Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 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 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 …

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 …

What's More Important: Design Or Content? An Analysis Of The Impact Of Website Design And Argument Quality On Source Credibility, Luke David Salomone

Honors Program Projects

When evaluating information online or offline, two important aspects are considered by readers: the credibility of the source and the quality of the argument. It is well known that strong arguments are more persuasive than weak arguments of the same length (Petty and Cacioppo, 1984), and recent research has shown that in an online environment source credibility is determined by the reader in part by the design aspects of website (Lowry et al., 2013). Using a 2 (website quality: good vs bad) x 2 (argument quality: strong vs weak) ANCOVA with need for cognition (NFC) and disposition to trust as …

Male Body-Satisfaction And Ideal Body Images In The Media: A Positive Intervention, Sarah Allison

Honors Program Projects

Growing evidence suggests that media images of ideal female and male body-types have a negative impact on body-satisfaction (Galioto & Crowther, 2013; Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Hargreaves & Tiggeman, 2009; Hobza et al., 2007). Therefore, discovering ways to raise body-satisfaction after it has been lowered as a result of viewing media images may be an important area of research. This study sought to discover whether males receiving a positive intervention after looking at images of ideal male body-types would differ from males receiving no positive intervention after looking at these images in terms of body-satisfaction. This study also aimed …

Trending Emotional Disturbance: Strategies Through The Years, Hannah M. Rattin

Student Scholarship – Education

Teaching strategies and supports provided for students with emotional disturbance have evolved over the years. These changes are observed throughout three descriptive studies focused on specific writing strategies spanning three decades from the 1970s until the 1990s. Multiple changes are observed. For instance, terms other than the current “emotional disturbance” have been used over the years. The approach to schooling children with emotional disturbance has also shifted, from an emphasis on functional goals to focusing on academic progress. Additional changes include a more practical approach to implementing these writing strategies and an increased involvement throughout for these students. These changes …

A Practical Approach To Address Pornography Viewing At Olivet Nazarene University, Jacob Ruetz

Honors Program Projects

The pornography industry gains new ground and pushes new limits every day in an effort to raise revenues and demand. When pornography is evaluated as an efficient business, the potential for dehumanization, physical and emotional degradation, and the deterioration of a person’s spiritual and relational health become possible. On a small, Christian campus like Olivet Nazarene University (ONU), discussing topics as harmful and popular as pornography should be simple. However, the mindset of fear and silence when admitting weakness as a Christian can deter progress. Through a voluntary survey distributed to current undergraduate students, an overview of the student knowledge, …

Direct Human Service Experience And Its Effect On Volunteers' Self-Perceived Generosity And Meeting Volunteer Expectations, Emily M. Borger

Honors Program Projects

A study using participants (n=61) from a small liberal arts college was conducted to analyze the effect of direct human service on volunteers’ self‐perceived generosity, expected versus actual appreciation, expected versus actual satisfaction in work, and expected versus actual value of work. An experimental group (n=31) was given pre‐ and post‐surveys evaluating these dependent variables using a Likert scale. Between the surveys the experimental group received treatment of direct human service at a free community lunch program. The control group (n=30) was given the same pre‐ and postsurveys without treatment.

It was hypothesized that …

Social Support And New Communication Technologies During A Life Stressor, Heather Attig

Faculty Scholarship – Communication

Social support, whether emotional, informational, or tangible, is an innate need and is important to our well-being and our personal relationships. While face-to-face communication has been considered the “gold standard” to relational maintenance, we are also using communication technology to maintain our personal relationships and mobilize our social support networks. Technological advances in communication channels have provided new avenues to social interaction and social support.

The purpose of this study was to explore the social support process across new communication technologies. Specifically, I examined how multiple modes of communication (including face-to-face) were used to seek and receive social support to/from …

Attitude Accessiblity As A Determinant Of Object Construal And Evaluation, Alison I. Young, Russell H. Fazio

Faculty Scholarship – Psychology

Attitude accessibility, the ease with which a given attitude comes to mind, has been demonstrated to affect attention. The current experiments focus on the construal of multiply-categorizable objects. They seek to provide evidence that (a) construals toward which individuals have more accessible attitudes, i.e., those that are more attitude-evoking, are more likely to influence the evaluation of related objects and that (b) this effect of attitude accessibility on construal processes can be extended to a whole series of objects which vary along multiple dimensions. Experiment 1 provides evidence that construals whose related attitudes were made more accessible via attitude rehearsal …

Meeting The Predeparture And Reentry Needs Of Onu Spanish Study Abroad Students, Rachel M. Groters

Honors Program Projects

The purpose of the Predeparture and Reentry Needs project was to examine the reentry adjustment of Olivet Nazarene University (ONU) Spanish students who had already returned home from required study abroad experiences in order to craft predeparture and reentry programs based on findings. In Phase 1, the researcher recorded qualitative interviews in March and April of 2012 with 22 ONU undergraduate students who studied abroad in Spanish-speaking countries before the spring 2012 semester. Then the researcher listened to each interview again, taking notes on each and transcribing quotes. The researcher found that all students experienced some level and kind of …

Marriage And Religion: The Effect Of Religious Study Materials On Marital Happiness, Rose E M Zell

Honors Program Projects

The purpose of this research was to assess the impact of marital enrichment materials on marital happiness. In addition, the study attempted to determine if gender or number of years married made a difference in regard to the impact on marital happiness. The participants consisted of 56 New Life Christian Church members (28 male and 28 female) who comprised 28 married couples. Participants were randomly assigned to either the control or the experimental group. Every participant took a pre-test survey designed to assess marital happiness across ten different variables. Then the experimental group completed the Love Talk study by Les …

Familia E Inmigración: Discovering Biblican Immigration Narratives That Speak To Today's Latin American Immigrant Families In Chicago, Mckenzie Fritch

Honors Program Projects

This qualitative study sought to gain insight into the motivations, challenges, and behavior patterns of Latin American immigrant families in the Chicago, Illinois area, and can be divided into two parts: research and application. Research was collected by conducting focus group interviews with immigrant parents and children at three Nazarene Hispanic churches in and around Chicago. Questions were asked about the families’ reasons for immigrating and their stories of entry and arrival, but the interviews maintained a particular focus on the changes each family experienced while living in the United States. This study was especially interested to learn about communication …

The Eden Project: A City Wide Youth Conference And Fashion Show To Increase Body Image And Self-Esteem In Adolescent Girls, Nicole R. Parsons

Honors Program Projects

This paper focuses on the development of body image and self-esteem in adolescent girls and discusses the impact both positive and negative factors can have during this developmental stage of life. It argues the idea that a girl’s positive feelings regarding her external appearance can drastically influence her self-esteem, which in turn affects how she treats herself, as well how she allows others to treat her. This paper also follows the history of fashion shows, discussing their influence in media outlets that adolescent girls often turn to when searching for an identity in this culture. Pulling from a Christian perspective, …

Political Attitudes Bias The Mental Representation Of A Presidential Candidate's Face, Alison I. Young, Kyle G. Ratner, Russell H. Fazio

Faculty Scholarship – Psychology

Using a technique known as reverse correlation image classification, we demonstrate that the physical face of Mitt Romney represented in people’s minds varies as a function of their attitudes toward Mitt Romney. This provides evidence that attitudes bias how we see something as concrete and well-learned as the face of a political candidate during an election. Practically, this implies that citizens may not merely interpret political information about a candidate to fit their opinion, but that they may construct a political world where they literally see candidates differently.

Deviance In The Sport Of Soccer: The Relationship Between Wearing Brightly Colored Cleats And Aggression, Katherine G. Kulchar

Honors Program Projects

Two studies examined the effects of deviance in the sport of soccer, specifically how players who wear brightly colored cleats are perceived by others, whether or not they act more aggressively, and whether or not other players act more aggressively toward them. In the first study, research was conducted using collegiate soccer players recruited from the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The participants filled out an online survey asking a wide range of questions about aggression and sports. Analysis of the data suggests that a relationship exists between players who wear brightly colored cleats and aggression levels. Not only do a …