Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The 2015 Ncaa Cost-Of-Attendance Stipend And Its Effects On Institutional Financial Aid Packages, Sara Greene

Honors Theses

In 2015, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) allowed “Cost of Attendance” (COA) stipends to be offered to athletic recruits for Division I schools. These stipends are intended to allow schools to grant aid to student-athletes beyond a full-ride scholarship to cover additional costs imposed on student-athletes. These stipends created an opportunity for the “Autonomy” Power 5 programs to utilize a competitive tactic to try to win over the top recruits. There is evidence that these COA stipends have caused an increase in the estimated cost of attendance reported by the university. This paper examines if the COA stipends have …

Policy Design And The Lived Experience Of The Poor: A Test Of Policy Feedback Effects And Efficacy, Ava Gural

Honors Theses

As American political actors have framed poverty as a choice made by the unambitious, it has become clear that our society has a pervasive misunderstanding of poverty. Policy Feedback Theorists assert that the design of our welfare policies contributes to this fallacy, raising the question of whether there is a relationship between policy design and the way citizens act and feel. This thesis uses quantitative data from the American Citizen Participation Study and qualitative data from two original interviews to test the existence of “policy feedback effects” on program participants’ feelings of efficacy. Quantitative evidence suggests limited evidence of policy …

Vietnam’S Gdp: Re-Assessing Growth Rate And Identifying An Alternative Indicator, My Linh D. Nguyen

Honors Theses

Since the economic reform known as Doi Moi (Renovation) in 1986, Vietnam has changed from one of the world’s poorest to a middle-income country in one generation (USAID, 2022). The country has consistently registered high and stable economic growth since the reform, averaging 6.3% from 1985 to 2021 (World Bank, 2022). High growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) is good news, but it has also raised questions that go both ways. On one side, there is much speculation that the government of Vietnam has manipulated economic statistics, compared to the case of China and India. As quoted in Kinh …

Do Traits Of Autism Spectrum Disorder In The Typically Developing Population Relate To Early Face Processing As Measured By The N170 And N250 Neural Signals?, Anna Murdock

Honors Theses

This exploratory study used electrophysiology to examine whether traits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the typically developing population are related to early face processing. Previous literature has found mixed results about whether event-related potential (ERP) components appear differently in people with ASD, but two components that might be related to the observed deficit in face processing are the N170 component, which reflects the structural encoding of faces, and the N250 component, which reflects the individuation of faces. The present study analyzed data collected as part of the PURSUE EEG database. As part of the database, participants completed the …

Why Diversity Is Not Enough: Perceptions Of University Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Initiatives Predict Institutional Belonging, Mckennah Lauber

Honors Theses

Belonging, including feelings of being valued in a larger institutional space, is important to student overall well-being. For students of color attending Primarily White Institutions (PWIs) (and other historically marginalized group members), institutional belonging maybe partially dependent on how they perceive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. This study aims to assess individual differences in how DEI initiatives are experienced by students at PWIs in order to better understand how experiences of DEI initiatives on campuses may differentially impact students of color compared to White students. Belonging for students of color was found to be contingent on their perceptions of …

Esg Reporting And Its Effect On Financial Performance Of Oil, Gas, And Utility Companies In The United States, Logan Lam

Honors Theses

According to the Harvard Business Review article ESG Investing Isn’t Designed to Save the Plant (Pucker and King 2022), the term ESG investments – which stands for environmental, social, and governance investing – often confuses investors because it is unregulated. Additionally, the author continued to claim that the data is outdated and mostly unaudited. Even if data on these investments is available to investors, it can still be challenging for them to make decisions regarding ESG. Trusting compatibility and accuracy can be difficult considering that companies can choose how to produce or calculate their own ESG data. Another claim that …

Understanding And Addressing Disparities In Kidney Transplantation Access: A Focus On Disability And Other Identities, Razan Khalil

Honors Theses

The global prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is estimated to be between 8.7% and 18.4% (Samuels et. al, 2022), with approximately 843.6 million Americans having been diagnosed with one of the 5 stages of CKD in 2022 (Kovesdy, 2022). As of 2021, 1 in 7 adults were affected, which was about 37 million Americans according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2021). CKD is a long-term condition in which the kidneys gradually lose function, leading to a buildup of waste and fluids in the body. This can result in a variety of symptoms, including high blood …

The Effects Of Positive Anticipation On Optimistic Cognitive Bias And Emotional Resilience In Rats, Megan Hooper

Honors Theses

The anticipation of positive events and optimism have been shown to improve health and emotional states in rats and humans. The current study is interested in the impact of positive anticipation on optimistic cognitive bias and emotional resilience, as well as neural markers of resilience. Male (n = 12) and female (n = 12) rats were assigned to either unpredictable positive expectancy response (UPER) training or the control (CON) group (n = 6 per group). Optimism was assessed using an ambiguous cue test (ACT) in which the rats were trained to associate a specific visual pattern with a high-value (Froot …

The Parental Labor Gap: The Impact Of Daycare Access On The Parental Labor Force During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Acacia Wyckoff

Honors Theses

In the two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the landscape for work has shifted dramatically. Many companies and employers switched to telework when the pandemic hit, and many still do not require workers to come into the office. Research suggests these COVID-induced changes have led to a closing of the gap in childcare duties between men and women in households. Comparing parents in positions with telework eligibility versus in-person positions, Heggeness and Suri (2022) found that while telework improved the labor participation rate of mothers slightly, there was still a major gap in labor force participation between mothers and …

Maladaptive Social Cognitions And Peer Victimization In Elementary-Aged Students, Katelyn Szarko

Honors Theses

Among elementary-aged students, peer victimization is common and is associated with psychological maladjustment and poor academic achievement. Students with maladaptive social cognitions, like low social competence and low perceived control, are more likely to be victimized, but having a supportive teacher and/or a positive classroom climate might help to mitigate this association. This study aimed to answer the question of whether teacher support and classroom climate protect against peer victimization for students with maladaptive social cognitions. It was hypothesized that teacher support and classroom climate will separately moderate the link between social competence/perceived control and subsequent peer victimization such that …

Breaking Into Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center: A Lesson In (Non) Quantitative Research, Mackenzie Seward

Honors Theses

Gaps in the literature on juvenile justice and mental health within a juvenile correctional center prompted a study that focused on self-esteem, emotions, and empathy in residents living in a juvenile correctional center related to their participation in a storytelling course. First-year students from a local university visited the correctional center as part of a community-based learning component. They met with residents to swap stories about their lives. Several limitations and obstacles complicated the data collection process, forcing the researchers to pivot their study from quantitative analyses to qualitative observations. The experience of conducting a study within a juvenile correctional …

A Necessary Evil: A Leadership Analysis Of Major League Baseball’S Best Managers, Samuel Shapiro

Honors Theses

This study aims to contribute to the literature assessing the success of baseball managers relative to the context that governed their roles. More specifically, it seeks to address the presence of universal leadership styles, traits, and characteristics that have persisted across different eras and contexts.

The Project That Claire, Uh I Mean The Student Completed: Relative Clauses And Repair Disfluencies, Claire O’Shaughnessy

Honors Theses

Several areas of psycholinguistics focus on the role of memory in language processing. Two of these areas are repair disfluencies and complex syntactic structures; however, these two topics have traditionally been investigated completely separately from one another. The current experiment combines these two topics by presenting listeners with spoken sentences containing subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs) and object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs) in which the semantic similarity between the critical noun phrases (NPs) was manipulated. In addition, the sentences could be spoken fluently, or there could be a repair disfluency in which the reparandum contained information that would be potentially helpful in …

Justifying Antipathy?: Examining Racialized Perceptions Of Incarceration And Support For Mental Healthcare In Prisons, Jared Brassil

Honors Theses

The current U.S. criminal justice system has a disproportionate number of people suffering from mental illness. Additionally, many of these prisons not only lack the ability to properly treat these individuals, but in some cases may even worsen the problem. Public support, and importantly whom the public thinks the prototypical prisoner is, is important to know when advocating for reform. This research aims to investigate whether or not racialized perceptions of the U.S. criminal justice system impact support for mental healthcare reform in prisons. Given the exploratory nature of this work, potentially relevant individual difference variables are also investigated. An …

The Effects Of Motivational Intervention On College Students In Asynchronous Classes, Abigail Perkins

Honors Theses

Procrastination is one of the most common behaviors that interfere with student success (Liu et al., 2020). It affects student performance and has long-lasting effects on motivation. Several studies have shown that motivational interventions can reduce procrastination levels (Liu et al., 2020). Goal setting has been particularly successful (Grunschel et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2020; Schwinger et al., 2009). The present study is focused on the evaluation of whether proximal goal setting will affect academic procrastination in an online, asynchronous class. Seventy-eight undergraduate students enrolled in such a class were invited to participate in this study. Participants were randomly …

The Influence Of Motivation To Control Prejudice On Facial Processing Flexibility In Individuals Who Identify As Biracial, Chloë Steckart

Honors Theses

Facial processing is one of the most important and immediate aspects of cognition (Jaeger, 2019; Kovács, 2020). Race is an extremely salient facial processing cue that has immediate and long-term impacts on how we interact with others (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008; Senholzi & Ito, 2013; Blascovich et al., 2017; Kawakami et al., 2022). Race is a powerful in-group in American contexts, and race cues in facial processing play a part in determining in- and out-group members (Tropp & Wright, 2001; Castano et al., 2002).

We investigated how race impacts the facial processing of individuals who identify as Biracial and whether, …

Catholicism Online: How The Church Is Communicating In The Visual Field, Alexandra Barfield

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

Given the rise and importance of social media in the last two decades, religious institutions, especially the Roman Catholic Church, have an important place online to fulfill their mission and belief of spreading the Gospel message. Communicating this message on social media and with contemporary marketing practices is an opportunity and a challenge for churches, Catholics, and apostolates alike. In this study, I analyze a variety of Catholic-related Instagram accounts and interview individuals involved in Church management and content creation. This primary research is prefaced with secondary research exploring the status of the Catholic Church in the United States, …

The Role Of Community Outreach Programs In Partnership With The University Of Mississippi In Combating Food Insecurity In The Oxford/Lafayette Area, Gabrielle Miller

Honors Theses

Grow Club is a community outreach programming effort that was formed in Oxford, Mississippi in the fall of 2020 by University of Mississippi undergraduate students. The program works towards bringing community members as well as university students and staff together in attempts at alleviating many stressors felt by local community members living in poverty. This written work aims to offer a breakdown of how this program began and the steps taken to recognize a community need, formulate solutions, and work with the community to offer resources.

Offense Or Defense? Leadership Of The Nba And Nfl In Response To Athlete Activism, Katrina Hale

Honors Theses

Over the past decade, the Black community of the United States has faced great discrimination and violence leading to various protests and instances of activism across the county. In the world of sports, where one may think that political engagement has no relation, some Black athletes use their platforms to speak up about these issues. The National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) recruit the largest percentage of Black athletes compared to any other professional league in the U.S., but their reactions to racial activism on the field and on the court appear very different. In order …

The Effect Of Youth Sports Participation On Health Outcomes For Immigrants In The United States, Emma Kennedy

Honors Theses

My study investigates the relationship between youth sports participation and health outcomes for immigrants using a quantitative statistical analysis of secondary data. Given the theory behind the relationships between physical activity level, sense of community, and health outcomes, I test the hypothesis that immigrants are positively impacted by youth sports participation on a significantly higher level compared to non-immigrants. Using Stata as my statistical analysis software tool, I measure the associations between immigrant status, sports participation, and various indicators of health such as BMI and reports of chronic illness. I found that sports participation is associated with improved general health …

Generative Beauty: How Engaging With Beauty Sparks Transformation, Rebecca Byrd Musser

Honors Theses

“Be the change you wish to see in the world,” declared Mahatma Gandhi. There is a profound awareness of the need for change as individuals reflect on the impact of global and system challenges as well as community challenges. People cannot just “be the change” until they themselves are first changed. Beauty is a powerful catalyst for change that begins with the individual, expanding to the community. To solve community problems, program designers must find a way to unleash untapped creativity. This study explores the impact of engaging beauty via the arts (paintings, Mary Oliver poetry, and The Lark …

Assessing The Dynamic Amongst Self-Compassion, Connection To Nature, And Well-Being, Yueyi Fan

Honors Theses

In 2015, the United Nations deemed promoting individual well-being of paramount importance, along with seventeen other sustainable development goals (to be achieved by 2030). Unfortunately, overall mental health has taken sharp declines with the unprecedented onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (OECD, 2021). According to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the prevalence of anxiety and depression has increased globally; it has doubled or more than doubled as compared to previous years (OECD, 2021). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported increasing levels of adverse mental health conditions, substance use, and suicidal …

Capturing The Racial Identities Of Latiné Students At A Mid-Size Texas University, Marlena Sandoval

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Far From Home, Daniela Matta Chang

Honors Theses

Far From Home is a video documentary that focuses on International Students and their experiences of studying abroad. This documentary explores certain aspects of moving to the US for college, such as the motivation behind this significant decision, while shedding light on potential challenges that these students may encounter along their journey. Participants from different countries share their personal experiences and thoughts. Through candid interviews, they answer questions addressing a wide range of topics, including education, culture, language, social life and work opportunities. The participants in the documentary are all college students who moved to the United States specifically to …

Act And Cbt: A Comparison Of Predictors For Depression And Anxiety, Madeline Yorke

Honors Theses

Depression and anxiety are among the most commonly diagnosed mental health issues in the United States and across the world. Given the increasing prevalence of both diagnoses, the science community has emphasized research in the treatment of disorders, including therapies. Two common treatments used are Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT operates on the theory of psychological flexibility as its core construct. CBT uses repetitive negative thoughts and worry as its core constructs. The overall purpose of the study is to determine how well ACT variables compared to CBT variables explain the variation in depression …

The Importance Of The United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: A Study On Mali, The Democratic Republic Of Congo, And South Sudan, Tess Whitehurst

Honors Theses

This thesis presents the history of UN peacekeeping and how it has evolved over time to create more effective solutions to peacebuilding. This is done by providing a comparison of the backgrounds of three different peacekeeping missions, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), with a historical and demographical background on the host country in order to demonstrate the importance of peacekeeping on that country. Through critical research of peer reviewed sources and contextual information from …

Impact Of Cultural Perceptions Of Education On Mental Health Outcomes Among Asian And Asian-American Students, Firzana Syazania

Honors Theses

Many Asian countries are greatly influenced by Confucianism and are labelled Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) countries (Tan & Yates, 2010). Confucianism incorporates teachings of filial piety, respect for elders, emphasis of social values, benevolence, and the importance of education ("Confucius”; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021). In CHC countries and other Asian countries like India, bringing honor and pride to one’s family is highly valued. In India, bringing honor to one’s family through obtaining a career with a higher salary could be perceived as a form of duty to one’s family. These values are taught and emphasized at an early age, …

A Gis And Economic Analysis Into Solar Electricity Generation Siting Within The Greater Kalamazoo Area, Devon Kelly

Honors Theses

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains a significant number of incentives, both grants and loans, for state and local governments to institute clean energy-related projects. As such, and to aid in the development of decision-making support tools for solar investments in the City of Kalamazoo, this research contains a ground-mounted solar project suitability map with an additional development siting potential map for the municipal government of Kalamazoo. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and specific parcel-by-parcel siting potential of land for the construction of solar projects in the Kalamazoo Area. In doing so, …

Ivermectin: Covid-19 "Miracle Cure?": A Case Study On Public Health Communication To Combat Disinformation, Ashley Dittmar

Honors Theses

Communicating accurate health information to the public has always been a vital role of public health professionals. This role became especially prominent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, when public health professionals had the challenge of sharing up-to-date information about a novel coronavirus while other messages about the virus - both true and false - were being spread by other entities. This paper focuses on one case of intentionally incorrect information (disinformation) that was spread during the COVID-19 pandemic, purporting anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as a “miracle cure” for COVID-19. This case study is analyzed through the lens of the Media …

Elementary School Parent Perceptions Of “Critical Race Theory” In The Curriculum, Helen Wallace

Honors Theses

Critical Race Theory (CRT) implementations within educational settings is a controversial and polarizing concept in the American political climate. Many Americans are strongly opposed to the idea of CRT within the classroom due to a misguided belief that children have no idea what race or racism is until it is taught to them explicitly. On the other hand, proponents of CRT argue that teaching children to ignore race further perpetuates racial discrimination and prevents children from adequately understanding racial injustice. There is currently a lack of research investigating perceptions of CRT implementations in education among parents. This research aimed to …