Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Psychological Predictors Of Success In Bariatric Surgery Patients: A Meta-Analytic Review, Elizabeth C. Thompson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Background: Bariatric weight loss surgeries are an increasingly popular last resort option for obese individuals attempting to lose weight. Though these surgeries often produce substantial weight loss outcomes, especially in a short-term follow-up period, many individuals that undergo these procedures are unable to achieve long-term weight loss success. Within the bariatric surgery literature several psychological variables have been implicated in this long-term failure to maintain weight loss. Purpose: This study was designed to assess the effects of psychological variables on weight loss success after surgery through a meta-analytic review. Methods: The effect sizes from 10 studies were calculated and combined …

Moral Emotion Regulation: The Case Of Abortion Attitudes, Steven Nydick

Honors Capstone Projects - All

With regard to moral judgments. Lawrence Kohlberg claimed that reason and logic lead to answers about right and wrong. By contrast, Jonathan Haidt proposed an “emotivist” theory of morality in which feelings take center stage. I tested Haidt’s theory of moral judgment by showing 59 college undergraduate participants an abortion video while instructing them to increase, decrease, or make no attempt to change their level of emotion during the video. I found that the video succeeded at both increasing negative emotions (particularly disgust) and changing abortion attitudes to a more pro-life stance. Furthermore, the moral views of participants asked to …

Interference Of L1 English In L2 French Lexical Processing, Sarah Kuhn

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This study examines the interference, if any, caused by a first language (specifically English) in the processing of lexical items in a second language (French). Participants performed a computer-based translation recognition task where they were asked whether a pair of words, one French and the other English, represented an acceptable translation. Six different types of critical pairs were randomly alternated with actual translation pairs and unrelated distractor pairs. Each of the different categories of critical pairs had a different relationship with the L1 word, the L2 word, or both. Participants’ scores on this task were then analyzed to determine the …

The U.S./Canada Safe Third Country Agreement: A Geographical Evaluation, Sarah Anne Ryman

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The U.S./Canadian border is in the process of being renegotiated as a result of larger processes of redefining and reimagining sovereign territories inNorth America. New understandings ofU.S.and Canadian state sovereignty are creating a conflated “other” of cross-border flows: an illegitimate migrant figure who is securitized, criminalized and disembodied. The contemporary “othering” of the migrant has serious human rights implications such as the restriction of access to refugee protection. U.S.and Canadian states share an agenda of migration control executed through the manipulation of geography and the figure of the migrant.

On paper, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) aims to enhance …

Earnings Effects Of Sexual Orientation Revisited: Evidence From The Cps, Clay Rehrig

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Objective. To measure the wage premium or penalty associated with sexual orientation of partnered lesbians and gays and to compare these estimates with those produced using smaller sample sizes and alternative definitions of homosexuality.

Data Source and Sampling Methods. Data are drawn from the Current Population Survey, produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. Extracting household information from the out-going March rotation provides a sample of 37,000 households interviewed in the years 1995 and 2000. Only workers living with a partner are included in the analysis.

Study Design. Following the methodology used by Black et al. (2003), this study uses a …

The Influence Of Hunger On Attitudes: Does It Go Beyond Foods?, Euiyoung Kate Min

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of hunger on attitudes (self-reports and corresponding reaction times) toward foods and non-foods (people). Participants rated their attitudes toward pictures of foods and pictures of people (older and younger males and females) along several evaluative scales (global attitudes and attitudinal bases) while reaction times were recorded. This was done twice (once when hungry, once not), in sessions separated by one week. Consistent with previous research, hunger differentially impacted ratings of the information underlying attitudes. For example, for foods, ratings of negative affect information changed more as a function of hunger …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Impact Of Health Journalism Through Women's Magazines, Abigail Cuffey

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The first women’s magazines date back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Throughout the years, they continue to advise, entertain, and give a voice to women. This paper examines one particular area: health journalism, an area that offers the potential for a substantial impact on readers’ health and lifestyle. This thesis explores the potential impact through interviewing the health editors and writers, as well as the readers themselves. The thesis also profiles a pioneer health writer, Barbara Seaman, whose decades of health writing for women’s magazines served as a catalyst for change on several critical women’s issues. Seaman’s work …

The Media’S Influence In Everyday Life On Women’S Perception Of Body Image, Sarah Christian

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Many women are not satisfied with their current body figures and frequently attempt to improve their figure. Body image discrepancies occur when a comparison between “actual” self to either “ought” or “ideal” selves don’t match up. If there is a difference between these two self-guides then a discrepancy exists. According to a national survey, half of women report negative evaluations of their appearance and worry about being or becoming overweight. One of the strongest socio-cultural pressures that women face with their body image is the media, such as magazines and television. Studies have shown that when exposed to thin body …

Hamas: From “Terrorist” Organization To Governing Party The Implications Of Hamas’S 2006 Electoral Victory, Heather Freitag

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“Peace in the Middle East.” As a child, I had always assumed this phrase was in reference to a specific conflict or war that would soon be over; however, peace in the Middle Eastnow seems to be a process of huge proportions with no visible end. Numerous conflicts encompass the problems in the Middle East, most of which have been exacerbated by ineffectual and biased American foreign policy. Of these conflicts, one of the most long-standing and heartbreaking is between the Israelis and Palestinians. With the unequivocal support of the US, Israelhas largely been able to pursue whatever policy it …