which found that social comparison disproportionately affected young females (Social Comparison Exploratory Research, 2020), this study highlights insights directly expressed by young females in college concerning their past and current experiences on the platform. With over 90% of women in colleges across the United States reporting body and image dissatisfaction (Pritchard & Cramblitt, 2014), this study aims to contribute to existing literature, showcasing whether female students …

Secular Change In Croatian Male Crania: 1812-1973, Ileana Ilas

Masters Theses

The study of secular change is the study of changes that have taken place in the human body during recent centuries. Although changes that affect populations are generally understood to occur over many centuries and millennia, anthropological studies have shown that population changes have occurred in the last two centuries, over a relatively small time period comprising a mere two hundred years. Biological anthropologists in particular are interested in how the human skeleton has changed in recent history, whether in the limbs, the torso, or the cranium. Changes have been observed in all areas of the skeleton, and these changes …

Psychological Flexibility, Music Performance Anxiety, And Perceived Performance Quality: A Correlational Study With University Music Students, Tracy Lianne Viator

Masters Theses

Despite the pervasiveness of music performance anxiety (MPA) among musicians, the scientific literature on effective psychological interventions is relatively limited. While some MPA researchers regard cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as the best suited psychotherapeutic option, others position acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as both a promising treatment for MPA and means of performance enhancement. A third-wave behavioral therapy, ACT stands apart from traditional CBT in that the treatment does not attempt to reduce symptoms, but rather aims to increase psychological flexibility: the ability to contact the present moment with full awareness and engage in values-congruent action, even if doing so elicits …

The Rhythm Of The Land: Women’S Use Of Plants During The Pigeon Phase Of Magic Waters (31jk291) In Cherokee, North Carolina, Kelly Dean Santana

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the paleoethnobotanical remains of the Pigeon phase village component of the Magic Waters site, 31JK291. The Pigeon phase represented the early Middle Woodland period in the western North Carolina region and spans from approximately 200 BC to AD 200, situated in between the earlier Swannanoa phase (1000 BC to 200 BC) and the later Connestee phase (AD 200 to AD 800; Ward and Davis 1999). The site of Magic Waters is located adjacent to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel in Cherokee, Jackson County, North Carolina, among the Blue Ridge ecoregion of the Appalachian Summit. The site …

Disclosure Of Sexual Trauma To Romantic Partners: Examining Ptsd Clusters, Partner Reactions, Perceived Partner Responsiveness, And Relationship Satisfaction, Lynsey Hinnenkamp

Masters Theses

The present study examined romantic relational outcomes among individuals who have experienced unwanted or forced sexual contact. Specifically, we explored the relationship between disclosure of sexual trauma to a romantic partner and relationship satisfaction among a sample (N = 214) of community participants, and examined whether PTSD clusters, partner reactions, and perceived partner responsiveness mediated that relationship. Individuals were recruited via announcements and flyers from community organizations and advertisements on social media. Participants completed a number of measures that assessed level of disclosure, PTSD symptoms, partner reactions to disclosure, perceived partner responsiveness, and relationship satisfaction in regards to the romantic …

New Models For Worship: Music Education Philosophy In The Multiculturally Fragmented Sanctuary, Sandra Diana Constanze Hendricks

Masters Theses

Worship seems to have been approached from theological and sociological perspectives but not through the lens of ideas and frameworks in music education philosophy. This study uses a survey of scholarly works to examine the influence these ideas and frameworks could have on the event of worship leading regarding changes to the agency of fragmented and multicultural worship identities. The study is based on a model of transformative historical research. It analyses ideas and frameworks of music education theory in the context of Christianity in the post-structuralist era. The results and interpretation confirmed that the application of tendential rhizomatic models …

Pay-To-Play: A Quantitative Analysis Of Opportunity, Achievement, And Parental Motivation In Youth Club Soccer, Alec Joseph Golini

Masters Theses

In the last twenty years, the youth sport experience in the United States has been shaped by a family’s ability to pay. Under the pay-to-play model in American youth sports, advancing to the highest levels of the game not only requires the standard expenditures, but significant investment which accounts for coaching, equipment, travel, training, and other resources. Previous research on the topic has analyzed the impact of income, educational attainment, and race and ethnicity on access to elite-level sports opportunities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the pay-to-play model and factors associated with athletic outcomes at three youth …

How The Power Of Film Inspires Christianity, Stephanie Mullins Sellers

Masters Theses

Ruthie’s Game is a screenplay designed to repeat supernatural episodic events, which, according to research, may act as foundations for faith systems because watching films is a prayerful act, and the more it is repeated the longer the brain stores the memory. The thesis explores how Christian messages are received through film with a brief on the science behind the brain’s activities and how it reflexes film’s episodic events for later use. Testimonies, interviews, and personal comments show an audience seeking secular films with intellectual storyline and with no preaching to the choir. Ruthie’s Game shares Christian messages in an …

The Concrete Ceiling Of Nonprofit Leadership, Leodis William Aaron Turner

Masters Theses

Abstract

This paper draws on a series of four in-depth interviews with African American executives who lead large non-profit organizations in West Michigan to argue that Black men and women in particular, and people of color more generally, experience a concrete ceiling to nonprofit leadership. The analysis is guided by a social innovation framework. In this case, that includes identifying the intervention needed (symptom to cause), designing methods (imagining solutions), developing solutions (prototyping), creating a plan to systemically innovate (recalibrating the nonprofit leadership pipeline for people of color and in particular, Black people), and scaling the plan (organizational growth and …

Defining Regenerative Business Through The Context Of Place: A Case Study West Michigan Businesses, Aislinn Teachout, Aislinn Teachout

Masters Theses

This study builds upon existing scholarly literature on regenerative design and regenerative sustainability by relating the framework to existing West Michigan businesses and their place-specific practices. Applying concepts from those more developed fields to business sustainability, this paper contributes to the still emerging field of regenerative business by proposing a comprehensive definition of regenerative business. The definition is then applied to three businesses in a case study format to highlight regenerative business practices. While none of the businesses highlighted claim to be regenerative, all have examples of practices that demonstrate regenerative action and enhance the West Michigan community.

By defining …

A Case Study Of Organizational Mobilization Best Practices For Natural Disasters, Jaclyn Ermoyan

Masters Theses

Researching mobilization best practices for natural disasters has concluded that volunteers respond best to having meaning behind the work that they do and when they are involved at all levels of the service they are doing. After interviewing a representative from the American Red Cross and a representative from Team Rubicon, it is clear that having a local focus leads to successful mobilization practices. Both organizations are able to move quickly and innovate because of their understanding that all disasters are different. The two organizations focus on training their volunteers and having various deployment requirements. According to this research, technology …