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Masters Thesis
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- Creator:
- Vogel, Nicholas
- Description:
- During the 2004 election season, conservative elites employed superior agenda-setting techniques and utilized the mass media to sway public opinion on sensitive social issues in hopes of generating electoral success for conservative candidates, particularly President George W. Bush. Conservative elites such as religious leaders, members of Congress, and the Bush/Cheney campaign team, developed frames to describe emotive social issues such as same-sex marriage and stem cell research, with the intention that the conservative viewpoint on these issues would resonate with the public and earn them votes in the election. They succeeded. The mass media in turn, accepted many of the conservative frames, and engaged in widespread transmission of them to the American public. As a result, the Republican Party enjoyed gains in Congress, and President Bush earned reelection. This thesis details what frames rose to prominence in the 2004 election season; namely the so-called "moral" frames regarding issues such as same-sex marriage and stem cell research. This paper will allow the reader to see how framing was used, what frames were utilized, and how conservatives were successful in converting this hard work into votes for their candidates. The nucleus of my argument resides in the second half of this paper; dealing with the problems behind our understanding, as a country, of the significance of the widespread conservative victories in 2004. My research shows that the national exit poll was a flawed measurement of public perception of the social and political issues at hand during the election. The print media failed in its attempt to paint a picture that would explain why many Americans chose "moral values" as the core issue that influenced their vote. Furthermore, the print press contributed to the "moral values" confusion after the election by providing electoral analysis using many of the same conservative frames from the election season. This paper will argue that, based on a faulty exit poll and a lack of electoral analysis by the print media, these "moral" issues were not the reasons for conservative victories in 2004, and the GOP's success in 2004 should not dictate a future change in electoral strategy by the Democratic and Republican parties.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Government
- Creator:
- Mitchell, André R. S.
- Description:
- Statement of Problem: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been working with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to converge U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). However, there are differences between the two accounting standards. What are the differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS? How will the differences and the convergence project affect the United State's economy, companies, or the accounting profession as a whole? Sources of Data: 2007 Current Text, International Financial Reporting Standards, The CPA Journal, Journal of Accountancy, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Deloitte & Touche, Yahoo Finance, CFO.com, The Business Times Singapore, Accounting Today, Lawyers Weekly, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, United States Law Firm Group, and Accountancy Ireland. Conclusion Reached: Based on the research performed, there are more similarities between U.S. GAAP and IFRS than there are differences. In addition, some differences ultimately equate to the same conclusion under both accounting standards. The convergence to IFRS should not negatively affect the U.S. economy, companies, or the accounting profession. Furthemore, IFRS typically results in a higher net income than U.S. GAAP.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Business Administration
- Creator:
- Macias, Paul
- Description:
- Statement of Problem: In spring, 2007, I instructed a section of College Composition in which I found myself guiding students toward a rhetorical model based in individual authority, despite my intentions to encourage a more inquiry- or dialogue-based model of authority. This experience caused in me these beliefs: claim to individual authority can be defined and found in student writing; student writing that makes claim to individual authority can be distinguished from student writing that doesn't; and both institutional and instructor texts, as well as instructor discourse, can be correlated with a student writer's tendency to persuade by means of individual authority. Sources of Data: I collected institutional curriculum and four bodies of research from four different College Composition classrooms, each of which includes instructor texts (syllabus and assignment sheet), instructor discourse (oral description of assignment sheet), and student texts (essays in response to assignment sheet). I analyzed two of these bodies of research. Conclusions Reached: Claim to individual authority can be defined and found in student writing. Student writing that makes claim to individual authority can be distinguished from student writing that doesn't. Both institutional and instructor texts, as well as instructor discourse, can be correlated with a student writer's tendency to persuade by means of individual authority.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Coward, Alice L. and Rosales, Darci C.
- Description:
- Social work champions social justice a belief that everyone is entitled to equal opportunity. Post secondary education should be open to all students. Individuals have a right to higher education and should not be discriminated against based upon their race, ethnicity, class, or gender. Accessibility for underrepresented minority (URM) students is a goal of the Academic Excellence Workshop (AEW) intervention program for Math Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) majors at Santa Rosa Junior College. This project is a macro evaluative study of the program. Literature looking at the historical content of the MESA Program, Philip Michael Triesman's founding study, and the differences between four year and community college attenders as they relate to access, retention, persistence, and degree attainment were reviewed. The empirical research was derived from archival data gathered from MESA enrollment forms and academic transcripts. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used on the gathered data. The researchers hypothesized that participation in the AEW would positively impact URM student's grade point average in math, engineering, and science courses. Using an independent t-test, the researchers found no significant evidence to support the hypothesis. The research study was limited and did not take into consideration the secondary benefits of participating in the AEW that could influence student's academic success, retention, and persistence in STEM courses. The researchers conclude that future evaluations of AEW programs would benefit from a holistic approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Anhar, Michael N.
- Description:
- The central issue of creating ideal conditions for teaching and learning has been extensively examined from multiple perspectives. However, while the growing prominence of the student-centered perspective in particular has led to a considerable body of knowledge about student-centered education (i.e., pedagogy), there exists a lack of explicit knowledge about student-centered communication (i.e., interaction). To address this gap in the literature, a convenient sample of faculty members from the Communication Studies and English Departments at CSU Sacramento audio recorded one of their own class meetings. Transcripts of these recordings were analyzed in order to develop a taxonomy of the types of student-centered verbal messages teachers express in the university classroom and complimentarily to determine which message types yield substantive student verbal responses. Investigative efforts resulted in the emergence of a 4-category taxonomy of student-centered verbal messages and the tentative selection of a core category of messages that discernibly albeit rarely yielded substantive student verbal responses. Most usefully, the final analysis of this study revealed that instructors who are serious about cultivating substantive student verbal responses ought to focus on expressing verbal messages that elicit student input while simultaneously avoiding response inhibiting practices, which effectively silence students.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Communication Studies
- Creator:
- Anderson, Summerlynn Jean
- Description:
- Memory research has shown mixed results concerning how emotional information is processed (see Christianson, 1992, for review). One individual difference found to relate to emotional processing (Belsky et al., 1997; Laible, 2004) and understanding (de Rosnay & Harris, 2002) is attachment security. Further, because coping strategies are believed to reflect behavioral outcomes of emotion regulation (Contreras et al., 2000), how children cope with emotional situations may also predict their memory for such experiences. The present study aimed to examine attachment qualities and coping strategies as individual differences predicting recall of emotional and attachment-related events. Children ranging from 7.5- to 12.5-years of age viewed a slideshow exhibiting stories that varied in emotion and attachment relatedness. The following week, children were asked to freely recall the pictures and stories, and they completed attachment and coping measures. Results showed children's attachment security predicted recall of high attachment-related events, specifically separation scenarios. To understand better these results, attachment security was divided into subscales for parental availability and children's dependency. Findings indicated that children who perceived the parent as more available recalled more attachment-related stimuli, specifically those involving separation. These results indicate that attachment-related events may be processed differently than emotional, but less attachment evoking events, and that memory for such events may be influenced by individual differences in attachment security, particularly how available the child perceives the caregiver.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Graduate and Professional Studies in Education
- Creator:
- Alaniz, Dolores
- Description:
- This thesis investigates implementation of the California Case Management System (CCMS) in Sacramento County. CCMS is the information technology system used by California courts, and is funded through the Trial Court Funding Act of 1997 and the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002. The system is evaluated using an implementation analysis framework and a set of best practices criteria for information technology transitions. It is recommended that the Legislature require the Administrative Office of the Courts adopt a reporting structure and process to increase accountability, mitigate risks, justify appropriations, and report budgetary expenditures. Sources consulted included case studies, project management reports, books, professional journals and scholarly articles.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Teleten, Larisa and Afshar, Neda
- Description:
- High turnover and low job satisfaction are long standing problems within the nursing profession. Attempts at rectifying these trends have included more recently, mentor-based residency programs of various lengths and kinds. This study examines the results of local and national responses to a standardized pre-post survey meant to measure job satisfaction among residency program participants at two distinct points along the new employee continuum. Survey results from participants in the University of California, Davis Medical Center (UCDMC) program were compared to the results at 39 other University Health System Consortium (UHSC) institutions. At UCDMC, participation in the mentoring program was totally voluntary. Nurses were recruited to join the program during their hospital orientation. Invitations were followed up by email and VOCERA contact within one week of orientation. RN participants included new graduates, transfers to new specialty floors and new RN hires from a wide demographic spectrum. Survey scores for UCDMC nurses at the six-month mark were compared to the results at other UHSC institutions and found to be above the McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale (MMSS) mean in each of seven subscale areas under consideration. Within the organization itself, it was found that UCDHS nurses at the six-month stage registered positive changes in all but one of the satisfaction subscale areas. The exception was the praise and recognition subscale, which declined at six months. The results of the study confirm that praise and recognition are significant factors in RN perceptions of job satisfaction. Residency programs offer great promise for decreasing nursing turnover and increasing job satisfaction. Given the results of the UCDMC study, additional research into the ways that praise and recognition influence job satisfaction and, ultimately, retention should be further explored. An additional policy recommendation to HRSA would be to encourage a more standardized approach to data collection among its funded programs.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Nursing
- Creator:
- Adhikari, Ramesh K.
- Description:
- This study examines empirically the potential causal link between financial development and output growth in each of sixteen countries that have experienced sustained economic growth in the postwar period within a multivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) framework. I use three time series methodologies such as usual Granger causality approach, modified causality test of Toda· and Yamamoto (1995) and vanance decompositions to examine interrelationships between variables in the VAR system for the same data set. I find mixed results on the direction of causality and the results vary with respect to the type of test employed. Using annual time series data from 1960 to 2004 and a Granger causality approach, I find no evidence of causality in either direction in twelve countries, bi-directional causality in two countries, one-way causality from growth to finance in two countries and no one-way causality from finance to growth for any of the countries examined. Although the results are somewhat sensitive to the type of causality tests employed, the general conclusion is that financial development and output growth are causally independent at annual frequencies. This casts doubts on claims that financial development leads output growth. Therefore, more empirical studies and the need for broadening the econometric approach are called for before making any general conclusion about this relationship.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sacramento
- Department:
- Economics