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Media consumption and stigma towards schizophrenia
Get PDFThe current study examined how negative attitudes about schizophrenia can be influenced by exposure to media as well as other types of contact with the condition. Participants (N = 141) completed an online survey assessing their knowledge of schizophrenia, the type and level of contact they had with someone with the diagnosis, the type and level of mass media they consumed, and their perceptions of schizophrenia, including dangerousness and aggression. Results showed that type of contact was correlated with attitudes about dangerousness. Contact, which includes media consumption, was related to less stigmatizing attitudes towards schizophrenia, although the correlation between media use specifically and attitudes was not significant. Limitations and future directions are discussed
On the causation of the Mexican-American War
Get PDFIn 1844, Whig, former President, and then-Representative John Quincy Adams reflected on President John Tyler’s bill to annex Texas, writing about his anxiety over “the degeneracy of my country… under the transcendent power of slavery and the slave-representation.” Adams celebrated the treaty’s failure later that year, praising the nation’s escape from “slave-tainted monarchy, and of extinguished freedom.” In 1847, in the midst of the Mexican-American War, Reverend John Dudley of Vermont gave a fiery sermon in which he excoriated “the two leading sins of this nation, SLAVERY AND WAR.” Reverend Dudley continued, claiming “that the present war has its origin and justification in the slave-holding interest in these United States.” In early 1848, right before the war’s conclusion, former enslaved man and intellectual Frederick Douglass gave a speech calling the war nothing less than a “slaveholding crusade.” All three of these men, and many more people across the United States, were united in their denunciation of the Mexican-American War as one instigated by the slaveholding interests of the country in order to expand slavery westward and ensure that the institution continued to enjoy economic and political benefit. This accusation, however, lacks consensus, as others such as President James K. Polk, Ulysses S. Grant, and Mississippi Senator Robert J. Walker argued that the war’s causation lay in such varied reasons as Mexican debt owed to the United States and its citizens, a simple desire for more land to settle, or a belief that if the United States did not seize valuable land from the weak Mexican state, the British would. Therein lies the question this thesis will answer: Did slaveholders and slavery’s advocates instigate the Mexican-American War to benefit themselves, or is the role of slavery in uniting pro-war feelings overstated? If slavery’s role is overstated, what lies behind the United States’s decisions to annex Texas, inherit a border dispute, and provoke the Mexicans into war? To uncover whether slaveholding interests instigated the Mexican-American War, I will examine the leadup to the war, most notably the circumstances that led the United States to annex Texas, and how different people and groups perceived the choices being made in Washington and Mexico City. Then, the war itself and how a calcifying political establishment led to such incidents as the Wilmot Proviso, which thrust the debate over slavery’s connection to the war to the forefront. Finally, an examination of the war’s end and how victory was interpreted on both sides of the new border. I will describe the perspectives of the major political parties, Whigs and Democrats, from North and South, the servicemen who fought the war, and the civilians who saw, wrote, and argued about the war. Though I primarily explore American perspectives, some translated Mexican documents offer a broader understanding of the war that extends interpretations to the invaded as well as the invader
Stressed out and clocking out: Analyzing challenge-hindrance stressors as predictors of turnover intentions
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to contribute to the understanding of how job stressors, specifically, challenge-hindrance (C-H) stressors, can negatively impact employee turnover. C-H stressors can be defined as perceptions of a work environment related to level of demands in such that challenge stressors (e.g., responsibility, job complexity, etc.) are viewed as potential opportunities for growth or mastery and hindrance stressors (e.g., conflict, ambiguity, etc.) are viewed as potential constraints or barriers to one’s goal or growth (Zhang et al., 2014). The hypotheses guiding this study were that (a) challenge and (b) hindrance stressors at Time 1 would positively and significantly predict turnover intentions at Time 1 (H1a-b). Additionally, (a) challenge and (b) hindrance stressors at Time 1 would positively and significantly predict turnover intentions at Time 2 (H2a-b). Participants were recruited to partake in a survey administered at two separate time points, 3-months apart, via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). A total of 518 individuals participated in the Time 1 survey. Of those participants, 301 responded to the Time 2 survey. Participants received compensation for completing the survey. Participants were predominantly white (79.1%), female (57.8%), and were on average 37.36 years of age (SD = 9.78). On average, participants worked 41.86 (SD = 6.07) hours per week. Multiple linear regression was used to examine how C-H stressors related to overall turnover intentions. All assumptions were met prior to running the analyses. Results indicated that C-H stressors at both time points significantly predicted turnover intentions, (H1a-b) F (2,515) = 55.60, p \u3c .001, R2 = .18; (H2a-b) F (2,298) = 20.00, p \u3c .001, R2 = .12. In support of H1b and H2b, hindrance stressors had a positive and significant relationship with turnover intentions, (H1b) β = .70, se = .07, t (517) = 10.30, p \u3c.001; (H2b) β = .56, se = .09, t (300) = 6.22, p \u3c.001. Alternatively, challenge stressors were negatively and significantly related to turnover intentions, (H1a) β = -.42, se = .07, t (517) = -5.72, p \u3c.001; (H2a) β = -.27, se = .10, t (300) = -2.80, p =.006, partially supporting hypothesis 1a and hypothesis 2a. These findings suggest that to attract and, importantly, retain talent, organizations should aim to reduce hindrance stressors such as task ambiguity, administrative hassles, red tape policies, etc. Further suggestions are provided
An archaeology of the self: how experience shapes poetry
No full textThe blanket term “confessional poetry” is often used to describe verse that is widely personal and self-revealing in nature. Controversial even amongst its own founding poets, confessional poetry is an extension of lyricism that is associated with American figures who wrote personal poetry in the 1950s and 1960s. This group of poets consisted of Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and W. D. Snodgrass, among others. The creative portion of this thesis consists of a collection of original poetry inspired by confessional poetry. The introductory essay discusses the current state of poetry, the confessional movement, as well as the idea that content shapes the form of a poem—in the same way that personal experience shapes poetry
The effect of perceived union support as a resource affecting burnout
Get PDFWhile the proportion of workers who belong to a union has declined in the United States, there have been significant recent campaigns to revitalize the labor movement by attempting to organize new industries. Relying on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, this study was designed to test relationships among common job demands, resources, and corresponding effects (burnout and engagement) for a sample of 73 unionized workers within the building trades industries (e.g., electrical workers, construction workers, railroad workers, etc.). Correlations and regression analyses demonstrated that perceived union support had significant negative relationships with workload, physical demands, work-family conflict, and burnout, as well as a significant positive relationship with engagement. There were no significant moderating effects of union support on burnout and engagement, except one marginal interaction effect found between physical demands and union support on engagement. Counter to the hypothesized relationship, when perceived union support was high, more physical demands related to less engagement. With the renewed public interest in labor unions and their effects, these results suggest the importance that union support as a resource can have for workers, especially as issues like stress and burnout continue to pose formidable risks
CARED for ED non-emergency care: college student acceptance, ranking, and economic deterrents of ED non-emergency care
Get PDFThere has been increasing concern from hospitals and insurance policyholders over the rise of Emergency Department (ED) visits, as it is linked with overcrowding and longer waiting times; an increasingly large proportion of these ED visits are described as non-urgent or clinically unnecessary (O’Keefe, 2017; Pierce, 2009). The purpose of this project is to understand how college students’ perceptions of Emergency Departments influence their decisions on where to seek medical care. Methods: I developed a three-part scenario-based survey using Qualtrics that included the following sections: Consent and General Demographics, Pre-Price Scenarios, and Price Included Scenarios. Participants were asked to rank their three top places of care for each scenario. T-tests were ran to determine if their were significant differences in the mean selection value of the ED in the Pre-Price and Price-Included scenarios. Results: Among the participants of this study, the severity of symptoms, cost to the patient, and speed/availability emerged as the three main considerations in decisions made about where to receive healthcare, and many participants listed some variety of a combination of these three main factors. The ED was selected significantly less in every scenario for the Price-Included section. It was also selected as a lower choice in the Price-Included section. Discussion: The major finding of this study is that, although most participants made the responsible decision to avoid the ED, the ED was still unnecessarily chosen by some participants. However, when participants knew the cost of the health care options, they chose the ED significantly less often, and when they still chose the ED, they chose it as an alternative option. These findings indicate that clear knowledge of cost is a deterrent to the unnecessary use of the ED by college students
Iran\u27s involvement in the Syrian civil war before and after JCPOA
Get PDFThe Syrian civil war has been going on for over a decade and has caused the death of over 500,000 people and the displacement of thirteen million more. Ending the war has been difficult for policy makers worldwide due to the number of outside actors involved in the conflict. The most prominent actor that has made this task so difficult is Iran. Syria and Iran have been staunch allies since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Despite religious differences, their support for each other through the decades has proven extremely beneficial for both countries. When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, Iran quickly aided its long-standing ally, Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. Iran\u27s support of the Assad regime is a significant reason why the war has continued for so long and why Assad is still in power today. The war took many turns during its decade long endurance; however, one of the most impactful events didn\u27t even occur on the battlefield in Syria, but rather from a nuclear treaty between Iran and Western countries. This thesis looks at the history of the Syria-Iran alliance. It evaluates Iran\u27s motives for joining the war while comparing and contrasting Iran\u27s involvement in the Syrian civil war, before and after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to see the extent to which the deal affected Iran\u27s involvement in the war
Improving traffic management efficiency through reinforcement learning-based traffic signal control and citywide transit simulation
Get PDFTraffic congestion reduces productivity and harms the environment. Enhancing traffic signal control and public transportation are effective solutions. However, prior research has limitations stemming from the absence of real-time reliable data. Recent computer vision systems have made collecting traffic data easier. This thesis explores leveraging these data sources to enhance existing traffic signal controls (TSCs) and citywide transit simulations. For TSC, a comprehensive framework that facilitates rapid prototyping of reinforcement learning (RL) and an automatic feature engineering method are proposed. Additionally, RL techniques are implemented to a digital twin of Chattanooga smart corridor. Regarding transit simulations, a toolkit for calibrating large-scale simulations and an efficient solution for simulating changes in transit system settings are developed. Finally, we delve into a fundamental question of optimization for training neural networks and demonstrate that a novel approach using Neuroevolution outperforms Gradient Descent methods
Emotion recogniton in students with social anxiety: loving-kindness as an intervention
Get PDFDeficits in emotion recognition can often be found in individuals who have elevated social anxiety—decreasing positive social interaction and increasing social avoidance. Some possible causes for these deficits include: (1) negative interpretation biases for ambiguous social stimuli and (2) negatively biased self-focused and others-focused attention in social situations— which can impede an accurate appraisal of how one is being evaluated. Mindfulness-based interventions target attentional awareness, and some have empirical support for treating anxiety-related issues. However, little research has been conducted to determine the possible therapeutic effects of loving-kindness meditation for social anxiety disorder. Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a specific subtype of mindfulness aimed at enhancing empathic understanding of emotional and situational awareness of self and others and, therefore, shows promise in social anxiety treatment by targeting emotion recognition in self and others. This study assessed the potential impact of a guided LKM induction on subsequent emotion recognition performance, as well as relationships among self-reported trait measures, such as social anxiety symptom severity, difficulties with emotion regulation, positive/negative affect, etc. Participants in the LKM group scored significantly better on the emotion recognition task than participants in a control group. The effect size was moderate. Exploratory analyses indicated moderate correlations between trait social anxiety severity and self-reported alexithymia symptoms
From students to citizens: the impacts of an intergenerational experiential learning program on undergraduate student development
Get PDFUndergraduate education can strengthen its focus on developing ethical and social literacy in students through incorporating service programs based in experiential learning. Prior research demonstrates experiential learning augments students’ learning outcomes, perceived meaning of education, and social competencies. Experiential learning incorporating intergenerational communication promotes understanding of aging, value placed on service, and sheds light on unforeseen skills and goals for students. This study evaluated the impacts of an intergenerational experiential learning program on character social, and educational development outcomes in students. Further, the study explored the benefits of such programs for older adults. Ultimately, the program developed students’ character relevant to finding purpose, recognizing strengths, showing gratitude, developing coping strategies, and making goals for the future. In reference social development, the program improved their skills for relationship building, attitudes toward older adults, and perspectives regarding intergenerational interactions. Qualitatively, participants collectively endorsed themes of character development, relational development, and intergenerational transfer