Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item The mental wellness conversation curriculum: better understanding the gap between facilitator training and community conversations(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2024) Sutphen, Katharine Nora; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michelle U. Grocke-DeweyThis thesis whether the MSU Extension Mental Wellness Conversation Curriculum (MWCC) is effective in terms of adequately preparing newly trained facilitators to lead their own community based MWCC conversations. The MWCC is a mental health and wellness conversation pedagogy designed to be delivered in rural communities by community volunteer facilitators. The Social Ecological Model (SEM) explains the nuance of this program and incorporates supporting studies that leverage community-based and volunteer-led techniques. The results from the volunteer training evaluation data, a pre-and post- survey, indicate a positive change in awareness, knowledge, and beliefs among the 24 facilitators regarding specific mental health and wellness content presented in the training. The results indicate high favorability from volunteers regarding their experience at the MWCC training and optimism about the future of MWCC as a mental health and wellness program. However, despite favorable and statistically significant improvements from pre and post training data, there has been stagnation among community volunteers leading their own MWCC conversations. In response to this finding, a follow up exploration into possible explanations was conducted. Results indicated the importance of volunteer training as a predictor of volunteer engagement success. Additionally, the following themes were explored to understand the impact they had on MWCC volunteer engagement: 1) the duality of agency and autonomy in volunteering, 2) the explanatory power of the Self-determination Theory as it relates to volunteer motivation, 3) the importance of volunteer recruitment strategies and clear objectives, 4) the value of skills-based volunteering, and 5) the importance of content delivery within a training to maximize future engagement. Minor adaptations to the MWCC training and evaluation efforts would be beneficial for improved volunteer engagement going forward. Future research suggestions include further exploring how social context and environmental factors may impact the success of community based MWCC conversations.Item Behavioral and physiological encoding of value and validity in the visual cortex of the macaque(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2021) Thuen, Adam James; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Jamie Mazer and Dominique ZossoSpatial attention and reward research in most humans and all animal models have inherent value and validity associated with task-relevant stimuli. To date, these variables have been investigation in isolation. Assumptions are made with the respect to the dissociability of value and validity effects on task performance and neural activity. Using a novel behavioral task, we varied value and validity within the same experiment in attempt to dissociate their effects on visual processing. Our results indicate that the assumption of dissociability between value and validity effects used to characterize attention and reward modulations is not a safe one to make. Researchers must consider complex interactions between these two variable quantities when investigating attention using incentives and while investigating incentive effects when attention is freely deployable.Item The effect of local alcohol access on lottery purchases(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2022) Peterson, Ridge Walter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Isaac SwensenThe relationship between gambling and drinking has attracted significant attention from researchers but has been primarily explored in the limited context of laboratory experiments and cross-sectional surveys. In this thesis, I exploit variation in county and city-level 'wet' laws in the state of Texas to estimate the causal effect of local alcohol access on gambling, using per-capita expenditures on two major lottery games, Powerball and Mega Millions, as a measure of gambling consumption. I find that the passage of a city or county-level wet law is associated with a large and significant increase in lottery consumption. While this increase in lottery purchases is observed following the legalization of any alcoholic beverages at the county level, at the city level the effect appears to be driven by laws legalizing the sale of beverages for on-premise consumption. While I cannot distinguish the mechanism by which alcohol availability may affect lottery sales, the implication of this finding is consistent with existing research which finds complementarity between alcohol and gambling.Item A formalized approach to remedy tobacco addiction: e-referrals and the ability of documentation to influence opportunities through motivational interviewing(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 2021) Hoffman, Matthew Douglas; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Casey ColeIt is an understatement to report that there is an inconsistent approach for tobacco cessation therapy (TCT) techniques, and this is negatively affecting those with the desire to pursue cessation. Therefore, it is long overdue to better address and incentivize a more consistent quality improvement process to remedy the multifaceted dynamic of tobacco cessation (TC). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) tobacco globally affects 1.2 billion people, and annually imposes an economic damage of $500 billion worldwide (Caponnetto et al., 2019; Epku & Brown, 2015; Gonzales et al., 2020). With attention to detail in the foreground of billing, coding, and documentation, it is anticipated that increased opportunities for a more formalized approach to remedy tobacco addictions through motivational interviewing (MI) have been encouraged. Ultimately, this project guided a synergistic effect between the financial integrity of the medical clinic and the health of the rural Montana population that it serves. In a small rural family medicine clinic and over a six-week timeframe, a provider instituted basic MI techniques to enroll patients interested in TCT via an electronic (e-Referral) to the Montana Tobacco Quit Line (MTQL) to remedy tobacco addiction. Data collection was facilitated and contained within the EPIC EHR system, monitoring the number of known tobacco users, ready to quit statuses, and those both currently and newly enrolled for counseling with an e-Referral to the MTQL. Prior to the project's implementation, a total 23 patients were known as tobacco users at this clinic, two of which were being counseled; three new e-Referrals submitted increase the total to five. Nonetheless, there are now 51 patients that are newly known tobacco users after this project's screening and documentation. The thematic underpinnings that surfaced include a lack of healthcare engagement with documenting tobacco users and the need for continued pursuit of TCT. The generalization that this data infers is that the rural population at this clinic is asking for help, but the health system is not responding adequately.Item Employee innovation to promote employee engagement(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2021) Clennan, Katie Kelly; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Bill SchellEmployee innovation as a form of employee engagement is affected by numerous organizational factors and personal employee attributes. This study modeled the system of factors impacting the manifestation of employee innovation. Additionally, this model evaluates the achievement of engagement and impact on the competitive advantage as a result of employee innovation. A questionnaire for psychometric indicators was provided to two government owned production maintenance groups at the same naval base. Using structural equation modeling with latent variables, this study collected 190 survey responses to measured indicators for innovation, formal devices, relationships, self-efficacy, and motivations. Additionally, historical data was collected to measure indicators for engagement and perceived competitiveness. This study supports innovation as method for achieving employee engagement with a positive, significant direct effect between the latent variables. The chosen metrics for perceived competitiveness indicators did not hold strong correlations and further analysis resulted in indeterminant effects of innovation on performance metrics. This study confirmed the presence of previous factors found impactful to employee innovation, but with further analysis on the direct and indirect relationships within the system. Organizational factors such as formal devices and relationships did not have a direct impact on innovation and are mediated by intrinsic attributes such as self-efficacy and motivations. These intrinsic attributes have a significant impact on innovation and are mediated by the presence of formal challenges within the workplace. Furthermore, control mediates the effect of formal devices on the first step of the innovation process specifically, idea generation. The use of organizational factors in pursuit of employee innovation is achieved through the realization of employees' personal intrinsic attributes of self-efficacy and motivation.Item The effects of message threat/reflection on psychological reactance in traffic safety messaging(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2020) Townsend, Asher Campbell; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Nicholas WardPsychological reactance is a motivation to regain a freedom after it has been lost or threatened, which has led people to largely resist the social influence of others (Steindl et al., 2015). Steindl et al. (2015, pg. 205) also define psychological reactance as 'an unpleasant motivational arousal that emerges when people experience a threat to or loss of their free behaviors.' Seat belt use and distracted driving are two of the highest-fatality behaviors and they pose the greatest threat to other drivers' health and safety on U.S. roadways (NHTSA, 2018a). The purpose of this research is to investigate whether psychological reactance may be a significant factor in influencing people's reactions and their choices to continually engage in risky behaviors. Moreover, this research looks at whether select individuals are more prone to experiencing reactance and how it may influence their willingness to follow driver safety messaging. Specifically, this research will investigate whether varying message threat and message reflection influence the amount of reactance experienced. Three main components of psychological reactance are of concern in the study: Reactance Attitude, Emotional Reactance, and Threat to Freedom. Each of these behaviors is measured for varying message conditions for two different message sets: one for Seat Belt Use and another for Distracted Driving. For the Emotional Reactance and Threat to Freedom reactance measures, there is a significant correlation between the measures and reactance proneness. It was found that as proneness increases, the resulting psychological reactance increases as well. For the Distracted Driving messages, there was a significant effect of Message Threat for the Emotional Reactance and Threat to Freedom conditions such that low threat messages elicited less psychological reactance than high threat messages. From this study, we recommend the following aspects for designing traffic safety messages: 1) Messages should use non-controlling language (consider, can, could, may, try) over controlling language (should, ought, must, need), 2) Messages should aim to be suggesting (try to do this), rather than commanding (you MUST do this!). Additionally, high threat messages may tend to elicit stronger reactance independent of reactance proneness, supporting the proposal of avoiding high threat messages for traffic safety.Item Exploring the impact of a values-based reward system on engagement and perceptions of office culture in higher education(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2020) Gresswell, Candice Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sweeney WindchiefEmployee engagement and satisfaction may be telling indicators of employee health that can have rippling effects on the employee, university, and the student who interacts with the employee every day. Research has demonstrated a positive correlation between administrative styles and retention in the context of engagement, climate and culture (Farrell, 2009). Across industries and disciplines, employees who are engaged are more productive, creative, solve more problems, and more easily adapt to change (Craig & DeSimone, 2011; Flade, 2006; Holbeche & Matthews, 2012). Contrast to this research, in the higher education setting, employee engagement is measuring at an all-time low (Wasilowski, 2016). The purpose of this transformative, sequential, mixed-methods study is to examine how formalizing an engagement incentive program for higher education administrative staff in the Division of Student Success at a regionally accredited, land-grant institution impacts employee-reported engagement as measured by the Gallup Q12. The researcher collected qualitative data to help explain the quantitative Gallup Q12 survey scores to give individuals in leadership roles concrete information on how employees interpret Gallup Q12 and which, if any, actions they can take to improve employee engagement in their offices in the context of climate and culture. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test indicated significant change in the overall engagement score for the Division of Student Success (z = 2.79, p = .002), indicating the formalization of an engagement program does have a statistically significant effect on engagement as measured by the Gallup Q12. Major themes that emerged from the engaged offices in relation to climate were Relatedness and Care for the Student Experience. Major themes that emerged from the disengaged offices included Frustration, Stress, Turnover, Exclusivity, Not Being Able to Demonstrate Expertise or Improve Processes, Customer Service Focus, and Problem-Solving.