Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Psychology Of Collegiate Basketball: A Review Of The Literature, Paige Ashlyn Bordenkecher

Senior Theses

This literature review aims to further the understanding of the psychological factors that impact the performance of collegiate basketball players. Past reviews have focused on specific performance elements of basketball (e.g. free throws) or how a singular psychological factor affects sports performance; none have focused specifically on the collegiate level of play. The present review systematically collected thirty studies from the databases PsycInfo and SportDiscuss. The following psychological factors were the focus of the literature: player qualities, motivation, feedback, location of play, mood/emotional states, mental fatigue, preshot routine, momentum, sleep, self-talk, self-modeling, leadership, choking, flow, touch, and color. Performance was …

Is It Enough? Investigating The Effectiveness Of Adhd Accommodations For College Students, Sreekavya Mekala

Senior Theses

This study explores the effectiveness of accommodations given by the University of South Carolina (USC) for students diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A total of 435 students completed a survey divided into three groups: those diagnosed with ADHD (n = 74), those not diagnosed but familiar with someone with ADHD (n = 321), and those not diagnosed and unfamiliar with ADHD (n = 40). Results showed that while most students with ADHD were aware of accommodations, far fewer used them, and many reported inconsistent faculty understanding and hesitation due to stigma. Students familiar with ADHD viewed accommodations as generally fair …

Personality And Personnel Selection: Going Beyond Self-Reports And Linear Relationships, Filip Lievens, Jinyan Fan, Jingyi Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The study of personality in selection and assessment represents one of the most longstanding and voluminous literature in industrial and organizational psychology. In this paper, we review two important recent research streams. First, we review studies on alternatives to self-report personality inventories, namely the use of Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs), assessment center (AC) exercises, and a multi-rater framework. Second, we review studies that go beyond linear relationships between personality and job performance. Generally, our review reveals that these alternative approaches show promises in better understanding personality and how personality relates to performance.

Weak Identification Of Long Memory With Implications For Volatility Modeling;, Jia Li, Peter C. B. Phillips, Shuping Shi, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper explores implications of weak identification in common ‘long memory’ and recent ‘rough’ approaches to modeling volatility dynamics of financial assets. We unveil an asymptotic near-observational equivalence between a long memory model with weak autoregressive dynamics and a rough model with a near-unit autoregressive root. Standard methods struggle to distinguish them, and conventional asymptotics are invalid. We propose an identification-robust approach to construct confidence sets that reveal the uncertainty and aid inference. Empirical studies based on realized volatility and trading volume often fail to statistically reject either model, thereby providing evidence of their potential coexistence.

The Impact Of A Vocational Training ‘Plus’ Programme On Employment And Income, Abu S. Shonchoy, Tomoki Fujii, Selim. Raihan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Following a Randomised Controlled Trial in Northern Bangladesh, this study explores the barriers to rural youth migration to urban employment hubs. By implementing a vocational training “plus” programme facilitating apparel sector employment, the study revealed significant and persistent effects of the programme on income and employment, primarily due to the addition of a stipend and on-the-job training components. Treated participants experienced significant income and remittance increases, alongside reduced income poverty, attributed to the lower job search costs and job–fit risks. Notably, the on-the-job paid apprenticeship offered a benefit–cost ratio of 8.85, demonstrating its cost-effectiveness for programme scalability.

The Motherhood Penalty On Health: Evidence From China, Ang Sun, Fang Xia, Xuan Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Understanding women’s physical and mental well-being following childbirth is critical for informing policies on labor market equity, family support, and fertility. Using event study methods and panel data from China, we document a persistent motherhood penalty in both physical and mental health, whereas the health impacts on fathers are minimal. While mothers experience a temporary reduction in paid work hours, they face a sustained increase in unpaid domestic labor — housework and childcare — resulting in a net increase in total work time. This additional workload likely contributes to deterioration in health. Mothers are also more likely to engage in …

Short-Term Mortality And Healthcare Utilization Consequences Of Pension Income Receipt: Evidence From South Korea, Mimi Jeon, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine short-term consequences of pension income receipt on mortality and healthcare utilization within the monthly payment cycle. Using the national death registry data of South Korea, we document that the mortality rate decreases by 1.2–1.4 percent in the week of the disbursement date. The mortality-reducing effects are larger for causes of death that could have been avoided through timely and effective healthcare interventions. Using healthcare claims data, we document that the number of hospital admissions increases during the disbursement week. We provide suggestive evidence of greater mortality-reducing effects from a smaller but more frequent disbursement than from a monthly …

Product Technology Adoption And Aggregate Innovation, Qiugu He, Xuan Luo, Fan Zheng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We document that a firm's research and development (R&D) expenditure depends on its product diversity. Combining with the fact that Chinese manufacturers often enter new product markets via technology adoption, we develop a quantitative framework of innovation and technology adoption, allowing firms to expand their product scopes. Firms adopt technologies across multiple fields to expand their knowledge base, which in turn serves as an input for subsequent innovation or adoption. Counterfactual analysis from the 2000s reveals that two-thirds of knowledge privately held by all firms is generated through adoption, accounting for one-third of aggregate innovation.

The Moderating Effects Of Community Involvement On The Association Between Witnessed Community Violence And Mental Health Outcomes Among Black Adolescents, Curtisha Tamara Shacklewood

Theses and Dissertations

Black youth and adolescents are at a disproportionately high risk for experiencing community violence exposure (CVE) and the potential influence it may have on psychological functioning. Research posits that Black youth who experience community violence are at a significantly higher risk of experiencing elevated internalizing symptoms (e.g., depression) and externalizing symptoms (e.g., delinquency). Previous research has utilized the ecological model to investigate interpersonal protective factors that potentially buffer the effects of CVE, including parental support and family characteristics. However, there is little research that explores community-level factors, such as community activities (e.g., youth activities and parental perception of collective efficacy) …

Leveraging After School Programs As Resources To Support Adolescent Health And Wellbeing Within Underserved Communities: A Qualitative Study, Olivia Staples

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, youth have shown a consistent rise in stress, major depression, anxiety, and suicide, with underserved youth (low-income, minoritized communities) at greatest risk of exposure to chronic stress, related outcomes, and less access to health services (APA, 2017). Afterschool programs (ASPs), which serve as important resources in underserved communities, can be a critical support for youth health and well-being (Afterschool Alliance, 2019). However, few studies have examined ways in which ASPs address the challenges underserved youth face across their ecosystem to promote youth resilience (Jones & Deutsch, 2011). Using qualitative interview data from staff and youth across …

Influence Of School Climate On Comprehensive School Behavioral Health Effectiveness, Halle Rose Singer

Theses and Dissertations

Youth are experiencing a sharp rise in mental health concerns, which have reached critical levels. Schools have emerged as a key setting for delivering mental health services due to their accessibility, familiarity, and capacity to reach diverse populations. Comprehensive School Behavioral Health (CSBH) systems offer a multi-tiered, evidence-based framework for supporting the mental health of all students. However, the success of CSBH interventions varies across schools presumably indicating that systemic or school level factors, like school climate, may influence youth mental health outcomes. In this study, I investigate how school-level factors, specifically student-perceived school climate, influence the mental health outcomes …

The Role Of Prelimbic Projections To The Rostromedial Tegmnetal Nucleus In Cue Discrimination, Emma Lane Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Maladaptive decision-making, such as persistent reward seeking despite negative consequences, is a hallmark of substance use disorder (SUD) and related psychiatric conditions. These behaviors are thought to arise from impairments in aversive learning and disrupted neural signaling that normally supports behavioral inhibition. The prelimbic cortex (PL) plays a critical role in encoding cue–outcome associations and exerting top-down control over behavior, while the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) serves as a GABAergic inhibitor of midbrain dopamine neurons in response to aversive stimuli. Although both structures have been implicated in reward and avoidance processes, little is known about how direct PL-RMTg projections contribute …

The Processing Of Emotional Prosody And Semantics In Native And Non-Native Chinese Speakers, Cheng Xiao

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional information in spoken language is conveyed through both semantic and prosodic cues. While listeners interpret the meaning of utterances (what is said), they also detect the speaker’s emotional prosody (how it is said). For non-native speakers, processing these two types of information simultaneously can be challenging, particularly in a tonal language such as Mandarin Chinese, where the same acoustic feature (i.e., pitch) encodes both lexical semantics and emotional prosody. This dissertation reports a series of behavioral and fMRI experiments investigating how native and non-native Chinese speakers perceive and process emotional prosody and semantics in words and sentences. Behaviorally, results …

Too Much Of A Good Thing? Can Students Be Too Behaviorally Engaged, Rosemary Louise Odem

Theses and Dissertations

Student engagement in school is a key determinant of students’ academic success. Student engagement is commonly conceptualized as a meta construct comprised of three dimensions: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement (Fredricks, 2015). Behavioral engagement, the focus of this study, is defined by positive conduct, involvement in learning and academic tasks, and participation in school-related activities (Fredricks et al., 2004). Some researchers have suggested that psychological strengths, like engagement, can be overused and result in maladaptive consequences (Niemiec, 2019; Oishi et al., 2007). This study addressed this notion using archival data from a sample of 422 students from one Southeastern US …

Anthropomorphism In Language And Thought: The Effect Of Agentive Linguistic Framing On Readers’ Perceptions Of Ai Animacy, Dawson Petersen

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, deep learning AI systems have gone from academic obscurity to near cultural centrality in the developed world. As these technologies become increasingly integrated into daily life, there is growing cause for concern about AI anthropomorphism—i.e., the perception of AIs as more human than they really are. Despite the potential risks, AI developers continue to market their technologies using agentive language that seems to be designed to encourage anthropomorphism. The current dissertation utilizes behavioral and eye-tracking methods to examine the relationship between agentive linguistic framing and AI anthropomorphism in both controlled judgments and automatic inferences. The results …

Behind The Gens: A Bioarchaeological Study Of Kinship Structure And Social Change In Iron Age Latium, Italy, Andrea Noemí Acosta Caballero

Theses and Dissertations

The cemetery of Osteria dell’Osa is the only completely published Iron Age cemetery from Latium. Its research legacy continues as dietary, mobility, and biological affinity patterns were reconstructed through carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotope analyses and biodistance analysis using bone and dental samples for this dissertation project. The main hypotheses tested are:

a) The diet of people buried at Osteria dell’Osa during the Iron Age likely consisted of mostly grains like wheat and barley, which may yield low carbon isotope signatures;

b) The protein consumption of the diet of people at Osteria dell’Osa was mainly composed of terrestrial protein …

Identifying And Understanding The Barriers To Sexual Health Information Seeking Experienced By Young Adults (Ages 18-26) Using Social Media, Alexander Nicolas Vera

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uses a qualitative, constructionist approach to examine the sociotechnical and cultural dynamics that shape digital sexual health-seeking practices of young adults. Guided by information practices and affordance theory, the research draws on semi-structured interviews and digital walkthroughs with 20 young adults (ages 18–26) from a convenience sample of young adults residing in South Carolina. Participants described how they use platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit not only to locate information but to assess its trustworthiness, inclusivity, and personal relevance in real time. Through in-depth accounts and screen-based demonstrations via digital walkthroughs, the study examines how participants engage in …

What Can Trends In Emergency Department Visits Tell Us About Child Mental Health?, Han Choi, Adriana Corredor-Waldron, Janet Currie, Chris Felton

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Increases in mental health diagnoses and suicidal behaviors in Emergency Departments are often cited as evidence of an accelerating child mental health crisis. We ask whether trends in ED visits provide an accurate picture of changes in U.S. child mental health. These measures have been profoundly affected by changing conventions about screening, defining, and coding of mental illness. We conclude that child mental health has been deteriorating, but not by the startling magnitudes suggested by jumps and trends in some measures such as suicidal ideation. Although reported suicidal behaviors rose 228% from 2006–2021, the true rise in mental health disorders …

Exploring The Relationships Between Childhood Emotional Neglect, Attachment, Perfectionism, And Adult Mental Health Struggles Across The Socioeconomic Spectrum, Jordan Biedrzycki

Dissertations

This mixed-methods, cross-sectional study investigated the associations between childhood emotional neglect, perfectionism, attachment insecurity, and internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) among adults from varying socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. Participants (N = 210) aged 18 years or older completed five validated self-report instruments for the quantitative analyses and answered two optional open-ended questions that yielded qualitative data. Data from the self-report measures were analyzed using independent samples t-tests, linear regressions, and moderation analyses conducted with the PROCESS macro. Three hypotheses were tested in this study. First, participants from high-SES backgrounds reported experiencing emotional neglect more frequently than other maltreatment subtypes (t = …

A Holistic Inquiry Of Intelligent Speed-Assist Technology: Safety Impacts, Technology Implementation, And Challenges, Sahar Ghanipoor Machiani, Nusheen Baradaran, Arash Jahangiri

Mineta Transportation Institute

Speeding is a leading contributor to roadway fatalities in the United States, and California consistently ranks among states with the highest number of speed-related crashes. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology has emerged as a solution aimed at mitigating this issue by notifying drivers of speed limits and, in some cases, intervening and lowering the speed to the posted speed limit. This work presents a comprehensive investigation into ISA system safety benefits, implementation challenges, and public perception, with a focus on California drivers. This study utilized a multi-method approach. A literature review explores the history, regulatory barriers, and international trails of …

Wildfire Emergency Response And Evacuation Framework Using Drones: Phase I, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

Wildfires are escalating in frequency and severity due to climate change, posing increasing threats to human life, infrastructure,and ecosystems. Traditional wildfire management systems struggle to respond effectively to rapidly evolving fire conditions. This research presents a novel, AI-powered Wildfire Emergency Response and Evacuation Framework that integrates autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, AKA “drones”), multi-sensor data fusion, and machine learning (ML) for real-time fire detection, evacuation planning, and search and rescue (SAR) operations. Central to the system is the Dynamic Wildfire Response Algorithm (DWRA), a hybrid decision-making framework combining AI-driven techniques including reinforcement learning (RL), genetic algorithms (GA), and deep learning …

Investigating Driver Perceptions Of Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Sensing And Response Characteristics, Molly Mersinger

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As semi-autonomous vehicle (SAV) technologies become increasingly integrated into modern transportation, understanding how the public perceives their capabilities is essential for ensuring safe and effective human-automation interaction. This study examined drivers’ perceptions of SAV detection and discernment abilities across 28 driving conditions and how those perceptions related to expected vehicle behaviors in 17 corresponding scenarios. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified three perceptual dimensions: Traffic Infrastructure and Vehicle Recognition, Dynamic Roadway Hazards and Vulnerable Road Users, and Human Interaction and Contextual Cues. Moderate overlap between the first two dimensions suggested that participants viewed certain structured and dynamic roadway features as …

Portfolio And Appendix Chris M. Larson, Chris M. Larson

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Abstract:

This is a collection of assignments and reflections of my work throughout the course of the Masters in Social Work program at the University of Montana. Included are assignments reflecting on the Indian Child Welfare Act, housing, barriers to care for Non-White and female veterans within the VA clinic, the quality of care in nursing homes, American Drug policy, confidentiality in the YWCA, training on interventions based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, cost benefit analysis of in home care programs, and a proposal for my practicum site Missoula Aging Services. It has reflections on the five elements of advanced practice, …

Colonial Christianity: The Language Of Evangelization Through The Levanto 1766 Joyful Mysteries Of The Rosary Poems, Lillian E. Chan , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis presents a translation from Colonial Valley Zapotec to English of the five poems based on the biblical Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary found in the 1766 Christian catechism attributed to Dominican friar Leonardo Levanto. I analyze the construction of the linguistic strategies revealed by the translation (periphrasis, semantic bifurcation, neologisms, calques, and metaphors) as well as examine the extent to which these constructions were poetic innovations versus drawing on already-established language. Together, the translation and analysis of the Levanto (1766) Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary poems illustrate how language was used as a tool for evangelization in colonial …

Mama, Appa, And Titi: What Makes Words Sound Parental? A Phonological Exploration Of Parental Terms In And Beyond The Gender Binary, Madeleine C. S. Kruckemeye , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This paper addresses the following research question: What phonological components make a word sound ‘parental’ cross-linguistically and (how) do those components relate to the social genders associated with the word? The goal in answering this question is to extend Jakobson (1960) and Murdock’s (1959) work to be inclusive of our current understanding of gender and gender roles, and to create more options for queer parents and other families that are recognizable as parental terms, an important factor as found by Frank et al. (2017). The research consists of a literature review, an analysis of cross-linguistic parental terms, and an online …

“He’S Here, He’S Not Queer”: The Indexical Potential Of Pronoun Use On American Drag Reality Television, Finn Verdonk , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

When English speakers talk about drag performers, what factors impact the pronoun that is used? Pulling data from two seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 4 and Season 14) and one season of Dragula (Season 5), this thesis attempts to understand the ways in which drag performers use pronouns in discourse about fellow drag performers. Building from Myers’s 2018 proposal that using he/him pronouns for drag queens can index shadiness or criticism, I expand her sample to see if her findings hold up over time and across franchises. I find that he/him pronouns on RPDR no longer index shadiness and …

A Review Of The 2024/25 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is the 11th annual review of Singapore’s performance in international moot court competitions. In a nutshell, 2024/25 has been a tremendous, record-breaking season for Singapore – and a particular duck has finally been broken. In the highest-tier or Grand Slam competitions, Singapore Management University emerged world champions in the Jessup, Vis East, International Criminal Court, and Frankfurt competitions; the previous world record for most Grand Slam wins in a season was 2 (held by various universities), and this new record may well increase to 5, depending on whether SMU can successfully defend its world championship at the Lachs Space …

Juxtaposing Approaches To Risk-Based Ai Governance In Different ‘Rights’ Contexts: A Comparative Analysis Between Singapore And The Eu, Jane Loo, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Comparative analysis of European and certain Asian approaches to governance often degenerates into simplistic dichotomies based on universal human rights assumptions. This chapter rejects such dualities, ill-informed by theory and historical reflection. The emerging argument is founded on a historical realist approach to theorising difference. Assisted by Polanyi’s double movement, the detailed substantive comparison is preceded by considerations of how recent trends in governing AI have uniformly adopted a countermovement against the dis-embedding of data and technology from the social leading to a risk/responsibility paradigm. From here, a more nuanced reflection of AI governance approaches in the EU and Singapore …

Interpreting The Private‑ And Public‑Sector Service Criteria For Singapore’S Aspiring Presidential Candidates, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore President's role is not only ceremonial: from 1991, it has encompassed the substantive function of serving as a guardian of public reserves and the integrity of the public service. A person must meet certain qualifying criteria in order to run in a Presidential election. This article focuses on one set of qualifying criteria, namely, the "service criteria": the requirement that candidates have had certain experience in serving in certain roles in the public sector or the private sector. The service criteria were last amended in 2016, and came to the fore in the 2023 Presidential Election following George …

The Role Of Social Capital In Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness, Participation, And Sustainability: Insights From Service-Learning Evaluation Reports, Mark Anthony D. Abenir

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Social capital, encompassing networks, trust, and shared norms among community members, underpins the success of community development initiatives. This study examines how deliberate efforts to strengthen social capital influence organizational effectiveness, participant engagement, and long‐term sustainability in four urbanbased service‐learning projects in Metro Manila, Philippines. Through a qualitative review of comprehensive endof‐project evaluation reports spanning a junior educator tutoring program, a disaster preparedness intervention, a women’s leadership and organization development project, and project management capacity‐building workshop for conditional cash transfer beneficiaries, the research applied a three‐dimensional social capital framework: structural (network coordination and information exchange), cognitive (shared norms and collective …