Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The New Normal? Climate Variability And Ecoviolence In Sub-Saharan Africa, Alfonso Sanchez

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Climate change presents a wide range of concerns that can jeopardize international security. Among those concerns are neo-Malthusian worries of diminishing natural resources. Predictive models suggest that rainfall and temperature anomalies have the potential to reduce water basins, crop production, increase land degradation among other perils that threaten human security. This concern is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa given the region’s strong dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Despite strong claims from various world leaders and scientists of a direct climate-conflict nexus, little empirical evidence has been devoted to find a systematic causal pathway of this kind. What is more, the literature …

Parenting Style And Adolescent Gender As Moderators Of The Association Between Parental Restrictions And Adolescents' Risky Driving, Megan M. Zeringue

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teenage deaths in the United States, highlighting the need for ways to reduce teenage driver crash rates. Adolescents (n = 176, M age = 16.4 years, 53% female) and their parents (n = 204, 71% mothers) self-reported on parenting style, driving restrictions, and risky driving. Results showed that more parental restrictions were associated with less adolescent risky driving. Three-way interactions were found such that more restrictions were associated with less concurrent risky driving in boys only under conditions of high parental warmth, structure, or autonomy support. Parenting style generally did …

The Media And Candidate Popularity During The 2012 And 2016 Elections, Aleksandra Szczesna

Student Research Submissions

The media has been the prevalent source of political information to voters for decades. Meanwhile, negativity in the press has grown as reporters investigate political candidates and often criticize them to try to come up with attention-grabbing news stories. During this time of increasing negativity in the news, do political candidates running for office benefit from media coverage? It is important to determine whether the media has an effect on candidate popularity and if it influences voter opinion during election years. This paper describes the media's relationship with political candidates running for office and the power of the media in …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Micro-Level Poverty Interventions In The Highlands Of Guatemala, Jacqueline A. Castro

Master's Theses

Despite immense efforts of poverty alleviation in the Western highlands of Guatemala, poverty is intense and widespread. Amidst an abundant array of poverty interventions, existing evidence on those interventions are not sufficient. Highlighting basic knowledge regarding impact evaluations, this paper aims to determine the most effective poverty intervention for the Western highland areas of Guatemala. Focusing on impact evaluations, this paper reviews 17 Latin American interventions, paying close attention to what may be applicable to this region. Using only the highest quality data from Latin America, it is clear that cash transfers and graduation programs are the most impactful interventions …

Stigmatizing Attitudes Towards Men And Women Combat Veterans With Combat Related Ptsd, Heather L. Caldwell

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Veterans with PTSD experience stigma and discrimination. The extent to which women combat veterans with PTSD may experience stigma and discrimination has yet to be investigated. This is critical given the increasing number of women veterans exposed to combat and combat trauma. Level of familiarity may affect stigmatizing beliefs. Gender may also affect stigmatizing beliefs. To assess this, 126 undergraduate students (men, n = 69) were randomly assigned to view videos of a man or woman veteran describing combat experience and their PTSD symptoms. Participants completed questionnaires assessing PTSD symptoms, level of familiarity with veterans, and stigmatizing attitudes toward the …

The Evolving Security Policy Of Japan And The Adherence To Antimilitarism Culture, Chaula Rininta Anindya

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

Japan has reinterpreted Article 9 as the fundamental constitution of their antimilitarist culture and shows its willingness to play a more active role in the International security. This article seeks to examine the changes of Japan’s security and the potential shift of antimilitarist strategic culture, arguing that despite the continuous changes, Japan has not changed its strategic culture due to perpetual debates within the domestic politics that are vital in shaping the security identity. The changing security practices are merely a natural response to the current dynamic of International security environments. Therefore, it remains unlikely for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe …

Contesting Global Civil Society’S Legitimacy Claims: Evaluating International Non-Governmental Organizations (Ingos)’ Representation Of And Accountability To Beneficiaries, Cazadira Fediva Tamzil

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

The global civil society is often regarded as a progressive moral force that provides advocacy and protection of marginalized groups in the global political arena. Nevertheless, departing from the belief that civil society has great power and influence over global dynamics, it sees that the legitimacy claims they articulate and articulated by academics are essential to be evaluated, especially with regard to their representation and accountability groups and individual beneficiaries. This paper concludes that the claims of legitimacy of civil society are less justifiable, both normatively and empirically. From the normative point of view, claims for civil society representation are …

Kerja Sama Pembangunan Korea Selatan Di Vietnam Dalam Pengembangan Area Pedesaan Melalui Model Saemaul Undong, Indah Lestari

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

In this last decade, a closed cooperation of rural development “Saemaul Undong” between South Korea and Vietnam has been formed. Saemaul Undong is a success model of South Korea’s rural development. Along with it, question related to the possibility of adopting Saemaul Undong by developing countries arises. With this regard, this research attempts to explain the reasons why this cooperation has been formed. By using concept of cooperation, this research tries to observe the existence of goals and benefits in “Saemaul Undong” cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam. Result of this research affirmed that goals and benefits spurred “Saemaul Undong” …

How Threat Assessment Could Become Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Case Of U.S.-China Relations, Muhamad Arif

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

This article tries to explain how misperception can trigger conflict between countries. The article would employ spiral model of conflict proposed by Robert Jervis as a theoretical framework to scrutinize contemporary US and Chinese contemporary competition. As a result, this paper shows how threat assessment could trigger a spiral of conflict through state’s tendency to overestimate threat level and its failure to perceive that defensive behavior can be interpreted as offensive by the belligerent. Based on this analysis, the probability of conflicts can be reduced as each country tries to comprehend motivations that drive other behavior, perceptions and reactions that …

Reviewing Literature On Gender Using Found Poetry And Dramatic Script, Dorothy Morrissey

The Qualitative Report

In this article, derived from the literature review chapter of her doctoral dissertation, the author presents a variation on what Prendergast (2006) calls found poetry as literature review. Her writing experiment is intended to reflect the dynamism of her “conversations” with the theoretical literature with which she engaged before and during the dissertation project: an intervention in the gender narratives of postgraduate student teachers. She does not, however, see theory as confined to academic literature and her conversations extend into poetry as well. In her conversations, the author engages with a wide range of texts in performance studies and feminist …

The Political Economy Of Conflict In Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Côte D'Ivoire: Foreign Economic Intervention And The Spatial Distribution Of Violent Conflict, Sarai-Anne N. Ikenze

Master's Theses

Between 1989 and 2011, the three neighboring West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire each experienced at least one major civil conflict; and the combined devastation of the conflicts claimed over a million lives, generated millions of refugees, and crippled infrastructure in ways that continue to impact the development of the sub-region today. The occurrence of conflict in the three countries and the fact that they share borders has raised questions about whether the conflicts were caused by domestic factors or were the result of transborder processes of conflict diffusion. This paper will assess the causes of …

How Drugs And Incarceration Tore One Family Apart, Deonna Anderson

Capstones

My capstone project follows the life of a mother and her children after her addiction to drugs and a prison sentence. It explores the impact of the criminal justice system on women and families.

Link to capstone project: http://deonnareports.com/2016/12/12/how-drugs-and-incarceration-tore-one-family-apart/

Beyond The Cloth: Exploring How Women Are Represented In Human Rights Organizations Through Bangladesh's Garment Industry, Briawna Gillespie

Master's Theses

Understanding Beyond the Cloth

This thesis conducts a textual analysis of several human rights organizations. It looks at how human rights organizations represent women in the garment industry. I investigate a variety of organizations and look at how they utilize women’s voices to demonstrate how human rights organizations frame women’s narratives in a way that supports their own claims. When organizations representing women in this way, it only limits women’s voices from being heard and hinders them from being empowered and a leading force in the industry. On the one hand, we see organizations create spaces where women’s narratives are …

A Perspective On Electronic Alternatives To Traditional Currencies, Gabriele Camera

ESI Working Papers

The institution of money is rapidly evolving thanks to developments in computer-based cryptography. Technological advances have made possible the creation of cost-effective electronic alternatives to banknotes and coins, which are the traditional physical currencies. This document aims to describe — based on scientific literature — the use and characteristics of money, some of the problems associated with issuing a new currency or a new payment instrument, and the possible comparative advantages of a central bank in leading the way relative to private issuers.

Anywhere And Everywhere: Third Cultured Kids And Their ‘Stabilizing Factors’, Aman D. Singh Mr.

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this research is to explore the significance of the Third Culture Kid (TCK) and the impact their ‘stabilizing factors’ or ‘constants’ have on their occupation outcome. Third Culture Kid is a term used for people who have travelled and lived in many different countries during their development years. Within that definition there are other subgroups such as: Bi/multi-cultural and/or bi/multi-racial families, immigrants, international adoptees, refugees and Domestic TCKs or CCKs. Ever since the term was first coined by Ruth Hill Useem, a sociologist, in the early 50s, there have been more and more families having the TCK …

Multi Identity Conflict: A Case Study Of Sudanese Refugees And Asylum Seekers In Jordan, William C. Clifton Jr.

Capstone Collection

This inquiry was a completed as part of the requirements for earning a Master's of Arts degree in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation for the student William Clifton at SIT Graduate Institute. It was an independent practitioner inquiry based on the methodology of Grounded Theory that utilized qualitative research by way of in depth interviews and a focus group to understand how the identity shaped the experience of Sudanese migrants living in Jordan. In addition to these qualitative methods, a review of the literature was conducted on Sudanese populations in Sudan and in outside communities to help guide the process and …

Does Attentional Slippage Conform To A Simple Gradient?, Katie Rennie

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The following graduate thesis describes research designed to examine flanker interference at varying spatial distances from a target stimulus. Traditionally, much evidence has accumulated that the distribution of visual attention conforms to a monotonically decreasing gradient in which distractors at the farthest separations produce the least interference (e.g., Erikson & St. James, 1986). Different from this traditional conceptualization, Müller, Mollenhauer, Rösler, and Kleinschmidt (2005) describe what they termed a Mexican hat distribution of visual attention showing flankers at an intermediate zone produce less interference. The current study is designed to investigate whether flanker interference declines monotonically with distance or follows …

History In Collaboration: Equalizing The Arts And The Humanities In San Francisco, Nicole C. Meldahl

Master's Projects and Capstones

Historically, there has been a critical imbalance in the way history and preservation organizations are civically supported in comparison with the amount of funding that is available to arts organizations in the United States. To correct this imbalance in San Francisco, I propose the creation of a San Francisco Department of Culture that would place the San Francisco Arts Commission equally alongside a San Francisco History Commission within a department that absorbs responsibilities currently managed by other divisions with in city government, such as the Planning Department and the Office and Economic and Workforce Development. City government necessarily takes time …

Doula Support As A Means To Improve Birth Outcomes For Minority Women, Christina Bao Ngoc Thich

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ethnic minorities such as African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics, Laotions, Hmongs, and Alaskan Natives have higher rates of cesarean delivery, pre-term birth, fetal demise, perinatal laceration, and congenital abnormalities than their white counterparts. Continuous labor support by way of doula care has been recommended for all pregnant women as a means to prevent adverse birth outcomes. Despite this, the population most in need of such support in unable to access doula services due to low socioeconomic status, availability of services, and cultural inaccessibility. This paper focuses on my capstone experience with UCSF and Roots of Labor Birth Collective as we …

Emigration, Repatriation And The Reality Of Returned Youth In El Salvador, Isabel C. Duarte Vasquez

Master's Theses

According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 59 thousand unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) have been detained at the US border, of those 59 thousand, 17 thousand are from El Salvador. El Salvador is home to some of the most dangerous and ruthless gangs of the twenty-first century. Their ruthlessness comes from 1980s guerrilla warfare experience. In addition, El Salvador serves as a transshipment point for illicit substances from South America into Mexico. These dynamics fuel the homicide rate of the region as local gang members must protect their territory by any means …

Mental Health Workout: Lifting Stigma, Jeremy Bambery

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mental illness affects one out of every five Americans between the ages 13-18, and it is estimated that two-thirds of these individuals will not seek treatment due to the stigma associated with having a mental illness or mental health issue (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Access to information and the ability to talk openly without fear will aid in creating a stigma free future. The goal of this project is to supply high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area with information regarding the stigma associated with mental health and mental illness via videos that will be used as …

The Ethics Behind Efficiency, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

The normative elements underlying efficiency are more complex than generally portrayed, and rely upon ethical frameworks that are generally absent from classroom discussions. Most textbooks, for example, ignore the ethical differences between Pareto efficiency (based on voluntary win-win outcomes) and the modern Kaldor-Hicks efficiency used in public policy assessments (in which winners gain more than losers lose). For the latter to be ethically palatable, society must have in place basic institutions of justice, transparency, and accountability. Normative economics thus requires a pluralist approach that includes considerations of virtue and duty, closer to Adam Smith’s Enlightenment conceptions. This surprising finding should …

Sperner's Lemma, The Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem, The Kakutani Fixed Point Theorem, And Their Applications In Social Sciences, Ayesha Maliwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Can a cake be divided amongst people in such a manner that each individual is content with their share? In a game, is there a combination of strategies where no player is motivated to change their approach? Is there a price where the demand for goods is entirely met by the supply in the economy and there is no tendency for anything to change? In this paper, we will prove the existence of envy-free cake divisions, equilibrium game strategies and equilibrium prices in the economy, as well as discuss what brings them together under one heading.

This paper examines three …

The Psychological Impacts Of Engaging In Creative Work, Jeanine Kunshek

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Although the literature investigating creativity is extensive, this research is designed to address deficits in knowledge regarding the first-hand accounts of individuals who engage in creative work and the motivations and gratifications they draw from those experiences. This study employs the use of in vivo analysis to articulate and explore the benefits and disadvantages of individuals who pursue careers in five creative industries identified by Taylor and Littleton (2012). Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups and interviews, most frequent benefits include social connections, cognitive challenges, boosted esteem, communication, and personal and professional development. Disadvantages include time demands, lack …

If It Feels Good, View It: Selective Exposure And Desensitization Moderate The Association Between Video Gameplay And Pleasure-Oriented Aggression, Mejdy M. Jabr

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A number of studies have indicated that violent video gameplay is associated with higher levels of aggression, and desensitization to violent content contributes to this association. Utilizing a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, the current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate selective attention (N1 activation), cognitive control (N2 activation), and desensitization (P3 activation) as neurocognitive mechanisms potentially underlying the association between gameplay and subtypes of aggression. Results showed video game players and non-players differed significantly in brain activation when engaged with violent imagery. N1 and P3 amplitude moderated the association between gameplay and pleasure-oriented aggression. Follow-up analyses further …

Supervision Experiences Of School Counselors-In-Training: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Anita M. Pool

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Students pursuing a master’s degree in CACREP-accredited school counseling programs are required to complete supervised field experiences as a part of their course requirements. During their practicum and internships experiences, they receive university supervision by a faculty member or doctoral student supervisor, as well as site supervision at the placement site, typically from a school counselor. University supervisors may lack experience in school counseling and knowledge of the unique roles and supervision needs of school counselors. In addition, site supervisors may lack training or knowledge of clinical supervision. Furthermore, the multiple systems in which SCITs function may have differing goals …

Wabanaki Access To Sweetgrass (Hierochloe Odorata) Within Coastal Maine's Diminishing Open Land Tradition, Amanda Marie Ellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nontimber forest products (NTFPs), refer to a class of resources (i.e. moss, fungi, mushrooms, plants, etc.) gathered in both rural and urban landscapes. NTFPs are utilized by a variety of cultures all over the world and are a critical part of medicinal, spiritual, dietary, and economic practices. In fact, some NTFP species are so critical to people that they are considered ‘cultural keystone species’ (Garibaldi and Turner 2004). This designation means that without access to the NTFP, cultural survival is at risk. This is the case in Maine where the Wabanaki, a confederacy of four tribes (Passamaqouddy, Penobscot, Mikmaq, and …

Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Worry, And Problem-Solving: Implications For Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Melissa Patrick

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the correlations between Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), worry, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and problem-solving. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire for DSM-IV (GADQ-IV), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS), and the Problem-Solving Inventory (PSI) were used to assess the relationship between GAD, worry, IU, and problem-solving. While the GADQ-IV, PSWQ, and the IUS assessed generalized anxiety, worry, and intolerance of uncertainty as single constructs, the PSI assessed problem-solving in terms of problem-solving confidence, approach avoidance style, and personal control. Data of 86 students in general psychology classes at Pittsburg …

"Who Am I?": The Development Of A Male Palestinian Political Identity, Tala J. Dayyat

Master's Theses

The Palestinian people have lived under numerous imperial rulers; first, the Ottoman Empire, then later the British. Today they live under the military occupation of the state of Israel as second class citizen millions more living abroad as refugees. Young Palestinian men have become the leaders and the physical manifestation of the struggle against Israel, a political Goliath that has used tactics to repress the Palestinians such as, detentions, beatings, and land confiscation, which many outside of the Israeli state deem as illegal. Scholar Rashid Khalidi states that “the quintessential Palestinian experience, which illustrates some of the most basic issues …

An Analysis Of Mongolia’S Resource-Led Development: The Impact Of Foreign Direct Investment In The Extraction Industry, Belguun Bat-Erdene

Master's Theses

It has been 26 years since Mongolia transitioned to democracy. I decided to evaluate the progress of Mongolia’s development since the transition to evaluate whether the country of only 3 million people with vast land and natural resources successfully implemented policies to attain growth and societal wellbeing. In order to evaluate Mongolia’s development progress, this thesis uses FDI in Mongolian development since 1990 as a case study to examine the relationship between FDI, state development strategies, and development outcomes. My research questions encompass a series of interrelated inquiries including 1) whether human development can be achieved through extraction industries 2) …