This study uses system dynamics simulation to explore structural and socio-psychological dynamics associated with the United States Army’s gender integration initiatives for its infantry branch. In 2015, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Analysis Center (TRAC) published the “Gender Integration Study” and the “Ranger Assessment Study,” providing findings that helped shape the Army’s gender integration initiatives across its combat arms branches. The focus of these and many other gender integration studies predominantly focus on whether gender differences, physiological and/or psychological, affect one’s ability to meet requisite performance standards in combat arms branches. As an essential complement to the existing and ongoing performance-focused research, system dynamics modeling will provide a basis to assess social barriers that exist with the Army and American culture, inhibiting broad acceptance of women in the infantry.
Offering entertainment, discussion, and information, social media provides users with a stimulating online experience. Within the last five years, it has also become an increasingly popular medium for the consumption of news. News outlets publish articles and reports through social media, and by doing so influence their users in a way that corresponds with the outlet’s political leaning. Because social media outlets provide users with tailored content, the prevalence of biased news reporting reinforces the user’s political values and polarizes their beliefs. This thesis attempts to examine the relationships that give rise to this political polarization in social media and discusses possible opportunities to mitigate it.
This study uses a systems dynamic approach to understand how the attacks conducted by Boko Haram influence the group’s growth. Boko Haram originated in the early 2000s under Muhammad Yusuf, but the group did not become known for its violence until 2009 (Oftedal, 2013). In 2013, the United States designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (U.S. Department of State, 2013). The Nigerian government’s efforts to eliminate the group’s influence in northern Nigeria and neighboring countries has not been successful. As Africa enters the world spotlight, the need for curbing the influence of Boko Haram strengthens. The system dynamics modeling process provides a method of understanding the relationships within the underlying structures that drive the scope of influence of Boko Haram, including organizational growth, media coverage, and attack efficacy. A formalized system dynamics model provides a basis for policy recommendations to counteract the group’s efforts.
This study explores the replication effect of mass killings across the United States. Often news outlets sensationalize emotional stories, such as mass killings, because they increase readership. Increased readership perpetuates the spread of the ideation to commit a mass killing through imitation, with each new incident having the possibility to spark several more throughout the country through increased exposure. This study places greatest focus on the imitation and does not analyze feedback mechanisms that affect other influences of violence. System dynamics modeling provides the framework for examining imitation incidents as an effect of increased exposure via the media.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.