Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Promoting Competence In College Students: The Role Of Psychological Flexibility, Elyse Rubin Rosenberg

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Psychological flexibility (PF), the core process of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; a third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapy), is the ability to stay focused on the present moment and intentionally engage in value-driven behavior despite experiencing difficult thoughts or feelings. This multifaceted construct includes components that target processes occurring both internally (e.g., cognitive processes) and behaviorally (e.g., value-consistent actions). Psychological flexibility has been applied to studies of adjustment in non-clinical samples and may be beneficial for college students as individuals navigate novel developmental stressors. Despite evidence suggesting the benefits of PF for psychological distress, additional work is needed to examine the potential …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of An Anti-Texting-While-Driving Training Program For Young Drivers: The Role Of Adhd Symptomatology, J.Quyen Vu Alexander Nichols

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A long-standing challenge for public health and safety is that motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are the leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers, a population with disproportionately high crash involvement relative to other road users. Quantitative and qualitative research has identified distracted driving as a significant contributor to young drivers’ overrepresentation in MVCs. This study was designed in the context of this notable public health concern, and the primary goal was to examine psychological factors that are hypothesized, via the Theory of Planned Behavior, to underlie teenage drivers’ decisions to text-while-driving (TWD) with a focus on the influence of ADHD …

War In The Nursery: The Impact Of Transgenerational Trauma On Refugee Infant Development, Anne Brassell

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Parental trauma symptomatology can profoundly impact a child’s social/emotional and cognitive development, a phenomenon known as transgenerational trauma. Thus far, the majority of research examining transgenerational trauma has studied the concept within mothers from Westernized cultures and their children and adolescents. Very little attention has been given to families from diverse sociocultural contexts, and few studies have examined the effects of transgenerational trauma in infancy, a period of time marked by numerous developmental considerations. The current study addresses the limitations of past work by examining transgenerational trauma in refugee/infant dyads. Building upon existing models from previous studies, this research utilizes …

Writing Gets Personal: Listening At The Intersections Of Creative Writing And Writing Tutoring, Zoe Nicole Mcdonald

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis, I investigate the extent to which creative writing impacts the ways writing tutors work with student writers on their academic writing. In doing so, I interview five writing tutors with creative writing experiences for their personal definitions of creative writing, and the extent to which drawing on, or ignoring, creative writing impacts their writing tutoring.

Through combining the interviews with reflections into my writer identities, I find creative writing focuses on self-expression and narrative features which strengthen disciplinarity and conventions. Additionally, focusing on creative writing’s influence in the writing center allows tutors to engage as fellow writers …

A Novel Mhealth Application For Improving Hiv And Hepatitis C Knowledge In Individuals With Opioid Use Disorder, Taylor A. Ochalek

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Aims: Untreated opioid use disorder (OUD) is associated with overdose, premature death and infectious disease, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C (HCV). While prior studies have shown that educational interventions are associated with improvements in HIV and HCV knowledge and reductions in risk behaviors, those examined to date have typically been time- and resource-intensive. We recently developed an HIV+HCV Education intervention which aims to improve HIV and HCV knowledge in a single visit using an automated iPad platform. In this project, we examined its ability, using a within-subject evaluation, to improve knowledge of HIV and HCV transmission and …

A Social Identity Threat To Merit: The Effects Of Similar Experience On Empathic Concern, Asia Mccleary-Gaddy

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Past research indicates that having a similar life experience as another person leads to greater empathic concern towards that person. Two studies empirically investigated if similar experiences of race-based social identity threat can increase the empathic concern of White Americans toward African Americans. Study 1 revealed that White Americans randomly assigned to think about White privilege and then randomly assigned to read a passage about an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to Affirmative Action policies (versus an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to his hard work and merit) felt greater empathic concern toward the African American described in …

A Study Of Food Hub Buyers In Vermont: Motivation, Marketing, And Strategy, Hannah Harrington

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Food hubs have been discussed as a promising option for scaling-up the local food system while maintaining close relationships and shared responsibility amongst producers and consumers. Food hubs have the capacity to share important messages about food safety, origin, and production methods with consumers, however little is known about if, and how, food hubs communicate the value of local food to their buyers. This is crucial when assuring value to the consumer, which is necessary for the long-term sustainability of the food hub model. It is important to know more about these methods and practices because these messages can impact …

Effective Characteristics Of Rural English Learner Programs, Sarah Huseby

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine specific characteristics of English learner programs in a rural areas in order to determine possible factors that promoted higher English language proficiency growth for English learners. The subjects in this study were English learner teachers and administrators from five micropolitan school districts in a rural Midwestern state. The school districts in this study were identified and recruited based on two specific criteria: a mircopolitan community and a student population of English language learners. The study utilized both survey and archival data. The survey was administered to all EL teachers and administrators …

American Nursing Students' Immersion Experience In Ghana: A Qualitative Study, Srijana Bhandari

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Health care providers are more than ever challenged to care for patients due to multicultural nature of American society. Studies report that health care disparities widely exist in our health care system and patients of different racial and cultural backgrounds do not receive adequate health care. Nurses are in the position to prevent and eliminate such disparities by providing individualized care to these patients. Nurses must be well equipped with knowledge and training to deliver care that is relevant and within the cultural context of patients they encounter. Studies have identified study abroad program as one of the approaches to …

Understanding Complex Late And Terminal Woodland Sites In The Red Wing, Minnesota, Area, Jaclyn Ann Skinner

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Late Woodland and Terminal Woodland traditions encompass a number of Native American cultural groups living in the Upper Midwest United States, dating between A.D. 400/500 and 1100/1200. Although archeological work has been done on many Woodland and Terminal Woodland sites in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, comparatively little has been done in Minnesota, and only a small amount has been done in southeastern Minnesota. As a result, Late Woodland and Terminal Woodland pottery complexes in the Red Wing, Minnesota area are still poorly understood.

Pottery types are the single most important artifact class used to identify population segments and trace …

The Effects Of A Cognitive Training Program For Cognitively Intact Older Adults, Caroline Kinskey

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Cognitive training is a term used to describe programs that provide guided practice on tasks requiring different cognitive abilities such as memory or language. It is assumed that regular practice will improve or maintain functioning in a particular cognitive domain (e.g., memory) and those results will generalize beyond the context of training. Results have been mixed in the existing literature that has evaluated the potential benefits of cognitive training on cognitive and emotional functioning in cognitively intact older adults. This study investigated the effectiveness of a cognitive training program for older adults with no to very minimal cognitive decline. Nine …

Atheism As A Concealable Stigmatized Identity: Outness, Anticipated Stigma, And Well-Being, Dena M. Abbott, Debra Mollen

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

In a preliminary exploration of atheists using a concealable stigmatized identity framework, we investigated outness, identity magnitude, anticipated stigma, and psychological and physical well-being. Atheists (N = 1,024) in the United States, completed measures of outness, atheist identity magnitude, anticipated stigma, and psychological and physical well-being online. Consistent with predictions, we found small but significant associations between (a) anticipated stigma and well-being, (b) social components of atheist identity magnitude and outness as well as well-being, and (c) outness and well-being. A significant and moderate association was found between anticipated stigma and outness. There were significant, small indirect effects of …

Why Achieving The Paris Agreement Requires Reduced Overall Consumption And Production, Eva Alfredsson, Magnus Bengtsson, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Cindy Isenhour, Sylvia Lorek, Dimitris Stevis, Philip Vergragt

Sustainability and Social Justice

Technological solutions to the challenge of dangerous climate change are urgent and necessary but to be effective they need to be accompanied by reductions in the total level of consumption and production of goods and services. This is for three reasons. First, private consumption and its associated production are among the key drivers of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, especially among highly emitting industrialized economies. There is no evidence that decoupling of the economy from GHG emissions is possible at the scale and speed needed. Second, investments in more sustainable infrastructure, including renewable energy, needed in coming decades will require extensive amounts …

A Macromorphological Analysis Of End Scrapers From Sites Associated With Two Phases Of The Oneota Tradition, The Blue Earth And Spring Creek, In Southern Minnesota, Joshua Bradley Anderson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The relationships and distinctions between Oneota tradition groups in southern Minnesota are not well understood. Two contemporaneous phases of the Oneota tradition in southern Minnesota, the Blue Earth and Spring Creek, which date, minimally, to the 14th and early 15th centuries, are represented by clusters of sites along the Blue Earth River Valley (the Center and Willow Creek localities) and near the junction of the Mississippi and Cannon rivers (the Red Wing region). This thesis attempts to address some basic questions with regards to the differences and similarities between Spring Creek and Blue Earth phase groups in terms of end …

Cemetery Management In A Gis Framework: A Case Study Of Woodland Hills Memorial Park, Maureen Schmidt

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

his paper aims to examine the potential uses and applications of geospatial technologies for cemetery management. The Woodland Hills Memorial Park in Mankato, Minnesota, was used as a case study. The hard copy, handwritten records of the Woodland Hills Memorial Park were converted to digital formats, and then combined with GPS gathered data using GIS. The traditional method of storing and keeping these records is time consuming, as the curator must hand write all the information into the physical books. The maps of the park are also hand-drawn, which makes their examination and upkeep tedious. By creating digital copies of …

Ce 633 Syllabus: Ethical Practice & Social Change, Mitch Moore

Counselor Education Syllabi

This course introduces students to the legal, professional and ethical issues that affect the practice of counseling and psychotherapy and the methods and ethical basis for counselors to be agents of social change. Students will become familiar with law and ethical codes related to the counseling profession. A model for ethical decision-making will be presented. Also, students will be presented with models for social change in their function as leaders, change agents, collaborators, and risk takers. Providing outreach and advocacy services in the school and community settings, students will expand their role as counselors to include the social contexts of …

Ce 652 Syllabus: Treatment Planning, Eric R. Baltrinic

Counselor Education Syllabi

This course is designed to assist mental health counselors in designing client-centered, individualized, and culturally sound treatment plans for a wide variety of clinical mental health disorders. Course content will include a strong focus on the diagnosis of mental health disorders based on criteria from the DSM-5, and the subsequent treatment planning and provision of evidence based clinical care. Students completing this course with a satisfactory evaluation will be familiar with evidence-based treatment as a philosophy of practice as well as interventions indicated for specific mental health disorders, and be able to create basic treatment plans that include evidence-based interventions …

Ce 534 Syllabus: Multicultural And Diversity, Robin Alcala Saner

Counselor Education Syllabi

The purpose of this course is to: (1) promote student growth and development through the learning and practice of basic communication and helping skills; (2) study cultural diversity as it relates to human relations and communication; (3) examine gender and sexual orientation in terms of human relations and communication; and (4) address human relations and communication as they relate to special populations (persons with disabilities, older adults, economically disadvantaged individuals, children, etc.). This course will also cover substance abuse issues as relates to diverse cultures, specifically as addressed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Treatment Improvement …

Ce 658 Syllabus: Microskills, Mitch Moore

Counselor Education Syllabi

This is a practice course that provides a systematic approach to developing basic counseling skills. Students will have the opportunity to practice counseling microskills (e.g. rapport building, attending, paraphrasing, reflecting feeling and meaning, interpretation, modeling, role playing, etc.) on a weekly basis. P/NC only. This pre-professional course is workshop centered, practice-oriented, and a safe place to explore new skills. The emphasis will be on analysis of your own and others’ counseling styles and performance. This analysis will grow out of skills and theory presented in class, as well as your putting these skills into practice.

Gender Differences In Development Center Performance In A Healthcare Organization, Samuel Lawson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Over the past 50 years, the assessment center has evolved into a tool used for making selection and job placement decisions, as well as for identifying development areas among incumbents to promote skill and competency development where gaps exist. The present study examined the latter, that of development centers, to address potential gender differences in performance on a variety of exercise and competency areas within a development center context. Research efforts were also directed toward the exercises and competencies themselves and the relationships between them. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate exercise-competency relationships, while t-tests were conducted to investigate …

Cultural Competency For Native Women At Southern Minnesotan Anti-Violence Advocacy Programs, Alissa Shape

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Violence against Native American women is heavily documented within the state of Minnesota. However, there is limited research documenting the processes advocates use to help Native women. Though there has been an increase in organizations dedicated to addressing the intersections of race and gender-based violence, much is unclear regarding the extent to which different types of programming are implemented across the state. Thus, this research study examined the implementation of cultural competency, a type of anti-violence programming, by advocates at one organization in Southern Minnesota. I hypothesized that advocates at the organization would have limited resources for implementing cultural competency …

Assessing Historical Planform Channel Change In An Altered Watershed With Quantification Of Error And Uncertainty Present In A Gis/Aerial Photography-Based Analysis; Case Study: Minnesota River, Minnesota, Usa., Devon Libby

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Little is known about the historic planform channel change of the Minnesota River of south-central Minnesota, USA. This is despite research that demonstrates anthropogenic activities have altered the Minnesota River Basin's hydrology, land use, and climate. In addition, the threat of invasive carp infestation requires an understanding of Minnesota River planform change to assess mitigation strategies. This thesis focuses on the lower Minnesota River (LMR) by measuring planform channel change (lateral channel migration, width, and sinuosity) from 1937 to 2013. Analysis is conducted by utilizing remote/GIS analysis of historic aerial photographs. A secondary focus addresses and quantifies the inherent/introduced error/uncertainly …

Differences In The Perceptions Of Gerotranscendence Between Certified Nursing Assistants And Older Adults, Amanda Perera

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Many theories of aging have been proposed within the field of gerontology to explain both psychological and social changes that occur during the aging process. One of the theories is the theory of gerotranscendence, which explains that as individuals age they develop a new perspective on life that allows the aging individual to shift their conceptualization of the world, from a materialistic and rational view to a more transcendent and universal view. Previous research suggests that some behaviors associated with gerotranscendence have been misinterpreted as pathological. The purpose of this current study was to examine whether there are significant differences …

The Experience Of Microaggressions Within Cross-Racial Videoconferencing Supervision: A Case Study, Jamie Hedin

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Technology has contributed to a smaller, more connected world. The United States has also become increasingly diverse, necessitating a more well-versed counseling profession to serve the needs of diverse clients and communities. One way of augmenting clinical supervision for counselors-in-training is through the use of videoconferencing. Cross- racial dynamics between supervisor and supervisee can present due to the power differential and evaluative capacity of the supervisor. The misuse of this power can result in unintended racial insults from the supervisor, directed at the supervisee. This case study examined the experience of three participants who experienced a racial microaggression in a …

College Males' Attitudes Toward Sexually-Explicit Material: An Experimental Study, Cody Schulte

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Sexually explicit materials (SEM) are an ever-growing presence in our society. The ramifications of these types of images and videos have been studied in depth, and the field is still researching whether these materials have harmful effects to individuals who view them or not. Regardless of these findings, sexually explicit videos are used in educational and therapeutic settings with an educational intent behind the usage. While these materials are being used there is little, to no, data on the attitudes that the clients or participants viewing these videos hold. This study will examine the attitudes that collegiate males hold towards …

Transgender Individuals Among An Online Adult Baby Diaper Lover Community Sample: An Exploratory Study, Elizabeth Gibson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

There is a lack of literature on the transgender community and individuals with atypical sexual interest which can lead to multiple aspects of stigma based on an individual's gender identity and sexual preferences. The current study used archival data that was collected by researchers at the University of Minnesota in the Program of Human sexuality in 2011. Data was collected using an online survey which sought to survey online communities of individuals who identify as Adult Baby Diaper Lovers (ABDL). In this study, 83 transgender and gender variant individuals were analyzed with five main research questions. We were interested in …

The Mcclelland Site (21gd258) And The Oneota Tradition In The Red Wing Region, Jasmine Koncur

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

There is a long history of Oneota studies in the Red Wing, Minnesota, region, but most have been closely intertwined with the Silvernale phase, either because of site location or actual cultural linking. This has created a literature rife with speculation about the relationship between Silvernale and Oneota. While there are some Oneota sites known to exist near sites with Silvernale phase materials, there are many others away from Silvernale sites that have not yet received detailed analysis. The McClelland site (21GD258) is one of many single component Oneota sites in tributary valleys outside the Mississippi trench. The McClelland assemblage …

Rape Culture In Disney Animated Princess Movies, Patricia Paulson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Gender stereotypes, rape myths, and rape culture are perpetuated in U.S. media, including media aimed at young people. Previous research in the areas of gender, gender stereotypes, portrayals of gender in movies, Disney movies, rape myths, and rape culture are all examined. Prior to this research, no study had been conducted to determine if the characteristics of rape culture are portrayed in Disney animated princess movies. For this research, an ethnographic content analysis is conducted on all thirteen of the Disney animated princess movies to determine if the characteristics associated with rape culture are portrayed in these movies. The findings …

Bullying In Senior Living Facilities: Resident Perspectives, Kathryn Ira

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Research associated with resident-to-resident bullying in senior living facilities (i.e., senior bullying), has been growing in recent years due to anecdotal stories in the popular press. Few studies, however, have assessed resident-to-resident bullying from the perspective of residents. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to better understand the phenomenon of senior bullying as observed by residents in senior living facilities. Nineteen individuals residing in senior living facilities were interviewed about their observations and opinions related to senior bullying at their facility. Results indicated that 52.9% of residents had observed senior bullying at least once. Verbal and social bullying …

Evaluating Stigmatizing Attitudes Among Clinicians Toward People With Abdl And Pedophilic Interests, Katlyn Hanson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Because child sexual abuse continues to be covered by mainstream media, the public has become more aware of the paraphilic interest pedophilia. While there is no definitive correlation between an individual with pedophilic interests and offenses against a child, strong public stigmatization toward these individuals remain. Additionally, stigmatizing attitudes have been found toward other paraphilic interests such as fetishes. This is the first study to evaluate and compare clinicians' attitudes toward the paraphilic interest pedophilia and the fetish interest community of Adult Baby/Diaper Lovers (ABDL). Clinicians were randomly assigned to one of three survey conditions assessing their attitudes toward people …