Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Spencer D. Wood / In the wake of Barack Obama becoming the first nonwhite President of the United States and the diminishing instances of explicit racism, a number of Americans believe that the United States has surpassed race and therefore racism (Neville et al. 2000; Nayak 2006; Brayboy et al. 2007; Gawronski 2008; Quillian 2008; Wise 2009; Bonilla-Silva 2010; Gusa 2010; Ikuenobe 2010; Moras 2010; Gainous 2012). On the surface, the problem of overt racial discrimination has dramatically declined, yet, there are key studies that argue that new and subtler forms of racism are still prevalent (Feagin 2000; Krysan 2000; Sydell and Nelson 2000; Swim et al. 2003; Leach 2005; Henkel et al. 2006; Williams and Land 2006; Anderson 2007; D’Andrea and Daniels 2007; Sue et al. 2007; Gawronski et al. 2008; Wise 2009; Gainous 2012; Torres-Harding et al. 2012). This thesis will focus on assessing the dimensions of present-day racism and racial prejudice by replicating and updating Forman’s (2004) study of racial apathy. Using data from 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey, I explore the persistence of racial apathy, which proposes that the blatant racial discrimination of the past has manifested into racial indifference and lack of caring for existing racial inequalities (Perry and Shotwell 2009; Forman 2004; Forman and Lewis 2006; Gafford 2010; Maly et al. 2012). Consistent with previous research, this study finds that the expression of racial apathy has continued to increase, but also that political preference, gender, father’s education level and religiosity affect one’s level of racial apathy.

Apathy is characterised by a lack of motivation towards goal directed behaviour and is a symptom of various neurodegenerative diseases. There are various tools that can be used to assess apathy but a caveat of these is that they usually assess it as a unidimensional concept. Apathy has been recognised to have a multidimensional substructure. The Dimensional Apathy Scale is the only comprehensive measure designed to quantify neurobiologically-based subtypes, called Executive, Emotional and Initiation apathy. The first aim of this study was to explore multidimensional apathy, and its associations with demographic variables, in healthy, community dwelling adults. Secondly, multidimensional apathy was explored in neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). For each disease group, the validity and reliability of both the self rated and carer rated DAS were also determined. Finally, the association between specific apathy subtype impairments and executive dysfunction was explored in ALS patients. Four hundred healthy community dwelling adults, eighty-three ALS patients (seventy-five carers), thirty-four PD patients (thirty carers) and forty-nine AD patients (eighty-nine carers) were recruited for the questionnaire study. In the healthy community dwelling adults, Executive apathy decreased with age, whereas Emotional increased with age. Gender differences were also shown with higher apathy in males on Emotional apathy. There were also employment differences, in that Executive apathy was higher in unemployed individuals compared to those who were employed. Emotional apathy showed difference in type of employment, where full time employed individuals were significantly more apathetic than those employed part time. These findings were taken into account in selecting the appropriate control samples to match our patient groups. In the patient groups, ALS patients were found to be significantly more impaired on the Initiation subscale when compared to controls. Furthermore, Initiation apathy was found to be the most frequent impairment above abnormality cut-off on the carer rated DAS. PD patients were significantly more impaired on Executive and Initiation apathy when compared to controls. These two subscales were most frequently above abnormality cut-off in the carer rated DAS. Finally, AD patients were significantly more impaired on all subscales when compared to controls and, on the carer rated DAS, global impairment over all subscales was most often reported as above abnormality cut-off. Additionally in AD, there was a significant disparity between carer and patient ratings on Executive and Initiation apathy, indicating patients’ impaired awareness. When comparing patient groups, there was a significant difference between carer rated apathy subtype impairments for each patient group. Validity and reliability of the DAS was found to be robust when compared to standard measures of apathy and depression. In the experimental study, a sample of ALS patients (and their carers) and healthy controls (and their informants) were recruited to complete a battery of neuropsychological tests, the DAS, other apathy and depression measures. ALS patients were impaired on tasks of executive functioning when compared to controls. Furthermore, apathy subtype deficits were associated with executive dysfunction in ALS. In conclusion, apathy is a multidimensional concept that manifests in different subtype profiles dependent on neurodegenerative disease. This has further implications for understanding and assessment of cognitive dysfunction and neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as apathy, in ALS and other neurodegenerative disease patient groups.

Apathy, defined as a decrease in purposeful or goal-directed behavior, is common in many neurological disorders. The assessment of apathy in these disorders is important as apathy is associated with differential engagement and response to treatment and future cognitive and functional decline. Although apathy is often described as including three separate symptom dimensions, reflecting diminished interest, action, and emotional expression, investigations of the factor structure of apathy symptoms have been limited by the use of scales which do not comprehensively assess all of three of the proposed dimensions. The current study aimed to develop a novel informant report measure of apathy symptoms, investigate the factor structure of apathy symptoms, and examine the relationship of different types of apathy symptoms to several clinically relevant variables. Participants included 249 informants who reported on an individual with (n=210) or without (n=39) a neurological or psychiatric condition. Results showed the best fitting model of apathy symptoms was a bifactor model in which apathy could be represented as a global dimension with three separate, specific symptom factors reflecting diminished interest and initiative, asociality, and diminished emotional and verbal expression. In general, apathy was associated with poorer cognitive functioning, greater functional impairment, and higher caregiver distress. The specific symptom factors differed somewhat in their association with those same variables, highlighting the utility of measuring different types of symptoms in addition to overall apathy. Future work will refine the apathy measure developed in this study and test the obtained bifactor symptom model in an independent sample.

Apathy, a symptom reflecting motivational and self-initiation impairment, is one of the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), with an average estimated prevalence of 40-45%. Elevated apathy has been associated with a host of negative associates and consequences, including cognitive impairment, poor daily functioning, poor treatment compliance and illness outcome, reduced quality of life, and increased caregiver burden and distress. While some studies have evaluated pharmacologic approaches to the treatment of apathy, few studies have evaluated non-pharmacologic approaches and we have identified no studies that have evaluated the efficacy of non-pharmacologic treatments of apathy in Parkinson's patients despite the need for such research. The purpose of the present study was to develop and gather pilot data on the acceptability, feasibility, and estimated efficacy of a primarily telephone-based, 6-week activity scheduling and monitoring intervention that incorporates an external cueing component to target disease-related self-generational deficits, on reducing levels of apathy in non-demented, highly apathetic PD patients. The project included three phases: (1) development of protocol materials, (2) determine ease of training paraprofessional interventionists, and (3) to assess feasibility, acceptability, and estimated effect of treatment in a one-arm uncontrolled trial. Patient apathy, depression, and quality of life significantly improved post-treatment and improvements in apathy and depression were maintained at one-month follow-up. While enrollment proved challenging, feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy data were strong and promising. Larger, randomized controlled trials are needed to investigate the efficacy of the presented intervention.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, August, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Political disillusionment is widespread in contemporary Japanese society, despite people’s struggles in the recession. Our social relationships become entangled, and we can no longer clearly identify our interest in politics. The search for the outside of stagnant reality sometimes leads marginalised young people to a disastrous imaginary for social change, such as war and death. The imaginary of disaster was actualised in March 2011. The huge earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which triggered the largest wave of activism since the 1960s. Based on the author’s fieldwork on the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements in Tokyo, this thesis investigates how the disaster impacted people’s sense of agency and ethics, and ultimately explores the new political imaginary in postmodernity. The disaster revealed the interconnected nature of contemporary society. The thesis argues that their regret about their past indifference to politics motivated the protesters into social commitment without any totalising ideology or predetermined collective identity. They also found an ambiguity of the self, which is insufficient to know what should be done. Hence, they mobilise their bodies on to the streets, encountering others, and forcing themselves to feel and think. This is an ethical attitude, yet it simultaneously stems from the desire of each individual to make a difference to the self and society. The thesis concludes that the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements signify a new way of doing politics as endless experiments by collectively responding to an unexpected force from an outside in a creative way.

In September 2002 citizenship education became a compulsory element of the secondary school curriculum in England. This policy development launches new interest in the spatial politics of childhood and youth. With increased focus on teenage apathy and declining civic engagement, citizenship education centres upon creating future responsible citizens. Using questionnaire surveys, group discussions, photography, diary completion, as well as more innovative techniques such as a teenage-centred radio phone-in discussion and web-based media, this thesis focuses on a case study of 600 teenagers, aged thirteen to sixteen, living in a variety of rural communities in an area of Southern England. Within many representations of rurality, teenagers are situated between a 'natural, innocent childhood' in idyllic, close-knit communities and threatening and 'out-of place' youths. Such representations foster complex experiences of citizenship. This study, therefore, sets about examining themes of socio-spatial exclusion and political engagement. For some, the deficit of meaningful spaces of citizenship results in frustrated relations with key decision-makers. Others are engaged in their own practices of citizenship, devising creative ways in which to carve out and reconstruct everyday spaces and identities. Contributing to new geographical knowledge(s), this thesis concludes by calling for schools and (rural) communities to support and respect teenagers' own interests, needs, aspirations and current acts of citizenship in their own diverse spaces. Furthermore, it is argued that teenagers, as 'citizen s-i n-th e-p resent' should be provided with the opportunity to engage meaningfully with decision-makers as an integral facet of the political mainstream.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic, neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by motor, cognitive and psychiatric disturbances. Anosognosia, or lack of awareness of symptoms, is commonly observed in neurodegenerative disorders, including HD. Most theories suggest that emotion, executive functioning, and memory play important roles in self-awareness. There is limited research of anosognosia in HD and no theoretical model of how it manifests in the disease. The purpose of this study was to examine Metacognitive Knowledge, or overall beliefs about the self, and Online Awareness, or the ability to predict (Anticipatory Awareness) and evaluate (Emergent Awareness) task performance, in HD. Fifty-six symptomatic HD patients and fifty informants completed the study. Results revealed that those with the best executive functioning and lowest apathy were also better able to report on their symptoms. Those with the best executive functioning and memory and lowest apathy were the best at predicting and evaluating their performance on cognitive tasks. Patient self-report of memory was associated with cognitive performance while self-report of executive functioning and apathy was not. Only informant report of apathy and executive functioning was related to cognitive performance. For both Metacognitive Knowledge and Online Awareness, HD patients tended to have a better awareness of memory than executive functioning. These results suggest that awareness in HD is governed by local monitoring systems rather than a single metacognitive mechanism. It is also consistent with literature that suggests that individuals are least able to evaluate performance on tasks for which they are poorest in skill level, as HD patients tend to have impaired executive functioning and increased apathy with relative sparing of memory.

Individuals experience different dimensional levels of motivation and apathy (i.e., the lack of motivation), which can reflect both state and trait contributions. Chronic apathy is common in a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. The primary aim of the current study was to create a new self-report measure that measures different domains of motivation/apathy with subscales and also take into account many other aspects that could affect motivation within the same scale, including energy level, anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, indecisiveness, and initial and sustained effort. A sample of undergraduate university students from the University of Central Florida (N = 327, 57% female) and Louisiana State University (N = 400, 82% female) completed and passed exclusion criteria from an online survey which included the initial Multifaceted Motivation Inventory (MMI), along with other existing measures. Following factor analysis and exclusion criteria, of the 38 activities included on the initial MMI, two factors of 10 activities each emerged for the final MMI scale. One reflected solitary activities while the other factor asked about social activities. The Cronbach’s alphas for the frequency in which activities were endorsed as having completed in the past year for each factor were acceptable at .69 and .70. Construct validity for the two factors was supported through significant relationships in the expected directions with external scales of depression, indecisiveness, apathy, and anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Further research on the final MMI can help assess its psychometric ability to distinguish individual trait differences that contribute to a dimensional level of motivation/apathy.

Background: Many older adults with dementia residing in nursing homes or assisted living facilities exhibit behavioral disturbances such as agitation and apathy. In addition they lose their ability to feed themselves and often suffer serious malnutrition as their dietary intake decreases. Music has been linked to decreased agitation in this population and physical activity to music linked to a slower decline in eating ability. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether a familiar physical activity to familiar music would reduce apathy and agitation and increase eating ability and dietary intake among institutionalized older adults with dementia. Method: Eighty four older residents with early to late-stage dementia were randomly assigned to a usual activity or to a group that received a 25-minute intervention (seated chair exercises and beach ball toss to music of the 1920’s to 1950’s) offered 30 minutes before the noon meal twice a week for three weeks. Prior to the intervention, research assistants observed and recorded participants’ apathy using the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale and agitation using the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory. Trained research assistants (RAs) conducted the intervention, and then escorted participants in both groups to their noon meals. A second group of RAs, blinded to group, observed apathy and agitation as residents began their meals. At the end of the meals, RAs recorded eating ability using the Functional Independence Measure and the percentage of dietary intake for all participants. Digital photos of trays, pre- and post-meal, were also used to document the percentage. Results: Participants, whose mean age was 85.92 and whose Mini Mental Status Exam scores ranged from 0 to 24, resided in two sites: a nursing home with assisted living and a separate assisted living facility. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant differences between groups for apathy (p=.01) and dietary intake (p=.01). There was no significant difference in agitation or eating ability. Discussion: Participation in the intervention was associated with more positive outcomes for apathy and dietary intake. There is evidence that a familiar physical activity to familiar music is an effective approach for institutionalized older adults with dementia.