Digital Commons Network^™

Leo: A Carrier To Help Increase Disaster Evacuation Compliance Among Cat Owners, Anna Lorino

Honors Theses

My thesis project is Leo: a carrier to help increase disaster evacuation compliance among cat owners. It’s focused on creating a product that helps increase disaster evacuation compliance among cat owners. There’s an increase in the severity and frequency of natural disasters and being able to evacuate ahead of time saves lives and resources. However, 20-30% of people choose not to evacuate because they don’t want to leave their pet behind. Cats are of particular interest because they are sensitive to environmental stress and need to be contained. The main reasons cat owners fail to evacuate with their cat is …

Reproductive Justice In Mississippi: A Call For Reform And Acknowledgement, Andie Udziela

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I apply the values of the Reproductive Justice Movement to reproductive healthcare resources in Mississippi to advocate for reproductive policy reform. I begin by navigating the historic racial discrimination in gynecology and how it manifested in Mississippi. Dr Sim’s abusive experimentation on Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy depict how Anti-Black racism took root in gynecology and obstetrics and was later expanded on by the eugenic goals of white supremacy and the feminist movement through Margaret Sanger and the Mississippi Appendectomy. Then I discuss the current availability of reproductive care in Mississippi to low-income individuals to emphasize socioeconomic and …

Virtual Reality As An Adjunct To Behavior Therapy: A Systematic Literature Review, Alya Alharrasi

Honors Theses

The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that by 2030, mental disorders will become the primary source of global disease burden [1]. Anxiety-related disorders, including specific phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and various forms of general or specific anxiety, are the most rapidly growing mental health disorders worldwide [2]. In the United States (US), over 1 in 10 American youths are experiencing depression, resulting in a severe impact on their personal, academic, or professional encounters and social engagements [3]. Similarly, anxiety disorders affect up to one-third of the US population during their lifetime [4].

Due to the growth of mental health …

How Witnessing Domestic Violence Affects The Future Of Children: An Exploratory Study, Victoria Cleckler

Honors Theses

Domestic violence (DV), also known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), is a widespread issue that affects many people, families, and communities, with one in four women and one in nine men falling victim to domestic violence each year in the United States. However, these statistics only consider what has actually been reported. More than 44% of domestic violence cases go unreported each year. It can be inferred that a drastic number of children are also affected. Children who witness domestic violence are indirect victims of DV, as they experience psychological and emotional turmoil simply by witnessing the abuse. However, there …

Perseverative Thinking And Thought Suppression: Links To Medication Non-Adherence Among Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Aswin Arunachalam, Aaron Lee

Honors Theses

Medication nonadherence in patients with type 2 diabetes contributes to poor glycemic control which often results in the development of serious and irreversible diabetes-related complications. This study examines the role of the maladaptive cognitive processes of rumination and thought suppression on medication nonadherence in patients with type 2 diabetes. The sample for this study (N = 343) consisted of adults (mean: 55, range: 19 – 85) with type 2 diabetes enlisted through a web-based platform. Participants completed a series of validated questionnaires including the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire, White Bear Suppression Inventory, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Binary logistic regression …

The Effect Of Emotional Intelligence On Relationships: Examining The Correlation Between Teique Score And Support System Health, Anna Lowes-Cannizzaro

Honors Theses

Emotional intelligence (EI), or the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings, and the ability to step outside of these feelings in order to use information to guide thinking and actions, has been shown to affect many aspects of a person’s life. Through prior research, EI has been linked to aspects such as marital satisfaction, job performance, and life satisfaction. This study examines how trait emotional intelligence affects the health of one’s support system. The association between trait EI and support system health, including other demographic variables, was measured with two separate questionnaires: one questionnaire measuring trait EI, the …

Psychological Influences On Reaction When Faced With Failure And Difficult Experiences, Marcus Cunha

Honors Theses

The current study investigated the impact of psychological traits on emotional reactions in the face of challenges. The study employed tasks designed to induce negative psychological states, such as a Learned Helplessness (LH) task (Hooper & McHugh, 2013) and the difficult Compound Remote Associate (CRA) task (Bowden & Jung-Beeman, 2003). A correlational study was conducted using a within-subjects design. All participants were given initially the same questionnaires measuring the following predictor variables: Grit, Need for Cognition (NFC), Psychological Flexibility (PF), Trait Cognitive Fusion (CF), and Emotional Stability. Participants then engaged in the LH and CRA tasks followed by completing outcome …

Green Solutions: A Smart Strategy For Recycling Electronics In Ghana, Yodit Fitsum

Honors Theses

Electronic waste (e-waste) presents a significant environmental challenge, particularly in developing nations like Ghana. This study examines the opportunities and challenges associated with e-waste recycling in Ghana, focusing on the Agbogbloshie dumpsite. In Ghana, the informal e-waste sector plays a crucial role, providing employment to marginalized individuals who dismantle and process e-waste using basic methods. However, these practices raise concerns due to hazardous working conditions and environmental pollution. Conversely, certified recycling companies adhere to strict safety and environmental standards. Key challenges include recycling contaminated e-plastics and declining precious metal content in modern electronics, highlighting the need for improved recycling infrastructure. …

Women In Business Marketing: An Analysis Of The Glass Ceiling, Hailey Hornberger

Honors Theses

The glass ceiling phenomenon continues to be a widespread barrier affecting women in various professional fields, including business marketing. While female representation in business marketing is witnessing a significant increase, persistent barriers prevent successful women from advancing any further in their careers. The purpose of this research study was to understand the perspectives and experiences of women in business marketing professions. The key issues highlighted throughout this study include microaggressions in group settings, sexual harassment, balance of work and life, leadership dynamics, confidence and self-doubt, lack of support, and the gender pay gap. Secondary research was used as an initial …

Personal Insights: Navigating Informal Networks, Catherine Jordan

Honors Theses

As a non-traditional student, my journey through college has been anything but conventional. Unlike the typical high school-to-college transition, I embarked on my educational adventure later in life, balancing coursework with familial responsibilities and career aspirations. Within this paper, I will share my insights, my triumphs, my challenges, and the interactions that have shaped my experience. Join me as I unravel the unseen and intricate ties that link us together through learning and growth.

Implementing Choice In Treatment Modality For Adolescents With Autism Learning Daily Living Skills, Silvia Robazza

Honors Theses

Daily living skills, categorized as personal-care activities within the home, community, and school setting, are crucial components in establishing daily routines amongst adolescents (Stabel, 2013). Many of these activities require gross motor and fine motor skills, which are skills that tend to be difficult for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD;Chen et al., 2022). When trying to express their wants and needs surrounding completing day-to-day activities, individuals with ASD may engage in problem behaviors as a way to communicate (Iwata et al., 1982). Nonetheless, implementing choice in treatment has been found to significantly decrease occurrences of problem behavior (Shogren et …

Analyzing The Effect Of Targeted Activities On Linear Concept Understanding, Jenae Rogers

Honors Theses

Despite previously showing mastery of all test topics in ALEKS, Andrews’ remedial math students continue to struggle with some of them on the paper tests. After previous research, additional teaching activities, including one targeting word problems, were implemented to address student misconceptions about linear equations. My current research compares student performance on the paper tests before and after these activities on questions regarding linear relationship word problems. My findings show no statistically significant difference in student performance after these activities. These results will lead to further curriculum changes, in an attempt to increase students’ long-term conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills.

Reading Resistance Into The Transformed Hero: An Excavation Of Race And Gender Identity In The Aeneid And Its Adaptations, Grace Song No

Honors Theses

Mythology pervades numerous areas of our everyday lives whether we recognize it or not, providing material for the language of power that controls our society today. This calls for an interrogation into the racial and gender dynamics of a key classical Roman text, Vergil’s Aeneid, and its utility for alt-right and white supremacist political agenda in the contemporary era. Regardless of how we view classical literature and history and their relevance to our modern day political and social sphere, it is undeniably a dominant figure in conversations about race and gender, especially for alt-right movements of America and Europe who …

Latu Mae Rissa: Leader Come To War! An Autoethnography Of Colonialization And Post-Colonization, Leah Latumaerissa

Honors Theses

Latu Mae Rissa: Leader Come to War! An Autoethnography of Colonialization and Post-colonization is an undergraduate honors thesis that examines the effects and aftermath of Dutch colonialism regarding the Moluccan community through oral history, and unique narratives from four generations in the family Latumaerissa in the Netherlands. The generational narratives capture the indigenous Moluccan experience during the Dutch colonial and postcolonial eras. The findings in this thesis indicate that the Dutch colonial past and the historical events that occurred during and after Dutch decolonization function as significant Moluccan identity markers as they influenced the Moluccan being through intergenerational trauma which …

Improving Restaurant Customer Service Through Job Aids, Madisyn Slater

Honors Theses

A key concern for restaurants is good customer service as it directly relates to repeated customers and revenue generation. Customer service plays a large role in keeping a business up and running, without appropriate customer-employee interactions, a business may cease to exist. The field of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) has several empirically-based interventions that may help. One of these interventions, job aids, gives a brief description of what is expected and can be consulted by an employee at any point in time. However, most research uses a package intervention and has not examined the effects of job aids alone. The …

How Social Movements Have Influenced Child Custody Standards Over Time, Victoria Miller

Honors Theses

Child custody standards have evolved over time due to societal attitude shifts regarding gender roles. The stereotypes present within the decision-making process of child custody laws have been challenged repeatedly in order to attack sexism within the laws. Child custody decisions are important for the child and family in question, because whichever parental guardian has custody over the child has the legal authority to make life changing choices for the child. These choices can include education, religion, and the environment the child grows and develops in. Parental choices can affect a child's mental and physical well-being, which makes it crucial …

How Does Childhood Exposure To Toys And Video Games Relate To Young Adult’S View On Gun Control?, Shelby Wilmot

Honors Theses

The present study investigated the factors influencing support for gun control and attitudes toward gun control restrictions on individuals, specifically violent video games and toys. From the 119 total responses collected, 78 (65.5%) of the participants identified as female, 34 (28.6%) of the participants identified as male, and 7 (5.9%) of the participants identified as nonbinary. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between various independent variables and the dependent variables representing these attitudes. For the dependent variable measuring support for gun control, the model summary revealed a moderate correlation

(r = .610), with approximately 37.2% of the variability …

The Dark Triad, Creativity And Morality, Erin Beers

Honors Theses

The Dark Triad of personality is the combination of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. The associative theory of creativity involves the default mode network of the brain, which is responsible for memory tasks, imagination, and thoughts of self. Since the Dark Triad traits involve inhibitory control and imagination, there is a high likelihood that observed alterations in these processes may be used to predict dark creativity patterns. Malevolent creativity involves using new ideas to complete tasks that will harm others. With creativity not being limited to positive outcomes, aspects of morality are also part of the creative decision-making processes. Morality is …

Chatting With Online Agent, Guoxi Robert Zhang

Honors Theses

This study investigates trust in AI-generated language fluency. Participants engaged with both human and AI-generated content, varying in fluency. Findings were to favor trust in fluent human and AI interactions over disfluent ones. Understanding fluency's impact can inform AI design and encourage critical thinking when dealing with AI-generated content. By using qualitative analysis of think-aloud reports, we examined strategies that people use to assess texts labeled as human-generated and AI-generated content.

A Comparative Study Of Monolingual And Multilingual Employees, Megan Baldry

Honors Theses

This study examined the relationship between linguistic status and work outcomes including organizational citizenship behaviors and affective commitment, as mediated by communication competence, leader-member exchange, and psychological safety. The study examines nine hypotheses about these relationships, attempting to find differences in relationships between the mediators and outcomes among linguistic groups (monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual).

The study does not find support for the hypotheses, finding no difference between linguistic groups in either of the workplace outcomes, nor does it find strong support that communication competence, leader-member exchange, or psychological safety mediate the relationship between linguistic status and either of the workplace …

The Effects Of Therapy Dogs On Students, Chloe Romack

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the effects therapy dogs have on students. It begins with a literature review of 17 articles that involve animal-assisted interventions with students and children. The main topics covered include the definition of a therapy animal and how dogs can influence learning, socialization, emotional well-being, anxiety, and depression. It also discusses how dogs can be used in therapy and special education classrooms as well as the major concerns of dogs in schools. Drawing upon the previous research, a survey was sent to school staff in the Paw Paw Public School District. The participants of this study consisted of …

College Football Success And Its Impact On The Surrounding Community, Local Economy, And Institution Enrollment, Jacob Reynolds

Honors Theses

In the ever-changing field of college football, creating success has always been a top priority for institutions, and if not achieved, it can be detrimental to an athletic department. Success is important to those directly involved in college football, however, not often is it considered how others may be affected by the success or failure of a college football program. The purpose of this research is to determine what impact successful college football programs have on society and those not directly involved in athletics. In determining the purpose, it was important to find what components of society are impacted by …

Effects Of Peer Mentoring On Success And Satisfaction In Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Pilot Study, Rebecca Fraley

Honors Theses

Studying the impact of a mentorship program involving undergraduate nursing students can inform educators of methods to increase student success and decrease attrition in baccalaureate nursing programs. This study aimed to determine if a mentoring session every three weeks between a first semester Bronson School of Nursing (BSON) student and a senior year nursing student increased the confidence and satisfaction of the first semester BSON student. A Student Success Survey (see Appendix A) was filled out at the beginning, middle and conclusion of the mentee students fall semester. The Student Success Survey was also administered to a control group made …

Examining Confidence In Scientific Literacy Amongst General Biology And General Chemistry Students, Amy Sullivan

Honors Theses

Scientific literacy is a term used to describe a person’s ability to understand scientific concepts, read and write those concepts, and link those concepts to situations outside of the classroom in order to make informed decisions in their daily lives. This research paper details a study observing how scientific literacy confidence varies among general biology and chemistry students at the University of Mississippi. The goal of this research is to determine if students in general biology and chemistry classes will have similar self-reported confidence in their science literacy. This research took place at the University of Mississippi amongst Biology 160/161 …

The Sacred And The Supernatural: Christianity And Teutonic Folklore In The Grimms’ Briar Rose, Amelia Stefanescu

Honors Theses

During the nineteenth century, the Brothers Grimm undertook the task of preserving German folklore during a time of cultural upheaval and struggle for national identity. One such tale, Briar Rose, emerges as a site of ideological interplay between Christian themes and Teutonic traditions. By analyzing the Grimms’ 1812 (first) and 1857 (last) editions, this thesis investigates how the text reflects and synthesizes these distinct belief systems into a coherent narrative.

The research explores how Christian and pagan elements co-exist within Briar Rose and what these interactions reveal about the cultural and religious dynamics within the folktale. The study argues that …

Princess Proportions & Perceptions: Disney’S Deterioration Of Young Girls’ Self-Esteem, Marah Krick

Honors Theses

Animated children’s media is becoming increasingly thinner, particularly as society demands continually smaller waists in the ideal female body size. The present study is focused on analyzing the origin and effects of abnormally small waist-to-hip ratios in animated Disney Princesses on a younger, primarily female audience. Exposure to these unrealistic body standards may result in internalization that leads to body dissatisfaction, as well as a drive for impossible thinness that results in disordered eating, mental health concerns, and suicide ideation. Adolescents and preadolescents are particularly at risk, due to daily entertainment screen time nearly tripling since 1999. While the risks …

Resilience Building In Appalachian College Students: The Intersection Of Motivation And Identity, Ashton B. Burchfield

Honors Theses

Appalachian students are underrepresented in existing literature regarding higher education. Central Appalachia also has some of the lowest median household incomes and college attrition rates in the country. Appalachian culture is unique with its collectivistic culture which prioritizes familial bonds. This has previously been found to have an academic impact for Appalachian students. For this study, Appalachian college students at Eastern Kentucky University were recruited to investigate if social versus personal identity had an impact on academic achievement as measured by grade-point average. Resilience levels were also measured to investigate an effect from resilience of students on personal versus social …

Living Between The Lines: The Multiracial Identity, How It Is Shaped, Perceived, And Embodied On College Campuses, Kiaira Tomlinson

Honors Theses

This research project aims to investigate the feelings of acceptance experienced by multiracial individuals on predominantly white institution (PWI) campuses. The study explores various factors that may influence these feelings, including participation in organizations, relationships with friends and family, and experiences of discrimination on campus. Surveys will be used to collect data on participants' progress toward graduation, gender, classification, racial/ethnic background, first-generation status, participation in student and racial/ethnic organizations, experiences of discrimination, and feelings of acceptance on campus due to positive peer relationships. The multiracial identity is increasingly relevant in the United States, yet the experiences of multiracial individuals at …

The Effects Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Ameliorating Premenstrual Hedonic Eating Patterns In College-Aged Females, Nicole R. Palmieri

Honors Theses

Background: Young women in college are susceptible to weight gain from a myriad of factors to include environmental and hormonal influences.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a mindfulness intervention on food craving behaviors in women in the luteal and follicular phases of the menstrual cycle.

Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study using repeated samples one-way ANOVA and qualitative data to examine pre-intervention and post-intervention changes in cravings and mindfulness.

Results: 23 participants completed the intervention and study-related requirements pre-intervention and post-intervention. There was a trend of mean decrease in FCQ-T scores (124.83 ± …

The Ultimate How-To Guide: Addressing Sustainability In Fashion, Corinne R. Campbell

Honors Theses

Every year, the pollution in our world increases but few people have addressed this issue. Between the culture of consumerism, little to no recycling, and lack of education, it can feel difficult as a regular person to make a difference. However, it is not impossible. As the consumer, the general public has the ability to enact change. While sustainability in the fashion industry may seem unattainable, making progressive changes in the manufacturing and buying process of clothing will make fashion more eco-friendly over time. With the proper education and guidance, anyone can make more sustainable fashion choices without going outside …