Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Volunteer Tool Kit, Lydia Brooks

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Williams Syndrome Association is a nonprofit organization that helps raise funds and awareness about Williams syndrome. Williams syndrome is a disorder that is not very well known and has a lot of unique challenges associated with it. Individuals with Williams syndrome have serious health concerns and tend to be extremely friendly, outgoing, and empathetic. The Williams Syndrome Association is dedicated to raising funds to aid research, creating awareness for the disorder, and providing support to families that are affected by the disorder. The association recruits volunteers to put on an annual Walk for Williams Syndrome in their area. These …

Law Students' Perspectives On Interdisciplinary Education: A Qualitative Study, Kellie Lockemer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore law school students’ perspectives on interdisciplinary social work education. For this qualitative study, a purposive sample of current law students (n = 11) were invited to participate in a survey to give their perspectives on their current education and thoughts on interdisciplinary education. The results showed that, although the clinic work was helpful, most law students did not think traditional law classes helped prepare them for client interactions. The students also expressed an openness and desire for more trainings on client interactions. This study’s findings suggest a need for interdisciplinary trainings to …

Sustainable Akron: Akron's Zero Carbon, Zero Waste, 100% Renewable Energy Future, Nicholas Cacioppo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report attempts to show that it is not just possible for the City of Akron to transition to a more sustainable city, but that it may be socially and economically beneficial for the city to do so. This report builds on Greenprint for Akron, the City of Akron’s Climate Action Plan, and serves to complement city development plans as well as guide the adoption of future climate related policies. This report provides a limited but updated climate and sustainability assessment of the City of Akron and employs a framework of three fundamental aspects of a sustainable and resilient city: …

Climate Change As A Hazard In Emergency Management, Christen Swayer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will provide a basic overview of hazards, a scientific overview of climate change, examine evidence used to document climate change, investigate how the public and private sectors are impacted by climate change, and determine if states are preparing for this hazard. Sources such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service (NWS), and Climate Impact Lab will be consulted to determine if it would be beneficial to implement changes to prepare for the worsening effects of climate change. The methodology for this project will include quantitative climate data for temperature extremes and trends, hurricanes, …

Manipulating Belief Bias Across The Lifespan, William D. Carney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In today’s political climate, when basic facts and reasoning are seemingly up for debate, it is increasingly important to be able to identify well-reasoned arguments, regardless of one’s political leanings, and to retain this skill throughout the lifespan. Research has shown, however, a persistent belief bias—a tendency to judge an argument’s validity based on its conclusion’s agreement with one’s beliefs, rather than its logical quality. Other findings suggest that belief bias can be reduced by instruction to avoid belief bias. The current project seeks to explore whether older adults, believed to be more prone to biased reasoning, respond differently to …

Antecedents Of Voice: The Moderating Role Of Proactive Personality, Alice Pyclik

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

When employees are dissatisfied, they can choose a destructive solution such as quitting, or they can use voice to effect organizational change. A sample of 277 full-time employees in the United States responded to an online survey of voice, ethical leadership, core self-evaluation, proactive personality, affective commitment, and several control variables. Results from simple, multiple, and hierarchical regression analyses indicated that ethical leadership, core self-evaluation, and proactive personality have positive relationships with voice. In addition, ethical leadership facilitates voice through the path of affective commitment. Proactive personality compensates for low levels of affective commitment. Thus, managers can increase voice among …

An Exploratory Study Of The Impact Of Stigma And Acculturation On The Perception Of Mental Illness In The Black Community, Louis Appiah-Kubi

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Mental health stigma serves as a chronic barrier to help-seeking and in some cases exacerbates mental health conditions (SAMHSA, 2013). Researchers and clinicians have tried many different methods to reduce these negative attitudes. A popular and usually successful method is education on what mental illness is, its causes, prognosis, and the availability and effectiveness of treatment. Large scale educational efforts have not been adequate in addressing these issues. Therefore, studies are being tailored to find stereotypes within specific communities so as to come up with matching educational protocols (Corrigan & Penn, 2015). The current study explored attitudes among African Americans …

Stop What You’Re Doing, Right Now! Effects Of Interactive Messages On Careless Responding, Anthony Gibson

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Careless responding (CR) can negatively affect the quality of self-report data and thus the resulting conclusions researchers draw from the data. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether interactive warnings, which alert careless respondents in real time, reduce CR more than traditional, non-interactive warnings. I used a 4 x 4 mixed factorial design to examine these relationships. The between group factor was the type of warning used, which consisted of four levels (i.e., a control, no warning group, a traditional, non-interactive warning, an interactive threatening warning message, and an interactive encouraging message), and the within person factor …

Attitudes On Legal Insanity And The Impact Of Race, Jerie J. Bolin

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Jurors, representatives of the communities from which they are selected, are tasked with the responsibility of reaching a verdict in an impartial, unbiased manner. Previous research has found that bias and negative attitudes impact juror decision-making, despite practices that are in place to dismiss potentially biased jurors, such as voir dire. Studies have found a correlation between racial biases and juror verdicts. Additionally, a correlation has also been found between insanity defense attitudes and a juror’s propensity to favor (or not favor) a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) acquittal. However, there has been limited examination of the impact …

Gauging Human Performance With An Automated Aid In Low Prevalence Conditions, Cara M. Zinn

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When receiving assistance from an automated aid, human operators do not necessarily perform better than without the automated aid. The current work explored the impact of integrating the automated aid with the task information in low prevalence conditions. Specifically, this work compares displays where the automated aid was integrated with task information in general or with more meaningful task information. Subjects performed a speeded judgment task with the assistance of an automated aid, varying in display type, difficulty, and prevalence. Results indicated that there was no effect of display type or prevalence on human temporal performance, and that the effect …

Identifying Diversity Of Thought On Social Media, Beth Bullemer

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This dissertation considers what it means to think differently, using naturalistic verbal evidence. This problem is inspired by a gap within the Wisdom of the Crowd (WoC) literature, but relevant to the study of language processes, mental models, and the vast emerging resource of social media data. I propose a methodological framework to characterize diversity of thought through the quantification of social media data. Four stages of research considered: a) the properties of a sample domain, b) how to identify and select diagnostic content using classification methods, c) how to quantify qualitative content in order to categorize and compare individuals, …

Globalization’S Effects On Mexico, Andrew Barry

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper aims to investigate the effects of economic globalization on the Mexican economy. To contextualize the research presented, a brief historical summary is presented. Economic globalization is examined through trade and foreign investment in México, including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and portfolio investment. The Mexican economy is measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This research paper uses data from The World Bank to examine how economic globalization indicators affect the indicators chosen to measure the Mexican economy. The findings of this paper show that there is evidence that the Mexican economy has grown …

Late Assyrian Plain Simple Ware: A Ceramic Analysis, Tasha Hunter

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The focus of this project will be to firmly establish, characterize, and define the range of traits that describe the most common fabric type of the pottery found at Ziyaret Tepe, which was called by the excavators and ceramic experts Plain Simple Ware (code designation LA01). To characterize and describe the range of traits of Plain Simple Ware from Ziyaret Tepe, ceramic analysis, specifically, a method called ceramic petrography was employed in this study of thirty samples of pottery. The results include confirmation that the clay used to produce the pottery had mineral deposits consistent with the geomorphology of the …

Right-Wing Extremism In The United States, Claire Debruin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper explores the recent rise in radical right-wing extremist groups in the United States, specifically focusing on what has caused the recent rise in violence and if the rise in groups correlates directly with the rise in radical right-wing extremist attacks. Possible causes of the rise addressed in the following paper include the effect of the President of the United States, the fear of big government, the effects of economic hardships and social changes. All of these causes are discussed in conjunction with one another, demonstrating that all the causes work to create the recent rise in radical right.

Effects On Perception And Accuracy Of Live Putting When Leaving The Flagstick In The Hole, Danielle Nicholson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preferences of golfers and how those preferences affected their putting. This study involved participants who were golfers with a four-handicap or better taking a survey of their preferences of having the flagstick in and out and then assessing their putting from various distances with the flagstick in and out. The researcher measured the distance of the golf ball away from the hole after it had finished rolling. Then, t-tests were used to compare the data with the flagstick in and flagstick out to determine if there is a significant difference. The …

Glacial Deposits, Vol. 44, 2019, Department Of Geography, Geology, And The Environment

Glacial Deposits

Newsletter of the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Bad World: The Negativity Bias In International Politics, D. D. P. Johnson, Dominic Tierney

Political Science Faculty Works

A major puzzle in international relations is why states privilege negative over positive information. States tend to inflate threats, exhibit loss aversion, and learn more from failures than from successes. Rationalist accounts fail to explain this phenomenon, because systematically overweighting bad over good may in fact undermine state interests. New research in psychology, however, offers an explanation. The “negativity bias” has emerged as a fundamental principle of the human mind, in which people's response to positive and negative information is asymmetric. Negative factors have greater effects than positive factors across a wide range of psychological phenomena, including cognition, motivation, emotion, …

The Cemetery Of Traitors, Osman Balkan

Political Science Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Not In My Graveyard: Citizenship, Memory, And Identity In The Wake Of The Boston Marathon Bombing, Osman Balkan

Political Science Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Academic Librarians As Informed Learning Developers, Rachel Fundator, Clarence Maybee

IMPACT Publications

Abstract from book

Implications – Drawing upon their expertise in how learners use information, academic librarians can use the findings to concentrate their consultative efforts to effectively partner with teachers to transform student learning experiences in higher education.

• partnering with teachers to develop informed learning experiences by leveraging the expertise of the teacher and the librarian;

• applying an informed learning pedagogic approach, and drawing from and sharing information literacy scholarship illuminating how information is used in the learning process;

• creating informed learning experiences that are responsive to institutional and disciplinary perspectives; and

• encouraging teachers to reflect on their intentions for …

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Library Games - First Steps Towards Information Literacy, Céline Ervinckx, Anne-Catherine Van Overbeke, Frédéric Brodkom

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

No abstract provided.

Libraries And Social Media, Iman Khamis

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

No abstract provided.

The Big Picture: A Holistic View Of E-Book Acquisitions, Ronald M. Lewis, Marie R. Kennedy

Librarian Publications & Presentations

The merging of two departments into the Acquisitions and Collection Development Department afforded Loyola Marymount University an opportunity to rethink existing workflows, with the acquisition of electronic books (e-books) being identified as a critical task to review. Process mapping was used to show the complexity of different tasks being performed in the department and to provide a visualization mechanism for staff to see how their work fit into a sequence of actions as part of a larger workflow. The authors listed the types of acquisition models used at their library for e-books and constructed process maps for the following six …

Report On The 2019 International Association Of University Libraries Pre-Conference Seminar: Library Strategies For Research Support Excellence, Amanda Bellenger, Katie Mills

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

The Library Strategies for Research Support Excellence half-day seminar was held on the 23 June 2019 at the Reid Library, University of Western Australia (UWA). The event was organised by International Association of University Libraries (IATUL), UWA and Curtin University, and was sponsored by CNKI. The seminar provided an opportunity for senior university library leaders from around the world, including China, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Africa to discuss the current initiatives and challenges associated with research support in their respective regions.

The Library For Research Support - Researchers’ Data Management Competence Development, Gintarė Tautkevičienė, Ieva Cesevičiūtė

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

No abstract provided.

Reaching Digital Learners - James White Library Serving Students Around The World, Silas Oliveira, Norma Greenidge, Vinicius Marques

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

No abstract provided.

Recognizing Engineering Students’ Funds Of Knowledge: Creating And Validating Survey Measures, Dina Verdín, Jessica M. Smith, Juan Lucena

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

This research base paper examines students who are the first in their families to attend college. Our research seeks to understand the role students’ funds of knowledge makes in first-generation college students’ undergraduate experience. Funds of knowledge are the set of formal/informal knowledge and skills that students learn through family, friends, and communities outside of academic institutions. This paper reports funds of knowledge themes relevant to first-generation college students in engineering and the process of gathering validity evidence to support the funds of knowledge themes.

Using ethnographic and interview data, six themes emerged: connecting experiences, community networks, tinkering knowledge, perspective …

An Examination Of The Stock Market's Effect On Economic Inequality, Nicholas Golina

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The economic literature on economic inequality has shown that it can negatively impact aggregate demand because it indicates a higher concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 10% as opposed to the poor and middle class, who are more likely to consume. The literature has identified many factors that can lead to increasing inequality. The stock market could be one of those factors since it can either create an upward redistributive effect towards the top 10% or redistributive effect towards the middle class. This paper tested the effect of the stock market on inequality. This study contributes to …

Introduction To Systematic Review For The Health Sciences, Jason B. Reed, Bethany Mcgowan, Jane Yatcilla

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

Final syllabus for ILS 595 Introduction to Systematic Review for the Health Sciences. Offered spring 2019.

2018 Great Lakes Science Boot Camp Schedule And Assessment Survey, Bethany S. Mcgowan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

The 2018 Great Lakes Science Boot Camp for Librarians was hosted at Purdue University from July 24-27, 2018. The Great Lakes Science Boot Camp is an annual, regional professional development opportunity that exposes STEM librarians to trends in scientific research. These files include a copy of the schedule of events for the 2018 GLSBC, as well as a copy of the survey assessment distributed to participants.