This study examined comparisons of gender stereotypes of executives in two cultures, American and Japanese. Undergraduate students in Japan and the U.S. estimated the extent to which executives in general, male and female exectuives possessed person-oriented and task-oriented leadership traits.

Non-traditional students make up approximately 20% of the undergraduate student population nationwide and are one of few segments of the student population that are not provided with targeted programs and services. To help this cohort achieve their goals whilst universities can increase their retention rates, this research begins a review of the non-traditional student literature to gain an understanding of what this population faces as far as barriers to their education. The literature also provides recommendations and further information in retention efforts to support the student during their academic years. Next, an analysis of non-traditional student support services at 4-year public universities was conducted between 15 different institutions, including the University of Central Florida. Only two of the universities in this study had a department or office specifically to support the needs of this cohort, one being the smallest universities in this research study and the other was one of the largest. Three more universities researched have a program dedicated to these students. The remaining 10 universities had little to no non-traditional student support structures in place at their university. This research provides 34 different methods for providing non-traditional student support to universities across the nation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of perceived discrimination on Samoan health. This study employed purposive data collection and was conducted quantitatively using a questionnaire format, which measured everyday perceived discrimination, depression, and physical health.

This project explores research-based methods for creating an e-learning resource to teach an intellectual skill. Intellectual skills are one of the five domains of learning defined by Robert M. Gagné. The intellectual skill taught via the e-learning resource is the rules of Turkish vowel harmony, a fundamental phonological feature of the Turkish language. The purpose of the e-learning resource is to provide novice learners with a set of tools and strategies with which to approach the future study of Turkish. A literature review was conducted in three areas: Gagné’s instructional design theories, Turkish language learning, and best practices for the design of multimedia e-learning. Two rapid prototypes in the form of Moodle course sites were developed. Guidance for improving the prototypes was sought from experts in instructional design, usability, and computer software. The resulting finished e-learning product is a nine-topic Moodle course based on Gagné’s nine events of instruction. The main Moodle course content teaches the rules of Turkish vowel harmony as an intellectual skill which has been broken down into discriminations (the Turkish vowels), concepts (the Turkish vowel groups) and rules (Turkish vowel harmony). Higher order rules are taught in the form of exceptions to the rules of Turkish vowel harmony found in foreign loan-words in Turkish. Practice is provided in applying the rules of Turkish vowel harmony as a set of word attack skills for approaching Turkish language artifacts found online and in the environment. A comprehensive list of resources relating to learning Turkish, learning about the Turkish language, and learning about learning Turkish, is provided to facilitate future extension and application of what was learned in this course. Each lesson is presented in the form of a Moodle book. Each lesson is followed by an ungraded assessment in the form of an Adobe® PDF quiz. The quizzes and accompanying answer keys are designed to provide guided practice, feedback, and self-assessment to help students extend and apply the lesson material. All lessons were beta-tested to ensure usability and reduction of extraneous cognitive load. The project resulted in the development of a Best Practices Checklist for designing e-learning resources to teach intellectual skills. The Best Practices Checklist, which can be found in Appendix B, was used to develop the outline for e-learning resources to teach intellectual skills in other subject areas and was found to be an effective rapid prototyping and instructional design tool. Insight was gained into the significance of prior knowledge for teaching intellectual skills, and on how to calibrate cognitive load in e-learning design relative to the learner’s prior knowledge of the subject matter being taught.

The study examined minority persons’ views and experiences with Child Protective Services (CPS) in the community. This study used a qualitative design with face‑to‑face interviews with 12 participants in the community. This study used the “Post‑Positivist” data analysis, which is qualitative in evaluation and explained each participant’s subjective reality. The study found that most participants were satisfied with the results and were dissatisfied with the process in and of itself. Overall the study found that most participants felt that there was some sort of a disconnect with social workers in reference to cultural competency. Miscommunication between the social workers at agencies and parents could have played a significant role in why participants had these experiences. However, most participants felt that the agency helped with services that ultimately left the participants feeling a sense of awareness about the purpose of the agency. The study suggests that implementing a program that would allow the community to be informed of all the programs that Child Protective Services can provide be critical in aiding and empowering the members of the community and in helping reduce CPS caseloads significantly.

Across the United States, an overwhelming majority of the population claim that religion and spirituality beliefs shape their worldview and assist in coping with life stressors. Yet, the literature has shown that mental health practitioners reported discomfort integrating religion and spiritually in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to explore whether license-holding mental health professionals in Southern California develop reluctance toward addressing religion/spirituality with their clients. Through snowball sampling, 52 clinicians composed of social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists were recruited across Southern California (N =52). The participants were measured descriptively based on (a) confidence in their ability to integrate client beliefs into treatment and (b) their comfort discussing topics related to RS with their clients. Results revealed an overall level of reluctance ranging from 15 percent (for comfortability) to 25 percent (for ability) among the study participants. Licensed clinical social workers reported slightly lower reluctance level than other licensed professionals. Implications of the findings were discussed.

The Wechsler Memory Scale –iii is the newest version of a six-decade old neuropsychological inventory. Since its conception, the Wechsler Memory Scale has been highly utilized by practitioners to accurately assess various memory functions in adult subjects. Revisions made within this inventory include the Faces I subtest, a facial recognition scale, which was added in order to strengthen the instrument’s accuracy at measuring episodic memory. Facial recognition, both cross-race and within-race, has been researched extensively and consistent biases have been found between race of test taker and cross-racial identification. Theories of exposure/contextual interaction (environment) and biological foundations have been the subject of study in the past in order to determine from where these racial identification deficits stem. The current study focuses on revealing bias in the Faces I subtest, regarding to an unequal distribution of racially representative faces in the testing materials. Eighty-eight college students were recruited to view forty-eight pictured faces from the Faces I subtest and determine the racial category to which the pictured face belonged. The subjects’ categorical responses were the basis for calculating a percent agreement score for racial category of each face. It was determined, using the results of subjects’ responses, that the Faces I subtest contained an unequal distribution of racially representative faces in both the Target and Interference testing material. This confirmed the presence of an inherent bias within the subscale. The implications of memory accuracy for the WMS-iii are discussed as it relates to different fields of study, but none more directly than the criminal justice system. Eyewitness testimony is a pivotal evidentiary tool in the criminal justice system, and ramifications of cross-racial identification deficits and biases in the tools to accurately assess memory are increasingly bringing this once heavily relied upon tool into question.

A written thesis to accompany the M.F.A. Exhibition Cumulative Grief, in which the artist's personal and familial narrative explores the complexity and nuances of racial grief.

This work highlights specific lexical items that have become racialized in specific contextual applications and tests how these words are cognitively processed. This work presents the results of a visual world (Huettig et al 2011) eye-tracking study designed to determine the perception and application of racialized (Coates 2011) adjectives. To objectively select the racialized adjectives used, I developed a corpus comprised of popular media sources, designed specifically to suit my research question. I collected publications from digital media sources such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Fortune by scraping articles featuring specific search terms from their websites. This experiment seeks to aid in the demarcation of socially salient groups whose application of racialized adjectives to racialized images is near instantaneous, or at least less questioned. As we view growing social movements which revolve around the significant marks unconscious assumptions leave on American society, revealing how and where these lexical assignments arise and thrive allows us to interrogate the forces which build and reify such biases. Future research should attempt to address the harmful semiotics these lexical choices sustain.

In the midst of honing my craft as an educator, this ethnographic narrative was done for the purposes of taking an introspective look at the many moving parts of becoming an effective educator as well as developing an ethnographic view of the students who will pass through my classroom during my tenure as an educator. This ethnographic narrative examines my individual background, the educational spaces within which I find myself, communities I serve, and the students I was given the privilege of building relationships with within the classroom. This project serves as an in-depth analysis of the implicit biases one might hold as a teacher and a vehicle for continual introspection on my part as an effective and culturally-aware educator.