Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Honors Theses

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication Type

Articles 931 - 960 of 3001

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Case For The Moral Rationale Of Diversity, Will Walker Jr. May 2021

The Case For The Moral Rationale Of Diversity, Will Walker Jr.

Honors Theses

Although there is much literature highlighting the instrumental benefits of diversity (Gurin et al., 2002; Gurin et al., 2004; Hurtado,2006; Jayakumar,2008), little research focuses on the effects of diversity that arise because of moral rationales for diversity. Expanding into the question of diversity rationale’s effect, we in this study measured the relationship between institutional rationales for diversity and undergraduate students’ perceived feelings of belonging. Using one-tailed multivariate analysis of variance (N=257), our results show that the moral rationale for diversity has more beneficial outcomes for undergraduate students, regardless of their race or ethnicity. More specifically, our analyses show that undergraduate …


Doing Good Better: The ‘Do Good’ App, Emily Trumble May 2021

Doing Good Better: The ‘Do Good’ App, Emily Trumble

Honors Theses

Although we all want to do the right thing, doing so reliably is often extremely difficult because we do not always know what the right thing to do is. Personal biases undermine our ability to perceive information in a way that does not favor ourselves. Additionally, even without those biases we often do not have enough information to make adequately informed decisions . The solution to this problem is the Do Good App, an app which would assist people in making the correct decisions. Unlike humans, the Do Good app would not be biased and it would have easy access …


Does Duration Matter?: Assessing The Role Of Duration In Adverse Childhood Experiences, Miranda Thompson May 2021

Does Duration Matter?: Assessing The Role Of Duration In Adverse Childhood Experiences, Miranda Thompson

Honors Theses

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with several negative physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood (Felitti et al., 1998). However, a criticism of the ACEs measure is that it does not account for the duration of these events (McLennan et al., 2020). Thus, I aim to replicate previous ACE findings and determine whether an ACEs measure accounting for duration is a better predictor of mental health outcomes. Methods: 244 adult participants reported on their ACEs with duration and their mental and physical health. Three ACE scales were formulated: the traditional ACEs scale, and two duration-based scales, ACEs Years …


Access Alone: The Unintentionality Of The Diversification Of Higher Education, Katherine Szeluga May 2021

Access Alone: The Unintentionality Of The Diversification Of Higher Education, Katherine Szeluga

Honors Theses

Recently, American colleges and universities have seen an increase in hate and bias incidents. These incidents are, unfortunately, nothing new. In coming to terms with the continuity of discrimination in higher education, history matters. The process of diversification challenged higher education in seen and unforeseen ways. Namely, institutions of higher education often fail to reconcile the distinctions between their stated institutional claims and actual practices. More bluntly, university administrations have not been as intentional about inclusivity and diversity as they would like the public to believe. Many of America’s universities have failed to institute apparati that might allow diversity to …


Religious Tolerance And Anti-Trinitarianism: The Influence Of Socinianism On English And American Leaders And The Separation Of Church And State, Keeley Harris May 2021

Religious Tolerance And Anti-Trinitarianism: The Influence Of Socinianism On English And American Leaders And The Separation Of Church And State, Keeley Harris

Honors Theses

This research focuses on a sect of Christian thinkers who originated in mid-16th century Poland called Socinians. They had radical Christian views built upon ideas from humanism and the Protestant Reformation, including Anti-Trinitarianism and rejecting the divinity of Christ. Most importantly, they believed that in order to follow Christ’s message, separation of church and state and religious toleration were necessary. Socinianism spread across Europe into England, first permeating subtly while England remained intolerant, but it came to the forefront during the English Civil War. Socinian ideas helped further political agendas of Royalists and ultimately influenced Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke …


Power And Performance: The Role Of Witchcraft In The Leadership Of Queen Elizabeth I And James I Of England, Sabrina Garcia May 2021

Power And Performance: The Role Of Witchcraft In The Leadership Of Queen Elizabeth I And James I Of England, Sabrina Garcia

Honors Theses

Modern day beliefs about the Early Modern European witchcraft trials portray this time period as ignorant and superstitious, easily falling pretty to religious fervor. However, when looking at the primary source materials from the Elizabethan and Jacobean reigns one can see that beliefs on witchcraft were quite varied and complex. By using primary documents, as well as popular plays at the time that focus on malleus maleficarum (harmful magic) this thesis attempts to explore what witchcraft beliefs can reflect about the leadership performance styles of the monarchs Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. Witchcraft was an intellectual battleground …


Discovering The Wire: Dominance Effects In The Processing Of Polysemes In Sentences, Gwynna Ryan May 2021

Discovering The Wire: Dominance Effects In The Processing Of Polysemes In Sentences, Gwynna Ryan

Honors Theses

Previous research examining the processing of polysemous words presented in neutral sentence contexts has revealed conflicting results. Two different models attempt to explain these divergent patterns. The first predicts that the subordinate sense of an ambiguous word is more difficult to retrieve and process while the second predicts no differences in processing difficulty between the subordinate and dominant senses of ambiguous words. The current study tested the different predictions of these models by presenting sentences with polysemes in a neutral context. Critically, the sense relatedness of the polysemes and the sentence structure were held constant, while the sense frequency of …


How Does Movement Impact Originality In A Divergent Thinking Task?, Molly B. Fontenot May 2021

How Does Movement Impact Originality In A Divergent Thinking Task?, Molly B. Fontenot

Honors Theses

Research has suggested that original thought can be affected by movement. However, this research has primarily focused on children, with embodied creativity work lacking in adult populations. This study aimed to examine the impact of movement on the generation of original ideas within divergent thinking tasks in adults. To study this, participants first completed a baseline divergent thinking task asking participants to come up with as many novel uses for a common item. After baseline, participants were randomized into three different testing groups that were encouraged to engage in different types of movement during the divergent thinking task: 1) meaningful …


Chronic Exercise And Memory Interference, Lisa Vogelgesang May 2021

Chronic Exercise And Memory Interference, Lisa Vogelgesang

Honors Theses

This online study examined whether chronic exercise is associated with attenuated memory interference. Sixty-three healthy, young adults completed an interference task (AB/AC-paradigm) and self-reported the number of days and minutes a day they engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. We found that proactive interference (PI), but not retroactive interference (RI), occurred but none of the exercise modalities significantly impacted PI. Future studies should evaluate whether different interference tasks display diverse sensitivities to exercise-induced changes in memory interference. Moreover, other potential modulating factors, such as the duration and intensity of the exercise should be controlled for.


Perfectionism And Internalizing Disorders As Predictors Of Career Indecision Among College Students, Paige Jones May 2021

Perfectionism And Internalizing Disorders As Predictors Of Career Indecision Among College Students, Paige Jones

Honors Theses

Perfectionism has been found to be a significant predictor of career indecision in adults. Perfectionism has also been linked with internalizing disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder in children. The primary aim of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between those internalizing emotions experienced in childhood and career indecision as an adult. There have not been many studies for career indecision based on emotions directly from one’s childhood, so this study aims to provide some basic understanding on that relationship. This study investigated if perfectionism and internalizing disorders (measured retroactively) during childhood were correlated …


Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams May 2021

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …


A Historical And Contextual Analysis Of Soviet And Russian "Active Measures": How Russian Political Warfare Efforts In Foreign Presidential Elections Have Transformed In The Information Age, Olivia Myers May 2021

A Historical And Contextual Analysis Of Soviet And Russian "Active Measures": How Russian Political Warfare Efforts In Foreign Presidential Elections Have Transformed In The Information Age, Olivia Myers

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to analyze the transformation of Russian active measures in targeted national elections since the Soviet era. Through a historical analysis of research on active measures and contextual analysis of active measures campaigns themselves, this thesis finds that Russian active measures techniques have not drastically changed since the Soviet era. Instead, as a result of technology, Russian active measures have utilized platforms of social media to become more targeted, continuous, and convert. Therefore, Russian active measures campaigns have been better able to successfully target specific audiences, arguably making these campaigns more effective.


Analysis Of Multigenerational Behavioral Effects Of Dietary Benzo[A]Pyrene Exposure In Adult Zebrafish, Mary Beth Gillespie May 2021

Analysis Of Multigenerational Behavioral Effects Of Dietary Benzo[A]Pyrene Exposure In Adult Zebrafish, Mary Beth Gillespie

Honors Theses

Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon that is linked to negative reproductive and developmental effects in humans and animals. Because BaP is carcinogenic, and its continued presence in the environment allows it to be inhaled and ingested, better understanding of the effects of BaP is needed. To determine the behavioral effects of BaP exposure, zebrafish were used as a model. Wild-type zebrafish (5D) underwent two separate 21-day dietary exposures to 2.5 and 25 μg BaP/g fish to compare how BaP exposure affects locomotor activity. Following the dietary exposure, fish were mated to obtain and raise the F1 generation to …


Measuring Rental Affordability Dynamics For The Southern United States With Constant Quartile Mismatch, Bradley Curtis May 2021

Measuring Rental Affordability Dynamics For The Southern United States With Constant Quartile Mismatch, Bradley Curtis

Honors Theses

This project centers on the topic of rental housing affordability for southern metropolitan areas in the United States. In an attempt to understand how rents have changed in relation to incomes in cities throughout the American south, this study uses IPUMS data to compare changes in the distributions of rents and incomes from 2000 to 2019 for each of the geographies in question. The Constant Quartile Mismatch metric employed in this project was first implemented in the study "A constant quartile mismatch indicator of changing rental affordability in US Metropolitan areas, 2000 to 2016". This thesis hopes to extend the …


The Rates Of Caries Prevalence By Sex And Age From Individuals In St. Mary Graces And East Smithfield Cemeteries, Elizabeth Houston, Joseph Upton May 2021

The Rates Of Caries Prevalence By Sex And Age From Individuals In St. Mary Graces And East Smithfield Cemeteries, Elizabeth Houston, Joseph Upton

Honors Theses

Caries are a common pathology in past and current populations, and because of the close interaction of dentition with diet, archaeologists are able to infer components of a population’s culture from pathology like caries (Lanfranco & Eggers, 2010). Most literature implies that women have higher rates of caries than men because of cultural practices and natural physiological differences which are thought to put women at an increased risk (Lukacs, 2008). Another established trend throughout literature is that caries prevalence tends to increase with age, regardless of sex (Hillson, 2008). We evaluated data from the East Smithfield (1348-1350 AD) and Saint …


Why Did The Camel Cross The Road?: The Use Of Camel Racing And Military Pageantry In Unifying Oman Through Nationalism Racing, Elizabeth Williams May 2021

Why Did The Camel Cross The Road?: The Use Of Camel Racing And Military Pageantry In Unifying Oman Through Nationalism Racing, Elizabeth Williams

Honors Theses

In 1970, Sultan Qaboos bin Said seized power from his father Sultan Said bin Taimur in a bloodless coup with backing from the British. Prior to this, bin Taimur led with policies that left Oman open to foreign involvement and internal divisions between the interior and exterior of the country. After coming to power, Qaboos undertook several progressive policies to modernize and unite the country. This paper examines how two cultural symbols- camel racing and military pageantry- were used to develop ethnic nationalism into civic nationalism.


Support For Regionalist And Nationalist Political Parties In Spain, Bailey Burleson May 2021

Support For Regionalist And Nationalist Political Parties In Spain, Bailey Burleson

Honors Theses

This research investigates the variation across the autonomous communities of Spain in the level of support for both regionalist and nationalist political parties such as the new far-right political party, Vox. This research looks at four cases: Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia, and Murcia. Together these cases represent a spectrum of regionalist sentiment, support for regionalist parties, and support for nationalist parties. Using survey data from the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas ahead of the Spanish general election of November 2019, this thesis analyzes individual-level determinants of voting behavior corresponding to regionalist and nationalist political parties in Spain. Of the individual-level determinants of …


Fable In Action: A Discourse Analysis Approach To The Life Of Aesop, Martha Hamilton Mccafferty May 2021

Fable In Action: A Discourse Analysis Approach To The Life Of Aesop, Martha Hamilton Mccafferty

Honors Theses

In this essay, I examine instances of fable-telling throughout the Life of Aesop in a new light by using linguistic theories from the subfield of Pragmatics in my analysis. I suggest that the author’s purpose in composing the Life of Aesop is to instruct his audience on how to use fable effectively, and that Aesop serves as both the positive and negative example for this lesson. I begin by considering the nature of fable and demonstrate why it is necessary to define fable in reference to the social action which it performs. I then address the complex position of fable …


A City Divided: A Gis-Informed Study Of Urban Planning In Amman, Jordan, Ella Lawson May 2021

A City Divided: A Gis-Informed Study Of Urban Planning In Amman, Jordan, Ella Lawson

Honors Theses

Amman, the capital of Jordan, faces an impending infrastructure crisis. The city is plagued by water shortages, a lack of affordable housing, extreme traffic congestion, and dwindling open space. Over the past seventy-five years, several urban planning commissions have attempted to address these issues through policy change and other municipal directives. These plans help illustrate the different forces at play in constructing the city—whether they be the residents themselves, city officials, or international consultants. All the plans use neighborhoods as a primary metric for measuring need and organizing development. Likewise, all the plans focus on the importance of green and …


Systematic Review Of Race/Ethnicity In Parkinson's Disease, Amia Fisher May 2021

Systematic Review Of Race/Ethnicity In Parkinson's Disease, Amia Fisher

Honors Theses

The goal of this study was to examine race/ethnicity with an emphasis on African Ancestry in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) through a systematic review. Out of 448 scholarly articles that were originally extracted from the search, 445 were excluded due to their irrelevance regarding race/ethnicity and African ancestry in PD. Three scholarly articles were obtained through a PubMed/MEDLINE search for the review. Amongst the three sources that were chosen, there were more than 450,000 participants with PD that ranged in ages 40-65+; each case of PD within these studies were reported from 1993-2005. The varying races/ethnicities of White/non-Hispanic White, Black/African American, …


Explanatory Models Of Autism In Nigeria: Exploring Sociocultural Beliefs To Inform Systems Of Care, Gabrielle Udoka Robertson May 2021

Explanatory Models Of Autism In Nigeria: Exploring Sociocultural Beliefs To Inform Systems Of Care, Gabrielle Udoka Robertson

Honors Theses

Advancements in the diagnosis, understanding, and treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have yet to benefit children and families struggling with ASD in Nigeria and other African countries. Not only is there a scarcity of research on ASD in sub- Saharan Africa, but also a lack of mental health and special education services and a lack of understanding of the sociocultural considerations that must inform culturally responsive care. As such, this study explored the sociocultural conceptualizations of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Nigeria and how these conceptualizations affect the experiences and care of people with autism. The unique …


Potential For Democratization In Ethiopia, Abby Sonnier May 2021

Potential For Democratization In Ethiopia, Abby Sonnier

Honors Theses

The United States is losing the competition for global power to China, especially on the African continent. This thesis aims to analyze opportunities for the United States to take advantage of China’s withdrawal from Ethiopia in order to develop relations with the quickly growing country and influence the country toward democratization. This author found that while democracy is not likely, through increasing relations with Ethiopia’s prime minister, the United States has an opportunity to push for increased individual freedoms for Ethiopians. The author relied on open-source information and strategic analytic techniques often employed by the U.S. intelligence community.


From Ideological Resource To Financial Asset: The Evolving Relationship Between Youth And The State In Putin's Russia, Eleanor Schmid May 2021

From Ideological Resource To Financial Asset: The Evolving Relationship Between Youth And The State In Putin's Russia, Eleanor Schmid

Honors Theses

This thesis identifies four periods of Russian youth policy, and discusses how President Vladimir Putin's approach to youth and youth issues is markedly different than that of previous heads of state, and that it has evolved even within his tenure. My content coding analysis of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs' 2013-2025 Strategy identifies the main values the Russian government seeks to impart upon youth, and my analysis of public opinion surveys of youth provides evidence that there is a connection between the 2013 Strategiia and youth attitudes and values.


The Great Equalizer Or A Modern Iteration Of Historical Inequality: Artificial Intelligence In Latin America, Santana Amaker May 2021

The Great Equalizer Or A Modern Iteration Of Historical Inequality: Artificial Intelligence In Latin America, Santana Amaker

Honors Theses

In recent years, governments across Latin America have taken steps to foster the development and implementation of artificial intelligence causing an expansion of the use of AI in the region. For instance, countries like Colombia and Argentina are using AI in their judicial systems. Superficially, the allure of AI in the judicial system stems from the thought that AI is an impartial entity that will pass fair and unbiased judgement. However, just like the programmers responsible for creating AI, algorithms used in AI system can be biased. The reason being AI is often trained to make predictions or decisions based …


Implication Of British Economic Policies On Indian Famine, Soujanya Niroula May 2021

Implication Of British Economic Policies On Indian Famine, Soujanya Niroula

Honors Theses

During the British rule, India was engulfed by multiple devastating famines. Over the past, scholars have presented varied opinions on the cause of Famine. Here, we seek to understand the British economic policies and their effects. Our analysis is focused on examining the taxation system, export/import policies, and crop production. We find that the interest of the British aligned with the extractive colonial strategy. The imposed institutions fostered higher tax collection and strict implementation of the free-trade system. Moreover, their primary goal was aimed at preserving trade and commerce than alleviating the distress of the native population.


The Role Of Automotive Value Chains In The Development Patterns Of Mississippi, Mitchell Palmertree May 2021

The Role Of Automotive Value Chains In The Development Patterns Of Mississippi, Mitchell Palmertree

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the automotive industry within Mississippi through a Global Value Chain lens. Through interviews conducted with economic developers affiliated with Nissan and Toyota’s recruitment, this thesis highlights the effect these final assembly plants on local economic development and the role these economic developers play in their recruitment. The automobile industry within Mississippi behaves much like the automobile industry elsewhere within the world as they tend to locate near final markets, drive the co-location of suppliers, and remain long-lived institutions in the community. This thesis also illuminates the role of state and local actors in recruiting the automotive industry. …


Small-Family Mindset: An Analysis Of The Impact Of China's Family Planning Policies On Family Culture, Sarah Ansley Croft May 2021

Small-Family Mindset: An Analysis Of The Impact Of China's Family Planning Policies On Family Culture, Sarah Ansley Croft

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the impact of China’s family planning policies on women’s attitudes towards family culture and the implications on China today. The family planning policies began in the 1970s as an emergency measure intended to create a short-term voluntary small-family culture by decreasing fertility rates. My research, comprised primarily of primary and secondary qualitative sources, discusses the development and implementation of the policies, the economic reforms beginning in the 1980s, and their joint effects on fertility rates, sex ratio at birth, women’s liberation, and changes in family culture, particularly in rural areas. This study found that the family planning …


'Here We Start And In Jerusalem We Meet:' The Motivational And Organizational Influences Of Israel's Statehood Ontransnational Salafi Jihad, Charlotte Armistead May 2021

'Here We Start And In Jerusalem We Meet:' The Motivational And Organizational Influences Of Israel's Statehood Ontransnational Salafi Jihad, Charlotte Armistead

Honors Theses

The Israeli occupation of Palestine and its impact on the proliferation and longevity of transnational Salafi jihad is largely underestimated in current literature. In this thesis, I argue that Palestine, defined as both the nation and physical borders before the Balfour Declaration, largely contributed to the twentieth century revival of transnational Salafi jihad and is used by both Al Qaeda and ISIS as liberation and annihilation movements, respectively. In order to assess the motivational and organizational influences of the Israeli occupation of Palestine on transnational Salafi jihad, I examine the works of Abdullah Azzam, a selection of Osama Bin Laden’s …


Women, Money, And Politics: Do Female Politicians Raise As Much Money As Men?, Taylor Harris May 2021

Women, Money, And Politics: Do Female Politicians Raise As Much Money As Men?, Taylor Harris

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to answer if female politicians raise as much money as male politicians. In order to answer this question, I collected data from the Harvard MIT Election Data Science Lab. It has every candidate that ran in the general election for the House of Representatives from 1976 through 2018, but, for the purpose of this project, only the Presidential election years from 1980 through 2016 are used in this data set. It also includes how much money they raised, what state they are from, and what party the candidate was affiliated with. This data set also accounts for …


Fine Particulate Matter And Low Weight Births In Mexico City, Mexico, Kennedy Cohn May 2021

Fine Particulate Matter And Low Weight Births In Mexico City, Mexico, Kennedy Cohn

Honors Theses

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure has been associated with several negative health consequences, and recent studies suggest a potential relationship between PM2.5 exposure and adverse birth outcomes, including low birth weight (LBW). This thesis investigated a potential relationship between fine particulate matter concentration and low birth weight in Mexico City, Mexico between 2008-2016. Maternal pollution exposure was estimated at the city-wide level by averaging PM2.5 measurements from various monitoring stations. Birth weight was collected from the SINAC database. Logistic regression models were run for different temporal scales (by trimester, and 10-month periods); however, there were no significant relationships found between …