Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Overview Of Approaches To Nuclear Security In Ghana, Raymond Agalga, Paul Atta Amoah, Daniel Nii Adjei, Daniel Frederick Charles, Emmanuel Ofori Darko

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Ghana has significantly improved its nuclear security infrastructure over the years. However, as threats increase by the day and new applications of nuclear and radiological technology are designed and implemented, Ghana must develop a rigid and comprehensive approach to mitigating the negative impacts on its nuclear security while improving prevention, detection, and deterrence of nuclear and radiological terrorism within its geographical space. This paper overviews the approaches adopted by Ghana to build a strong nuclear security regime within the past decade. These include improving legal frameworks for nuclear security by establishing an independent Nuclear Regulatory Authority; assessing nuclear security culture …

Children Of Divorce Parents Group Manual, Sheyenne Hokit

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Divorce is something that is, unfortunately, becoming a commonality for a lot of children, and due to the complexity of divorce, many children struggle when trying to understand divorce and how it affects them. Some effects of divorce are various emotional and behavioral issues such as increased anger and decreased emotion regulation. Social, health, and academic concerns were also found. Counseling interventions like narrative therapy, emotion-focused family therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and play therapy were found to be effective with this population (Hirschfeld & Wittenborn, 2016, Thomas & Gibbons, 2009). The identified interventions provide peer-based social support, education on the misconceptions …

Factors Associated With Racial Differences In Health Care Access, Memory Manda

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Using data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), this study examined racial group differences in health care access, including measures for usual place of sick or preventative care and delayed or forgone care and the mechanisms that explain those differences. This study integrated the Fundamental Cause Theory and Anderson’s Behavioral model to understand the causal mechanism responsible for racial disparities in health care access. Results showed that Hispanics were more likely to have no usual place for sick or preventative care and more likely to delay care than other racial groups. Blacks were more likely to use other …

The Effect Of Early Cross-Race Socialization On Black Lives Matter Attitudes, Elizabeth Popovich

Honors Theses

The present study investigated the effect of early cross-race socialization within the family, school, and neighborhood on current support for Black Lives Matter and anti-racist attitudes. Specifically, this study will examine the variables of whether participants’ families talked about race and the diversity of schools and neighborhoods. 98 female participants, 36 male participants, and 2 n.a. participants were recruited from the University of Richmond’s Introduction to Psychology class (N= 136) and were asked to complete an anonymous survey on their attitudes regarding Black Lives Matter. Based on the results, there was no clear influence of early cross-race socialization on current …

Investigating The Relationship Between Classroom Sense Of Belonging, Friendship Quality, And Peer Victimization., Addi Mansini

Honors Theses

Research examining the predictors of peer victimization, the experience of being aggressed upon by one’s peers, is important because studies have shown that peer victimization can have negative mental health and academic outcomes. This research aimed to examine classroom sense of belonging, the degree to which children feel that they are a valuable part of their class, as a predictor of peer victimization, with the hypothesis that high classroom belonging would be predictive of lower peer victimization among third through fifth grade students (N = 233; 119 female; Mage at recruitment = 9.48, SD = .68). A second objective was …

Money Supply And Inflation After Covid-19, Orkideh Gharehgozli, Sunhyung Lee

Department of Economics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, rose to 5.2 percent on January 2022, which is the highest rate of increase since 40 years ago. Our estimates show that the annualized quarterly core PCE prices could reach 5.45% in the second quarter of 2022 and are as high as 8.57% in a longer time horizon unless corrected with restrictive monetary policies. Thus, the inflation shock since COVID-19 is not transitory, but it is persistent. As economists expect the Federal Reserve to tighten the money supply in March 2022, the insufficient policy responses may …

Against The Death Penalty, Charles Jessup

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

My thesis is an argument against the death penalty. Given that public support for the death penalty in America is at a half-century low (according to the Pew Research Center), the timing could not be more appropriate to examine the death penalty. This research project had a two-step approach: first, ethical theory-based arguments for and against the death penalty were examined. Following that ethical theory-based examination, real-world statistics were applied to these theories to test where they stand in modern society. The findings contained in this research project point to a clear reality that the death penalty in America is …

Benefits Of, Barriers To, And Needs For An Artificial Intelligence-Powered Medication Information Voice Chatbot For Older Adults: Interview Study With Geriatrics Experts, Meghana Gudala, Mary Ellen Trail Ross, Sunitha Mogalla, Mandi Lyons, Padmavathy Ramaswamy, Kirk Roberts

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: One of the most complicated medical needs of older adults is managing their complex medication regimens. However, the use of technology to aid older adults in this endeavor is impeded by the fact that their technological capabilities are lower than those of much of the rest of the population. What is needed to help manage medications is a technology that seamlessly integrates within their comfort levels, such as artificial intelligence agents.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the benefits, barriers, and information needs that can be provided by an artificial intelligence-powered medication information voice chatbot for older adults.

METHODS: …

Noble Pagans And Satanic Saracens: Literary Portrayals Of Islam In Medieval Italy And Iberia., John Spencer Jones

Honors Theses

The medieval Christian world is generally associated with a kind of religious zealotry that would seem to preclude the development of nuanced understandings of the religious Other. The heightened interreligious contact in regions such as Iberia and the Italian Peninsula, however, made room for relationships with members of other faiths that resulted in more developed ideas about these other creeds. This honors thesis examines the portrayal of Islam in the Christian literature of medieval Italy and Iberia, dating from the late 11th century to the middle of the 14th century. It categorizes a few types of the literary “use” of …

Do Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion (Dei) Initiatives Cause More Harm Than Good?: Extending Research To The Domain Of Lgbtq+ Discrimination, Lindsay Everhart

Honors Theses

Workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have been shown to delegitimize discrimination claims made by members of low-status groups, namely women and people of color (Dover et al., 2020; Kaiser et al., 2013). Previous research attributes this effect to the fact that DEI initiatives send signals of organizational fairness, thus causing individuals to overestimate the fairness of the organization and overlook discrimination claims. Given the fact that up to 40% of LGBTQ+ employees in one survey reported some form of workplace harassment due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, it is imperative that this line of research is …

The Dual Pandemic Of 2020: Rhetorical Analysis Of How American Covid-19 Elite Messaging, Enabled By The Monster Trope, Justifies Cultural Violence Against A/Aapi., Haley A. Hom

Honors Theses

On March 16th, 2020, President Donald J. Trump posted a Tweet: “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airline and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!” (Yam). This Tweet marked the first public and recorded instance of the term “Chinese virus”, heralding the emergence of similar referents such as “China virus,” “Wuhan virus,” and “kung flu” for COVID-19. With a single, seemingly innocuous post, Trump opened the floodgates for an outpouring of hatred and blame pointed towards anyone perceived as an A/AAPI.

Individual Differences In Processing Of Garden-Path Sentences: The Role Of Obsessive- Compulsive Personality Traits, Antonio Cardoso

Honors Theses

A great deal of previous research has investigated the real-time processing and offline interpretation of garden path (GP) sentences. This work has shown that GP sentences cause substantial processing disruptions, as revealed by regressive eye movements during reading, as well as incorrect answers to comprehension questions. The current study was designed to investigate whether variability in the processing of GP sentences could be explained by individual differences in personality traits, specifically obsessive-compulsive personality traits. In an eyetracking while reading experiment, participants read GP sentences with both a comma manipulation and a verb type manipulation. Results replicated previous findings in that …

What Does “Avoidance Mode” Feel Like? The Association Between Avoidance Awareness And Negative Affect In The Moment, Mamie Ziegler

Honors Theses

For students in an academic setting, task avoidance is a common behavioral strategy used to cope with the unpleasant emotions associated with schoolwork and completing assignments. However, when this form of behavioral avoidance becomes a pattern, it has the potential to lead to negative long-term consequences–such as worse academic outcomes and increased stress. To counteract maladaptive behaviors such as task avoidance, a certain level of self-awareness of such behaviors may be necessary–even if this awareness leads to more negative emotions at first. To analyze the relationship between student task avoidance and emotions, the following study utilizes ecological momentary assessment (EMA) …

Investigating The Mutual Effects Of Mobile Phone Use And Civic Culture: A Systems Approach, Seyed Hossein Hosseini, Seyed Maziar Alavi, Ali Hosseini, Abolfazl Zare Mehrjardi

Psychological Research on Urban Society

The extensive use of mobile phones has created the potential for promoting the culture and lifestyle of society. This study was conducted in Tehran; it examines the relationship between mobile phone use and civic culture. Considering the effect of multiple factors and complex relationships between variables, the study employs a systems approach to investigate the mutual relationship between mobile phone use and civic culture. Analysis utilized causal loop diagrams to depict relationships among variables, where 10 key factors were identified using the decision making trial and evaluation technique. These factors have exerted the greatest impact on civic culture; therefore, focusing …

Effects Of Victimization And Community Characteristics On Health Outcomes, Katie Meyer

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Drawing on the neighborhood disorder model, the environmental stress model, and general strain theory, this study examined the effects of victimization experiences, anticipated victimization, and perceived community characteristics on overall physical health and mental health outcomes. This study used cross-sectional survey data from the 2014-2015 Nebraska Annual Social Indicator Survey (NASIS). Linear regression was used to examine how victimization experiences, worry about victimization, community context, and perceptions of crime and policing were associated with the health outcomes, controlling for demographic characteristics. The findings show that more worry about crime, less positive community perceptions, and less perceived police protection were associated …

Age As A Moderator In The Relationship Between Coping Strategies And Well-Being During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hailey Owens

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with an increase in social isolation, which is correlated with a decrease in psychological well-being. Previous research has found that the coping strategies individuals use most frequently change with age. Previous research has also outlined the mental health benefits of positive coping strategies across age groups, but the appropriateness of various coping strategies for different age groups during pandemic conditions has not been explored. Using data collected in a 3-week period beginning in April of 2020, the current study explored the moderating effect of age on the relationship between coping strategies and psychological well-being. …

A Wellbeing@Ksu Journey: Mapw Portfolio, Meghan Cooper

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A process narrative and samples and complete works from my time in MAPW and as a GRA within the health and well-being departments at KSU. The portfolio showcases my journey as a communicator and professional writer and how it has impacted my current career.

The Effect Of Social Media On Providence College Students, Kathryn Ernst, Margaret Grasberger, Allie Mcguire, Mairead Ryan

School of Business Student Scholarship

Kathryn Ernst ’24, Major: Marketing

Margaret Grasberger ’24, Major: Marketing

Allie McGuire ’24, Major: Marketing

Mairead Ryan ’24, Major: Marketing

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kevin Newman, Marketing

Recent research indicates that social media usage is addictive both physically and psychologically. Due to the prevalence of social media, our group specifically wanted to study how its usage impacted Providence College students’ mental health, physical health, and communication skills (both in-person and online communication skills). We found that social media usage negatively affects students’ mental and physical health, with females being more impacted than males. However, we did not find evidence to support …

Healthy Eating At Providence College, Katelyn Breen, Alexis Carabetta, Lilah Milton, Katharine Shaughnessy

School of Business Student Scholarship

Katelyn Breen ’24, Major: Marketing

Alexis Carabetta ’24, Major: Marketing

Lilah Milton ’24, Major: Marketing

Katharine Shaughnessy ’24, Major: Marketing

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kevin Newman, Marketing

Our marketing group surveyed 100 Providence College students about their healthy eating choices and level of satisfaction of Ray Dining Hall’s healthy eating options. From the data collected, we discovered most students are unsatisfied with Ray Dining Hall and they suggested the need for a greater variety of healthy eating options. Based on this information, our group put together three recommendations that Providence College Dining should implement: 1) provide students with healthy eating instructions; …

Numeric Forced Rank: A Lightweight Method For Comparison And Decision-Making, Erin Gannon, Barbara Chaparro

Publications

Comparing products, features, brands, or ideas relative to one another is a common goal in user experience (UX) and market research. While Likert-type scales and ordinal stack ranks are often employed as prioritization methods, they are subject to several psychometric shortcomings. We introduce the numeric forced rank, a lightweight approach that overcomes some of the limitations of standard methods and allows researchers to collect absolute ratings, relative preferences, and subjective comments using a single scale. The approach is optimal for UX and market research, but is also easily employed as a structured decision-making exercise outside of consumer research. We describe …

College Students’ Psychological Well-Being During The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Investigation Based On Students’ Gender And Education Level, Muh. Farozin, Diana Septi Purnama, Budi Astuti, Arif Budi Prasetya, Anifa Tuzzuhroh Nurbaiti

Jurnal Kajian Bimbingan dan Konseling

This study aims to determine the level of psychological well-being based on gender and level of education being pursued during the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants are students from various faculties and postgraduate programs from diploma, undergraduate, professional education, masters and doctoral education levels in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The instrument used is the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale which has been adapted by Engger with a content validity value of CVR equal to 1 which is in the good category and reliability is 0.935 in the good category. The data analysis used was Mann-Whitney non-parametric statistics for the different test of psychological well-being based …

Development Of Instrumen Eksplorasi Karier Anne Roe (Iekar) For Junior High School Students, Dhanang Suwidagdho, Edi Purwanta

Jurnal Kajian Bimbingan dan Konseling

This study aims to develop a career exploration instrument based on Anne Roe’s classification to help junior high school students explore their career options. The development method uses the Syaiffudin Azwar instrument development model with 8 stages, namely the identification of measuring objectives; measuring domain restrictions; operationalization of aspects; writing and reviewing items; language test; field tests; item selection and; final compilation. The field test was carried out on 306 junior high school students in the Godean area, Yogyakarta. The results of the CFA test show that all instrument items that make up the 8 career groups obtained fit results …

Impact Of Cyber Relational Addiction On Undergraduates’ Interpersonal Relationship In Nigeria, Mulikat Ladi Abdulqadir Mustapha, Michael Ajokpaniovo, Faith Elizabeth Olaoye

Jurnal Kajian Bimbingan dan Konseling

The upsurge in the use of cyberspace in recent years has led to pathological use for some individuals especially in the area of cyber relational addiction. This study aimed to investigate the influence of cyber relational addiction on interpersonal relationships and how variables of age, religion, levels of study, and gender of respondents moderate the influence of cyber relational addiction on their interpersonal relationships. This study employed a descriptive survey research design and administered a self-designed questionnaire on 420 randomly selected undergraduates from seven faculties at the University of Ilorin. A research question was answered in this study, while the …

Smartphone Addiction Among Adolescence Students: Its Implication Toward Family Communication, Learning, Guidance And Counselling, Adi Atmoko, Indah Kartika Sari, Augusto Da Costa, Nugraheni Warih Utami, Eny Tri Wahyuni

Jurnal Kajian Bimbingan dan Konseling

The symptoms of smartphone addiction have been extensively observed in adolescent students. This study aims to investigate the effects of smartphone addiction on students’ communication with their families, their learning, as well as guidance and counseling processes. The causal correlational design was applied, involving 103 participants selected total samplings of eighth-graders junior high school students. The data was garnered through the smartphone addiction scale and family communication scale. Both of those scales had item validity of 0.3, with Alpha Cronbach reliability of 0.937 and 0.850, respectively. The obtained data were analyzed using regression. The analysis results suggest that smartphone addiction …

Single Session Counseling Integrated With Expressive Art To Improve Students' Internet Altruistic Behavior, Ganjar Suargani, Mulawarman Mulawarman, Awalya Awalya

Jurnal Kajian Bimbingan dan Konseling

The internet is one of the means to obtain information, interact, and even provide help to others. To be able to give voluntary help based on empathy, one must have internet altruistic abilities. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of single-session counseling with expressive art integration to improve students’ altruistic behavior on the internet. This study used a randomized pretest-posttest control group design. The intervention in the experimental group used a single session counseling strategy that was integrated with expressive art. The control group was given an intervention in the form of individual counseling without using a single session …

Anti-Immigration Policy And Mental Health: Risk Of Distress And Trauma Among Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals Recipients In The United States, Luz M. Garcini, Melanie M. Domenech Rodriguez, Alfonso Mercado, Michelle Silva, German Cadenas, Thania Galvan, Manuel Paris

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Objective: This study examined the association between immigration legal status and distress from the announcement of the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program among individuals affected by this potentially traumatic event (PTE), along with identifying relevant risk factors.

Method: Participants (N = 233) affected by the termination announcement provided cross-sectional self-reports on distress from the announcement that was measured using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised.

Results: Of the participants, 40.7% met the clinical cutoff for distress from the PTE indicative of posttraumatic stress disorder. DACA recipients had significantly higher levels of distress from the PTE …

Wrongful Conviction Compensation In The United States, Brenda I. Morel

Honors College Theses

Although the United States has signed a United Nations agreement that stipulates that all wrongfully convicted individuals have a right to compensation, not all states have compensation laws. In addition, it is not guaranteed that exonerees living in states with compensation statutes will be compensated. This thesis examines the scope of wrongful conviction compensation statutes across states. Furthermore, it examines whether exoneree characteristics, as identified by the National Exoneree Registry, map onto state-level differences in laws and effectiveness in compensating exonerees. I compile two sources of data to link individual exonerees with their state of conviction.

Composite Style Pixel And Point Convolution-Based Deep Fusion Neural Network Architecture For The Semantic Segmentation Of Hyperspectral And Lidar Data, Kevin T. Decker, Brett J. Borghetti

Faculty Publications

Multimodal hyperspectral and lidar data sets provide complementary spectral and structural data. Joint processing and exploitation to produce semantically labeled pixel maps through semantic segmentation has proven useful for a variety of decision tasks. In this work, we identify two areas of improvement over previous approaches and present a proof of concept network implementing these improvements. First, rather than using a late fusion style architecture as in prior work, our approach implements a composite style fusion architecture to allow for the simultaneous generation of multimodal features and the learning of fused features during encoding. Second, our approach processes the higher …

Librarian And Faculty Conversations About Information Literacy: A Pilot Study On Communication Across Disciplinary Boundaries, Carolyn B. Gamtso

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of this pilot study is to discover how academic instruction librarians discuss the concept of information literacy with faculty colleagues outside the library and information science field; how they negotiate shared meanings of the term; and what pedagogical actions result from these conversations. The researcher interviewed a purposive, convenience sample of three early-career ILI librarians employed at private colleges in the Northeastern United States to ascertain their perspectives on the quality and nature of their conversations with faculty members about information literacy. The researcher used the theoretical framework of Etienne Wenger’s dimensions of boundary processes to interpret the …

Influence Of Information Literacy And Information Use On Competence Of Community Health Practitioners In Ibadan, Nigeria, Iseoluwa Adedokun Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The effective gathering and transmission of information is essential to the standard of care provided for patients. Community Health practitioners have a responsibility to acquire and use information in order to be well informed and competently discharge their duties creditably.

The study is a descriptive survey that targeted305 community health practitioners from Primary Health Care centres in five selected Local Governments Area in Ibadan out of which 215 respondents were selected using random sampling technique.

The study revealed that the Community Health practitioners (CHP) in Ibadan needs information relating to health-related, primary healthcare, emergency situations, how to perform some minors …