Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Playing To Win: The Effects Of Implementing Gamification Strategies In Product Marketing, Sabrina Stone

CMC Senior Theses

Let’s play a game. What effect do you think video games have on twenty-first-century marketing? In this age defined by its nature of digitality, capturing the attention of consumers is an arduous competition. Through market segmentation, research, and the observable variables of consumer behavior, product marketing has turned to video games as a solution to appeal to younger demographics. Gamification is an increasingly applied product marketing strategy employed to increase favorable metrics. Of those key performance indicators (KPIs), boosted measures such as click-through rates, impressions, and engagement rates suggest that gamification is a strategic opportunity to persuade consumers to take …

Justice That Heals: Transforming Discipline In Schools Through Restorative Practices, Sophia Diomande

CMC Senior Theses

Discipline is not simply a tool but a weapon — one that American educators have wielded for generations to regulate children and enforce habits of self-control and accountability. In a world where institutionalized forms of discrimination continue to plague judicial and educational systems alike, vis-à-vis the school-to-prison pipeline, the question must be asked: When does discipline stray beyond its intended purpose and into the realm of punishment? This thesis discusses the historical and contemporary implications of punitive discipline and its effects on students, particularly students of color and disabled students. Retributive policies such as suspensions, expulsions, physical restraint, and seclusions …

Heterogeneity In The Covid-19 Pandemic’S Labor Market Effects, Carlos Montelongo

CMC Senior Theses

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor market outcomes in the United States drastically changed as the country entered its first recession since the Great Recession. The lives of millions of Americans became upended as economic shutdowns and lockdown orders spread across the United States. This paper attempts to quantify and examine the heterogeneity of employment trends before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic along the following four dimensions: race/ethnicity, gender, education, and age. By using cross-sectional data from the Current Population Survey, I gathered a representative sample of different demographic groups in the United States. My objective is …

The Implications Of Natural Gas And Oil Dependence On Nuclear Proliferation Efforts: A Case Study Of The 1970s Energy Crisis And The Beginning Of Opec’S Nuclear Ambitions., Luca Amrit Khalsa

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the effects of the 1970s Energy Crisis on nuclear proliferation efforts in the Persian Gulf region. The OPEC oil embargo of 1973 shocked global energy markets and forced the Atlantic Alliance to fragment and engage in continuous cut-throat bilateral deals with oil-producing countries. What started as oil-for-arms deals quickly transitioned into oil-for-nuclear reactor deals once countries struggled to find new ways to remain competitive in the trade market. When France initiated the first transfer of nuclear infrastructure to Iran, the morality taboo of trading nuclear secrets dissipated. Countries were now encouraged to engage in their own nuclear …

The Effectiveness Of Housing First In Reducing Homelessness In The United States, Christopher Amemiya

CMC Senior Theses

The Housing First approach is the most funded and utilized approach by the federal government to reduce homelessness in the United States. The main service provided by the Housing First approach is Permanent Supportive Housing. Proponents of Housing First claim it is an evidence-based approach, citing studies that find increases in Permanently Supportive Housing lead to successful outcomes for reducing homelessness on the individual level. This paper seeks to review the literature on Housing First and homelessness and analyze the findings to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of Housing First in reducing homelessness in the United States.

Integrated Stem Learning Activity: Effect On Student Engagement And Learning, Leslie Deitrich Sauder

Dissertations and Theses

Student engagement in math and science courses decreases starting in middle school and continues throughout high school (Museus et al., 2011). This lack of engagement results in students taking only the required math and science coursework and not advanced coursework that would help prepare them for future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning activities may be used to promote student engagement and learning. This experimental design study was conducted with students in grades 3-5 in one rural mid-sized school district in the upper mid-west. Student engagement was analyzed using a …

The Association Between Psychological Maltreatment And Video Game Engagement: The Role Of Distress Tolerance, Mason Lee Hatwan

Dissertations and Theses

Problematic video gaming is a growing concern worldwide, with negative consequences on mental health and social functioning. This study examines the mediating role of distress tolerance in the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and problematic video game engagement. Childhood psychological maltreatment is a form of abuse that can lead to long-term consequences such as emotion regulation difficulties, which have been linked to problematic gaming. Distress tolerance, the perceived ability to endure negative emotional states, may influence how individuals cope with stress and engage in regulatory behaviors like problematic gaming. Using a sample of 474 college-aged individuals (56% male, aged 18-25) …

The Impact Of Immersive Vr Verses Desktop Vr Technologies On Learning Attainment And Sense Of Presence, Haley Renee Hoffman

Dissertations and Theses

The study examined the influence of immersive technologies and sense of presence on learning outcomes while comparing different media formats (Immersive Virtual Reality and Desktop Virtual Reality). The experiment was conducted on N=68 students that experienced a biology lesson about the human cellular system and its related processes. The current literature suggests that Immersive technologies can a powerful impact to learning, but it is crucial to identify when and how these impacts emerge. The current assumption is that presence and educational outcomes stem from the amount of engagement with the material, which is suggested to depend on the level of …

The Effect Of A Music Therapy Video In-Service On Staffs' Beliefs About Music Therapy In Behavioral Health, Jesus Javier Garcia

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a short video presentation, about music therapy in behavioral health, had a positive effect on staff members’ beliefs about music therapy in that setting. A total of 26 staff members, from different departments, participated in the study and completed a pre- and post-presentation questionnaire. Responses were analyzed and compared to investigate whether the video had a positive effect on staff members’ beliefs about music therapy in behavioral health. Participant demographics and pre- and post-video questionnaire responses were also analyzed and compared to explore the differential impact of the video by subgroups …

Pakistan's Contribution To The Global Rise In Conventional Pollution, Emily Warner

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of conventional pollutants on the environment, communities, and individuals in Pakistan. It begins by investigating the causes of conventional pollutants and exploring Pakistan’s agricultural industry, domestic practices, non-renewable energy sources, and industrial practices (the brick industry, leather tanning industry, and textile industry). It then analyzes factors that continue to contribute to conventional pollution in Pakistan such as economic incentives, politics, and traditional practices within industries. Exploring the measures that have been taken by Pakistan and other organizations to decrease conventional pollutants, it then suggests potential opportunities for improvement.

Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Swbs): Measuring Spiritual Well-Being In International Contexts, Rodger K. Bufford, Raymond F. Paloutzian

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

The Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) is a 20-item measure of self-perceived spiritual health. Developed in the 1980s, it includes 2 subscales with 10 items each. Responses are made on a 6-point continuum from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree with no neutral point; 9 of the items are negatively worded to minimize response biases. The US samples show good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Content validity was established in construction. Expected correlations with religion and spirituality indices, social and psychological mea-sures, and physical functioning and demonstration of expected group differences support criterion validity. Factor analysis commonly shows 2 factors corresponding to …

Prospective Evaluation Of 24-Hour Movement Behaviors Among Adolescents Recovering From A Sport-Related Concussion, Riley Brayton, August Price, Carrie Jones, Christine Ellis, Scott O. Burkhart, Gregory Knell

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

This study aimed to describe the 24-hour composition of movement behaviors, including sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity (PA), among pediatric sports-related concussion (SRC) patients over their recovery period, assess the association between movement compositions and recovery time, and understand feasibility of 24-hour accelerometry in the study population. A cohort of 50 pediatric SRC patients were asked to wear a wrist-worn accelerometer continuously for the duration of their recovery. Among all enrolled participants, the sample was primarily 14 or 15 years of age (65%), female (55%), and recovered in under 28 days (88%). Accelerometer compliance was moderate; 35 participants (70%) …

Social Vulnerability And The Prevalence Of Opioid Use Disorder Among Older Medicare Beneficiaries In U.S. Counties, Tse-Chuan Yang, Seulki Kim, Stephen A. Matthews, Carla Shoff

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Recent research has investigated the factors associated with the prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among older adults (65+), which has rapidly increased in the past decade. However, little is known about the relationship between social vulnerability and the prevalence of OUD, and even less about whether the correlates of the prevalence of OUD vary across the social vulnerability spectrum. This study aims to fill these gaps. Methods: We assemble a county-level data set in the contiguous United States (U.S.) by merging 2021 Medicare claims with the CDC’s social vulnerability index and other covariates. Using the total number of …

Where Do Community College Students Go For Their Reference Management Needs: Findings From A Survey Study, Ajatshatru Pathak, Sarah Johnson

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This research article reports the findings of a survey that was conducted at two community colleges affiliated with a large public university system in the Northeast of the United States. A survey was to explore community college students’ citation management help- seeking habits. Findings suggest that respondents were more likely to utilize Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) website for reference management help than other resources. The results also show the impact of various factors (i.e., institution, academic level, undergraduate class level, field of study, age, gender, race/ethnicity, and user type) on students’ citation help -seeking practices. Significant statistical associations …

Library Security Management As A Predictor For Combating Book Theft And Vandalism Among Undergraduates In University Libraries In Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria., Oluwabukunmi Serah Oyelola, Temitope Daniel Onakoya, Tunde Idris Yusuf

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study examined library security mechanisms as a predictor for combating book theft and vandalism among undergraduates in university libraries in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The survey design was adopted in the study, the study population consisted 16,293 undergraduates from the University of Ibadan, Kola Daisi University and Lead City University. The systematic sampling with sampling fraction of 5% was used to select a sample of 353 undergraduates used in the study. The questionnaire was used for data collection and data collected were analysed using frequency counts, item analysis and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation. The study revealed that the security …

Wikipedia As A Source Of Information To Engineering Students-A Study, Nagaraju Kuppugari Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study explored the use of Wikipedia as a source of information by the engineering students at Nellore dist in Andhra Pradesh. The study also tries to examine the reasons to prefer Wikipedia over the traditional encyclopaedia by the engineering students. The study adopted survey method and an online questionnaire for collecting the data from the respondents. After analysing the data the results revealed that ‘easy to understand’ was the reason to prefer Wikipedia to the traditional encyclopedia. The study also found that 77.42 percent of the respondents using Wikipedia to get background information. The investigator suggests that faculty working …

Causes And Measures Of Pre-Retirement Anxiety Among Academic Librarians Of Federal Universities In Northwest, Nigeria, Karimatu Isa Maisango

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the causes and measures for overcoming pre-retirement anxiety among Academic Librarians in the Federal Universities of the Northwest Geo-Political zone of Nigeria. The research employed mixed methodology (quantitative and qualitative approach) based on the pragmatic school of thought using a sequential explanatory research design. The population of the study comprised two hundred and ten (210) academic librarians and nine (9) pension desk Officers of the Universities under study. Three types of data collection instruments, questionnaire, interview, and content analysis were used. The general reliability score of all items is .837. The quantitative data …

Status And Challenges Of Tribal Education In Jungle Mahal: A Statistical Analysis, Rajib Kumar Guin

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In this paper, a picture of tribal enrolment in schools and higher education in four tribal-dominated districts of West Bengal, namely Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, Purulia, and Bankura, collectively known as "Jungle Mahal" is analysed through various statistical data. It is examined by the statistical data that the tribals here, especially the female tribals, are still lagging in literacy rate and average enrollment in every level of education in comparison to India and West Bengal. The dropout rate of tribal students in that region at every level of schooling is much higher than the national and state rates. Apart from this, …

Knowledge Acquisition For Academic Activities By The Lecturers Of Institutes Of Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Ibrahim Ismail Rafindadi, Dr Amina Ibrahim Inkani, Professor Munir Abdullahi Kamba, Dalhatu Usman Mairiga, Abdulqawiyyu Mustapha, Umar Ali Haruna

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Higher institutions of learning relies on active engagement in academic activities of which inform the teaching, researchand learning mission of institutions and are essential to robust democratic societies. The specific objectives of the study were to clarify the concept and significance, explore the academic activities engaged, and determine the knowledge acquisition programs by the lecturers of two (2) institutes of Nigerian meteorological agency. Qualitative data using a case study research design, face to face interview was used in gathering the data from a total of 16 purposively sampled respondents which were analysed using narrative based analysis. The study revealed that …

The Information Edge - Library Newsletter - January 2023, Sarah Burns-Feyl, Jennifer Rosenstein

University Library Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Research Methods, Erica Weisgram Ph.D.

Sample module-themed coursework with Sesame Street examples

This module will explore the role of psychological research in the development of Sesame Street. Specifically, this module will look at the history of research in the development of the series, the process that is used in the development of the season, the formative research that is conducted, and the summative research that is conducted. Case studies of research conducted on the impact of Sesame Street on children’s development.

Optimal Portfolio Construction For Oil-Based Sovereign Wealth Funds, Mohammed Saeed Alshowaikhat

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Chapter 1 of this dissertation delves into the economic challenges faced by oil-exporting countries that rely heavily on a single income source, with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia as a case study. The primary objective is to examine the efforts of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund in diversifying revenue streams and mitigating risks associated with an excessive dependence on oil. To achieve this, the study proposes an adaptation of the subset-optimization algorithm within the mean-variance model, aiming to enhance portfolio construction in sovereign wealth funds. Chapter 2 of the dissertation conducts a comparative analysis between portfolios constructed using the …

How Latino Anti-Blackness Upholds Racism In The United States: A Counterstory Book Review Of Tanya Katerí Hernández’S Racial Innocence, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this piece, the author uses counterstorytelling as a research method to write a book review of Tanya Katerí Hernández’s recently published book, Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality. Specifically, in this counterstory, the author created two composite characters, Alberto and his mother, Lola, made up of arguments from the book to engage in a real and critical dialogue about the anti-Blackness amongst Latinos in the United States. Drawing on Hernández’s argument that Latino anti-Blackness upholds racism, the author uses this counterstory to illustrate the various ways Latinos enact anti-Black ideologies and practices to …

Can Animals Contract?, John Enman-Beech

Animal Studies Journal

Animals are, or are like persons, and so should not be treated as mere property. But persons are not just non-property; they are contractors. They interact with property and with other persons. This article analyses the possibilities for a range of animals to fit within market liberal society as contractors from a legal disciplinary perspective. Some animals are capable of contract-like relationships of reciprocal exchange, and can consent, in a certain sense, to parts of such relationships. However, the dangers of the contractual frame, which is used to legitimate exploitation, may exceed the benefits. Some scholars have begun to explore …

Colonialism, Domestication, & Extinction: A Pre-Mortem For Our Ecological Futures, Darren Chang, Lauren Corman

Animal Studies Journal

This paper engages with Ghassan Hage’s concepts of ‘ungovernable waste’ and ‘generalized domestication’ to think critically about the sociopolitical position and futures of farmed animals in the context of ongoing climate and ecological crises. Against the erasure of farmed animal subjectivities, we posit that there is much to learn by turning to farmed animals as sources of wisdom, as unique knowers with lessons to teach us about extinction. We consider how Andil Gosine’s radical suggestion to embrace animality as a refusal of the civilizing discourses of colonialism, and as an act of solidarity with nonhuman animals, constitutes a critical step …

All Along The Ivory Tower: Black American Identity As Voiced By Poetic Youths, Jeremy D. Greene

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to help amplify and analyze Black American elementary student voice in a post-2020 world. Discussions and writings were conducted at the students’ charter school in spaces where students voiced what it meant to be a Black American youth through both verbal and written means. The current qualitative study focused on using discussions and creative writing to help participants make sense of their identity in their school, community, and the United States. This research provided students’ counternarratives regarding stereotypes associated with being Black American students and focused on how such spaces can positively impact …

Longitudinal Sport Science Implementation In American Collegiate Men’S Basketball, Jason Stone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The expanding opportunities to implement sport science frameworks in elite-level basketball environments coincide with the sport’s increasing global prominence. Concomitant to these opportunities is the continual growth of the sport technology market (e.g., wearables, force plates) and computational power (e.g., data management tools, coding capabilities), which yields solutions and challenges for both athletes and practitioners. Due to the rapid influx of new sport technologies in high performance environments, particularly American Collegiate Men’s Basketball, more formal and ecologically valid research on how to effectively utilize data derived from them, particularly over long periods of time (i.e., multiple seasons) is needed. To …

Correlates Of Christian Religious Identification And Deidentification Among Sexual And Gender Minorities: A U.S. Probability Sample, G. Tyler Lefevor, Lauren J. A. Bouton, Edward B. Davis, Samuel J. Skidmore, Ilan H. Meyer

Psychology Faculty Publications

Using a U.S. nationally representative sample of 1,529 sexual and gender minorities (SGMs), we examined the demographic and developmental correlates of Christian religious deidentification. We found that SGMs who were older, Black, cisgender men, and/or lived in the American South were more likely to identify as Christian in adulthood, relative to other SGMs. Those who were never Christian reported being more out to family and friends at earlier ages than those who were raised Christian. SGMs who were raised Christian, but did not identify as Christian in adulthood reported, more adverse childhood experiences and bullying than other SGMs. Sexual minorities …

From Surplus To Scarcity: Restaurant Labor Along The Brooklyn Waterfront, 2020-2023, Emily Holloway

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Three Essays In Applied Microeconomics: Philly Style, Alexander Christian Marsella

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

My dissertation analyzes several contemporary policy-based and institutional occurrences in an urban setting to help guide further advancements in reducing violence, drug overdose deaths, and other unhealthy behaviors that city governments look to curb. Several recent developments in Philadelphia offer a promising setting for studying policies that have broad implications.

Chapter 1 examines the effect of the West Philadelphia Promise Zone initiative on violent crime rates in a high-crime area of West Philadelphia, where a series of educational, public-safety, and quality-of-life improvement grants were disbursed from 2014 onward. My difference-in-differences analysis with two-way fixed effects and cluster bootstrapped standard errors …