Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rhetoric With Humor: An Analysis Of Hispanic/Latino Comedians' Uses Of Humor, George Pacheco Jr.

Dissertations

Hispanic/Latino comedians' use of humor as argument is a rich environment to study. The relationship between the comedian (as the joke teller) and the audience (as the receivers of the joke) creates an environment where many topical boundaries fall, and the comedian is free to express him/herself without fear of persecution or ridicule. More specifically, this setting allows the comedian to use the platform as joke teller to communicate arguments to the audience through humor. Comedians who use humor rhetorically often communicate arguments about well-known stereotypes freely because audiences attend shows expecting to laugh.

Using Kenneth Burke's (1959) perspective by …

Sustainability Evaluation: Development And Validation Of An Evaluation Checklist, Daniela C. Schroeter

Dissertations

Sustainability permeates many levels of human activity. Interest in sustainability is grounded primarily in the sustainable development field which is concerned with the survival of humans on planet earth, and with the growing demands of meeting people's long-term needs. In the North American evaluation literature, however, sustainability is primarily thought of in terms of continuing program activity beyond initial funding cycles via diversification of funding streams or institutionalization.

Two distinct perspectives for evaluating sustainability were identified. The first is concerned with micro-level issues related to the continuation of programs, policies, and other types of human action. The second is a …

Metaphorical Singular Reference: The Role Of Enriched Composition In Reference Resolution, Anne L. Bezuidenhout

Faculty Publications

It is widely accepted that, in the course of interpreting a metaphorical utterance, both literal and metaphorical interpretations of the utterance are available to the interpreter, although there may be disagreement about the order in which these interpretations are accessed. I call this the dual availability assumption. I argue that it does not apply in cases of metaphorical singular reference. These are cases in which proper names, complex demonstratives or definite descriptions are used metaphorically; e.g., ‘That festering sore must go’, referring to a derelict house. We are forced to give up dual availability in these cases because a process …

The Role Of Spirituality And The Impact On Social Responsibility, Jonathan Ridenour, Clark D. Campbell, Rodger K. Bufford, Kathleen Gathercoal

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Research on social responsibility shows that community and social organizations play an important role in developing social responsibility. Religious groups comprise a considerable number of community and social organizations. The present study explored the impact of spirituality on social responsibility and assumed a positive correlation. Measures included a demographic questionnaire with questions about religious affiliation and social service, the Social Responsibility Scale (Starrett, 1996) which measures global social responsibility and social activism, the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) by Allport and Ross (1967) which measures Intrinsic (I) and Extrinsic (E) religious orientation, and the Quest scale (Q) by Batson and Schoenrade …

Measuring Immigration’S Effects On Labor Demand: A Reexamination Of The Mariel Boatlift, Örn B. Bodvarsson, Hendrik F. Van Den Berg, Joshua J. Lewer

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

Why do immigration shocks tend to have benign effects on native wages? One reason is that immigrants as consumers contribute to the demand for their services. We model an economy where workers spend their wages on a locally produced good, then test it via a reexamination of the 1980 “Mariel Boatlift” using Wacziarg’s Channel Transmission methodology. Current Population Survey data on workers in 9 different retail labor markets and Survey of Buying Power data on retail spending by consumers in Miami and four comparison cities are used. We find strong evidence that the Mariel Boatlift augmented labor demand.

Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the effects of financial market imperfections on a firm’s operating and exporting decisions. I introduce financial frictions into a trade model with heterogeneous firms along the line of Melitz (2003). With the presence of financial constraints, even among a group of firms with the same productivity level, firms that are more financially constrained operate on a less efficient scale, and as a result, may no longer find operating and/or exporting profitable. In addition, financial frictions may create a distortion compared to the Melitz (2003) world since operation and export participation may be undertaken by those with better …

Global Governance And Energy, Ann Florini

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Energy has risen to the top of policy agendas around the world. There is now widespread recognition that energy policy has become key to international security, economic development, and the environmental sustainability of modern civilization. Yet this importance is not reflected in the world’s institutional infrastructure for managing global problems. A handful of international organizations work in uncoordinated fashion on various pieces of the energy puzzle. No organizational infrastructure exists to support the global conversation that is now badly needed about how to move the world onto a sustainable path that provides appropriate, reliable, and affordable energy services.

On The Evaluation Of The Joint Distribution Of Order Statistics, Koon Shing Kwong, Yiu Man Chan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Dunnett and Tamhane [Dunnett, C.W., Tamhane, A.C., 1992. A step-up multiple test procedure. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 87, 162-170.] proposed a step-up procedure for comparing k treatments with a control and showed that the step-up procedure is more powerful than its counterpart single step and step-down procedures. Since then, several modified step-up procedures have been suggested to deal with different testing environments. In order to establish those step-up procedures, it is necessary to derive approaches for evaluating the joint distribution of the order statistics. In some cases, experimenters may have difficulty in applying those step-up procedures in multiple hypothesis testing …

A Nonparametric Hellinger Metric Test For Conditional Independence, Liangjun Su, Halbert White

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a nonparametric test of conditional independence based on the weighted Hellinger distance between the two conditional densities, f(y|x,z) and f(y|x), which is identically zero under the null. We use the functional delta method to expand the test statistic around the population value and establish asymptotic normality under β-mixing conditions. We show that the test is consistent and has power against alternatives at distance n^−1/2h^−d/4. The cases for which not all random variables of interest are continuously valued or observable are also discussed. Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that the test behaves reasonably well in …

Regression Asymptotics Using Martingale Convergence Methods, Rustam Ibragimov, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

Weak convergence of partial sums and multilinear forms in independent random variables and linear processes and their nonlinear analogues to stochastic integrals now plays a major role in nonstationary time series and has been central to the development of unit root econometrics. The present paper develops a new and conceptually simple method for obtaining such forms of convergence. The method relies on the fact that the econometric quantities of interest involve discrete time martingales or semimartingales and shows how in the limit these quantities become continuous martingales and semimartingales. The limit theory itself uses very general convergence results for semimartingales …

Limit Theory For Explosively Cointegrated Systems, Peter C. B. Phillips, Tassos Magdalinos

Research Collection School Of Economics

A limit theory is developed for multivariate regression in an explosive cointegrated system. The asymptotic behavior of the least squares estimator of the cointegrating coefficients is found to depend upon the precise relationship between the explosive regressors. When the eigenvalues of the autoregressive matrix Θ are distinct, the centered least squares estimator has an exponential Θn rate of convergence and a mixed normal limit distribution. No central limit theory is applicable here, and Gaussian innovations are assumed. On the other hand, when some regressors exhibit common explosive behavior, a different mixed normal limiting distribution is derived with rate of convergence …

The Logic Of Movement: Consumption Logistics On The Las Vegas Strip, Robert Dean

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The omnipresence of consumption in advanced societies is indisputable; spaces designed to facilitate consumption (or means of consumption) are one aspect of that presence. On the surface, these spaces appear to be quite harmless dreamworlds full of possibilities, but at another level they are highly instrumental, composed of various mechanisms that work to sell commodities through the manipulation of consumer behavior. I argue that consumption spaces express a logic of movement, and a consumption logistics, that is based on the commodity form and relatable to warfare that works to domesticate consumers into the commodity system. I engage in an exploratory …

A Welfare Analysis Of Capital Account Liberalization, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a model of a small open economy with credit market frictions to analyze the consequences of capital account liberalization. We show that financial opening facilitates the inflows of cheap foreign funds and improves production efficiency. Reforms increasing labor market exibility can further improve such efficiency gains. However, capital account liberalization also has important distributional consequences. Specifically, it may be impossible to use public transfers to fully compensate the loss of those negatively affected by capital account liberalization. This explains why financial opening often meets fierce opposition even though it leads to efficiency gains for the economy as a …

Attributionally More Complex People Show Less Punitiveness And Racism, Kim-Pong Tam, Al Au, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Based on past findings that attributionally more complex people make less fundamental attribution error, it was hypothesized that they would show less punitiveness and racism. In a study of 102 undergraduates, this hypothesis received robust support. The effect of attributional complexity was significant in two different punitiveness measures, a rehabilitation support measure, and two different racism measures. Also, this effect still held when demographic variables, crime victimization history, and need for cognition were statistically controlled. Moreover, attributional complexity mediated the effect of need for cognition and gender on punitiveness and racism. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Barking At The Big Dogs: South Africa's Foreign Policy Towards The Middle East, Eduard Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article places South Africa's foreign policy towards the Middle East in the context of the country's general foreign policy. South Africa is classified as a middle power, given its penCHANt for international 'bridge-building' and multilateralism. With regard to the Middle East, South Africa has frequently offered itself as a mediator in the region's various conflicts and continues to do so. However, the argument proposed here is that there is an 'anti-imperialist' strain in South Africa's foreign policy that renders it unlikely to be regarded as an impartial broker in the various Middle East conflicts. South Africa's middle power proclivities, …

Helping Hand Or Grabbing Hand? State Bureaucracy And Privatization Effectiveness, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Scott G. Gehlbach

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Why have economic reforms aimed at reducing the role of the state been successful in some cases but not others? Are reform failures the consequence of leviathan states that hinder private economic activity, or of weak states unable to implement policies effectively and provide a supportive institutional environment? We explore these questions in a study of privatization in postcommunist Russia. Taking advantage of large regional variation in the size of public administrations, and employing a multilevel re-search design that controls for pre-privatization selection in the estimation of regional privatization effects, we examine the relationship between state bureaucracy and the impact …

The History Of Love (Reader's Guide), Chris Conway, Evelyn Barker, C. D. Walter

Information Literacy Resources

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of Preference For Modeling Interventions, Kaneen B. Geiger

Masters Theses

Video modeling is an instructional technique demonstrated to effectively increase social skills, academic skills, daily living skills and play skills of children with autism. There are several hypotheses for why video modeling is effective. One hypothesis is that children with autism prefer watching videos to looking at people, thereby enhancing motivation and making attending to the video model automatically reinforcing, however, preference for video has not been experimentally examined. This study assessed participants' preference for either video modeling or in vivo modeling using a concurrent-chains arrangement. None of the three participants showed a preference for either video modeling or in …

Predicting State Allocation Of Funds: The Case Of John Rowland And His Hometown Of Waterbury, Connecticut., Matthew Ciarleglio

Honors Scholar Theses

This study attempts to analyze the underlying factors and motives influencing the allocation of discretionary state expenditures. The fact that some cities receive more money than other cities begs the question of what accounts for this variation. After framing the provision of state money within the theoretical framework of political patronage, a case study of Governor Rowland’s tenure in office and the accompanying expenditures to Connecticut’s 17 largest cities from 1995 to 2004 was conducted to evaluate whether a disproportionate amount of money was given to Rowland’s hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut. Besides employing a statistical analysis that determined that cities …

Roots Of Ancient Wisdom For Contemporary Education, Patricia Ottow Keen Edd

Dissertations

Scholars have long contended that the main purpose of education is to guide youth towards more authentic, fruitful ways of being in the world; this ancient wisdom continues to challenge educators to serve as effective role models (e.g., Aristotle, 1963; 1985; Maslow, 1993; Palmer, 1998). Yet, until now, teachers' levels of self-actualization have not been investigated with valid and reliable instruments. This quantitative study used two psychometrically sound, closed-ended surveys to investigate the extent to which teachers consider themselves self-actualized and mindful; it measured the direction and strength of the correlation between their self-actualization and mindfulness scores; and, investigated the …

Recently Arrested Adolescents Are At High Risk For Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Christopher Salvatore, Steven Belenko, Richard Dembo, Doris Weiland, Matthew Rollie, Alexandra Hanlon, Kristina Childs

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Adolescent offenders may be at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). With previous research and interventions focused on incarcerated adolescents, data are needed on STD prevalence and risk factors among newly arrested youth released to the community, a far larger subgroup.Participants were recruited from all arrested youth processed at the Hillsborough County, Florida Juvenile Assessment Center during the last half of 2006 (506 males, 442 females). Participants voluntarily providing urine samples for drug testing as part of standard protocol were also consented to having their specimens split and tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea, using an FDA-approved nucleic acid amplification …

Goffman’S Biography And The Interaction Order: A Study In Biocritical Hermeneutics, Dmitri N. Shalin

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

This paper examines the interfaces between Erving Goffman’s biography and theory. It rests on the premise that Goffman’s Behavior in Public Places can be profitably explored in light of Goffman’s behavior in public places, and vice versa. The tentative conclusion I have reached after examining available biographical accounts is that Goffman was a student of civility whose standards he flouted, that his demeanor was sometimes intentionally demeaning, his deference willfully deferred, and his incivility painfully obvious to those present. The argument is made that Goffman’s infringements on the interaction order were strategic, systematic, theoretically significant, and worthy of close study …

Increasing Narrative Coherence In The Bereaved: The Effect Of Narrative Review On Grief Reaction, Stefanie Suzon Boswell

Dissertations

In order to investigate the utility of an experimental expressive writing intervention designed to increase narrative coherence (write about loss combined with review of previous narratives) as a potential bereavement intervention, it was compared to a standard expressive writing intervention (write about loss with no opportunity for review), and two trivial writing conditions (one with and one without opportunity for review). Although all writing groups experienced beneficial effects across time, participants in the experimental and standard conditions reported significantly greater personal growth as a function of time when compared to control participants.

A Stranger’S Welcome: Political Attitudes And The Tolerance Of Immigrants, Birol A. Yeşilada, Craig Carr

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this essay is to explore correlations between political attitudes and the reception immigrants are likely to receive in their host state. We take up this topic in order to explore empirically what there is to be said for the view, common among political theorists, that there is a tension between universalist liberal values and the nationalist convictions of citizens. As Margaret Canovan has stressed, “The universalist terms in which liberal political philosophies have often been framed imply obligations to humanity in general that are hard to reconcile with borders of any kind, let alone with the ethnic …

Career Mapping; Creation Of A Future Map For The Graduate Of M.S. In Creativity And Change Leadership, Marek Hrehovcik

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project is about creating a mind map of the possible careers a graduate of the creative studies master’s program may look at. These careers reflect an ideal desired situation applying essential use of selected CPS tools and knowledge gained in the master’s program to one’s individual and unique situation.

The Development And Validation Of The Houston Experience Measure (Hem): A Culturally Sensitive Instrument Measuring Variables Related To Developing Work Drive, Meagan Nicole Houston

Doctoral Dissertations

Developing instruments that are more culturally sensitive and taking a multicultural approach to scale development is encouraged in order to appropriately assess and conduct research with ethnic minorities. African Americans are prone to many negative stereotypes in the world of work which usually involve a lack of work drive and motivation achievement. The present research investigated the differences between African American and European American participants on a culturally sensitive instrument developed for this study and a measure of Work Drive: the Houston Experience Measure (HEM) and the Work Drive Scale.

This study was conducted in three phases. Phase one, the …

Assessment Of The Mine Action Centre For Afghanistan, Ted Paterson, Faiz Paktian, William Fryer

Global CWD Repository

The main purposes of this report are to (i) advise CIDA/ATF on what it should expect from the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in terms of reporting on development results, and (ii) assess feasible timelines and approaches for the transfer of UN responsibilities for mine action in Afghanistan to national organs, capable of addressing the country's future problems stemming from explosives contamination. The specific objectives of the assessment relate to: 1. Donor coordination, particularly as this relates to the UNMAS/MACA exit strategy and the emergence of national ownership; 2. Nationalisation, particularly with respect to the transition to full national ownership; …

The Impact Of The Second World War On U.S. Productivity Growth, Alexander J. Field

Economics

This paper considers the productivity impact on the US economy of the period of war mobilization and demobilization lasting from 1941 to 1948. Optimists have pointed to learning by doing in military production and spin-offs from military R & D as the basis for asserting a substantial positive effect of military conflict on potential output. Productivity data for the private non-farm economy are not consistent with this view, as they show slower total factor productivity (TFP) growth between 1941 and 1948 than before or after. The paper argues for adopting a less rosy perspective on the supply side effects of …

Researching The World’S Information, Barbara Lewis, Andrew M. Smith

Barbara Lewis

No abstract provided.

Sexually Assaulted Children: National Estimates And Characteristics., David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer, Andrea J. Sedlack

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Provides information on the estimated number and characteristics of children who were sexually assaulted in the United States in 1999. This Bulletin is the seventh in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) series. Information on sexual assault was gathered from NISMART–2 interviews with victims and their families.