Digital Commons Network^™

Inferno: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Salome Gwendolyn Dewell-Amiranashvili

Senior Projects Spring 2016

A reflection on the process of a collaborative senior project in theater and performance and an exploration of self-validation and pain.

Do You Chill When I Chill? Exploring Strong Emotional Responses To Unfamiliar Musical Traditions, Eleonora Judith Beier

Senior Projects Spring 2016

While research suggests that listeners from diverse cultural backgrounds can infer what mood is expressed in a piece from a different culture, no study to date has assessed whether peak emotional responses can also be induced cross-culturally. The chill response in particular has been defined as a sudden increase in emotional arousal elicited by a passage in music. This study addressed the question of whether listeners could experience chills for traditional Chinese music – with which they were either familiar or unfamiliar – as well as for Western classical music – with which all participants were familiar. Chills were measured …

The Effect Of Controllability Beliefs On Attitudes About Weight And Socioeconomic Status, Marna Nicole Dunne

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Many studies have shown that weight and socioeconomic status are related, such that people of low socioeconomic status are much more likely to be obese than people of high socioeconomic status (Drewnowski, 2009; Ljungvall & Zimmerman, 2012; Pudrovska, Reither, Logan, & Sherman-Wilkins, 2014; J Sobal & Stunkard, 1989; Jeffery Sobal, 1991). Additionally, people are biased against both the poor (John-Henderson, Jacobs, Mendoza-Denton, & Francis, 2013; Williams, 2009) and the obese (Puhl, Andreyeva, & Brownell, 2008). Through two empirical studies, I investigated the relationship between people’s attitudes about weight and people’s attitudes about socioeconomic status. In study 1, which was conducted …

Mad Men Or Bad Men? How Gender Stereotypes, Individual Symptoms, And Participant Gender Affect Non-Expert's Evaluations Of People With Borderline Personality Disorder, Quinnehtukqut James Mclamore

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Gender-role stereotypes affect how people with mental disorders are perceived and judged. People with a gender-stereotype congruent mental disorder (i.e., men with alcohol use disorder) are viewed as less mentally ill and more to blame for their disorder than people with a gender stereotype-incongruent disorder (i.e., women with alcohol use disorder, Wirth & Bodenhausen, 2009). Borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms and comorbidities often vary between men and women along gendered lines (i.e., explosive anger is more common in men with BPD and compulsive buying is more common in women). These different presentations may cause men and women with BPD to …

The Effects Of Affective Arousal On Color Perception And Memory, Nicole Elizabeth Lang

Senior Projects Spring 2016

The link between affective arousal, color perception, and color memory was explored by inducing fear, sadness, or embarrassment in 158 participants who them completed a color perception and memory task. It was predicted that participants experiencing fear or embarrassment would more often correctly identify and remember red and green than a neutral condition whereas experiencing sadness would lead to less correct identification and memory for blue and yellow than neutral. There was only a marginally significant effect of fear on color memory for red. In the low arousal condition, there was an effect of fear on color memory for green …

The Effect Of Empathy On Implicit Bias, Chelsea Beckford

Senior Projects Spring 2016

The current study, investigates the influence of media on implicit biases through the mediating factor of empathy. The hypothesis was that participants that read passages that invoked empathy for either Blacks or police would experience a change in their implicit bias towards both groups (Blacks and police). Bard undergraduates read one of three passages (Black empathy, police empathy or control). The passages were created to manipulate empathy in the participants for Blacks, police or for neither group. Then they completed three Implicit Association Tests that measured their implicit biases towards flowers compared to insects, Black people compared to White people …

A Fire To Keep Me Warm, Hannah Isabel Sparagana

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Artist Statement - A Fire to Keep me Warm

The process of creating this film was in many respects non-linear and highly organic in its evolution. I cannot pinpoint an exact moment when the project was solely decided upon and its structure formed, whether it was to be a dramatic narrative, a visual poem, an experimental essay. Even in its final stages I have discovered this labeling to be non-essential. Rather, I would have the viewer interpret the work, navigating the piece solely through the montage of images, sound and rhythm. In my experience, this is what meaningful and inspired …

Look Who's Talking Now: Representation Of Female Characters In Children's Chapter Books, Rachel Woodhull Markace Swanson

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Literature is an aspect of a child’s environment that can influence a child’s gender development. Throughout the twentieth century, female characters have been underrepresented in comparison to male characters in award-winning children’s picture books. Based on past research, the aim of the current study was to investigate the representation of female characters in contemporary and popular children’s chapter books. A content analysis was conducted for 22 New York Times Middle Grade bestsellers, including 9 female protagonist books and 13 male protagonist books. Character counts and dialogue counts were coded for each book. Male characters outnumbered female characters with a ratio …