Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining Individual Document Evaluation: An Eye-Tracking Analysis, Sukwon Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on relevance judgment while searching for information on the web has been investigated in various contexts by scholars. This dissertation examines the behavior of users seeking health-related information online, specifically how those users operationalize both list and document evaluation. It focuses especially on document evaluation because it reflects the symbiotic relationship between the computer and the human. One of the broader aims of this study is to understand how users’ relevance judgments change during individual document evaluation. It examines whether there are any associations between eye-tracking variables and the perceived importance of each document. The perceived importance of …

Essays On Financial Inclusion Of Individuals And Small Firms, Andreea Vasi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the financial inclusion of individuals and small firms. Chapter 1 examines the impact of financial openness, which measures a country’s level of capital account openness, on its degree of financial inclusion, which refers to the accessibility and utilization of financial services, particularly among individuals from low-income, marginalized, and disadvantaged communities. Using country and time fixed effects regression estimation in a panel data set of up to 102 countries for the largest sample from 2004 to 2017, I find that a higher degree of de facto capital account openness, measured by the Lane and …

Culturally-Specific Risk And Resilience Factors That Moderate The Relationship Between Reproductive Coercion And Adverse Health Outcomes Among Latinx Individuals, Emily Munoz

Theses and Dissertations

Reproductive coercion (e.g., one partner controlling the reproductive decision making of the other) is a serious public health problem that is associated with a number of adverse health outcomes. Reproductive coercion has been shown to disproportionately affect Latinx people who can become pregnant; however, little is known about the cultural factors, such as familism, ethnic identity pride, social support, and acculturative stress, that may mitigate or exacerbate the risk of experiencing adverse health outcomes associated with reproductive coercion. Thus, using a non-clinical sample (N=160) of Latinx-identifying adults, the current cross-sectional study examined (1) the associations between reproductive coercion and adverse …

Description And Critical Evaluation Of Models Of Psychology Practice In The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Kathryn A. Balistreri

Theses and Dissertations

During and after hospitalization in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), a significant proportion of patients and their family members experience clinical levels of distress (i.e., traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression). Pediatric psychologists are well-suited to support families during hospitalization and are increasingly present in PICUs. Models of psychology practice have been explored in other pediatric settings, but a comprehensive assessment of models of psychology practice in the PICU has not been conducted. The present study aimed to evaluate current models of psychology practice in PICUs and explore psychologists’ perceptions of the ideal model of care for PICU families. Fourteen …

Urban Rail-Trails As Spaces Of Distributive, Procedural, And Recognitional (In)Justice, Katherine Kocisky

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation research draws attention to urban rail-trail projects as issues of social (in)justice. Like urban greenspace, rail-trails are not an unproblematic environmental good. Large, high-profile urban rail-trails like New York City’s High Line, Chicago’s 606 Bloomingdale Trail and Atlanta’s Beltline have all received criticism for accelerating gentrification in surrounding communities, most often displacing historically excluded communities adjacent to the trail. Less research has explored relationships between urban rail-trail development and cultural displacement. This research aims to fill that gap by understanding how contemporary urban rail-trail projects are incorporating equity into their planning processes and whether urban rail-trails can be …

Improved Flood Risk Communication Using National Flood Hazard Layer And Community Resilience Estimates Data In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Christopher Jerald Archuleta

Theses and Dissertations

Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are primarily used for determining flood insurance rates and if flood insurance is required under the National Flood Insurance Program. FIRMs have several sources of bias and inaccuracy, limiting their capacity to communicate flood risk. This study investigated how FIRMs, which are created with National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data, can be visualized with Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) data from the U.S. Census Bureau to better communicate about flood risk than with NFHL data alone. To conduct this study, one set of flood risk maps showing only NFHL data and another set showing both NFHL …

An Extended Replication Theory Approach To Taiwan Mandarin Syntax, Lauren Elizabeth Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Previous accounts of Taiwan Mandarin syntax have generally taken a sociolinguistic approach, ascribing the presence of non-Mandarin-like features and patterns to interference from Taiwanese Southern Min or other southern varieties of Chinese. However, this approach has two major flaws. Firstly, it fails to explain the existence of patterns in Taiwan Mandarin that are unique to that dialect and the absence in Taiwan Mandarin of patterns that exist in both Standard Mandarin and Taiwanese Southern Min. Secondly, the focus on presence-absence as a binary has obscured important information about the frequency and distribution of various grammatical constructions. In order to address …

Associations Between Coping Style And Perceptions Of Web-Delivered Physical Activity Messages Among Women In Midlife With Cardiovascular Health Risks, Kristen Pasko

Theses and Dissertations

Midlife women are at unique risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and benefit from increasing physical activity (PA). Many PA interventions involve social support, though fail to address related processes such as social comparison. Desire for specific types of social support and comparison may represent emotion-focused versus problem-solving coping, though little is known about women’s preferences for/responses to these coping opportunities. The present study examined women’s selections of PA content in a digital environment. Over 7 days, women in midlife ≥1 CVD risk factor (N = 60, MAge = 50.70, SD = 5.89) wore a PA monitor and visited a proprietary …

Facets Of Neuroticism As Predictors Of Heart Rate Variability And Psychological Distress, Mikel Cressman

Theses and Dissertations

Heart rate variability (HRV) and personality are related to both physical and mental health outcomes. Previous research has found a relationship between neuroticism and distress while the findings on the relationship between neuroticism and HRV are mixed. Studying the facets of neuroticism may provide a more nuanced view of the effects of personality on HRV and distress. Previous research has suggested that the vulnerability facet of neuroticism appears to be uniquely related to the cardiovascular response to stress. This study's first hypothesis is that individuals with higher scores on the vulnerability facet will have lower heart rate variability. The second …

Investigating The Role Of Betrayal Blindness Between High Betrayal Trauma And Dating Violence Among Young Mothers Maltreated As Children, Lauren Catherine Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Young mothers experience greater rates of dating violence (DV) victimization and perpetration compared to their non-parenting, female peers as well as older mothers (Joly & Connolly, 2016). Child maltreatment is a salient predictor of DV victimization and perpetration (Li et al., 2019; Murphy et al., 2020). According to Betrayal Trauma Theory (BTT), child maltreatment perpetrated by a close loved one, such as a parent or primary caregiver, is defined as a high betrayal trauma (Freyd, 1996). Young mothers who experienced a high betrayal trauma may endorse betrayal blindness as a way to cope with abuse from their caregiver (Freyd & …

Experiences Of Ambivalent Sexism And Applicant Behaviors: The Interplay Of Affective Reactions, Lauren Marie Soda

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on ambivalent sexism, which can have detrimental effects for organizations, consisting of two factors: benevolent and hostile sexism. Benevolent sexism is the subtler of the two, oftentimes creating a sense of inferiority and increased anxiety for those experiencing it. Hostile sexism, on the other hand, is often more overt and instills a sense of anger from the target. There appears to be little research looking at experiences of ambivalent sexism in work settings and the affective reactions to those events (i.e., anger and anxiety). I believed that when people experience hostile sexism will feel angry and associate …

The Influence Of Unhelpful Supervisor Support On Employee Burnout Across Cultures, Charles Blomstrom-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Organizations continue to become increasingly interconnected globally, yet often fail to consider the cultural context of policies. Such failures to account for cultural differences may add to workplace stressors for employees, leading to an increased risk of burnout. Supervisors may attempt to buffer against burnout by providing social support to their employees. However, if the support given by supervisors is considered by the recipient to be unhelpful, these buffering effects may be reversed. Examining samples from the United States and Japan, this study hypothesized that unhelpful supervisor support and burnout would relate significantly to one another, and that culturally based …

Temporal Dynamics Of Shared Leadership Emergence: An Adaptive Leadership Perspective, Erica Medrano

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have identified shared leadership as a valuable team phenomenon due to its link to increased team performance and suitability for the increasingly interdependent and complex work context. Yet, little effort has been invested into discovering how the process unfolds over time. Thus, the proposed study aims to clarify the temporal process of shared leadership by a) confirming that leadership decentralization precedes leadership density, b) identifying the conditions which promote the development of shared leadership, and c) exploring the conditions under which leadership decentralization leads to leadership density. Specifically, I utilize data from an online survey and a 3-hour ecologically …

Reality In Motion: An Audio Documentary Exploring The Fluid Essence Of Life, Alessandro Bonaiuto

Theses and Dissertations

Reality in Motion is a science communication project that aims to create an audio documentary based around the theme of movement in various aspects of life, both human and non. The project is a 30-minute podcast that explores the topic of life and movement through the lens of smaller stories. Guided by a main narrator, with the intervention of experts, Reality in Motion seeks to provoke thought and inspire curiosity about the intricate dynamics that shape our world.

A Strategic Communication Plan For The Clemente Center At Florida Tech, Cristiano Bozzolan

Theses and Dissertations

This design project develops a strategic communication plan for the Clemente Center at the Florida Institute of Technology, aimed at enhancing campus engagement. The methodology includes interviews, focus groups, a SWOT analysis, and secondary data analysis, providing insights into the communication dynamics at the center.

Key findings reveal a reliance on outdated communication methods and insufficient use of digital platforms. The proposed communication plan introduces optimized digital signage, targeted email campaigns, community engagement initiatives, and enhanced staff training. These strategies are designed to be cost-effective and actionable, addressing the center's current limitations and leveraging opportunities for improved community interaction.

This …

Students Speak: A Qualitative Examination Of The Intersection Of Identity And Sexual Violence In A University Setting, Danika M. Charles

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence remains a public health concern in the United States. Much of the research has focused on gender-binary individuals, despite the heightened vulnerability of Black, transgender, and nonbinary (BTN) individuals due to societal stigma and discrimination. Campus climate surveys have been recommended by the Obama Administration to address sexual violence, though they often underrepresent BTN students, failing to capture their unique experiences. This study aims to bridge this gap by focusing on the intersection of gender and racial identities, using an intersectional stigma framework to explore the prevalence and impact of sexual violence on BTN students and advocate for …

Cultural Tightness-Looseness And Optimal Distinctiveness: Examining The Influence Of Culture On The Need To Belong And The Need To Be Different, Hairong Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of cultural tightness-looseness on optimal distinctiveness motives and group identification, examining the moderating roles of self-construal, global orientation, and tightness/looseness match. Participants (N=465) from the United States and China were randomly assigned to tight or loose conditions and numerically majority or minority group conditions. Experimental manipulation of tightness-looseness did not significantly affect optimal distinctiveness needs. Cultural match, operationalized as alignment of tightness/looseness between participants' own culture and experimental condition, significantly moderated the relationship between culture conditions and need to belong. Individuals with high cultural match showed higher need to belong in tight conditions, while those …

The Hidden Forms Of Violence In The Lives Of Professional Women In Tagamoa, New Cairo, Nouran Elhariry

Theses and Dissertations

The desire to craft new lifestyles is the main drive for the relocation to New Cairo among Egypt’s upper middle classes. This research is focusing on the upper middle class--people who still rely on their incomes from working to maintain their status—as opposed to the elite upper class, who rely on incomes from property, investments, inheritance, and other forms of intergenerational wealth. These communities were enmeshed in high degrees of domestic violence. The power-relations reconfigured in the domestic sphere, with increasing numbers of upper middle class women embarking on professional careers while navigating households and family relations, have opened the …

Regional Variations In Nabataean Jewelry, Emily Marie Yankura

Theses and Dissertations

The use of jewelry is just one of many avenues for individual self-expression, but even in the most individualistic society it is also a reflection of certain cultural norms, values, and expectations. This thesis is an analysis of Nabataean jewelry in burial contexts from the three main regions of the ancient kingdom - Medina Selah, the Negev, and Petra – with the aim of reaching a better understanding of Nabataean culture through their jewelry. The types of jewelry, materials used in their construction, and many other variables are compared and reveal unique regional variations within an overall Hellenistic style.

Spatial Patterns In Anthropomorphic Fremont Rock Imagery Of Central Utah, Alyssa Pitts Merrill

Theses and Dissertations

Rock imagery from the late Fremont period (1000-1300 AD) has captivated the interest of both professional and avocational researchers for the past century. In this thesis, I apply a highly systematized method of cataloguing and analysis to 482 anthropomorphs from Clear Creek Canyon (CCC) and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM). The primary theoretical assumption in this thesis is that the shapes used in anthropomorphic imagery convey ideas about how the Fremont saw people. I therefore recorded the head and body morphology and presence of arms, legs, and genitalia of each anthropomorph. By observing the data spatially, I discovered both …

A Grounded Theory Analysis Of Honesty And Deception In Intimate Relationships, Lyndsey Kunzler Gerring

Theses and Dissertations

Although honesty is valued in intimate relationships, there has not been significant research on the range and different types of honesty and deception and their impacts on couples. The purpose of this study was to explore and define the role honesty plays in intimate relationships by examining the spectrum of honest and deceptive behaviors as described by participants. The study utilized qualitative methods to examine how romantic partners describe various types of honesty and deception in their relationships and the influence these have. The data was taken from part of a larger project on healthy and unhealthy relationships where semi-structured …

A Story Of State Transformation In The Global South: Limited Statehood And Governance In Post-Syria Lebanon, Jodor Jalit

Theses and Dissertations

This research thesis analyzes security governance in areas of limited statehood in the context of state transformation. Specifically, it examines the impact of the 2005 Syrian military withdrawal on the Lebanese state in the realm of security. Briefly, the thesis unveils the coexistence of state and non-state groups and the engagement of non-state actors in state-like practices. That is, it assesses the impact of the 2005 Syrian military withdrawal on the Lebanese state to reveal the relationship its new configuration, relationship with non-state actors, and emerging governance practices. In that sense, this thesis pretends to contribute to the larger body …

Same Story, Different Narratives: The Influence Of Refugee Concerned Organizations On Egyptian Media, Shaimaa Gheith

Theses and Dissertations

It has been documented in the literature that media usually portrays refugees negatively, which affects how the public reacts to them. Consequently, organizations catering to refugees, referred to in this thesis as Refugee Concerned Organizations (RCOs), try to influence the media aiming to influence the public. So, they produce prepacked information and employ different communication tools. Using the agenda building theory, this research investigated the influence of communication tools used by RCOs on Egyptian media focusing on Facebook and news websites. Qualitative content analysis was conducted for 615 Facebook posts and 111 News reports and supplemented by semi-structured interviews with …

Peace-Building And Stability After Civil Wars: The Cases Of Angola And The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Ali Elsharkawy

Theses and Dissertations

Why do some rebel groups successfully establish stable and sustainable states after civil wars, while others fail? Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are two African countries that experienced long and bloody civil wars. Despite the commonalities, the two cases strongly diverged in the political outcomes after civil war. Angola successfully made the transition to stability and prosperity, while the DRC slipped back into violence. This thesis compares and contrasts between the two peace- building processes in both countries. The results illustrate that two main variables made the difference between the two cases, the geography of the capital …

Private Sector’S Perceptions And Adoption Of The E-Invoicing System In Egypt, Riham Mohamed Soliman

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the private sector’s perceptions and adoption of the mandated e-invoicing system, a key component of Egypt’s digital tax system. Twenty-three qualitative semi-structured interviews with the private sector to answer the research question: How does the private sector perceive the mandatory e-invoicing system adopted by the Egyptian government? Furthermore, the study explored the perceived impact of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT)’s four aspects on the private sector’s perceptions and adoption of the system, including performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The study’s findings show that all respondents confirmed the four …

The Effect Of Fiscal And Monetary Policy On Public Debt In Egypt, Malak Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis aims to examine the effect of monetary policies and fiscal policies on public debt in Egypt during the period from 2006 until 2021. Egypt is witnessing aggravated levels of debt, with limited fiscal and monetary space. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to analyze the effect of discount rates, inflation rates, subsidies, taxes and economic growth on debt-to-GDP in Egypt using a VAR model with an extended test of Impulse Response Function. The results suggest that a positive shock in government expenditures initially decreases public debt but leads to a fluctuating increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio in …

The Psychological Significance Of Cultural And Religious Values Among The Arab Population, Michel Sherif Mikhail

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Values, which are the guiding principles and beliefs of our lives, have an influence over one’s psychological health. This study aims to investigate how Schwartz’s four higher-order values (conservation, openness to change, self-transcendence, and self-enhancement) and religious values influence psychological health among the Arab population. Methods: A total of 1,023 respondent from nine Arab countries aged 18 to 71 filled an online survey with measures of the following constructs: Schwartz’s four higher-order values (Portrait Value Questionnaire-21), religious values (Sahin’s Index of Islamic Moral Values), and general psychological health (General Health Questionnaire-28). Results: Two models of multiple regression were …

How Do They See Us?: Unhcr's Representations Of Syrian Refugees In “Every Second Counts” Campaign, Marah Khalid

Theses and Dissertations

Representation is not just an opinion; it is the recreation of realities, facts, and stories that encourage receivers, who are readers and viewers, to build perceptions of a certain topic, objects, events, and human beings. Studying the representation of refugees in the media, UN agencies, and International organizations' press releases, videos, and images has been the main focus for many scholars for decades. However, little is known about refugees' perspectives on visuals produced by UN agencies. This research tries to add to the few studies concerning the captured human object, refugees, perspective using Hall’s encoding/decoding model (Hall, 1997) to analyze …

Dreams Of An Elsewhere Or Aspiring To Stay? Navigating Anxious Youthhood And Migration In Morocco, Chaimaa Radouani

Theses and Dissertations

Migration in Morocco has long been a topic of scholarly and public debate, with a particular emphasis on low-skilled labor migration. Nonetheless, there is still a significant need to figure out the aspirations of educated, skilled youth regarding their desire to move or stay in the country. This thesis investigates the aspirations of educated youth in Casablanca, Morocco, and how they are influenced by the changing dynamics of contemporary Morocco. It addresses youth aspirations and migration by examining the elements affecting their decisions within the context of the country’s current economic, social, and political contexts. The primary focus of this …

Policy Frameworks And Citizens’ Use Of Fintech Solutions: The Pros And Cons In Egypt, Salma Al-Mohamady

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the significant influence of financial technology (FinTech) on the banking industry, consumer finance, and economic growth. It specifically concentrates on the swiftly changing FinTech environment in Egypt. The study investigates the impact of incorporating advanced technologies on worldwide financial practices, which has significantly transformed traditional banking models and facilitated the emergence of inventive financial services. The transition is clearly apparent in Egypt, where the expansion of FinTech has been driven by advances in regulations, adaptation to technology, and a population that is becoming more comfortable with digital solutions.

Using a combination of quantitative …