Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Law, History, And Justice: Debating German State Crimes In The Long Twentieth Century, Michael S. Bryant

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

When Helping Hurts: Covid-19 Critical Incident Involvement And Resource Depletion In Health Care Workers, Miguel Caldas, Kathryn Ostermeier, Danielle Cooper

Applied Psychology Department Faculty Journal Articles

A focus on helping others is generally lauded, particularly in medicine, but in the context of a pandemic when health care professionals are facing increased risk, loss, and trauma, this focus can potentially be detrimental. In this study, we sought to (a) examine if health care workers intensely involved in the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are experiencing negative psychological and emotional outcomes, and (b) investigate if helping related factors (prosocial motivation and perceived prosocial impact) exacerbate and mitigate relationships to negative outcomes in a crisis situation. Using data collected from doctors and nurses before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we …

Can I Be Me With You At Work? Examining Relational Authenticity And Discretionary Behaviors In The Workplace, Kathryn Ostermeier, Michele N. Medina-Craven, Kerri M. Camp, Sara E. Davis

Applied Psychology Department Faculty Journal Articles

Management scholars have long been interested in the topic of authenticity in the workplace, evidenced by the history of scholarship on authentic leadership and the many new authenticity constructs that have emerged. In this article, we take a narrower view of authenticity and focus on relational authenticity in the workplace, which we define as being genuine in workplace relationships. Adapting a validated relational authenticity scale to the organizational context, we explore the ways in which feeling authentic in workplace relationships has ramifications for discretionary behaviors. Specifically, we build on belongingness theory to posit that relational authenticity will result in an …

Instrumental Vs. Expressive: A Study Of Voter Behavior Models Through The Lens Of Identity In The 2016 Presidential Election, Kaitlyn Fales

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Studying voter behavior through the lens of identity is central to making sense of the 2016 presidential election. The traditional models for explaining voter behavior are rational choice and behavioralism. The former is grounded in instrumental partisanship and a voter’s issue positions, with the latter grounded in an expressive, psychological attachment to partisanship. More recent, social identity theory related models discuss voter behavior through group belonging and the partisan mega-identity (Mason 2018). My analysis used the ANES 2016 Time Series Study. To measure a voter’s issue positions, I created a new Identity Index alongside the expansion of an established Issue …

The Decline Of The Mid-Range Jump Shot In Basketball: A Study Of The Impact Of Data Analytics On Shooting Habits In The Nba, Shawn Kilcoyne

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The purpose of this thesis paper is to investigate the strategic shift away from the mid-range jump shot in basketball over the past decade. This paper will cover the rationale for the decline of the mid-range, as well as the general impact of data analytics on the way the game of basketball is played at the professional level. Following a review of the existing literature relating to the use of analytics in the NBA, this paper will analyze the differences in shooting habits between two seven-season periods. Data visualization tools, including boxplots, statistical trends, and distribution plots, will be used …

Are Community Banks A Driver Of New Business Formation? Empirical Evidence From The United States From 2005 To 2015, Christopher Dodd

Honors Projects in Economics

The number of small banks in the U.S. has dropped drastically since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [FDIC], 2018). Small businesses, which are essential to a well-functioning economy, often rely on banks as a source of financial capital. This study helps explain if the number of community banks in a state impacts new business formation and whether financial regulation passed following the GFC, specifically the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, moderates the significance of the relationship. This thesis contributes to the literature in a few major ways. First, it provides a …

Bryant Votes: A Cross-Departmental Effort To Get Students To Vote, Connor Mathis

Library Staff Publications, Presentations & Journal Articles

Connor Mathis, library assistant, gives a presentation on the process and pitfalls of building a voter registration and education initiatives on a college campus. He details the important role the library can play in initiating and sustaining cross-campus collaborations. Mathis gave this presentation to the Massachusetts Library System in September 2020.

Does Social Trust Affect International Contracting? Evidence From Foreign Bond Covenants, Paul Brockman, Sadok El Ghoul, Omrane Guedhami, Ying Zheng

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

Building on rational choice institutionalism theory and Williamson’s (J Econ Lit 38(3): 595–613, 2000) four-level social analysis framework, we investigate the influence of the informal institution of social trust on debt contract design in an international setting. Using a sample of non-U.S. firms that issue bonds in the U.S. debt market, we find that Yankee bond creditors impose fewer covenants on bond issuers domiciled in countries with a high degree of social trust. We further show that the inverse relationship between debt covenants and the informal institution of social trust is more pronounced for firms from countries with weak formal …

International Disease Epidemics And The Shadow Economy, Aziz N. Berdiev, Rajeev K. Goel, James W. Saunoris

Economics Faculty Working Papers

Adding to the emerging body of research related to the current coronavirus crisis, this paper studies the impact of disease epidemics on the worldwide prevalence of the shadow or the underground economy. The informal sector undermines compliance with government regulations and lowers tax collections. Our main hypothesis is that epidemics positively impacts the spread of the shadow economy. Using data on nearly 130 nations and nesting the empirical analysis in the broader literature on the drivers of the shadow sector, we find that both the incidence and the intensity of epidemics positively and significantly contribute to the spread of the …

Book Review: Open: The Philosophy And Practices That Are Revolutionizing Education And Science, Samuel Simas

Library Staff Publications, Presentations & Journal Articles

In Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science—a volume of edited essays—the editors, Robert Biswas-Diener and Rajiv Jhangiani, situate the “open movement” and its many facets within the framework of education. They posit that openness and its associations with education, librarianship, and science suggest an important social justice imperative to support the world’s poor and underserved. Throughout this volume, short essays attest to, and present examples for, the critical and philosophical landscape that structures, benefits, and challenges the open movement.

Circuits That Encode And Guide Alcohol-Associated Preference, Kristin M. Scaplen, Mustafa Talay, Kavin M. Nunez, Sarah Salamon, Amanda G. Waterman, Sydney Gang, Sophia L. Song, Gilad Barnea, Karla R. Kaun

Applied Psychology Department Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Global Health Emergencies Preparedness, Andrea Boggio

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

The spread of infectious disease is always ranked high as a global threat. It features prominently among the list of urgent health challenges for the next decade, issued in early January 2020 by WHO. The emergence of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Hubei Province in China, is a reminder of global health vulnerabilities.

Making It Up As He Goes: Trump’S Improvisational Rhetoric And The Hyper-Rhetorical Presidency

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

Trump disregards the norms of presidential communication by regularly speaking or tweeting off-the-cuff with seemingly little forethought or editorial input. As White House administrations institutionalized presidential speechwriting and strategic communications over the past century, meticulously-crafted rhetoric became the norm. Trump’s improvisational rhetoric is the antithesis of the highly-professionalized, disciplined approach to political communication we have come to expect from the presidency. This essay takes the position that his reliance on improvisational rhetoric is more than a matter of communication; it is a matter of governance. Trump regularly uses improvised communication to make important policy decisions. In doing so, the president …

Perceptions Of Bipolar Disorder In The Entertainment Media, Haleigh Resnick

Honors Projects in Communication

This is a literature review of empirical research. This literature review provides an overview of how mental health conditions, specifically bipolar disorder, are depicted in the media (television and movies) by examining relevant empirical research. The review also includes how stigmas are perpetuated in these media depictions.

This literature review included an extensive review of published literature in the past 50 years about mental health and bipolar disorder depictions in media (television and movies). Studies were included for their relevance on mental health conditions generally, and any specifics related to bipolar disorder. Studies were read for key statements about stigmas, …

Sexual Health And Hpv Vaccine Conversations: Enhancing Provider Communication For Young Women, Meaghan Angers

Honors Projects in Communication

Young women (ages 18-26) face a multitude of difficulties when choosing to disclose information regarding their sexual health to their provider. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the quality of patient-provider communication and the patient’s likelihood to receive the HPV vaccine with an explicit recommendation. Interviews were conducted with 11 young women (M = 21.36; SD = 2.46), with the majority identified as Seniors (n = 4; 36.4%), non-Hispanic (n = 10; 90.9%) and White (n = 9, 81.8%). Interviews were also conducted with two providers, one male and one female (M = 43.5; SD …

University President's Gender And Graduation Rates, Alex Drezek

Honors Projects in Economics

Graduation rates have increasingly become a key metric that institutions use to measure their success. This study looks at the potential relationship between the gender of a university’s president and graduation rates. A dataset was created compiling the gender and tenure of presidents and the characteristics and graduation rates of 4-year institutions in New England. Three separate regression models were created to analyze the data. The variables with the strongest positive relationship to graduation rates are: grade point average (GPA), expected future earnings of students, expenditures made by the institution, and the proportion of full-time faculty employed. The variables with …

It's Complicated: President Trump's Relationship With Media, Joseph Iamele

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Through an evolution of presidential communication and the development of newer communications technology, a symbiotic relationship between the president and media outlets has emerged. The president, attempting to communicate his messages to as much of the American public as possible, relies on media to spread his messages. Media outlets, on the other hand, would rather focus on more negative or drama filled aspects of the presidency. This results from a profit motive in the media industry that requires outlets to continuously gain readership, viewership and, subscribers. The best way to gain these is not by reporting the president’s policy accomplishments, …

Impacts Of A Serial Killer: Looking At The Case Of Ted Bundy Then And Now, Natalie Terranova

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

The famous trial of serial killer Ted Bundy has been portrayed throughout the years since it took place in the late-1970s. This famous serial killer has regained popularity, spurred by our curiosity and fascination with serial killers today versus the shocking truth about serial murder it instilled in people back in the 70s. By looking into the case of Ted Bundy in detail, this paper provides a greater understanding of why his case took the world by storm and how it impacted society at the time. Through a traditional research thesis, it was my goal to analyze the effects the …

Protecting Children In A Hyper-Media World: Is Media Literacy The Answer?, Marissa Grasso

Honors Projects in Communication

The purpose of this study is to explore ways to protect young children from the harmful effects of media as they grow up in a hyper-media world. As a learned skill, media literacy must first be introduced to kids’ lives before they can benefit from its effects. Children are developing their brains, and until the age of 7 they do not have the cognitive capacity to retain and apply media literacy skills. Not having these skills exposes them to harms from advertisements and general content shows, movies, and video games. This exposure leads to issues in their lives such as …

Examining Perfectionism & Design Thinking In Middle School Girls, Catherine Conroy

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

Design thinking requires students to generate roughly formed prototypes, share imperfect, early stage solutions with others, and give and seek critical feedback on the path to iteration and innovation. It seems that the individual variable of perfectionism could manifest in interesting ways as a student progresses through the phases of design thinking. The purpose of this study is to examine the variable of perfectionism in relation to the design thinking process in middle school girls, which was completed through the analysis of the Innovation Nation program that took place in 2019. Innovation Nation is a 3-day program that immerses students …

Millennials And The Alcohol Industry: Expenditure Variations Among Generations, Anthony Murray

Honors Projects in Economics

This paper explores the relationship age cohorts, or generations, have had with regards to alcohol expenditure over time. Articles from popular publications such as Business Insider claim Millennials are “killing” the alcohol industry due to their lack of consumption (Taylor, 2017), but provide little empirical analysis of any academic rigor to make such claims. These claims do matter, as they have implications for the alcohol industry itself as well as investors, law enforcement, the healthcare industry, and policy makers. This paper uses four cross-sectional decadal datasets spanning from 1986 to 2016 from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer …

Religious Influences On Muslim Women's College Experiences, Caitlyn Mcnaughton

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

This project focuses on the influence religion has on Muslim women’s college experiences. I wanted to see the role that religion played in different women’s lives and how it could affect their college life. When I started this project, I knew that all women had different experiences with their religion and would most likely not give the same answers. I interviewed thirteen women from four different universities about their relationship with their religion and how it has impacted their college careers. The women I interviewed came from several different backgrounds, from several states and countries, so their relationship with their …

Examining The Relationships Among Mindfulness, Disability, Social Support, And Stress In Emerging Adults, Kai-Lou Yue

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

College students, as part of the broader population of emerging adults, are thought to be particularly vulnerable to stress compared to other age groups as they transition through adolescence into adulthood. Various internal and external factors including mindfulness, disability, and social support play an important role in students’ stress levels. The relationships among these three predictor variables and stress were analyzed in a sample of 1,049 individuals between the ages of 18-29. Responses were obtained from the dataset “Emerging Adulthood Measured at Multiple Institutions 2: The Data” (Grahe et al., 2018). The data were cleaned in Python and analyzed in …

Social Responsibility Of A Stock Exchange: Corporate Governance At Borsa Istanbul, A. Can Inci

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Research And The Right To Science, Andrea Boggio, Cesare P. Romano

History and Social Sciences Faculty Book Publications

While international law has recognised a human right to science since 1948, the binding normative content of this right still needs to be clarified and specified. It is rarely discussed by states when they report on their obligations under the various international human rights treaties (UN and ICESCR), and receives scant attention by international human rights bodies. To advance our understanding of this under-studied and under-appreciated right, this chapter offers an overview of ways in which the right to science can be advanced and realised. The chapter is divided into three parts: the first section discusses the recognition of the …

The Quonset Economic Impact, Edinaldo Tebaldi

Economics Faculty Journal Articles

This report provides a data-driven and comprehensive assessment of the economic impact and tax incidence implications of economic activities at the Quonset Business Park.

The Role Of Human Capital In The Structural Change Process, Michele Aparecida Nepomuceno Pinto, Edinaldo Tebaldi, Marina Silva Da Cunha

Economics Faculty Journal Articles

The main of this paper is to verify if human capital is an important determinant of structural change in the different sectors of the economy and if it can accelerate the speed of this structural transformation. This paper contributes to the literature once it develops an empirical test of the model proposed by Li et al. (2019) and it uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) which considers the problem of endogeneity found in human capital variables, it also uses two proxies for human capital and structural change in order to verify whether or not they affect the variable of …

Communicating In Crisis Situations, Rick Gorvett, Chris Morse, Julie Volkman

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Communicating technical information, especially in a crisis situation and particularly when the audience does not share the technical background, is a challenge that actuaries frequently face. This essay describes the dynamics and issues involved in crisis communications and provides some recommendations for actuaries confronting such a situation.

Designing Student Projects In Finance: Structure, Technology, And Assessment, Jack W. Trifts, Laura Kohl

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

Student projects are a typical part of finance courses, but little has been written about their design. This article describes a five-year process of developing a web-based, semester-long, project in financial statement analysis and provides a road map for faculty members seeking to enhance learning. A key for any instructor is how to manage the trade off the benefits of individual projects and significant formative feedback with the time demands involved.