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- Creator:
- Gaytan, Sergio
- Description:
- The present study contributes to the sociology of health and illness by applying Link and Phelan’s theory of fundamental causes of disease to the study of language competence and health. The study answers the following research question: How does being limited in English proficiency (LEP) influence the effects of being obese on the prospects of having been diagnosed with heart disease for California residents? The project examines interaction effects between English competence and obesity to determine the partial effects of obesity and English competence on heart disease using secondary data from the 2011-2012 California Health Interview Survey. Contrary to expectations, findings indicate that individuals who are limited in English proficiency and are not obese (or overweight) have the lowest odds of being diagnosed with heart disease. Furthermore, findings indicate, consistent with expectations, that individuals who lack English competence have higher chances of experiencing the effects of obesity and overweight on heart disease compared with English proficient counterparts. Findings suggest that LEP and English proficient individuals deal differently with mechanisms linked with disease.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Willison, Sabrina Catherine
- Description:
- The purpose of this content analysis is to examine representations and use of racialized and coded language in print media sources between August 9, 2014 and December 6, 2014 about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The analysis includes coverage of specific time periods during those months of Al Jazeera America, the New York Post, The New York Times, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After a white police officer shoots a black teenager, the media creates and responds to opposing narratives regarding race, justice, and the role of police in poor communities. This project illustrates how the media frames and shapes narratives and how the use of specific language shapes those narratives. The findings highlight three themes that appear throughout the news sources: the consensus and exacerbation of political discord, the media’s racialization of the military style law enforcement, and the social construction of race through discourse.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Sanchez, Melany
- Description:
- This study explores the experiences of single Mexican American women who have chosen to remain single. I explore the question: How do Mexican American women understand singlehood and how has their experience of taking on a nonnormative gender role impacted their lives? The intent of this study is to explore longterm voluntary singlehood among Mexican American women who have chosen to go against, not only societal expectations, but also their cultural and familial norms and values. Exploring single Mexican American women’s experiences offers insight on how women often successfully go against cultural norms to create new norms that change our generational traditions. I conducted ten in-depth interviews with Mexican American, heterosexual-identified women who claimed a connection to Mexican culture. My sample of women, were between the ages of 35 years to 50 years of age and were currently not in a committed relationship, nor looking for one. The findings from this research underline the importance of achieving a transformative identity that challenges dominant gender roles. It allows transformative women’s identities to reveal themselves and to constitute a new structure of gender relations.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Dang, Tristin Salazar
- Description:
- The goal of my research is to examine the ways women construct their sexuality within the socio-sexual spaces of bars and nightclubs. By using ethnographic qualitative methods, such as observations and in-depth interviewing, I attempt to understand how women construct their sexuality while navigating social constructions and masculine heteronormative controls. I look at women’s experiences with the sexual self, confidence, sexual scripts, and masculine sexual hegemony. My analysis of these themes, which elaborates women’s roles and interactions with men, offers a deeper understanding of how women come to present their sexual selves under the male hegemonic order of women’s sexuality. I also examine the ways in which women are cognizant of the expectations that exist in the socio sexual spaces such as bars and clubs. Their practical knowledge reveals the agency that exists within their performativity and desire by using clothing, dancing, drinking, socializing, kissing, and one- night stands to display sexual empowerment.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Ulloa, James
- Description:
- Bullying exists throughout the education system, though focus in research and discussions of bullying among students within public education are mostly placed on such interactions within the context of traditional K-12 education. While extant research examines the negative impacts that bullying produces for victims and bullies in the traditional school settings, there is a gap in literature examining bullying that occurs in continuation high schools. Additionally, there is a lack of information regarding how teachers may understand, view, and/or respond to bullying within the classroom. The current research draws on 10 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with teachers at continuation high schools to better understand their experiences with intrastudent bullying. Findings suggest that bullying occurs to achieve power and social status among students. Teachers situate bullying within a gendered context and, as a result, perceive incidents differently among male and female students. The results confirm extant research suggesting that teachers may become normalized to bullying interactions; however, findings expand on this literature by demonstrating how teacher intervention in bullying varies depending on how teachers define bullying, view the context of bullying, and whether they perceive their role as being both an educator and an interventionist.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Acosta, Alyssa
- Description:
- The goal of this research is to understand emotional labor within bureaucratic contexts that create tensions for supervised visitation providers who must balance how to be both impersonal and caring during daily work tasks. By using qualitative research methods, such as in-depth interviewing, I attempt to understand how such emotionally charged contexts of labor create stress, require emotional labor, and can lead to burnout as employees attempt to comply with rules constructed by organizations. I look at the differences in occupational training given to supervised visitation providers from both the court and the organization. Additionally, I reviewed policy documents and used quotes to illustrate claims the documents made about the role of a supervised visitation provider. The common themes throughout the providers’ responses are about the need to manage emotions in the presence of families, conflicted training, a need for improvement in the trainings provided, enjoyment of visitation provider work, and burnout. My analysis of these themes focuses on understanding how supervised visitation providers manage their emotions in their daily work, and how the two training experiences produce conflicting expectations of how to respond to their clients in highly emotional interactions. I am also examining how providers draw from their emotional labor to manage the expectations placed upon them.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Briggs, Ashley E.
- Description:
- Transgender individuals face discrimination in many aspects of life, including police contact as well as within correctional facilities. This study examines the selfreported contact of transgender individuals with the criminal justice system and how the contact varies by gender identity. Criminal justice system contact includes victimization and harassment by police, incarceration history, abuse and harassment while incarcerated, the denial of healthcare while incarcerated and various health related outcomes associated with incarceration. This study utilized data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), a large convenience sample of transgender adults in the United States. Results show significant differences between the gender identity groups and their incarceration history, victimization and harassment by other inmates and correctional staff while incarcerated, the denial of medical care while incarcerated and the health outcomes of positive HIV status and sex work involvement. The femaleidentified population was the most likely gender identity group to report discrimination overall. This finding implies that the reported contact of transgender individuals with the criminal justice system are shaped and impacted by their gender identity and not all transgender individuals receive the same treatment by the criminal justice system.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Torres, Sergio
- Description:
- Adolescence is the pivotal point in a youth’s life when autonomy is developed, and, ultimately, a weakening of the influence of parental control and increase in peer group influence occurs. Juveniles who are exposed to negative peer group experiences may be more likely to engage in criminal behavior, alcohol and drug abuse, and other risky social health behaviors. However, participation in sports programs can decrease delinquent behavior by aiding an individual in acquiring positive connections to normative society. While knowledge about “at-risk” youth participation in sports programs exists in extant literature, a gap remains in understanding how participation has impacted the long term lived experiences of participants. This research will draw on indepth, semi-structured interviews with current and former adult members of a boxing gym geared toward “at-risk” youth to examine, among other things, the effects of participation in the gym on their life choices as they relate to antisocial behavior.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Ul, Kornel
- Description:
- The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception of democracy, sovereignty, and public diplomacy in Pakistan through two newspaper publications, the Dawn and the New York Times. I conducted a content analysis. This study uses the historical data about Pakistan and two theories, modernization and realism, to analyze the above three factors. Using a content analysis approach, 1,516 newspaper articles from a simple random sample of 90 dates from a 10-year period were read and analyzed. The end result of this analysis shows that the highest frequency of articles discussed weak sovereignty existing in Pakistan. Overall, the two theories are not sufficient to explain the social-political phenomena in Pakistan, as the theories are based in western approaches and do not encompass all aspects of Pakistani culture.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Hoisington, Robert A.
- Description:
- The purpose of this study is to analyze and understand the personal changes that occur in an individual when he or she becomes a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous believes that a spiritual experience is central to recovery, and this thesis will examine whether the experience of becoming sober in Alcoholics Anonymous is similar to a religious conversion. It will also investigate the role of Alcoholics Anonymous as a reference group in the conversion process. This study will examine how members adapt to a new set of beliefs and behaviors, reconstruct their meaning of self, and how the individual transforms their social identity from that of alcoholic to one of the recovered alcoholic.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Stenberg, Alyssa
- Description:
- While the academic literature on veganism investigates the rise of and reasons behind a vegan lifestyle, this literature is void of information on how vegan men understand and experience their veganism. My research draws on 15 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with vegan men to better understand how vegan men experience their veganism and how vegan men navigate the gender challenges of a vegan lifestyle. I examine gender in veganism--in particular masculinity--and how the expectations of masculinity shape men’s experiences of veganism. I found that veganism also shapes men’s understandings of masculinity. Some men arrived at new definitions of masculinity as their veganism shifted their understanding of masculinity. for other men, and rather than shift their understanding of masculinity, they instead learned to manage hegemonic masculinity so that vegan men could partake in dominant understandings of what it means to be a man. This research provides much needed information to men with an interest in adopting a vegan lifestyle, as well as for men who currently live a vegan lifestyle. It provides a deeper understanding of the process through which men might adopt a vegan lifestyle, and how some men successfully manage the gender contradictions of veganism. It also offers a way out of hegemonic masculine controls and shows men how they can be men in different, less alienating and oppressive ways.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Hernandez, Jeannette
- Description:
- Disciplinary action rates have increased significantly due to the implementation of zero tolerance policies in schools (Castillo 2014). While proponents of zero-tolerance policies argue that these practices make schools safer, research suggests that-zero-tolerance policies have not actually improved school safety but instead remove students from the classroom and interfere with their education (Noguera 2003; Peguero, Bondy, and Shekarkhar 2016; Skiba 2006). This qualitative study seeks to understand the experiences of ten Latina/o students who have experienced disciplinary action in California secondary schools to generate a holistic understanding of their experiences with suspension. the research questions that inform this study are: (1) How do Latina/o students experience disciplinary action? (2) How do they respond to discipline? (3) How do students understand the consequences of discipline? (4) How do Latina/o students who are disciplined make meaning of their gendered experiences? Findings indicate that participants pose a “good kid/bad kid” paradox that they perceive is based on how teachers’ and administrators’ view them. Participants were also aware of how race and gender influences the severity of their discipline as well as the latent and cyclical consequences they encountered after their first experience with discipline. from participants’ perceptions, punitive disciplinary action is not effective in deterring unwanted behavior but engaging students early on in more engaging curricular practices or effective extracurricular may influence behavior in positive ways.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
13. Shifting the Surveillance Gaze: Officers' Experiences with Body-worn Cameras in Southern California
- Creator:
- Mendoza Ramos, Sacramento
- Description:
- While the academic literature extensively covers the benefits of body-worn technologies to policing, this literature is limited of information that examines, directly, the police officer experience and perspective with body-worn technologies in the field. Accordingly, the present study includes 9 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews and 20 hours of participant observation via police ride-a-longs in the Southern California region to better understand the police officer perspective about and experience with body-worn technologies. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of power as a guiding framework, findings show that participants perceive body-worn cameras as civilian-driven surveillance mechanisms that are intended to watch the police. as a result, body-worn technologies have shifted the surveillance gaze away from the traditional direction of law enforcement surveying civilians to that of civilians now surveying law enforcement. Findings suggest that this form of counter-surveillance led some participants to change their behaviors in order to avoid potential scrutiny by administrators and civilians alike. However, ultimately, the majority of participants actively worked to resist the outcomes associated with the shift in the surveillance gaze by employing strategies to reclaim power over citizens and the gaze over society. This research provides a deeper understanding of how officers experience body-worn technologies as a struggle for power between the police and civilians and, as a result, offers a potential explanation for current problematic police-civilian events.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Taylor, Matthew R.
- Description:
- The purpose of this paper is to improve public understanding of the experience of homelessness, and to shed light on the social conditions that co-occur with it. the paper uses ethnographic interviewing techniques and participant observation to explore the emergent themes in homeless persons’ self-reported individual hardships, experiences, personal histories, and general expectations. in addition to personal accounts from homeless Orange County residents, there will also be some discussion of how the homeless person interacts with the political and legal structures as well the socioeconomic factors that, much to our collective chagrin, help make the unintentional yet enduring cultural project of homelessness possible. the paper’s findings include the identifying of considerably high levels of social isolation, psychological pain, lost work opportunities and negative personal events in the personal histories of people experiencing homelessness.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
15. The Transformation of Ritual in End-of-life: How Does Medicalization Influence the Dying Process?
- Creator:
- Gordon, Lissette
- Description:
- This research explores the narratives of bereaved family members in attempts to better understand the contemporary way of dying. I asked three research questions about the end-of-life process. First, how is dying of a relative or partner/spouse experienced by individuals in the contemporary medical system? Secondly, are practices of ritual a part of the contemporary dying process within the medical institution? Lastly, can medicalization of end-of-life be recognized through the experiences of people that have lost a family member within a contemporary medical institution? Based on qualitative analysis, I conducted eleven in-depth, semi-structured interviews among individuals who had a family member experience the dying process within a medical institution. Findings from this research show great heterogeneity in the contemporary dying process across hospital settings and hospice care. I found that a symbolic ritual and a technological ritual are separate understandings that exist within our contemporary way of dying. This research also shows that physicians are “gatekeepers” of the dying process by enforcing the technological imperative or withholding information from families and patients. Finally, I find that patients and family members have relative agency in that they can petition or oppose the technological imperative. I conclude that acts of symbolic ritual should be fully recognized within our contemporary dying process.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Tanara, Daniel Darush
- Description:
- The latest data from US Census (2013) estimate the Iranian immigrant population at 470,000 in the US and 215,000 (46%) in California. Los Angeles County has the highest concentration of Iranian immigrants population. Orange County, adjacent to L.A. County, is the second largest concentration of Iranian immigrants with estimated population of 36,000. Unfortunately not much is known about this small group of immigrants beyond the basic demographics provided by the census data. Census data suggest that Iranian immigration continue to grow. the preferred destination for most is Orange County, specifically south Orange County that is the most affluent section of the County. in order to better understand the characteristics of this growing immigrant population, I conducted a pilot study of the socioeconomic and attitudinal characteristics of the Iranian immigrant population in city of Mission Viejo in Orange County. the scope of the study was limited mainly due to budget constraints, however, the purpose of the study is not just to collect data, but provide guidelines for more comprehensive, larger study/ies. the data were collected via an online survey in both English and Persian, that included questions outside the scope of the Census, including religions and religiosity, political affiliation, civic engagement, health, and sexual orientation, as well as basic demographics (e.g., age, gender, marital status, etc.) of 1st, 1.5, and 2nd generations of the Iranian immigrants.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Ramirez, Lizbeth
- Description:
- Second-generation Mexican-American millennials with parents of unauthorized status are understudied in the current literature compared to first-generation children and young adults who have unauthorized status in the United States. Although many second-generation Mexican-Americans in mixed-status households encounter hardships, some are able to surpass these adversities and excel in their adult lives, which is the main focus of this study. This study aims to examine the identity formation into adulthood of second-generation Mexican-Americans living with parents of unauthorized status and how they are influenced by their biculturalism, consisting of both American and Mexican heritage. In-depth interviews regarding their childhoods, family structures, parents’ motivations, the American Dream, and adult outcomes are used to explore the topic of identity formation and their pursuit of a better life.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
18. Does Social Media Matter? Analysis of Social Media Usage and Political Actions from 2016 Election
- Creator:
- Coloso, Christian
- Description:
- This research study examines whether different degrees of social media (SM) usage increase the likelihood of individual and collective political actions—such as voting behavior or participation in protests or rallies. Studies on social media (SM) usage and political behavior show a positive relationship between SM and political engagement (Boulianne 2015), although how SM usage is associated with individual versus collective political actions remains unclear. during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, political strategist firm Cambridge Analytica and Russia’s Internet Research Agency micro-targeted biased FB content towards politically-related groups to shape the political narratives around candidates and voting behavior. While the effects of these fake news articles on election results is unknown, this study revisits the relationship between SM usage and political actions and attitudes during this last election period. Using the American National Election Survey 2016 Time Series Data, this study uses binary logistic and linear regression to reexamine the relationship between SM usage and political actions and attitudes surrounding the 2016 election. Parallel to previous studies, the researcher concludes that SM usage is moderately correlated to collective political actions, but remains weak and conditionally related to individualized political action.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438054677
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology
- Creator:
- Peralta, Edgar M.
- Description:
- This study examines the criminal classifications state institutions apply to deviant subcultures and the ways the subculture of “hardcore crews” understand themselves considering these labels. Specifically, extant research largely examines hardcore crews through the lens of the “gang,” but the way in which members of hardcore crews understand and interpret their own behavior, attitudes, and group membership is missing. This thesis attends to this gap by centering its findings on the perspectives of hardcore crew members themselves. Drawing from seven in-depth interviews of crew members from the Southern California area, I employ a cultural criminological approach to argue that hardcore crew members reject the “gang” label imposed on them by law enforcement, popular media and academics. Rather, hardcore crews refer to themselves as a "brotherhood" of like-minded individuals who share a passion for the aggressive and, at times, violent hardcore scene. Ultimately, participants in this research contend they are not recruited, structured, nor do they hold overall objectives similar to street gangs as defined by police and academic authorities. Thus, this research points to a conflict between how hardcore crew members and state institutions conceptualize criminality.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438053106
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Sociology