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Honors Theses

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Articles 2191 - 2220 of 3793

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall, Travis W. Reynolds Jan 2016

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall, Travis W. Reynolds

Honors Theses

Scattered trees are prominent features in the agricultural landscape of the Ethiopian highlands. The dry Afromontane forests of the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia have faced centuries of deforestation - the FAO estimates only 3% of the region is forested today. The remaining landscape has been largely converted into agricultural and grazing lands, with the exception of some limited government-protected lands, as well as thousands of small forest fragments left around Orthodox Churches (“church forests”). But while a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the ecological and cultural importance of church forests and other natural forest fragments, the roles of …


Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall Jan 2016

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall

Honors Theses

Scattered trees are prominent features in the agricultural landscape of the Ethiopian highlands. The dry Afromontane forests of the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia have faced centuries of deforestation - the FAO estimates only 3% of the region is forested today. The remaining landscape has been largely converted into agricultural and grazing lands, with the exception of some limited government-protected lands, as well as thousands of small forest fragments left around Orthodox Churches (“church forests”). But while a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the ecological and cultural importance of church forests and other natural forest fragments, the roles of …


An Analysis Of The Archaeological Collection From The Jaketown (22hu505) Site At The University Of Mississippi, Alexandria Elizabeth Gochenauer Jan 2016

An Analysis Of The Archaeological Collection From The Jaketown (22hu505) Site At The University Of Mississippi, Alexandria Elizabeth Gochenauer

Honors Theses

Jaketown (22HU505) is a significant prehistoric site that is located in the Lower Mississippi Valley. A collection from the University of Mississippi was found in storage and contained an amalgamation of surface collections from Jaketown undertaken during the 1950s and 1970s that were never analyzed and reported. Analysis of the artifacts that constitute the UM Collection may have a meaningful impact on our understanding of Jaketown's importance. Analysis enabled the identification of the number of Poverty Point attributes, diagnostic features of the Poverty Point culture period, present in the collection. Future research may lead to new knowledge about prehistoric settlement …


An International Crossover: Comparing The Chinese Basketball Association With The National Basketball Association, Allison J. Slusher Jan 2016

An International Crossover: Comparing The Chinese Basketball Association With The National Basketball Association, Allison J. Slusher

Honors Theses

This thesis compares the Chinese Basketball Association with the National Basketball Association in an in-depth comparison of how these organizations approach seven key aspects of sports management including commercialization, regular and post season scheduling, training, player acquisitions, players' and coaches' salaries, and players' and coaches' unions. This thesis also compares the histories of the CBA and NBA. The histories of these organizations serve to set the background information needed to understand how the CBA and NBA administer these seven aspects of sports management. Comparing these two organizations serves to prove that the CBA is run as a government bureaucracy used …


Freedom Fighters: Stories From Freedom Summer 1964, Anna Mccollum Jan 2016

Freedom Fighters: Stories From Freedom Summer 1964, Anna Mccollum

Honors Theses

Freedom Summer was a project conducted in Mississippi in 1964 as part of the civil rights movement. It involved hundreds of volunteers and members of the Council of Federated Organizations working to promote education and voter registration among the African American community across the state. The researcher found and interviewed veterans of Freedom Summer in order to write a series of profile stories centered around that subject. She visited them each in their hometowns (besides one phone interview with a woman from Iowa), photographed most of them and spoke to some of their peers for second and third sources. Through …


Perceptions Of Poverty And The Community Action Poverty Simulation Experience, Anna Grace Stout Jan 2016

Perceptions Of Poverty And The Community Action Poverty Simulation Experience, Anna Grace Stout

Honors Theses

A quarter of Mississippi's population lives below the poverty line. Poverty is linked to a myriad of health conditions, psychological effects, and inaccessibility of basic resources. Often, those who have never faced the challenges of poverty hold misconceptions regarding the impacts of poverty. It is important to correct misconceptions in order to combat the problems of poverty through such means as better-informed legislation and community action plans. Poverty simulations have recently been designed to educate people about poverty and its challenges. A poverty simulation is a role-playing exercise in which participants are given props and a list of tasks to …


Chief Justice Roberts And The Salience Of Issues Before The Modern Supreme Court, Anna Whisenant Jan 2016

Chief Justice Roberts And The Salience Of Issues Before The Modern Supreme Court, Anna Whisenant

Honors Theses

This thesis studies whether the Roberts Court has been hearing more important issues than the Warren, Burger or Rehnquist Courts. I operationalize important issues as pre-decision salience and measure mentions of cases in the first section of two newspapers. The research shows that the Roberts Court has been hearing more important issues than the other modern Courts. I reason that the Roberts Court has been hearing more important issues because interest groups and individuals are turning to the Court to make policy. Because the Court is becoming a more important policymaking institution, scrutiny of the Supreme Court will increase.


Gender Rules: Differences In Male And Female First-Year Undergraduate Adherence To Campus Alcohol Policy, Ashley Maiolatesi Jan 2016

Gender Rules: Differences In Male And Female First-Year Undergraduate Adherence To Campus Alcohol Policy, Ashley Maiolatesi

Honors Theses

Although differences in both men's and women's risk-taking and alcohol consumption have been respectively examined in previous research, the relationship between the two has not been thoroughly documented. While there have been studies on differences between male and female drinking habits, including those on amount and frequency of consumption, as well as studies documenting how women felt about both risk-taking and gender differences in morality, these factors are rarely, if ever, expressly linked. The current study aims to test past research regarding women's traditional hesitation towards engaging in risky behavior and rebelling against policy through the study of behavioral outcomes …


Vaccination Situation: A History Of Vaccine Refusal In The United States And Vaccine Beliefs At The University Of Mississippi, Austin Vitale Jan 2016

Vaccination Situation: A History Of Vaccine Refusal In The United States And Vaccine Beliefs At The University Of Mississippi, Austin Vitale

Honors Theses

The goals of this research were to trace a narrative of vaccine refusal in the United States from the nation's inception to the present day and identify any impact or influence from refusal ideology on vaccine beliefs of University of Mississippi undergraduates. A review of historical literature regarding vaccine refusal in the United States developed a historical narrative, and a quantitative survey was utilized to identify the vaccine beliefs of a University of Mississippi sample. Three distinct eras of vaccine refusal were detailed, with the third (present) era distinguished by the use of the internet to spread anti-vaccine ideologies. The …


Trade Policy Formation In Europe: Disparities Between The Eu-15 States And The Cee New Member States, Beau Bettiga Jan 2016

Trade Policy Formation In Europe: Disparities Between The Eu-15 States And The Cee New Member States, Beau Bettiga

Honors Theses

Trade preference formation has been the deciding factor in the process of creating and reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. The process of reforming the policy created a discrepancy between the benefits received by the original European Union-15 member states and the late accession central and eastern European new member states. This paper analyses how trade preferences have shaped the reforms of the CAP and how the CAP has been poorly implemented in the late accession states. Poland will be used a case study to analyze how the CAP has been poorly formed in regards to late accession states' needs because …


Parentification, Alicia Wayne Dec 2015

Parentification, Alicia Wayne

Honors Theses

The phenomena of Parentification. Parentification is best outlined by Boszormenyi-Nagy & Spark (1973), as a family process in which children or adolescents assume adult responsibilities and/or parental roles that may be developmentally inappropriate. There has been much research done on the topic of Parentification and the effects of the psychopathology on the individual. (e.g. substance abuse, depression, self-esteem, recidivism, anxiety, etc.) Although some research has been done on birth order and/or family structure and how it correlates to parentification, no published research was found on parentification and its repercussions or ramifications for the youngest sibling(s) (i.e. those adolescent’s that were …


Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study Of Mikey, Gabrielle Lober Dec 2015

Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study Of Mikey, Gabrielle Lober

Honors Theses

This paper describes Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) including diagnostic criteria, suspected causes, prevalence, comorbidities, and influences on client factors. A hypothetical case study is presented to give readers an illustration of what someone with ASD might look like. Possible treatment based on evidence and selected frame of references will be given for the hypothetical client. This paper is not all inclusive of the role of occupational therapy in the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder, but gives an illustrative example.


Experiential Avoidance Post-Trauma: Investigating Predictors Of Traumatic Stress And Problematic Behavior., Elise Trim Dec 2015

Experiential Avoidance Post-Trauma: Investigating Predictors Of Traumatic Stress And Problematic Behavior., Elise Trim

Honors Theses

Experiential avoidance (EA) is the unwillingness to remain in contact with distressing thoughts, feelings, memories, and other private experiences (Hayes et al., 2004; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999). Although the use of EA may lead to immediate reductions in distress, prolonged use can result in problem behaviors such as substance misuse (Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996). Although a strong temporal relationship has yet to be established, findings suggest a possibility that EA could be a mechanism by which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are developed and maintained (Krause, Mendelson, & Lynch, 2003; Rosenthal, Polusny, & Follette, 2006; Dvorak, …


The Impact Of Globalization On Access For Individuals With Disabilities, Katherine Williamson Dec 2015

The Impact Of Globalization On Access For Individuals With Disabilities, Katherine Williamson

Honors Theses

This comparative ethnomethodology study is focused on the global context elements that help explain public policies and its consequences on types of access available to individuals with disabilities in the United States Midwest and West Africa. The goal of this study is to identify the role of individuals with disabilities in a global society by answering two research questions. First, what are the public policies in place for physical, social, and educational access in the United States Midwest and West Africa? Second, how is physical, social, and educational access being provided in the United States Midwest and West Africa? The …


Widr Fm's Constitution: Restatement, Revision, And Analysis Of Genre, Joseph Silver Dec 2015

Widr Fm's Constitution: Restatement, Revision, And Analysis Of Genre, Joseph Silver

Honors Theses

I have been involved with WIDR FM for 18 months as its employed Music Director and a volunteer DJ. I am one of six part-time paid student directors who oversee the general management of the station. My tenure at WIDR has been especially exciting in that this is the first year of WIDR's affiliation with Student Media Group–a new organization funded by the University that collaborates WIDR FM with the Western Herald and the Young Broadcasters of Tomorrow. It is designed to guide these organizations toward greater interactivity, scholarship, and fiscal solvency. The Student Media Group brings many changes to …


Preferential Methods Used By Celcis Students To Enhance Conversational Skills., Karina Mariadas Dec 2015

Preferential Methods Used By Celcis Students To Enhance Conversational Skills., Karina Mariadas

Honors Theses

Conversational skills are something that can be improved over time. For new language learners, conversing in English can be difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the preferential methods to enhance conversational skills used by students from the Center for English Language and Culture for International Students (CELCIS) at Western Michigan University. The study was conducted using a survey questionnaire consisting of 7 parts. The conversation improvement methods that were addressed in the survey included: print, audio-visual, electronic devices/technology, face-to-face conversations and games. 112 students, 35 females, 75 males and 2 unknowns, participated in the survey during …


The Effects Of Mindfulness Meditation And Mind-Wandering On Coping-Related Hopefulness In Undergraduate College Students, Shelby N. Green Dec 2015

The Effects Of Mindfulness Meditation And Mind-Wandering On Coping-Related Hopefulness In Undergraduate College Students, Shelby N. Green

Honors Theses

High levels of stress in college students are extremely prevalent. This is evident in time-consuming academic responsibilities overlapping with family life, work duties, and personal life. Stress can have negative impacts on academic performance and physical health in college students , and it has been correlated with various negative outcomes including anxiety and depression (Segrin,1999), increases in headaches (Labbe, Murphy & O’Brien, 1997), increased rates of athletic injury (Brewer & Petrie, 1996), suicidal ideation and hopelessness (Dixon, Rumford, Heppner, & Lipps, 1992), sleep disturbances (Verlander, Benedict, & Hanson, 1999), poor health behaviors (Sadava & Pak, 1993; Naquin & Gilbert, 1996), …


Creando Las Estrellas: Determining The Quality Of The Dominican And Cuban Player Development Systems, Samuel C. Hearn Dec 2015

Creando Las Estrellas: Determining The Quality Of The Dominican And Cuban Player Development Systems, Samuel C. Hearn

Honors Theses

Recently, there has been a huge rise in the number of Cuban ballplayers, or peloteros, as the baseball playing Latinos are known. Why do Major League Baseball (MLB) teams go to such lengths to sign Cubans, when a heavy presence already exists in Cuba’s Caribbean neighbor, the Dominican Republic? Through the comparison educational systems, statistics of each country’s elite players, and comparative accounts of the Dominican and Cuban player development systems, the contrast between the two systems is evident. Though the Dominican system creates a large return in the investment MLB teams make in the country, the socialized sport system …


Young And Unemployed: A Multivariable Analysis Of Youth Unemployment In Jordan, Morgan E. Mabry Dec 2015

Young And Unemployed: A Multivariable Analysis Of Youth Unemployment In Jordan, Morgan E. Mabry

Honors Theses

The level of youth unemployment in the Middle East is higher than any other region in the world. The detrimental effects of early unemployment can be broad and long lasting. This paper discusses some of the factors of youth unemployment in the Middle East, such as poor education systems and underdeveloped labor markets; and the social effects such as delayed marriages and political unrest. It then goes on to analyze the School-to-Work Transition Survey (SWTS) to understand the impact of age, sex, individual education, and parental education on the transition from school to work. The results indicated that sex and …


You Are What You Eat: Gastronomy And Geography Of Southern Spain, Katherine F. Perry Dec 2015

You Are What You Eat: Gastronomy And Geography Of Southern Spain, Katherine F. Perry

Honors Theses

Using empirical and numeric data, this study explores the use of food as a proxy to understand the cultural-historical geography of southern Spain. After spending three months in Granada, Spain, I compiled the most commonly used thirty-five ingredients from a selection of Spanish cookbooks and contextualized them within the broader history of Spain. The elements of traditional Andalucían cooking fit into three primary chapters of Iberian history: Roman occupation, the Moorish invasion beginning in the 8th century, and the Columbian exchange, or the exchange of goods that took place between the Americas and Old World following European discovery of …


¿Dónde Están Todas Las Mujeres?: The Impact Of Female Labor Force Participation On Female Political Representation In Latin America, Murakami A. Carpenter Dec 2015

¿Dónde Están Todas Las Mujeres?: The Impact Of Female Labor Force Participation On Female Political Representation In Latin America, Murakami A. Carpenter

Honors Theses

Do higher levels of female labor force participation increase female political representation? Over the past 40 years, the involvement of Latina women in the labor force and the number of female legislators in Latin America has been steadily increasing. To determine if there is a correlation between these two variables, this research builds on the socio-economic status model created by Brady, Verba and Schlozman (1995). Using both a bivariate and a multivariate model, I test for a correlation between the number of women working and the number of elected female legislators in 24 Latin American countries. Contrary to expectations, I …


Political Identity Of Louisiana’S College Voters An Analysis Of Their Opinions, Habits, And Politics, Milton Joseph Hernandez Iv Nov 2015

Political Identity Of Louisiana’S College Voters An Analysis Of Their Opinions, Habits, And Politics, Milton Joseph Hernandez Iv

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Gubernatorial Party Affiliation And Crime, Chase Lindsey Nov 2015

Gubernatorial Party Affiliation And Crime, Chase Lindsey

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Mobilizing The Masses: How To Save Your Local Coffee Shop, Dominique Becnel Nov 2015

Mobilizing The Masses: How To Save Your Local Coffee Shop, Dominique Becnel

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Relation Between Parental Divorce And Adjustment In College Students, Breanna Connel Oct 2015

Relation Between Parental Divorce And Adjustment In College Students, Breanna Connel

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Socially Deviant Communities Online: How The Pro-Anorexia Movement Utilizes The Anonymity Provided By The Internet To Thrive, Samantha Thomas Aug 2015

Socially Deviant Communities Online: How The Pro-Anorexia Movement Utilizes The Anonymity Provided By The Internet To Thrive, Samantha Thomas

Honors Theses

The creation of the internet has produced an environment in which many communities have been able to develop into strong and thriving societies. A large number of communities that are now predominantly online were unable to exist successfully before the establishment of the internet for a variety of reasons. The internet has made it easier for people from different backgrounds and locations to network, form communities, and share information with one another. Unfortunately the internet has also given harmful underground communities the opportunity to develop and thrive as well. Socially deviant communities, groups that support ideas and behaviors deemed unacceptable …


Shared Prosperity Initiative As A Solution To The City Of Kalamazoo's Impoverished, Maurice Washington Aug 2015

Shared Prosperity Initiative As A Solution To The City Of Kalamazoo's Impoverished, Maurice Washington

Honors Theses

The Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo Initiative acts a combatant to reducing poverty for the City of Kalamazoo rather than a solution. Combining micro social work training of treatment plans for clients and its incorporated methodologies to the macro problem of poverty for the City’s constituents emphasizes a unique but valuable perspective to have as a potential policy maker. The question is whether such a perspective is truly applicable and such was the goal of the nearly year-long research. Data obtained from interviews, meetings, focus groups and interviews were reviewed from a prior initiative to formulate much of the research and analysis. …


The Representation Of The Individualism-Collectivism Cultural Value Dimension In Film Portrayals Of Intercultural Communication, Courtney J. Mcmullan Aug 2015

The Representation Of The Individualism-Collectivism Cultural Value Dimension In Film Portrayals Of Intercultural Communication, Courtney J. Mcmullan

Honors Theses

Globalization and modernization have changed the world in which we live, bringing intercultural communication to the forefront in our daily lives. Cultural values vary around the world, and these values impact the way people communicate with one another. This study focused on the cultural value of individualism-collectivism and how it impacts intercultural, interpersonal communication and the way it is presented in film. The aim of this study was to conduct quantitative analyses of data gathered from intercultural films to identify the way in which nations' individualism-collectivism tendencies are displayed in film in comparison to a cultural value dimension scale and …


The Culture Of Sustainability At Southern Miss, Amy J. Ball Aug 2015

The Culture Of Sustainability At Southern Miss, Amy J. Ball

Honors Theses

The sustainability movement has been studied in general before, but little research has been done on topic of the sustainability movement at universities. This study aims to contribute to the larger conversation on sustainability by looking at the ideas and motivations behind participation in the movement among students at the University of Southern Mississippi. This is done primarily through interviews performed by the researcher with a number of students in a club on campus dedicated to spreading knowledge of and participation in sustainable activities, known as the Sustainability Advocates. Background information about the sustainability movement on campus is provided by …


An Empirical Test For Overrepresentation Of Black Youth Arrests In Mississippi, Ashley R. Mcknight Aug 2015

An Empirical Test For Overrepresentation Of Black Youth Arrests In Mississippi, Ashley R. Mcknight

Honors Theses

The objective of this study is to empirically test for black youth overrepresentation at the initial contact (arrest) stage of the juvenile justice system. In 2002, an amendment was made to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 which called for states to monitor disproportionate minority contact at all levels of the juvenile justice system. Arrest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics has been gathered to determine the rate and percentage at which black youth are arrested compared to white youth. More so, youth population statistics are acquired from the U.S. Census and are converted to percentages. …