Digital Commons Network^™

Neuromusicology And Combat-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury, Elisabeth Spinniken

Honors Theses

The number of reported cases of combat-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) among American veterans is rapidly increasing. The results of TBI are often a combination of deficits in cognitive, physical, emotional, and behavioral functions. Each case poses unique challenges for all involved—soldiers, their families, and health care personnel. Though each case is unique, common symptoms include impaired gross and fine motor, speech and language, memory, attention, visual, auditory, and emotional functioning (Davis, Gfeller, Thaut, 2008).

Due to the holistic nature of TBI symptoms, finding an effective yet cost-efficient treatment modality proves to be a difficult task. Previous research has suggested …

A Literary Review Of Adhd Treatments: An Advocate For Neurofeedback, Jessica A. Steele

Honors Theses

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common behavioral disorder affecting a tremendous portion of children in the United States. Medication and traditional Behavioral interventions have remained the primary forms of treatment. Research has demonstrated that brain wave frequencies are directly associated with behavior. Children diagnosed with ADHD have abnormal EEG profiles compared to their peers. EEG Neurofeedback developed as an operant conditioning treatment for brain waves to influence behavior. Neurofeedback has been found as effective as medication without the negative side effects or high percent of non-responders. Unlike medication and Behavioral Treatments, Neurofeedback offers long-term effects following the conclusion of …

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Cold War For Kids, Kaitlyn Shaw

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Two Viable Ways For The U.S. To Raise Revenues: A Discussion Of A National Lottery In The U.S. And Advertising On Dot-Gov Websites, Lisa R. Nelson

Honors Theses

This paper was written to inform the reader of two viable options for the United States government to raise money that is not an explicit tax. The paper will investigate opportunities to raise revenue to decrease federal debt and fund programs that are currently being funded by tax revenue. The first idea in part one is a national lottery that the federal government could implement. I discuss the possible positive and negative outcomes of a national lottery and use the UK national lottery as an example. Part two will explore allowing the sale of advertising space on dot-gov websites. It …

The Relationship Between Level Of Expertise And Holistic Processing In Chinese Character Recognition, Shirley Yin Ming Leung

Honors Theses

Evidence from past research suggests that when people process objects in which they are experts, such as faces and Roman letters, they usually engage in holistic processing which is the processing of multiple parts of a stimulus (Bukach, Gauthier, & Tarr, 2006; Wong et al., 2011). However, Hsiao and Cottrell (2009) found the opposite result such that novices used holistic processing in Chinese character recognition while experts did not. The current study explored the correlation between expertise and holistic processing of Chinese characters. We used the composite task to measure holistic processing of Chinese characters from English native- speakers who …

A Dual Process Model Of Stress Effects On Alcohol Consumption, Ivori Zvorsky

Honors Theses

The dual process theory proposes two forms of cognitive processing: implicit and explicit. The goal of the current study is to further investigate the dual process model of risky drinking, exploring the roles of executive functioning, implicit attitudes, and stress. 98 students from the University of Richmond participated in this study. After reading a stressful vignette, significant changes in Implicit Association Test (IAT) scores indicated that stress does heighten implicit “approach” associations for alcohol. Interestingly, when separated into low and high self-restraint groups, only participants with high self-restraint were significantly affected by the vignette. After testing for interaction effects, our …

Corumination Among Women And Their Friends During First Year Of College, Katelin Peterson

Honors Theses

The current study examines the relationship between co-rumination and adjustment in women during the transition to college. Corumination refers to extensively discussing and revisiting problems, speculating about problems, and focusing on negative feelings (Rose, 2002). This study uses a short-term longitudinal design to examine the adjustment trade-offs associated with co-rumination in female students (including positive relationship qualities and internalizing distress). The study also examines these effects across multiple close friendships rather than only one best friend. Female first year students at the University of Richmond completed an online questionnaire including measures of co-rumination, levels of anxiety and depression, friendship quality, …

A Search For Clarification: Contemporary Views Of The Inspiration And Authority Of The Bible In Seventh-Day Adventism, Michael Swenson

Honors Theses

Within Seventh-day Adventism there is recognizable theological diversity on a wide variety of issues. One major reason for that has to do with the different ways Adventists view the inspiration and authority of the Bible with particular suppositions. In order to elucidate the given problematic, I will present a comparative analysis of four thinkers and outline their respective perspectives: Fritz Guy, Alden Thompson, Fernando Canale, and Samuel Koranteng-Pipim. As I will suggest, each thinker represents either a progressive, moderate, traditional or literatistic approach to interpreting the Bible. By clarifying their positions I will investigate their views of inerrancy, their perception …

Evaluation Of Christian Record Products And Services For The Visually Impaired, Sarah Lee

Honors Theses

Christian Record for the Blind (CRSB) offers free Christian publications and services to all who are legally blind. In order to help CRSB better understand the people they serve and plan how to meet the needs of their users, CRSB conducted a major surbey through Andrews University that evaluated the products, services, and key ministry personnel of CRSB. The qualitative portion of the research was conducted through focus group interviews, which revealed themes of digital media accessibility, website quality, concerns of discrimination, disparities between Canadian and US services, and personal treatment and service of representatives.

The Influence Of Framing Effects And Regret On Health Decision-Making, Sarah Falkof

Honors Theses

This study investigates methods for influencing decision-making regarding preventative vaccine shots. Specifically, the research assessed the influence of message framing on regret and future action likelihood. In Experiment 1, participants read information about an available vaccine shot that was either framed positively or negatively. Participants were told whether they decided to get the shot (action) or not get the shot (inaction) and rated their feelings of regret after being told they got sick, regardless of their decision. Results showed that participants who read the positively framed information experienced more regret overall than participants who read the information with the negative …

“Called Her Women Together” Home Birth In Maine, Margaret Kruithoff

Honors Theses

Nine months ago, I set out to write a thesis on childbirth: hippies having their babies in the woods, hospital politics, and women’s rights. The final product is very different than what I had intended. Instead of finding crazy hippies in the woods, I found a community of kind and skilled midwives and loving, openhearted mothers. I am deeply indebted to these inspiring women for their stories and wisdom, which fill the pages of this thesis. Interviewing these mothers, midwives, and home birth advocates was a tremendously empowering experience for me, a young woman.

Transnationalism And Identity: The Concept Of Community In Ghanaian Literature And Contemporary Ghanaian Culture, Devin M. Geary

Honors Theses

In my thesis, I use anthropology, literature, and adinkra, an indigenous art, to study Ghanaian concepts of community from an interactive standpoint. While each of these disciplines has individually been used to study the concept of community, the three have not previously been discussed in relation to one another. I explore the major findings of each field—mainly that in anthropology, transnational informants find communities upheld; in literature, transnational characters find the opposite; and in adinkra, there are elements of both continuity and dissolution—to discuss Ghanaian constructs of community in the transnational world. Throughout time, there have always been transnational individuals …

Into The Magic Mirror: The Narratives That Reflect Our Lives And Dictate How We Should Live, Chany Fehr Buchanan

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the influence fairytales have on society, how they dichotomously reflect cultural worldviews yet set standards for appropriate behavior and prescribe hegemonic ideologies. It specifically explores the fairytales told in America over the last couple of centuries, examining how those stories have evolved in correlation with the shifting values of the country. Each chapter lays a foundation for how certain characters are normally portrayed in fairytale tradition - the hero, the beauty, and the villain - and then evaluates how our culture has Americanized those figures, consequently making each of them less idealistic or archetypal and evolution of …

The Role Of Cortisol In Modern Society: Linking Psychosocial Stress And Health, Logan Dwayne Fair

Honors Theses

Glucocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones, which can act on almost all cells in vertebrate tissue through binding to glucocorticoid receptor. Cortisol, which falls into this class, is released in response to stress and provides our bodies with the necessary energy to cope with a wide variety of stressors. This function of cortisol is brought about through its action on numerous metabolic and immunological pathways. However, when cortisol levels remain elevated for extended periods of time, many of these acute effects of cortisol can bring about long-term health problems, including many associated with metabolic S5mdrome, such as obesity and …

An Analysis Of The Hurricane Insurance Markets In The Southeastern United States, Stephanie Jeanette Jabaley

Honors Theses

As hurricanes are some of the most devastating natural catastrophes in the United States, property insurance for coastal home and business owners is a consistently evolving market. The southeast, specifically the Gulf of Mexico region, is where most hurricanes are concentrated and has accumulated a large amount of losses over the past few decades. After Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, less private insurers have offered windstorm coverage for coastal property owners and the state wind pools have increased their amounts of risk exposure. This thesis analyzes the use of wind pools in the Gulf of Mexico, specifically Mississippi, and other …

Anything New Under The Sun?: Walker Percy And The Search For A Third Way And Place, Matthew Jordan Griesbeck

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how Walker Percy, through fiction, explores the various inadequacies of place, ontology, and religious belief through his representation of his characters* engagement with these three areas in their attempt to live a meaningful life. 1 analyze three of Percy's novels. The Moviegoer (1961), The Last Gentleman (1966). and The Second Cowmg (1980), as well as Percy's non-fiction essays and Percy criticism. I find that the novels are continuous with Percy's non-fiction, and that Percy critics too often simply restate the author's beliefs instead of undergoing a thorough examination of what the author …

Ethnic Tourism’S Effect On Bai Ethnic Minority’S Identity In Dali, China, Tabitha Bandi

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the Bai minority group in the town of Dali, in China's Yunnan Province and examines the effect of ethnic tourism upon the identity ofthe Bai people. Through an analysis of governmental policies, both on the national and provincial level, economic policies, and different sources of Bai identity, such as travel magazines and articles, I have come to find that the Chinese state and Han Chinese have played a decisive role in the shaping and defining of Bai identity. Through the promotion of tourism and state policies, the Bai people have created a stronger sense ofidentity.

TABITHA …

Celebratory Activism: A Media Portrayal Of Southern Identity, Elizabeth Myhr Lynch

Honors Theses

Celebratory Activism: A Media Portrayal of Southern Identity (Under the Direction of Dr. Mark Dolan)

The objective ofthis paper is to investigate the media's role in portraying southern identity and to determine the media's effect on the surrounding communities. It specifically addresses the three media institutions of Thacker Mountain Radio, The Oxford American, and The Southern Foodways Alliance and determines how they represent and celebrate southern culture. The methodology of the paper consists of the assessment of existing literature in the field of the media's depiction of the South followed by case studies on Thacker Mountain Radio, The Oxford American, …

A Cultural And Social History On The Role Of Film And Societal Trends: A Case Study Of The Outlaw Jesse James, April Mae Grube

Honors Theses

The use of film as a source of history has been highly contested since the creation of narrative film in the beginning of the twentieth century. While there is no doubt that film cannt be used as a source for the accurate account of an event or an individual, historians are slowly accepting the role that films play as "cultural documents." The benefit of film in the study of popular memory and social and cultural history is best seen in the study of the development of an individual, event, or ideal over time. Because of this, Jesse James is an …

No. 334: A Visual Exploration Of Race And Identity, Naudline Pierre

Honors Theses

Throughout history, humans have invented several methods of classification - most of which are unsettling. The human need to classify is one that is deeply rooted in the search for identity. The need to fit, the need to explain, and the need to rationalize the world around us is a powerful incubator in which the process of human classification takes place. Although this thesis project involves a substantial amount of research, it is essentially a documentation of my journey to finding my identity through the lens of human classification based on physical attributes. Through the research of various human classification …

A Feast To My Eyes: Color And Human Behavior, Erica Iris Bruso

Honors Theses

This is a study on color and how it affects emotion and human behavior. Color can both affect and express a person's mood. We see this played out by Pablo Picasso, whose Blue and Rose period paintings consisted of a dominant color expressing his emotions. Impressionist painters, such as Claude Monet, were fascinated with the variations of color that are produced in certain light conditions, different times of day, weather conditions, and seasons. By using studies on color and human behavior done by color specialists, such as Faber Birren, as well as looking back at color explorations of early painters, …

In Time, Bfa Thesis Exhibition By Clay Crawford, Clay Howell Crawford

Honors Theses

In Time, my BFA solo exhibition, was an installation of three four-foot-by-six-foot looping video projections shone directly onto the walls of Meek Hall's Gallery 130. create this body of work, I performed as both photographer and subject. Performance in its simplest form exists completely autonomous of technology, and when the photographer or videographer documents a performance s/he produces something and more tangible than simply engaging in the performance's live exchange. As I work with time-based media, the idea of time is central to my art-making process and conceptual development. In these works, I alter standard time structures by imposing my …

Effects Of Perspective-Taking On Reading Comprehension, Apral Patrice Foreman

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Faulkner In Japan: A “Second Occupation”, Robin P. Helton

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Scottish Court Of Session And Federal Supremacy In The United States Of America, Matthew Karl Suess

Honors Theses

The federal court system under the United States Constitution varied substantially from the English judicial system. This thesis will explore the extent to which the Court of Session, Scotland’s highest court, influenced the form of the United States federal court system. First, the thesis will examine the Acts of Union of 1707, the contract binding the kingdoms of England and Scotland into one political body. The language of the Acts of Union, specifically the language regarding the form and power of the Court of Session, will serve to draw a parallel with the United States Constitution. Next, the thesis will …

Doquier Por Angélica Gorodischer: El Género Humano, El Feminismo, Y La Ficción Transgresiva, Megan Elise Gargiulo

Honors Theses

Esta tesis se enfoca en la novela Doqiiier per la escritora argentina Angelica Gorodischer. Doqiiier es una novela interesante principalmente porque el/la narrador a rechaza usar marcos de genero cuando habla de si mismo/a. Para interpretar este rechazo de las categorias binarias del genero humano y los varies episodios del travestismo en la narrativa, esta tesis recurre a la teoria de Judith Butler como es presentada su libro Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity' (1990). La tesis tambien investiga la posibilidad de una preferencia para lo femenino a pesar del rechazo inicial de genero en la novela, y …

On The Fringes Of Peripheries: A Comparison Of The Working-Class Representations Of Larry Brown And Irvine Welsh, Christopher Paul Patterson

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I compare the fiction of Mississippi author Larry Brown and Scottish author Irvine Welsh, specifically in how they represent their respective regions’ working classes. The project concerns the genre of working-class fiction in both the American South and Scotland, as well as the general fields of Southern and Scottish contemporary fiction. The groundwork for this thesis began when I read Welsh’s Trainspotting while studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland during the spring of 2011.1 wanted to explore why Welsh’s working-class representations felt so similar to the Southern fiction I read at the University of Mississippi, …

Love's Labour's Lost 2.0: Exploring Identity Formation On Facebook And Beyond, Mitchell Watson Hobbs

Honors Theses

An adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, Love's Labour's Lost 2.0 utilizes the social network website Facebook as its stage so as to explore the unique problems and opportunities that social media affords identity creation. Through this lens, I find that identity creation in this digital world is discursively composed, much like identity in the analog world, and serves to shunt dissent or action that may threaten the status quo. Facebook's ultimate promise to this constantly composing individual is the comfort and security of an audience.

Working Towards A Solution To The Obesity Epidemic: A Marketer's Perspective, Elizabeth Ann Clippard

Honors Theses

The obesity epidemic is a social issue in that critics are quick to blame business and government for failing the consumers. The truth is that all three parties have failed each other by allowing such a cultural change to occur. The issue is similar to the tobacco public health crisis following the spike in lung cancer in the 1950s and 60s. The tobacco companies were blamed entirely for their unhealthy products and the government still spends millions today regulating their products. In order to improve upon this course of action, I believe that a more cooperative solution exists in order …

History, Culture, And Religion In The Development Of Racial Ideology: A Case Study Of The Dutch Reformed Church Of South Africa And The Presbyterian Church Of America, Alexandria Claire Denton

Honors Theses

This thesis deals with the Christian religious tradition in relation to the ideology of white supremacy. By contrasting the history and ideologies of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa and the Presbyterian Church of America, this thesis will attempt to show that past history and the present culture affect the way religious communities interpret sacred texts. The primary objective of this thesis is to demonstrate the interactive role of history, culture, and religion within religious communities and society in order to breed conscious awareness of how these institutions are mutually effective. Religious adherents are not only products of their …