Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Optimal Distinctiveness Theory posits that valued groups are those that can satisfy needs to belong and to be different. Persuasive messages with a social-identity theme should therefore frame the group accordingly. This strategy was examined in a drug-prevention context using ads that framed non-users as a distinctive or majority group. Distinctive framing lowered willingness to use drugs among non-users, and served as a source of identity threat (contingent on gender) among users.

Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Background and Aims: Infants discriminate native and non-native speech contrasts before the age of 10 months, but non-native sensitivity declines soon afterwards. The majority of studies exploring this language process have used auditory-alone presentations of phonemes. Because language learning occurs in an auditory-visual (AV) context, analyzing perception under multimodal conditions (e.g., face + voice) is crucial. Previously, we tested English 11-month-olds’ discrimination of a non-native Hindi retroflex contrast. Infants discriminated these non-native phonemes when viewing a female speaker using infant-directed speech (IDS), but not with ADS, and not with a visual target instead of a dynamic face. Because this was a voicing contrast (/da/ voiced; /ta/ unvoiced) which are easier to discriminate, we extended these results to a more difficult non-native contrast. In the current study, we tested 11-month-olds’ discrimination of Hindi dental /da/ vs. retroflex /da/, which differs in place of articulation (not voicing), and is difficult for infants to discriminate under auditory-alone conditions.
Methods: Digital AV recordings of a female Hindi speaker articulating retroflex /da/ and dental /da/ were produced. Using an habituation protocol, 20 11-mo-old infants viewed and AV phoneme (counterbalanced) until a 50% reduction in mean looking time (across two consecutive trials) relative to the mean of the first two trials occurred. After meeting criterion, one additional trial (called ‘lag’) was administered, and then the AV phoneme changed on 2 subsequent trials. This lag was used to control for spontaneous recovery effects not attributable to the phoneme change.
Key Results: An ANOVA comparing average looking time on the lag and change trials revealed a significant main effect of trial [F (1,18) = 7.6, p < 0.02], with change (M=13.8 s, SD=9.3) > lag (M=10.1, SD=7.8), independent of order. Fourteen of the 20 infants increased looking time on the change trials.
Conclusions: When viewing a dynamic AV female speaker (in IDS), 11-mo-olds discriminate changes in non-native phonemes that are acoustically salient (voicing contrast) and facially salient (place of articulation contrast). However, this AV benefit is not present under all testing conditions; in a previous study, same-aged infants showed no discrimination of the place contrast when viewing a male Hindi IDS speaker. We interpret these findings as reflecting both local and global perceptual enhancement by multimodal sources.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper concerns how credentials mark boundaries between different kinds of higher educational actors. In particular, this research inquires into how organizations respond to rapid shifts in their institutional environments in terms of the maintenance of symbolic boundaries that granting specific kinds of credentials provides. As a field of higher education expands rapidly to encompass new kinds of persons, and new areas of credentialing, what happens to the ways in which organizations manage their identities as distinct from others in the field? Are boundaries blurred or sharpened in such a process? This paper addresses these concerns within the field of higher education in business, and the rapid changes that occurred after 1972 (and the passage of Title IX legislation) as the field expanded from a relatively exclusive white male domain to include a wide swath of institutional space with women a majority of the degree recipients. Using government surveys of higher education, and formal analytic techniques (WMDS, Cluster Analysis), I model the shifting logics of distinction that structured the field over this period.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Most studies of innovation adoption focus on organizational characteristics or the institutional environment, but research that integrates those two perspectives is less common. Furthermore, little research compares innovation adoption in public and private sector organizations. This research considers the “public-private distinction,” organizational compatibility, and inter-organizational referral relationships in models of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) adoption in the field of substance abuse treatment. Using data from nationally representative samples of 362 publicly funded and 401 privately funded substance abuse treatment centers, a four-category typology of public and private organizations initially predicted variation in SSRI adoption, but some of these differences became nonsignificant when organizational and environmental factors were controlled. These data provided support for hypotheses about associations between internal organizational characteristics and SSRI adoption as well as hypotheses regarding the role of the external environment. Future research should continue to integrate both internal and external factors in theoretical explanations of organizational change.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Previous studies on African-American worship practices, largely products of qualitative research, have shown that ecstatic, participatory worship is central to the worship experiences of African-American congregations. This suggests that ecstatic, participatory worship is rooted in ethno-cultural characteristics. However, there are other equally compelling explanations for this form of worship in African-American congregations, including religious tradition, Pentecostal orientation, and socioeconomic status, suggesting that ecstatic, participatory worship practice is not unique to the worship experiences of African-American congregations. Drawing upon the notion of culture as a “toolkit,” the intent of this study is to determine whether or not there are distinctive African-American worship practices and, explore the role that these practices play in the construction of African-American worship experiences. The National Congregations Study (NCS) is used to conduct a comparative analysis of African-American and White congregations’ participation in congregational interjection and ecstatic worship. This study reveals that while ecstatic worship is distinctive to the religio-cultural repertoires of African-American congregations, congregational interjection is less so. I conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for how religion and ethno-cultural experiences impact the construction of African-American congregational worship, as well as broader assumptions regarding the distinctiveness of African-American religio-cultural practice.

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