Digital Commons Network^™

The Honors Portfolio Project: Communicating Value In Honors, Aimee J. Jachym

Honors Theses

The Honors portfolio is presented as a tool that honors students can use to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. An honors portfolio conceptualizes and communicates the value in obtaining a well-founded honors education. It contains documents and evidence that support the student's holistic development through a diverse range of honors experience. The paper begins by discussing the background for the project by describing what the unique qualities of an honors education are, then explores the Haworth College of Business portfolio project and the problem of conceptualizing an honors education in this fashion. Next, the paper details a project completed for …

Mom Or Manager?: How Social Factors And Personal Choice Affect The Work/Family Balance In The United States, Japan And Germany, Christine E. Mueller

Honors Theses

This report investigates the work/family balance based on two factors: social influence and personal choice. The first factor is significant because society dictates and enforces the prescribed roles for women. The degree of career progression a woman can achieve is partly bound by restrictions of society. The other factor, personal choice, is the factor that only each woman can determine for herself. A woman can only progress as far as her personal goals determine. In addition to the relationship between society and personal choice, this report examines the barriers to pursuit of a management career inherent in these factors.

Michel Foucault : Power/Knowledge And Epistemological Prescriptions, Martin A. Hewett

Honors Theses

In an interview in 1977, seven years before his death, Michel Foucault made the following profound and controversial statement:

Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint.

Within this sentence lies perhaps his most contested assertion: that knowledge is not some property of statements or beliefs that exist separately from relations of power within societies and discourses, but is constituted by and constitutive of them. Foucault's genealogies of sexuality and punishment are the most notable means by which he develops this claim, and their own potent explanatory powers leave us …

Only In Story A World : Atheistic Metanarrative In Leguin, Pullman And Wolfe, Samuel N. Keyes

Honors Theses

Ursula K. Le Guin, Philip Pullman, and Gene Wolfe, despite their apparent ideological as well as stylistic differences, all profoundly question the way modernity has divided knowledge, posing serious challenges to contemporary distinctions between religion, science and magic. Moreover, they share a common concern for the power of narrative to accomplish this critique.

In each of their multivolume fantasies, the differences between the categories of science and religion become meaningless. After such a deconstruction, the possibility of nihilism looms unless a new system of meaning surfaces. The move away from discrete areas of science and religion, therefore, in these works …

Potential Components Of Time Personality: A Literature Review, Jane Ackerson

Honors Theses

What is time? The simple yet puzzling question has been posed on numerous occasions generating various responses. Time can be described as quantifiable, structured, even having monetary value. Time can be viewed in a subjective or objective manner and can be influenced by internal and external factors. Time can create pressure, anxiety, or boredom. Time is what we perceive it to be. This perception is a potentially vital component involved in the makeup of time personality. Theoretically, time personality is shaped by many factors affecting the relationship an individual has with time. The objectives of the research were to identify …

Cancer Pain: An Allopathic Or Alternative Approach?, Amanda Keating Walker

Honors Theses

The American Cancer Society estimates that 1,334,100 new cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2003 and that 17 million new cancer cases have been diagnosed since 1990. They have also determined that in the U.S., men have a slightly less than 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer and women have a 1 in 3 chance of being diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. These statistics show that cancer will touch the life of at least one person you know; unfortunately that person may be someone very close to you. It's extremely difficult to watch someone you love endure …

Women Leaders Combining A Career In Higher Education With Raising A Family : A Study Of Leadership, Anne Simmons Williamson

Honors Theses

Much of the research within the field of Leadership Studies focuses on whether men and women lead differently and whether women can break "the glass ceiling." This study will examine women leaders in higher education administration who have children and have already broken the glass ceiling, focusing on their work-life challenges and analyzing the structural and attitudinal issues in their organization and society that impact their leadership.

Virginia Schein (1995) identified the larger challenge for society by asking,

How can we restructure work in a society in which work and family no longer are separate, but interface?...It is when this …

From Being To Doing : The Impact Of Modernization On Cultural Values, Cultural Conceptions Of Time, And Effective Leadership, Ryan S. Babiuch

Honors Theses

The foundational constructs of modernization and time conceptions are interdependent. First, I will illustrate and argue that an important relationship exists between modernization, cultural values shifts, and societal conceptions of time. In basic terms, the process of modernization and the motivations for development stimulate shifts in both cultural values and societal understandings·oftime. Second, expounding upon the relationship between modernization, cultural values, and societal conceptions of time, this project will create two different types of interpersonal cultural ethics: an "ethic of being" and an "ethic of doing." The implications of the differences between these two cultural ethics will be explored.

Foremost …

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Comprehensive Understanding, Needs Assessment, And Development Of Intervention, Jacquelyn Jean Lee

Honors Theses

The portrait of the traditional American family is changing. The emergence of single parent households and families built on two careers instead of one mark the more typical reminders of the developing family sphere. However, another broad trend has taken shape over the past twenty years as the result of a wide realm of societal shifts. The role of the grandparent in many modem families has been transformed from distant relative to primary caregiver, from grandparent to parent. Intergenerational households more than the once thought temporary needs, but rather, more often speak of long term commitments. The following thesis investigates …

Personality Effects On Perception Of Emotion From Audible Cues, Megan Diane French

Honors Theses

nil lcrences in personality traits lead to varied reactions to emotional judgments (Golim & CMorc. 2000). It was investigated whether higher levels of emotional clarity, intensity, and attention improve emotional reaction times and accuracy. Participants reacted to sounds by indicating the presence and description of emotions. Participants completed personality scales to determine individual levels of traits. It was found that higher ratings for any trait were related to accuracy. Faster participants were more accurate in their responses and increasingly so when possessing higher clarity. This group also had increased levels of intensity and attention. For those slower, attention was correlated …

A Psychometric Investigation Of Measures Of Meaning, Gratitude, And Psychological Health, Natalie Lynn Cathcart

Honors Theses

Logotherapy, developed by Viktor Frankl, is a philosophy, a personality theory, and a means of treating emotional difficulties and establishing a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Meaning is the attempt to understand how events in life fit into a larger context. Gratitude is a generalized tendency to recognize and respond with appreciative emotion to other people’s benevolence. Gratitude is important to logotherapy because gratitude can be viewed as an attitude that flmctions as a pathway to meaning. Research suggests that both meaning and gratitude are positively linked to well-being and that a lack of meaning is linked to …

Visual Expectations: Using Machine Learning To Identify Patterns In Psychological Data, Skyler Place

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to utilize the tools of machine learning to evaluate the data obtained through experiments in psychology. Advanced pattern finding algorithms are an effective approach to analyzing large sets of data, from any domain of science. Consequently, we have a psychological question and hypothesis, and a separate machine learning technique to assess these claims. The realm of psychology that I focused on is visual cognition, and how an individual's knowledge affects how they see the world. This alteration of visual data is a part of perception -when the brain enhances the data coming in from …

The Effects Of A Distractor On Reaction Time Tasks In Rats: Mode Vs. Distribution Skew, Karen Melissa Damico

Honors Theses

Animal models of attention have been used by researchers to better understand the neurophysiological basis of attention, as well as attentional disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease and ADHD. Acetylcholine has been found to play a significant role in the ability of subjects to maintain focused attention in studies evaluating both human and animal performance. Percent omissions committed, performance accuracy, and reaction time are variables that have been interpreted by researchers as measures of attention. An alternate method for evaluating attention has been proposed that is based on dividing overall reaction time into initiation time and movement time. The initiation time …

Networking Is Not Everything: The Factors That Led To The Eventual Decline Of The Brigate Rosse, Courtney Janos Geraci

Honors Theses

This thesis concerns the Brigate Rosse, an Italian terrorist organization that was active from the late-1960s to the mid-1980s, the networks through which the Brigate Rosse chose to work, how these networks helped/hindered the success of the Brigate Rosse, and how the murder of Aldo Moro marked the turning point in the BR s success. To gather data, T looked at primary sources, such as communications that were sent by the BR and government documents, as well as secondary sources which examined the actions of the Brigate Rosse, the networks they maintained, and the social and political circumstances of Italy …

Battling From The Bottom Up: The Alleviation Of Violence Against Women By The Non-Governmental Sector In South Africa, Shane Julia Richardson

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the work of the Non-Governmental sector in alleviating violence against women in South Africa. The first chapter analyzes VAW in two time periods—1948-1994 and the post-Apartheid era, 1994-2002. The second chapter provides an overview of the roles and methodology of NGOs in post-Apartheid South Africa and presents a list of strategies that an effective NGO must employ. Finally, Chapter 3 is a case study of POWA (People Opposing Women Abuse), a Johannesburg-based VAW NGO. The case study uses the strategies and typology laid out in Chapter 2 to evaluate the work of POWA. The researcher …

Effect Of Country Of Origin Awareness On Attitudes Toward Foreign Made Products, Natalia Lentino

Honors Theses

With the globalization of the world’s marketplace and the increased competition of products and services manufactured outside of the United States, consumers are faced with new challenges when evaluating and purchasing products. Recent country-of-origin studies (e.g. studies focusing on where the product is made and how that affects a consumer’s perception of the product) have been conducted, as have studies examining the phenomenon of consumer ethnocentrism, a term used to describe a consumer’s propensity to purchase or not purchase foreign made products. The majority of consumer ethnocentrism studies have focused on the social-psychological factors affecting consumer ethnocentrism like patriotism, openness …

Are Stock Prices Related To New York's Climatic Conditions?, Matthew M. Cullen

Honors Theses

The past five years has shown tremendous growth in a new wave and style of investing strategy. This new style, known as behavioral investing, attempts to analyze financial markets through the eye of a social scientist rather than a financial professional. Its followers try to see market movements as affected not necessarily by the business or economy but by the cognition and mood of buyers and seller. This paper analyzes the effect of climatic conditions on mood and the effect that has on market movements and volume. For the most part, it was found that there is no significant relationship …

Maya Ritual And Myth: Human Sacrifice In The Context Of The Ballgame And The Relationship To The Popol Vuh, Jessica Zaccagnini

Honors Theses

The ballgame existed as an integral facet of Mayan life. Ritual and mythic expression are inextricably linked to the execution of the ballgame and are deeply integrated into Mayan culture. Ritual human sacrifice is an unquestionable aspect related to the ballgame. The Maya rulers extended the outcome of the ballgarne by satisfying the deities through ritual and human sacrifice (Scarborough 1991 :143). The Quiche book of epic narratives, named the Papal Vuh, is a recurring theme in the exploration of the ballgame and it is deeply weighted with mythic significance. A discussion of how this theme is interwoven into the …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Teaching Contemporary U.S. History: Music As A Voice For Civil Rights Protest 1950-Present, Robert D. Kuban

Honors Theses

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Contemporary U.S.History: Music as a Voice for Civil Rights Protest,1950-Present. This departmental honors project was created to take an in-depth look into popular music's voice as a medium for Civil Rights protest. This unit composed of eight lesson plans is to serve as a resource for teachers to create a real and tangible interdisciplinary approach to teaching contemporary U. S. history. The material covered is derived from popular music of its time, yet based strongly on research ofactual events. These lessons cover a narrow yet vital and significant scope of civil rights protest, action, and …

Women's Diaries In An Online Era, Emily Ostendorf

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Salvation Of The Kindertransport: A Ray Of Hope For Nearly Ten Thousand Jewish Children, Cheryl Holder

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Unfinished Woman: Images Of Single Women In Wharton, Parker, And Paley, Erin Wolverton

Honors Theses

Is the life of a single woman really worth living? The question permeates the culture of the post-feminist era. Women without children and without a committed relationship in their lives can be categorized in two ways: those who deliberately dismiss the idea of a spouse and those who have not found an acceptable one yet. Both categories carry their own social stigmas: a woman who can't trap a man is a failure, a woman who doesn't want one is unnatural. These prejudices have been a part of women's unconscious behavior since the earliest days of feminism.

Auto-Ethnography As A Communicative And Therapeutic Means Of Addressing Eating Disorders, Julie Irvin

Honors Theses

Under the premise that human beings are natural storytellers, narratives are an essential part of our lives and the way we shape and form our stories impacts our daily activities. When life struggles transpire, we typically make sense of our world through narratives, which is why therapists sometimes draw upon narrative therapy. By exploring different types of narratives-the basic genre of a life-story, testimonio, literary narrative, ethnography, and auto-ethnography-the mode that presents itself as a viable means of intrapersonal communication, possibly producing change, is auto-ethnography. Examining the need for narrative within the conditions of eating disorders, the question arises as …

The Christian Century And The Fluidity Of American Ideologies, 1919-1932, Michael Levin

Honors Theses

The most fundamental belief echoed in the Christian Century during the '20s was a persistent optimism about human progress. Editors of the journal devoted such a great deal of energy to the task of diagnosing the ills of society because they held the improvement of the American system to be both beneficial and achievable. It is from this platform of optimism that the Century derived the various components of its complex worldview: its religious morality, pragamatic approach, and its egalitarian belief. All of these principles were dependent on the notion that tomorrow could and would be better than today. The …

Hadivadlo In Chattanooga : A Critical Assessment Of The Process Of Producing School For Fools, Ben Williams

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to create an experimental theatre production called School for Fools in the Studio Theatre of the UTC Fine Arts Center in February of 2003. Spanning nearly an entire year, the process for me was one of compiling a dramaturg's notebook ofresearch and materials related to the play, adapting and revising the text from the original, written by Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode in 1937, creating costume and set designs, appropriating a cast, raising funds for the production, and then directing the play. Particularly important to this production was the idea of style. In essence, …

The Ethics Of Service : A New Approach To Service Learning, Jonathan C. Zur

Honors Theses

The new model of service presented in this paper gives a framework for considering the possibilities for ethically grounded service. It does not solve al I of the problems with competing interests or tradeoffs in wellbeing, but is a solid foundation upon which many important discussions can be based. By examining the continuum of self-interest, the discussion of intent, preparedness, and outcome, and consideration for mandatory service, the paper has offered a comprehensive assessment of the ethics of service. The four parties - the volunteer, the client, the university, and the service site - have particular responsibilities to their own …

Cultural Imposition Or Cross-Cultural Communication: An Auto-Ethnographic Exploration Of Christian Missionary Rhetorics, Marian Draffin

Honors Theses

This project is a tropological and visual exploration of the rhetorics of Christian missionary culture written in an auto-ethnographic mode. The texts explored include a sample of recruitment brochures produced by mission's organizations, recorded accounts of those who were affected by missions, either as a missionary or as a member of the respondent culture, and journals and photographic images from my own short term missionary work. This exploration is driven by my curiosity about the power dynamics of Christian missionary work: Is the work of a Christian missionary culture a type of cultural imposition and domination? Can Christian missionary work …

Trusting Organizations : Organizational Structure, Trust, And The Implications For Leaders, Jeremiah Robert Winters

Honors Theses

The religious context blurs vision and judgment when looking at issues related to matters that can be construed as theological matters. Religious issues are anchored deep inside individuals and the slightest challenge or questioning of an individuals beliefs brings about defensiveness. Long standing traditions are extremely difficult to change much less do way with. The structure of the two organizations clearly has an impact on the type and style of leadership practiced.

The Presbyterian Church structure, the denominational structure that places the power in the hands of the people was a direct response to the abuses found in the Catholic …

Doing All You Can, Brother?': Visual Themes Of World War Ii American Propaganda Posters, Justin Rives Nicholas

Honors Theses

This thesis is a result of an in-depth analysis of the three thousand plus propaganda posters used in the United States during World War II. The bulk of these posters are housed at National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. The analysis was conducted within the context of several questions. What were the goals of the propagandists? How were those goals visually represented in the posters? What were the visual themes? Why were these goals and themes deemed necessary? How do the goals and themes fit into the overall context of a total war? The concept of being in a …

Romantic Characters In Modern Fiction, Kate Chadwell Galbreath

Honors Theses

This thesis will deal with the breakdown of Romanticism as it occurred through certain characters within Modem Fiction. The selected texts for this study include Tess of the D 'Urhervilles by Thomas Hardy, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Each text is a novel of the Modem period whose title character possesses the qualities typical of the Romantic Movement in literature. The texts span a time period of thirty-five years; their publication dates extend from 1890 to 1925 in the order listed above. …