Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Colorblind Ideology And Inheritance Status Predicting Wealth Inequality And Poverty Perceptions In The United States, Caitlyn Steiner

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Wealth inequality and the racial wealth gap are large disparities in the modern United States. This study examines the relationship between colorblind racial ideologies, inheritance status, and wealth inequality relevant beliefs. This was done to assess whether expecting to receive an inheritance or having colorblind racial ideology can predict one's beliefs about wealth inequality. An online survey was given to participants that used Likert scales to gather support/opposition levels on wealth inequality, wealth redistribution, poverty attributions, and colorblind ideology. Answers were coded into R-studio and statistical analyses were run to observe the relationship between these variables. Results revealed that there …

Conformity In Our Youth, C J. Chopot

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Current studies show that conformity is a social tool used during development to convince children to accept society’s norms and expectations. These social norms are created and maintained through public institutions such as schools and social media platforms which children interact with every day. Through these common experiences, children often adopt social norms and form a group identity to belong in the greater society. As a part of a group, children can often fall victim to peer pressure which can negatively impact their mental health, create risky behaviors, and make it harder to voice opposing opinions. This literature review explores …

Omori's Portrayal Of Self-Compassion As A Means To Prevent Suicide, Kal Hines

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A media analysis of self-compassion and forgiveness in OMORI using empirical psychological literature. In this essay, I define trauma and discuss OMORI's portrayal of fragmented traumatic memories using scattered photos. I also cover post-traumatic responses including the dissociative subtype of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In discussing dissociation, I also cover depersonalization, derealization, and maladaptive daydreaming. The final focus of the paper is on self-compassion. I use Kristin Neff's operationalization of self-compassion which has three main aspects: mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness. At multiple points, I will engage in plot summary and detail the events of the game while drawing connections …

Weeding Out The Truth: Can We Reduce Neuroinflammation In Huntington’S Disease?, Milica Jakovljevic

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by unwanted choreatic movements, cognitive decline, and behavioral and psychiatric difficulties. The mutant protein that causes HD results from an abnormal expansion of the CAG repeat segment on the HTT gene. This protein becomes prone to aggregation, resulting in neuron dysfunction and degeneration. The striatum is crucial for regulating voluntary movement and is the primary region affected. While neurons are found in abundance, glial cells–namely microglia and astrocytes–are the most abundant cell type in the striatum. When in a resting state, these cells work to clear debris and modulate neuronal signaling. …

Not A 9 To 5: The Benefits And Drawbacks Of Pursuing A Career As A Musician, Brody Hunt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Mental health is a major problem within the music industry. Professional musicians report higher rates of mental illness (e.g., mood disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, increased suicidality) than the general population. While this is not caused by pursuing music as a career, numerous stressors that musicians experience exacerbate this relationship. Musicians experience great financial insecurity, relational sacrifices, difficulties feeling in control, difficulties being objectified, touring stressors, and pressures to use substances. However, musicians also report positive mental health and flourishing; notably, they report eudaimonic indicators of wellbeing such as feelings of personal growth, and high purpose in life. In …

Behavioral Multigenerational Outcomes Of Mild In-Utero Stress In C.Elegans, Aicha Tokar Falatah

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Past research has shown that maternal stress, also known as in-utero stress, results in anxiety-, depression-, and schizophrenia-like behaviors in rodent models. Changes in glutamate receptor expression, namely NMDA and AMPA receptors, have also been observed. Past studies in our lab demonstrated that In-utero stress in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) produces significant intergenerational differences in spontaneous locomotor behavior. Extending from this result, the current study investigates the multigenerational effects of chronic mild stress on learning in C. elegans. The parental generation is subjected to stress using a chronic, unpredictable stress protocol adapted from rodent chronic stress models. Age-synchronized Wild-Type (N2) …

S.A.D. Survival Kit: A Podcast On Seasonal Affective Disorder, Kate Lincoln

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This document explores seasonal affective disorder through the lens of the accompanying mini podcast series S.A.D. Survival Kit. Over the course of five episode transcripts, the audience will gain a better understanding of seasonal affective disorder and its associated interrelations with the surrounding environment and any individual’s internal physical and mental health. The podcast is available on Spotify and SoundCloud. (Links are on page 1.) Seasonal affective disorder is a form of seasonal depression marked by a significant change in one’s behavior or thinking patterns when seasons shift. Episode 1 explains the basics of S.A.D. and concludes that many people …

Confronting Ptsd In The Aftermath Of Abuse, Ayla A. Bilyeu

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This narrative follows a young woman through seven clinical sessions with a psychiatrist as she confronts her diagnosis of PTSD following abuse sustained in a romantic relationship.

A Closer Look At Interrogation Strategies: Confabulation, False Memories, And False Confessions Due To Interrogator Pressure And Information Exposure, Annika Fiala

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This literature review seeks to explore how interrogation strategies, such as compliance pressure and provision of information, can result in subject confabulation, false memories, and false confessions. These effects reduce the reliability of subject statements, and overall reliability of the criminal justice system. Additionally, differences in subject cognitive ability can make some more susceptible to interrogation methods. These factors must be accounted for when conducting interrogation procedures in order to mitigate their effects and prioritize the reliability of information relied on by the criminal justice system.

Social Impact Of Covid-19 In India And Among Asian Indians In The United States, Rajeswari Venkatesh

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This article is a culmination of the social challenges faced and the solutions found by people in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problems faced during the pandemic are still getting unraveled, even after three years. This paper examines the social challenges, such as mental health awareness, including suicide and physical health issues, the effects of loneliness and the reason for the loneliness felt during the pandemic, and the solutions created, such as the usage of technology and religion in positive and negative ways to reduce mental health issues faced during the pandemic. Additionally, this article includes two studies. The …

Development, Line By Line: An Introspective Case Study On Narrative Identity And Development Through Poetry, Milla Miller

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Situated at the intersection of creative writing and psychology, this project analyzes the author’s adolescent poetry alongside her current work to explore psychosocial and narrative identity development. Specifically, the work contrasts poems written about developmental stages in process with those written in reflection of previous stages in order to reveal how the understanding of self evolves. In addition to the complexities revealed by these temporal differences, structural elements unique to the poems provide further levels of understanding: choice of form and figurative dexterity show cognitive and narrative advancement; themes reveal psychosocial conflicts; and repetition across a poetic lifespan identifies the …

Developing The *Ucker Carlson Effect: Creating Space For Collective, Personal, And Professional Work In Cognitive Psychology, Zoe Gadbow

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The media, i.e. Tucker Carlson, often asks leading questions that guide audiences to generate implied answers. This can suggest misleading answers and guide people to construct disinformation. This strategy/format utilizes the generation effect (Slamecka & Graf, 1978), which states that when people generate information, they remember it. The Applied Cognitive Psychology (ACOG) lab is interested in whether this will contribute to an illusory truth effect (Hasher et al., 1977), which states that repetition of a statement increases belief in the statement. In order to investigate this phenomenon and reflect on the process itself this project contained two components: (1) para-professional …

Inversed Research: A Study About How Psychology Research Impacts Researchers Themselves, Ayanna Stewart

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper focuses on how research impacts the people who are conducting the research. There is literature surrounding how a researcher's biases impact their results, but how are researchers impacted personally by the scientific method of collecting data? This paper weaves together Western and feminist scientific methods in order to understand what happens to a researcher when they conduct research.

This study interviewed four research assistants who were part of the Eating and Body Image lab at Western Washington University. Using their responses to questions, an analysis of the impacts of research and subjectivity was conducted. Results showed that participants …

Christians And The Irreligious: What Is Associated With Religious Bias Between Groups?, Lucas Wall

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

With the tremendous rise in the prevalence of atheism and agnosticism in the U.S. in the past several years, it becomes more important than ever to assess intergroup relations between the Christian majority and the rapidly increasing atheist and agnostic minority. This study assesses personal factors that correlate with various levels of participant desire to affiliate with Christians (Progressive Protestants, Conservative Protestants, and Catholics) and the unaffiliated (atheists and agnostics) within a convenience sample. Participant factors studied included political conservatism, agreeableness, openness, social dominance orientation, and religious commitment. While low desire to affiliate is a poor representative of all forms …

Pursuing Faith In Good Science: A Neuroscience Student's Argument For Including Science In Spirituality, Savannah A. Hastings

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Everyone can enhance their sense of spirituality by embracing science. This point is argued by referencing the science of emotions, consciousness, and perceptual learning, as well as the correlation between a strong a sense of meaning and physical health. The way that the brain produces our experience of being human is particularly emphasized. We have electrochemical brains that can do good in the world.

Cannabigerol Causes A Cb1 Receptor-Dependent Reduction In Food Consumption And Weight Gain, Jack Jones, Josh Kaplan

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Slides describing work leading up to a professional scientific poster, created and presented at psych fest depicting my last two years of work in Dr. Kaplan's BNS lab. I included a reflection paper discussing my time at Western.

Dungeons And Disorders: Destigmatizing The Mental Health Conversation, Wren Hart

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Games, especially tabletop role-play games, have often been used by individuals to explore parts of their identities or concepts that are bigger than they are. Dungeons and Disorders is an adventure module detailing the quest of heroes destined to save a land plagued by debilitating problems. Dungeons and Disorders combines this tendency with psychological information on mental health disorders, in order to begin destigmatizing the mental health conversation. Players of this module will get to explore dungeons based on mental health disorders, starting with obsessive compulsive disorder and culminating with depression. The final boss of Dungeons and Disorders is an …

Advancing Technology & Digital Lifestyles: Facilitating A Group Independent Study, Kailey Droz

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

For my senior capstone project, I facilitated a group independent study (ISP) through Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University called Advancing Technology and Digital Lifestyles. A small group of students and I critically and creatively analyzed our relationship with technology, and its impacts on the individual, interpersonal relationships, culture, and society. Prior to facilitating, I did research within the fields of cyberpsychology, social psychology, communication studies, and media studies. I am sharing my syllabus and facilitation notes, my final project (two short stories), an annotated bibliography, and a reflection on the group ISP and my process.

Here …

Improving Student Outcomes In Introductory Formal Logic, Bryce Rosenwald

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Across a variety of educational settings, undergraduate introductory courses in formal logic tend to have high failure rates. In this paper, I explore practical, evidence-based steps that logic instructors can take to improve student outcomes. The topics covered are small class sizes, problem-based learning, clicker questions, group activities, and spaced practice. The effect of small class size is moderated by many variables, including each instructor’s unique characteristics and the pedagogical techniques used in large vs. small classrooms. Problem-based learning and clicker questions are determined to be excellent techniques for introducing content and furthering understanding of content, respectively. Small groups can …

Disrupting Social Order: Proposed Mechanisms To Altering Societal Perceptions On The Outcomes Of Trauma In Veterans Diagnosed With Ptsd, Clairiz Nel

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The lives of individuals are affected by the narrative created by the majority. This societal narrative is oftentimes distorted, reflecting the attitudes showcased in the media, resulting in the alienation of certain populations. Veterans diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one such group and the focus of this activist essay. Despite the grievous sacrifices made in the name of honor, freedom, and national security, American veterans continue to wage a war closer to home as they struggle to reintegrate into society. The portrayal of war experiences in traditional media (i.e. News networks) and productions media (i.e. cinema) propagates stigmatization …

Holocaust Distortion And The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lyric Crane

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project explores the use of Holocaust distortion in the COVID-19 pandemic. It seeks to understand how Holocaust distortion has been used in the pandemic. It also aims to understand how the use of distorted information has contributed to current trends in global antisemitism. In order to answer these questions, this project compares accurate information about the Holocaust with the distorted information seen in protests around the world. It also examines current trends in antisemitism and explores links found between them. The findings of this project are significant because they help grant understanding about how Holocaust distortion can directly contribute …

Facial Action Coding System And Induced Compassion, Camille Fogel

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The present study investigated the differential effects of a brief compassion meditation compared to a brief mindfulness meditation on felt and facially expressed compassion while viewing images of suffering. Participants (N = 82) were randomly assigned to one of two meditation conditions designed to promote compassion and relaxation, or relaxation alone. Participants then filmed themselves as they watched a two-minute compassion-inducing video that depicted suffering from around the world. These participant videos were later coded using three-distinct facial coding schemes: Complex FACS, Simplified FACS, and intuition rating. Finally, participants responded to a battery of self-report items about the level of …

Dreams: The Phenomenon Explored Through Scientific, Spiritual, And Subjective Perspectives, Hayden A. Mayer

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Have you ever wondered what happens while you sleep? Using historical, scientific, and theoretical data we superficially analyze what we believe happens while we're unconscious. We have compiled the most salient contributors to the study of dreams into one presentation, including the Ancient Egyptians Oneiromancy to Freud's psychoanalytic dream interpretations to modern fMRIs. We also discuss the more spiritual side of lucid dreaming and what that may entail.

Depression Symptoms Of College Students During Covid-10 And The Universities’ Response, Anamika Paulay

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In early spring 2020, universities worldwide shut down their campuses in response to a global pandemic. The present study examines the potential effect of the shutdown and other pandemic-related stresses on student well-being at Western Washington University. It assesses students’ depression symptoms using the IDAS-II General Depression Scale. The study also considers two campus resources (the Counseling Center, and Prevention and Wellness Services) that students can turn to for help with mental health issues, and gauges students’ awareness and utilization of these resources. The study subjects were Western undergraduates (N = 252), who answered a survey that included the IDAS-II …

Happiness Across Cultures: A Review Of Subjective Well-Being In Asian Americans, Hannah R. Proctor

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This review aims to uncover how consistent the finding is that Asian Americans experience lower levels of subjective well-being than European Americans, and why these differences exist. Happiness is desired by many and increases in happiness have positive effects on health and well-being. Perceptions of happiness vary across cultures due to differences in values and cultural structures. Asian American subjective well-being is a particularly interesting area of study due to the finding that Asian Americans have the highest level of education and income compared to other ethnic groups in America, yet they tend to have lower levels of well-being. After …

Consider The Ravens: An Exploration Of Anxiety, Mckenzie Oliver

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This Honors Senior Capstone Project is a culmination of research and personal anecdotes on the various aspects of anxiety. Anxiety disorders are prevalent in society and personally relevant to the author’s life, so the topic is introduced in a semi-autobiographical manner. The biological aspects of anxiety are discussed at length, including details on the brain structures, signaling patterns, small molecules, and connections between these components involved in the anxiety response. Overall effects on health and genetic and environmental influences are also discussed. The psychological and behavioral aspects of anxiety are then explored, focusing on three main forms of anxiety-related disorders: …

Friday Night Lights: A Photo Gallery Normalizing The Psychological Struggles Faced By Student Athletes, Sam J. Reardon

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This photography-based project aimed to capture moments that encapsulated various psychological conditions student-athletes may be facing in universities. These bold photographs would serve to be eye catching and draw viewers if they were to be hung up in a gallery for students to see. Under the images there would be captions on which students could read statistics regarding the amount of student -athletes that experience these conditions and an avenue for them to find help if they were struggling with the condition. Studies show that collegiate athletes underreport their struggles with psychological conditions though they occur with greater frequency in …

Editorial: Exploring Culturally Diverse Leadership Styles: A Mindset And Multicultural Journey, Joseph E. Trimble, Phd, Jean Lau Chin

Psychology Faculty and Staff Publications

With few exceptions, the current theories and research on leadership neglect the value of cultural diversity when considering different leadership styles. Rather, leadership theories continue to reflect a white, North American, heterosexual, male bias and omit dimensions of diversity in researching how leadership is exercised and the values effective leaders promote. Yet, there’s little question the growing population diversity in our complex and uncertain world requires a deep understanding of how effective leadership is exercised and the role leaders will play in managing the changes ahead.1

Tinder Tales: Examining Variations In The Process And Outcomes Of Dating, Gracie Rauen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

With over 10 million daily users, dating apps have changed the way many people around the world seek out and discover relationships. Current research shows there are many reasons people use apps such as Tinder and Bumblebee. This study seeks to expand on this research and explore the relationship between the motivations with which users begin, the unfolding process of connection, and the outcomes with which they end. We are in the process of collecting quantitative and qualitative data from a sample of undergraduate students. We will use the data to identify common patterns of app usage, describing the variations …

Whose Decision Is It, Anyway? An Analysis Of Modern-Day Jury Selection Processes, Macallan F. Craig

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Jury selection is a cornerstone of the pre-trial preparations done before all cases. The voir dire process, where an attorney questions the potential jury pool in order to eliminate those with bias, ensures every citizen is given their right to a fair and impartial jury of their peers. This process is flawed, however. The emerging field of litigation consultation seeks to add social psychology to traditional methods and mitigate these flaws, but it is not perfect either. Using previous research and the 2017 Washington State Mock Trial case, I combine aspects of traditional voir dire and litigation consulting to examine …