The purpose of this research was to explore concepts and perceptions in the area of visual resource management via geographic information systems. A scenic assessment of Interstate 17 was conducted, then a digital database was built for a subset of the study area. Theoretical frameworks were explored and expanded. Review of the current literature resulted in a methodologically alternate conceptual model which utilized spatial analysis. After checking for issues of validity and accuracy, data visualization products were developed which aided in understanding the procedures and results. The results showed that given the readily available data an automated scenic assessment was not currently feasible.

<p> Key concepts in liberation psychology describe the treatment and regard for children in public school: oppression, colonization, hegemony. This study asked whether public education is experienced as oppressive, creating students who are colonized. Through a frame of liberation psychology and a depth psychological perspective, the study examines whether children are systematically "civilized" by the dominant adult population. Is the indigenous child&mdash;the child born with unique intelligence, knowledge, and desire to learn&mdash;systematically stifled within the existing educational paradigm? </p><p> Findings revealed that several practices at the Middle School enhanced learning, personal empowerment, self-esteem, and happiness, and were termed Liberatory. Most significant was whole-child value, where nonacademic strengths, intrinsic worth, and creativity were valued. Mutual, positive, connected relationship between teacher and student was primary, enhanced by trips outside of school with faculty, emphasizing character and life lessons. Acceptance permeated the peer environment. </p><p> Practices at the public High School, referred to as Oppressive, contributed to alienation, separation, fear, boredom, and disincentive to learning. Focus on right answers on tests encouraged memorization/forgetting, paradoxically described as "academic" by students, and creativity was not valued. Students cited teacher overwhelm as the main reason for the absence of connected relationship between educators and students. Judgment permeated the peer environment. </p><p> Participants were 10 females between 18 and 20 years old who attended a private middle school that practiced humanistic, whole-child learning, and a public high school in Santa Barbara, CA. A Likert survey asked 25 identical questions regarding experience of both schools, followed by in-depth interview highlighting the difference between the subject's experiences of both schools. Using hermeneutic data evaluation, Findings fell into 4 strong themes at 2 poles of experience and practice: Liberatory and Oppressive. </p><p> There was 1 significant exception to the clear pattern in Findings: a teacher within the Oppressive system used Liberatory practices effectively. Simple changes like respect, care, listening, and personal connection could increase learning and happiness in school.</p>

<p> This study, as well as the initial pilot study, are the first known, stand-alone, empirical studies of the Tibetan Buddhist <i>tonglen</i> meditation practice, which is intended to increase levels of compassion (and the benefits that come with that), in addition to reducing less helpful mind-states such as fear and egotism. The premise of this larger proof-of-concept study was to investigate whether tonglen meditation can 1) increase self-compassion and compassion for others, 2) in novice meditators 3) with very little instruction, and 4) short amounts of practice time. This study examined changes in self-compassion and compassion for others through a pre/post intervention study design (&alpha; = .05). Subjects (n = 53), who were novice meditators, were given only ten minutes of introduction and instruction; after which, they were asked to participate in an 18-minute guided tonglen meditation, practice on-the-spot tonglen for 30-seconds twice a day for six days, then do one additional 18-minute guided tonglen practice. Results showed a statistically significantly increase in the total scale score of self-compassion (p &lt; .01) and statistically significant beneficial changes in each of the six subscales as measured by Neff's self-report questionnaire, the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). An increase in compassion for others, though trending up, could not be determined through Pommier's self-report questionnaire, the Compassion Scale (CS), due to a ceiling effect. In addition to the study results, this dissertation includes a detailed discussion of the findings and of the results from the qualitative feedback, which offers insight into the perceived benefits subjects reported, including a reduction in pain, increased communication skills, and the ability for greater perspective taking. The dissertation also contains an introduction to tonglen meditation, a tonglen troubleshooting guide, a chart of tonglen commentaries in English organized by century, and an extended literature review of a cousin compassion meditation practice, loving-kindness meditation (LKM).</p>

This thesis explores the links between emotion processing and social participation in the acute and chronic phases of stroke. Three aspects of emotion processing are examined: 1) Emotion Perception 2) Emotion Regulation 3) Depression and Anxiety. Social Participation refers to engagement in life situations including a range of social activities and social networks. Stroke survivors are known to experience a reduction in social participation, independently of activity limitations. The current research tests the hypothesis that impairments in any of the aspects of emotion processing may affect social participation. Previous research has established that following stroke, difficulties in emotion perception and depression and anxiety occur, but there is little research on post stroke emotion regulation difficulties. While the link between post stroke depression and anxiety and social participation has been explored, this is not the case with emotion perception or emotion regulation. In a pilot study, emotion processing and social participation measures were administered to stroke patients. Emotion processing difficulties were shown to occur in stroke survivors and were significantly correlated with social participation. In the main study participants’ emotion processing, social participation and activity limitations were assessed at 2 and 18 months post stroke. In the acute phase, all three aspects of emotion processing correlated with social participation, but only emotion regulation predicted social participation restrictions independently of activity limitations. In the chronic phase, emotion processing correlated with social participation, with emotion regulation and depression predicting social participation independently of activity limitations. Further analyses revealed acute phase problems with emotion perception predicted chronic phase social participation limitations, while acute phase social participation restrictions predicted chronic phase depression and emotion regulation. These findings highlight the importance of the links between emotion processing and social participation post stroke. Future research priorities in this field are outlined.

<p> The African American community&rsquo;s relationship with the police has historically been strained for more than a century. How that tumultuous relationship affects African American mother&rsquo;s perceptions of police and confidence in the ability for police to interact safely with their sons has not been explored thus far. It is the intention of this study to explore and offer insight into the experience of African American mothers with sons and potential police interactions. This qualitative study utilized a focus group setting to gather information. Within two weeks of the focus group 6 participants withdrew, the focus group ultimately included 6 participants. Participants voiced their need to educate their sons about police, Blackness being a risk factor, the emotional burdens of ensuring safety, strategies used to promote safety in potential police interactions, and possible solutions to strained community police relations. Participants developed strategies to increase safety by asking their sons to be compliant, stay under the radar, utilize family support, recreational and community resources. While there was a lack of confidence and mistrust of the police, participants maintained hope that with training and positive community interactions there can be improvement in safety during police interactions.</p>

<p> Mate Poaching is one strategy used for attracting a mate. Under principles of evolutionary theory, mating strategies are driven by inter-sexual selection and intra-sexual competition creating Sex specificity in the way strategies succeed or fail. The relatively recent emergence of the Internet raises questions about its interaction with evolutionary mechanisms that people use to attract a mate. The purpose of this study was to identify whether or not Mate Poaching exists within virtual Social Networking Sites (SNS), and whether or not poaching tactics used in a Face-to-Face Environment are still considered effective in a Virtual one. This study asked whether there was an association between the environment of Mate Poaching and the Sex of a poacher in three environments (Face-to-Face, Virtual, and Blended); the study also asks whether there is a significant interaction between the environment and Sex of a poacher on the Perceived Efficacy of three Mate Poaching tactics (Enhancing Physical Appearance, Demonstrating Resources, and Humor). The study consisted of a mixed design: Part one was a causal-comparative design answered with a modified Anonymous Romantic Attraction Survey (ARAS). Part two was an experimental design, randomly assigning participants to rate the Perceived Efficacy of 42 tactics from the Expanded Acts and Tactics from Schmitt and Buss (2001). The convenience sample (N=233) was drawn from adults 18 years or older who have had at least one romantic relationship in their lifetime, and were residents of the United States. The sample, consisting of 71 males and 162 females, was 84.1% heterosexual, and split evenly on marital status; ages ranged from 18 to 78, with a mean age of 40. Data were analyzed for part one with six chi-square tests of association, and part two with three two-way factorial ANOVAs. Part one found a significant association between Sex and Environment for &ldquo;Have you ever poached?&rdquo; in the Face-to-Face and Blended Environments. The Virtual Environment and all three (Face-to-Face, Virtual and Blended) Environments for &ldquo;Have you frequently poached?&rdquo; did not find a significant association with Sex. Part two found no significant interactions between Sex and environment on the Perceived Efficacy of the three tactics; there was a main effect of Sex on both Enhancing Physical Appearance and Demonstrating Resources, further confirming previous literature. There was no main effect of Sex or environment on the tactic of Humor, consistent with mixed results around this construct in the literature.</p>

<p> Secondary traumatic stress is the physiological reaction to vicarious traumatization. Public child welfare workers are exposed daily to the traumas of child maltreatment from neglect to death. Unlike other first responders, child welfare workers have continued exposure to the trauma of child maltreatment with every report, change in placement, and discussion. Rural child welfare workers have an added burden of issues common to both the children and families they serve, and to themselves as members of their communities: isolation, social proximity, dual relationships, remoteness, and fewer resources. In an effort to identify the experiences of secondary traumatic stress in rural child welfare workers in this study, eight child welfare workers were individually interviewed from two separate, remote, rural communities. Using semi-structured, open-ended questions, discussions of their experiences produced a wealth of data that was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings gave discovery that rural child welfare workers do experience secondary traumatic stress, and included symptoms such as: depression, frustration, exhaustion, sleeplessness, crying, hypervigilance, avoidance, guilt, loss of appetite, and more. Many of these symptoms were exacerbated by the characteristics of the remote, rural community as there were few outlets and venues for discussing and debriefing in privacy. Conclusions were rural child welfare agencies need to engage in providing trauma informed training and support to their workers, and include secondary trauma as part of their culture in supervision and management. Finally, several new resources are discussed which are available to agencies and staff from national child welfare institutes, agencies, and online publications.</p>

Three experiments were conducted using written vignettes depicting a man harassing a woman co-worker. The vignettes in all the experiments were designed to represent three levels of severity of harassment (mild, moderate, and severe), to represent sexual and nonsexual situations, and to be not significantly different within each level of harassment. Subjects who participated in the experiments were female undergraduate students attending General Psychology courses at Florida State University. The purpose of the experiments was to assess whether blame and stigmatization of a victim of harassment differs as a function of severity of harassment, of type of harassment, of whether or not the harassment was reported, and of consequences to the harasser. The results of the experiments indicate that subjects ascribed less blame to the woman when she reported an incident of severe harassment than when she did not report severe harassment. They also perceived the woman who reported severe harassment to be more agreeable and conscientious. An interaction between severity of the harassment and consequences to the perpetrator was also obtained. Subjects in this experiment rated the woman's character less positive when the man was fired for an incident of mild harassment, but higher when he was fired for severe harassment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: B, page: 1663. / Director: Edwin Megargee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The study proposed to investigate the use of the ecological model to identify possible characteristics of child sexual abuse perpetrators. The ecological model conceptualizes child maltreatment as a social-psychological phenomenon that is determined by forces at work in the individual (ontogenic development), and the family (the microsystem), as well as the community (the exosystem) and the culture (the macrosystem) in which both the individual and the family are embedded. / Three criterion groups participated; sexual abusers of adults (N = 25), violent criminals (N = 26), and child sexual abusers (N = 27). Participants identified as adult sexual abusers had not committed crimes of child sexual abuse or violence. Subjects in the violent group had not committed crimes of a sexual nature against adults or children. Individuals in the child sexual abuser group had not committed sexual crimes against adults or violent crimes. The offenses and criteria used to identify group membership are included in the study. All subjects were under the authority of the Ohio Department of Corrections and were incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Facility, Marion, Ohio. / Four measurements, The Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis, the Family Cohesion and Adaptability Evaluation Scale, the Attitudes Towards Women Scale, and the Gladding, Lewis, and Adkins Scale of Religiosity were administered to the participants. Each instrument was selected to reflect the four systems present in the ecological model. It was hypothesized that child sexual abuse perpetrators would exhibit extreme scores in personal dominance, family cohesiveness, conventional attitudes towards women, and religiosity. / The Multivariate Analysis of Variance omnibus test did not indicate significant multivariate effect. Although the predictor variables were unable to isolate group differences, they did reveal differences between the prison population and a norm population. An analysis of the effect sizes between the groups and the norms of the respective instruments indicated that incarcerated individuals are more dominant and that their family members are more likely to be disengaged from one another. The use of the ecological model for identifying individual characteristics unique to perpetrators of child sexual abuse as compared to other inmate populations was not supported by the results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-04, Section: A, page: 1291. / Major Professor: Gary Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The purpose of this study was to explore mother-daughter relationships as age and perceptions of autonomy related with reported intimacy, conflict, self-esteem, and quality of relationship. The study utilized 221 matched pairs of post-adolescent females and their mothers. Questionnaires were completed using college students in the College of Human Sciences at The Florida State University during 1992. Mothers of the females who volunteered for this study were mailed questionnaires to complete and return to this researcher. The variables of age and autonomy were examined with respect to the variables of intimacy, conflict, self-esteem and quality of relationship. / The research questions were analyzed using canonical correlations and multiple regression analysis. The canonical correlation results showed the six scales to be unidimensional with age correlating only with autonomy, as measured by the Family of Origin Scale. Canonical correlations between dependent and independent sets of variables for both mothers and daughters were significant. / Multiple regression analysis results showed slightly varying patterns between mothers and daughters with conflict being the only independent variable to significantly predict quality of relationship for both mothers and daughters. Multiple regression analysis results for daughters yielded two significant predictor variables, that of conflict and family of origin. Regression results for mothers showed three significant independent variables including conflict, intimacy, and self-esteem. / Demographics showed a fairly homogeneous group of daughters and a slightly less homogeneous group of mothers. Mothers and daughters differed on autonomy and conflict; however, mothers and daughters were quite similar on measures of self-esteem, intimacy, and quality of relationship. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-08, Section: A, page: 3224. / Major Professor: Ronald L. Mullis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.