Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Family Communication Patterns: Can They Impact Leadership Styles?, Suthida Prasitthipab

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A plethora of studies has worked on family communication and leadership separately. Little research has combined these two components although they both relate to personality characteristics and communication styles. Therefore, this thesis investigated correlations between leadership styles and family communication patterns during childhood. Two hypotheses were proposed representing the relationship between conformity orientation and task leadership, and between conversation orientation and relation leadership.

Faculty, non-academic staff, and students in leadership positions from Western Kentucky University were samples of this study. They completed a questionnaire voluntarily. Family communication pattern scale and Leadership Behavior Descriptive Questionnaire were used in the survey. Pearson …

The Influence Of Preferred Attentional Focus Strategies On Exercise Induced Changes In Affect, Erin L. Heltsley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Along with the numerous physical benefits of exercise, past research has shown that physical activity can alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Yet, it has been suggested less than half of American adults exercise at public health recommended levels. Therefore, it is important to identify factors that may lead to an increase in physical activity and, subsequently, improvements in mental health. Previous research, for the most part, has neglected to investigate how preference for attentional focus strategy during exercise influences mood. In addition, previous studies that involved attentional focus and exercise have focused more …

The Differential Effects Of Mental Fatigue And Alcohol On Selective Attention, Emily Keller Bloesch

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Decrements in selective attention are a commonly experienced phenomenon that has practical implications for many industries. Two causes of such deficits are mental fatigue and alcohol intoxication, which impair selective attention by decreasing the efficiency of inhibitory processes. The present research examined the effects of these two factors on the selective attention subtest of the Useful Field of View test in both a baseline and an experimental session. Participants in the mental fatigue condition (n = 14) were tested while performing a divided attention task for two hours to induce mental fatigue. Those in the alcohol condition (n = 10) …

The Influence Of Cultural Identification And Gender-Linked Characteristics On The Body Satisfaction Of African American Men, Amy Lynn Baird

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of the present study was to examine the relationships between gender schema, level of cultural identification, and body dissatisfaction in African American men. The first hypothesis under study was that men with a low identification to African American culture would report higher dissatisfaction with their body than those with a high cultural identification. Secondly, it was hypothesized that men with a large discrepancy from their culture’s description of an “ideal man” would also report higher body dissatisfaction than those with low or no discrepancy. Lastly, it was hypothesized that an interaction between variables would occur and that men …

Narratives Of Legitimacy: Political Discourse In The Early Phase Of The Troubles In Northern Ireland, Sissel Rosland

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article examines the discursive construction of legitimacy in the early phase of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The empirical material covers the debate on internment without trial from 1971 till 1975 – a debate which involved conflicting claims of legitimacy. Some strongly defended internment as a legitimate step in the fight against the IRA, whilst others regarded it as an illegitimate measure employed by a corrupt political regime. These conflicting claims of legitimacy entailed a conceptual battle concerned with the construction and authorisation of political order. The article explores this battle along three dimensions: law, violence, and democracy.

Political Discourse In The Republic Of Ireland And Its Function In The Troubles And Peace Process In Northern Ireland, Catherine O'Donnell

Peace and Conflict Studies

Despite some historical divergence, political parties in the Republic of Ireland shared some key objectives in response to the Troubles. Most consistently, each of the main parties (Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael) sought to undermine support for the IRA in Northern Ireland and de-legitimise arguments by Sinn Féin and the IRA. Over the course of the peace process, such common priorities developed into a wider shared discourse on the principles for agreement in Northern Ireland. The parties in the Republic soon established a vocal consensus incorporating support for the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin involvement in politics in Northern Ireland, …

Interpreting New Labour's Political Discourse On The Northern Ireland Peace Process, Aaron Edwards

Peace and Conflict Studies

New Labour‟s superintendence of the Northern Ireland peace process has re-opened debate about the party‟s stance on the “Irish question”. While some commentators hold the view that it remains ideologically wedded to the nationalist goal of Irish unity, it could be argued that Labour‟s Northern Ireland policy has been characterised by an ambivalent non-interventionist approach. The “peace strategy” pursued by Tony Blair‟s three administrations between 1997 and 2007 is examined in light of the political discourse articulated by key actors within New Labour itself. Moreover, the interpretive approach in British political science is utilised to illuminate key variables, such as …

Legitimizing Through Language: Political Discourse Worlds In Northern Ireland After The 1998 Agreement, Laura Filardo-Llamas

Peace and Conflict Studies

This paper employs the hypothesis that one of the functions of political discourse is to legitimise a perceived point of view by promoting certain representations of a socio-political reality. It could be argued that the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement creates a paradoxical reality in Northern Ireland because its language is so vague that it can be interpreted in different ways. This paper analyses linguistic categories used in the text of the Agreement to reveal the type of peaceful reality promoted and the constructive ambiguity used to facilitate agreement. It argues that the success of the peace process depended to …

Dup Discourses On Violence And Their Impact On The Northern Ireland Peace Process, Amber Rankin, Gladys Ganiel

Peace and Conflict Studies

This paper analyses the Democratic Unionist Party‟s (DUP) discourses about paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. Drawing on narrative analysis of DUP discourses reported in Northern Ireland‟s largest unionist newspaper, the News Letter (1998–2006), it explores the relationship between the party‟s identity, its discourses about republican and loyalist paramilitaries, and the impact of these words on the DUP‟s electoral success and on the peace process. The paper argues that these discourses may haunt the progress of peace-building, not least because the DUP will find it hard to disentangle itself from a history of scepticism and nay-saying even as it takes a …

“Faith, Crown And State”: Contemporary Discourses Within The Orange Order In Northern Ireland, James W. Mcauley, Jonathan Tonge

Peace and Conflict Studies

Despite a decline in membership in recent decades the Orange Order remains one of the largest and most significant organisations within civil society in Northern Ireland, representing a significant proportion of the Protestant population. The Orange Order claims a moral and political rationale to opposition to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and many of the political consequences that have followed. Drawing upon a large membership survey of the Orange institution (the first such survey ever undertaken), and abetted by in-depth semi-structured interviews, this paper examines core political and social attitudes of Orange Order members in a post-conflict environment. It identifies …

The Maintenance Of Republican Ideology And Tactics In The Discourses Of Ira Former Prisoners, Peter Shirlow, Jonathan Tonge, James W. Mcauley

Peace and Conflict Studies

The debate concerning ideology and ideological shifts during peace-building in Northern Ireland has generally failed to account for the attitudes and opinions of former combatants concerning the nature and meaning of discursively constructed identities and political strategies. This invisibility is peculiar in that debates concerning ideological shifts have been driven by academic analysis or by those former combatants who maintain that the Irish peace process is paralleled by core ideological abandonment. The material presented within this article indicates that former Provisional Irish Republican prisoners do not view the peace process as involving ideological ditching but instead that their commitment to …

Front Matter, Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Volume 15, Number 1 (Summer 2008), Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Water And Mining Conflicts In Peru, Anthony J. Bebbington, Mark Williams

Geography

Impacts on water quality and quantity are among the most contentious aspects of mining projects. Companies insist that the use of modern technologies will ensure environmentally friendly mining practices. However, evidence of the negative environmental impacts of past mining activity causes local and downstream populations to worry that new mining activities will adversely affect their water supply. We report on one mine site in Peru where water has become a: particularly conflictive issue. We then provide a detailed proposal for a monitoring plan to recover trust among stakeholders. A welldesigned and executed monitoring plan for water quantity and quality is …

The Dynamic Pivot Mechanism, Dirk Bergemann, Juuso Välimäki

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider truthful implementation of the socially efficient allocation in an independent private-value environment in which agents receive private information over time. We propose a suitable generalization of the pivot mechanism, based on the marginal contribution of each agent. In the dynamic pivot mechanism, the ex-post incentive and ex-post participation constraints are satisfied for all agents after all histories. In an environment with diverse preferences it is the unique mechanism satisfying ex-post incentive, ex-post participation and efficient exit conditions. We develop the dynamic pivot mechanism in detail for a repeated auction of a single object in which each bidder learns …

The Dynamic Pivot Mechanism, Dirk Bergemann, Juuso Välimäki

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider truthful implementation of the socially efficient allocation in an independent private-value environment in which agents receive private information over time. We propose a suitable generalization of the pivot mechanism, based on the marginal contribution of each agent. In the dynamic pivot mechanism, the ex-post incentive and ex-post participation constraints are satisfied for all agents after all histories. In an environment with diverse preferences it is the unique mechanism satisfying ex-post incentive, ex-post participation and efficient exit conditions. We develop the dynamic pivot mechanism in detail for a repeated auction of a single object in which each bidder learns …

A Dynamic Analysis Of Human Welfare In A Warming Planet, Humberto Llavador, John E. Roemer, Joaquim Silvestre

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have caused atmospheric concentrations with no precedents in the last half a million years, inducing serious uncertainties about future climates and their effects on human welfare. Recent climate science supports the view that the climate stabilization will require very low GHG emissions in the future. We ask: Is a path of low emissions compatible with sustainable levels of human welfare? With steady growth in human quality of life? Addressing these questions requires both defining welfare criteria and empirically estimating the possible paths of the economy. We specify and calibrate a dynamic model with four intertemporal …

A Dynamic Analysis Of Human Welfare In A Warming Planet, Humberto Llavador, John E. Roemer, Joaquim Silvestre

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Climate science indicates that climate stabilization requires low GHG emissions. Is this consistent with nondecreasing human welfare? Our welfare index, called quality of life (QuoL), emphasizes education, knowledge, and the environment. We construct and calibrate a multigenerational model with intertemporal links provided by education, physical capital, knowledge and the environment. We reject discounted utilitarianism and adopt, first, the Intergenerational Maximin criterion, and, second, Human Development Optimization, that maximizes the QuoL of the first generation subject to a given future rate of growth. We apply these criteria to our calibrated model via a novel algorithm inspired by the turnpike property. The …

Rrh Library Newsletter, August 2008, Libraries At Rochester Regional Health

Rochester Regional Health authored publications and proceedings

Newsletter sections include: Humor May Influence Health; Ovid is now Ovid SP

Holocene Fire History At Laguna Martínez, Costa Rica, Based On High-Resolution Macroscopic Charcoal Analysis Of An 8400 Cal Yr Bp Sediment Record, Jason Elliott Graham

Masters Theses

Macroscopic charcoal proxy records from sediment profiles from lakes and swamps provide valuable information on the role of fire in the world’s varied ecosystems. Macroscopic charcoal is not normally transported long distances, making it a good indicator of local fire history. This study focused on the macroscopic charcoal in an 8400 cal yr BP sediment record from Laguna Martínez, located in northwestern Costa Rica on the Pacific slope of the Miravalles volcano. Prior study of pollen assemblages in the Martínez sediment core revealed the earliest evidence of maize agriculture in Costa Rica at about 5500 cal yr BP. I sampled …

Fieldnotes From The Pampas: Update On The Uraguay Paleoindian Survey, J. Christopher Gillam, Rafael Suárez

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Acoustic Correlates Of Fortis/Lenis In San Francisco Ozolotepec Zapotec, Anita J. Leander

Theses and Dissertations

Analyses of the Zapotec family of languages often divide consonants into categories of strong and weak consonants, more commonly known as fortis and lenis. These given categories usually correspond to voiceless and voiced, respectively. In San Francisco Ozolotepec Zapotec (SFOZ) and Santa Catarina Xanaguía Zapotec (SCXZ), prior analyses describe the fortis/lenis distinction in terms of duration, voicing, and articulatory force. This description parallels other impressionistic descriptions in Isthmus-Valley and Southern Zapotec variants. However, no study has objectively identified the acoustic patterns of the fortis/lenis contrast in SFOZ or in any Southern, Valley, or Isthmus Zapotec language. A previous instrumental study …

Production Of Bangla Stops By Native English Speakers Learning Bangla: An Acoustic Analysis, Dustin D. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Differences in the phonetic and phonological systems of Bangla and English result in negative transfer in the Bangla stop productions of native English speakers. The phonetic realizations of Voice and Aspiration and their interactions with each other are the key factors in this. A production study was carried out focusing on sixteen of the twenty Bangla stops that are distinguished by a four-way voice/aspiration contrast at four different places of articulation, providing a contrastive acoustic analysis of the pronunciation of L1 and L2 adult speakers. Data containing these stops in an intervocalic environment in word-initial, word-medial, and word-final positions was …

A Behavioral Intervention Targeting A Reduction In Child Distress During A Routine Immunization, Matthew P. Myrvik

Theses and Dissertations

The present study evaluated the relationship between adult behaviors and child behaviors, the effectiveness of distraction as coached by parents in reducing distress during routine immunizations, and two cost-effective means of teaching distraction techniques to parents. Ninety-seven children between the ages of 18 months and 72 months and their parents were recruited and were randomly assigned to one of three groups. (1) Routine Group—parents received no education regarding distraction and were instructed to aid children as usual (n=32); (2) Distraction Taught by Instructional Handout Group—parents received education about distraction via an instructional handout and were instructed to use distraction with …

Convergent And Discriminant Validity Of Biculturalism And Depression Among Northern Plains American Indians, Laiel I. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

In order to further develop the Northern Plains Biculturalism Inventory-Revised into a more valid and reliable research instrument for providing data regarding cultural orientation and identification among Northern Plains American Indians, convergent and discriminant validity was investigated. Two hundred and one Northern Plains American Indians between the ages of 18 and 76 participated in the study.

Convergent validity was established in that both the European American (EA) (r = -.801) and American Indian (AI) (r = -.621) subscales of the Northern Plains Biculturalism Inventory-Revised (NPBI-R) were strongly and significantly correlated with the similar subscales of the American Indian Biculturalism Inventory-Northern …

Democracy And The Press In The Middle East, Badreya Al-Jenaibi

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines relationships between Arab media and several different institutions including government in general, democracy specifically, and Islam. The primary purpose of this research is to gain not only broad, but also in-depth understanding of Arab governments and their control of media. One of the key issues discussed is the role of the Arabic media channel, Al-Jazeera, in the Arab region.

A literature review has been provided that serves the purpose of providing valuable background on Islam and democracy, Arab media history and the new Arab media. The literature review provides a context for the use of normative theories, …

A Historical Study Of The Kindergarten And First Grade Programs At The Minot State University Laboratory School (1969 - 1990): A School Ahead Of Its Time, Valeria Noel Wax

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses archival sources and oral interviews to construct a history of the kindergarten and first grade programs at the Minot State University Laboratory School (MSU) from 1966 – 1990. The length of the study is based on the time the kindergarten was in existence at the MSU Laboratory School. The school was unique in North Dakota because it was the last laboratory in the state. A variety of educational methodologies and techniques were developed in an effort to improve instruction. The school also developed and refined an individualized instruction program that was used with all children enrolled in …

Postpartum Depression In Anishinaabe American Indians, Natalie M. Nicholson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to better understand the personal experience of postpartum depression among Anishinaabe American Indian women and further examine how various resources such as family, friends, Traditional healing, local and healthcare options were utilized. In addition advice was sought from a Traditional leader as to how these women can care for themselves in the postnatal period and how providers can properly manage their care.

A descriptive qualitative analysis approach was used. Interviews were conducted in 1-1.5 hours in the home of the Anishinaabe American Indian women who are from Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indian Reservation. …

Behavioral Public Finance, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

These are slides from a presentation to the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, Squaw Valley Conference, May, 2008 (at which event Michael Jensen got me to agree to post these slides as a pdf on SSRN . . . ). The task is to give an overview of what I hope to be an emerging field of behavioral public finance. Behavioral finance, as per Barberis and Thaler 2003 (and others), consists of two parts: (1) individual level heuristics and biases, which can lead to sub-optimal (inconsistent) judgment and decision-making, and (2) institutional arbitrage mechanisms. In private finance and …

Comments On Liebman And Zeckhauser, Simple Humans, Complex Insurance, Subtle Subsidies, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

These are brief comments on an excellent paper by Jeffrey Liebman and Richard Zeckhauser, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Urban Institute and Brookings on tax and health care policy. Liebman and Zeckhauser summarize the complexities involved in making optimal health insurance decisions, and offer generally cautionary notes about conflating these with tax law (a theme of the conference). Most importantly, Liebman and Zeckhauser suggest a positive role for employers in health care and insurance decisions, as better setters or framers of choice sets—witness 401(k) plans. In this Commentary, I applaud Leibman and Zeckhauser’s general work and particular observation, …