Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Judicial Behavior And The Miranda Doctrine: A Question-Level Analysis, Gretchen Edelman

Honors Theses

The attitudinal model of the Supreme Court is now a well accepted and valid way to explain the voting behavior of justices, as judicial prefer- ences dictate the eventual voting that occurs in cases. While many studies have looked at overall judicial ideologies through a variety of different mea- sures, this paper is the first that looks at judicial ideology and determines preferences within a single doctrine through a question level analysis us- ing ideal point estimation. To explore this measure of ideology inside a single-issue area I use the Miranda doctrine and its progeny cases to score judicial votes …

Organizational Supports Used By Private Child And Family Serving Agencies To Facilitate Evidence Use: A Mixed Methods Study Protocol, Emmeline Chuang, Crystal Collins-Camargo, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Challenges to evidence use are well documented. Less well understood are the formal supports—e.g., technical infrastructure, inter-organizational relationships—organizations may put in place to help overcome these challenges. This study will identify supports for evidence use currently used by private child and family serving agencies delivering publicly funded behavioral health and/or human services; examine contextual, organizational, and managerial factors associated with use of such supports; and determine how identified supports affect evidence use by staff at multiple levels of the organization. Methods: We will use a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, with study activities occurring in two sequential phases: In …

Student-Perceived Quality Of Motivational Interviewing Training: A Factor-Analytic Study, Douglas Smith, Melinda Hohman, Stéphanie Wahab, Trevor Manthey

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: This study developed and tested a student-report measure of motivational interviewing (MI) teaching quality called the Evaluation of Motivational Interviewing Teaching (EMIT) scale.

Method: Social work students (N = 297) receiving course content on motivational interviewing completed the EMIT, and exploratory factor analysis investigated whether theory-based dimensions of teaching emerged as EMIT subscales, including: interactivity/skill building, MI content coverage, modeling MI during teaching, trainee autonomy violation, and encouraging ongoing training in MI.

Results: Two subscales emerged representing MIconsistent (28 items, α = .92) and MI-inconsistent teaching practices (7 items, α = .73).

Conclusions: Although more …

Understanding The Experience Of Immigration Among Adult Mexican-Born Males Living In The United States: An Exploration Of Grief, Loss, And Coping, Mauricio B. Ortiz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study uses psychoanalytic object relations theory to understand and analyze the lived experiences of adult Mexican males which will include the psychological meaning of loss and grief resulting from immigrating into the United States. The literature review illustrates and serves as a guide to broaden the understanding of the complex psychological and emotional processes that adult Mexican immigrants experience when faced with the reality of adapting to a host-culture. Participants were interviewed through a descriptive phenomenological approach seeking a complete description of their lived immigration experiences of grief, loss, and coping. After analysis of the transcriptions, several notable themes …

From Disposable Culture To Disposable People: Teaching About The Unintended Consequences Of Plastics, Sasha Adkins

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Plastics, the epitome of disposable culture, pose both a toxicological and a spiritual problem. This dissertation examines plastics at a molecular level using the discourse of endocrine disruption, and at a sociological level using the discourses of eco-theology and environmental justice. Adding to the literature on the adsorption of toxicants to plastic marine debris, I demonstrate that certain types of plastic -- those containing mercaptans, such as styrene butadiene block copolymer -- efficiently concentrate methyl mercury from seawater. Further, samples of polycarbonate contributed mercury to seawater. I propose the term plastic-mediated magnification to describe the phenomenon that plastics, along with …

Reducing Adolescent Anger And Aggression With Biofeedback: A Mixed-Methods Multiple Case Study, Jedidiah S. Savard

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Adolescent anger, aggression, and violent outbursts are social problems significantly affecting each of us. Individual therapeutic management of pathological anger is treated in various ways depending on practitioners’ theoretical orientations and competency levels. Popular psychological individual and group therapies addressing anger and aggression in adolescents focus primarily on cognitive-behavioral techniques that manage anger’s symptoms. Evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapies often require clients to self-identify emerging antecedents of anger without assistance; such therapies employ predetermined strategies to assist the client to emotionally de-escalate prior to an angry or aggressive episode. However, cognitive responses to an emotional upheaval stemming from an emergence of anger …

Heritage, Not Hate: The Mississippi State Flag As A Conduit Of Colorblind Racism, Jenna Bailey

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which students at the University of Mississippi employ colorblind racism in their justifications for keeping Mississippi state flag. Arguments have been made that the state flag is about history and heritage, not hate. It is this history that has led to two different meanings being associated with the flag: one about heritage and one about hate. Through an online, self-administered survey, the goal is to assess students' levels of colorblind racism and observe the arguments used in an open-ended question about their attitudes on the flag. This qualitative data …

Group Equine Assisted Therapy: A Novel Approach For Treating Adolescents Diagnosed With Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Nicole C. Wozniak

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a pervasive form of mental illness which affects millions of youth ages 12-18. It is characterized by a frequent and persistent pattern of angry mood, defiant behavior, and/or vindictiveness. Teenagers afflicted with ODD are often unwilling to participate in treatment and have difficulty responding to traditional therapy models. The current "Best Practices" model for treating ODD is extensive family therapy. As of today, there is no Best Practice method for providing direct treatment to the young people themselves. Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) has been found to be qualitatively effective in reducing ODD symptoms in the …

The Influence Of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Families, Neighborhoods, And School Environments On Cognitive Outcomes Among Schoolchildren, Mark William Olofson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Schools, families, and neighborhoods can support the development of happy, healthy children and adolescents. However, a majority of children in the United States also experience adversity in their early lives that can have deleterious effects on their cognitive and socioemotional development. Measuring and modeling early adversity is fundamental to understanding development as it occurs through interactions with schools, families and neighborhoods. As outlined by Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development, proximal and distal forces shape development, and cannot be isolated when relating measures of the developmental context to outcomes for individuals. For schools and other social programs to support students …

Comparing The Effects Of Menthol Status On The Behavioral Pharmacology Of Smoking Reduced Nicotine Content Cigarettes, Danielle Davis

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: An active area of tobacco regulatory science research focuses on examining the effects of varying the nicotine content of cigarettes as part of a potential national policy to lower their nicotine content levels to reduce addiction potential. The present study examines differences in the behavioral effects of reduced nicotine content cigarettes related to their menthol status. Menthol is the only cigarette flavoring that is still legally permissible according to Food and Drug administration regulations.

Methods: Participants were 26 current adult smokers from three populations especially vulnerable to tobacco use and addiction (economically disadvantaged women, opioid-dependent individuals, individuals with affective …

Cues Associated With Alternative Reinforcement Can Attenuate Resurgence Of An Extinguished Instrumental Response, Sydney Trask

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In resurgence, a target behavior (R1) is acquired in an initial phase and extinguished in a second phase while an alternative behavior (R2) is reinforced. When reinforcement for the second response is removed, however, R1 behavior returns or “resurges.” The resurgence paradigm may have implications for understanding relapse after behavioral interventions in humans such as contingency management, or CM, in which (for example) drug users can earn vouchers contingent upon drug abstinence. The present experiments examined the effectiveness of a putative retrieval cue for treatment in attenuating the resurgence effects and determined the likely mechanism by which this cue functions. …

The Impact Of Depression On Treatment Adherence And Cardiorespiratory Fitness In Cardiac Rehabilitation, Sheau-Yan Ho

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Major depression and coronary heart disease are two strongly linked, major causes of death and disability. After an acute coronary event, many patients are referred to cardiac rehabilitation (CR), a medically supervised exercise intervention and lifestyle training program. Depression may partially account for poor CR adherence and resulting cardiovascular problems in patients with a history of heart disease; however, underlying mechanisms through which depression impacts cardiac functioning are not well understood. The current project tests a theoretical model in which CR adherence (i.e., number of CR sessions attended) mediates the relation between baseline depression and cardiorespiratory fitness after CR. A …

Multidimenional Assessment Of Parenting Across Three Developmental Stages, Justin Parent

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

BACKGROUND: The primary aim of the current study was to create a new measure of parenting practices, constituted by items from already established measures in order to advance the measurement of parenting practices in clinical and research settings. The current study utilized five stages designed to select only the best parenting items, establish a factor structure consisting of positive and negative dimensions of parenting, meaningfully consider child developmental stage, ensure strong psychometric properties, and provide initial evidence for the validity of the final measure.

METHODS: A total of 1,790 parents (44% fathers) were recruited online through Amazon's Mechanical Turk for …

Comparing The Smoking Topography Of Usual Brand Cigarettes In Pregnant And Non-Pregnant Smokers, Cecilia Louise Bergeria

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: Most pregnant smokers report abruptly reducing their cigarettes per day (CPD) by ~50% shortly after learning of pregnancy and of making further smaller reductions over the remainder of their pregnancy. Laboratory and naturalistic studies with non-pregnant smokers have found that these types of reductions often lead to changes in smoking topography (i.e., changes in smoking intensity to maintain a desired blood-nicotine level). 19, 20 If pregnant women engage in compensatory smoking, they may expose themselves and their offspring to the same level of toxicants despite reporting reductions in CPD.

Methods: Pregnant and non-pregnant female smokers (n = 17 and …

Hike Your Own Hike: Cosmopolitanism And Applied Behavior Analysis Explored Through Spn, Caitlin Brianna Walsh

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Ever since I started working with animals, I felt an intrinsic motivation to develop relationships based on trust and mutual admiration. Working in the horse world, I became dismayed at the coercive methods used to assure progress and achieve competition goals. I moved to Burlington to pursue a career helping children. Working as a behavior interventionist I felt peace and satisfaction as I utilized my previous skills and knowledge learned from my work with animals and my undergraduate education. After about a year of work, I started to become frustrated and dismayed at the treatment of some of our children. …

Making I-Contact: Fostering Shared, In-The-Moment Subjective Experiences, Mark Huneke

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Numerous research studies have offered evidence that I-sharing (perceived subjective similarity) facilitates interpersonal connection (e.g. Huneke & Pinel, 2016; Pinel, Long, Landau, Alexander, & Pyszczynski, 2006; Pinel & Long, 2012). Despite this research, no interventions currently exist to foster I-sharing between individuals, thereby leaving interventionists and others unable to utilize I-sharing to nurture authentic connections. The current dissertation takes an important step in the direction of developing usable interventions based on I-sharing research. Specifically, I examine the effectiveness of a technique designed to foster I-sharing genuinely between individuals. Building on I-sharing theory, which specifies that people most confidently believe that …

Aligning Stakeholder Frames For Transition Management In Solid Waste: The Case Study Of Bangalore, India, Nivedita Biyani, Manisha Anantharaman

School of Liberal Arts Faculty Works

Increasingly, sanitation issues are becoming a central part of global environmental governance and the discourse on sustainability. The city of Bangalore, India, is one of many cities worldwide that is trying to come to terms with its solid waste management (SWM) problems. In 2000, the Government of India issued SWM handling rules, which is a non-binding handbook (MSW Rules 2000) that seeks to guide state and city municipalities and stakeholders in their efforts to deliver better services. A serious SWM crisis prompted Bangalore to be the first city in India to mandate segregation of waste at source. However, implementing these …

The Effects Of Thermal Stress On Fluorescent Protein Expression In An Indo-Pacific Scleractinian Coral Species, Acropora Tenuis, Anna Knochel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The scleractinian coral species that so heavily define tropical coral reefs are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic global warming. Rising sea surface temperatures in combination with light stress causes the photosynthetic breakdown of the coral’s algal symbiont, Symbiodinium. Corals have developed a number of physiological responses to handle acute stressors, such as the production of ultraviolet-protecting amino acids, heat shock proteins, the ability to shift symbionts, and the production of fluorescent proteins. The latter has been thought to play a photoprotective role in the coral holobiont, and studies have shown evidence that corals orient these pigments to divert harmful light away …

What Is Peer Support And What Is Not Peer Support?, Mary Beth Welch, Caitlin Baird, Celeste L. Seibel

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This publication provides clarity around the primary functions of the young adult peer support role, and addresses the common misconceptions of young adult peer work.

Early Foreign Language Education And The Effect On State-Mandated Standardized Testing Scores, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Duda

Honors Theses

Early foreign language education has been shown to have a positive effect on the performance of students on state-mandated standardized scores. This work gives an overview of the history of foreign language education, as well as a description of a specific program at an elementary school in North Texas. In order to analyze the effects of early foreign language immersion education on the performance of students enrolled in the program at Bedford Heights Elementary school, a statistical evaluation was performed using the STAAR scores of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students enrolled in both the foreign language immersion program and …

The Relationships Of Role Conflict With Role Ambiguity, Role Efficacy, And Task Cohesion: A Study Of Interdependent University Sport Teams, Brennan Petersen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Roles, important structural components in groups, delineate group members’ jobs and responsibilities. Through this division of labour, group members must function interdependently to achieve shared group outcomes. A critical perception that individuals hold regarding their role is the degree to which incongruent expectations are present (i.e., role conflict). This perception is divided into several dimensions: intra-sender conflict, inter-sender conflict, person-role conflict, and inter-role conflict. Previous research has demonstrated that role conflict can negatively affect individual- and group-level variables (e.g., other role perceptions, task cohesion). However, two limitations pervade this research. First, role conflict is generally assessed unidimensionally. Second, the dimensions …

Capturing In-Situ Feelings And Experiences Of Public Transit Riders Using Smartphones, Rafik Said, Rafik Said

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

High-density urban environments are susceptible to ever-growing traffic congestion issues, which speaks to the importance of implementing and maintaining effective and sustainable transportation networks. While transit oriented developments offer the potential to help mitigate traffic congestion issues, transit networks ought to be safe and reliable for ideal transit-user communities. As such, it is imperative to capture meaningful data regarding transit experiences, and deduce how transit networks can be enhanced or modified to continually maintain ideal transit experiences. Historically speaking, it has been relatively tricky to measure how people feel whilst using public transportation, without leaning on recall memory to explain …

The Impact Of Homelessness On Childhood Stress And Resilience, Hannah Li

A with Honors Projects

Through volunteer experiences at Restoration Urban Ministry’s Homework Hangout Program, this student interacted with homeless children. That experience, paired with a review of research on the effects of homelessness on children, leads her to conclude that, although stress can have serious negative consequences in the biological, cognitive, and psychosocial realms of development, some children exhibit resiliency and are able to reduce the effects of stress. Suggests that stress produced by homelessness can be minimized through prevention and intervention such as fostering healthy parent-child relationships, providing practical services and health screenings can all create and nurture resilience in children.

Spirituality Transformative Psychotherapy: Repairing Spiritual Damage And Facilitating Extreme Well-Being (Review), Susan Stuntzner

Counseling Faculty Publications and Presentations

Spirituality is personal and is an individualized journey. For some, it is connected to religious beliefs and practices (i.e., Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism). For others, spirituality is not and may be about personal learning, insight, and transformation. Still others may view spirituality as a part one’s cultural heritage and ethnic background. While some people believe in God or a Higher Being, others do not. When hurt and trauma occur, the situation often becomes more complex because peoples’ beliefs and values are challenged and brought into question. Some may “fall away” from their beliefs or “upbringing” and feel that they have …

Viewing Sacred Lands Through The Federal Lens, Nicholas Shankle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Shankle, Nicholas Lloyd, M.A., Spring 2016 Anthropology Viewing Sacred Lands Through the Federal Lens Chairperson: Gregory Campbell Traditional cultural properties have become one of the few avenues Indian Nations have to protect off-reservation lands. This thesis examines how the Federal Government, Indian Nations, and academia interact with one another given the creation and management of cultural heritage sites. Decolonizing methodologies are paramount to understanding the depth to which this relationship has gone within the federal preservation framework. Three case studies were used to explore how the Federal Government, Indian Nations, and academia interact with one another. The first looks at …

From Dislocation To Disengagement: The Experiences Of Low-Income And First Generation College Students, Azure S. Mcginty

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis, I examine the experiences of low-income and first generation college students who are enrolled members of the TRiO Student Support Program at the University of Montana. This program is designed to cater to the specific academic struggles of low-income and first generation college students. There is a wealth of scholarly literature concerning this population of students and their risk of dropping out of college. Researchers have found these students are susceptible to habitus dislocation, which causes many of these students to feel torn between acclimating to college and forfeiting their membership in the working-class. One of the …

Adherence And Uncertainty Management: A Test Of The Theory Of Motivated Information Management, Ryan Thiel

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined the main predictors of adherence to a health regimen by patients clinically diagnosed with a heart condition. The theory of motivated information management was used to illuminate salient variables including uncertainty, emotion(s), outcome expectancies, and efficacy assessments. A total of 76 participants completed an online survey, asking about variables related to the theory of motivated information management, adherence, and quality of communication between patient and physician. All together, 90.8% of patients reported properly adhering to their health regimen. The results further indicated that participants had overall low levels of uncertainty regarding their health regimen, and reported positive …

Police Decision-Making And The Initial Detention Of Juveniles, Tessa G. Decunzo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Police decisions can have a direct impact on juvenile outcomes. These decisions are especially impactful in Montana as Montana law enforcement officers are provided statutory discretion pertaining to the decision to arrest and initially detain a youth. The goal of this study is to understand police officer decision-making as it pertains to the initial detention of juveniles and to inform future theory and policy. The research was guided by a focused hypothesis: The factors identified by law enforcement will be significant predictors of the factors associated with the likelihood of initial detention. In order to examine this issue, the current …

Visions Of Sovereignty: Tribal Sovereignty Through The Lenses Of Postcolonialism, Indigenous Film, And Visual Anthropology, Martin I. Lopez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tribal sovereignty has been a topic of discussion since the beginning of colonization in America. Anthropological thought, especially postcolonialism theory, addresses how colonialism can be analyzed to gain a better understanding of Indigenous perspectives on sovereignty. Visual sovereignty, an example of Indigenous Film, is an interdisciplinary approach that can contextualize in specific histories and social interactions all while serving individual tribes, depending on which tribe the filmmaker represents. A film, for instance, can be edited in a way to convey Indigenous ideas of time and space and staged presentations of oral histories that are nearly impossible to display through written …

Drivers Of Demographic And Socioeconomic Shifts At The Bridge River Site (Eerl4), British Columbia, Sarah Nowell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT

Nowell, Sarah, M.A. Spring 2017 Anthropology

Drivers of Demographic and Socioeconomic Shifts Regarding the Bridge River II – Bridge River III Transition at the Bridge River Village (EeRl4), British Columbia

Chairperson: Dr. Anna Marie Prentiss

The Bridge River site is located near the confluence of the Bridge and Fraser Rivers in the Mid-Fraser canyon near Lillooet, British Columbia. This region has long been popular for archaeologists seeking to understand the emergence of wealth-based inequality in complex hunter-gatherers. Housepit 54 is one of over 80 pithouses or s7ístken that was continuously occupied throughout most of the village history. It …