Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Autonomy Support In Australian Higher Education: A Review Of Contextual And Situational Applications Of Self-Determination Theory, Nicolas Connault

Theses : Honours

Self-Determination Theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan, 2000) is a macro-theory of motivation that has received much support from empirical research in the last twenty years. One of its main tenets is that the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs-autonomy, competence and relatedness-is universally required for the attainment of optimal psychological well-being, health, growth and self-determined behaviour. Higher education in Australia, through its outcomes-based approach to academic success, is not typically designed to promote student autonomy. Self-Determination Theory posits that promoting students' autonomy should lead to better quality of learning, higher intrinsic motivation to study, lower attrition and enhanced subjective well-being. …

The Experiences Of Incarceration On Indigenous Parents And Primary Care-Givers Of Juvenile Detainees, Simone Reid

Theses : Honours

Incarceration impacts on a number of people, not just the person sentenced. It has been suggested that the family of the prisoner can experience the prison sentence just as much, albeit differently, as the prisoner themself. Families remain important, as those prisoners who return to strong family networks are at less risk of recidivism. National research has been used to inform policy-makers, but every State has unique characteristics. The overrepresentation of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal juveniles in juvenile detention, especially in Western Australia, has been well-documented. However, research examining the experiences of incarceration on family members is limited. This …

Studies Into Cytauxzoon And Helminth Infections Of Bobcats (Lynx Rufus) Of Northwest Arkansas, Emily Hickman, David Kreider, Chris Tucker, Jana Reynolds, Jeremy Powell, Tom Yazwinski

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of Cytauxzoon felis and gastrointestinal helminth infections in bobcats (Lynx rufus) of Northwest Arkansas, an area known to have numerous cases of cytaux in domestic cats. Sixty bobcat carcasses were collected from trappers located in Mulberry and Decatur, Arkansas. Blood samples from the hearts were used to isolate Cytauxzoon DNA. Next, a polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) procedure coupled with gel-electrophoresis assay for the 18s region of extracted DNA were used to determine the presence of the protozoan in the bobcats at the time of harvest. Out of the 60 …

No. 53: Migration-Induced Hiv And Aids In Rural Mozambique And Swaziland, Jonathan Crush, Inês Raimundo, Hamilton Simelane, Bonaventura Cau, David Dorey

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa’s gold mining workforce has the highest prevalence rates of tuberculosis and HIV infection of any industrial sector in the country. The contract migrant labour system, which has long outlived apartheid, is responsible for this unacceptable situation. The spread of HIV to rural communities in Southern Africa is not well understood. The accepted wisdom is that migrants leave for the mines, engage in high-risk behaviour, contract the virus and return to infect their rural partners. This model fails to deal with the phenomenon of rural-rural transmission and cases of HIV discordance (when the female migrant is infected and the …

No. 01: The Invisible Crisis: Urban Food Security In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

Over 1 billion people in the world are now undernourished. The current international food security agenda focuses almost exclusively on the food insecurity of rural populations and ways to increase smallholder production. The plight of the urban poor is marginalised in this agenda leading to neglect of the ‘invisible crisis’ of urban food insecurity. This paper argues that the future of Southern Africa is an urban one and that urban food insecurity is therefore a large and growing challenge. The causes, determinants and solutions for food insecurity are not the same in rural and urban settings. This paper suggests that …

No. 04: Urban Food Production And Household Food Security In Southern African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Alice Hovorka, Daniel Tevara

African Food Security Urban Network

Optimism about the role of household food production (urban agriculture) in improving the food security of the urban poor has given way to pessimism and even scepticism. This paper critically examines the views of advocates of urban agriculture and suggests that it cannot be isolated from a broader consideration of the changing nature of urban food supply systems in Southern African cities. Urban food production by poor households is currently very limited across the region and even fewer produce for market. While food production is a useful livelihood supplement in some cities and a source of income to some wealthier …

No. 02: The State Of Urban Food Insecurity In Southern Africa, Bruce Frayne, Wade Pendleton, Jonathan Crush, Ben Acquah, Jane Battersby-Lennard, Eugenio Bras, Asiyati Chiweza, Tebogo Dlamini, Robert Fincham, Florian Kroll, Clement Leduka, Aloysius Mosha, Chileshe Mulenga, Peter Mvula, Akiser Pomuti, Ines Raimundo, Michael Rudolph, Shaun Ruysenaa, Nomcebo Simelane, Daniel Tevara, Maxton Tsoka, Godfrey Tawodzera, Lazarus Zanamwe

African Food Security Urban Network

The number of people living in urban areas is rising rapidly in Southern Africa. By mid-century, the region is expected to be 60% urban. Rapid urbanization is leading to growing food insecurity in the region’s towns and cities. This paper presents the results of the first ever regional study of the prevalence of food insecurity in Southern Africa. The AFSUN food security household survey was conducted simultaneously in 2008-9 in 11 cities in 8 SADC countries. The results confirm high levels of food insecurity amongst the urban poor in terms of food availability, accessibility, reliability and dietary diversity. The survey …

No. 03: Pathways To Insecurity: Food Supply And Access In Southern African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

As in many parts of the world, supermarket expansion and control of food supply chains is having a major impact on the quality, quantity and price of food available to urban residents. Growing numbers of poor households in Southern African cities now obtain their food, directly or indirectly, from supermarkets. In most cities, these same households spend over 40 percent of household income on food. Supermarket expansion is also having a major impact on the informal sector. This paper reviews the changing nature of the urban food supply in Southern African cities, the role of supermarkets and the informal sector …

Children's Tolerance Of Word-Form Variation, Paul Reeves Breuning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study compared children's (N=96, mean age 4;1, range 2;8-5;3) and adults' (N=96, mean age 21 years) tolerance of word-onset modifications (e.g., wabbit and warabbit) and pseudo affixes (e.g., kocat and catko) in a label extension task. Trials comprised an introductory phase where children saw a picture of an animal and were told its name, and a test phase where they were shown the same picture along with one of a different animal. For `similar-name' trials, participants heard a word-form modification of the previously introduced name (e.g., introduced to a dib, they were asked, `which animal is a wib?'). For …

Micro-Credit Lending And Women's Empowerment: The Experiences Of Rural Kasoa Women, Eunice Adjei-Bosompem

Culminating Projects in Social Responsibility

In an attempt to alleviate poverty and empower poor people, many NGOs and government agencies have been providing credit and social services to rural women in the Kasoa district of Ghana. The goal of these credit schemes is to help the rural poor, especially women earn a living through their on-going income generating activities.

This study found that micro-credit programs are very helpful in empowering rural women to enhance their economic activities to meet the needs of their families as well as afford them the opportunity to contribute in household decisions.

This study concluded that micro-credit schemes empower rural women. …

Pesach N. Rubenstein Cheats The Hangman: A Case Study Of Punishment And The Death Penalty At Brooklyn’S Raymond Street Jail, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This paper tells the story of Pesach Rubenstein and how he cheated the hangman in 1876. Rubenstein was charged, tried, and convicted in Kings County, New York, for the 1875 murder of his 19 year-old cousin, Sarah Alexander. The Rubenstein case is noteworthy in that it received unprecedented media attention in the 1870s, involved the use of rudimentary forensic evidence at the trial, and divided the community on issues of religion, ethnicity, immigration (the victim and defendant were recent Jewish immigrants from Poland), and imposition of the death penalty. Using a case study approach to analyze the trial transcript, newspaper …

Exit Strategy: An Exploration Of Late-Stage Police Crime, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Tina L. Freiburger

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

There are no exhaustive statistics available on the crimes committed by law enforcement officers, and only a small number of studies provide specific data on police crimes. The purpose of the current study is to examine the character of police arrests known to the media. Cases were identified through a content analysis of news coverage using the internet-based Google^TM News search engine and its Google News Alerts search tool. The study focuses on the crimes committed by experienced officers who are approaching retirement. The occurrence of these late-stage crimes presents a challenge to existing assumptions regarding the relationship between …

Single Mothers, Single Fathers: Gender Differences In Fertility After A Nonmarital Birth, Karen Guzzo, Sarah Hayford

Sociology Faculty Publications

Research on nonmarital fertility has focused almost exclusively on unmarried mothers, due in part to a lack of fertility information for men. Cycle 6 of the National Survey of Family Growth allows exploration of nonmarital fertility for both genders. We compare the characteristics of unmarried first-time mothers (n = 2,455) and fathers (n = 797), use event history techniques to model second birth hazards, and examine the distribution of men’s and women’s second births across types of relationships. Our analysis is motivated by questions about how selection into nonmarital fertility relates to subsequent fertility behavior and by theories …

Asl: A Visual Language, Laura L. Wood Ph.D., Lmhc, Rdt_Bct, Miako Villanueva, Deanna Twain

Faculty Works: CMHC (2007-2015)

This chapter outlines the main concepts in the linguistic study of American Sign Language (ASL), a language used by deaf people in the United States and a large part of Canada. While the study of languages has been around for centuries, the vast majority of research has focused on spoken languages; approaching the signs used by deaf people as full-fledged, natural languages in their own right and therefore equally worthy of linguistic study is a relatively new concept. The first documented linguistic studies of signed language in the United States were carried out in the late 1950s and early 1960s …

We Call Ourselves By Many Names: Storytelling And Inter-Minority Coalition-Building, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Scholars debate whether new immigrants will join minority native-born groups, especially African-Americans, in battling racial disparities, income inequalities, and discrimination in the United States. Although scholars have investigated inter-minority coalition-building in the context of electoral politics, a substantial share of newer immigrant social and political action has not been formalized. Social change organizations play an integral role in less formalized politics. The article draws upon ethnographic data on two case study organizations to investigate how they built coalitions between immigrants and non-immigrants. It pinpoints the ways in which they engaged in storytelling to emphasize multiple identity – namely, how any …

Testing The Selective Chivalry Theory In Iowa : Gender Sentencing Of Rural Property Offenders, Maria Dorothy Herring Koeppel

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

During recent decades, sentencing patterns of offenders based on gender have been the topic of criminological and sociological research. There has been particular attention given to the lenient sentencing of female offenders compared to male offenders. Several research studies have found that gender affects the sentencing process in ways that are advantageous to female offenders, such as lower incarceration rates and shorter prison sentences. Despite the existing research on gender and sentencing, there are still several specific areas that need to be studied regarding this topic, such as property crimes and rural areas. The current research adds to the existing …

Conceptualizing Hybridity: Deconstructing Boundaries Through The Hybrid, Haj Yazdiha

Publications and Research

History has shown that the notion of hybridity has existed far before it was popularized in postcolonial theory. However, in this time after imperialism, globalization has both expanded the reach of Western culture, and has allowed a process by which the West constantly interacts with the East. This hybridity is evident in every snapshot of society, from trends in "fusion" cuisine to the adoption of Caribbean rhythms in popular music. Ethnic Americans are marked with hyphenated identities: "Indian-American," "Asian-American," illuminating the lived experience of ties to a dominant culture coinciding with the cultural codes of a third world culture. This …

Becoming European? Constructing Identity In Urban Regeneration Discourse In Ireland, Alan Gerard Bourke

Publications and Research

Drawing upon policy documents and interview data, this article critically assesses how the conservation, interpretation and promotion of built heritage is used as a categorical identity referent within urban regeneration discourse in Ireland. The paper is critical of two inter-related dynamics. First, it addresses the relation between "culture-led" urban regeneration and the construction of a "sense of place." Second, it problematizes parallel attempts to constitute a sanitized and marketable urbanism expressed via a rhetorical and contrived veneer of European identity. A fundamental premise of the discussion is that the challenge of articulating a coherent and "distinctive" sense of urban cultural …

Guest Editorial: On Method, Technorealism And Aesthetic Capitalism, Patricia Ticineto Clough

Publications and Research

The guest editorial excerpts the keynote address Professor Clough held at the First Annual Graduate Student Conference hosted by the Graduate Center's Sociology Students Association.

Commentary: Culture Of Poverty: Don't Call It A Comeback!, Marnie Brady, Kathleen Dunn, Jamie Mccallum

Publications and Research

Commentary on the culture of poverty argument.

Theory, History, And Methodological Positivism In The Anderson-Thompson Debate, Abraham Jacob Walker

Publications and Research

This article repositions the famous debate between Edward Thompson and Perry Anderson in relation to major figures of comparative-historical sociology. The author shows that the debate was — in the last instance — an argument about methodology.

The Critical Aesthetics Of Disorder: A Porteña Crisis Of Size, Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo

Publications and Research

In Argentina, contemporary notions of progress originate within the whitening projects of the nineteenth century. In this work I propose that the imprints of these Colonial modernization projects are still visible on the porteña body. For this reason I examine the Porteño fashion industry alongside the pervasive Barbie culture. I believe that Porteñas embody the national crisis of identity. I seek to pose the possibility — instead of arguing the fact — that the fashion industry's power over Porteñas (women who live in Buenos Aires Capital) toughened post the economic crisis of 2001. The reason for this is rooted in …

Editorial: Introducing Formations, The Formations Collective

Publications and Research

This journal is about the process of formation: the formation of our social worlds, and the formation of concepts we develop to understand and intervene in those worlds.

Environmental Crisis And Religious Rhetoric In Is God Green?, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

In the 2006 PBS documentary Is God Green?, Bill Moyers presents the emergence of two key contemporary trends in American political and religious life. The first is the growing popularity of an environmental movement within Christian evangelicalism called 'Creation Care'. Motivated by biblical passages that suggest humans have been 'commissioned' as stewards to care for the earth, or 'God's Body', Creation Care emerged in the late 1970s, gained momentum in the 1990s, and now 'constitutes the "fastest-growing form of Christian ministry"', according to the evangelical publication Christianity Today (Frame 1996:84, see also Psaros 2006:20-32). Is God Green? highlights what …

Wrongful Convictions In Singapore: A General Survey Of Risk Factors, Siyuan Chen, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article seeks to raise awareness about the potential for wrongful convictions in Singapore by analysing the factors commonly identified as contributing towards wrongful convictions in other jurisdictions, including institutional failures and suspect evidence. It also considers whether the social conditions in Singapore are favourable to discovering and publicising wrongful convictions. The authors come to the conclusion that Singapore does well on a number of fronts and no sweeping reforms are necessary However there are areas of risk viz the excessive focus on crime control rather than due process, which require some tweaking of the system.

From ‘Made In China’ To ‘Sold In China’, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Two years ago, I wrote about a special program called ‘Made in China’, produced by CNN in the wake of the tainted milk scandal. Last month, CNN started to air another ‘Made in China’ program. No it is not that the last program was so popular that they want to bring it back. Instead the new one is a thirty second commercial rumored to have been financed by China’s Ministry of Commerce (who later denied this) in an effort to promote Chinese products.

"The Urban Praetor's Tribunal" In Spaces Of Justice In The Roman World, Eric Kondratieff

History Faculty Publications

"Book abstract: Despite the crucial role played by both law and architecture in Roman culture, the Romans never developed a type of building that was specifically and exclusively reserved for the administration of justice: courthouses did not exist in Roman antiquity. The present volume addresses this paradox by investigating the spatial settings of Roman judicial practices from a variety of perspectives. Scholars of law, topography, architecture, political history, and literature concur in putting Roman judicature back into its concrete physical context, exploring how the exercise of law interacted with the environment in which it took place, and how the spaces …

The Politics Of The Romanticization Of Popular Culture, Or, Going Ga-Ga Over Pop Culture: A Critical Theory Assessment, Eric Bain-Selbo

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of The Romanticization Of Popular Culture, Or, Going Ga-Ga Over Pop Culture: A Critical Theory Assessment, Eric Bain-Selbo

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Arts Voices: Middle School Students And The Relationships Of The Arts To Their Motivation And Self-Efficacy, Heather Moorefield-Lang

The Qualitative Report

This study explores the question "Does arts education have a relationship to eighth-grade rural middle school students' motivation and self-efficacy?" Student questionnaires, focus-group interviews, and follow-up interviews were data collection methods used with 92 eighth-grade middle school students. Strong emphasis was placed on gathering personal narratives, comments, and opinions directly from the students. Content analysis was used to analyze the student interviews. Middle school students felt that there were both positive and negative relationships between their arts education classes and their motivation and self-efficacy. The students in this study had much to share on the arts courses offered in their …