Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Christians And The Irreligious: What Is Associated With Religious Bias Between Groups?, Lucas Wall

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

With the tremendous rise in the prevalence of atheism and agnosticism in the U.S. in the past several years, it becomes more important than ever to assess intergroup relations between the Christian majority and the rapidly increasing atheist and agnostic minority. This study assesses personal factors that correlate with various levels of participant desire to affiliate with Christians (Progressive Protestants, Conservative Protestants, and Catholics) and the unaffiliated (atheists and agnostics) within a convenience sample. Participant factors studied included political conservatism, agreeableness, openness, social dominance orientation, and religious commitment. While low desire to affiliate is a poor representative of all forms …

Improving Student Outcomes In Introductory Formal Logic, Bryce Rosenwald

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Across a variety of educational settings, undergraduate introductory courses in formal logic tend to have high failure rates. In this paper, I explore practical, evidence-based steps that logic instructors can take to improve student outcomes. The topics covered are small class sizes, problem-based learning, clicker questions, group activities, and spaced practice. The effect of small class size is moderated by many variables, including each instructor’s unique characteristics and the pedagogical techniques used in large vs. small classrooms. Problem-based learning and clicker questions are determined to be excellent techniques for introducing content and furthering understanding of content, respectively. Small groups can …

Dungeons And Disorders: Destigmatizing The Mental Health Conversation, Wren Hart

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Games, especially tabletop role-play games, have often been used by individuals to explore parts of their identities or concepts that are bigger than they are. Dungeons and Disorders is an adventure module detailing the quest of heroes destined to save a land plagued by debilitating problems. Dungeons and Disorders combines this tendency with psychological information on mental health disorders, in order to begin destigmatizing the mental health conversation. Players of this module will get to explore dungeons based on mental health disorders, starting with obsessive compulsive disorder and culminating with depression. The final boss of Dungeons and Disorders is an …

Cannabigerol Causes A Cb1 Receptor-Dependent Reduction In Food Consumption And Weight Gain, Jack Jones, Josh Kaplan

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Slides describing work leading up to a professional scientific poster, created and presented at psych fest depicting my last two years of work in Dr. Kaplan's BNS lab. I included a reflection paper discussing my time at Western.

Pursuing Faith In Good Science: A Neuroscience Student's Argument For Including Science In Spirituality, Savannah A. Hastings

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Everyone can enhance their sense of spirituality by embracing science. This point is argued by referencing the science of emotions, consciousness, and perceptual learning, as well as the correlation between a strong a sense of meaning and physical health. The way that the brain produces our experience of being human is particularly emphasized. We have electrochemical brains that can do good in the world.

Advancing Technology & Digital Lifestyles: Facilitating A Group Independent Study, Kailey Droz

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

For my senior capstone project, I facilitated a group independent study (ISP) through Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University called Advancing Technology and Digital Lifestyles. A small group of students and I critically and creatively analyzed our relationship with technology, and its impacts on the individual, interpersonal relationships, culture, and society. Prior to facilitating, I did research within the fields of cyberpsychology, social psychology, communication studies, and media studies. I am sharing my syllabus and facilitation notes, my final project (two short stories), an annotated bibliography, and a reflection on the group ISP and my process.

Here …

Holocaust Distortion And The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lyric Crane

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project explores the use of Holocaust distortion in the COVID-19 pandemic. It seeks to understand how Holocaust distortion has been used in the pandemic. It also aims to understand how the use of distorted information has contributed to current trends in global antisemitism. In order to answer these questions, this project compares accurate information about the Holocaust with the distorted information seen in protests around the world. It also examines current trends in antisemitism and explores links found between them. The findings of this project are significant because they help grant understanding about how Holocaust distortion can directly contribute …

The Effect Of Economic Scarcity On Racial Perceptions, Michael Brooks

WWU Graduate School Collection

During economic downturns, socioeconomic and health disparities between Whites and BIPOC tend to widen, and negative attitudes towards BIPOC increase - a pattern most recently seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. While structural inequalities likely contribute to these effects, contemporary work suggests that conditions of scarcity can influence racial perception and categorization, leading to discrimination. Indeed, White individuals are biased to categorize racially ambiguous individuals as Black, more often than White, in times of economic scarcity, which is then linked to discriminatory behavior toward those individuals. However, it remains unclear if this phenomenon persists when categorizing members from two racial outgroups. …

“Say Her Name”: The Influence Of Victim Race, Demeanor, Severity Of Force, And Individual Difference Factors On Perceptions Of Excessive Force Against A Woman, Brooklynn Smith

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Black Lives Matter movement has increased public awareness concerning discriminatory experiences Black people may experience in interactions with police in the United States. Despite this renewed public consciousness, there is a lacuna of empirical research investigating Black women’s unique experiences of prejudice and how public perceptions shape them. Research is needed to understand factors that influence perceptions of women who experience discriminatory treatment by police and barriers that may hinder social change. The current study investigated how a woman’s racial identity (Black, White), demeanor (i.e., attitude directed towards the officer; respectful, confrontational), and the severity of the force used …

Activation Of Meta-Stereotypes And Prejudice: The Moderating Role Of Self-Compassion During Perspective-Taking, Haley Bock

WWU Graduate School Collection

Although perspective-taking has been used to reduce negative attitudes toward social outgroups (see Todd & Galinsky, 2014), there are contexts where perspective-taking may backfire. When perceivers expect to interact with the outgroup target they imagine the perspective of, they have been shown to have an increase in meta-perceptual concerns, meta-stereotypes, which can draw perceivers away from imagining the perspective of the target and toward concerns for how they are being perceived. The current study (N = 193) examined whether different kinds of perspective-taking (imagine-self, imagine-other) influenced attitudes towards marginalized groups and whether such effects were moderated by perceivers’ individual levels …

Disrupting Social Order: Proposed Mechanisms To Altering Societal Perceptions On The Outcomes Of Trauma In Veterans Diagnosed With Ptsd, Clairiz Nel

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The lives of individuals are affected by the narrative created by the majority. This societal narrative is oftentimes distorted, reflecting the attitudes showcased in the media, resulting in the alienation of certain populations. Veterans diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one such group and the focus of this activist essay. Despite the grievous sacrifices made in the name of honor, freedom, and national security, American veterans continue to wage a war closer to home as they struggle to reintegrate into society. The portrayal of war experiences in traditional media (i.e. News networks) and productions media (i.e. cinema) propagates stigmatization …

Who We Are Is Who I Am: Collective Continuity And Socialization Processes For Lgbtq+ Emerging Adults, Kit Turner

WWU Graduate School Collection

One way of understanding the way that society and culture influence identity development is through an examination of collective continuity. Intergenerational socialization from in-group members could be one way that collective continuity develops. However, LGBTQ+ individuals are less likely to receive such socialization from their primary caregivers, and it is unknown how often they may have access to LGBTQ+ elders outside the family of origin. This study sought to examine what kinds of socialization primary caregivers and LGBTQ+ elders engage in, how they differ from each other, and how that socialization relates to collective continuity, identity, and psychological functioning. LGBTQ+ …

No, I Don’T Think It Was Rape: The Relationship Between Rape Acknowledgment Status And Perceptions Of Sexual Violence, Paige K. Michel

WWU Graduate School Collection

Among college students who experience rape, on average, 60% are unacknowledged rape victims, meaning they do not label their sexual violence experiences as rape. Perhaps this is due to unacknowledged rape victims internalizing mainstream cultural values that normalize and stigmatize experiences of sexual violence. This survey and vignette-based study investigated the relationship between rape acknowledgment status, labels, and perceptions of rape. Female-identifying college students (N = 214) with a history of rape reported perceptions and labels of their experiences of rape and a vignette depicting rape. It was hypothesized that unacknowledged rape victims would be more likely to acknowledge their …