Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Designing Happiness: Architecture and urban design for joy and well-being(2016) Habtour, Rebecca; Simon, Madlen; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Scientific studies exploring the environmental and experiential elements that help boost human happiness have become a significant and expanding body of work. Some urban designers, architects and planners are looking to apply this knowledge through policy decisions and design, but there is a great deal of room for further study and exploration. This paper looks at definitions of happiness and happiness measurements used in research. The paper goes on to introduce six environmental factors identified in a literature review that have design implications relating to happiness: Nature, Light, Surprise, Access, Identity, and Sociality. Architectural precedents are examined and design strategies are proposed for each factor, which are then applied to a test case site and building in Baltimore, Maryland. It is anticipated that these factors and strategies will be useful to architects, urban designers and planners as they endeavor to design positive user experiences and set city shaping policy.Item Essays on the Relationship Between Income and Life Satisfaction in the United States(2015) Swenson, Kendall; Graham, Carol; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation presents three essays concerning the relationship between income and life satisfaction in the United States. The first essay examines whether the receipt of income assistance from public and private sources predicts life satisfaction. It identifies a negative association between the receipt of income assistance from government and private sources and life satisfaction, and finds that the association remains significant even after controlling for family income and other factors. The negative association between the receipt of income assistance and life satisfaction continues to exist across most of the income distribution, although the correlation is more uncertain for respondents in the very lowest income quartile. Another noteworthy finding from this essay is that income assistance from non-governmental sources is just as predictive of lower life satisfaction scores as is assistance from government means-tested welfare programs The second essay examines whether consumption is a better predictor of life satisfaction than is income. The essay finds that income and consumption are both predictors of life satisfaction, but that several other factors are even more predictive of well-being. In the full regression models health, marriage, and unemployment are much more predictive of life satisfaction than either income or consumption. The third essay examines the link between childhood family incomes and future life satisfaction. To analyze this topic, longitudinal data from the PSID is used to obtain mean family incomes when people were ages 13 to 17 between 1968 and 1994 and examines the life satisfaction of these individuals as adults in 2011. The primary finding from this essay is that the family incomes of youths are not strongly predictive of their future life satisfaction scores.Item THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCOME, WEALTH, AND LIFE SATISFACTION(2010) Hitaj, Ermal; Murrell, Peter; Prucha, Ingmar; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation inquires into the relationship between income, aspirations, and life satisfaction in post-transition Russia. It first explores the channels through which adaptation and social comparison contribute to higher income aspirations. The results show that social comparison is a strong agent in shaping aspirations, while the effect of adaptation is relatively weak. Subsequently, the dissertation tests for the effect of aspirations on two separate satisfaction indices, satisfaction with life and satisfaction with economic conditions. This dissertation uses a Chamberlain random-effects ordered probit estimation to control for time-invariant unobservable individual traits. In contrast to previous studies, the results suggest that increases in aspirations have a positive effect on life satisfaction. This dissertation argues that this is caused by the expectations contained in income aspirations. Higher aspirations reflect an increase in needs commensurate to changes in own and others' income, but they also reflect improved income expectations based on the information provided by the present income of relevant others. The improved outlook embedded in the higher income aspirations causes the latter to have a positive effect on life satisfaction. This suggests that, ten years into the transition process, the reaction patterns of life satisfaction in Russia differ substantially from those in developed countries. While the relationship between life satisfaction and income or institutions has recently received a lot attention, the relationship between life satisfaction and accumulated wealth remains unexplored. This dissertation makes use of the 2008 Gallup World Poll and a novel wealth database compiled by the World Bank to evaluate the effect of wealth, produced capital, and natural resources on life satisfaction. The dissertation finds that both produced capital and natural capital have a positive effect on life satisfaction. The effect of good institutions and informal safety nets is also positive. However, in results that parallel findings from the resource curse literature, this dissertation shows that the positive effect of natural capital is due to diffuse natural resources like cropland, pastureland and forestry. Subsoil asset wealth has no significant effect on life satisfaction. Blood feuds represent a significant challenge to law enforcement, institutional consolidation and economic development due to the violence they generate and the other forms of crime they contribute to. This paper seeks to model and explain the decision making dynamics behind blood feuds. Rather than a simple retaliatory act, the violence associated with blood feuds is very much an integral aspect of an institutional framework that reflects a different set of ecological conditions and preferences. This paper incorporates different cultural and ecological aspects of various societies into a theoretical model that explains how blood feuds are sustained in a society. In addition, the model developed in this paper helps explain the longevity of blood feuds and reconcile different views from the anthropology literature.Item Longitudinal Prediction of Domain Satisfaction and Global Life Satisfaction: Test of a Social Cognitive Model(2005-04-09) Singley, Daniel; Lent, Robert W.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The experience of life satisfaction has been studied at a global level and in specific domains of life such as work, marriage, and academic satisfaction. Global life satisfaction has been described as a predictor of, as well as an outcome of, domain-specific life satisfaction. "Top-down" conceptualizations of well-being indicate that one's level of overall satisfaction is essentially a personality trait, whereas "bottom-up" approaches assert that the experience of satisfaction in different domains of life combine to yield an overall sense of satisfaction. In order to integrate these two approaches, the current study utilized a longitudinal methodology and structural equation modeling to address how personality traits, domain-specific social cognitive variables, and life satisfaction (both general and domain-specific) relate to each other over time. A model of the hypothesized psychological processes involved in goal evaluations, life satisfaction, and positive affect is outlined. Of particular interest was the extent to which social cognitive variables (self-efficacy, social supports, and goal progress) account for unique variance in subsequent life satisfaction and domain-specific life satisfaction after controlling for personality effects (positive affect). In this study, 769 university students completed an online survey of their goals, academic satisfaction, and general life satisfaction at two points in time 8 weeks apart. Based on previous theory and empirical research on domain-specific satisfaction, this integrative model is cognitively-based and posits that if one has positive perceptions (high self-efficacy, resource availability, progress in goal pursuit) regarding one's goals in a particular life domain (e.g., family, work), then one will experience higher levels of satisfaction in that domain. Global life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction were hypothesized to have reciprocal effects on each other over time, as were goal progress and goal self-efficacy. Results generally supported the proposed model. The social cognitive variables accounted for significant variance in subsequent global and domain-specific satisfaction even after controlling for the effects of personality. Goal-oriented perceptions may, therefore, nurture a sense of satisfaction independent of personality traits. Self-efficacy and goal progress were found to have reciprocal effects, whereas global life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction did not. Results and implications for future research are discussed.