Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Trait Arousability And Its Impact On Adaptive Multimedia Training, Sae Schatz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today's best intelligent, adaptive, multimedia trainers have shown excellent performance; however, their results still fall far-short of what good human tutors can achieve. The overarching thesis of this paper is that future intelligent, adaptive systems will be improved by taking into account relevant, consistent, and meaningful individual differences. Specifically, responding to individual differences among trainees will (a) form more accurate individual baselines within a training system, and (b) better inform system responses (so that they interpret and respond to observable data more appropriately). One variable to consider is trait arousability, which describes individual differences in sensitivity to stimuli. Individuals' arousability …

Turkey In The Caspian Sea Region, Seyma Akkoyunlu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will determine the influence of Turkey's domestic resources on Turkey's foreign relations with the five Turkic states in the Caspian Sea Region. The spheres analyzed in this study are the common ties, which are history, culture, religion and language, with the regional countries, pan-Turkism, Turkey's initial interactions as well as ongoing constructive policies in the region. Findings showed that both Turkey and the five Turkic republics were enthusiastic to carry their relations in every field to future cooperation following the break up of the Soviet Union. However the Turkic Republics' interest in Turkish development model gradually declined starting …

Philippine Economic And Political Development And Philippine Muslim Unrest, Justin De Leon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Muslim culture and society has been a part of the Philippine islands in spite of nearly ninety-five percent of the population being Christian (a majority Catholic), yet did not become a separatist movement until the 1970's. Since then, the two main separatist groups the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have been battling the Philippine government. The parties entered truces in 1996 and 2001, yet there has been a cycle of violence continues. The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), linked to Al Qaeda, emerged in 1990 and has launched many attacks on the Christian Philippine …

The Effects Of Foreign Aid On Perceptions Of Corruption In Sub-Saharan Africa, Margaret Wilkie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a study of the effects of foreign aid on perceptions of political corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa. In keeping with the consensus on foreign aid effectiveness, this study proposed that Sub-Saharan African countries receiving more foreign aid would be more likely to maintain high levels of perceived corruption. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate regression, controlling for a number of factors which have shown to be influential on perceptions of political corruption. Two models were tested, one to show the regression over a period of nine years, and the other to show the relationship between the foreign aid and …

The Impact Of Organizational Politics On Mentoring Relationships, Nicholas Bencaz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring in the workplace has become an increasingly popular trend because of its touted success at addressing the career and social related needs of employees. While the majority of the research on mentoring has examined protege benefits, far fewer studies have examined the potential negative effects of mentoring. Moreover, little is known about the antecedents of negative mentoring experiences. A primary objective of the present study was to investigate relations between mentor and protege perceptions of organizational politics and reports of functional and dysfunctional mentoring. In addition, I examined the joint contribution of functional and dysfunctional mentoring to a number …

Food For Thought: The Relationship Between Thought Suppression And Weight Control, Rachel Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study assessed the relationship between individuals' tendency to suppress thoughts, particularly related to food and body weight/shape, and outcomes such as weight loss maintenance and diet sabotaging experiences (e.g., binge eating). Community and university individuals (N = 347) who are or previously were overweight completed self-report measures of thought suppression, weight history, and eating behaviors. Suppression of specific thoughts about food/weight/shape was related to weight cycling, binge eating, and food cravings. Participants who believed thoughts of food lead to eating were more likely to attempt suppression of food-related thoughts. Results have implications for improving weight loss maintenance and …

Distributed Team Training: Effective Team Feedback, Kevin Oden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States Army currently uses after action reviews (AARs) to give personnel feedback on their performance. However, due to the growing use of geographically distributed teams, the traditional AAR, with participants and a moderator in the same room, is becoming difficult; therefore, distributed AARs are becoming a necessity. However, distributed AARs have not been thoroughly researched. To determine what type of distributed AARs would best facilitate team training in distributed Army operations, feedback media platforms must be compared. This research compared three types of AARs, which are no AAR, teleconference AAR, and teleconference AAR with visual feedback, to determine …

The Gendered Altar: Wiccan Concepts Of Gender And Ritual Objects, Jesse Sloan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many ethnographic accounts within the annals of anthropological literature describe the religious beliefs and magical rituals of peoples throughout the world. Fewer scholars have focused on the relatively young Neo-Pagan religious movement. "Neo-Pagan," explains Helen Berger in Voices from the Pagan Census (2003), "is an umbrella term covering sects of a new religious movement, the largest and most important form of which is…Wicca" (Berger et al. 2003: 1). This thesis examines the relationship between practice and ideology by analyzing the material culture of Wiccan altars as used by Wiccans in Central Florida, USA. Particular attention is paid to beliefs …

Attachment Style's Impact On The Perception Of Self-Verifying And Self-Enhancing Comforting Messages, Krista Shellabarger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the connection between one's adult attachment style and one's evaluation of verifying or enhancing comforting messages. Drawing from research by Swann (2005) and Katz and Joiner (2002), the hypothesis predicted that an individual would prefer verifying messages over enhancing messages regardless of attachment style. A research question was also posed: Will an individual's adult attachment style moderate the degree to which a person perceives the communication of verifying or enhancing messages as helpful or effective? In an effort to find these answers, a questionnaire was completed by 251 individuals. Results indicate a preference for verifying messages among …

The Influence Of Medical Education On The Frequency And Type Of Medical Board Discipline Received By Licensed Florida Physicians, Richard Bonnell Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It has been estimated that in the United States, between 44,000 to 98,000 patients succumb to medical errors each year. Due to a shortage of graduates of domestic medical schools, many graduates of foreign medical schools are practicing in the United States. The medical education received in foreign medical schools may not be equivalent to the medical education received in domestic medical schools, which are schools located in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Differences due to the educational backgrounds of the foreign-schooled physicians may contribute to an increase in medical board disciplining. Furthermore, graduates of medical schools where …

A Genre Of Collective Intelligence: Blogs As Intertextual, Reciprocal, And Pedagogical, Rachel Gramer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the rhetorical features of blogs that lend them dialogic strength as an online genre through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of speech genres, utterances, and dialogism. As a relatively new online genre, blogs stem from previous genres (in print and online as well as verbal), but their emergence as a popular form of expression in our current culture demands attention to how blogs also offer us different rhetorical opportunities to meet our changing social exigencies as online subjects in the 21st century. This thesis was inspired by questions about how blogs redefine the rhetorical situation to …

Development And Forensic Application Of Dye Probe Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer For Improved Detection Of Changes In Dn, Micah Halpern

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discovering, screening, and associating changes in DNA sequence are important to a broad range of disciplines and play a central role in Forensic Science. The typical types of changes include sequence variations [single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)] and length variations [short tandem repeats (STR)]. The steps for forensic DNA sample processing are similar for both types of changes but diverge at the point of detection. A number of approaches are being explored for SNP genotyping while STR analysis primarily consists of size-based analysis by capillary electrophoresis. Limitations exist for all current detection methods that pose significant impacts to forensic analysis. Bi-allelic …

Technological Disasters: An Investigation Of The Conservation Of Resources Theory On Depression, Brian Gentry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers studying the affects of resource loss following a technological disaster have exclusively investigated the acute period directly after the event occurred. This study applied Hobfoll's (1988, 1989) Conservation of Resources model in order to examine the long term effects of resource loss on depression in Cordova, Alaska a decade after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill. Results suggest that resource loss was a more prominent predictor for depression than demographics, involvement in the on-going litigation, or commercial fishing jobs. The research concludes that certain aspects of resource loss are critical in the development of depression after a technological disaster, and …

Marijuana Legalization: Americans' Attitudes Over Four Decades, Anthony Saieva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Americans have long held a variety of opinions when it comes to the legalization of marijuana. While previous research has mostly focused on use rates and behavior, the purpose of this examination is to specifically analyze people's attitudes towards marijuana legalization. Of particular importance was (1) the extent to which attitudes towards marijuana legalization have changed over the past four decades and (2) how the social factors often associated with marijuana legalization attitudes have changed over the same period. Results indicate that over one-third of Americans now believe marijuana should be made legal. These pro-legalization attitudes are at their highest …

The Social Construction Of Claims-Making: Bahamian Anglers Vs. Non-Resident Sports-Fishermen, Sara Neuenschwander

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On January 1, 2007, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources in the Department of Marine Resources of the Bahamas promulgated significant revisions to their sports-fishing regulations. While the new laws were designed to benefit the Bahamian fisheries, they caused a vociferous uproar among non-resident anglers who frequent the islands of the Bahamas to sports-fish. Of particular concern are the new regulations that limit the maximum weight and number of fish which non-resident anglers may keep on their boat. My research examines the claims-making activities made by American anglers on four different sports-fishermen/cruising forums. The analysis focuses on the motifs, …

We Are Not Responsible For Our Addictions, But We Are Responsible For Our Recovery": A Qualitative Exploratory Study Of The Li, Rachel Rayburn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an exploratory, qualitative study of homeless, recovering alcoholics and the problems they encounter maintaining sobriety. Using semi-structured interviews, I analyze the experiences of ten men in their forties, who are in a recovery program designed for homeless men. I ask them how they stay sober without a place to live. Three kinds of problems are inferred from their narrative histories. First, the men have difficulty identifying as alcoholics. They have trouble fully integrating into the AA program. Second, the men struggle to form relationships with others, especially with a sponsor. Third, the process of "working the steps" is …

Misconceptions About Silence And Passivity: How American Students Perceive Asian International Students' Use Of Passivity Within The Classroom, Audra Nuru

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asian international students (AIS) are becoming increasingly more populous in American universities each year. While AIS are enrolled in the same required classes as American students, it has been observed that frequent interaction between AIS and American students is rather uncommon. Due to obvious social hesitation between the two groups of students during classroom discussion, the study presented was initiated in order to unveil possible reasons for this social integration dilemma. Social Attractiveness, Perceived Homophily and Attributional Confidence scales were selected in order to determine possible factors contributing to this dilemma. In order to pursue explanations for the dormant socialization …

Crossing The Line In Cross-Sex Friendships: Effects Of Past Sexual Contact And Dating Status On Relational Maintenance, Melissa Emmett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given that male-female friendships lack institutional guidelines or scripts to guide everyday interactions, sustaining these relationships can be complicated. Although researchers have recently begun to study relational maintenance patterns in cross-sex friendships, no study has yet to investigate sex's and dating status's direct influences on friendship maintenance. This investigation seeks to add to the field's academic understanding of these personal relationships. Specifically, the researcher sought to uncover the associations between 10 friendship maintenance behaviors, past sexual contact, valence of past sexual contact, and cross-sex friends' dating statuses. Quantitative data were collected from 277 participants at a large Southeastern university using …

Working From Afar: A New Trend For Librarianship, Jennifer Duncan

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Telecommuting, which once seemed impractical for librarians, is swiftly becoming a viable option for employees in both technical services and public services. Societal changes such as increased commuting time, rising numbers of dual working-parents, and an explosion of technology that facilitates remote work have fueled both the desirability and the feasibility of alternative work arrangements. Traditionally, librarians have been tethered to a facility either because their public service role demands face-to-face interaction or because they work with materials housed in the building. As collection formats and service mechanisms change, however, librarians may be poised to take advantage of more flexible …

Just Add Water: Reclamation Projects And Development Fantasies In The Upper Basin Of The Colorado River, Stephen C. Strugeon

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

The history of the development of the American West is full of countless examples of promoters seeking to encourage outside investors to buy land, invest in mines, and build railroads. The history of water projects in the region is no different. Residents of communities such as Grand Junction, Colorado, recognized early on the two-fold dilemma that they faced: irrigation and reclamation projects would be critical to the economic growth of the area, and the funding for these projects would have to be obtained from sources outside the region. The promoters of such projects relied upon booster literature in order to …

Review Of What Ever Happened To The Faculty? Drift And Decision In Higher Education By Mary Burgan, W. Bede Mitchell

Library Faculty Publications

This review was published in College and Research Libraries.

Photography After The Incidents: We're Not Afraid, Panizza Allmark

Research outputs pre 2011

This article will look at the use of personal photographs that attempt to convey a sense of social activism as a reaction against global terrorism. Moreover, I argue that the photographs uploaded to the site “We’re Not Afraid”, which began after the London bombings in 2005, presents a forum to promote the pleasures of western cultural values as a defence against the anxiety of terror. What is compelling are the ways in which the Website promotes, seemingly, everyday modalities through what may be deemed as the domestic snapshot. Nevertheless, the aura from the context of these images operates to arouse …

Review Of Illicit Drug Use Among Indigenous Peoples, Michelle Catto, Neil Thomson

Research outputs pre 2011

Drug misuse has significant impacts on families and communities and is a major concern for Australia. The misuse of licit drugs (such as alcohol and tobacco) continues to have the most significant negative impacts, but the use of illicit drugs is also a contributing factor in ill-health, injuries, violence and criminal behaviour, workplace problems and the disruption of family, community and the broader society. The greater level of substance misuse in the Indigenous population reflects the history of dispossession and oppression of Indigenous people; their entrenched social and economic marginalisation requires holistic and well-funded strategies to address the underlying social …

A Holistic Approach To Establishing An Effective Learning Environment For Psychology, Lynne Cohen, Paul Chang, Julie Ann Pooley, Lisbeth Pike

Research outputs pre 2011

The impetus for the Enhancing Quality and Learning (EQUAL) programme evolved out of concerns held by the staff in the School of Psychology at Edith Cowan University (ECU) regarding the difficulties encountered by first year psychology students and the subsequent low retention rate of these students in the psychology course. The EQUAL programme focused on easing the transition of high school students into university studies by enhancing the social support networks of commencing students. The programme was designed to be an holistic approach to enhancing a sense of belonging to the School of Psychology and comprised seven components. These are …

"We Are Next!": Listening To Jewish Voices In A Multicultural Country, Lelia Rosalind Green, Gerry Bloustien, Mark Balnaves

Research outputs pre 2011

If the notion of being at home in one’s country is safe and reassuring, the homeland and the heartland of what we judge important, then the thought that a countryneeds its own homeland security is destined to create a sense of unease. Australia’s homeland security unit was set up in May 2003 (Riley), just weeks after theallies’ Coalition of the Willing had celebrated George W Bush’s declaration aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, of ‘Victory in Iraq’ (BBC). It might have been expected, inthis victorious glow, that the country would feel confidently able to return to a state of security. Apparently …

Less Than Equal: Secularism, Religious Pluralism And Privilege, Anne Aly, Lelia Rosalind Green

Research outputs pre 2011

In its preamble, The Western Australian Charter of Multiculturalism (WA) commits the state to becoming: “A society in which respect for mutual difference is accompanied by equality of opportunity within a framework of democratic citizenship”. One of the principles of multiculturalism, as enunciated in the Charter, is “equality of opportunity for all members of society to achieve their full potential in a free and democratic society where every individual is equal before and under the law”. An important element of this principle is the “equality of opportunity ... to achieve ... full potential”. The implication here is that those who …

Mad About The Boy, Debra Mayrhofer

Research outputs pre 2011

The media coverage of an out-of-control teenage party in the Melbourne suburb of Narre Warren on 12 January 2008, and its construction of the protagonist who threw the party, has highlighted once again the inequitable treatment of youth, particularly adolescent males, in the Australian media. This paper examines the coverage in terms of the discursive strategies used by the mainstream Australian media to legitimise and naturalise the denigration and humiliation of the boy involved. It will discuss the ongoing demonisation of young males in general, and the concomitant ‘panics’ about their degeneration into moral lassitude, as well as the particular …

We've Thrown Away The Pens, But Are They Learning? Using Blogs In Higher Education, Katrina Strampel, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

In today’s university classrooms, “the time of restricting students products and learning opportunities to ink on paper are past” (Siegle, 2007). Blogs are only one of many computer-mediated technologies starting to dominate blended and wholly online courses. Most people assume that using these technologies, because it is what the students want, will translate into increased learning opportunities. As the literature continuously asserts, however, learning, and especially reflection, does not just happen (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985). It seems imperative, therefore, that extra measures are taken when any technology is being implemented in a university classroom to ensure high levels of …

Men Of Steel Or Plastic Cops: The Use Of Ethnography As A Transformative Agent, Christine Teague, David Leith

Research outputs pre 2011

The Perth urban rail system, like many other rail systems in Australia and overseas, is subject to crime and anti-social behaviour around the railway environs from a small minority of the travelling public. The transit officers, who form part of the security section of the Public Transport Authority, are the people employed to deal with these incidents, which can result in transit officers being injured. To fully understand the violence and antisocial behaviour that they deal with on a regular basis and develop strategies to reduce this risk of injury, it was necessary to enter their world. The researcher in …

Interim Report: Maddington-Kenwick & Cockburn Sustainable Industry Project, Beth Walker, Janice Redmond, Ute Goeft

Research outputs pre 2011

The aim of this project is to investigate the current attitudes and practices of business ownermanagers in the light industrial areas of Maddington-Kenwick and Cockburn regarding environmental issues and waste management pre and post an intervention program. A specific aim of the project is to reduce waste and achieve implementation of better environmental management practices in this sector. The project commenced in February 2007 and is due to finish in December 2008.

The two survey areas are geographically located South East and South of Perth within two separate local government boundaries. The light industrial area of Maddington-Kenwick is part of …