Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Violence Transformed 2010, Jonathan Shirland

Bridgewater Review

Violence Transformed is an annual series of exhibitions, performances and collaborative art-making events that are held in the greater Boston area. Since its beginnings five years ago, Violence Transformed has been composed of professionals from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, including art historians, studio artists, and specialists from the museum world.

Book Review: Not Broke, But Badly Bent, Charles F. Angell

Bridgewater Review

Review of:

• Gary Rivlin, Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business
• Ellen Ruppel Shell, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
• Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

Martha Stewart's Graphic Design For Living, Melanie Mcnaughton

Bridgewater Review

A living brand or a force of darkness, Martha Stewart is an indomitable figure in 20thcentury domestic life and her place in North American domestic history is tied to the success of Martha Stewart Living, the flagship publication of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) empire. The success of Living is tied to its graphic design. Living typographically enacts the values it argues for by fusing traditional elements with modern edges to present a vision of homemaking that is soft and appealing yet also a statement of skilled precision and quality. Tacking between broad, more theoretical analysis and close …

Library 2.0: Not Your Grandmother's Library, Sheau-Hwang Chang

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Becoming An Undercover, Mitch Librett

Bridgewater Review

For two years, beginning in 2004, Mitch Librett left his day job as a Shift Commander in his own police department at 4 o’clock, 3 afternoons per week, donning old clothing to assume the role of narcotics investigator with the Special Investigations Unit of another police jurisdiction. He conducted in-depth interviews with these undercover police officers, eventually gaining their trust and confidence. Dr. Librett is currently writing a book about his research. Qualitative research of this sort is often rooted in the personal experiences of the researcher. It also benefits from a careful and honest examination of this history by …

Just Turn The Darn Thing Off: Understanding Cyberbullying, Elizabeth Englander, Amy Muldowney

Bridgewater Review

Cyberbullying is the newest form of an abusive pattern of behavior that has always existed among young people, and which has recently been increasing alarmingly in both frequency and severity. Efforts to identify and prevent cyberbullying have been studied and developed by the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) and include working with parents, schools, and children.

Geriatric Competency, Training, And Services: Surveying A Local Aging Access Point, Toni Aiduk

Undergraduate Review

By the year 2030, 61 million baby boomers will be between the ages of 66 and 84. Add to that cohort the nine million “oldest old,” or those born before 1946, and significant numbers of 70 million individuals will need access to aging related services. Researchers and policy makers predict huge shortfalls in services and resources for the elderly, and document - that even now – there are too few social workers in the geriatric field. Many of those currently in the field lack professional geriatric training and may not be adequately prepared to help aging clients. However, these studies …

The Role Of Body Image And Social Anxiety In Problematic Drinking Behavior, Kira Archibald

Undergraduate Review

The prevalence of problematic drinking behavior in college age students is an alarming 83% (NIAAA, 2008). Unfortunately problem alcohol use is not the only problem college students face today. College students, especially females, also have a high rate of body image problems and high rates of social anxiety. With all of these problems so prevalent in this population, it is necessary to examine how these variables interact with each other to affect an individual’s life. Many studies have paired these variables together to examine their connections and have found strong connections; however, no studies have examined the relationships among all …

Salvia Divinorum: Patterns Of Use, Christie Bowles

Undergraduate Review

This study focuses on 13 salvia divinorum users, specifically seeking to understand the social, situational, and individual factors influencing their decision to use. Through semi-structured, in depth interviews, patterns such as the methods of use, settings of use, other frequently used drugs, and persistence or desistance of use are explored. Currently, there is limited research on salvia or the people who use this drug, and without this substantial research, the most effective way to address salvia use will remain unknown.

Managing Economic Crises; Bill Clinton And The Mexican Peso Crisis, Liza-Anne Cabral

Undergraduate Review

The year 1994 was one of the most tumultuous in the modern history of Mexico. During that year, two major political figures were assassinated, an uprising against the federal government began in the state of Chiapas, and the government attempted to finance its deficit payments with various debt instruments. The political instability caused by the assassinations and the Zapatista uprising, along with continued economic uncertainty within Mexico, caused foreign investment capital to flee Mexico. Because of this capital flight, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, decided in December of 1994 to devalue the Mexican currency. Instead of helping the situation, it actually …

The Torture Of Alleged Terrorists Necessary For Public Safety Or A Criminal Act?, Michaela Clark

Undergraduate Review

Torture is defined in a variety of ways by many different sources. According to the World Medical Association’s (WMA) Declaration of Tokyo, torture is defined as, “the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more people acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason.” The Declaration of Tokyo was passed in 1975 and updated many times, most recently in 2006. This is a landmark document that has been used as a model for other medical statutes. The …

Guantanamo Bay Just Preventative Detention Of Terrorist Or A Fundamental Violation Of Due Process?, Michelle Cubellis

Undergraduate Review

In response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, in October of 2001, the Bush Administration launched the “War on Terror,” an attempt to eliminate all terrorist threats to the United States. As part of this war, the Bush Administration began detaining individuals it believed were linked to terrorism. Instead of capturing these individuals giving them a trial to determine whether they were guilty or innocent, and either sentencing them or releasing them, the Bush Administration detained these individuals at Guantanamo. They were held without due process and without access to federal courts. The Bush Administration repeatedly claimed that is was …

Do You See What I See?, Rachel Mullins

Undergraduate Review

Mild Mental Retardation (MMR) is a general term that refers to impairments in intellectual ability and adaptive skills, which include activities of daily living (ADLs), communication skills and social skills. MMR can be caused by genetic abnormalities (e.g., Down Syndrome [DS]), environmental factors such as head trauma or lack of oxygen at birth, and in some cases for undocumented reasons. These latter individuals are often referred to as having mental retardation of unknown etiology. Although most people associate mental retardation with cognitive impairments, previous research suggests that these individuals have visual perception impairments as well.

The Myth Of The Female Sex Offender, Chelsea Horrocks

Undergraduate Review

More than 300,000 women and nearly 100,000 men were forcibly raped in 1995 (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006). The National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey, the last nationwide survey on rape, which had 8,000 male and 8,000 female participants, found that one of every six women and one of every thirty-three men is raped at some point in their lifetime. Thirty-two percent of the women and sixteen percent of the men were injured during their rape. In another nationwide telephone survey, twenty-two percent of 3,000 adults reported being sexually abused (Vandiver, 2002).

A Review Of Rape Statistics, Theories, And Policy, Gary Lowell

Undergraduate Review

Rape is defined in the laws of Massachusetts as “[s]exual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse by a person with another person who is compelled to submit by force and against his will or by threat of bodily injury” (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 277, § 39, 2009). Although traditional definitions of rape have been that only a female can be raped and only a male can rape, “courts have held that the rape statutes in their jurisdictions are gender-neutral and apply equally to perpetrators of either sex” (Lynton, 1995). Still, since male on female rape is more prevalent (see Gonzales, …

Siblings Of Children With Autism: An Exploratory Study Of Sibling Concerns And Coping Strategies, Mary Canha

Undergraduate Review

Autism (sometimes called “classical autism”) is the most common condition in a group of developmental disorders known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and is characterized by impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests (NINDS, NIH, 2009). Other ASDs include Asperger Syndrome, Rett Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder not otherwise specified (usually referred to as PDD-NOS). Experts estimate that three to six children out of every 1,000 will have autism. Males are four times more likely to have autism than females. (NINDS, NIH, 2009)

The rise …

Hurting To Cope: Self-Injurious Behavior As An Escape From Self-Focus, Danielle Williams

Undergraduate Review

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is a prevalent problem in today’s society and is estimated to affect 4% of the general population (Darche, 1990; Nock & Prinstein, 2004). SIB has been described as a form of coping (Fliege et al., 2006) and a means of escaping negative feelings (Barrera, Violo & Graver, 2007; Nock & Prinstein, 2004), however it has not been examined within the framework of Baumeister’s escape-style-coping theory (Baumeister, 1991a; 1991b). In addition, although escape-style-coping theory has been linked with self-focused temperament (Spievak, 2003), SIB has not been examined in relation to chronic self-focus. It was hypothesized that those individuals …

Finding The Pill On The Floor: How Contrast Sensitivity Affects Daily Living Skills In Alzheimer’S Disease Patients, Marlyn Colon

Undergraduate Review

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive brain disorder that gradually destroys an individual’s mental functioning and social capabilities, including the ability to carry out everyday activities. Although memory deficits affect AD patients’ ability to perform these activities, research suggests that visual perception impairments also contribute. One impaired visual perception ability, contrast sensitivity, enables one to distinguish an object from its immediate surroundings. The present project measured contrast sensitivity in a real-world task by having AD patients find a pill of various shades of gray on a tiled background. Results were compared to young and elderly control participants. Participants also filled …

A Moral Investigation Of Torture In The Post 9.11 World, Joe Moloney

Undergraduate Review

The field of philosophy is unique, as it allows one to logically examine issues in all disciplines, from science to politics to art. One further important discipline that philosophy examines is criminal justice. In this respect, one approach philosophy can take when examining criminal justice is to assess each issue by questioning its morality—that is, whether an action within the issue is right or wrong based upon a system of ethics. This approach concerns the subfield of philosophy known as ethics, a subfield that includes questions concerning what is morally good and morally bad. When one is faced with an …

Campus Rape Phenomenon, Keriann Speranza

Undergraduate Review

Rape is a serious crime affecting all colleges and universities, but it is rarely brought to the attention of the media, administrators, faculty, students, and community. Research shows that between 14% and 27.5% of college women have been sexually assaulted (Humphrey & Kahn, 2000). The 2005 Bureau of Justice Statistics Report on violent victimization of college students indicates that between the years 2000 and 2004, 74% of rapes and sexual assaults were committed by someone known to the victim (Gross, Winslett, Roberts, Gohm, 2006). This report also suggested that campus rape is the most underreported violent crime in the United …