The major focus of this study is to identify the potentials and obstacles involved in establishing a permaculture in an existing suburban community in Muncie, Indiana.Permaculture is, briefly, a design concept of human settlements which strives to bring about an attitude of ecology and humanity in society as a whole. The physical of the earth by involving design stresses energy conservation and production of renewable natural resources, ecological food production techniques, and the recovery of a genuine sense of community and a sense of the sacredness of the earth by involving people with people and people with the landscape.The First Presbyterian Church site and congregation in Muncie has been chosen for this study. A permaculture proposal has been developed for and presented to the community. Initial reactions to this proposal have been obtained in order to identify the potentials and obstaclespresent toward implementing the permaculture proposal in this unique suburban setting. / Department of Landscape Architecture

In the past few years social researchers have focused a considerable amount of attention on the relationships between religion and psychological well-being. The purpose of this paper is to examine further relationships among a sample of the Middletown population. More specifically, the paper explores gender differences which may be found in the impact of religion, as measured by church attendance and the presence of fundamentalist beliefs, on three indices of subjective psychological well-being. The findings, as indicated by a series of multiple regressions, demonstrate a significantly stronger relationship between religion and well-being for men than for women. Men who attended church frequently and who professed fundamentalist beliefs were more likely to report positive feelings of well-being. In most cases, religion had little or no effect on women's self-reported well-being. / Department of Sociology

This study examines the lives of fifteen women from five families of Muncie, Indiana, women.. Each participating family has represented (in maternal decension), a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. With one exception, all were born, raised, and are still living in Muncie, the "Middletown" of 1929, Robert S. and Helen M. Lynd's seminal study.The data determined what the persistent challenges were in the lives of these three generations of women, and what approaches they used to respond to them. Family relationships, attitudes toward women in the workplace, relationships between men and women, and an understanding and comparison of the attitudes of each generation are included in the study. Data were largely obtained by means of the ethnographic interview technique.Data indicated similar approaches to meeting challenges were used within a family, and approaches varied from family to family.A variety of approaches were used situationallyby all the women of all generations.The study supported prior research showing that religiosity strongly transfers from generation to generation. / Department of Educational Leadership

This qualitative study described and compared the cognitive apprehensions regarding drinking water quality (DW) in Muncie, Indiana, USA. The comparison was between two different, culturally elite groups using constructive-grounded theory. Eighteen semistructured interviews were conducted with both Arab (n=9) and American (n=9) participants. Five essential themes emerged from the interview data: the sensory properties of drinking water, pollutants, health concerns, information sources, and experience. The data from this study is grounded to the epistemologies regarding drinking water. The epistemologies differ between the Arab and American groups due to social factors, such as ethnicity, culture, and past experiences. The study showed that the two groups in the study perceived knowledge regarding drinking water in different ways. The study showed that the educated Arabs had different cognitive apprehensions regarding drinking water compared to educated Americans due to their previous experiences with drinking water quality in their home countries and their lack of interest in the local media. However, similar findings regarding beliefs about pollutants and diseases in drinking water were shared between the groups. The grounded study found that each group had different behaviors regarding drinking water, and it developed a theory that described how different epistemologies lead to different actions regarding drinking water among different ethnicities. Some recommendations based on the study findings endorse that the government agencies should provide a readily accessible publication about the drinking water quality to the community. It is recommended that the government agencies promote the dissemination of water quality studies’ findings through mass media, social media, and other means of communications with the public. In addition, recommendations should also be provided to enhance the local environmental awareness of international students at universities. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

When service-learning began to gain prominence as a legitimate academic pedagogy in the early 1990's, it was believed that through intensive service experiences, students developed a greater understanding of themselves, felt empowered to make a difference in their community, made a connection to course material, and made a commitment to continue serving their communities post-graduation. Research conducted in the mid to late 1990's confirmed that students completing service-learning courses were responding positively in all these stated areas (Eyler, Giles, & Braxton, 1997; Osborne, Hammerich, & Hensley, 1998). However, a new generation of students began entering higher education institutions in the fall of 2000. Labeled the Millennial generation and because these students were different from any other previous generation (Howe & Strauss, 2000), it was appropriate to ask whether these students would respond to service-learning experiences in the same way. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the assumptions made about the effects of service-learning were accurate for the contemporary Millennial student, as defined by Howe and Strauss (2000), and to more accurately know whether those service-learning experiences were meeting students' expectations. This research assessed the way Millennial students at Ball State university were affected by service-learning in three primary ways: Expanding Academic Learning, Personal Growth and Development, and Civic and Social Awareness. A sample of 256 undergraduates enrolled in service-learning courses at Ball State University at the beginning of the fall 2009 semester were given a service-learning pre-assessment test that consisted of 18 questions in three different subcategories: Expanding Academic Learning, Personal Growth and Development, and Civic and Social Awareness. The pre-assessment was designed to evaluate what students expected to gain from their service-learning experience. A post-assessment was given at the end of the fall 2009 semester and asked students to report on what they actually received from the service-learning experience. Overall, Ball State Millennial students reacted in very similar ways to their service-learning experience as the generation before them. Ball State Millennial students had high expectations that, as a result of their service-learning experiences, their classroom studies would be more meaningful, their higher level thinking skills would be enhanced, and their service-learning experiences would be an important part of their education. There was not a statistically significant difference between the pre-assessment (expectations of service-learning) and the post-assessment (service-learning experiences). Students had high expectations for what they would achieve from their service-learning experience and overall their expectations were met. When looking at the individual subcategories, there were statistically significant differences between the pre- and post- assessment for Expanding Academic Learning, Personal Growth and Development, and Civic and Social Awareness, but not for Personal Growth and Development. This research also demonstrated that service-learning affects students in similar ways regardless of the age of the students, class standing, grade point average and years of previous service. There was, however, a statistically significant difference based on service-learning course taken. / Department of Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among perceived stress, stressors, and coping mechanisms of nurses in the areas of the intensive care unit, coronary care unit, cardiac recovery unit, and the emergency room. It was proposed that nurses in these areas perceive environmental and job stressors for which they developed specific copingmechanisms. It was further proposed that a relationship exists between levels of stress and coping mechanisms used by nurses.All registered nurses (RN's) and licensed practical nurses (LPN's) in each of the above units at Ball Memorial Hospital who agreed to participate were included in the study. The nurses were surveyed by questionnaires which they completed during their leisure time and placed in a drop box on their unit. No names or signatures were asked for. Informed consent was implied by the completion and return of the questionnaire which included, the Nurse Stress Scale by Gray-Toft & Anderson (1981), a coping mechanism scale by Kelly & Cross (1985), and a demographic questionnaire. Demographic characteristics included age, gender, educational level, marital status, years of experience, and type of nurse (manager or staff and RN or LPN). No risks were foreseen to the participants. However, it is hoped that participants in the study were able to develop a greater awareness of job related stress and coping mechanisms employed.The design of the study was nonexperimental, descriptive, and correlational. The independent variable was work related stress and the dependent varible was coping mechanisms. Pearson's product moment correlation, t-test, and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.The results indicated that there were sigificant relationships between five of the stress subscales, and selected coping mechanisms. Total stress was also found to have significant posititve correlations with four of the coping mechanisms. There were no significant differences between RNs and LPNs in general level of stress and in the seven subscales of stressors. / School of Nursing

Access to abstract restricted until 12/14/2014 / Access to thesis restricted until 12/14/2014 / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

The purpose of this study was to examine the Ball State University collegiate student organizational structure and determine how leader and manager roles develop, :based on responses that student organizational officers and members provide on the Leadership Questionnaire (Burke, 1988) at two different times during the 1999-2000 academic year. This study also investigated the development process of student officer positions to determine whether transactional (management) or transformational (leadership) is promoted. Using thethe pre- and post-test data, the results showed that those subjects who were members decreased in leadership skill development, while officers increased in leadership skill development during a two month time span. The difference between the two groups was significant at the .064 level. (F (1,23) = 3.79, p = .064) The alpha level was chosen as .10 due to the exploratory nature of the study and the small data history. This data confirms our initial research hypotheses that 1) participation in authority roles develops leadership skills, and 2) those authority roles are experienced as leadership roles. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

This thesis investigates student-identified benefits of residential learning communities. It is a qualitative study involving matriculates living on campus who participate in Freshman Connections at Ball State University. Past assessment of the program includes faculty, residence hall director, and student surveys investigating their experiences and feedback. The literature reflects creation and implementation of living and learning communities, benefits for students, faculty and universities, and retention outcomes. The researcher used focus groups in the research design and analyzed the data by extracting relevant themes. The findings are discussed within the following themes: student knowledge of the Freshman Connections program; adjustment to Ball State University, and college, academic and interpersonal benefits of learning communities; and relationships among students and faculty. The conclusion includes discussion of how student adjustment to Ball State University and college was affected by assignment of students to the same courses and residence hall. Academic relationships among faculty and students are also explored along with discussion concerning students' overall experience in the Freshman Connections program. Finally, suggestions for further research are presented. / Department of Educational Leadership

This study was designed to answer the following research questions: "Are those at risk for coronary heart disease being screened for high blood cholesterol?" and "Are those with high blood cholesterol being treated according to the national guidelines?" The importance of early detection and treatment of high blood cholesterol is vital for preventive health care. A chart review of patient records was conducted to determine the behavior of the family practice residents. From the analysis of data it was determined that the residents screened their patients 83.0% of the time and when compared with national guidelines, treated those patients identified with high blood cholesterol 52.8% of the time. Third year residents screened their patients more (88.7%) for blood cholesterol than first (82.1%) or second (74.7%) year residents. Male residents screened a higher percent of their patients (84.8%) than female residents (75.0%). / Department of Physiology and Health Science