Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Analysis Of Demand-Pull Inflation In The United States Post-Pandemic, Isabella A. Moynihan

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global shutdown of the economy resulting from both demand and supply shocks. Also, the significant decline in output and employment in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic led to a fast reaction from the government in the form of large fiscal rescue packages. At the end of 2021, the acceleration of inflation, which had been dormant for more than four decades, became the main topic of macroeconomic debates. The debate has revolved around the influence of cost-push versus demand-pull causes of inflation. The dominant view in the United States has been that inflation resulted …

Women Leaders In The Baltic States: Untying The Double-Bind, Elena G. Roe

Honors Theses

Across the post-Soviet region, but particularly in the Baltic states, women executives have gained power in greater numbers and at higher rates than many other regions in the world. This defies existing literature, as these states maintain conservative gender stereotypes while also facing a major security threat from Russia close to their borders. This thesis posits that the increase in women within Baltic legislatures across time creates a political pipeline, or a pool of qualified candidates that makes the election of women to executive power more likely. This is not the only factor, however, as the influence of NATO as …

What If There's No One Pulling The Strings? A Cultural Theoretical Account Of Trumpism And Big Tent Conspiracy Theories, John V. Mirsky

Honors Theses

Advancing contemporary work in the sociology of culture that contends the importance of structural explanations in the “post-truth age,” this paper contends a relationship between the contemporary appeal of the QAnon and Anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, nationalist populism, and Enlightenment Project’s valorization of knowledge dissemination. In order to locate themes in the discourse of QAnon and Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, I analyze social media messages on the avenues in which the theories most widely circulate and documentary films created by purveyors of the theories. Applying cultural theory to empirically-documented trends in social psychology, I argue that two structural currents associated with the …

The Labor Share In The Post-1980 Economy: An Analysis Of The Contributing Factors, Mia Bellucci

Honors Theses

During the Neoliberal period, which roughly began in the early 1980s in the U.S., there was a substantial slowdown in the growth rate of real hourly compensation, while productivity had continued to grow. The last two decades of the Neoliberal period (2000 – 2020) also experienced somewhat of a substantial decline in the labor share. In recent decades, there has been a growing amount of literature attempting to explain the major factors that have contributed to these recent labor market developments. This study provides a means of investigating the changes in the labor share and its components (i.e., real hourly …

Redlining And Opioid Overdose Outcomes: Do Historical Housing Policies Still Impact Health Today?, Sahana Paravantavida

Honors Theses

This study examines the relationship between historical housing policies and current health outcomes, specifically the impact of redlining on opioid overdose rates. Using data collected from the state of New Jersey, neighborhoods with a history of redlining have higher rates of opioid overdose deaths. My findings suggest that historical housing policies, which systematically excluded certain populations from accessing affordable housing and resources, continue to impact health outcomes today.

Environmental Policy Implementation And Electoral Institutions In Germany And Japan, Kaia Rendo

Honors Theses

In an era when attention to reconstruction and preservation of the environment is crucial, this thesis looks at the effect that electoral institutions have on attention paid to the environmental policy issue dimension. Specifically, it looks at party manifestos and policies in post-1980 Germany and Japan to determine if specific electoral structures, such as the number of parties in a system, correlates with a greater amount of either attention paid to environmental policy in party platforms or in the actual passing of policy. It finds that though both Germany and Japan employ multi-member proportional systems, the greater number of parties …

Deconstructing Campus Sexual Assault Among Black Students: An Assessment Of Campus Climate At Predominately White Institutions, Ariana A. Gambrell

Honors Theses

Interpersonal violence is a prominent issue on university and college campuses within the United States. Women attending college are a particularly vulnerable population to experiencing sexual violence. Many of the previous research studies have focused on white women in relation to campus sexual assault (CSA). The primary goal of the present study is to measure the prevalence of sexual assault within minority based populations on campus. Previous research studies have found members of minoritized groups to be at a higher risk of experiencing campus interpersonal violence than are White Women, people without disabilities, and cisgender individuals. In addition, being apart …

City Flags And The Politics Of Urban Revitalization: The Case Of Syracuse, Ny, Grace Risinger

Honors Theses

People tend to care about flags, but are not aware that their city has a flag. A recent wave of flag redesigns has been happening in the United States since a 2015 TED Talk was posted widely criticizing city flags. This subject prompted my professor, Daniel Alvord, to ask for a research assistant for his project to understand this phenomenon. For my thesis, I focus on a specific flag redesign initiative in Syracuse, NY, through an ethnographic case study. By applying previous urban sociological literature to my focus on flag redesigns, I can connect the Syracuse community member’s increased civic …

The Underrepresentation Of Women In Japanese Politics: Through The Lens Of Sekuhara, Sexism, And Media Rhetoric, Elizabeth L. Whitmer

Honors Theses

Despite being a democratic and economically successful country, women in Japanese politics are extremely underrepresented. Since institutional factors do not explicitly prohibit women from holding office, this project turns to cultural factors to analyze this problem. Issues such as strict gender roles, sexual harassment, and rhetoric surrounding women politicians are some factors contextualizing the lives of Japanese women. In order to better understand these cultural barriers, this project turns to content analysis of news media in Japan to consider the ways in which women politicians are framed to the electorate, which may thus explain the low rates of elected women.

Earnings Gap Between Urban And Rural Migrant Workers In Vietnam, Kristen Le

Honors Theses

This thesis studies whether there is an earnings disparity between urban and rural migrant workers in Vietnam’s urban areas and whether that earnings gap is due to individual characteristics and human capital levels or other unobserved factors. In this paper, urban workers, or urban residents, are workers who have household registration status in the urban cities where they work. On the other hand, rural migrant workers, or rural-to-urban migrants, are defined as workers who live and work in urban cities but have their registered household statuses in other rural areas. Using the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) in 2008, …

Environmental Racism In Baltimore: A Geographical Study Into The Connections Between Environmental Toxins And Public Health, Genevieve Block

Honors Theses

An investigation into the relationship between environmental toxins and environmental racism in Baltimore City, Maryland.

Blacking Out, Hooking Up, And Sexual Assault On Bucknell's Campus, Lily Shorney

Honors Theses

Sexual assault is a prominent issue on college campuses across the United States with detrimental impacts for individuals as well their surrounding communities. Two prominent risk factors for campus sexual assault (CSA) identified in the literature are alcohol use and partaking in hookup culture. However, existing research fails to address the specific role of alcohol-induced blackouts within hookups and how this phenomenon is related to CSA. The present study explored the prevalence of alcohol-induced blackouts as well as the relationship between blacking out, hooking up, and CSA. Based on quantitative survey data from 445 university students, analyses indicated that alcohol-induced …

Conditioned Territory Defense In Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina Portentosa), Macy R. Albaitis

Honors Theses

In male blue gourami fish (Trichogaster trichopterus), signaled presentation of a male rival produces an aggressive conditioned response that results in an increased likelihood of the male winning the contest (Hollis, 1984). I replicated this classic study in a species that also shows territorial aggression: the Madagascar hissing cockroach (MHC; Gromphadorhina portentosa). During training, four adult male MHCs were designated as “CS+” animals and received a light (NS) followed by visual access to a rival male (US). Simultaneously, another group of four adult male MHCs designated as “UNC” animals received the light (NS) and visual access to a …

The Syntax Of Passives And Related Constructions In Mandarin Chinese, Shangyan Pan

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the Mandarin Chinese passive, a construction that differs in significant ways from its better known, European counterparts. While the passive is one of the most well-studied constructions in syntax, the passive in Chinese remains understudied and not as well understood. The thesis offers an analysis of multiple passive markers in Chinese, focusing on bei and gei. Superficially, the two markers both participate in passive and passive-like constructions. However, upon closer scrutiny, it is demonstrated that only bei qualifies as a true passive marker, while gei is shown to belong to a more general category of Non-Active …

Graduating Greener: Analysis Of A Non-Price Intervention To Encourage Pro-Environmental Behavior Among College Students, Jillie Santos

Honors Theses

According to the Yale Program on Climate Communication, a majority of Americans report worrying about climate change, yet the proportion of Americans who discuss climate change often with friends and family is around half of the worried percentage. This discrepancy illustrates a habit of climate avoidance and climate inaction. Drawing upon psychology and human-centered design, I assisted Dr. Michael A. Smyer in developing Graduating Greener, a workshop aimed at disrupting climate avoidance and promoting pro-environmental behavior through a sequence of social, environmentally-based activities. In this thesis, I investigate concepts from the field of behavioral economics which inform and align with …

Where Girls Rule The World: Lessons For Pakistan In The Bangladeshi Educational Phenomenon, Chanze Ahsan

Honors Theses

In tune with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal and the widespread acceptance of education as a fundamental human right, the deprivation of female education in Pakistan presents an alarming assault on its female population. With this, the historical accident that was the separation of Pakistan and Bangladesh serves as a natural experiment into differences between the countries before and after partition. Despite facing two colonizations, Bangladesh has emerged on the other side of history with promising results regarding the elimination of gender disparities in education. How has it managed to do so? And what can Pakistan learn from its journey? …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Corporate Financial Fragility In The Vietnamese Manufacturing Industry, Trang Nguyen

Honors Theses

In the past decades, under the government’s export-led growth strategy, the Vietnamese manufacturing sector – the backbone of the whole Vietnamese economy – has established a deep tie with the international market and the reliance on foreign buyers has fueled the growth of this sector before COVID-19. However, during the pandemic, when the global market contracted at -3.5 percent and demand slumped globally, this existing growth model and the manufacturing sector’s reliance on foreign buyers induced significant risks to this sector from both the demand and supply side. Using the firm-level data on 41 manufacturing exporting companies from the Vietstock …

The Leveling Spirit: Violence And Inequality In Postwar Iraq, Griffin Perrault

Honors Theses

The Iraq War (2003–2011) constitutes by some estimates one of the deadliest and most destructive conflicts of the 21st century (Hagopian et al., 2013). In addition to the disputed figures of excess violent civilian casualties––generally ranging from 180,000 to 210,000 deaths––the war has created one of the major refugee crises of modern times, with 1 in 25 Iraqis estimated to have been displaced from their homes by the 2003 invasion (Costs of War, 2021). While much of this violence has been wrought by American and Iraqi coalition troops, violence against civilians has also been perpetuated by insurgent groups and paramilitary …

Winner And Loser Effects In Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina Portentosa), Casey Mack

Honors Theses

Winner and loser effects have been documented in many species throughout the animal kingdom, but have yet to be investigated in Madagascar hissing cockroaches. This study seeks to determine if winner or loser effects are present in Madagascar hissing cockroaches. In Experiment 1, three subjects won a training contest and three subjects lost a training contest. Training contest winner and training contest loser subjects were then paired up in test contests. Four of the 6 subjects showed test contest outcomes consistent with their training contest outcomes, but the overall conclusions were ambiguous due to the small sample size. Whether the …

Signs In Sophocles: Modern Approaches To Ptsd In The Ajax, Charlotte Simon

Honors Theses

This project explores the relationship between ancient Greek tragedy and modern psychology, specifically focusing on instances of PTSD, both through the descriptions of symptoms and the cultural reaction to such trauma responses in both ancient and modern sources. The case study from ancient Greece is Sophocles’ play, Ajax, a dramatic depiction of a post-PTSD soldier who has a mental break and is faced with either living with what he has done or committing suicide. The primary objective of this project is to illustrate what modern psychological theory can reveal about the portrayal of PTSD in Greek tragedy and therefore also …

Finding Identity In The Intersections: Transnational Feminism And The Non-Human Primate, Kailyn Carr

Honors Theses

This project examines how the conversations among feminism and primatology offers a unique critical lens into how “man” dominates other identities, whether that be woman or non-human primate, specifically within the rigid colonial structures of Western society. Donna Haraway’s landmark post-humanist work joins these conversations, especially with her earlier work Primate Visions and Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. While Haraway has changed the narrative surrounding feminist theory within the biological sciences – what has now become recognized as feminist science and technology studies –, this shift in perspective continues to emphasize Western ideological practices and their attention to primatology. My …

The Fifth Vital Sign: An Anthropological Analysis Of Productive And Unproductive Pain, Kathleen Meerscheidt

Honors Theses

Throughout my time as a Division I rower, I have struggled to understand the ways that I understand my own normalization of pain within a broader cultural environment that portrays pain as a mostly negative aspect of life. This moral quandary inspired me to start researching the role of pain in different socio-cultural contexts. For my thesis, I conducted original research, in the form of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, to build on what I found through an extensive literature review. First, I looked at the ways in which pain is understood within Western biomedicine and, subsequently, “Western” culture. Within …

Korean Fusion: Consuming A Globalized Korea Through Food And Music, Ashley Hong

Honors Theses

In Koreatown, Los Angeles, one of the largest centers of Korean immigrants in the Western hemisphere, restaurant owners are constantly creating new forms of Korean cuisine that both challenge and preserve traditional methods of Korean culinary methods. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews conducted in Koreatown, Los Angeles in December 2020, I examine how Korean restaurant owners are navigating the current food scene while also maintaining their ethnic identity in a globalized landscape such as Los Angeles. I conceptualize the idea of a “twist” which can be understood as components of fusion food that allow Korean restaurant owners to …

Arab Media's Representation Of Arab-Israeli Normalization Agreements, Rylan L. Forester

Honors Theses

When, on August 13, 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it was normalizing relations with the state of Israel, few could have predicted the effects it would have. However, since the Emirati decision, three other Arab countries - Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco - have reached agreements with Tel Aviv to normalize relations. Such events are a sharp divergence from the status quo and thus, this thesis examines, through the application of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and analyzed through a constructivist framework, how three Arab media sources - Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, and Al-Mayadeen - discuss and represent these normalization agreements. By …

To Believe Or Not To Believe: Voters’ Responses To Sexual Assault Allegations In Politics, Emily Brandes

Honors Theses

Since the viral 2017 #MeToo movement, public opinion on cases of sexual misconduct has been shaped by the mainstream media coverage of high-profile stories. A shift in public attitude towards these issues has encouraged more victims to come forward and share their stories, many detailing harrowing events perpetrated by successful businessmen and politicians. Credible accusations continue to come forward, and while some end in legal action, many do not, and perpetrators face little to no consequences. I examined how individuals respond to issues of sexual misconduct and assault in politics, and based on the severity of the accusation, how they …

The Effects Of Higher Education On Socioeconomic Mobility: A Comparative Analysis Of Outcomes At Bucknell University, Katrien Weemaes

Honors Theses

Income inequality and the lack of higher-education opportunities across the United States often correlate with families' socioeconomic status. In this honors thesis, the following questions will be examined: How does the social mobility of Bucknell Students compare with students from other national universities? How do a student’s race and financial aid status affect their ability to achieve social mobility? How has the rate of social mobility through Bucknell changed in recent years? How does a student’s current family socioeconomic status affect their ability to achieve high-income success upon graduation? Does the level of accessibility to Bucknell change when socioeconomic status …

Biking At Bucknell: The Evaluation Of The Built Environment, Societal Environment, And Individual Behavior And Attitudes In Relation To Biking At Bucknell University, Makenna Cerney

Honors Theses

A biking market in this thesis is defined by three major contributors: (a) the built environment such as the engineering and construction of bike lanes, parking corrals, and other aspects of the physical infrastructure for biking, (b) the societal environment which includes the norms and communal acceptance of biking, and (c) individual beliefs, behaviors and attitudes toward biking. These three areas form the foundation of the factors that stimulate the demand for biking in the biking market, which in turn drives the supply of biking and biking services. This thesis intends to conduct research on the built environment, societal environment, …

Explaining International Donor Rates: The Effects Of Policy-Based Incentives, Elizabeth Laverty-Smith

Honors Theses

Chronic kidney failure is a global health issue that can often require a kidney donation. The supply of available kidneys, however, is limited, leading to a massive international kidney shortage that is growing rapidly each year. In responding to these shortages, perhaps, several countries have implemented policies that incentivize living kidney donation. Estimating the impact of these incentive policies on living kidney donations is important if we are to understand this global health crisis. Although previous studies have discovered a correlation between the incentivizing policies and living kidney donations, there has been little attempt made to control for confounding variables. …

Twelve Angry Men: A Twenty-First Century Reflection Of Race, Art, And Incarceration, Mackenzie A. Gross

Honors Theses

Twelve Angry Men: A Twenty-First Century Reflection of Race, Art and Incarceration is a Comparative and Digital Humanities Honors Thesis concentrating on Africana Studies, theatre, sociology and legal studies to demonstrate the importance of investing in incarcerated communities through theatre and education.

In Chapter I, I critique the loss of identity attached to incarceration, and introduce the foundation for Black bodies individuals being discriminated against in the prosecution system. I analyze the “Punishment vs Progress” mentality, and introduce current educational programs in place in prisons. I elaborate on the details of our production, as well as the makeup of actors. …

Dissociating Socioeconomic Influences On Maternal Language Input And Child Language Outcomes, Klaudia Kulawska

Honors Theses

Early language development is associated with children’s socioeconomic status (SES). Specifically, children from lower SES backgrounds, on average, exhibit slower language development compared to their peers from higher-SES backgrounds. Even though SES is a multidimensional construct, research often relies on a single dimension or a composite measure when studying child language development. In this article, I investigate four dimensions of SES, including maternal education, income-to-needs ratio, financial security, and neighborhood SES. Specifically, I examine whether the quantity and quality of maternal linguistic input mediates the relationships between dimensions of SES and child receptive language skills. Mothers and their 36-40 months …