Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Between Autistic Traits, Autistic Camouflaging, And Adults’ Representations Of Abstract And Social Concepts, Henry Tomiser, Katja Wiemer Dr.

Honors Capstones

Concrete concepts (e.g., BUTTON) can be experienced directly by the senses, whereas abstract concepts (e.g., FRIENDSHIP) cannot. Additionally, the mind may represent abstract concepts using more introspective, social, and emotional information than concrete concepts. Social difficulties are one defining feature of autism, and autistic individuals may use social camouflaging to hide these difficulties, but the precise nature of social processing in autism is not known. This study aims to explore possible links between autistic traits, autistic camouflaging, and mental representations of concepts. Participants gave open-ended definitions for concepts varying in concreteness and social content via an online survey. Responses were …

Antagonism Attenuates The Relationship Between Childhood Polyvictimization And Distress In Adulthood, Benjamin D. Carsten

Honors Capstones

The cumulative effects of childhood polyvictimization, including incremental increases in experiences of childhood maltreatment (CM) types, such as sexual abuse and emotional neglect are associated with an increase in psychological distress. Personality trait domains as measured by the Personality Inventory of the DSM-5, are independently associated with psychological distress, and are thought to moderate the association between traumatic events and distress. The present study was conducted with a sample of undergraduate students (N = 485) who were administered a battery of questionnaires including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) and the Personality Inventory for …

Childhood Sexual Abuse And The Role Of Experiential Avoidance In College Alcohol Use, Regina Montes

Honors Capstones

Childhood trauma has been related in numerous studies to maladaptive behavior as well as risky behaviors in adulthood, such as alcohol use. However, few studies have focused specifically on the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and alcohol use. Moreover, experiential avoidance has been shown to be an important factor in poor behavioral outcomes in young adults with a history of childhood trauma. The present study explores experiential avoidance as a mediating factor of the relationship between CSA and alcohol severity in college students. Data for this current investigation was collected as a part of a larger study of undergraduate …

Test Anxiety Inflation, Brian Podkulski, David P. Valentiner

Honors Capstones

Mental health conditions are higher than ever worldwide, despite best efforts to increase public awareness and deliver informed solutions. To account for this rise, some suggested models argue that measures taken to ameliorate mental health problems are actually contributing to their inflation through iatrogenic effects. The current proposed study seeks to identify the possibility of iatrogenic effects on test anxiety as a product of psychoeducational material. The scope of this study includes the immediate effects of viewing a typical short-form informational video on core and adjacent symptoms of test anxiety. Participants will engage with our study entirely through an online …

Trauma Type, Resilience And Sense Of Self, Caitlin R. Callahan

Honors Capstones

Most individuals will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime (Alim et al., 2008), potentially leading to a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD can have significant psychological and physical repercussions (Brady et al., 1997). Experiencing trauma, such as interpersonal or non-interpersonal, can negatively impact resiliency and sense of self. The current study hypothesized that participants who reported interpersonal trauma as their worst event would report lower resilience and sense of self compared to participants reporting a non-interpersonal trauma. Four hundred and twenty-nine undergraduate students were given questionnaires to assess traumatic experiences, resiliency, and sense of self using …

Belonging And Disagreeing: Arab Student Activism On A College Campus, Angelina E. Baroud

Honors Capstones

There has not been sufficient research on Arab college students and their activism in the United States. This topic is especially important because of the new wave of protests across college campuses due to the Israel-Hamas war. This project focused on what made Arab students join an Arab organization at a university in the Midwest and the disagreements that exist within the group. Data was gathered through participant observations of the group meetings and semi-structured interviews with the group members. This study found that the desire to connect with their culture and find a sense of community brought Arab students …

Understanding Civic Engagement Through The Perspective And Experiences Of Mixed-Status Latinx Students In Higher Education, Alexandra Alcantar

Honors Capstones

This paper captures the perspectives and experiences of eight Latinx college-aged students from mixed-status families related to civil engagement. This paper identifies varied definitions of civic engagement and shows that students’ experiences within their mixed-status families and their academic experiences shaped how they understood their level of civic engagement and informed their career paths. The eight oral history interviews conducted as part of this project show that most of the participants consider their level of political involvement as insufficient. Interviews reveal an understanding of “civic engagement” that exists on an evolving spectrum of participation. Participants shared that work responsibilities and …

Gender Differences In Youth’S Mental Health Problems During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kimberly A. Hohlfeld

Honors Capstones

The purpose of this research paper is to examine whether young girls were more likely to experience depression and anxiety symptoms than young boys during the COVID-19 pandemic at two time points, in April of 2020 and May of 2020. An additional hypothesis that was examined was whether the presence of siblings in the home moderated the association between gender and depression and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. T-tests were used to analyze the mean differences in youth mental health symptoms based on gender. Young girls were found to experience significantly higher anxiety symptoms in May of 2020 than …

Assessing The Association Between Experiential Avoidance, Resilience, And Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms, Victoria G. Latayan

Honors Capstones

Resilience is a specific skill that can be fostered over time which, when mastered in greater amounts, allows individuals to more readily cope with interpersonal conflict and stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which experiential avoidance of distressing stimuli and trait resilience predict Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. To test this, participants were instructed to complete self-report questionnaires that assessed experiential avoidance and resilience. Each participant also completed the PTSD checklist for DSM-5. The results of the study showed that while trait resilience did not significantly predict Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS), experiential avoidance and …

Breaking The Loop: Strategies For Fighting Climate Change On U.S. Farms, Ashley Barry

Honors Capstones

Climate change is an increasingly urgent area of research due to the hardships it causes for lands and communities across the globe. Specifically in regard to the United States (U.S.), climate change has many concerning implications on our agricultural system. Increased weather hazards, decreased crop production, and drought are just a few of the hardships American farmers are facing in their fight to keep their farms alive and feed their communities, despite a rapidly changing climate. This study investigates how farmers can fight and prevent climate change through the use of specific mitigation and adaptation strategies on their farms. Semi- …

Panem's Parallel's: Authoritarianism In The Real World, Quentin J. Stewart

Honors Capstones

Throughout the twentieth century, there has been an increasing awareness and fear of authoritarian governments in the Western world, the United States in particular. While these methods of governance were steadily becoming more present in Western media throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, portrayals of authoritarianism and dystopia experienced a peak in popularity toward the end of the two-thousands decade, with book and film franchises like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins spearheading this emergence. Many of the themes and aspects of the series setting alert the audience to many of the ways authoritarianism can be seen in real life, …

Train Travel As An Adventure, Stormy Kara

Honors Capstones

The train is often seen as a slow, old, and antiquated mode of transportation, and the prevalence of train travel in the modern-day United States is nowhere near where it once was. Other methods of transportation, such as the airplane or the automobile, have taken over as primary choices for travelers in the country. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2022) reported approximately 80,400,000 trips were taken by airplane in July 2022, compared with just 2,500,000 trips taken via intercity rail in the same time period. However, more than 300 intercity trains operate daily via the quasi-public corporation Amtrak and serve …

The Effects Of Color On Flavor, Tiffany S. Yoo

Honors Capstones

Color and its relation to flavor, is a complex cognitive phenomenon that researchers today are still trying to decipher. The present literature review is an examination of the history of color, process of color perception, the effects of additional factors such as saturation, the exploration of senses that may potentially contribute to perception itself, and the different modern theories suggested. The purpose of this project was to review, revise, and narrow down which theories can be deemed as accurate in terms of the amount of support addressed by modern literature. While a clear-cut answer was not concluded, three potential theories …

Factors That Influence Black Youth Voter Turnout, Arianna T. Ramos

Honors Capstones

This paper examines the factors that influence black youth voter turnout. First, this paper discusses how it is related to and implemented into black studies. After a brief justification of the need, this paper examines specific factors that influence black youth voter turnout. These factors are then applied with factors that affect youth voter turnout. This paper ends with a survey for black students between the ages of 18-25 to study the factors that influence black youth voter turnout.

Analyzing Parent Trust As A Predictor Of Parental Involvement With Adhd As Moderator, Justin D. Ligeski

Honors Capstones

The current study examined the relationship between parent trust and parent involvement. Higher levels of parent involvement have been shown to have positive effects on child behavior and achievement, and past studies have found significant positive correlations between levels of trust and involvement. ADHD was examined as a possible moderator of the association between trust and parent involvement. Extant data from a larger study involving parents of students in kindergarten was examined. Regression was used to examine the association between parent trust and parent involvement behaviors. ADHD was included in the regression models as a moderator. Results indicated that some …

Mothers’ Use Of Internal State Words With Toddlers With And Without Hearing Loss During Natural Play, Sarah D. Screnock

Honors Capstones

This study examined differences between mothers’ use of internal state words with toddlers with hearing loss and toddlers without hearing loss. Mothers’ speech to toddlers without hearing loss and mothers of toddlers with hearing loss while engaging in natural play was transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. Twelve toddlers with hearing loss were age matched with 12 toddlers without hearing loss and were also language matched with twelve additional toddlers without hearing loss to create three participant groups- hearing loss, age matched, and MLU matched controls. Mothers’ internal state words were identified and categorized by …

American Attitudes Toward Nuclear Energy, Eric J. Kirchman

Honors Capstones

Despite the mature underlying technology behind nuclear energy production, public support varies widely among the American public and has often changed over time. This paper seeks to analyze patterns in Americans’ attitudes towards nuclear energy using aggregate polling data from previously collected national public surveys. Standard demographics such as age, education, and political affiliation are utilized in cross-sectional comparisons against public opinion. Males, conservatives and Republicans were found to have strong positive responses towards nuclear energy. Furthermore, time-series data indicates nuclear energy fell out of favor in the early 1980s. It was later favored again in the early 2000s. This …

The Elusive And Complex Parabolic Relationship Between Terrorism And Gdp Per-Capita, Kianna Becker

Honors Capstones

The 21st century saw a dramatic focus on terrorism after the events of September 11, 2001. The search for an explanation for the causes of terrorism have led economists to turn to the role of GDP on terrorism. This research aims to search for a pattern in the relationship between GDP per-capita and acts of terrorism. Previous research has pointed towards both a positive and negative trend. The stark different findings in previous research attests to the various ways terrorism is measured and analyzed. Encapsulating the previous research, this research merges the two theories and aims to show there is …

How Social Media Affects Political Beliefs And Movements, Alyssa Anderson

Honors Capstones

This project aims to assess how social media influences young adults’ political beliefs and movements. Social media is prominently used through the ages of 18-29 and plays a key role in intellectual development. Engagement online has increased within the last few years discussing topics like politics, COVID-19, and social movements. With the help of social media, young adults feel more empowered and informed by sharing political content. Voter turnout, civic engagement, and participation in social movements have increased with the informative content now available on all social media platforms. In this paper, I assess how social media has affected political …

Are All High-Potentials Successful Leaders? Exploring The Underlying Effect Of Impostor Syndrome And Evaluative Concerns On The Relationship Between Hipo Designation And Leadership Self-Efficacy., Anjishnu Chakrabarti, Lisa M. Finkelstein

Honors Capstones

The rising prevalence of high-potential (HiPo) employee programs in organizations has led academicians to begin to research this newly developing area under the realm of industrial/organizational psychology. High-potential programs are intended to find employees with the maximum potential to succeed in strategic leadership roles within the organization and provide those individuals with specialized training and related developmental opportunities. The term “HiPo” refers to such employees who are designated as having higher potential than the average. This study aimed to explore the relationship that exists between employees being designated as HiPo and their self-perception of being successful leaders (measured as leadership …

The Spatial Associations Between Crime And Economy In Chicago 2015-2020, Hongtao Huang

Honors Capstones

The severity of the crime is often the most intuitive reflection of whether a region is safe and the top factor for the public when evaluating a region. Economist's list of the safest cities in seven major North American cities, Chicago was ranked at six, just above Dallas. Chicago scored the lowest in personal security, which is closely tied to the crime. Against the backdrop of higher unemployment and prices, this study is interested in how property-based crimes are related to the economic decline in Chicago geographically. The study used the heterogeneity analysis tool Geodetector to investigate the correlation between …

The Parent Perspective On Augmentative And Alternative Communication: A Qualitative Study, Alicia Larouech

Honors Capstones

Parents are known to be effective communication partners in their child’s augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention. The aim of this interview study was to better understand the parent perspective in the AAC acquisition, implementation, and handing processes across a range of primary disability labels and ages. Participants engaged in phone interviews to discuss their family’s experiences with AAC obtainment and intervention. Qualitative review of their responses developed the following five themes: assessment procedures, external variables that influence device use, barriers of AAC navigation, supports parents have indicated have helped them, and major takeaways as identified by parents. Further subthemes …

Jlootbox: An Agent-Based Model Of Social Influence And Gambling In Online Video Games, Lila Zayed

Honors Capstones

Loot boxes are digital treasure chests that players spend real money to purchase, wherein the contents are randomly generated. Since players spend money on the pretense they might receive something valuable, many comparisons have been drawn to gambling behavior as the reward is up to chance. To explore this phenomenon, agent-based modeling will be used to simulate this behavior. Agent-based modeling allows us to create heterogenous agents who follow simple rules so that we may observe emergent behavior in a population. An agent-based model was created using Repast Simphony for this end.

Parameters included the player’s internal decision strategy around …

The Northern Illinois University Foundation And Alumni Engagement: Who Is “Golden,” And What Leads Alumni To Give To Niu After Graduation, Emma R. Mcmahon

Honors Capstones

Alumni gifts are becoming an important aspect of higher education funding due to decreasing state support. These gifts accommodate about 28 percent, or about $6.8 billion, of support to institutions of higher education (Marr et. al., 2005; Stephenson and Bell, 2014; Sung and Yang, 2009; Weerts et. al. 2010; Drezner and Pizmony-Levy, 2021; and McNamee III, 2021). There are many different aspects of the alumni and student experience that shapes the likelihood of giving behaviors and other forms of engagement including financial capacity, satisfying student experience, age, gender, race, participation in student organizations and Greek life, affirming campus climate, involvement …

Sexual Relationships During Covid-19, Katherine Hahn-Boisvert

Honors Capstones

During the early parts of COVID-19, no one knew what to expect. In a world where it was suddenly unacceptable to shake hands or give a hug, how did sexually intimate couples navigate being sexually intimate? In this study, sexual self-disclosures, relationship satisfaction, and sexual communication satisfaction were measured during the COVID-19 pandemic. The costs and rewards of COVID-19 related self-disclosures was also measured to see what people thought was the costliest and how it would impact a sexually intimate relationship. Data was collected using an online survey which had 15 participants. The results indicated that COVID-19 had a negative …

Grocery Sales And The Pandemic, Joy A. Salentine

Honors Capstones

The focus of this paper is to examine the impact of COVID-19 on grocery sales in the United States. My hypothesis is that periods with higher COVID-19 severity, measured through the number of COVID-19 deaths, will show higher grocery sales, all things equal, due to the increased demand during the unusual circumstances of the pandemic. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, I perform a regression analysis to test my hypothesis. The results confirm my hypothesis by showing that there is a positive and significant effect …