Natural disasters can strike anywhere at any time. As new disasters inevitably loom in the future, it is important to understand how the consequences of natural disaster loss lead to identity development. This work adds to the lack of research linking identity development and natural disaster by looking at an individual's process of identity…

This study is investigating the relationships between playing video games and aggressive behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. The participants are Male and female Saudi college students at Taibah University. The study conducted for two main purposes. Examining correlations between the amount of violence in video games played and aggressive…

Female international students negotiate multiple identities as non-native learners and women in a society with different cultural, social, and gender expectations than their home countries. However, a review of literature on international students reveals a lack of comprehensive discussion on gender and the international graduate school…

Social reproduction theory posits that "schools are not institutions of equal opportunity but mechanisms for perpetuating social inequalities" (Collins, 2009, p. 33). The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore teacher perceptions of their pedagogical practices during virtual learning and the role that those…

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a life-altering injury that can impact global functioning. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that yearly 2.2 million Americans experience a TBI, a large portion of whom are children and young adults who then face the prospect of attending university. Data emphasizes the number of younger individuals who…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether factors of social comparison theory influence public school choice in Indiana. There were two arms in the study. One arm used three district-level variables (parent education level, socioeconomic status, and homogeneity of race) associated with social comparison theory (SCT) and five…

Vagueness is semantic indecision, David Lewis said. This dissertation vindicates this insight by applying social choice theory, the branch of economics concerning collective decision making, to account for linguistic vagueness. Vagueness effects are analogues to cycles that sometimes arise in collective decisions. Cycles (e.g. A is preferred to B…

This study looks at a student writing culture in a fifth grade English language arts classroom through the lens of Foucauldian power dynamics to examine the power relationships in the classroom and curriculum. The research questions were: (1) What is the nature of a writing culture in a fifth-grade writing classroom?; (2) What are students'…

In this study, I centered the experiences of individuals who identify as polyamorous or ethically non-monogamous. My purpose was to explore how polyamorous students at one institution made meaning of their polyamorous identity and how they described the relationship between the postsecondary environment and their meaning-making. The philosophical…

The purpose of the qualitative descriptive study is to explore how doctoral graduates describe the costs and benefits of having a mentor, from a social exchange perspective, during their online program in the United States. The social exchange theory was the selected framework to examine the relationship between a mentor and a mentee. Research…

The terms leadership and leader development are often used synonymously. However, there are different outcomes and needs associated with each type of development. Even with these differences, both types of developments may be needed to help individuals master leadership skills effectively. This study explored the critically formative processes and…

The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to better understand the lived experiences of students enrolled in the Boyker-Anoroc Bridge Program. The Bridge Program was designed to increase the persistence of underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students in STEM doctoral programs. The participants in the study recounted their…

The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to better understand the lived experiences of students enrolled in the Boyker-Anoroc Bridge Program. The Bridge Program was designed to increase the persistence of underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students in STEM doctoral programs. The participants in the study recounted their…

As higher education continues to face the challenges of providing cost-effective, high-quality learning that meets the needs of a diverse student population as well as the competency demands of the digital age, blended learning has been embraced as a strategy with the potential to meet those needs (Torrisi-Steele & Drew, 2013). Yet,…

Although social networks change over time, network dynamics remain an understudied area of social network research. The detailed logs that are a feature of online social networks allow for easier observation and capturing of social network evolution. This study examines the evolution of an online social network. The network is proposed to evolve…