Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Captain America: The Delicate Masculinity Of An American Icon, Lauren Rezac

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

What makes a good man? For this research, I examine the ways that Captain America, also known as Steve Rogers, portrays masculinity in the highest grossing movie franchise of all time — The Marvel Cinematic Universe. I propose that the ways in which an American icon who represents the ideal man behaves reflects larger cultural expectations of masculinity, specifically the expectations for white men. In addition to holding up a mirror to society’s expectations for a ‘good man’, the social messaging about masculinity in these films should be examined to understand what American men of every generation are idolizing. I …

An Analysis Of The Impact And Effectiveness Of Human Trafficking State Laws And Policies In Missouri And Nebraska, Madeleine Mather

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to use another person for sex or labor. Human trafficking is a prevalent issue within the United States that is not talked about enough. This leads to a misrepresentation of facts about human trafficking that can lead to common myths related to human trafficking. It is each state’s responsibility to develop laws and policies that protect victims and prosecute offenders justly according to the crime. This research delves into an analysis of Missouri and Nebraska state statutes to determine their effectiveness and assess the level of awareness among residents of …

Incivility In 2022 Senatorial Elections, Mark Meyer

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This honors capstone project will examine the effect of social media, specifically Twitter, on U.S. senate elections in 2022. It will track the tweets of personal and official campaign Twitter accounts from the end of the primary until election night in two “Toss Up” or highly contested seats in the 2022 senate elections. This project will examine the winner of the Republican and Democrat primaries only. All the tweets from the timeframe will be tracked and categorized by intention or use of the tweet. These categories will break down the tweet into what it was meant to do be it …

Implementing An Alzheimer’S And Dementia Library Outreach Program: A Partnership Between The Nebraska Chapter Of The Alzheimer’S Association And Nebraska Libraries, Casey Wilkinson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This paper focuses on the establishment of an Alzheimer’s and dementia library outreach program in Nebraska, initiated by the Nebraska Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. The program aims to address the lack of community resources and support for individuals affected by dementia-related diseases in Nebraska. Extensive research, including interviews with successful library outreach programs globally, informed the program's foundation. A survey distributed to Nebraska libraries had a stellar response rate, with 57 libraries expressing interest in collaborating. An in-depth guide was created and distributed to the interested libraries, outlining program components such as educational programming, support groups, and a designated …

Systematic Barriers To Success: The Impact Of Redlining On Modern Educational Outcomes In Omaha Public Schools, Sarah Sedivy

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The systemic denial of mortgages, loans, and other financial services to specific neighborhoods on the basis of race, a practice known as redlining, has continued to have a disproportionately negative effect on communities of color since its inception in the 1930s. The contemporary impacts of redlining can be seen in ongoing disparities in household income, property values, generational wealth, and more. This paper uses a three-pronged approach to extensively examine the history, application, and implications of redlining, with an emphasis on how the practice affects modern educational outcomes in Omaha public schools. The paper analyzes statistical data from the Nebraska …

Experiencing Romantic Loss In College: The Role Of Social Support On Mental Health, Keirstin Harkleroad

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The loss of a romantic partner can be a significant life event in one’s life. Breakups vary in intensity and length, but any strong enough bond being broken creates a life event. Pearlin's Stress Process model posits that in the face of a life event, such as the loss of a romantic partner, social-psychological resources can buffer the adverse effects of stressors on mental health. This study focuses on the resource of various sources and types of social support to gain an understanding of how individuals cope with a breakup during the already-stressful life stage of college. Using thematic analysis …

Sensory Processing Disorder And Sensory Integration: Case Study, Ella Aerni

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This project is a case study on my brother, Damien, who has sensory processing disorder. This included a treatment plan based on sensory integration. All activities were meant to activate the parts of his brain that help him to focus and be in alignment and included strategies for both school and home. These strategies included using chew necklaces, a weighted vest, and sensory integrative activities including being wrapped in a blanket before bed, using a mini trampoline, and doing wall pushups.

Damien’s family and teacher used these strategies in school and at home. The teacher found all of the strategies …

The Downfall Of Daniel Fitzpatrick: A Creative Short Story, Renee Horsley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Daniel grew up with humble beginnings in Starlight, Nebraska. His loving parents provided him and his four other siblings with as much as they could. Victoria grew up wealthy in a small town in Georgia but by fifth grade, Victoria would move to Starlight due to her father’s business proposition. Soon Daniel and Victoria’s worlds collided setting the way for the most epic and yet tragic love story to ever hit Starlight Nebraska. A creative short story that intertwines the disciplines of criminal justice, intergroup dialogue, psychology, and the law.

On Versus Off-Campus Living: An Exploration Of College Students' Mental Well-Being, Sameer Siddiqui

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community” (“Mental Health,” 2022). Risk and protective factors can be used to predict mental health outcomes. Both positive and negative outcomes can be predicted, respectively. The categories of these include individual, relationship, community, and societal. When examining college students, it is most reasonable to study the relationship and community factors. This study examined whether living on or off campus impacts predicted mental health outcomes in …

Evidence-Based Practice As An Undergraduate Clinician, Abigail Guinan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Evidence-based practice consists of client perspectives, clinical expertise, and research evidence to make clinical decisions for client treatment. This project evaluated evidence-based practice in the field of speech-language pathology. One evidence-based treatment method was found for each of the Big Nine areas of treatment in speech-language pathology. More focus was put on the area of language, specifically late language emergence in pediatric populations. Late language emergence is a delay in language development that is not caused by any comorbidities. Children with late language emergence struggle in all areas of language. The three intervention strategies for late language emergence are family-centered, …

Analysis Of Fire Safety Preparedness And Risk In University Housing, Sophia House

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In the growing field of fire safety and preparedness, university dormitories are a prime location to observe unique residential circumstances that contribute to fire risk. This study will utilize survey responses from student housing residents from four universities to analyze if and how certain factors affect fire safety preparedness. Additionally, the results will be compared to existing literature to examine any gaps in research or contributions to current data. This study seeks to confirm that university housing is a higher risk category of residential fires because of student contributions and a lack of direct intervention to improve fire safety preparedness.

Predicting The Pebcak: A Quantitative Analysis Of How Cybersecurity Education, Literacy, And Awareness Affect Individual Preparedness., Annie Goodman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This essay explores the relationship between individuals' cybersecurity education, literacy, awareness, and preparedness. While cybersecurity is often associated with complex hacking scenarios, the majority of data breaches and cyber-attacks result from individuals inadvertently falling prey to phishing emails and malware. The lack of standardized education and training in cybersecurity, coupled with the rapid expansion of technology diversity, raises concerns about individuals' cybersecurity preparedness. As individuals are the first line of defense and the weakest link in cybersecurity, understanding the influence of education, literacy, and awareness on their adherence to best practices is crucial. This work aims to survey a diverse …

Comparing Speech Sound Production Skills Across Two-Year Olds With Varying Language Proficiency Using Phonetic Inventory And Word-Shape Complexity, Makayla Eberly

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Purpose. Young children, who by the time they are two years of age, have 50 or fewer words in their expressive lexicon and produce few to no two-words phrases are often identified as demonstrating “late language emergence” (LLE). The nature of the relationship between speech sound (phonological) production development and LLE continues to be an important area of inquiry in the field of speech-language pathology with clinical intervention implications. The present study aimed to further distinguish and confirm associations between phonological productions and language proficiency status at two years of age.

Method. Participants (n = 20) were divided into two …

An Unfiltered Reality: The Impact Of Social Media Usage On Personal Satisfaction, Jack Cosgrove

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of social media use on the personal life satisfaction of emerging adults (ages 18 to 25). All told, 172 participants completed a survey that asked them to report their social media usage, social media habits, and their personal satisfaction with life. The social media use variables were reduced using exploratory factor analysis. This allowed a greater breakdown of the effects of social media habits across age and gender. Some gender differences emerged, but overall, social media use was negatively related to satisfaction with life. Additionally, other significant effects were …

Religiosity And Midwestern Lgbtq+ Homeless Youth, Alecia Keller, Nancy Kelley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Previous investigations have focused on the intersections of LGBTQ+ youth and religion, homelessness and religion, or homeless LGBTQ+ youth, without recognizing the multiple intersections that make up each LGBTQ+ youth’s identity. The purpose of this study was to gain more insight into how being homeless, identifying as LGBTQ+, and growing up with some religion played a role in transitional-aged (ages eighteen to twenty-five) youths’ lives. After working with Youth Emergency Services (YES) in Omaha, Nebraska, and conducting interviews with LGBTQ+ youth who were previously homeless, similar topics emerged among participants. Three participants were evicted from their homes because of their …

Effectiveness Of Accommodations For Students With Adhd At Uno, Kayla Farley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder which can impair ability to sustain attention, inhibit impulses, plan and organize, and complete tasks. These deficits can create barriers to academic success for students with ADHD. Accommodations are often offered to alleviate these disadvantages. However, current research has called into question the effectiveness of commonly offered accommodations for students with ADHD. The purpose of this study was to determine how helpful UNO students found these accommodations and how to better help this student population. The study surveyed 27 UNO students with ADHD on their learning problems, their experiences with the accommodations and why they …

Mindset Theory Relates To Attitudes About Prison And Parole Among College Students, Cassandra R. Petersen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The maintenance of prosocial relationships has been strongly connected to criminal desistance among past offenders. The opinions held by the community shape the prejudice often encountered by those with a criminal record. To promote desistance, we must understand how criminals and their abilities are considered by the public. In this study, 69 college students were surveyed about the United States prison and parole system in conjunction with Dweck’s mindset theory. Along with explicit questions, an Implicit Associations Test (IAT) was employed to measure unconscious associations between mentality and punishment preference. The IAT revealed that traits of a growth mindset were …

Communication Apprehension In Romantic Relationships And Effects On Mental Health, Meg Mccoy

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This study examines how and if university students’ communication apprehension (CA) within romantic relationships affects their mental health. Inspired by Communication Accommodation Theory, this researcher conducted both a survey and in-depth interviews with undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to test these relationships and further explore experiences of CA in romantic relationships. The findings of this study reveal that lower levels of CA are positively correlated with a healthier mental status, including overall mental health and self-esteem. In addition, the data indicates that participants do not experience CA except when it comes to sensitive subjects. Employing accommodative …

Victimization Among Jail Inmates: Differences In Type, Timing, Gender, And Effects On Recidivism, Nicky Dalbir

Criminology and Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Important limitations exist in our understanding of prior abuse among incarcerated individuals including whether there are important differences in the type (e.g., physical versus sexual victimization) and timing (e.g., childhood versus adulthood victimization) of abuse, as well as whether and how these problems are distributed among individuals incarcerated in jails. It is important to understand these issues to a) know how abuse is distributed and experienced among individuals incarcerated in jails, b) inform traumainformed policies and procedures within jail settings, c) influence the treatment and programming needs of individuals incarcerated in jails, and d) understand how prior abuse is related …

Comparing Unmc’S Md-Phd Applications Pre- (2018/2019) And Mid- (2020/2021) Covid-19 Pandemic, Jennifer L. Brady

Public Administration Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This project seeks to examine how the application pool for the UNMC MD-PhD Scholars Program compares in pre-pandemic and mid-pandemic admission cycles. This is an important contribution to the field of public administration as it informs administrators working in higher education how the global pandemic impacts higher education admission processes and outcomes. Secondly, this research will explore if and how the pandemic has observable impacts on the quality (GPA, MCAT, prior research experiences) and quantity of applications submitted by applicants of the UNMC MD-PhD Scholars Program. These trends contribute to the larger body of research on how the pandemic (among …

When Knowing Prevents Doing: An Exposition On Commitment Hazards, Alexander Porter

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Information hazards are risks posed by potentially harmful true information. Information hazards include the risks posed by instructions on how to make a bomb, facts about world events which could cause harmful political unrest, or even the password to an email account being revealed. I will examine and explain one specific type of information hazard which can be seen as the subject of discussion in three well-known but disparate philosophical texts: information which draws attention away from individual control. I will argue that this idea shows up in Plato as what is being avoided through noble falsehoods in The Republic …

Hate In The Heartland: Examining Hate Groups In Nebraska’S Past And Present, Grant Van Robays

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Hate groups that malign entire classes of people based on race, religion, sexuality, gender, or other characteristic appear in every U.S. state. Nebraska is home to nine such groups, one of the highest figures in the country on a per capita basis. While notoriously secretive, previous research and watchdog reporting has pulled back the curtain on hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan and various neo-Nazi organizations, positing theories on how and why groups form. Minimal research has described in depth hate groups in a single state, let alone a quaint state like Nebraska. This case study of hate …

Anger In The Overlooked: A Gendered Analysis Of The January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill Breach, Elizabeth Bender

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The violence seen at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 has sparked concern at the threat of domestic violent extremism (DVE) within the United States. Over 700 individuals have been federally charged in connection with the events of January 6 including almost 100 women. Women’s involvement in DVE is underestimated and understudied. This project utilized a corpus of over 1,000 court documents to content code variables relating to violence and DVE affiliation for the individuals who have been federally charged in relation to January 6th. The results of the coding process were then used to compare the rates …

The Impact Of Stimulus Age On Emotional Face Recognition, Morgan Goslar

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Research supports the theory that stimuli, including experiences, words, and faces, with an emotional connotation are more easily remembered than stimuli with a more neutral connotation. The scientific community has expanded this theory by manipulating a variety of variables, including participant age, time between encoding and retrieval, and “taboo” words in comparison to more neutral categories, to name a few. The current study seeks to expand upon the previous findings by examining emotional and neutral facial stimuli while manipulating the age of the stimulus face. To do this, participants were shown 10 photos in each of the following categories: young …

Diets, Detoxes, And Dysmorphia: Health, Wellness, And Misinformation On Tiktok, Courtney Kilroy

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The worlds of social media and wellness have been similarly categorized as “Wild West” industries. Innovation in science and technology are growing exponentially and are increasingly a part of most people’s everyday lives. TikTok began in 2016 and has since accumulated 78.7 million users in the United States. The wellness industry was valued at $4.37 trillion worldwide in 2020, likely due in no small part to the concept’s proliferation across social media platforms like TikTok. This rapid growth has come with unforeseen consequences, both positive and negative. A negative consequence that has been more frequently discussed and researched in the …

Helicopter Parenting And Young Adult Well-Being: Differences By Immigration Status, Gender, And Race, Miriam Marcus

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Helicopter parenting is a relatively new phenomenon that involves parental overinvolvement in their kids’ lives. It can manifest in the form of overcontrol of their kids’ decisions, for example, so helicopter parents may contact their children’s professors about changing their grades, or they may control who their children spend time with. Research has shown that helicopter parenting has overall negative effects on young adults, especially regarding their well-being and autonomy. The effects of helicopter parenting on people who come from varying backgrounds can differ, though, and this is something that should be studied. This study was completed through the administration …

Redeveloping Homeless History And Chronicity Documentation: A Study For Heartland Family Service, Rachel Riede

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In recent months, the Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) program at Heartland Family Service (HFS) has seen substantial delays during their intake process, specifically when it comes to verifying a client’s HUD-required homeless history. This has led to an increase in program vacancies, fewer clients served, and an underutilization of the program’s budget, which could also induce more permanent defunding in the future. While the agency is working to address this problem by retraining all of their case managers on how to collect homeless histories, this project seeks to instead identify and address the problem through the case managers’ perspective. Through …

The Representation Of Women In Disney Animated Films, Sharik Jimenez

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Disney animated feature film is a big global entertainment arena. This paper analyzes multiple animated Disney classic movies based on the subject of women’s representation. These films are interesting to study because the targeted audience is children, and the stereotypical patterns that these Disney classic films portray may play an important role in their lives. It was found that the character development in the Disney animation films, focuses on giving the primary or the central character more pervasive roles, especially in cases where they are considered the female gender. However, they are gender role concerns in the Disney films that …

A Mixed Methods Study Of Undergraduate Research Motivations At The University Of Nebraska Omaha (Uno), Afrah F. Rasheed

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Undergraduate research provides unique experiences and skill sets that are applicable in various careers. However, there has been an increasing need for greater diversity among researchers, namely undergraduate researchers, and the motivations behind undergraduate research participation need to be further explored. The purpose of this study was to identify the demographic information of undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), and what motivations were the most prevalent in undergraduate research at UNO. A mixed-methods approach was utilized through a quantitative portion and a qualitative portion. The quantitative portion was a web-based survey which gauged for 22 independent …

Self-Continuity In Adolescence: A Buffer Against Decreases In Self-Esteem Due To Vicitmization, Gabriela Alvarez

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The purpose of this research was to explore how components of self-esteem, such as social, cognitive and physical competence, can explain the buffering effect of self-continuity. Self-continuity explains the associations between individuals themselves in both past and present and perceived sameness, despite growth and development of the self. As self-continuity becomes more complex throughout adolescence, children may find themselves lacking a sense of identity. Previous research shows that negative views of the self may later represent themselves in adulthood. There is evidence that suggests self-continuity protects against the negative effects of peer victimization by providing positive connections between one another. …