Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Investigating The Feasibility Of Using Mplus In The Estimation Of Growth Mixture Models, Ming Li, Jeffrey R. Harring, George B. Macready

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Hipp and Bauer (2006) investigated the issues of singularities and local maximum solutions within growth mixture models (GMMs) and made recommendations regarding the use of multiple starting values. Building on their work, this simulation study investigates the feasibility of estimating GMMs within Mplus as measured by convergence to proper, but local solutions.

Underrepresented Minorities In Medical School Admissions, Margaret A. Hadinger Edd, Ms

Department of Education

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Elevation And Guilt On Attitudes And Intentions To Perform Prosocial Behaviors, Desiree' N. Williford

Senior Honors Projects

Many public health concerns and life-threatening injuries rely on solutions that are either partially or entirely prosocial in nature. In other words, these solutions require that a person makes a conscious decision to act altruistically, receiving no or minimal benefit from this decision. By example, thousands of people each year are given a second chance at life thanks to others who have made the decision to donate blood or organs and tissues. Despite this, the demand for these behaviors is far greater than the supply, leading to many other issues, including (but certainly not limited to) long wait times on …

Assessing The Sources Of Risk And Risk Management Strategies Surrounding Poverty Traps And Mangrove Ecosystem Services In Rural Coastal Tanzania, Sarah Martin

Senior Honors Projects

Mangrove ecosystems consist of trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats throughout tropical and subtropical regions. These habitats provide essential ecosystem services to surrounding communities – including protection from erosion, flooding, and storm surge, access to raw materials, carbon sequestration, and nursery habitat for many species of marine life. Poor and vulnerable populations in rural coastal communities tend to rely disproportionately on natural resources to fuel their livelihoods, as they lack access to other market goods and services. Unfortunately, mangrove ecosystems have been substantially degraded over the last two decades. Therefore, the poor and vulnerable populations that rely …

A Sinking Ship: An Extensive Crisis Communications Case Study Of Carnival Cruise Lines, Amanda Ryann Michelson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the problem that Carnival Cruise Lines (Carnival), a famous cruise ship line for vacationing, continues to endure crisis situations yet fails to take the appropriate actions for rectification.

It is common knowledge within the public relations field that a crisis can make or break the sustainability of a successful organization. It is for this reason that it is necessary for professionals to analyze past events within a company’s history in order to improve its relationships with its stakeholders to keep the business afloat.

This study focuses on three major incidents. The first one involves a fire in …

Personal Roots Of Representation: Applying Burden's Model To Female Leaders In State Legislatures, Lindsey Juszczak

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The role of women in politics is not a new concern in the United States. However, the number of women being elected into leadership positions at all levels of government is growing. Reasons for women's political drive and ambition stem from various aspects of their life. Barry Burden believes that the roots of personal representation like a representative's religion, education, and home life are important factors that drive politicians in their careers. Burden's model can be used to understand why women in leadership roles are motivated in a certain way to represent and respond to constituents. Specifically, this research studies …

Nightmares, Anxiety, And Kindergarten-Aged Children, Megan A. Dandurand

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study investigated the relationship between nightmares and anxiety traits in young children. Nightmare experience was measured through parent and child reports of nightmare occurrence, frequency, and distress. A sample of 37 parent-child pairs completed a demographic questionnaire, parent and child reported nightmare questionnaire, and a parent-reported anxiety scale. Results indicated that children reported significantly more nightmares than their parents, however there was no difference between parent versus child reported nightmare distress . Results indicated that parents who rated their children to have higher anxiety also reported their children to have more frequent nightmares. A similar trend, that was …

The Effect Of Physical Attractiveness On Perceptions Of Mental Illness, Caitlin P. Garstkiewicz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The following study examined the influence of the Halo Effect, specifically the physical attractiveness stereotype, on perceptions of mental illness. The physical attractiveness stereotype states that individuals who are physically attractive will be attributed positive personality traits. In this study, participants were asked to view either physically attractive or non-attractive individuals while listening to a description of a mental illness attributed to the person shown in the image. It was hypothesized that participants who were presented with physically attractive images would rate the description of mental illness more positively than when viewing images of physically unattractive people. The hypothesis was …

The Effect Of Welfare Policies And Hardships On Participation Rates Among The Poor, Matthew W. Cain

Undergraduate Honors Theses

For several decades, a new political prospective has emerged in the Political Science literature - Policy Feedback Theory. Put simply, Policy Feedback Theory looks at the way public policy affects politics. Existing policies can define the political environment, shaping the capacities, interests, and beliefs of political elites and states, which in tum influence the next round of policy-making. However, does public policy only change the politics of elites and states? Can public policy also change the politics of mass publics? Recent Political Science researchers are now examining this question.

Even though much ground has been gained in examining this question, …

Grace Magazine, Emmie Martin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Grace is an online web magazine aimed at girls ages 13 through 18. This website

features material divided into four distinct categories that each cater to important aspects of a modern teenage girl’s life: Your Life, which covers lifestyle topics; Your Self, which covers health-related subjects including food, exercise, and nutrition; Your Style, which features fashion and beauty advice and news; and Your World, which delves into all aspects of modern culture.

This website publishes all original content, and strives to serve as an intellectual and entertaining resource in young girls’ lives. Grace provides girls with relevant articles that use …

Forward, Together, Yuki Mizuma

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

With 12,000 refugees and former refugees currently living in Syracuse, N.Y., there is so much more to the city than being just a college or basketball city. Refugees from Burma, Bhutan, Somalia and nearly 40 more countries have come to Syracuse because of the low cost of living, job opportunities and the strong relationship that refugee organizations have with the Syracuse City School District. Nearly 800 new individuals arrive each year and, yet, many people are unaware of the diverse population living in Syracuse, N.Y. “Forward, Together” uses photographs, informational text and captions to depict the lives of two refugees …

Investigating The Relationships Between Personality, Valence And Modern Health Worries, Thomas Green

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In our evolving world, new technologies and practices are frequently introduced to society and assimilated into daily life. People often form concerns about how these new technologies, and other types of change, affect public health and the surrounding environment. This paper aims to form a better understanding of Modern Health Worries (MHW). Two studies were conducted: one investigating personality correlates of the MHW scale, and a second examining the covariation of the MHW scale with participants’ valence and arousal ratings of images of MHWs selected in terms categories presented in the literature.

Undergraduate students at Syracuse University (n=143) took part …

Attenuating The Attentional Blink And Its Consequences: Support For The Wyble-Bowman-Nieuwenstien Model, Samantha Riane Debes

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

When participants are asked to detect two targets (T1 and T2) in a stream of rapidly presented visual stimuli, T2 accuracy decreases when it follows T1 by 200 ms to 500 ms, a phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB). Researchers have been attempting to attenuate the AB through experimental manipulations in order to understand temporal processing in the visual domain. Studies that have successfully attenuated the blink have often (but not always) done so using a concurrent task. One current model of visual temporal attention, the Wyble-Bowman-Nieuwenstien model (2009) suggests that a byproduct of the attenuation of the attentional …

Talking Hands: Does Gesture Production Help Bilingual Preschoolers Learn Words?, Bailey Bell Marks

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

As multilingualism grows throughout the world, so does the need to develop appropriate teaching methods for the multilingual population, especially during the crucial stages of language acquisition that occur during childhood. Bilingual children must develop two vocabularies concurrently; this is a difficult task for many, but non-speech expression of language such as gestures may aid the process of acquiring new words in one’s vocabulary. The mirror neuron system provides a physiological basis for the connection between language centers in the brain and the execution and observation of hand movements. To examine how using gestures affects children’s word learning, the researcher …

Find It In Football: An International Marketing Plan For Young Women, Melanie Michelle Holohan

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

What follows are multiple components of a creative advertising project. While this work relies heavily on research, it was a very creative process. The premise of this work is an integrated marketing campaign that utilizes my two majors: international relations and advertising, combined with my love for sports. Using primary and secondary research, I found that the benefits that sports have on child development are huge (Humphrey, 2003). I narrowed my sport choice down to soccer and my target down to young women. I wanted to focus on Islamic states because, at least by American standards, Muslim women are often …

Headlines: A Multimedia Approach To Getting 18 To 21 Year Olds Involved In News, Caitlin Landers

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Headlines is a capstone project that attempts to test how to get the 18 to 21 year old demographic interested in news by showing the target audience that news around the world directly affects them in some way. My belief, based on personal experience and observation, is that many young adults do not pay attention to the news because they do not believe it plays a role in how their life plays out. The goal of Headlines is to show the target demographic that the opposite is true; world events do affect what happens in their daily lives.

This capstone …

Syracuse University Trust Barometer: A Study Of Su Students’ Media Consumption Habits And Trust In News, Jessica Hajjar

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In order to communicate effectively with a target audience, public relations professionals must understand the news media their intended public consumes and trusts. In recent years, media polls and surveys have shown the trust Americans place in the news media is declining. The purpose of this study is to examine the news media habits of Syracuse University students and the trust students place in news information.

This study is based off responses from 254 Syracuse University students who agreed to participate in a voluntary response survey. The seventeen question survey was designed to examine students’ daily news consumption patterns and …

Over The Line: Ethical Issues In The Media Coverage Of The Bernie Fine Scandal, Giuseppe S. Diglio

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

On Nov. 17, 2011, sports media conglomerate ESPN aired a story in which Bobby Davis and Mike Lang, stepbrothers and former ball boys for the Syracuse University men’s basketball program, accused Bernie Fine, then an assistant coach for the Syracuse men’s basketball team, of sexually abusing them as children. As the story developed, the reporting methods used by ESPN and The Post-Standard, the daily newspaper in Syracuse, were put into question. This report looks at what these news organizations did in their investigative reporting of the allegations against Fine and analyzes whether or not it was morally acceptable. To do …

Public Relations And Promotion In Film: How It’S Done And Why It’S Important, Timothy Cheng

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Films have been huge revenue drivers in the entertainment industry. However, not all films succeed with high profit margins. Success can be contributed to aspects such as the writing, the production quality, or the acting within a film. These aspects contribute to how audiences, critics and media receive a movie. Unfortunately, these aspects typically overshadow one of the most important functions contributing to a film’s success: promotion and public relations.

For my capstone, I researched how films are promoted, branded, and distributed through public relations functions. Research largely relied on secondary research, with primary research added for deeper concepts. After …

Researching Campaign Materials For Ellie Mia Boutique, Mariann Yip

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Before you spend thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign, it is important to test the campaign materials to a sample population to see what their thoughts and opinions are. Using their feedback, you are then able to tailor the information in a more effective way, thus, creating and launching a successful campaign that accomplishes all of your goals and objectives.

Ellie Mia is a fashion boutique located on Marshall Street in Syracuse, N.Y. This capstone project explores the PR branding methods of the store to increase awareness of its existence, to augment store traffic and business and to …

Beaver Professional Public Relations Research Case Study, Francheska Munoz

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This research study combines public relations and marketing to examine how women think about buying hair products. Using Beaver Professional, a hair care company, as the client, this study incorporates different methods of research to understand what factors affect which products women buy and where they go to buy them. This study also examines how salons think about selling hair products to their customers and where they go to shop or find the products for their salons.

Capstoned: Advertising Research, Account Planning, And The Development Of A Marketing Plan For Recreational Marijuana In Denver, Co, Erica Clapp

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

One of the hottest current issues in the United States among politicians and many other groups of citizens is the legalization of recreational marijuana. This issue has a long history, and it has constantly resurfaced in the media for years. However, the recent attention being given to recreational marijuana legalization is not going to die down anytime soon, for landmark progress has been made in this area. On November 6, 2012, Colorado Amendment 64 was passed, implementing a statewide drug policy for cannabis. Consequently, Colorado has taken a revolutionary step that marks the first electoral decision to legalize marijuana in …

The Impact Of Arrest On Expectations Of Educational Attainment And Criminal Punishment, Kenneth Arbuckle

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My paper focuses on changes in the expectations of arrested youths. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to examine the effects of an arrest on three separate expectations: the expectation of earning a four-year college degree by the age of 30, the expectation of being arrested after stealing a car, and the expectation of being fined and released after stealing a car. In all cases, I isolate those respondents who have been arrested between and not prior to their interview dates in 1997 and 2001. These are the survey rounds in which the expectation questions of …

The Effect Of Macroeconomic Conditions On Applications To Supplemental Security Income, Ke Xu

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study examines whether macroeconomic conditions affect applications to the Supplemental Security Income program. Specifically, we focus on the impact of unemployment rate on under age 18 applications. Using data from 2002 through 2012, we found that a higher unemployment rate is associated with an increased intention to apply for Supplemental Security Income benefits for both disabled adults and children. However, the effect is much higher for adults. These findings suggest that under age 18 applications of Supplemental Security Income is sensitive to the macroeconomic conditions.

The Threat Of An Innocent Victim: How Perspective-Taking And Mood Affect Perceptions Of Victims, Reid A. Searls

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Previous research on the phenomenon of victim blaming indicates a significant interaction of just-world beliefs and perspective-taking, such that imagining oneself in the situation of a victim causes a significant threat to the self. This in turn leads to moral judgments that reduce this threat and restore just-world beliefs. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of mood on individual tendencies to blame victims of human trafficking. While the results failed to fully support the connection between mood, perspective, just-world beliefs, and blame, a weak, though significant, relationship was found between just-world beliefs and victim blame. Implications …

Addressing Modern Slavery In Haiti And The Dominican Republic: The Evolving Role Of Nongovernmental Organizations, Meghan Schneider

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project examines the forms of modern day slavery that are most prevalent in Haiti and the Dominican Republic: domestic servitude and forced prostitution for the purpose of sex tourism, respectively. This paper seeks to answer the following questions:

What is the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in combatting trafficking in persons (TIP) and modern day slavery in Hispaniola? How should NGOs work with national governments, especially in states with a weak rule of law? How have the presence and scope of NGOs evolved and/or expanded over time to address modern forms of slavery?

In this paper I argue that …

Perceptions Of Safety Across Race, Class, Gender, And Location: A Study Of Women In Cape Town, South Africa, Ellen Blanche Moore

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Policing in South Africa has a long, twisted history that is still evident in some current police practices and especially in the public’s perceptions of the police. In addition to historical factors such as colonial rule and apartheid, people’s perceptions of the police are affected by their race, class, gender, and geographic location. Although these factors have an individual effect on perceptions, it is through a complex analysis of how they relate to one another that a true understanding of a person’s perception can be reached. The goal of this research was to discover perceptions women in Cape Town have …

Too Hot To Handle: Managing America’S Ecosystems In A Changing Climate, Riley Morin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For over 140 years, Americans and have enjoyed their national parks. In the national parks, nature and history come together to form uniquely public as well as enormously valuable landscapes. Today, America’s national parks are in danger of undergoing serious changes. Climate change is going to alter the physical characteristics of the national parks. Many of the parks have changed before, but this change will be the most dramatic. In this report I examine the historical and current mission of the National Park Service. I also examine the past and current valuation of the national parks by the American people. …

Wing-Nut: A Mobile Political Magazine For Millennials, Eric Lyons

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Wing-Nut is a mobile based political magazine/news outlet for millennials. It is one of the first magazines designed specifically for mobile devices in an attempt to better appeal to the tech obsessed, smartphone addicted millennial generation. The magazine was designed to engage 18-to-25-year olds and make them think about political issues and how politics affect their everyday lives. The overall goal of the media outlet is to get the political discussion or conversation started between millennials: get them informed and get them involved.

Visualizing The "Hermit Kingdom" Graphing, Mapping, And Analyzing The 2008 North Korean Census, Molly Linhorst

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Discussion rarely takes a dispassionate view of North Korea and its people, and ingrained aversion to the idea of promoting a better understanding of the state distracts from serious, empirical study of the population. This research makes use of the 2008 North Korean census, an extensive set of fifty-three tables, which received little attention and remained in PDF format. This research project first translates and publishes machine-readable formats of the census data and then employs R statistical programming to create visualizations of select tables and conduct simple data analysis, including p-tests and Mantel-Haenzel tests. Males and urban residents were found …