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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Honors Theses

2021

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Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Effects Of Gender And Sexual Orientation On Perceptions Of The Bereaved, John Dickinson Dec 2021

Effects Of Gender And Sexual Orientation On Perceptions Of The Bereaved, John Dickinson

Honors Theses

The loss of a spouse is different for everyone who experiences it. There is no universal pattern for bereavement, and there is a wide variation in what is considered normal or healthy grieving (Hooyman & Kramer, 2010). Researchers have found that spousal bereavement is associated with increased risk of mortality, decrements in physical health, and diverse psychological reactions; some experience ongoing, disabling levels of stress, some experience symptoms that gradually decrease over time, and many experience little to no interference (Bonanno et al. 2004; Stroebe et al., 2007). The loss of a spouse or romantic partner affects most individuals at …


“A Penny For Your Thoughts:” Developing An Adapted Stimulus Reward Association – Stroop Task To Assess The Impact Of Individual Difference Factors On Cognitive Control, Mia Melone Dec 2021

“A Penny For Your Thoughts:” Developing An Adapted Stimulus Reward Association – Stroop Task To Assess The Impact Of Individual Difference Factors On Cognitive Control, Mia Melone

Honors Theses

Limited studies have examined the effect of feedback sensitivity and intrinsic motivation on cognitive performance. The present study serves as a pilot project for a study at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that examines the modulating role of external, monetary reward incentives and cognitive intrinsic motivation on cognitive control. For the present study, the relationship among cognitive performance outcomes (reaction time and accuracy) on an adapted Stimulus Reward Association Stroop Task will be explored. Two main hypotheses were tested in the present study: H1 Reaction time on congruent trials will be significantly faster than reaction time on incongruent trials. …


The Combined Influences Of Race, Sexuality, And Gender On Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment, Courtney House Dec 2021

The Combined Influences Of Race, Sexuality, And Gender On Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment, Courtney House

Honors Theses

The current research examines the perceptions of sexual harassment based on the influence of the victim’s gender, and the race of both the victim and the perpetrator, and perceiver’s feminist beliefs. By using vignettes (a brief description of an event), we manipulated a) the gender of the victim (man or woman), b) the race of the victim (POC or white), and c) the race of the perpetrator (POC or white). Our hypotheses were as follows: a) vignettes depicting same-sex harassment will be less in line with the definition of sexual harassment; b) vignettes portraying the victim as a woman of …


Discrepancies Amongst Utc Students' Diets And Their Understanding Of Their Role In Environmental Activism, Claire Reticker Aug 2021

Discrepancies Amongst Utc Students' Diets And Their Understanding Of Their Role In Environmental Activism, Claire Reticker

Honors Theses

The present research attempts to analyze why university students claim a love for the outdoors but do not use means of dietary action to protect the environment. Through an extensive analysis of corresponding literature, the effects of gender, age, motivation, barriers, and attitudes are examined as they relate to diet. To obtain data regarding these effects, students enrolled in online or hybrid classes at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) were sent a survey via Google Forms, with 129 students willingly responding. Previous to survey collection and statistical analysis, I hypothesized that if students rated their love of the outdoors …


Mentally Restorative Areas For Students: Impacts Of Nature On Psychophysiological State, Jesse Moore Aug 2021

Mentally Restorative Areas For Students: Impacts Of Nature On Psychophysiological State, Jesse Moore

Honors Theses

Situated in the top outdoor ranking city of Chattanooga, the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) includes diverse areas available for student rest and recreation. This study aims to introduce UTC students into the collection of studies on the effects of natural environments on Attention Restoration Theory (ART) by using the Stroop cognitive test and portable electroencephalograph (EEG) headsets. Participants completed the Stroop test after ten-minute mental restoration sessions in environments of varying natural exposure included on campus. Through analysis of variance, location was found to significantly influence performance on Stroop testing and measures of relaxation (p=0.030). …


Mental Health And Its Impact On The School-To-Prison Pipeline: A Look At Tennessee Schools, Briana Brady May 2021

Mental Health And Its Impact On The School-To-Prison Pipeline: A Look At Tennessee Schools, Briana Brady

Honors Theses

This project sought to examine if and how school-based mental health service accessibility affected long-term student interactions with the criminal justice system. The study is both quantitative and qualitative; it researched existing literature and theories on the subject matter and also sourced over 750 data points published by varying organizations and agencies. By using proxy data including school guidance counselor-to-student ratios, out of school suspension rates, and juvenile court referrals, this research tested whether or not a direct relationship existed between the number of school counselors and both out of school suspensions as well as juvenile court referrals. The findings …


Shining A Light Into The Darkness: The Developmental Impacts Of Internment In U.S. Immigration Detention Centers On Detained Latinx Children, Rebecca Messer May 2021

Shining A Light Into The Darkness: The Developmental Impacts Of Internment In U.S. Immigration Detention Centers On Detained Latinx Children, Rebecca Messer

Honors Theses

Americans are concerned about immigration politics and how to handle the migration of immigrants into the United States, especially those from Latinx countries who immigrate illegally. In response, the United States government has formed detention centers to house the children of these illegal immigrants. While the immediate safety and developmental appropriateness of current separation practices are of concern, few have considered what the long-term developmental and transgenerational impacts on Latinx immigrant children, held within these detention centers, will be. This thesis concludes that the negative physical, emotional, and psychological impacts both in the short and long terms are expected to …


Presidents And Populist Politics, Brooke Sobo May 2021

Presidents And Populist Politics, Brooke Sobo

Honors Theses

Populist language is a common rhetorical practice of United States Presidents. There is a breadth of literature on the study of populism and populist language, yet few studies identify populist language as reimagining the relationship between president and people. This paper identifies populist language as a political tactic of presidents and links the tactic’s use to the cultivation of authority and legitimacy. A central theoretical foundation of this paper rests on Skowronek’s concept of political time and authority structures. Through the use of four case studies spanning the presidencies of Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump, this …


Race, Sex, Exoneration, & Compensation: How Do They Relate? What Is Done? And What Needs To Be Done?, Sarah Emily Still May 2021

Race, Sex, Exoneration, & Compensation: How Do They Relate? What Is Done? And What Needs To Be Done?, Sarah Emily Still

Honors Theses

Previous literature has noted multiple causes of wrongful conviction including mistaken eyewitness identification, false confessions, ineffective assistance of counsel, crime lab error, and prosecutorial misconduct. Over time, more wrongful convictions caused by these factors are overturned through the help of organizations such as the Innocence Project. With these increasing exonerations comes the increased needs of exonerated people. The previous literature has exemplified that exonerees have unique needs (Simms, 2016), but these needs are often not met by the compensation that is available (Chunias & Aufgang, 2008; Mandery et. al, 2013). This occurrence is problematic given that exonerees had to lose …


“Sticks And Stones”: Experiencing Microaggressions From The Perspectives Of The Victim, Bystander, And Perpetrator, Emily Halvorson May 2021

“Sticks And Stones”: Experiencing Microaggressions From The Perspectives Of The Victim, Bystander, And Perpetrator, Emily Halvorson

Honors Theses

For over thirty years, microaggressions have been studied for their weight on members of groups like ethnic and racial minorities, women and members of the LGBTQ community. Microaggressions are the routine, derogatory interactions like slights gestures, snubs or minor insults. Microaggressions yield physical and psychological distress to victims and communicate to marginalized groups the biases and prejudices against them harbored by majority group members. My thesis study explored factors such as quality of psychical and psychological health, physical health symptoms, occurrence of physical pain, resilience, and self efficacy and relationships with racial, gender, and sexual orientation-based microaggressions. I analyzed these …


Governmental Repression: The Cases Of China, Akbar Rahmani May 2021

Governmental Repression: The Cases Of China, Akbar Rahmani

Honors Theses

This thesis explores what factors can explain why the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) response to two pro-democracy movements – 1989 Tiananmen Square and the 2014 Umbrella Movement – had varied repression levels. Specifically, this thesis will explore the impact of social media, breakdowns in government cohesion, and the type of protest on governmental responses. This research finds that a breakdown in government cohesion during the 1989 protest caused the declaration of martial law and the use of tanks followed by infantrymen. Although the 2014 protest was regime-threatening, social media constrained the government’s ability to use alternative media and harsh repression. …


Factors Impacting The Decision To Report Sexual Assault: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Swaney May 2021

Factors Impacting The Decision To Report Sexual Assault: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Swaney

Honors Theses

The present study aims to understand the reasons behind a survivor’s decision to report or not report their experience(s) of sexual assault and identify themes involved in the decision-making process. While there are numerous quantitative studies that examine the factors around a survivor's decision to report or not report their sexual assault account(s), the qualitative perspective on this topic is lacking among the literature. Using a qualitative approach, the purpose of this study seeks to answer the following research question: what factors influence sexual assault survivors' decision to report or not report their experience? We hypothesized that individuals who reported …


Retrospective Analysis Of Injuries And Persisting Injury Effects Among Students Who Have Participated In Club Sports And Intramural Activities During The Prior Year, Daylia Wallace May 2021

Retrospective Analysis Of Injuries And Persisting Injury Effects Among Students Who Have Participated In Club Sports And Intramural Activities During The Prior Year, Daylia Wallace

Honors Theses

Research suggests that previous injury and history of sport-related concussion place athletes at a greater risk for subsequent injury. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the validity of self-perceived wellness and performance capabilities survey responses for retrospective classification of the injury risk status of individual athletes as a means to estimate risk magnitude for intramural and club sport athletes. The surveys used to collect this data were the Sport Fitness Index (SFI), Overall Wellness Index (OWI), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Survey (DASS), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The SFI was a strong discriminator (AUC= .728) …


Counselors' Experiences Of A Virtual Summer Camp, Catherine Bell May 2021

Counselors' Experiences Of A Virtual Summer Camp, Catherine Bell

Honors Theses

Youth with developmental disabilities (DD) often have limited opportunities for social support and community engagement. Summer camps to meet their specific needs - physical, social or emotional - are intended to help reduce this limitation and provide youth with DD the same opportunities as typical children. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many camps and organizations to prohibit in-person or face-to-face activities, and as a result, Camp Ability created a virtual platform for campers to still engage in a summer camp experience. Camp Ability’s counselors (n = 5) were interviewed at the conclusion of the camp session, and three major themes were …


Albinism In Africa: Examining Identity Formulation, Corinne Tinkham May 2021

Albinism In Africa: Examining Identity Formulation, Corinne Tinkham

Honors Theses

Albinism is a genetic condition that often intersects at disability and perceived notions of race; this double-stigmatization has proved problematic for people with albinism living in Africa, who not only appear physically different from others in their community but are also commonly regarded as ontologically different. Individuals with albinism in Africa undergo frequent challenges throughout their lifetime that significantly shape their identities. This process of identity formation begins in early childhood and is greatly impacted by unequal access to healthcare and schooling, harmful rumors and mythologies surrounding the condition’s origins, violence, workplace discrimination, income inequality, and many other factors. In …


Associations Among Academic Motivational Styles, Purpose In Life, And Depressive Symptoms In College Students, Linnea V. Anderson Apr 2021

Associations Among Academic Motivational Styles, Purpose In Life, And Depressive Symptoms In College Students, Linnea V. Anderson

Honors Theses

Students vary in three motivational styles when pursuing academic attainment: (1) amotivational style (lack of motivation), (2) extrinsic style (contingent upon external influences), and (3) intrinsic style (dependent upon internal influences) (Froiland, 2018). Research has demonstrated that individuals who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to report higher rates of meaning and purpose in life (Chalofsky & Krishna, 2009) and higher rates of psychological well-being (Huang & Wu, 2016). While this relationship between intrinsic motivation, purpose in life, and psychological well-being has been supported, research has yet to explore the relationship between extrinsic motivation, purpose in life, and psychological well-being …