Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Prosociality: Promoting Helpful Behaviors Not Just Helpful Intentions, Katherine E. Lees

Honors College

When social institutions (e.g. Religion and the State) give reminders to help others, it can promote prosociality. Shariff’s (2016) meta-analysis of prosociality indicates that religiosity promotes self-reported helping, but finds no consistent effect in lab-based behavioral measures of prosociality. Furthermore, existing behavioral measures are often not ecologically-valid representations of prosociality, leaving the unique effect of religion on helping unclear. This study explores the role of religion on helping, which is known to promote helping between group members, and the state, which promotes helping across groups, in a relatively valid behavioral helping scenario. Participants are reminded to help those in need …

Effects Of Climate Change On The Maine Lobster Industry, Abigail Sennick

Honors College

Climate change is affecting many industries in Maine and all over the world, but this research aims to highlight the effects of climate change on Maine’s lobster industry. Data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources allow for analysis of landings, price per pound, and real value between 2004 and 2015. The ideal model would include proxies for fishing effort, natural cycles of species, commercial fishing laws, management changes, temperature, weather severity, salinity changes, social hierarchy changes etc. Due to data limitations, the quantitative research question is: do increasing water temperatures have a negative effect on the lobster industry? There …

Analyzing Government-Resident Communication Methods In The City Of Bangor, Jaymi Thibault

Honors College

The objective of this study is to analyze the communication preferences of Bangor residents, with a particular focus on two of Bangor’s largest demographics, renters and residents aged 60 or older. Based on results from existing literature, it was hypothesized that both renters and elderly residents of Bangor would be less satisfied with the city’s communication efforts than the general population, due to less knowledgeability of municipal information and limited internet access, respectively. 510 residents participated in an online survey that asked residents to describe their preferences regarding city communication methods. In addition to the survey, a series of six …

Alleviating Social Isolation And Food Insecurity Through Community Gardening: How The Orono Community Garden Impacts Seniors, Sarah Mullis

Honors College

Senior food insecurity and social isolation are potentially two serious issues within Maine communities. The Orono Community Garden (OCG) is a local effort to combat both of these issues. The OCG relies on volunteer workers, who donate the food they produce to low-income seniors living in three neighboring housing complexes in Orono, Maine. This project uses participant observation, surveys, and personal interviews as the basis for a qualitative analysis, to assess how seniors’ food security is influenced due to the food from the OCG, the ways in which the OCG provides a sense of community and social integration for the …

Dropping The Gloves: Fighting For Varsity Status Under Title Ix— The Rise Of Women’S Ice Hockey At The University Of Maine, Emily K. Mcnair

Honors College

Ice hockey at the University of Maine is a culture, of sorts. The university has a long tradition of supporting and growing a large fan base around its Division 1 varsity men’s ice hockey team. On the opposite end of that, the university’s female counterpart, the varsity women’s ice hockey team appears to get lost in the fray when discussing the hockey culture at the school. The purpose of this thesis is to tell the story of UMaine’s women’s ice hockey team. From the creation of the team as a club in the late 1970s, the organization battled through a …

Film: Oral Histories Of Women In The Maine Lobster Industry, Isabelle I. Vachon

Honors College

In the state of Maine, an average of 120 million pounds of lobsters are caught and
sold each year. The lobster fishing industry in Maine is a large economic system that
supports thousands of fishermen and helps attract over 32 million tourists to Maine every year. According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, women hold only 4% of the approximate 4,200 commercial lobster fishing licenses in Maine. In the past, The University of Maine’s Lobster Institute has conducted interviews with Maine lobster fishermen and this project augments that work by collecting oral histories of women in Maine’s lobster industry. …

Themes Of Identity And Power In Contemporary Topical Song, Hilary Warner-Evans

Honors College

This thesis explores the role of identity and power in contemporary topical song using three case studies. The first of these deals with two songs written after the arrest of Maine’s North Pond Hermit in April 2013. It makes a case for the songs, in the context of other creative reactions to the hermit’s arrest, as being expressions of anxiety related to Maine identity. The second study is about new versions of the labor song “Which Side Are You On,” with a particular focus on one from Wisconsin one from Maine. It looks at the theme of solidarity through analysis …

“Persuading The Secret”: In Search Of Maine’S Hermits, Taylor Cunningham

Honors College

I have been working on this project for nearly three years now. The journey feels like a long one—with various roads, some yet to be traveled, detours, and dead ends. Largely, it has been a process of trial and error, as I learned to navigate the boundless, at times overwhelming, depths of research—within archives, old newspapers, photographs, poems, fiction, informal conversations and formal interviews—hoping to make some sense of what hermit characters mean to the state of Maine.

I found almost immediately that inconsistencies and gaps plagued—as I’m sure they do in any sort of oral history project—my attempts at …

The Role And Rhetoric Of Interest Groups In Obergefell V. Hodges’ Amicus Briefs, Heidi Mills

Honors College

This thesis explores the expression of polarization surrounding the most recent same-sex marriage case in the Supreme Court, Obergefell v. Hodges. 28 amicus briefs, submitted from interested groups and concerned individuals in support of either the petitioners or the respondents, were analyzed for the major points of concurrence and disagreement between the two sides. The aim of the study was to come to a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which both sides express their arguments either for or against same-sex marriage. What the findings of the content analysis suggest is that interest groups on both side of the …

Personalities & Traditional Political Participation In Young Adults, 18–24, Abigail Pratico

Honors College

This thesis investigates the different political patterns that young adults have in comparison to older generations, and certain personality or attitudinal traits that may encourage traditional participation through voting or joining a political party. Previous research in this field suggests many different factors that encourage or inhibit participation. Parental influence and declining trust in government are considered to be two of the largest indicators of whether a young adult will decide to participate in politics in a traditional way. This thesis will provide an alternative explanation to why we see lower participation in politics for young adults, by exploring the …

The Associations Between Reflective Rumination And Related Constructs, Bryanna P. Plummer

Honors College

According to the Response Styles Theory, the way in which an individual responds to depressed mood influences the duration and severity of one’s depressed mood (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991). In particular, a ruminative response, or tendency to repeatedly think about the causes and consequences of one’s depressed mood is hypothesized to worsen depressed mood (Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco & Lyubomirsky, 2008). Research examining the measure of rumination using the Ruminative Response Scale (Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991), Treynor, Gonzalez and Nolen-Hoeksema (2003) has yielded two distinct subtypes of rumination: brooding and reflection. Brooding was conceptualized as a maladaptive form of rumination, while reflection was thought …

Museum And Exhibition Curation Techniques In Nazi Germany: An Analysis Of Curation And Its Effects On Art, Artists, And The Public, Jennifer Cashin

Honors College

Museum development in Europe changed rapidly from the middle of the 19^th century through the end of World War II. This development included elements of exhibition design and curation techniques. The combination of these elements created a space for the changing public to acquire new opinions and knowledge of artworks. With the addition of governmental powers influencing the museum design, museums became buildings of education for many different purposes, at the government’s disposal.

In Germany during World War II, the Degenerate Art Exhibition was designed as a counter exhibit to the Great German Art Exhibition. This exhibition’s purpose was …

Extra! Extra! This Just Thin: Identifying And Evaluating Framing Of Obesity-Related News Coverage In Maine, Alan D. Bennett

Honors College

Obesity is an important health issue, and understanding both its origins and its remedies is critical. More than 78 million people in the United States — more than one- third the nation’s population — are obese, making obesity one of the most newsworthy health concerns of the time. The first step in addressing public health issues is to inform the public, for which news media act as the primary source. However, news media overwhelmingly frame obesity reports through a lens of individual responsibility, which blames people for their eating habits while ignoring systemic factors of obesity such as food industry …

Determining An Expected House Majority Using Pattern Analysis, Jesse T. Clark

Honors College

Since the early 1800s, state committees and legislatures have been drawing districts in order to win elections by splitting and grouping populations to promote their chances of victory, a process called gerrymandering. Little consensus can be found in past work as some studies claim that current partisan gridlock is partially related to this procedure, while other works have found that sorting and the spatial distribution of partisanship account for gridlock. This exercise seeks to measure the impact of gerrymandering by comparing the party makeup of the current U.S. House delegation to the natural partisan makeup of a state as determined …

A Study Of Personality Traits Of Travel And Cultural Awareness, Meaghan Labbe

Honors College

The present study aimed to investigate relationships for the Big 5 Personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism with a range of inventories that assessed travel desire and travel experience. The specific travel measures that were included are travel desire, cultural awareness, emotional regulation, existential authenticity, loyalty, agency and cultural motivation. The study also compared characteristics associated with a preference for specific types of travel such as authentic destinations, which give travelers a chance to experience the place they are in through engagement with the culture, people, and surroundings, versus staged destinations which are defined more in terms …

A Comparison Of The Experiences Of Economic Adaptation And Integration For Refugees And Asylum Seekers In Maine, Grace Kiffney

Honors College

The migration of refugees and asylum seekers affects them and the communities where they resettle, as people from different backgrounds and cultures come together. In the United States, the federally funded refugee resettlement program supports refugees with welfare benefits, case management, and other services to assist with integration. However, no such federal program exists for asylum seekers, who are considered displaced people, but who have not received immigration status as refugees. This project sought to answer the question: How is the experience of supporting oneself different and similar for refugees and asylum seekers, in the context of Maine?

Research involved …

The Long-Term Impact Of Chemotherapy On Neurogenesis And The Potential Use Of Fluoxetine As Preventative Treatment, Margaret Ross

Honors College

The present study attempts to investigate a potential underlying mechanism that contributes to cognitive impairments associated with chemotherapy treatment. In addition, it looks to investigate the potential preventative treatment using an antidepressant agent (Fluoxetine) to reduce the effects observed by chemotherapy treatment. One proposed explanation for Chemo Brain is a reduction in the proliferation of new brain cells. This study was designed to investigate this mechanism and was conducted in a series of two experiments. In experiment 1, 37 C57BL/6J male mice were administered saline or one of two chemotherapy agents; Cyclophosphamide or Doxorubicin over the course of eight days. …

The Triad Of Nationality Revisited: The Orthodox Church And The State In Post-Soviet Russia, Robert D. Potts

Honors College

The Orthodox Church has been intimately wrapped up in the Russian state since Russia’s conversion to Christianity in 988. The relationship between the two is most succinctly wrapped up in Tsar Nicholas I’s so-called triad: “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.” This paper seeks to explain the manner in which the Orthodox Church reasserted itself as a force in Russian politics after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 up through the first administration of President Vladimir Putin. The church under Patriarch Alexy powerfully reinserted itself into affairs of state during the August 1991 coup attempt, while its relationship with the …

The Effects Of Equine-Assisted Activities On The Attachment Security Of Abused Women, Ilana B. Silver

Honors College

The present study was designed to explore the impact of equine-assisted activities on attachment security among women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Attachment security was assessed at three different time points using the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR) (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998), which measures attachment on two separate scales of anxiety and avoidance. Proximity maintenance, one of the components of an attachment figure, was assessed using coded video data of the interaction between horse and participant during their first meeting and goodbye. Five women who self-reported experiencing domestic abuse were recruited for this study, of whom four …