Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Portland State 20/20 Newsletter, Strategic Planning Development Team, Portland State University. Office Of The President

Newsletters

This issue of the newsletter describes current activities related to the strategic planning process, including creation of a new vision statement and revision of PSU's mission statement.

Spartan Daily, December 10, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 143, Issue 41

The Highly Political Supreme Court, Riley Lane Munks

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This paper investigates whether Republicans or Democrats support a strong Supreme Court and why. Furthermore, by analyzing data from the 2012 American National Election Survey, I will study support of the court based on gender, age, and race. Since the early 1980’s the court has taken a strong conservative direction, to the dismay of many liberals. Republicans feel comfortable sending a congressional dispute to the courts while Democrats may feel disenfranchised with the judicial process. I also believe that younger people believe the court is an outdated method of making laws and interpreting the constitution. Originally the Supreme Court was …

Technology And Political Participation, Chris Molina

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The most efficient way to get people to take action has always been a big topic of discussion when it comes to political mobilization. Technology has greatly affected the way that people mobilize; it has created a platform for people to have easier access to those of like minds. With social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter it is very easy in today's era to get your point across to thousands of people and if need be mobilize them into a political rally or protest. It is important to see if technology has actually had an impact in the …

Who Do You Trust?: An Analysis Of Public Perception Towards Government, Pilar Fabregas

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This paper will discuss how the American people’s trust in their government can vary depending on different sociopolitical factors, and how the government could take advantage of this information. Through extensive research of literature reviews on previous findings as well as analysis of 2012 ANES data, I discover that the American public responds negatively to their government with an increased perception of corruption and overall disregard to the needs of the people. I will also add to the common literature by utilizing other scholarly works that demonstrate how these explanations behind distrust in government can be used to potentially improve …

Gender, War, And Politics, Madeline Robinson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This research explores the gender gap amongst female and male voters and its correlation with the Democratic Party’s platform on foreign policy. The political orientation of women during the 1980’s reversed and shifted towards the left, and this research will investigate if this was caused by female voters’ opinions of the parties on their foreign policy platforms. The theory of conflict avoidance states females are more likely than males to avoid conflict, and this theory can be used to determine whether females feel more represented by the Democratic Party compared to the Republican Party. The foreign policy platform of the …

Factors That Shape U.S. Public Opinion On Foreign Policy, Julianne O'Connor

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Measuring public opinion is an undertaking requiring precise methods and a clear vision, and even then results can be inconclusive. Yet, understanding how and why a democratic public thinks the way it does, and to what extent those thoughts influence policymakers, is essential to a democracy. This paper will use data from the American National Election Survey to discuss the relationship between level of support for the war on terror and level of perceived effectiveness. Values, political sophistication, knowledge, and self-efficacy can each be used to predict the level of support an individual has for the war on terror, and …

The Dream Of The Theatre Is Alive In Portland: The Potential Of A New Company To Succeed, Amaya Santamaria

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

According to the 2013 census there are approximately 609,456 people living in Portland, Oregon. There is no demographic data tabulated for 2013, however a look at the 2010 statistics can help paint a picture of Portland and its racial and educational make up. That year, 76.1% of people identified as “white alone.” The African American population constituted 6.3% and the Hispanic 9.4%. While it is true that, typically, Caucasian audiences make up the majority of theatre attendees, perhaps more telling are the statistics regarding education. In Portland, 43.1% of people hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to the 29.2% …

The Psychology Of Performance: A Growing Art, Shaina Hammer

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Somehow, though Chapman University is relatively small, there is a great deal of distance between each of its academic fields; the actors don't know what the music building looks like, the musicians have no idea what the dramatists are up to, and no one has any idea where the dance classes are held. But not only do the students of Chapman University's College of Performing Arts not know one another, they don't understand one another. More than once I have encountered a student with the same self-confidence issue as another. Without a doubt, performance majors have a lot to talk …

Arts For Instigating Social Change: Truth Behind The Sinking Of The Mv Sewol, Ivy Kwon

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Art appeals to the audience by delivering a message that results in a social change. Regardless of which form it is, it is the “means [by] which a society reminds itself of the stories it wants to remember.” The year of 2014 has seen a series of unexpected accidents worldwide that used arts to incite an issue. For instance, there was a tragic accident in South Korea that resulted sinking a ferry that carried 476 people. Among them were 300 high school students that were on their way to the field trip. From this accident, there were nearly 300 lives …

The Relationship Between The American Government And Society: Congressman John O’Connor And New York’S 16th District During The Great Depression, Kristine Avena

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This research focuses on the interaction between a Congressman and his constituents and how this interaction reflects the larger conversation between the American government and its people. By examining the interrelationship between a political representative and New York’s 16th District between 1931 and 1951, I clarify the role and efforts policy makers made in response to urban societies’ concerns. The two decades studied in this dissertation consists of the post-Prohibition phase, Great Depression, and New Deal programming. The collection I analyze is the “John J. O’Connor Collection” from the Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections at Chapman University, which …

Challenging Conventional Campaign Wisdom, Bradley Joyner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The common wisdom in political campaigns is that the most effective way to get people to vote is by sending people out into neighborhoods and going to people’s doors, personally encouraging them to vote. This method, canvassing, is undoubtedly effective in getting people to feel like their vote matters, and then getting them to actually vote. It is also incredibly expensive. While other methods may be less effective by percentage, they maybe more cost-effective and allow campaigns to reach a broader base. Further, the ineffectiveness of these campaign strategies may be mitigated by multiple means of voter outreach, such as …

Meeting The Challenge Of Focused Collection Development At A Federal Regional Depository, Sandra Mcaninch, Heath Martin

Library Presentations

The University of Kentucky (UK) is participating as a Center of Excellence (COE) for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries‘ (ASERL) Collaborative Federal Depository Program (CFDP). This collaborative effort is designed to distribute collection development for all Federal agencies across the entire Southeast.

We will describe how all depositories are working together to ensure that there are at least two complete collections for each federal agency somewhere in the Southeast, and how UK has focused its depository collection development efforts on non-COE agencies.

American Identity And Party Affiliation, Erika Aranda

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The face of the United States is changing. In a nation where the majority of the population belongs to a minority group, defining the national American identify has become a complex task. This essay focuses on the correlation between the degree of attachment to the American identity and how it plays a large role in dictating party affiliation. Political culture (defined here as the shared beliefs and values as to how citizens and the government relate to one another) in the United States is extremely varied throughout the nation due to demographic diversity. A person’s identity is socially and politically …

Why Youth Voters Have Lower Participation, Christine Lathrop, Shaia Araghi

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The turnout rate for young adults in elections succeeding 1964 has significantly diminished. This derives as a result of the methods that the candidates use to reach out to young voters, the agenda being debated or the political climate at the time accompanied by the feeling of political efficacy. This research project delves into the major reasons behind why there has been a low voter turnout rate, that being under fifty percent of those in this age category, for young adults, those being 18 – 24, in presidential elections. This particularly investigates the reasoning for the 2012 election being such …

Atomic Weapons Program, Soviet, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a history of the Soviet Union and Russian Federation's nuclear weapons program. It emphasizes the role of espionage in acquiring this capability, personalities such as Igor Kurchatov and Andrei Sakharov, this arsenal's multifaceted capabilities, arms control treaties with the U.S., the Nunn-Lugar Agreement, the environmental damage caused by this program, and the continuing role of nuclear weapons in Russian national security.

Abm (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an historic overview of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty which existed between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russian Federation between 1972-2001.

Army, Russian (1991-), Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a history of the Russian Army from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until the "annexation" of Crimea in 2014. Places emphasis on this force's strengths and weaknesses, military operations during this period, and emerging security challenges.

Civil Unrest And Collective Violence In France: A Historical Comparative Analysis, Kenneth Arsenault

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Civil unrest as a precursor for collective violence to erupt is analyzed using historic events in France. The theoretical background for collective violence is outlined, along with a discussion of the origin of crowd behavior by Le Bon. By analyzing historic events in a single country, the variable of differing cultural contexts is eliminated. Four cases of events that led to collective violence ranging across time from the late 18th century to the late 20th century are analyzed in detail to determine the causal mechanisms that led the crowds to become violent. A comparison of the cases leads to a …

“Can You Hear Me? Do You Care?”: The Police As Agents Of Social Control Against Black Women In The U.S., Desiree Greenhouse

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study centered around determining if law enforcement is a new mechanism of social control which targets Black women in a distinct way. Social control are those processes that work in society through various mechanisms in order to regulate groups into certain conformity. Social control against Black Americans has taken violent form through the institutions of slavery, lynching and police brutality. However, a significantly gendered pattern of social control, which has its history in racialized narratives, has made Black women’s experience with police distinct in America. Theory was grounded in a general Marxian principium through Joseph Gusfield as well as …

Adjusting Learning Parameters To Increase Cognitive Resource Allocation In Persons With Alcoholism Risk, Brooke Snelgrove, Taylor Stephens, Yasmin Akbari, Reyn Yoshiura, Lilian Andrade

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Parental history of alcoholism is associated with increased alcoholism risk in their children. One factor increasing alcoholism risk is the presence of attention and information encoding disruptions in adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) compared to persons who are not ACOAs (NACOA). Alcohol ingestion reduces these disruptions in ACOAs. This study examined whether alterations of information processing parameters can function like alcohol and reduce processing disruptions experienced by the ACOA. Participants were 80 ACOAs and 80 NACOAs, partitioned into four groups of 20 participants. During learning, subjects studied presentations of stimulus items followed by the presentation of associated response items. The …

Hair: A Discussion Of Performative American Masculinities, Adam Lee

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The presence of male facial and body hair is not a fad that has simply come to forefront of men’s grooming standards in a few short years. Dating back to the beginnings of America hair has been cut,shaved, and plucked off the bodies of men. Hair has had the ability to connote power and presence, or poverty and homelessness. No matter the social, political, or economic status of the male, his identity can (and has) been expressed through hair. In “Hair: An Analysis of Masculine Aesthetics”, I examine the history of the performance of masculinity and the grooming standards that …

A Preliminary Study Of Distracted Driving, Sarina Karwande, Ashley Nieto, Lauren Rhodes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report distracted driving is a “problem on the rise” with increasing numbers injuries and deaths each year. More than 9 people are killed each day while more than 1,153 people are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. Specifically, the number one killer of adolescents (ages 15-24) is automobile related deaths due to distracted driving. One of the most dangerous forms of distracted driving is texting while driving because it combines all three types of distraction: visual, manual, and cognitive. Texting and driving is a growing public safety hazard as seen through media and …

Sensuality, Camels, And Islam: Disney Music And American Perception Of The Middle Eastern Experience, Laura Schildbach

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In a world that is constantly changing and becoming more open to diversity and equality, filmmakers are faced with the challenge of presenting films and characters that embrace the ever-evolving world around us. In particular, Disney has been presented with this challenge; as a cinema powerhouse with an audience primarily made up of children, there is a perception that Disney has a moral responsibility to present accurate and unbiased representations of all cultures. This paper will analyze how Disney musically represents the Middle East in two Disney feature films, Aladdin and Prince of Persia, and how the musical choices affect …

Mind+Body: An Ethnodrama About Adolescent And Young Adult Oncology, Jake Russell Thompson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The first thing many people think of as a “cancer patient” tends to be an elderly person, or perhaps a child too young to understand what’s happening — pink ribbons and fundraising walks, weak and feeble bodies too sick and delicate to function. These notions of a “quintessential cancer patient” are both limiting in their scope of what the disease actually is, and isolating to younger people going through it. For people who don’t fit this predetermined idea of the psychological, physical, and emotional development of a cancer patient (specifically, the seventeen to thirty-five age range), isolation becomes another side …

Devising: Improving A Perceived Glistening Community!, Katie Laner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Theatre for social change has long relied on devising methods to create pieces reflecting current cultural and societal issues. Through exercises, games and workshops, theatre for social change devising practices are as distinct and numerous as the many different communities they work with. The leading pioneer, Augusto Boal, created Theatre of the Oppressed, which utilizes many kinds of practices meant to address local issues effecting a group of people who have suffered from repression or whose needs have been invisible from greater society.Since his initial groundbreaking theories and practices, many modern artists and groups have adapted and changed his methods …

Inside The Boudoir: Designing The World Of Lynn Nottage’Sintimate Apparel, Megan Parish

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Scenic artistry and set decorating help build the world of a production and reinforce the themes woven into the plot of a script. For my project, I will be exploring the world of Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel.” This will include researching the historical context of the piece, which in this case is New York City at the turn of the century, alongside the role of the seamstress in society, in order to accurately convey the environment of this piece. Lynn Nottage’s piece is based in socioeconomic statuses, attitudes on race and femininity as well as women’s rights movements. Therefore, I …

Duverger’S Law And Strategic Voting In Large Scale Elections, Caleb Sturges

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

After Felsenthal DS, Rapoport A, Maoz Z (1988) experimental research on Duverger’s Law and Strategic Voting has become commonplace, but the research lacks saliency on one particular metric: Voter Number. We test both of these hypotheses in an environments with “large” numbers of simulated voting participants starting from the standard 24 human subject election and going to the average number of voters in the US 2014 election- 230,000. To protect against the effects of priming the subject’s strategies with the votes of the machine, the behavior of the simulated voters (represented by the voting behavior’s Sincere, Strategic or Dominated) is …

The Marriage Market: The Mail-Order Bride Industry In The United States!, Penelope Burner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The international bride market has generated more than 2 billion dollars in 2010 in the United States alone. The concept of a “mail-order bride” is one that dates back to the founding of the United States. Many people believe this practice to be antiquated, but with the addition of technology, this industry has become very prevalent in modern society. I will examine the effects the mail order bride industry has had on views regarding women in the United States, Asia and Europe and show how this industry still has relevance today. I will track the way this industry has shaped …

Iran’S Attempt To Reverse Declining Population, Ashley Broderick

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Iran has a declining population and is taking steps to reverse this problem. This declining population is due to family planning laws being introduced and the population has been shifting into more urban areas. The steps being taken to reverse this problem include: banning vasectomies and other forms of permanent sterilization, banning advertisements that promote decreasing the birth rate, creating more strict abortion laws, and launching a campaign to encourage citizens to have more children. These changes will effect citizens by increasing the number of illegal and unsafe medical procedures and force women back into domestic situations and out of …