Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

People Without Voice: Perceptions Of Social Bias Against Muslims In The United States, Dhiren Patel

Masters Theses

This paper is an ethnographic investigation of Muslim American perceptions of social marginalization in the United States as a by-product of various governmental and media forces, with the Kalamazoo, MI community being the regional focus. The existence of the violence-crazed zealot Muslim stereotype has had social repercussions for Muslims living in America. The first part of this research looks at the development of Muslim stereotypes before 9/11. The second half of this paper discuses the results from interviews with local Muslims Americans who have given me their perspective on prejudice against Islam in the United States.

The oral accounts provided …

“See Your Healthcare Provider For A Prescription Today!” The Influence Of Direct-To-Consumer Drug Advertising On Nurse Practitioners And Their Patients, Kelly A. Getman-Dissette

Masters Theses

In 1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relaxed the guidelines regarding the advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers (i.e., direct-to-consumer advertising, DTCA). The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of DTCA on the relationships of healthcare providers with their patients. In order to accomplish this task, in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with ten nurse practitioners (NPs). The interviews sought out provider perceptions on four topics as they relate to DTCA: diagnosis and treatment decisions, prescribing practices, additional burden on the provider, and patient trust in the provider. The findings reveal that DTCA has had both …

Third Wave Feminist Identity, Sarah Brightman

Masters Theses

The research I am proposing is to gain a better understanding of current, individual feminist identity and the impact of that identity, more broadly, on current feminism. There is controversy in the current literature about the existence of a third wave of feminism and I believe this research will contribute to this discussion by exploring various individual experiences with feminism and how feminist identity fits into individuals lives. Gaining an understanding of young feminist identity and the individual meaning of feminism might help define the characteristics of this whole new generation of feminists in their own terms. Much progress and …

Deciphering Dearmond Mound (40re12): The Ceramic Analysis Of An East Tennessee Mississippian Center, Shannon Douglas Koerner

Masters Theses

The DeArmond mound (40RE12) was initially excavated by WPA investigator John Alden and crew between February 1940 and March 1941 before being inundated by the Watts Bar dam in January of 1942. The site included a pyramidal earthen mound with an adjacent village. The mound was excavated in stratigraphic levels, with cultural material separated by building stages.

The ceramic collection from this excavation is used in a study of Mississippian temporal and spatial variation within the eastern Tennessee Valley. The collection is comprised of 22,826 pottery sherds and an additional 22 partial, reconstructed, or whole vessels. Morphological and stylistic analyses …

The Impacts Of Deforestation On Drum Making In Ghana, West Africa, Erin Rae Eldridge

Masters Theses

For decades, musicians from all over the world have been studying the music and rhythms of West Africa. Although some literature exists on the construction of rhythmic instruments, very little research has examined the impacts of environmental change on instrument making processes. This thesis represents an ethnographic investigation of the impacts of deforestation on drum making in Ghana, West Africa.

Research on this topic was conducted during the summer of 2003 in the Volta, Eastern, and the Northern Regions of Ghana. The research methods included participant observation, formal and informal interviews, botanical methods for plant identification, and literature searches. Informed …

Adolescent Gender Attitudes: Between And Within Couples Effects, Joseph Warren Dickson

Masters Theses

This study examines gender attitudes in the context of romantic relationships, and explores the relationship between gender attitudes and individual and relational outcomes. Participants (208 couples) were recruited from a previous study of the dating behaviors of 2200 students who attended 17 East Tennessee High Schools (Harper, Welsh, Grello, & Dickson, under review). Multilevel modeling was utilized in order to maximize the reliability of our models as a technique specifically designed to address the non-independence of partner members’ data (Raudenbusch & Bryk, 2002). Our findings indicate an association between gender attitudes and communication, relationship satisfaction, and depressive symptoms in adolescent …

From An Issue-Based To A Globalized Frame For Addressing Women's Grievances: Possibilities For Social Change?, Kristen Lea Vanhooreweghe

Masters Theses

Women throughout the world disproportionately absorb the social and environmental costs of globalization. Globalization, therefore, works more often to inhibit, than to promote, women’s needs necessary for survival. Using a materialist feminist perspective, I examine the harmful effects of globalization on women’s production, reproduction, and engagement with the environment and offer a comprehensive frame for addressing women’s associated grievances. I then offer brief vignettes of two contemporary feminist organizations to evaluate the possibility of a cross-cultural and widespread movement of women for social change.

Online Newspapers: Why They Remain Online, Myra H. Ireland

Masters Theses

In order to understand what lies behind the phenomenon of online newspapers, this study takes a qualitative approach through interviews with online newspaper managers. In addition to attempting to determine if online newspapers had become profitable business ventures, this study explored the benefits, other than possible profit, that support the decision to keep the newspapers online and what online newspaper managers see as the next evolutionary steps of online newspapers.

Interviews with thirteen online newspaper managers were conducted by phone. The interview guide consisted of open-ended questions covering eight topic areas. Online managers, recruited from Editor and Publisher Year Books …

Physiological Response Associated With Select Rorschach Codes, Chad Ryan Sims

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of Rorschach codes that have been theoretically and empirically linked to the experience of affect in the Comprehensive System (Exner, 2003) through the use of skin conductance and heart rate data. Twenty-four university undergraduates (18 females and 6 males) were administered the Rorschach while physiological data were recorded in an adjacent room. It was anticipated that responses yielding particular codes (C, C’, m, T, V, Y, minus form quality, or cognitive special scores) would evidence higher levels of affective arousal as compared to …

Macroscopic Sedimentary Charcoal As A Proxy For Past Fire In Northwestern Costa Rica, Kyle James Schlachter

Masters Theses

Proxy records of fire history offer valuable information on the role fire plays in an ecosystem. Such information can be used to understand the inter-relationships among fire, humans, and the environment. In the past, the forests of Costa Rica were thought to have been spared from significant pre-Columbian forest disturbance; however, paleoecological studies have shown that this notion is false. While the long-term human influence is now recognized in Costa Rica, the nature and extent of human effects in different regions remain poorly documented. Knowledge of pre-Columbian land uses in Costa Rica increases our understanding of the possible impacts of …

The Collaborative Creation Of Alternate Realities And The Use Of Torture: An Analysis Of Abu Ghraib, Denise Margarett Knight

Masters Theses

The abuses at Abu Ghraib, an American-run prison in Iraq, raise the question, how does torture happen in a society whose members for the most part believe that doing harm to others is wrong? Ronald Crelinsten (2003) offers the explanation that people create an alternate reality in which torture is justified. Three types of people, perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, participate in the maintenance of this alternate reality. My study is an instantiation of Crelinsten's framework. It focuses on the perpetrators at Abu Ghraib. I propose that two types of perpetrators participated in the abuses: the soldiers and personnel in the …

Extending The Politeness Theory To Meditation Discourse: Does Facework Make A Difference?, Andrew Craig Tollison

Masters Theses

Previous research has failed to determine which mediator characteristics have the greatest affect on participant satisfaction during the mediation process. The four characteristics being analyzed in this study are politeness, facework, eye contact, and trust. The concept of politeness suggests that mediation participants have an interest in maintaining face (i.e. positive and negative) while in the mediation session. To avoid threatening the participants’ face, the mediator has five facework strategies to choose from. These facework strategies, when articulated by the mediator, have the potential to combat potential face-threatening acts which can occur during the mediation process. The use of eye …

Environmental History At Laguna Yaguarú, Bolivia: Evidence From Pollen, Stable Carbon Isotopes, And An Embedded Mineral Facies, Zachary Paul Taylor

Masters Theses

Lowland eastern Bolivia is an important area for paleoenvironmental research because of its location near the climatically controlled boundary between the Amazon basin rain forest and the seasonally dry savannas to the south. I present a multiple proxy study from Laguna Yaguarú (15˚36’S, 63˚13’W, 195 m) a large (250 ha) lake located in the forest-savanna ecotone. A 2.4 m long core recovered in May 2003 spans approximately in the last 5000 years. Chronological control is based on excess 210Pb sedimentation in the uppermost sediments and three AMS dates on plant macrofossils in deeper sediments. I undertook pollen and microscopic charcoal …

Comparison Of Body Composition Assessment Techniques In Older Adults, Rebekah Ann Wilson

Masters Theses

Body composition is an important measurement for health assessments in older adults. The purpose of this study was to evaluate percent body fat (%BF) estimations in older adults by the Tanita, a two-compartment model (Siri 2-C) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) compared to a three-compartment model (Lohman 3-C). Fifty-two females and fifty men between the ages of 54 and 75y volunteered for the study. The estimate of % BF from the Tanita was measured using the ‘adult’ mode. The Bod Pod was used to determine body density (D_b) for the 2-C and 3-C. DXA was used to …

Food Security In The 21St Century: Lessons From Cuban Agriculture For Materializing Realities, Evan L. Weissman

Masters Theses

Worldwide, hunger continues to pose great problems for humanity. Despite popular belief, hunger is a problem of inequality, not agricultural production. The fast-approaching global peak in oil production, the point at which half of all existing oil has been used, means that hunger, now a problem of inequality, will soon become a problem of production unless contemporary agricultural production is transformed. This project examines the promise of urban agriculture in providing food security following the collapse of petroagriculture.

The case of Cuba, albeit fostered by political economic conditions and not emerging geophysical limitations, provides a model of agricultural development for …

Patterns Of Traumatic Injury In Historic African And African American Populations, Christina Nicole Brooks

Masters Theses

For my master’s thesis project titled, “Patterns of Traumatic Injury in Historic African and African American Populations,” I examined trauma incidence in American slave and free populations. The objectives of this study were (1) to present frequency and distribution analysis of injuries in each sample, (2) to create cross tabulations to show similarities and differences in each site and compare these results to between, (3) interpret the frequency and distribution of injuries from a cultural aspect, to better understand the violence and physical demands endured by American slaves and freeborn African American. Most of the skeletal samples used in this …

Identifying Successful Competitive Intelligence Practices Used In Nonprofits: A Survey Of Competitive Intelligence Strategies Used By Professional Fundraisers To Enhance Fundraising Success, Heidi H. Gillis

Masters Theses

Competitive intelligence is a popular technique used to gain a competitive advantage in for-profit businesses. This research examines the use of competitive intelligence in nonprofits, particularly how competitive intelligence is used or can be used to enhance fundraising success. A web based survey polled members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals on their uses of specific competitive intelligence strategies, particularly environmental scanning, use of focus groups and database research. It was found that non-profits are using some competitive intelligence methods, but find a lack of time, lack of funds, and lack of staff are prohibiting factors in implementing a full-scale …

Predictors Of Children’S Understandings Of Death: Age, Cognitive Ability, Death Experience, And Maternal Competence., Sally Beville Hunter

Masters Theses

Several factors have been documented as major factors affecting children’s formation of a mature death concept. Among these factors are the child’s age, cognitive ability, and exposure to death in his or her environment. The effects of parent communication patterns on children’s understanding of death have been understudied. This has left a gap in our knowledge of parents’ influence on their children’s conception of death.

In addition to the investigation of individual child factors, the present study investigated the relationship between mothers’ styles of communication about death and their children’s understandings of the subconcepts of death (i.e., inevitability, universality, finality, …

Dna Degradation And Postmortem Interval: Preliminary Observations And Methods, Rebecca Roberts Anderson

Masters Theses

As deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) research advances, anthropologists are finding more ways to use this technology to their advantage. Establishing postmortem interval (PMI) is a primary goal of forensic anthropology. It is known that DNA degrades, or breaks down, after an organism dies. Although several researchers have studied DNA degradation, few have focused on DNA’s rate of decay in relation to time. In this project, degradation was examined in blood using both a controlled atmosphere and exposure to environmental and substrate effects.
This study was intended to gather information on PMI, using DNA degradation as a measure of time. Based on …

Introduction The Importance Of Mentee-Mentor Relationships: A Qualitative Study That Examines Students Of Color In Academic Settings, Candace Dixon

Masters Theses

Given the importance of mentoring, this study will explore mentor relationships in academic settings (Waldeck, Orrego, Plax, & Kearney, 1997). Participants were both undergraduate and graduate students with and without mentors. The goal of this thesis study was to understand whether students of color with formal mentors become more successful than similar students who do not have mentor relationships. This research also explored how students who lack formal mentors get important information. In addition, this study explored many differences between men and women of color who seek or utilize mentoring relationships. Mentor and mentee characteristics, students of color in formal …

Online Contingency Management Of Writing Productivity, Matthew L. Porritt

Masters Theses

Ten participants from an online community participated in an online writing productivity management program. Social reinforcement and conditioned reinforcers were delivered by the researcher contingent upon meeting self-set writing goals on a weekly basis. Graphic feedback was delivered to participants through a web page, and social reinforcers through email contact. Writing goals increased throughout the program. In all cases, the program increased writing productivity across phases of treatment or goal increases. Results are discussed in terms of rule-governed behavior and the effects of short term goals in context of long term goals.

Successful Superfund Site Restoration: A Case Study Of Independence Grove Forest Preserve, Linnea E. Hruska

Masters Theses

The United States Superfund program has been quite controversial since it was established under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980. Several people feel that the enormous amounts of time and money invested in the Superfund program are not worthwhile because so many sites remain far from being cleaned up. Nevertheless, some successful site restorations have been achieved under this program. The Petersen Sand & Gravel site is one of these success stories. This thesis examines why the Petersen Sand & Gravel site was able to experience such success under the Superfund program by taking history, economics, …

Not Knowing What You're Missing: Autoethnographical Explorations And Reflections Of The Potential Effects Of Fatherlessness, Melodi A. Everett

Masters Theses

This study explored the potential effects of fatherlessness through the book, Whatever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl, by Jonetta Rose Barras (2000). While examining the text, the author used an autoethnographical method to reflect on her own experiences in relation to the text. This autoethnography examined the potential effects of fatherlessness on women to help understand why they communicate and interact interpersonally in specific ways that may help or hinder them in their adult romantic relationships. Through dialectical theory, specific dialectical tensions were identified to be experienced in father-daughter as well as adult romantic relationships. The tensions that were …

The Portrayal Of African American Women In Hip-Hop Videos, Ladel Lewis

Masters Theses

This study analyzed 52 of the most popular hip-hop videos aired on Black Entertainment Television in the summer of 2004. Using a qualitative content analysis instrument used in a previous study, three prominent characteristics in these videos were identified: (1) the level of sexism, (2) the presence of intimate touch and/or the presence of alluring attire. From those characteristics, it was discerned that there were more videos that possessed high levels of sexism than those that had very little or non . It was also found that the majority of the videos depicted women wearing alluring attire and having intimate …

Applications Of Integrated Data Viewer – Idv In An Introductory Meteorology Class For Non-Science Majors, Ricardo C. Nogueria

Masters Theses

Computer products developed to visualize and integrate meteorological products with real-time data can create a virtual reality of the atmosphere. These advanced technologies help educators to improve teaching techniques in the classroom for science and non-science majors and increase the students' interest in learning as well. One of these products, the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), was recently developed by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) project, Unidata, to visualize and integrate geoscience data. This study compares students' performance in the laboratory sessions using IDV-based and MANUAL-based exercises. Comparison of lab scores with exam scores of questions on the same topic …

Bone Density Testing As An Early Detection Devise For Anorexia Nervosa And Osteoporosis In Pre-Adolescent And Adolescent Girls, Kelle L. Brooks

Masters Theses

Osteoporosis has become one of the leading health problems for postmenopausal women in the United States, however, it has been shown that preadolescent and adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa are at an unusually high risk for early on-set osteoporosis and bone fractures.

Bone density testing has already proving itself as an accurate form of detection in post-menopausal women and the elderly and is widely used at medical institutions, clinics, and pharmacies throughout the United States as an inexpensive, non-invasive, and accurate technique for detecting low bone mass.

This research aims to examine anorexia nervosa and its long-term effects on the …

A New Early Eocene Mammalian Fauna From The Great Divide Basin, Southwestern Wyoming: Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleoclimatology, And Biostratigraphy, Edward M. Johnson

Masters Theses

A new early Eocene mammalian fauna from a series of localities in the Great Divide Basin of southwestern Wyoming is described in this Masters Thesis. Seven localities in the vicinity of Tipton Buttes have yielded 1627 fossil specimens that have been identified, catalogued, and analyzed. The goal of this thesis is to develop a biostratigraphic framework for dating this fossil assemblage based on comparisons with well-dated assemblages from other localities in the American West. Field crews from Western Michigan University have collected fossil vertebrates from Tipton Buttes during most summer field seasons between 1995 and 2003. The analyses indicate that …

Perception And Prevalence Of The Hostile Environment In Athletic Training, Leah S. Gagnon

Masters Theses

The profession of athletic training has continued to emerge as a profession for both men and women over the last 50 years. The nature of the profession and the environment in which it exists may lead to sexual harassment by coaches, athletes/clients, administration, or other certified athletic trainers (ATC's). The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of sexual harassment, the prevalence of sexual harassment, and mechanisms in place to prevent sexual harassment in three professional environments of athletic training: college/university, high school, and sports medicine clinic.

The Modified VELMAC Sexual Harassment Questionnaire was distributed via email to …

Patterns Of Cortical Growth As Indicators Of Population Health: An Exploratory Analysis Of Subadult Remains From The Tell Abraq Site, Uae, Jessica L. Rhodes

Masters Theses

The analysis of children in archaeological contexts is a relatively new field of study that emerged largely as a result of feminist and gender studies in the social sciences. Thus, methodologies that are typically employed in bioarchaeological analyses of children have yet to be refined and standardized. The commingling of subadult remains in archaeological contexts further confounds this issue by eliminating the ability of the researcher to establish reasonable age-at-death distributions.

This study seeks to explore the utility of analyzing patterns of cortical growth-for-diaphyseal length in commingled subadult remains. Specifically, commingled subadult remains excavated from the Tell Abraq site (UAE, …

Empathy And The Mssw Curriculum: Are Students’ Levels Of Empathy Influenced By The Curriculum?, Melissa Rene Routh

Masters Theses

Empathy has been recognized as an important element in the helping profession, specifically within the field of social work. It has been acknowledged as an important component for promoting, restoring, maintaining, and enhancing clients’ well-being. Evaluation of empathy research has demonstrated contradictory conclusions about the impact of graduate education on students’ levels of empathy. While the social work curriculum assumes reciprocal empathic communication is an attained skill developed throughout the MSSW curriculum, little research has been conducted on the extent of empathic communication obtained through the social work curriculum. This study assessed the impact of graduate social work education on …