Matching Items (318)
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- All Subjects: Communication
- Resource Type: Text
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Description
New communication technologies have undoubtedly altered the ways in which persons interact and have had a profound impact on public life. Engaging this impact, much of the scholarly literature has focused on how these interfaces mediate interaction however, less is known about technology's modulating effects. The current project moves beyond mediation, underscoring how social relations are not only activated by technology, but are actuated by these interfaces. Through an extended case study of Portals, gold shipping containers equipped with audio-visual technology that put persons in digital face-to-face interaction with others around the globe, the current project engages such actuation, highlighting how the co-mingling of affect and technology generate new ways of noticing, living and thinking through the complex relationships of public life. The human/technology relations mediated/modulated by the Portal produce unique atmospheres that activate/actuate public space and blur the boundaries between public and private. Additionally, the atmospheres of the Portal generate a digital co-presence that allows for user/participants to feel with their interlocutors. This “feeling with” suspends user/participants in atmospheres of human connection through the emergence of an imaginative dialogue, and the curating of such atmospheres leads to dialogic transformation. As such, the Portal operates as an atmospheric interface. Engaging the concept of atmosphere attunes those interested in new communication technologies to the complex gatherings these technologies create, and the potentialities and pitfalls of these emerging interfaces on public life.
ContributorsFerderer, Brandon Boyd (Author) / Brouwer, Daniel C. (Thesis advisor) / McHugh, Kevin (Committee member) / Hess, Aaron (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The division of household tasks has been studied extensively over the past fifty years, but there are unanswered questions about why partners still report imbalances. In this study, I employed a grounded theory research design to systematically collect and analyze data from newly cohabitating, dual-earner couples to generate theory. Three prominent theories (relative resources, time availability and gender ideology) served as the framework for this research. The purpose of this study was to expose the processes of meaning-making, interpretations and decision-making regarding divisions of housework and to determine if, and if so how, dissymmetry in household tasks are understood. My research questions addressed the meanings newly cohabitating couples ascribed to household tasks by and explored how they understand their allocation of these tasks. Eighteen in-depth interviews of six newly cohabitating couples were conducted. Results from the study highlight six major themes that contribute to couples’ meaning-making processes regarding housework performance: care, consistency, expectations, gender & upbringing, micromanagement, and task preference. These findings contribute to the broader body of housework literature by demonstrating how grounded theory methods may offer a unique approach to the examination of household task performance. Further, germination of the blended output theory of housework (B.O.T.H.) that emerged from this study could provide an opportunity to better understand changing family structures.
ContributorsTaylor, Jameien R (Author) / Alberts, Janet (Thesis advisor) / Manninen, Bertha (Committee member) / Broome, Benjamin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Marijuana legalization will likely result in increased marijuana consumption with uncertain social and health impacts. This thesis looks to share user perspectives on marijuana, specifically addressing how users represent marijuana risks, benefits, and uncertain or unknown dangers. Data were collected from an online social-media forum that initiated the discussion by prompting readers to reflect on marijuana risks in a context of growing accolades concerning its benefits. Grounded theory and thematic analysis were both utilized to identify consistent themes or patterns across user comments. It was found that users identified both benefits and risks of marijuana, while some users had disputes about certain known risks (such as impaired driving) or uncertain or unknown dangers (such as reduced dream activity). Despite disagreements about the degree of risk associated with a particular activity (such as driving and dreaming), this thesis found risks and benefits were discussed in relatively narrow ways that suggest more education is needed around the full spectrum of the effects of various strains, including benefits, risks, and uncertainties.
ContributorsVannoy, Joshua (Author) / Nadesan, Majia H (Thesis advisor) / Walker, Michael (Committee member) / Ramsey, Ramsey E (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Incoming freshman at East Los Angeles College were struggling with successfully completing their first semester, leading to low rates of course success and retention. Students reported struggles with adapting to the culture of college, particularly with behaving like a college student and managing time. The purpose of this action research study was to determine if embedding a College Success Curriculum (CSC) into a required class would help students more successfully navigate the first semester. The CSC was embedded into the action-researcher's freshman composition class and covered the following concepts: appropriate classroom behavior, communication, time management, and organization. Quantitative data included retrospective pre-intervention and post-intervention survey data. Qualitative data included the researcher's journal and student-written journal entries. Findings from this study indicated that students learned to communicate via email and to prioritize their time, however, the CSC did not have a measurable effect on students’ behavior, time management, or organization. Course success and retention after receiving the CSC remained at previous years’ rates. There continues to be a need to assist freshmen students in these critical college skills, and perhaps adapt some of the strategies used in this project for future iterations.
ContributorsRyan Romo, Amanda J (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Buss, Ray R. (Committee member) / Jaramillo, Veronica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
ABSTRACT
Human and wildlife behavior, governance, and economics are often cited obstacles to wildlife conservation. Accordingly, conservation research has historically been conducted in the exterior terrains of behavior and systems, which can be empirically observed or known through systemic analysis and applied through institutional or technical fixes. However, conservation interventions are failing because they do not adequately address the influence of individual and collective interior phenomena including psychological states, worldviews, values, and identities of stakeholders, which can bear decisively on conservation outcomes.
This critical analysis of wildlife conservation science and the social and political histories of Southwestern landscapes illustrates the mechanism of social, cultural, and media narrative linking four irreducible perspectives of the natural world: the I, WE, IT and ITS, or the psychological, cultural, behavioral and structural/systemic terrains, which ground contemporary conservation. Through the conceptual [Re]animation of conservation, this research justifies a more-than-human approach to wildlife conservation that resists the ontological privilege of the human and contemplates human and non-human animals as vitally linked in their mutually relational, perceptual and material environments. The approach extends the human to the natural environment and also accounts for the individual and social needs and perspectives of wild animals, which shape their adaptation to changing environments and conservation interventions.
A qualitative analysis of emotion, metaphor, and narrative utilizing an Integral Ecology framework explores how psychological and cultural terrains link to, and influence, the behavioral and systemic terrains of Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) conservation in the U.S. Southwest. This research disentangles and comprehensively maps influential elements in the four terrains; enhancing relational knowledge on human-predator coexistence and conservation governance in the Southwest.
Human and wildlife behavior, governance, and economics are often cited obstacles to wildlife conservation. Accordingly, conservation research has historically been conducted in the exterior terrains of behavior and systems, which can be empirically observed or known through systemic analysis and applied through institutional or technical fixes. However, conservation interventions are failing because they do not adequately address the influence of individual and collective interior phenomena including psychological states, worldviews, values, and identities of stakeholders, which can bear decisively on conservation outcomes.
This critical analysis of wildlife conservation science and the social and political histories of Southwestern landscapes illustrates the mechanism of social, cultural, and media narrative linking four irreducible perspectives of the natural world: the I, WE, IT and ITS, or the psychological, cultural, behavioral and structural/systemic terrains, which ground contemporary conservation. Through the conceptual [Re]animation of conservation, this research justifies a more-than-human approach to wildlife conservation that resists the ontological privilege of the human and contemplates human and non-human animals as vitally linked in their mutually relational, perceptual and material environments. The approach extends the human to the natural environment and also accounts for the individual and social needs and perspectives of wild animals, which shape their adaptation to changing environments and conservation interventions.
A qualitative analysis of emotion, metaphor, and narrative utilizing an Integral Ecology framework explores how psychological and cultural terrains link to, and influence, the behavioral and systemic terrains of Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) conservation in the U.S. Southwest. This research disentangles and comprehensively maps influential elements in the four terrains; enhancing relational knowledge on human-predator coexistence and conservation governance in the Southwest.
ContributorsHagy Ferguson, Anita Dawn (Author) / Bolin, Bob (Thesis advisor) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Committee member) / Eder, James (Committee member) / Chhetri, Netra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Suicidality, understood as the risk of suicide with intent or the idea of suicide, has been increasingly prevalent in our country, yet the topic of suicidality is one that is often spoken in hushed tones and behind closed doors (Pam, 2013). While suicide statistics trend upwards, there is a growing need to understand representations of suicidality, particularly within media (Centers for Disease Control, 2017). This thesis looks to explore the representations of suicidality in media, specifically Netflix’s original series, Thirteen Reasons Why. Data collection for this thesis will be collected from online social media forums dedicated to the show in the form of episode discussions reflecting on each episode in the season. Through an emergent, grounded analysis, this paper will address current representations of suicidality within Thirteen Reasons Why as well as identify common themes found in online social media forums. This research established common themes of resilience-enhancing, community building, and individuals feeling at-risk or triggered by representations of suicidality in Thirteen Reasons Why as found throughout the online social media forums.
ContributorsTaylor, Katlyn (Author) / Nadesan, Majia H (Thesis advisor) / Walker, Michael (Committee member) / Waldron, Vincent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Maintaining sexual desire as the marriage endures is a challenge, especially as it involves the interplay of seemingly opposing tensions of novelty, autonomy, and closeness. Difficulties can arise when autonomy, which requires spousal distancing, is perceived as a martial threat and therefore suppressed. This dissertation investigates whether prosocial marital distancing can nurture autonomy and promote sexual desire.
Torah-observant Jewish married couples practice family purity, a Jewish law forbidding sexual relations during menstruation and shortly thereafter. During this time couples often avoid sleeping in the same bed, physical touch, and behaviors that can instigate a sexual encounter. These distancing restrictions are lifted when the wife immerses in a ritual bath. The process repeats at the next menstruation.
This research examined the effects of family purity’s marital distancing through two studies. The first involved qualitative interviews of family purity wives (N = 10) guided by relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996). Study one findings suggest that family purity wives navigate the three tensions of integration, expression, and certainty. Study one also revealed a new tension, the dialect of restraint. The dialectic of restraint appears to enhance marital communication, heighten the appreciation for the mundane, and help sustain sexual desire.
Study two, the quantitative phase of the research, applied self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) to investigate differences between family purity and non-family purity couples. A sample of 90 married Jewish dyads (N = 180) participated in a cross-sectional online questionnaire. Findings suggest that while non-practicing couples report greater self-expansion, family purity couples report greater sexual closeness. Family purity couples also report the same closeness and sexual closeness ideals, whereas non-practicing couples reported divergent ideals. Non-practicing family purity husbands had the greatest reported discrepancy between ideal and actual sexual closeness.
The combined findings suggest that sanctioned prosocial distancing as practiced by family purity couples enables the integration of cognitive growth and mitigates the threat of autonomy. Prosocial distancing within the family purity marriage appears to provide the wife space for autonomy that in turn provokes novelty and sexual desire. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical contributions, study limitations, and future directions.
Torah-observant Jewish married couples practice family purity, a Jewish law forbidding sexual relations during menstruation and shortly thereafter. During this time couples often avoid sleeping in the same bed, physical touch, and behaviors that can instigate a sexual encounter. These distancing restrictions are lifted when the wife immerses in a ritual bath. The process repeats at the next menstruation.
This research examined the effects of family purity’s marital distancing through two studies. The first involved qualitative interviews of family purity wives (N = 10) guided by relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996). Study one findings suggest that family purity wives navigate the three tensions of integration, expression, and certainty. Study one also revealed a new tension, the dialect of restraint. The dialectic of restraint appears to enhance marital communication, heighten the appreciation for the mundane, and help sustain sexual desire.
Study two, the quantitative phase of the research, applied self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) to investigate differences between family purity and non-family purity couples. A sample of 90 married Jewish dyads (N = 180) participated in a cross-sectional online questionnaire. Findings suggest that while non-practicing couples report greater self-expansion, family purity couples report greater sexual closeness. Family purity couples also report the same closeness and sexual closeness ideals, whereas non-practicing couples reported divergent ideals. Non-practicing family purity husbands had the greatest reported discrepancy between ideal and actual sexual closeness.
The combined findings suggest that sanctioned prosocial distancing as practiced by family purity couples enables the integration of cognitive growth and mitigates the threat of autonomy. Prosocial distancing within the family purity marriage appears to provide the wife space for autonomy that in turn provokes novelty and sexual desire. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical contributions, study limitations, and future directions.
ContributorsFramer Black, Melissa Wallace (Author) / Pettigrew, Jonathan (Thesis advisor) / Roberto, Anthony J (Thesis advisor) / Thompson, Marilyn S (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
The aim of this research was to better understand the experience of bereaved individuals following their return to work, and the ways in which they communicatively negotiate their relationships at work and at home. One of the most salient facts of life is that everyone will all experience the death of a loved one. The amount, frequency, type, and recovery response for the bereaved may be vastly different, but inevitably everyone has to cope with death. Even though it is an integral part of life, the bereavement experience often is acknowledged as one of the most traumatic and stressful processes that occurs in individuals’ lives (McHorney & Mor, 1988; Miller & McGowan, 1997). In fact, roughly 5% of the workforce is affected by the passing of a close family member each year, and this number excludes those who experience the deaths of close friends (Wojcik, 2000). Evidence suggests that bereavement affects the physical and mental health of survivors, many of whom are in the workforce (Bauer & Murray, 2018; Hazen, 2003, 2008, 2009; Wilson, Punjani, Song, & Low, 2019). In order to explore how work-life roles are integrated into the lives of bereaved individuals, this dissertation qualitatively analyzed 36 interviews with bereaved employees (12), cohabitants (12), and coworkers (12). Through the use of procedural coding (Saldaña, 2009) and emergent codes, this dissertation answered the five posited research questions and their sub-questions. The results of this analysis have numerous implications for social support, emotion at work, grief, and bereavement leave policy. The following dissertation delineates the significance of this research, the literature review providing rationale for study of bereaved employees, qualitative methodological design, analysis of the data, and conclusions about bereavement and work-life relationships.
ContributorsGiannini, Gino Anthony (Author) / de la Garza, Sarah Amira (Thesis advisor) / Alberts, Janet (Committee member) / Mingé, Jeanine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Constant false alarm rate is one of the essential algorithms in a RADAR detection system. It allows the RADAR system to dynamically set thresholds based on the data power level to distinguish targets with interfering noise and clutters.
To have a better acknowledgment of constant false alarm rate approaches performance, three clutter models, Gamma, Weibull, and Log-normal, have been introduced to evaluate the detection's capability of each constant false alarm rate algorithm.
The order statistical constant false alarm rate approach outperforms other conventional constant false alarm rate methods, especially in clutter evolved environments. However, this method requires high power consumption due to repeat sorting.
In the automotive RADAR system, the computational complexity of algorithms is essential because this system is in real-time. Therefore, the algorithms must be fast and efficient to ensure low power consumption and processing time.
The reduced computational complexity implementations of cell-averaging and order statistic constant false alarm rate were explored. Their big O and processing time has been reduced.
To have a better acknowledgment of constant false alarm rate approaches performance, three clutter models, Gamma, Weibull, and Log-normal, have been introduced to evaluate the detection's capability of each constant false alarm rate algorithm.
The order statistical constant false alarm rate approach outperforms other conventional constant false alarm rate methods, especially in clutter evolved environments. However, this method requires high power consumption due to repeat sorting.
In the automotive RADAR system, the computational complexity of algorithms is essential because this system is in real-time. Therefore, the algorithms must be fast and efficient to ensure low power consumption and processing time.
The reduced computational complexity implementations of cell-averaging and order statistic constant false alarm rate were explored. Their big O and processing time has been reduced.
ContributorsChu, Huiwen (Author) / Bliss, Daniel W. (Thesis advisor) / Alkhateeb, Ahmed (Committee member) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Traveling is one of the most enriching and fulfilling activities for most people. Yet factors such as crowded airports, long waiting queues, and inaccessible features of airports and airplanes often make traveling stressful for many individuals including those with disabilities. This qualitative phenomenological research study examined the underexplored area of traveling with a vision disability. Framed around a Co-cultural theoretical perspective, the study examined the lived experiences of vision impaired individuals with regard to receiving disability assistance services during air travel. The study specifically explored the communication strategies that vision impaired individuals employed to manage their assistance-related air travel needs. The study used in-depth interviews for data collection, and a combination of thematic analysis techniques for data analysis. Findings indicated four categories of assistance-related issues that vision impaired participants frequently experienced in their travel: personnel training issues, system issues, policy issues, and physical accessibility issues. The study also identified four Co-cultural communication orientations that participants used in navigating air travel: assertive accommodation, aggressive accommodation, assertive assimilation, and nonassertive assimilation. In addition, the study identified a new Co-cultural communication practice - normalizing for self. Findings of this research conclude that despite three decades since the passage of United States legislation to protect the rights of disabled people, vision impaired travelers still frequently experience inequitable air travel practices. The study offers recommendations on pressing issues concerning policies and regulations that can inform airline executives and federal legislators in facilitating a more equitable and pleasurable air travel experience for those with vision disabilities.
ContributorsBhagchandani, Bhoomika (Author) / Kassing, Jeffrey W. (Thesis advisor) / Broome, Benjamin J. (Committee member) / Zirulnik, Michael L. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020