Languages, like species, evolve. Just like biologists, historical linguists infer relationships between the lineages they study by analysing heritable features. For linguists, these features can be words, grammar and phonemes. This linguistic evidence of descent with modification plays an important role in our understanding of human prehistory. However, conventional methods in historical linguistics do not employ an explicit optimality criterion to evaluate evolutionary language trees. These methods cannot quantify uncertainty in the inferences nor provide an absolute chronology of divergence events. Previous attempts to estimate divergence times from lexical data using glottochronological methods have been heavily criticized, particularly for the assumption of constant rates of lexical replacement. Computational phylogenetic methods from biology can overcome these problems and allow divergence times to be estimated without the assumption of constant rates. Here these methods are applied to lexical data to test hypotheses about human prehistory. First, divergence time estimates for the age of the Indo-European language family are used to test between two competing theories of Indo- European origin - the Kurgan hypothesis and the Anatolian farming hypothesis. The resulting age estimates are consistent with the age range implied by the Anatolian farming theory. Validation exercises using different models, data sets and coding procedures, as well as the analysis of synthetic data, indicate these results are highly robust. Second, the same methodology was applied to Mayan lexical data to infer historical relationships and divergence times within the Mayan language family. The results highlight interesting uncertainties in Mayan language relationships and suggest that the family may be older than previously thought. Finally, returning to biology, similar tree-building and model validation techniques are used to draw inferences about human origins and dispersal from human mitochondrial DNA sequence data. These analyses support a human origin 150,000-250,000 years ago and reveal time dependency in rates of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Population size estimates generated using a coalescent approach suggest a twophase human population expansion from Africa. Potential correlations between human genetic and linguistic diversity are highlighted. I conclude that there is much to be gained by linguists and biologists using the same methods and speaking the same language.

Languages, like species, evolve. Just like biologists, historical linguists infer relationships between the lineages they study by analysing heritable features. For linguists, these features can be words, grammar and phonemes. This linguistic evidence of descent with modification plays an important role in our understanding of human prehistory. However, conventional methods in historical linguistics do not employ an explicit optimality criterion to evaluate evolutionary language trees. These methods cannot quantify uncertainty in the inferences nor provide an absolute chronology of divergence events. Previous attempts to estimate divergence times from lexical data using glottochronological methods have been heavily criticized, particularly for the assumption of constant rates of lexical replacement. Computational phylogenetic methods from biology can overcome these problems and allow divergence times to be estimated without the assumption of constant rates. Here these methods are applied to lexical data to test hypotheses about human prehistory. First, divergence time estimates for the age of the Indo-European language family are used to test between two competing theories of Indo- European origin - the Kurgan hypothesis and the Anatolian farming hypothesis. The resulting age estimates are consistent with the age range implied by the Anatolian farming theory. Validation exercises using different models, data sets and coding procedures, as well as the analysis of synthetic data, indicate these results are highly robust. Second, the same methodology was applied to Mayan lexical data to infer historical relationships and divergence times within the Mayan language family. The results highlight interesting uncertainties in Mayan language relationships and suggest that the family may be older than previously thought. Finally, returning to biology, similar tree-building and model validation techniques are used to draw inferences about human origins and dispersal from human mitochondrial DNA sequence data. These analyses support a human origin 150,000-250,000 years ago and reveal time dependency in rates of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Population size estimates generated using a coalescent approach suggest a twophase human population expansion from Africa. Potential correlations between human genetic and linguistic diversity are highlighted. I conclude that there is much to be gained by linguists and biologists using the same methods and speaking the same language.

Languages, like species, evolve. Just like biologists, historical linguists infer relationships between the lineages they study by analysing heritable features. For linguists, these features can be words, grammar and phonemes. This linguistic evidence of descent with modification plays an important role in our understanding of human prehistory. However, conventional methods in historical linguistics do not employ an explicit optimality criterion to evaluate evolutionary language trees. These methods cannot quantify uncertainty in the inferences nor provide an absolute chronology of divergence events. Previous attempts to estimate divergence times from lexical data using glottochronological methods have been heavily criticized, particularly for the assumption of constant rates of lexical replacement. Computational phylogenetic methods from biology can overcome these problems and allow divergence times to be estimated without the assumption of constant rates. Here these methods are applied to lexical data to test hypotheses about human prehistory. First, divergence time estimates for the age of the Indo-European language family are used to test between two competing theories of Indo- European origin - the Kurgan hypothesis and the Anatolian farming hypothesis. The resulting age estimates are consistent with the age range implied by the Anatolian farming theory. Validation exercises using different models, data sets and coding procedures, as well as the analysis of synthetic data, indicate these results are highly robust. Second, the same methodology was applied to Mayan lexical data to infer historical relationships and divergence times within the Mayan language family. The results highlight interesting uncertainties in Mayan language relationships and suggest that the family may be older than previously thought. Finally, returning to biology, similar tree-building and model validation techniques are used to draw inferences about human origins and dispersal from human mitochondrial DNA sequence data. These analyses support a human origin 150,000-250,000 years ago and reveal time dependency in rates of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Population size estimates generated using a coalescent approach suggest a twophase human population expansion from Africa. Potential correlations between human genetic and linguistic diversity are highlighted. I conclude that there is much to be gained by linguists and biologists using the same methods and speaking the same language.

Languages, like species, evolve. Just like biologists, historical linguists infer relationships between the lineages they study by analysing heritable features. For linguists, these features can be words, grammar and phonemes. This linguistic evidence of descent with modification plays an important role in our understanding of human prehistory. However, conventional methods in historical linguistics do not employ an explicit optimality criterion to evaluate evolutionary language trees. These methods cannot quantify uncertainty in the inferences nor provide an absolute chronology of divergence events. Previous attempts to estimate divergence times from lexical data using glottochronological methods have been heavily criticized, particularly for the assumption of constant rates of lexical replacement. Computational phylogenetic methods from biology can overcome these problems and allow divergence times to be estimated without the assumption of constant rates. Here these methods are applied to lexical data to test hypotheses about human prehistory. First, divergence time estimates for the age of the Indo-European language family are used to test between two competing theories of Indo- European origin - the Kurgan hypothesis and the Anatolian farming hypothesis. The resulting age estimates are consistent with the age range implied by the Anatolian farming theory. Validation exercises using different models, data sets and coding procedures, as well as the analysis of synthetic data, indicate these results are highly robust. Second, the same methodology was applied to Mayan lexical data to infer historical relationships and divergence times within the Mayan language family. The results highlight interesting uncertainties in Mayan language relationships and suggest that the family may be older than previously thought. Finally, returning to biology, similar tree-building and model validation techniques are used to draw inferences about human origins and dispersal from human mitochondrial DNA sequence data. These analyses support a human origin 150,000-250,000 years ago and reveal time dependency in rates of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Population size estimates generated using a coalescent approach suggest a twophase human population expansion from Africa. Potential correlations between human genetic and linguistic diversity are highlighted. I conclude that there is much to be gained by linguists and biologists using the same methods and speaking the same language.

Languages, like species, evolve. Just like biologists, historical linguists infer relationships between the lineages they study by analysing heritable features. For linguists, these features can be words, grammar and phonemes. This linguistic evidence of descent with modification plays an important role in our understanding of human prehistory. However, conventional methods in historical linguistics do not employ an explicit optimality criterion to evaluate evolutionary language trees. These methods cannot quantify uncertainty in the inferences nor provide an absolute chronology of divergence events. Previous attempts to estimate divergence times from lexical data using glottochronological methods have been heavily criticized, particularly for the assumption of constant rates of lexical replacement. Computational phylogenetic methods from biology can overcome these problems and allow divergence times to be estimated without the assumption of constant rates. Here these methods are applied to lexical data to test hypotheses about human prehistory. First, divergence time estimates for the age of the Indo-European language family are used to test between two competing theories of Indo- European origin - the Kurgan hypothesis and the Anatolian farming hypothesis. The resulting age estimates are consistent with the age range implied by the Anatolian farming theory. Validation exercises using different models, data sets and coding procedures, as well as the analysis of synthetic data, indicate these results are highly robust. Second, the same methodology was applied to Mayan lexical data to infer historical relationships and divergence times within the Mayan language family. The results highlight interesting uncertainties in Mayan language relationships and suggest that the family may be older than previously thought. Finally, returning to biology, similar tree-building and model validation techniques are used to draw inferences about human origins and dispersal from human mitochondrial DNA sequence data. These analyses support a human origin 150,000-250,000 years ago and reveal time dependency in rates of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Population size estimates generated using a coalescent approach suggest a twophase human population expansion from Africa. Potential correlations between human genetic and linguistic diversity are highlighted. I conclude that there is much to be gained by linguists and biologists using the same methods and speaking the same language.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Candyce S. Russell / The risk of HIV infection continues to be high in the United States, with women being one of the most vulnerable populations. Medical tests to determine an HIV-positive diagnosis and to subsequently chart the progression of the disease and the effectiveness of the medications are central to the lives of these women. This paper will focus on how women find meaning in these test results and how these meanings affect the way they view their lives and their relationships. Women are also often in particularly vulnerable positions, and this paper will discuss how they deal with this disproportionate lack of power both before and after HIV infection. It is important to therapists working with these women to have an understanding of how women make meaning of both their HIV test results and power differentials. The implications for therapy include helping the client and her family members understand this new situation and the meanings it has for their lives and relationships.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Anthony Jurich / The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in marital quality between full-time and bivocational pastors and their spouses in the Church of the Nazarene. While the denomination is a world-wide organization this study only considered clergy couples in the United States of America. The denomination has seventy-five districts in the United States. Originally, ten districts were randomly selected, however, due to a low response rate; five additional districts were purposely selected based on the availability of email addresses for the pastors. A mailing was sent to senior pastors and their spouses from the original ten districts. E-mails were sent to senior pastors and their spouses from all fifteen districts. A link was included in the e-mail that directed the individual to the K-State On-line Survey System. From the mail and the e-mail there were one hundred and ninety-nine responses. The survey included the following instruments: the Clergy Family Life Inventory, the Ministry Demand Inventory (Impact and Times), the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, and the Reduced Sound Marital House. Qualitative questions were also asked according to the individuals’ position (i.e. Full-time Pastor, Full-time Pastor’s Spouse, Bivocational Pastor, Bivocational Pastor’s Spouse). There were six propositions developed for this study, these were: demands of the ministry have a negative effect on marital quality; intrusive congregational expectations have a negative effect on marital quality; the pastor’s own expectations for his/her work with the church will have an effect on his/her marital quality; financial stress will have an adverse effect on marital quality; marital quality is adversely affected when the spouse works outside of the home in order to meet the family budget; and, accepting the influence of his/her spouse has a positive affect on marital quality. Only the last proposition was confirmed. The findings suggest that there is no difference in marital quality between full-time and bivocational clergy couples. However, the reader most also consider the phenomena of social desirability in the context of this research.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / James Shanteau / In many situations, people are called on to make judgments about the likelihood of an event. Research has shown that when people make these judgments, they frequently equate or confuse conditional probabilities with other conditional probabilities. This equating or confusing of conditional probabilities is known as the confusion of the inverse. Research investigating this problem typically focuses on clinical and medical decision-making and the use of statistical evidence to make diagnoses. However, one area in which the confusion of the inverse has not been studied is in juror decision-making. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to (1) determine if the confusion of the inverse influences juror decision-making, (2) interpret reasons why this confusion occurs, and (3) attempt to eliminate it from juror decision-making. Jurors were presented with four court cases gathered from local and federal courthouses in a small Mid-western city. In each of the four cases, a single piece of evidence was presented (statistical only) which was to be used when rendering verdicts. Finally, each case contained juror instructions for the specific case type: murder, kidnapping, arson, sexual assault. Overall, jurors fell prey to the confusion of the inverse, equating the probability of the data given the hypothesis [P(D|H)] with the probability of the hypothesis given the data [P(H|D)]. However, the research was unable to reduce the effect, much less eliminate it from the task. Interestingly, jurors tended to ignore the statistical evidence (i.e., estimations about probability of a match) in favor of their own personal believe in the strength of the evidence. Although the original intent of reducing/eliminating the confusion of the inverse was not accomplished, the dissertation did accomplish three things. First, researchers have hypothesized three reasons why people engage in incorrect probabilistic reasoning, and the dissertation affirmed that it is indeed a function of the confusion of conditional probabilities – the confusion of the inverse. Second, it seems that the use of statistical evidence in a trial is ignored by most jurors in favor of their own personal belief in the evidence’s strength. Finally, the criteria needed for “beyond a reasonable doubt” may be too stringent.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Briana S. Goff / Homophobic hate crimes against lesbians and gay men represent a significant social problem that has important psychological consequences for survivors. Because the nature of these crimes is, by definition, against someone for his or her intrapersonal traits, it has even more potential to be damaging to a victim and in turn potentially detrimental to the development and/or maintenance of close personal relationships. The impact of trauma has long been studied from the view of the trauma survivor or any secondary traumatization of those around the primary survivor. The impact of hate crime victimization has also been examined, and it, too, has also been examined from the primary survivors perspective. Only in recent years has the impact of trauma on interpersonal relationships been examined. Additionally, there is currently little to no literature on the impact of trauma or traumatic events on gay or lesbian relationships. The types of hate crime victimization experiences range from verbal abuse to severe physical assault to death. While hate crime victimization is not specifically identified in the DSM – IV – TR as a potentially traumatic event, physical assault, which is found commonly in hate crimes, is identified. Therefore, hate crime victimization could be a potentially traumatic event. However, this has not been addressed in the traumatic stress field. This report is intended to address the gaps in the current body of literature in both the traumatic stress field and the gay and lesbian literature. This overwhelming lack of literature has the potential to be very detrimental to professionals working with this population and in turn detrimental to the population and society. Evidence suggests that there may be a difference in how or if the potentially traumatic hate crime victimization experience manifests itself internally or in other forms because of the nature and severity of the victimization in one or both partners. Evidence also suggests, similarly to heterosexual couples, the impact of trauma has repercussions throughout the couple relationship. This report provides a preliminary start to continue and expand the work with the gay and lesbian community.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research has shown that attributions and behavioral reactions toward individuals may be based on their appearance; our studies examined how appearance-based assessments for individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) determined how others think and react toward a target individual. Two studies examined the effects of appearance and identification on perceptions (i.e., agentic and communal traits) and behavioral reactions (i.e, self-efficacy expectations, anxiety, willingness to interact) toward targets. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that individuals with atypical appearances were rated higher on communal than agentic traits. Study 2 revealed that greater self-efficacy expectations and lower anxiety were associated with individuals with atypical appearances and individuals identified as having an ID. These studies increase understanding of perceiver-focused and target-focused factors related to bias toward individuals with IDs.