Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Adversity And Leader Development: Mindfulness As A Potential Moderator, Isaac V. Dixon

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Why do some leaders respond to adversity by becoming more empathetic, impactful, and resilient — while others do not? Since the Covid-19 pandemic, suffering has gained personal relevance to each one of us. Although many researchers have explored why some individuals – when faced with trauma – grow as a result, little work has been done to understand this process specifically within the context of leaders and leader development. As such, the primary purpose of this paper is to explore what allows some leaders to respond to adversity/trauma with leadership development. Based on the mediators of productive framing, cognitive engagement, …

Connections For Success: Social Networking In Virtual University, Clara K. Cook

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Online learning has experienced an unexpected increase in the last two years in response to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying mitigation efforts. As universities engage in discussions regarding whether to keep offering a wide selection of online courses or transition fully back to traditional course modes, it is important to understand the extent to which students are able to network with their instructors and classmates in their online courses and the ways in which it differs from in-person courses. This paper explores the differences in networking between in-person, synchronous online, and asynchronous online courses. Additionally, it …

Oppression In Xinjiang: Rhetorical Parallels To The Causal Mechanisms, Christina Elizabeth Anderson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper compares the framings of ethnic conflict with theoretical political science explanations of the causes of such conflict. Framings are statements used to portray the who, what, and why of an issue through the emphasis or exclusion of information to create a specific agenda. The theoretical expectation from social science is that ethnic conflict is a result of a commitment problem, where the two parties in the conflict cannot credibly guarantee the protection of the other. This arises from situations where there is a large minority group population that is underrepresented from government and has grievances from economic disparities …

The Levant: Climate Change’S Effects On Domestic And Foreign Security Policy, Mary Mckenna Kump

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project applies a comparative analysis of climate effects on security perspectives in the Levant (Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon) with evidence from historical events and modern processes. In other words, how do the effects of climate change threaten states’ core national security interests? What areas of the system are likely to be impacted by climate effects? Researchers project that climate change will affect current and future global conditions, so how does it impact how states perceive the environment in relation to their national security interests? To examine these questions, I have developed a relatively informal cause-and-effect relationship between climate …

Detecting Accurate Emotions In Faces, Marisa Pualani Davis

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Anger race bias is the tendency to misidentify expressions of emotion, specifically anger, in Black or racially ambiguous faces that are fearful or neutral (Hutchings & Haddock, 2008). Anger is often associated with aggression (Murphy et al., 2005). Therefore, the inaccurate perception of anger and threat may lead to an inappropriate response and could increase the likelihood that a police officer will shoot at a suspect (Correll et al., 2007). From 2015 to 2020, police officers shot and killed over 100 unarmed Black males (Washington Post, 2020). This study examined if anger race bias could be reduced through emotion identification …

Grounded In Reality: An Exploration Of Acceptance In Relational Conflict, Audrey Johansen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Acceptance work encompasses “the processes that allow us to be fully grounded in reality” (Canfield, 2023). It allows individuals to embrace what truly is, both the good and the bad. It enables them to be at peace with what they can’t control, so that they can put their energy into changing what is within their power.

This project explores how acceptance work connects with other aspects of conflict process, including grieving, emotional regulation, and other concepts. Research was conducted by studying materials on communication and conflict processes, and by applying the materials to the author’s life. The author explores how …

Shifting The Paradigm With Wednesday Addams: Why Nuanced, Intersectional Portrayals Of Autistic People Matter, Camille Alyse Bassett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For decades, Autistic people have been portrayed in the media through dehumanizing stereotypes such as the robot, the superhuman savant, and the empty shell. Through these stereotypes, Autistic people are construed as non-human, above-human, and sub-human but never as human beings with complexity, authenticity, and dignity. In addition to being stereotypical, depictions of Autistic people have historically featured white and male characters, a longstanding pattern that erases Autistic women and people of color, among others. In 2022, however, Netflix’s spinoff series of The Addams Family, Wednesday, brought to the screen one of the very first autistic-coded …

Ethics, Fashion, And Film In The 1950s And 60s, Sara Miner

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

To truly understand the nature of identity, autonomy, and morality in the 1950s and 60s, one must look at what artifacts of humanity have been left behind. More specifically, clothes and fashion capture, represent, and immortalize the human experience through each stitch and seam. By analyzing clothing from an anthropologic lens, one can discover the socio-cultural reality of a time long past. Known for intense culmination of social and political movements, the 1950s and 60s contain many radical shifts. Ranging from social movements like Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, Black Feminism, and others, to the political metamorphosis as a result of …

A Sentiment And Content Analysis Of Facebook Posts Regarding Wild Horse Management, Libbie G. Anderson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to better understand public sentiment and current conversations on Facebook regarding wild horse management practices, including adoption, roundups, and contraception, in the timeframe between the June 2021 BLM Wild Horse Advisory Board meeting and January 31, 2022. Social media monitoring and quantitative content analysis were used to examine the Facebook posts of four organizations communicating about the wild horse controversy. The research questions guiding this study included: (1) How many total mentions of “fertility control,” “contraception,” “roundup,” “gather,” “adoption,” and “management” as they pertained to wild horses occurred across Facebook from June 1, 2021 …

Detecting Accurate Emotions In Faces, Emma Greenwood

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Anger race bias is the tendency to misidentify expressions of emotion, specifically anger, in Black or racially ambiguous faces that are fearful or neutral (Hutchings & Haddock, 2008). Anger is often associated with aggression (Murphy et al., 2005). Therefore, the inaccurate perception of anger and threat may lead to an inappropriate response and could increase the likelihood that a police officer will shoot at a suspect (Correll et al., 2007). From 2015 to 2020, police officers shot and killed over 100 unarmed Black males (Washington Post, 2020). This study examined if anger race bias could be reduced through emotion identification …

Anticipatory Intelligence Resilience Modeling Evaluation Of Aspire Research Center, Madeleine Alder

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The analysis of threats and vulnerabilities in a system is essential in developing resilience strategies to strengthen the system’s ability to adapt and succeed. This report delivers a threat analysis of ASPIRE, a research organization centered on engineering solutions for promoting electric vehicle (EV) adoption. ASPIRE, which is an international network of university research partners and comprised primarily of engineering teams, is focused on developing technology that can be used by industry or governmental partners. The threat of low public buy-in for ASPIRE technology is one of the most significant concerns facing the system. Low adoption rates or public resistance …

Pottery Business Plan, Jessi Clark

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

BrickEarth Pottery sells quality homemade ceramic pieces. Specifically, we specialize in ceramics that have a simple, elegant, and functional design. The product line includes things like mugs, vases, tableware, pots for plants, berry bowls, nativity scenes among other things. A few things that set BrickEarth Pottery apart from other competitors include our commitment to sustainability, our fair prices, and our strong online presence. To explain these ideas a bit more at BrickEarth we value sustainability by working to keep minimal packaging when items are shipped and maintain this in mind when making our pieces, like always reusing clay and using …

Self-Regulated Learning In A Pandemic: Implementing The See Framework In An Online Teaching Environment, Haley Hand

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a cyclical process that motivates students and facilitates achievement in a variety of domains (Wang, 2013). It entails several processes, such as planning, setting goals, using learning strategies, self-monitoring, reflecting, and holding adaptive motivational beliefs. Moreover, SRL can be developed through interventions and classroom practices. However, there is a shortage of trained interventionists. Teachers can also use a variety of classroom practices to develop students’ SRL skills. A framework of practices, known as the Settings, Events, and Exchanges (SEE) framework, was developed to organize these classroom practices for teachers (Callan et al., 2020).

The practices in …

The Patriot Act: How It Hurts Democracy, Madison Racquel Wadsworth

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

After the devastating attacks on American soil on September 11th, 2001, the world's perceptions of security changed forever. Immediately following the attacks, the United States government passed the USA PATRIOT Act, broadening definitions of terrorism and codifying unconstitutional acts, such as unwarranted searches of private property, indefinite holding of suspected terrorists, and ultimately torturing those suspects. This act has had several long term implications leading to a reduction in the quality of American democracy, which subsequently affected other liberal democracies around the world through violations of basic democratic principles, or civil liberties, such as: due process, physical attacks, and freedom …

The Art Of Seduction: Male Perceptions Of Sexual Willingness, Lisa Starrett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The body of sexual assault research historically focuses on survivors, specifically female survivors. Examining male perpetrators is an important gap in the literature. Research demonstrates that men often misperceive the sexual willingness of female partners. Additionally, men predominantly react with guilt, shame, and depression when accused of sexual assault (Brennan, Swartout, Cook, & Parrot, 2018). The current study examined men’s perceptions of non-consensual dating advice as provided by a best-selling men’s dating book. We found several factors that related to higher endorsement of the non-consensual tactics, including past or present involvement in a fraternity, knowing a sexual assault perpetrator, living …

Limits Of Growth: An Ecological Approach To Mainstream Economics, Jacob Cannon Alder

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Modern economists today rely on several fundamental assumptions in the same way physicists rely on laws governing energy and motion. Economists use growth—ideally unrestricted growth—as the key assumption upon which they build models and policy recommendations. The central economic theory explains that growth will enhance individual well-being over time. However, every known physical system has boundaries beyond which it will collapse, and the observed reality is that economic growth cannot be separated from physical resource consumption. As a result, many societies are overshooting physical, ecological boundaries. This project focuses on a few of the complexities generated by a growth-oriented economy …

Get Out, Hiroki Tanaka: Asian-American Characters In Black Films And Black Activism, Naomi Yoko Ward

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship Asian-Americans have with black Americans in order to determine how Asian Americans navigate their role in American racial discourse. Additionally, this study considers the causes and effects of Asian-American participation in movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM). This topic is explored through the analysis of Asian-American characters in black stories told through four films: Fruitvale Station, Get Out, The Hate U Give, and Sorry to Bother You. To narrow the scope of this research, I placed focus on characters in works that have been published since 2013, when the …

The Effectiveness Of Education Aid In Kenya: Using Women's Access To Education As An Indicator Of Welfare, Dawn Dimick

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Global Journal reported an estimated 10 million NGOs worldwide and in Kenya alone, the number rose to 11,262 by June 2019 (Non-Governmental Organizations Co-ordination Board, 2019). Though committed to alleviating the same issues, the existence of so many organizations breeds vast differences in approaches. Are the issues simply too complex for a handful of organizations to fix or are the organizations themselves becoming an integral part of the problem? Most organizations fall short in evaluating their effectiveness, partly because there is no standard model by which to measure success. While it would be nearly impossible to design a perfect …

'Queertility', Daniel Thomas Bixby Sykes

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Daniel Sykes, an Anthropology student at Utah State University used his Honors Capstone opportunity to understand the evolution of reproduction over the course of two semesters. During Fall of 2019, he focused on overviewing what Biological Archaeologists, Biologists, and Chemists understand of the evolution of various forms of reproduction from the distant past. During the Spring, he focused on the cutting edge allopathic research in fertility treatments and some of the social implications. Sykes posits that human society has the opportunity to treat infertility in the queer (lgbtqia+) community, given these up-and-coming treatments, even those forms of infertility that arise …

Medicaid Expansion And Diagnosis-Targeted Cost Shifting Behavior: The Case Of Diabetic Treatment And Insulin Pricing, Hayden Garff Hubbard

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Nine years after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and five years after the Medicaid expansion roll-out, the debate and cost-benefit analysis on U.S. health reform rages on. While many impacts of the ACA remain unmeasured or inconclusive due to mixed research claims and the complexities inherent to healthcare, widespread research interest on the effects of Medicaid expansion have led to some early findings regarding cost, access and quality.

Natural History Field Guide: Common Ground Outdoor Adventures, Casey Ann Trout

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Common Ground Outdoor Adventures (Common Ground) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Logan, Utah. Americorps VISTA volunteer Kate Stephens initially founded Common Ground in 1993 to enhance adaptive recreational opportunities for individuals with physical disabilities in the Cache Valley community. The organization has grown since that time and is now a fully-staffed entity which annually serves 3,600 individuals. It works with individuals with a variety of disabilities, including cognitive, physical, and emotional. Considering that there are systematic and social barriers to individuals with disabilities participating in outdoor recreation activities, the role that Common Ground plays to provide opportunities to these …

How Can Occupational Licensing Reforms Improve Access To Dental Care?, Jacob M. Caldwell, Brian Isom

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Occupational licensing laws have a large effect on the American economy and requirements affect all levels of professional work, from hairdressers and plumbers to doctors and lawyers.Those laws vary by state and exist to protect consumers from asymmetric information problems. Yet a growing body of literature finds that occupational licensing raises costs for consumers without necessarily raising the quality of service.

The dental field is one such sector of employment that commonly is licensed. Oral health is an important indicator of overall individual health and general wellbeing. Unfortunately, consumers lack access to dental care in many parts of the United …

Cultural Tactics Of Salvadoran Gangs Offer Chance For Us To Weaken Ms-13, Hannah Penner

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper uses the Cultural Topography framework employed by the intelligence community to assess cultural factors of the MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) gang organization that have policy relevance to US national security. MS-13, though originally founded in the 1980s in a small sector of LA, has evolved into an international gang with a reputation of ultraviolence with a recent increase in gang activity. By striving to explore components of MS-13's identity, values, norms of behavior, and perceptions, this research can be used to create a more timely and effective strategy in combatting the present MS-13 threat within the United States. After …

How Children Describe Negative Adoption Experiences, Mckenzie Paskett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Adoption faces stigmas from society which affects peoples' perceptions of adoptees, their birth parents, and adoptive parent s; one of the most prominent being that adoption is the "second best" route to getting children (Baxter, Norwood, Asbury, & Scharp , 2014). Adoption success is mixed with some adapting well, while others have negative experience s. Studying themes about how and why negative adoption experiences happen could be beneficial to preventing them in the future. There is a unique perspective between parents and children and so the central research question for this study is: how do children describe their negative adoption …

Rise Of The Kkk: Political Rhetoric Of The 1920s Ku Klux Klan In The West, Justine S. I. Larsen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Recent works illustrate the significance of understanding the nuances of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s in the context of demographic and geographic differences. Using archival documents, newspaper records, and published works, this analysis dissects the differences in the Klan's ideology manifested within Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. Categorizing the Klan as a violent, extremist group with great political influence does not accurately describe any one of the Klans in these three states. While the Klan in Oregon and Idaho demonstrated varying levels of political power throughout their respective states, Utah's unique mostly homogenous religious, and therefore political, environment rendered …

Archaeological Analysis Of Bison Remains From Wilde Cave, Idaho, Michelle A. Platt

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Wilde cave is a lava tube located in Southeast Idaho on BLM lands. Recent investigations recovered a skeletal collection represented at least nine bison, as well as several other taxa. After many hours in the archaeology lab at Utah State University, identification of the collection shows the most prominent carcass parts represent fore and hind limbs, while vertebrae and ribs were least common. Also present was limited evidence of butchery-burning and cut marks-and carnivore modification on the skeletal collection. Given these observations, density mediated attrition and utility indices were used to better understanding the patterns in the archaeological bison bone. …

Crowdsourcing Consciousness: You Think, Therefore I Am, Justin M. Campbell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The challenge to understand consciousness is a centuries-old interdisciplinary research program. The search entails fundamental questions about our nature - the desire to understand who we are has been around for nearly as long as experience itself. It is also one of the most important questions we can ask; meaning itself is predicated on having some sort of conscious experiencer for whom something can matter. Given the magnitude and intractability of explaining the paradox of how consciousness can be at once the most obvious thing in the universe, and also the most inaccessible, the endeavor is a tremendous undertaking. Until …

The Nfl And Trump: Did Protesting Cause The Decline?, Jameson Osmond

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project is a study in econometric modeling of the effects of the protests of the national anthem in the NFL during the 2016-2017 seasons. The project is created to determine the accuracy or lack thereof of President Donald Trump's statement that the cause of the decline in viewership and ratings (and thus business) of NFL games was caused by protests that deterred US viewers.

Using viewership and rating data, along with various protest indexes created by collecting game-level protest data, an econometric model was constructed to allow for control over various endogenous and exogenous variables that surround NFL in-season …

Young Women's Sexist Beliefs And Internalized Misogyny: Links With Psychosocial And Relational Functioning And Sociopolitical Behavior, Audrianna Dehlin

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Past literature has examined the impacts of sexism and its correlates. In this study, religious fundamentalism and relationship quality were identified as important factors related to sexist attitudes and internalize d misogyny. Two hundred ten women, ages 18-25, completed a survey including the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale, Attitudes Toward Women Scale, Internalized Misogyny Scale, and Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Higher religious fundamentalism was associated with lower relationship quality, mediated by internalized misogyny, traditional gender roles, and hostile sexism. While mental health outcomes were also collected, associations proved to be insignificant. The intersection of sexist attitudes and internalized …

An Analysis Of State Heterogeneity And Voting Patterns In The United States Senate, Tessa Ray Carver

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The United States Senate is one of the major legislating forces in the United States and can make policy impacts that can have significant impacts for the entire nation. The two major political parties in the U.S. have significant influence on the members of this body, yet they are elected to represent each of the different states. Previous research has shown that states and districts can vary significantly in their political leanings and preferences, even from the party that is considered the majority in that area. The purpose of this study is to investigate several forces that may influence members' …