Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

History Lessons From Esther: The Leopold Von Ranke Lecture Delivered At The Phi Alpha Theta Induction Ceremony, Kent R. Olney

Scholarship – Academic Affairs Office

The German historian, Leopold Von Ranke, noted the following: “Every epoch is immediate to God, and its value is not based on what emerges from it, but on its very existence.” My assignment was to respond to Von Ranke’s thoughts. I have done so by drawing on four observations made from the OT book of Esther. These observations pertain to truth, years, obscurity, and heroes; all of them matter to God and all of them should matter to the historian. In a sense, these four elements are the raw materials, or building blocks, of history in any generation. I conclude …

The Effect Of Education On Support For Tnr As A Method Of Feral Cat Management, Kaitlyn F. Bishop

Honors Program Projects

A feral cat is a cat that is untamed and not suitable for placement in a home. Through their naturally high rate of reproduction and lack of population management, feral cat populations have grown exponentially, leading to overpopulation. Feral cats effect their communities through their impact on wildlife, financial burden, and health risk to both humans and other animals. Due to the impact feral cats place on their communities, multiple management methods have been suggested. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is a humane, effective method of management; however, controversy surrounds its use. Existing studies have determined that age, gender, and past experiences with …

The Effect Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On The Self-Esteem Of College Students, Maggie Van Heemst

Honors Program Projects

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known to predict negative health and mental health effects later in life. One in two Americans has experienced at least one ACE. This issue is prevalent across class, race, and ethnicity. However, little is known about ACEs and the young adult population.

Methods: A survey was conducted to measure ACEs and self-esteem in fifty college students. The hypothesis was a negative correlation between ACE and self-esteem scores.

Results: A small negative correlation was found between ACEs and self-esteem in college students. The average ACE score was 3.9 and the average self-esteem score was 16.78. …

Early Christian Perspectives On The Catechetical Process, Mark A. Frisius

Center for Faith & Family

The goal of this paper is to provide a brief overview of findings related to the catechetical practices or early Christianity. This approach was occasioned by the observations that 1) the United States is headed toward a post-Christian reality, where Christianity can no longer be assumed as the dominant force in American culture, and 2). that it would be possible to gain insight from Christians who lived in a pre-Christian environment. This paper is organized around themes and is not meant to be read straight through. Instead, each theme contains a series of lettered or numbered observations designed to help …

Evaluating College Students’ Health Literacy And Its Effects On Their Perceptions Of Information Concerning Mask-Wearing In The Covid-19 Pandemic Ve Information Concerning Mask-Wearing In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hannah S. Ketchum

Honors Program Projects

Background: Mask-wearing was a controversial and polarizing phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beliefs concerning mask-wearing differed depending on sources of information concerning the pandemic, levels of health literacy, political leaning, demographics, or other factors. This project attempted to connect college students’ level of health literacy to their understanding of and adherence to mask-wearing in the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a gap in research connecting health literacy to understanding information concerning pandemics and an even bigger lack of studies conducted that relate college students’ health literacy to their perception of illnesses or pandemics. It is important to understand the impact of …

Kankakee County In Deindustrialization: An Oral History Approach, Rachel Shepard

Honors Program Projects

The City of Kankakee was an industrialized city which prospered economically for decades. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, economic trends shifted for Kankakee and the surrounding communities. The major factories, such as Roper Corporation and A.O. Smith, migrated their source of production from Kankakee to other regions of the United States and abroad. As a result, the declining industrial economic activity led to changing community perceptions. Kankakee is an example of the “Rust Belt” region, a region in the Midwestern and Northeastern States of the United States where declining industrial activity occurred throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The paper …

Deepfake It Til You Make It: How To Make A Short Film, Adam G. Lee

Honors Program Projects

A recent development in the realm of computer technology is the deepfake. Deepfakes, which train a computer model to digitally superimpose one person’s face onto another body in a separate video, has its uses for good and for ill, with the unfortunate tendency to the latter. The vast majority of deepfakes are used for pornography, most commonly depicting female celebrities as the subjects. At the less notable level, it is often used for revenge pornography. These aspects of deepfake technology are rarely discussed in mainstream media, which tends to focus on the less harmful uses, such as those for comedic …

A Curriculum Designed To Teach Elementary-Age Children In Diverse Settings The Kingdom Concept Of Loving One's Neighbor, Abigail J. Flood

Honors Program Projects

United States Census data from 2020 show that the country is becoming increasingly diverse and urbanized. Other research shows children are aware of race from an early age and can pick up biases and stereotypes by watching the adults around them. However, there are no children’s ministry curricula that specifically address how children should navigate differences from a biblical perspective. To fill this gap, a children’s ministry curriculum was written to model how children can love their neighbors like Jesus did, especially those who look different from themselves. The curriculum is comprised of an introduction for the ministry leader, five …

Impact Of Mindfulness On Test Anxiety In College Students, Lindsay Alcock

Honors Program Projects

Background

Mindfulness is defined as the state of giving full attention to a stimulus, internal or external, without inducing judgment or becoming reactional about the feelings experienced, positive or negative (Davis & Hayes, 2012). Previous studies have investigated the relationship between mindfulness techniques and the reduction of anxiety (Chambers et al., 2008; Macdonald & Olsen, 2020); a smaller number of studies have considered test anxiety (Cho et al., 2016; Sparks, 2017). Prior research has used multiple mindfulness techniques to measure the impact on test anxiety, but few have isolated mindfulness trainings to compare the relative impact of each type on …

Witches, Wizards And Potions: The Christian Nature Of The Harry Potter Best Selling Novels, Craighton T. Hippenhammer, Debra Mattingly, Laura Ladwig

Faculty Scholarship – Library Science

The magic in Harry Potter is not “sorcery” or invocational magic; it is incantational magic. Most of the objections of the Harry Potter novels are from people who have not read the books. The author, J. K. Rowling is more interested in alchemy than magic and uses Christian symbols and careful naming throughout the books, thereby delivering difficult truths to a postmodern audience in a way that they accept as givens, ideas they would otherwise laugh at. Harry's devotion to the truth and to what is right leads him to disregard the pain he may encounter in pursuing these great …

Augustine Of Hippo: A Historical Theology Critique, Zachary Monte

Honors Program Projects

This study evaluates how current historical theology survey texts understand and present the theology of Augustine. The texts are examined to assess the following: accuracy of presentation on discussed topics, specific theological topics Augustine addressed excluded in the surveys, and theological bias on the part of the authors. The historical theology surveys include Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine, Justo González’s A History of Christian Thought, and Alister McGrath’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. The three major topics treated include Augustine’s Trinitarian thought, the Donatist Controversy, and the Pelagian Controversy. The findings …

Religiosity And Relational Anxiety: A Cross-Denominational Study, Timothy Steininger

Honors Program Projects

Prior research has provided evidence for a correlation between religiosity and anxiety, quantifiable differences between denominations, and a somewhat equivocal link between religiosity and social trust. This present study seeks to extend the existing body of knowledge by assessing the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and both trait and relational anxiety across denominational groups, and by measuring the relationship between relational anxiety and social trust. Participants (N = 1,905) were asked to provide their religious and denominational affiliations. Analysis revealed a modest negative relationship between intrinsic religiosity and trait anxiety. Overall, a weak, positive relationship between intrinsic religiosity and relational …

The Reliability And Validity Of The Open Enneagram Of Personality Scales, Kayleigh Kastelein

Honors Program Projects

The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the 36-item Open Enneagram of Personality Scales (OEPS). Our general hypothesis was that the OEPS would show adequate reliability evidence but not validity evidence. Participants were acquired through a small denominationally affiliated Midwest university, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and social media. Test-retest reliability was done with 249 participants while internal consistency reliability, factor analysis, and correlations with the Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle) were done using 1039 participants. An average Pearson’s correlation of .68 (range: 0.54 - 0.75) showed inadequate test-retest reliability for the OEPS …

Time To Stop Worrying: A Correlational Study On Individualist Versus Collectivist Time Perspectives And Anxiety, Anna Waldron

Honors Program Projects

Purpose

Research has indicated a significant relationship between anxiety and time perspective (TP), which is the way one views life in terms of the past, present or future. TP is broken down into five facets based on the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), including past negative (PN), past positive (PP), present fatalistic (PF), present hedonistic (PH), and future (F) time perspectives (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). These are seen to be impacted by one’s culture as well, although there is a lack of representation in studies on TP cross-culturally which makes it difficult to generalize. In order to add to the …

Embodying Integration: A Sociological Study Of Graduate Student Religiosity In Christian Higher Education, Daniel Allen

Faculty Scholarship – Sociology

Social science research has historically posited an inverse relationship between higher education levels and spirituality, but recent research has nuanced this assumption. Faith formation is a celebrated part of Christian higher education in particular, and graduate programs have grown among Protestant Christian institutions in recent years. However, little research addresses graduate student perceptions of the spiritual quality of their experience. This study asks what program-level features correlate with a high-quality spiritual experience for graduate students studying in a Protestant Christian context. Using data collected between 2014-2020 from 3,274 graduate students at a private, not-for-profit Christian university, we find that students …

Whose Community? Market Economics And The Concept Of Solidarity, Paul R. Koch

Faculty Scholarship – Economics

The debate over the relationship between market processes and community values has intensified in recent years, due to the pace of economic change, as well as the respective impacts of the global financial crisis and the pandemic. This essay explores various conceptions of community, raising the question of whether or not a genuine sense of social solidarity requires that those who participate in those interactions live in physical proximity to one another. The implications of this discussion for economic policy are also examined, including the possibility that the composition of what has been historically regarded as “conservative” economics might be …

Monetary Policy And Income Inequality In The United States And Spain, Brooke Whetstone

Honors Program Projects

Background Contractionary monetary policy has long term effects on inequality (Feldkircher & Kakamu, 2018). However, other forms of monetary policy do not have a clear effect on income inequality. Central banks defend the position that other factors are the driving forces behind income inequality (Powell, 2018).
Methodology This investigation utilized ANOVA Regression analysis to determine if income inequality, as measured by wage growth by sector, is related to interest rates in the United States and Spain. If applicable, slopes of the regression lines for each sector were compared to see if they were significantly different, in a statistical sense.

Results …

Personality Traits As Covariates Of Rock-Climbing Performance In Novice Rock Climbers, Courtney Gearhart

Honors Program Projects

Existing literature has connected heightened levels of conscientiousness and grit and lowered levels of neuroticism to greater general athletic performance (Courneya & Hellsten, 1998; McEwan, Boudreau, Curran, & Rhodes, 2019; Steca et al., 2018). Rock-climbing is a growing field of interest and the question of whether conscientiousness, neuroticism, and grit are correlated with rock-climbing performance and improvement remains unknown. To assess relationships among conscientiousness, neuroticism, grit, and rock-climbing performance, 23 undergraduate students with no significant climbing experience participated in a two-part study at a small religious university in the Midwest. Participants were recruited through professors known by the researcher, who …

The Impact Of Sports Nutrition Knowledge On The Physical Effects Of Low Energy Availability In Female Cross Country Runners., Abby Olcott, Catherine Anstrom

Student Scholarship – Family and Consumer Science

Learning Outcome

To understand the impact sports nutrition knowledge has on the risk for developing LEA in Female Cross Country Runners.

Background

The International Olympic Committee introduced the concept of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports (RED-S) to accurately encompass the condition previously known as the Female Athlete Triad. LEA is the root cause of RED-S. (Mountjoy et al., 2014). The purpose of this study was to measure sports nutrition knowledge and the impact knowledge level has on the susceptibility to develop LEA in female cross country runners.

Methods

A quantitative design was used. Participants included the women’s cross country team …

The Relationship Between Faith Maturity And Life Satisfaction, Amanda L. Roche

Honors Program Projects

Background

Studies have been conducted that conclude that having a more mature faith correlates to healthier psychological well-being and healthier personal relationships (Hill & Pargament, 2003; Okun & Stock, 1987; Powell & Pepper, 2015). A significant amount of research has been conducted on life satisfaction, however fewer studies have explored the relationship between life satisfaction and faith maturity. Hawkins, Tan, and Turk (1999) compared a secular inpatient cognitive-behavioral therapy program to a Christian inpatient cognitive-behavioral therapy program and discovered that there was a negative correlation between spiritual well-being and depression, but little has been done beyond this study to examine …

The Relationship Between Food Allergy Reporting And Allergen Friendly Food Availability In A University Foodservice, Abigail Brummel

Student Scholarship – Family and Consumer Science

Food allergies grew 18% from 1997-2007 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). As the prevalence of food allergies continues to grow, college students with diagnosed food allergies are having difficulty finding allergen friendly foods in college campus food service (Food Allergy Research & Education, 2014). In order to find the relationship between food allergy communication and prevalence of allergen friendly food on a college campus, a mixed method design was used for this research study. A researcher constructed questionnaire was piloted to senior dietetic students (n=8) for question clarity. Questions were then adjusted for clarity. A convenience …

The Japanese Way In America: A Comparison Of The Spiritual Beliefs, Habits, And Ideas Of The American Religious ‘Nones’ And Contemporary Japanese Nationals, Jarrett Stalinger

Honors Program Projects

There has been growing interest in the religiously unaffiliated within America. This growing interest has caused a new name to come about, the Nones. The present discussion attempts to give context to the rise of the Nones and to compare the religious beliefs and habits of these American Nones with the Japanese Nationals who inhabit Japan. There are many similarities between these two groups relating to ethics, interactions with people, and connection with nature. These comparisons show that there is a possible connection between people which explains spiritual experience, even outside that of normalized, institutional religions. This “intuition of the …

Mental Health First Aid Training: Evaluating A Brief Training Intervention For College Students, Erica Sandtorv

Honors Program Projects

Background

Mental health literacy, or the public’s knowledge and beliefs about mental health, has been shown to be lacking; therefore, the proper first aid actions are not always taken to recognize and encourage treatment for psychological disorders (Burns & Rapee, 2006; Jorm et al., 1997; Jorm, 2012; Yap, Wright, & Jorm, 2011). This issue is particularly relevant in a university setting where mental health issues are common and students often rely on their peers for support (Hefner & Eisenberg, 2009; Kitzrow, 2009; Morse & Schulze, 2013). Studies have shown mental health first aid (MFHA) training to be successful in equipping …

Conducting A Large-Scale Weeding Project In An Academic Library: Purpose, Plan, And Process, Kyle Olney

Faculty Scholarship – Library Science

According to Rebecca Vnuk, author of Weeding Handbook: A Shelf-By-Shelf Guide (American Library Association, 2015), “Weeding helps a library thrive.” We all want our libraries to thrive, yet for many of us weeding is one of the last activities we want to do. For others, the task may simply seem too daunting to even know where to begin. Add to this the pressure to clear space for a new campus initiative and the work can quickly become overwhelming. This presentation looks at a multi-year weeding project at Olivet Nazarene University’s Benner Library that ultimately resulted in the withdrawal of 30,000 …

Empirical Correlates Of Mental Health Stigma, Emily Raduns

Honors Program Projects

Background

Mental health stigma describes the prejudice and discrimination faced by those with mental health disorders. Existing literature has connected heightened levels of stigma to lower levels of mental health education and lower levels of interpersonal contact with those experiencing mental health issues. Research also suggests a possible link between high religious fundamentalism and stigma.

Methods

To assess these relationships among these variables, a questionnaire was distributed online to 194 undergraduate students at a small religious university in the Midwest. The questionnaire included scales measuring fundamentalism and stigma, along with questions about mental health education levels and interpersonal contact with …

Stigma As A Predictor Of Parental Willingness To Seek Mental Health Services For Their Children In Rural America, Reed M. Smith

Honors Program Projects

Stigma exists in some capacity towards mental illness. This stigma is a barrier to mental health services for some people. Rural populations are known to have more stigma than their urban counterparts. This is on top of already lacking access to mental health services. This especially affects children. Polaha and Williams (2015) found stigma to be negatively correlated with willingness to seek help in rural parents. This study sought to explore this relationship in a more generalized sample. I posted a survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk that screened for rural parents of children under the age of 18. It included …

The Relationship Between Musicianship, Academic Achievement, Academic Motivation, And Self-Esteem, Ellie Krumsieg

Honors Program Projects

Background

Past research suggests that students involved in music are intrinsically motivated. For example, Diaz (2010) showed that undergraduate musicians possessed high levels of academic intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a predictor of high academic achievement as well. Additionally, past research indicates that music education is positively correlated with academic achievement and self-esteem. This study continues to investigate the relationships between musicianship and academic motivation, academic achievement, and self-esteem, but does so using a post-secondary sample and an expanded classification system for musicianship.

Methods and Procedures

A survey link was emailed to all undergraduate students at a small, Christian university …

Evaluation And Revision Of Bsri Trait Selection, Valerie Seehafer

Honors Program Projects

The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) is a tool created by Sandra Bem in the 1970’s which is aimed at measuring an individual’s androgyny. Critiques concerning the theoretical and methodological framework of the BSRI suggest that it is in need of an update. The purpose of my research was to determine if and what adjustments were needed for the BSRI. An adjusted version of the short form of the BSRI was distributed to undergraduate students on a small Christian university campus in the Midwest. Respondents rated traits from the BSRI in regards to social desirability, personal desirability, and gendered connotation. The …

American Evangelicals And The European Union, Paul R. Koch

Faculty Scholarship – Business

This paper seeks to explore the potential reasons for the antagonistic sentiments that are held by many Protestant evangelicals, in the United States, towards the European Union. The possible causal factors include the following:

1) The legacy of anti-internationalism among evangelicals, dating back to the debate over American membership in the League of Nations almost 100 years ago;

2) The level of attraction to the current wave of “populist” politics and economics;

3) The aversion of politically conservative American evangelicals to the perception of Europe as a “socialist’ continent;

4) The negative portrayal of the European Union, as an instrument …

American Evangelicals And The European Union, Paul R. Koch

Faculty Scholarship – Economics

This paper seeks to explore the potential reasons for the antagonistic sentiments that are held by many Protestant evangelicals, in the United States, towards the European Union. The possible causal factors include the following:

1) The legacy of anti-internationalism among evangelicals, dating back to the debate over American membership in the League of Nations almost 100 years ago;

2) The level of attraction to the current wave of “populist” politics and economics;

3) The aversion of politically conservative American evangelicals to the perception of Europe as a “socialist’ continent;

4) The negative portrayal of the European Union, as an instrument …