Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Crime Dramas Influence Perception Of Crime, Abby Hogan

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Television crime dramas are becoming more and more popular, introducing new shows and spin-offs every year. With their growing popularity, it is important to study the possible impacts that they could have on society, and people’s views of crime and criminality. This study looks at how much college students watch and enjoy these shows, and whether they affect their perception on the criminal justice system and procedures shown in the crime dramas. Questionnaires given to Butler University students inquire about their crime drama watching habits as well of their opinions and views on different aspects of the justice system, including …

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? Cognitive Flexibility Influences Career Decision Making And Related Anxiety, Emily Flandermeyer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Career indecision is a stage most individuals pass through during their lifetime, but it is often accompanied by anxiety. While anxiety can have a positive influence on decision making by focusing attention and cognitive resources, excess anxiety can disrupt the career decision-making process. Existing literature links anxiety to cognitive flexibility, an individual’s ability to efficiently switch between thoughts and ideas and adapt to evolving situations, with young adults higher in cognitive flexibility typically experiencing less anxiety than their less flexible peers. However, no studies to date have examined cognitive flexibility as it relates to career indecision or career-indecision-related anxiety. This …

An Investigation Of Perspectives On Mental Illness Across Race And Ethnicity, Emily Stark

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"Previous research done on mental illness stigma and race and ethnicity has failed to properly recognize the complexity of identity and cultural influences and how these factors impact people’s perceptions of mental illness. These studies tend to insinuate that any differences of beliefs found between groups are due to race or ethnicity, when in fact this is an imprudent conclusion. In this thesis, a critical analysis of the literature on mental illness stigma and race and ethnicity determines that categorizing people into large homogenous groups based on race or ethnicity results in an inaccurate picture of what people believe about …

Drinking In The Dark: Voluntary Co-Consumption Of Nicotine And Alcohol For Binge-Like Drinking Behavior In Mice, Katherine Benson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Alcohol and nicotine are two of the most commonly abused drugs across the United States. Given the high rates of comorbidity, it remains a pressing public health concern to determine how the two drugs interact within the CNS, and how this impacts addictive behavior. The present study investigated the effect of comorbid abuse of nicotine and alcohol on stress and anxiety-like withdrawal symptoms, as both are associated with increased rates of relapse. A voluntary co­-consumption, two-bottle choice paradigm was used with nicotine and alcohol to induce binge-­like drinking behavior in mice following the drinking in the dark (DID) model of …

Understanding The Relationship Between Slavery, Self-Esteem, And Income: An Analysis Of The Master-Slave Dynamic And The Socioeconomic Status Of African American Men And Women, Nyree Modisette

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This research project analyzes why a person's status and opportunity for achievement is shrouded in a racialized context. The analysis focuses on the effect of the master-slave dynamic, which was unique as an institution of slavery in the United States because it was conceived along racial lines. Considering that for over 400 years this master-slave dynamic was a primary determinant of the relationships between black and white people, it is not unimaginable to consider that some aspects of that dynamic are still in play today. They have firmly entrenched an unequal economic system that falls along racial lines. For the …

Do Socially Conscious Etfs Match Their Active Counterparts?, Ryan Cultice

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Over the past decade, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has grown at a rapid pace and, by some estimates, now represents a quarter of the $48 trillion in assets under professional management in the United States. At the same time, investors have broadly shifted from active to passive investing strategies. While there is significant research in each of these respective areas, we believe that we are the first to examine whether a socially conscious investor can employ a passive approach or if the constrained nature of SRI necessitates active management. As such, we examine the performance of socially conscious ETFs versus …

From Fetish To Fashion: Japanese Style As Commodity In 19th And 20th Century Britain, Rebecca Schmiegel

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Japanese representation in art and design brought about an age when, according to a reporter at a 1878 international exhibition in Paris, “even the greatest mistresses of European crafts lay down their weapons in shame.”1 women’s fashions were able to transcend national borders through the development of Japanese designs, Orientalist ideals, and the importance of the body. Eastern eroticism was heightened through British designers, as seen in the development of the Western kimono. From Fetish to Fashion focuses on how the relationship between the state and culture can be established by an unexpected medium: women’s fashion.

This thesis examines how …

Who's Your Hoosier? How External Factors Affect Judgement When Choosing Romantic Partners At Indiana Colleges, Amanda Rosenfeld

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Most of the literature on online dating addresses what makes a profile more desirable. However, little research has been done examining why someone can be drawn to an adverse profile (i.e. a profile containing clear ’red-flag’ traits). This study will analyze how two types of external influence, recommendations provided by a computer algorithm and consensus information provided by peers, interact to affect judgement in the context of using a dating application to choose hypothetical romantic partners. The romantic experience level of each participant will also be analyzed to see if lack of experience moderates how much individuals rely on external …

The Survival Of Irish Gaelic In The Gaeltacht Of County Galway, 1880-1920, Eileen Hogan

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In the 1850s in post-famine Ireland, the Irish-Gaelic language was neglected in favor of English which equipped speakers to be members of the United Kingdom. But, the agrarian society of the County Galway Gaeltacht (designated Irish-speaking region) remained a stronghold of the Irish language despite British imperialists. The Survival of Irish-Gaelic addresses the survival of the native language in the Galway Gaeltacht. While my work has identified several reasons for the survival in this one specific region, this thesis focuses upon interrelated explanations. First, the Catholic schools in the Gaeltacht continued to teach in Irish despite the attempts of the …

E-Books: Cognitive And Visual Effects, Hannah Degroot

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Sight is incredibly important to daily life. One critical use of this sense is reading, which allows people to communicate and learn new things if the reader is able to effectively comprehend what he or she has read. The proliferation of technology has resulted in much of our reading today being done through digital media. Information-presenting screens are found nearly everywhere, including within the education system. While E-books can offer some advantages, their purpose would not be served if they hindered understanding. Additionally, excessive use of technological devices can bring about symptoms of eyestrain. It was hypothesized that E-books are …

Frequency Of Academic Interactions With Racial And Ethnic Minority Students And Student Attitudes Towards Campus Diversity And Diversity Programs, Sydney Theerman

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In response to concerns about differential access to higher education and the recognition of the value of diversity, universities are developing new programs to promote diversity and inclusive learning experiences on their campuses. Given this, it is important to understand what factors increase student support and understanding of the benefits of campus diversity in order to create an inclusive and tolerant campus environment. A number of studies have examined the impact of close friendships with people of minority race or ethnicity on students’ experiences with racial/ethnic diversity. This study adds to this research by focusing on interracial and interethnic academic …

If You're Not Cheating, You're Not Trying: An Economic Analysis Of The Financial Futility Of Ncaa Sanctions, Travis Freytag

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The front page of sports news for the past few years has been filled with a cycle of recruiting and academic scandals from universities all over the country. Despite the repercussions that schools face from the NCAA for cheating, they continue to break the rules to obtain the top high school recruits in men’s basketball and football. Why has this become the common culture across college sports? In this study, we used data from a variety of sources, including the NCAA Legislative Database and the US Department of Education, to estimate the relationship between a university’s athletics revenue and the …

Disordered Eating Habits, Emotion Regulation, And Theory Of Mind In Undergraduate Students, Brianna Borri

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to recognize and attribute mental states to oneself and others, has been found to be impaired in a number of different psychological disorders (Bora et al. 2009). Evaluating ToM in a population suffering from eating disorders, however, has proven less consistent; some Anorexia Nervosa patients show ToM deficits compared to healthy controls (Russell et al. 2009) and others perform similarly (Tchanturia et al. 2004). A common consensus not only seems to be lacking within the literature on ToM and Anorexia Nervosa, but within the broader family of eating disorders as well (e.g., Bulimia Nervosa; …

The Effects Of Social Media Use On The Perceptions Of Mental Illness Among College Students, Brea Fisher

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study examined individuals’ use of and perceptions of social media networking sites (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) on their perceptions of mental illness. Previous studies have consistently found that media, by means of TV shows, movies, and news reports, depict distorted views of the mentally ill. Previous studies have also consistently found that these media depictions are related to increased stigma of mental illness and the mentally ill. This current study goes a step further by examining the role of social media networking sites on individual’s perceptions, since they are newer and more widely used forms of social media today. …

“Wide-Awake Drunk”: Observing The Combined Effects Of Alcohol And Caffeine On Somatic Withdrawal Signs In C57bl/6j Mice, Montana Jenkins

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Caffeine is one of the most widely used psychoactive stimulants in the world and is often used in combination with other substances. The combination of caffeine and alcohol has been shown to induce a stimulated, rather than sedated state, which may result in increased alcohol-attributable accidents (e.g., drunk driving, unprotected sex, and over intoxication). Preclinical research has found mixed results regarding the co-consumption of caffeine and alcohol – some found that caffeine increases alcohol intake while others the opposite. The current study expanded on previous research by testing the effects of combined caffeine and alcohol exposure in a binge-like, mouse …

Sex Differences In The Play Of African Elephant Calves (Loxodonta Africana) In Captivity, Samantha Ruppert

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in a tiered society, with hundreds of elephants in a population (Moss, Croze, & Lee, 2011). Calves below eight years of age are within five meters of their mother 80% of the time, but spend a fair amount of time with other calves (Moss et al., 2011). Calf play in the first year of life includes: pushing each other’s heads (sparring), wrestling, and chasing. These activities prepare each sex for its adult role (Shoshani, 2000). I predicted that male and female calves would have different, but overlapping, behavioral repertoires and the behavior of elephant calves …

Archival Of The Fittest: The Role Of Archives In Constructing Gay Dutch Historical Memory, Brooks Hosfeld

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Truth, particularly in history, is subjective and constructed through memory. Memory, in turn, is created by archivists, as they actively choose and preserve the narratives made available to researchers and the public; they hold a key position in deciding what is widely understood about what happened in the past. In the same way archivist bias leads to historical erasure, archivists establish historical remembering when they actively make space for individuals and groups who are traditionally omitted from past narratives. Community archives stand distinct from state counterparts, as they restructure what is deemed valuable enough to be preserved within historical memory, …