ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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Description
While the literature on caregivers of loved ones with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD) has continued to grow, the relationship of ethnicity and acculturation factors with regards to the coping strategies used by caregivers has not been extensively explored. The current study included participants from the Palo Alto site of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) project. The study examined differences in coping strategies between 140 non-Hispanic White, 45 less acculturated Latina, and 61 more acculturated Latina caregivers. Univariate and Multivariate Analysis of Variance, as well as post hoc analyses, were conducted to determine the differences among the three groups. Results indicated less acculturated Latina caregivers employ more avoidant coping strategies compared to non-Hispanic White caregivers. However, no differences were found among the other groups in their use of avoidance coping. Moreover, there were no differences found in the use of social support seeking, count your blessings, problem focused, and blaming others coping among the three groups. These findings have important implications for the design of culturally relevant psychoeducational and therapeutic interventions aimed towards meeting the individual needs of these three populations. In addition, the findings expand on the understanding of maladaptive coping strategies that may be potentially exacerbating caregiver distress among Latina caregivers.
ContributorsFelix, Vitae (Author) / Arciniega, Guillermo M (Thesis advisor) / Robinson-Kurpius, Sharon (Committee member) / Coon, David W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The current study explored whether intrinsically religious individuals are able to separate the "sin" from the "sinner" (i.e., separate category membership from behavior) when judging homosexual individuals, or whether they are instead subject to the negativity bias (judgments based solely on category membership) in moral judgments. All effects were expected to occur only for participants high in homophobia. Participants were 305 undergraduate male and female students at a large, public university in the southwestern U.S. Respondents read one of five scenarios that described gay or straight targets who were celibate or engaged in same or opposite sex relationships, then were asked to respond to a series of questions evaluating attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the target. Results revealed that homophobia led to a negativity bias in judgments of gay targets, which was intensified by intrinsic religiosity. However, individuals high on intrinsic religiosity and high on homophobia also differentiated between gay targets based on sexual behavior, such that gay targets who were celibate or in an opposite-sex relationship were rated more favorably than gay targets in a same-sex relationship. These findings demonstrate that the negativity bias and "sin vs. sinner" differentiation may both be occurring for intrinsically religious individuals. The moderating effect of homophobia on the interaction between intrinsic religiosity and judgments of gay and straight targets shows us that religiosity itself is not inherently tolerant or intolerant.
ContributorsFilip-Crawford, Gabrielle (Author) / Nagoshi, Craig T. (Thesis advisor) / Kwan, Virginia S.Y. (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Family adaptation to child developmental disability is a dynamic transactional process that has yet to be tested in a longitudinal, rigorous fashion. In addition, although children with developmental delays frequently have behavior problems, not enough research has examined possible underlying mechanisms in the relation between child developmental delay, adaptation and behavior problems. In the current study, factor analysis examined how best to conceptualize the construct of family adaptation to developmental delay. Also, longitudinal growth curve modeling tested models in which child behavior problems mediated the relation between developmental risk and indices of family adaptation. Participants included 130 typically developing children and their families (Mental Development Index [MDI] > 85) and 104 children with developmental delays and their families (MDI < 85). Data were collected yearly between the ages of three and eight as part of a multi-site, longitudinal investigation examining the interrelations among children's developmental status, family processes, and the emergence of child psychopathology. Results of the current study indicated that adaptation is best conceptualized as a multi-index construct. Different aspects of adaptation changed in unique ways over time, with some facets of adaptation remaining stable while others fluctuated. Child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were found to decrease over time for both children with developmental delays and typically developing children. Child behavior problems were also found to mediate the relation between developmental risk and family adaptation for over half of the mediation pathways. Significant mediation results indicated that children with developmental delays showed higher early levels of behavior problems, which in turn was associated with more maladaptive adaptation. These findings provide further evidence that families of children with developmental delays experience both positive and more challenging changes in their families over time. This study implies important next steps for research and clinical practice in the area of developmental disability.
ContributorsPedersen y Arbona, Anita (Author) / Crnic, Keith A (Thesis advisor) / Sandler, Irwin (Committee member) / Lemery, Kathryn (Committee member) / Enders, Craig (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
An emerging body of literature suggests that humans likely have multiple threat avoidance systems that enable us to detect and avoid threats in our environment, such as disease threats and physical safety threats. These systems are presumed to be domain-specific, each handling one class of potential threats, and previous research generally supports this assumption. Previous research has not, however, directly tested the domain-specificity of disease avoidance and self-protection by showing that activating one threat management system does not lead to responses consistent only with a different threat management system. Here, the domain- specificity of the disease avoidance and self-protection systems is directly tested using the lexical decision task, a measure of stereotype accessibility, and the implicit association test. Results, although inconclusive, more strongly support a series of domain-specific threat management systems than a single, domain- general system
ContributorsAnderson, Uriah Steven (Author) / Kenrick, Douglas T. (Thesis advisor) / Shiota, Michelle N. (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven L. (Committee member) / Becker, David V (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In a large network (graph) it would be desirable to guarantee the existence of some local property based only on global knowledge of the network. Consider the following classical example: how many connections are necessary to guarantee that the network contains three nodes which are pairwise adjacent? It turns out that more than n^2/4 connections are needed, and no smaller number will suffice in general. Problems of this type fall into the category of ``extremal graph theory.'' Generally speaking, extremal graph theory is the study of how global parameters of a graph are related to local properties. This dissertation deals with the relationship between minimum degree conditions of a host graph G and the property that G contains a specified spanning subgraph (or class of subgraphs). The goal is to find the optimal minimum degree which guarantees the existence of a desired spanning subgraph. This goal is achieved in four different settings, with the main tools being Szemeredi's Regularity Lemma; the Blow-up Lemma of Komlos, Sarkozy, and Szemeredi; and some basic probabilistic techniques.
ContributorsDeBiasio, Louis (Author) / Kierstead, Henry A (Thesis advisor) / Czygrinow, Andrzej (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbert, Glenn (Committee member) / Kadell, Kevin (Committee member) / Fishel, Susanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of partial exemplar experience on category formation and use. Participants had either complete or limited access to the three dimensions that defined categories by dimensions within different modalities. The concept of "crucial dimension" was introduced and the role it plays in category definition was explained. It was hypothesized that the effects of partial experience are not explained by a shifting of attention between dimensions (Taylor & Ross, 2009) but rather by an increased reliance on prototypical values used to fill in missing information during incomplete experiences. Results indicated that participants (1) do not fill in missing information with prototypical values, (2) integrate information less efficiently between different modalities than within a single modality, and (3) have difficulty learning only when partial experience prevents access to diagnostic information.
ContributorsCrawford, Thomas (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Mcbeath, Micheal (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Few measurement tools provide reliable, valid data on both children's emotional and behavioral engagement in school. The School Liking and Avoidance Questionnaire (SLAQ) is one such self-report measure developed to evaluate a child's degree of engagement in the school setting as it is manifest in a child's school liking and school avoidance. This study evaluated the SLAQ's dimensionality, reliability, and validity. Data were gathered on children from kindergarten through 6th grade (n=396). Participants reported on their school liking and avoidance in the spring of each school year. Scores consistently represented two distinct, yet related subscales (i.e., school liking and school avoidance) that were reliable and stable over time. Validation analyses provided some corroboration of the construct validity of the SLAQ subscales, but evidence of predictive validity was inconsistent with the hypothesized relations (i.e., early report of school liking and school avoidance did not predict later achievement outcomes). In sum, the findings from this study provide some support for the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the SLAQ and suggest that it can be used for the assessment of young children's behavioral and emotional engagement in school.
ContributorsSmith, Jillian (Author) / Ladd, Gary W. (Thesis advisor) / Ladd, Becky (Committee member) / Thompson, Marilyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
When people pick up the phone to call a telephone quitline, they are taking an important step towards changing their smoking behavior. The current study investigated the role of a critical cognition in the cessation process--self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is thought to be influential in behavior change processes including those involved in the challenging process of stopping tobacco use. By applying basic principles of self-efficacy theory to smokers utilizing a telephone quitline, this study advanced our understanding of the nature of self-efficacy in a "real-world" cessation setting. Participants received between one and four intervention calls aimed at supporting them through their quit attempt. Concurrent with the initiation of this study, three items (confidence, stress, and urges) were added to the standard telephone protocol and assessed at each call. Two principal sets of hypotheses were tested using a combination of ANCOVAs and multiple regression analyses. The first set of hypotheses explored how self-efficacy and changes in self-efficacy within individuals were associated with cessation outcomes. Most research has found a positive linear relation between self-efficacy and quit outcomes, but this study tested the possibility that excessively high self-efficacy may actually reflect an overconfidence bias, and in some cases be negatively related to cessation outcomes. The second set of hypotheses addressed several smoking-related factors expected to affect self-efficacy. As predicted, higher baseline self-efficacy and increases in self-efficacy were associated with higher rates of quitting. However, contrary to predictions, there was no evidence that overconfidence led to diminished cessation success. Finally, as predicted, shorter duration of quit attempts, shorter time to relapse, and stronger urges all were associated with lower self-efficacy. In conclusion, understanding how self-efficacy and changes in self-efficacy affect and are affected by cessation outcomes is useful for informing both future research and current quitline intervention procedures.
ContributorsGoesling, Jenna (Author) / Barrera, Manuel (Thesis advisor) / Shiota, Lani (Committee member) / Enders, Craig (Committee member) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Nonlinear dispersive equations model nonlinear waves in a wide range of physical and mathematics contexts. They reinforce or dissipate effects of linear dispersion and nonlinear interactions, and thus, may be of a focusing or defocusing nature. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation or NLS is an example of such equations. It appears as a model in hydrodynamics, nonlinear optics, quantum condensates, heat pulses in solids and various other nonlinear instability phenomena. In mathematics, one of the interests is to look at the wave interaction: waves propagation with different speeds and/or different directions produces either small perturbations comparable with linear behavior, or creates solitary waves, or even leads to singular solutions. This dissertation studies the global behavior of finite energy solutions to the $d$-dimensional focusing NLS equation, $i partial _t u+Delta u+ |u|^{p-1}u=0, $ with initial data $u_0in H^1,; x in Rn$; the nonlinearity power $p$ and the dimension $d$ are chosen so that the scaling index $s=frac{d}{2}-frac{2}{p-1}$ is between 0 and 1, thus, the NLS is mass-supercritical $(s>0)$ and energy-subcritical $(s<1).$ For solutions with $ME[u_0]<1$ ($ME[u_0]$ stands for an invariant and conserved quantity in terms of the mass and energy of $u_0$), a sharp threshold for scattering and blowup is given. Namely, if the renormalized gradient $g_u$ of a solution $u$ to NLS is initially less than 1, i.e., $g_u(0)<1,$ then the solution exists globally in time and scatters in $H^1$ (approaches some linear Schr"odinger evolution as $ttopminfty$); if the renormalized gradient $g_u(0)>1,$ then the solution exhibits a blowup behavior, that is, either a finite time blowup occurs, or there is a divergence of $H^1$ norm in infinite time. This work generalizes the results for the 3d cubic NLS obtained in a series of papers by Holmer-Roudenko and Duyckaerts-Holmer-Roudenko with the key ingredients, the concentration compactness and localized variance, developed in the context of the energy-critical NLS and Nonlinear Wave equations by Kenig and Merle. One of the difficulties is fractional powers of nonlinearities which are overcome by considering Besov-Strichartz estimates and various fractional differentiation rules.
ContributorsGuevara, Cristi Darley (Author) / Roudenko, Svetlana (Thesis advisor) / Castillo_Chavez, Carlos (Committee member) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / Mahalov, Alex (Committee member) / Suslov, Sergei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Federal education policies call for school district leaders to promote classroom technology integration to prepare students with 21st century skills. However, schools are struggling to integrate technology effectively, with students often reporting that they feel like they need to power down and step back in time technologically when they enter classrooms. The lack of meaningful technology use in classrooms indicates a need for increased teacher preparation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact a coaching model of professional development had on school administrators` abilities to increase middle school teachers` technology integration in their classrooms. This study attempted to coach administrators to develop and articulate a vision, cultivate a culture, and model instruction relative to the meaningful use of instructional technology. The study occurred in a middle school. Data for this case study were collected via administrator interviews, the Principal`s Computer Technology Survey, structured observations using the Higher Order Thinking, Engaged Learning, Authentic Learning, Technology Use protocol, field notes, the Technology Integration Matrix, teacher interviews, and a research log. Findings concluded that cultivating change in an organization is a complex process that requires commitment over an extended period of time. The meaningful use of instructional technology remained minimal at the school during fall 2010. My actions as a change agent informed the school`s administrators about the role meaningful use of technology can play in instruction. Limited professional development, administrative vision, and expectations minimized the teachers` meaningful use of instructional technology; competing priorities and limited time minimized the administrators` efforts to improve the meaningful use of instructional technology. Realizing that technology proficient teachers contribute to student success with technology, it may be wise for administrators to incorporate technology-enriched professional development and exercise their leadership abilities to promote meaningful technology use in classrooms.
ContributorsRobertson, Kristen (Author) / Moore, David (Thesis advisor) / Cheatham, Greg (Committee member) / Catalano, Ruth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011