Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Which Is The Fairest One Of All? A Positive Analysis Of Justice Theories, James Konow

Economics Faculty Works

This paper evaluates numerous positive and normative theories of justice in positive terms, i.e., in terms of how accurately they describe the impartial fairness preferences of real people. In addition, the paper proposes and defends an integrated justice theory based on preferences over four distinct and sometimes conflicting forces. These forces frame the analysis of the individual theories and inspire four corresponding theoretical classes: equality and need, utilitarianism and welfare economics, equity and desert, and context. This synthesis enables one to treat justice rigorously and to reconcile results that often appear contradictory or at odds with alternative theories.

Autoethnographic Verse: Nickys Boy: A Life In Two Worlds, Ronald J. Ricci

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnographic verse is about my childhood experience of two distinct and ethnically representative family cultures. Poetry and qualitative research share in their goals of providing meaning, density, aestheticism, and reflexivity They are also evocative I selected verse as a means to express my experience, and to invite the readers reflections on this experience for themselves and others.

Volume 23, Number 4, December 2003 Olac Newsletter, Jain Fletcher, Barbara Vaughan, Vicki Toy-Smith, Nancy B. Olson

OLAC Newsletters

Digitized December 2003 issue of the OLAC Newsletter.

Convergent Validity Of Conjoint Values For Farmland Conservation Easement Programs, Semra Ozdemir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conversion of farmland has recently become an important policy issue in the US. Between 1982 and 1997, over seven million acres of prime farmland was converted to developed land in the US, which is a 3% decrease in total farmland. This is also the case in Maine, where forty thousand acres of prime farmland has been converted to non-farm uses over the same time period. This constitutes about an 8% decrease in total farmland, where farmland is only 6% of the total land in Maine. A decrease in the amount of farmland, along with the increased public support for farmland …

A Phonological Grammar Of Northern Pame, Scott Charles Berthiaume

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations

This dissertation describes the phonology and morphology of Northern Pame, an Otomanguean language of Central Mexico. Furthermore, it explains the grammatical relationship of these domains from an Optimality Theoretic perspective. In terms of description, Northern Pame has a complex phonological inventory of 40 consonants, which distinguish among glottalized, aspirated, voiceless and voiced segments, as well as 6 vowels, which contrast for nasalization. In addition, a claim is made for two Northern Pame tones, in contrast to earlier suggestions of a three-tone system (Avelino 1997). Regarding Otomanguean laryngeally complex vowels (Silverman 1997b, Herrera 2000), this research provides phonological, as well as …

Evicting A Neighbor: Health, Power And Discourse In Vieques, Puerto Rico, Nelson Class-Meléndez

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the two years that followed the death of a civilian, David Sanes on April 1999, when a Marine Corps F-18 pilot accidentally dropped two 500- pound bombs on an observation post on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Following the death of Sanes and for the first time in contemporary history, all competing political parties, the Viequenses, and religious leaders apparently reached an initial consensus that resulted in a series of efforts to evict the Navy from Vieques.

Importantly, this coalition adopted an environmental discourse that is essentially anti-Navy. This thesis draws upon this anti-Navy discourse to …

Analysis Of Beef Producers’ Risk Management Perceptions And Desire For Further Risk Management Education, David C. Hall, Thomas O. Knight, Keith H. Coble, Alan E. Baquet, George F. Patrick

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Beef cattle producers were surveyed in Texas and Nebraska to investigate perceptions of sources of risk, the effectiveness of risk management strategies, and interest in further risk management education, particularly production risk, using probit analysis. Important decision variables identified are age, prior use of risk management tools, previous attendances of risk management education, and risk aversion. Severe drought and cattle price variability are identified as primary risk factors with potential to affect farm income. Extremely cold weather and disease are of less importance. Understocking pasture and storing hay are perceived most effective as risk management options.

The Impact Of Devolution On Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study Of Faith-Based Child Care, Javier Stanziola, Tania Schmitz

The Qualitative Report

Although the foundations of President Bush’s faith-based initiative could be traced back at least to Colonial times, the re-packaging of this idea has raised concerns about the role of the federal government in the affairs of faith based organizations, the professionalization of social services, rent seeking, and the crowding out of private funding. This paper aims to examine the local implications of decentralizing the provision of social services in Lee County, Florida. More specifically, we will identify how devolution has affected the organizational effectiveness of faith-based organizations in the day care sector. For this paper, organizational effectiveness was defined in …

Ut Arlington Library Notes, V.9, No.2, Fall 2003, University Of Texas At Arlington Library

UT Arlington Library Notes

Former publication of the UT Library intended to foster community support and appreciation for Library Programs and services and to spotlight grants and contributions. It was published during the 1990s and 2000s.

Prevalence Of Eating Disorder Symptoms In Women Living In Residence Halls And Off Campus, Carolyn Powell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Eating disorders should be a growing a concern in today's society. This study was designed to examine the occurrence of eating disorders in women living in residence halls compared to women living off-campus. The participants for this study were 200 women (105 on campus and 95 off campus) attending Western Kentucky University. Age of the participants ranged from 18 to 47 years, with a mean of 21.1 years (SD=3.70). The instrument used to determine eating disorder symptoms was the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (EDDS; Stice, Rizvi, & Telch, 2000). The EDDS is a selfreport scale consisting of 22 items in …

Further Investigation Of The Factor Structure Of The Five Factor Model Of Personality: A Search For Moderator Variables, Kelly Sheehan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Although somewhat controversial, the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality has remained prominent in normal personality research. Previous studies involving the FFM of personality have failed to examine individual differences that could moderate the number of factors in the FFM. This study investigated two such individual difference variables: need for cognition and working memory. Instruments measuring the FFM, need for cognition and working memory were administered to a sample of undergraduate students. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated the hypothesized model fit equally well across high and low scoring subgroups of both need for cognition and working memory.

Criminality Groups And Substance Abuse, Dana Brown

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This descriptive study was designed to determine whether substance abusers could be differentially characterized by past involvement in crimes and, further, whether there is a relationship between the type of substance abused and the degree of violence of the crimes committed. By comparing the socio-demographic characteristics, substance-use, and strain-inducing events reported by 598 residential and outpatient treatment seekers in the Kentucky Treatment Outcome and Performance Pilot Studies Enhancement Project, this study provides further understanding of the crime-substance relationship. This study utilized Robert Agnew's 1992 general strain theory. Results suggest that substance addicts and substance users can be characterized in terms …

Barriers To Lesbian Health Care, Paula Bowles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The primary purpose of this research was to examine a sample of sixteen lesbian women regarding the barriers to lesbian health-care. From this information several interpretive findings regarding lesbian health-care are made. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with each individual lesbian. The data suggest that most lesbian women do not reveal their sexual orientation to their primary-care physician for fear of reprisal. Most of the women interviewed do feel they receive adequate health-care from their physician. The women who participated in this project did so confidentially and were assigned pseudonyms. They were asked questions on a variety of topics, …

The Citizen Police Academy: Assessment Of A Program's Effects On Community And Officer Attitudes, Shannon Cook

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The study was conducted in order to determine the effects of the Citizen Police Academy (CPA) program on community and officer attitudes. The two main goals of this program are to increase officer awareness of community concerns and to raise community awareness about the police department. Surveys were distributed to three groups: employees of the Bowling Green Police Department, all alumni of the CPA, and a random sample of the local community. Participants were asked their attitudes regarding crime prevention, awareness of police officers' activities, and the effectiveness of the CPA program. T-tests and ANOVAs determined that police officers who …

Becoming A Sister: The Socialization Of Women Into A Sorority, Kathleen Hughes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Adult peer groups have become more and more a topic for sociological study. It is a phenomenon that is starting to gain interest. This research focuses on one sorority on the campus of a Midwestern university and how this sorority manages to incorporate the women that they pledge through formal recruitment into the sorority and how these women fully socialize themselves into this group of women who already have bonded with each other. A synthesis of symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory helps to break down the socialization process and shows how the new members move through the stages of …

Response Cost In The Treatment Of Lunging In Dogs, Jennifer L. Sobie

Masters Theses

Contemporary professional applied animal behavior management employs a diagnostic and treatment approach for unwanted pet behavior that incorporates ethology-based causal factors. As in behavior therapy for humans, behavioral assessment includes descriptive functional analysis when possible to determine relevant contingency variables. But this information is then considered in the context of an appropriate motivational classification, such as social or prey-directed motivation or fear-motivated, and treatments are designed accordingly. A different view is that behavior can be treated effectively without a presumption of the motivation through analysis of the manifestation of the behavior itself. This study sought to evaluate the efficacy of …

The Effects Of Individual And Group Incentives On High And Low Performance, Heather M. Mcgee

Masters Theses

This study examined the effects of individual and group monetary incentives on the performance of high and low performers. Participants were six college students who performed a computerized work task called SYNWIN. Participants earned points for correct responses and lost points for incorrect responses. The primary dependent variables were the total number of points earned per session and the percent correct per session. An ABAC within-subject reversal design was used, where A= individual incentives, B = group incentives (either high or low performance), and C = hourly pay.

The point scores of all six participants decreased when group incentives were …

Classifying Forest Composition Using Fractal Dimension As An Index Of Image Texture, Fitria Latifah Wahid

Masters Theses

In this study, Landsat imagery from June (summer) and October (autumn senescence) 2000 of the area of Fort Custer Training Center in Kalamazoo and Calhoun Counties, Michigan, were analyzed for forest classification accuracies. The use of fractal analysis to improve forest classification, particularly to distinguish among northern hardwood species, was examined. Using moving windows with different sizes, measurement of local fractal dimension and spatial autocorrelation (Moran's I) were performed on the NDVIs and the panchromatic images. The measurement products were combined with Landsat TM bands as additional layers in supervised maximum- Iikelihood multispectral classifications. The accuracy for multispectral classification of …

When Personality Traits Need A Frame Of Reference: Enhancing The Predictive Validity Of Non-Cognitive Measures, Andrew David English

Theses and Dissertations

The reconsideration of personality among personnel specialists is partly due to the discovery of the five-factor model of personality or the "Big Five" (Costa, 1996). In the years following the acceptance of this taxonomy, several researchers have examined the relationship of the "Big Five" personality traits to numerous job performance criteria. Research has show:n that personality testing can contribute significant incremental validity over that of cognitive ability and skills (Neuman & Wright, 1999). The issues of trait consistency and the faking of personality measures have divided researchers in regards to how detrimental the effects of each are. The results of …

Theology And Religious Studies In Post-Communist Ukraine: Historical Sources, Modern Status, And Perspectives Of Cooperation, Lyudmyla Filipovych, Anatoly M. Kolodny

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Religion In Estonia, Research In English, Janis Cakars

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Estonian is one such understudied language, but Estonia is of no smaller importance to Eastern Europe than any other country. To understand the whole, all the parts must be considered. Therefore, scholars without a command of Estonian by necessity must turn to work published in other languages, most commonly English. This article is meant to serve as an aid to those interested in religion in Eastern Europe without a command of Estonian. It provides a bibliographical and historiographical review of the literature within an outline of religious development in a less commonly studied country. The religious history of Estonia, although …

Subsistence, Butchery, And Commercialization In Knox County, Tennessee, Rachel Jeannine Windham

Masters Theses

A multifaceted approach to zooarchaeology is used to attain a broader diachronic view of Upland South subsistence and market activities as commercialization increased nationwide. Greater beef consumption is evidenced through faunal remains as availability and affordability increase with technological advancements. Paralleling this trend is an increased acceptance and purchase of Georgian cuts (individual hams and beef steaks) gaining popularity over time.

In order to investigate this pattern, a sample of six historic archaeological sites in Knox County, Tennessee, differing in proximity to urban markets, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and temporal context was chosen. General time ranges from the late eighteenth through …

Tax Structure And Political Support: Equity-Related Goods Taxation., Jonathan Mckernan

Masters Theses

We focus this paper on a political economic question, What determines the U.S. states’ sales tax treatment of equity-related goods? We consider a good to be “equity related” when its consumption is essential to survival. States sometimes choose to tax these goods uniquely, often exempting them from the sales tax base. The equity-related goods for this paper are food, clothing, water, electricity, household fuel, and natural gas. All these goods are for home consumption. This question is relevant to the larger issue of how tax structure evolves or is determined. We test the theoretical explanation of tax structure determination that …

Changing Patterns X: Mortgage Lending To Traditionally Underserved Borrowers And Neighborhoods In Greater Boston, 1990-2002, Jim Campen

Gastón Institute Publications

The present study is the latest in a series of annual updates of the original report, Changing Patterns: Mortgage Lending in Boston, 1990-1993. Beginning in 1998, the reports’ geographic scope was expanded to include an examination of mortgage lending patterns in 27 cities and towns surrounding the city of Boston. In this year’s report, the geographic coverage has been further expanded t o include a total of 108 communities.

This introduction is followed by ten pages of text that identify some of the most significant findings that emerge from the extensive set of tables and charts that constitute the …

Bridging Thought Communities: Implications Of Membership In Degree-Completion Program Groups For The Self-Concepts Of Adult Students, Matthew S. Vos

Doctoral Dissertations

This study assesses the impact that an alternative delivery model in higher education may have for adult undergraduates who return to college. In trying to adapt their institutions to the needs of adult students, and reduce barriers facing them, some colleges and universities have developed degree-completion programs. In addition to offering convenient class times, some programs utilize what is known as a “group” or “cohort” model that provides a context within which students can find support, and which allows them to retain important outside-the-classroom statuses and identities. The purpose of the study was to determine whether close identification with a …

Toxic Communities: Examining The Relationship Between Race, Market Forces, And Environmental Hazards Using Elementary Schools As Community Locus, Stephanie Joy Gonzales

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the complex relationship between race, pollution, and market forces using elementary school zones as community locus within California. This analysis examines the relationship between race and toxic facility sites using the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), census data, and California school data. This research improves on past research in several important ways. First, the community is defined by giving attention to literature on environmental grassroots movements and the formation of informal social networks using local elementary schools as an organizational locus. Second, the migration of Black, Hispanic, and White populations away from and …

Testing The Transfer Of Hydrologic Model Parameters Across Scales: Modeling The Emory River, Daddy’S Creek, And Crooked Fork Watersheds., Benjamin Bryan Arthur

Masters Theses

Modeling the hydrologic response of small watersheds is often hindered by lack of data. We cannot calibrate robust models without ample and sufficiently accurate precipitation and discharge measurements. Limited data prevent the calibration process from estimating parameter values that adequately depict the physical characteristics of the watershed. But physical characteristics change gradually over space and hydrologic processes behave in predictable ways across scales. These factors suggest that the modeling of data-limited small watersheds could be improved by using the physical characteristics of a large, data-rich watershed to estimate the characteristics of a small watershed.

This thesis presents such an application. …

Where Girls Grow Strong: Exploring The Social Change Dimensions Of The Girl Scouts, Renee Cardarelle

Culminating Projects in Social Responsibility

Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA) is an organization whose mission is to provide informal education for girls ages 5 to 1 7 with the intent of "inspiring girls with the highest ideals of character, conduct, patriotism, and service that they may become happy and resourceful citizens" (GSUSA 2003b). By design the Girl Scout movement challenges structural inequities that girls and women in our communities face. But exactly what kind of impact does Girl Scouts have on our culture? Since few studies exist on how the Girl Scouts or similar organizations effect change in our communities, little …

Community Norms And Organizational Practices: The Legitimization Of Wage Arrears In Russia, 1992-1999, John S. Earle, Andrew Spicer, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

What role do community norms play in the diffusion and persistence of new organizational practices? We explore this question through an examination of the widespread practice of wage arrears, the late and non-payment of wages, in Russia during the 1990s. Existing research on wage arrears most often examines this practice as a means of flexible wage adjustment under difficult economic conditions. We develop an alternative theory that explains wage arrears through their acceptance as a legitimate form of organizational behavior within local communities. Our empirical analysis finds some support for the neoclassical position that wage arrears reflect adjustment to negative …

An Assessment Of The Mary Shore Cameron Sherlock Holmes Collection, Christy Allen

Christy Allen

No abstract provided.