Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Media Coverage Of Conflicts In Shaping Public Opinion: Exploring The Cnn Effect In The Russia-Ukraine War, Grace A. Landry

Honors Theses

This study examines how media coverage of the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 influenced public opinion and policy discourse in the United States through the lens of the CNN Effect, agenda-setting, and framing. Focusing on the initial reporting is important because it captures a moment of high uncertainty, when audiences and policymakers were most reliant on journalistic framing to interpret the conflict that is still ongoing today. This research utilizes a qualitative content analysis to analyze fifteen news articles from three major U.S. newspapers, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, covering the …

Joy Beyond Circumstance: Crafting A Picture Book That Challenges Western Perceptions Of Joy, Sarah L. Stockett

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the creation of a children’s picture book as a method of challenging Western perceptions of happiness, particularly the assumption that material abundance determines joy. Drawing from two service-based experiences with Zoe Ministries in Kitale, Kenya, the project centers on The Glad Rag, a picture book in which a single piece of fabric travels through many hands and becomes many useful items. Through this narrative, the book invites young readers to consider resourcefulness, gratitude, and joy that transcends circumstance.

The project uses a mixed-methods research approach. Primary data were gathered through participant observation and informal conversations on …

The Politics Of The Spotlight: Exploring High-Profile Witnesses In Congressional Committee Hearings, Wesley J. Templet

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how the use of high-profile witnesses in congressional committee hearings relates to legislative effectiveness in the U.S. House of Representatives. While hearings are traditionally viewed as venues for information gathering and oversight, they also serve as highly visible platforms for political communication. This study evaluates whether committees that devote a greater share of their hearings to high-profile witnesses exhibit lower levels of legislative effectiveness due to a potential shift toward symbolic activity. Using the Congressional Committee Hearing Dataset (CoCoHD), the analysis covers House committee hearings from the 105th through the 115th Congress. The data are aggregated to …

Factors Associated With Depression Among First- And Third-Year Medical Students In The Caribbean And United States, Fernando Juan Quirindongo Belvis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Self, Adam D. Krebsbach

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Analysis of Self

A Thesis Presented to

the Graduate Faculty of

Minnesota State University Moorhead

By

Adam Daniel Krebsbach

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Science in Clinical Mental

Health Counseling

March 2026

Moorhead, Minnesota

Abstract

“Selah” represents an intentional pause—a moment to reflect, reassess, and seek deeper understanding. Through a process of self-analysis, I have embraced the opportunity to practice Selah by consulting with loved ones, reflecting on past opportunities and mistakes, and challenging my own thoughts and behaviors. The purpose of this project is to explore who I was, who I am, …

Understanding Myself As A Helping Professional, Mia Duncan

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This paper reflects on my own personal experiences that have shaped the person I am both personally and professionally. The purpose of this paper is to showcase the emotional, mental, and physical events I have gone through as well as the work I have done to overcome these challenging events to better serve my future students and clients. I have identified pivotal relationships in my life, therapeutic approaches that have worked for my own development, as well as what I use to help my students as a school counselor, and what my plans are after I graduate to continue as …

How Changes In Mexican Immigration To The United States Affect Mexican Labor Markets, Gonzalo Ares De Parga-Regalado, Marta Prato

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Know But Not Recognized? Québec, The United States And The Thresholds For Diplomatic Recognition, Thomas Forget

Student Theses

This thesis examines the conditions under which the United States would recognize an independent Québec diplomatically and how it would maintain stable institutional relations with it. It also examines the extent of Québec’s paradiplomatic network’s reach in the United States, and how it influences the relationship and the probability of recognition. Based on a qualitative case study using process tracing and conceptual analysis, the thesis proposes that the institutional density of the Québec-US relationship increases the probability of functional continuity and, potentially, of programmatic cooperation after independence. However, this would not lower the significant political, legal, and strategic US thresholds …

Spatial Analysis Of Heavy Metal Leaching Threats From North Dakota Landfills To Drinking Water Aquifers, Leila Campbell

Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Showcase

Groundwater is a primary fresh water source for most rural communities in North Dakota. The EPA acknowledges that landfill leakage is not a matter of if but when, and early detection can be extremely difficult. This project identifies which counties and aquifers face the greatest threat from landfill heavy-metal leaching based on proximity, waste types, and groundwater vulnerability, thereby indicating which landfills warrant the closest monitoring and regulatory compliance.   The methodology combines two indexes. The DRASTIC index identifies aquifer vulnerability to surface pollution based on hydrogeologic factors. These factors are weighted by their significance to produce a score that reflects …

Expertise First: Reflections On Informal Artificial Intelligence Mentoring In An Asynchronous Nursing Faculty Community, Anna Liza D. Villena Phd, Rn, Fnp-Bc

Journal of Online Mentoring

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education has arrived faster than the support structures designed to help faculty navigate it. This article reflects on one faculty member’s experience providing informal AI integration mentoring to nursing colleagues at Walden University, a fully asynchronous online graduate nursing program, where clinician-educators with deep disciplinary expertise often struggled to recognize that expertise as an asset in their interactions with AI tools.

Drawing on Rogers’ (2003) diffusion of innovations theory, the article describes the mentoring approach that emerged from practice, the central insight that faculty are not failing to integrate AI because …

Esports Cosmopolitan Canopy, Reice Hicks

Honors Theses

This thesis concerns the area of sociology. Specifically, it is a sociological study of a community on Ole Miss’s campus and how they form what is known within the sociology field as a “cosmopolitan canopy,” a term coined by Elijah Anderson. Using this term, I proceed to prove not only how the Ole Miss Esports club falls under this jurisdiction, but the effects of esports on the youth as a whole, both positive and negative. All of my data was extracted via literature review, online research, note-taking, visual observation, and one-on-one interviews with people involved with the club. The entire …

Listen To Your Parents: An Exploration Into Why Mississippi Foster Parents Enter, Stay In, And Exit The System, Howell D. Jenkins Iii

Honors Theses

Like many states across the country, Mississippi’s foster care system has faced a shrinking pool of foster parents to care for the state’s most vulnerable children. When states do not have adequate numbers of foster parents, children are susceptible to negative outcomes such as developmental delays, broken attachments with adults, and extended stays in the system. This thesis seeks to understand what motivates individuals to become foster parents, how they experience the system, and what pressures influence their decision to remain fostering or close their doors. To place this research within the appropriate contexts, the thesis draws on literature from …

Empirical Results From The Eliminations Of Municipal Minimum Parking Requirements, David A. Griffith

Honors Theses

Minimum Parking Requirements (MPR) are municipal zoning ordinances mandating a set number of off-street parking spaces for new developments. Since the 1950s, MPR has been the near-universal way American municipalities supply parking, though growing criticisms since the late 1990s have targeted the policy for distorting development patterns, imposing high costs, and subsidizing personal vehicle use. Beginning in the early 2010s and increasingly in the early 2020s, cities and counties across the United States have moved to reform or eliminate MPR. This paper is the first empirical study of the economic effects of these removals. Using a two-way fixed-effects difference-in-differences OLS …

Unequal Paths: Experiences Navigating The U.S. Naturalization Process And The Role Of Education, Cecilia Rayburn

Honors Theses

This study examines how educational attainment shapes immigrants’ experiences with the U.S. naturalization process, with a focus on how education influences confidence, access to resources, and the ability to manage bureaucratic demands. While the legal requirements for naturalization are standardized, the ability to navigate them varies widely across individuals. Applicants’ experiences reveal that the U.S. naturalization process is often more complex and unequal than it may appear. This research was conducted through five semi-structured interviews with naturalized citizens of varying levels of higher education. These interviews explored participants’ experiences with the application process, including their preparedness, access to support systems, …

How Do Minimum Wages Affect Workplace Injuries?, Michael Davies, R. Jisung Park, Anna Stansbury

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

County Policy Enforcement And Fentanyl Overdose Rates In North Carolina, Christopher Lyle Parks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Exploring North Carolina’S Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative In Rural Communities, Annie Belle Perry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

My Journey Into Discovering How My Experiences Shape Who I Am Today, Sabrina K. Forde-Kerbaugh

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This is an ‘Analysis of Self’ portfolio that goes through many key points and people that have shaped the person I am today. This paper will start with going through my background information, which will range from my close relationships, to my favorite activities and hobbies. The second section will go through two different self-assessments and what I learned from completing each of them. The third section of this paper will go through the results of the interviews I completed with a handful of my close family members and friends. After going through the themes from conducting my interviews, I …

A Moment For Pause, Jared J. Saunders

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This essay outlines the life of Jared Saunders, from his birth in 1995 to the day this was written in 2026. Born, raised, and educated in Minnesota, he grew up in a stable household with a moderate sized family. Trained to be an educator, he has recently redirected his career path towards becoming a school counselor in the hopes that he can better serve his students. Throughout the process of researching and writing for this essay, the author reflected on his life and the mechanisms that steadily sculpted him into the person he is today. After chronologically reflecting on his …

My Existence And Experience, Ava Aigner

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This analysis of self-paper aided me in exploring and reflecting on personal experiences that had a direct impact on my development and identity. Several elements aided in developing an indepth analysis of self, including taking and interpreting assessments, engaging in interviews with significant individuals and reflecting on their responses, and the integration of relevant theories throughout the paper in order to develop a conceptualization of self. Through this analysis, I have reflected on my life, which has helped me become more self-aware and confident in my professional abilities as I continue to evolve and learn. Keywords: Attachment styles, relationships, family, …

Inconsistencies Emerge Between Regional And Local-Scale Water Security Metrics At Military Installations, Abigail Birnbaum, Michael L. Berg, Caitlin Grady, Daniel J. Weeks, Christopher M. Chini

Faculty Publications

Recent United States federal policy for military installations has emphasized the importance of developing a standardized approach for water security assessment to monitor changes in water resources and the ability for an installation to meet both its civilian and mission needs. For military installations in the United States, these assessments must consider demands both inside and outside the installation’s fence line, as regional resources are required to meet mission readiness. Focusing on physical water scarcity, this study compares four water security metrics with unique formulations and spatial resolutions, including an installation-scale metric and multiple regional metrics defined for either baseline …

Exploration Of Ai-Based Method Feedback For Clinical Psychology Skill Development With An Emphasis On Deliberate Practice, Beckham G. Mccord

Honors Theses

Training competent psychotherapists requires substantial time, supervision, and performance-based feedback. However, traditional methods of providing feedback are resource-intensive and difficult to sustain outside of university and research settings. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have created new opportunities to automate aspects of psychotherapy fidelity assessment and provide trainees with more frequent feedback. The present study examines the implementation of Lyssn, an AI-based psychotherapy platform that provides clinical feedback to therapists, in a graduate-level course on Evidence-Based Services. Multiple years of course data were reviewed to evaluate therapist competence, therapist behaviors, and student engagement with AI-generated feedback. Particular emphasis was placed …

Elective Abortion, Moral Injury, And Maternal Bonding To The First Child, Jennifer Marie Lightner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

A Content Analysis Of Emotional Valence And Engagement In Youtube Comments, Lydia Britton '27

Student Research

This study investigated the relationship between YouTube comment participation and emotional valence. We hypothesized that highly negative-valenced comments would generate higher engagement (likes and replies), based on prior research showing that emotionally intense content drives interaction. Fifty comments from ten popular videos across five categories (shopping, music, gaming, news, and sports) were analyzed using linguistic indicators (language and emojis) and intensifiers (capitalization, exclamation points, profanity). Each comment was assigned a dominant valence and a Likert scale rating. Engagement was measured by likes per view and replies per view. Results showed a negative correlation between emotional valence and replies. Despite trending …

The Cost Of Compassion: Mixed Methods Insights Into Healthcare Chaplains’ Experiences Of Workplace Violence, Dana Fachner

Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare workers’ exposure to workplace violence has been well documented, with research emphasizing both its frequency and severity among clinical staff like physicians and nurses. Still, one group remains markedly overlooked: healthcare chaplains. Despite their frequent presence in high-stress, unpredictable, and emotionally charged situations, chaplains have never before been included in research regarding healthcare workers’ exposure to workplace violence. Healthcare chaplains provide spiritual and emotional care to patients, families, and staff by offering support that is culturally sensitive and appropriate to patients’ religious traditions. Chaplains collaborate with medical teams to deliver holistic care and are involved in a wide range …

The Ethical Imperative Of Public Health Institutions To Protect The Reproductive Autonomy Of Vulnerable Populations, Kennethea Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation establishes the ethical responsibility of public health institutions to safeguard reproductive autonomy, especially among vulnerable populations. While reproductive decision-making is traditionally framed within individual clinical encounters, this work contends that reproductive autonomy is fundamentally a matter of public health ethics. Socioecological determinants, including social, legal, environmental, and structural factors, often constrain individuals’ ability to make meaningful reproductive choices, leading to preventable harm.

Reproductive autonomy is defined as the capacity to make informed decisions about whether and when to conceive, as well as how to parent. The dissertation critiques the sufficiency of clinical ethics frameworks, such as informed consent …

Story Processing Eliminates Collaborative Inhibition, Brady Keller

Honors Theses

This present experiment investigated the encoding effect when creating or processing stories and pleasantness conditions for participants in both nominal and collaborative groups (dyads). A brief literature review explored the background on research done highlighting collaborative inhibition and story processing is included. Amongst nominal groups there was no significant difference between story processing and pleasantness conditions. However, participants in storytelling remembered more words than the participants in pleasantness conditions in collaborative groups. Furthermore, story processing dyads had no identifiable collaborative inhibition, rather supporting evidence to a robust collaborative facilitation. Potential reasons for this unique result are related to everyone’s expertise …

Authenticity And Audience Relationships Among Nano-Influencers, Samantha O. Lichtenstein

Honors Theses

This study examines how nano-influencers with 2,500 to 25,000 Instagram followers utilize authenticity and vulnerability to build audience trust and drive engagement. Through a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 10 creators, the research identifies three core strategies: maintaining a digital best friend persona through reciprocal interaction, practicing "calibrated vulnerability" that balances personal disclosure with strict safety boundaries, and prioritizing ethical brand alignment to ensure honesty. Grounded in Parasocial Interaction Theory, the findings demonstrate that nano-influencers disrupt traditional one-way media models by fostering intimate, two-way relationships. Ultimately, the results suggest that for this influencer tier, success and consumer action are …

Hospitalidad Sin Barreras: A Place-Based Approach To Resource Accessibility For Immigrant Communities In North Mississippi, Jackelyn Facio

Honors Theses

This project examines barriers to resource access for Spanish-speaking immigrant communities in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Using a place-based community engagement approach, the project incorporates mixed methods to produce a resource guide for Spanish- speaking immigrants in Lafayette County. Findings showed that access is shaped not only by available services, but also by interconnected barriers such as language, fragmented information systems, and concerns related to trust and safety. These barriers discourage individuals from interacting with formal institutions, resulting in a reliance on informal information networks. In response to the data collected from area residents, the project sought to centralize community input …

Mapping Information Literary To The Medical Curriculum, Ella Hu, David Stewart

Posters

Medical school accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) requires library staff to be responsive to educational needs. Despite a move toward integrated learning, library instruction is often limited to single sessions early in the curriculum. Curriculum mapping addresses this by providing a systematic analysis of program courses to visualize teaching priorities and the student experience. This strategic tool enables librarians to shift from reactive service to proactive engagement, finding high-impact courses through syllabus analysis. Furthermore, aligning the ACRL Framework with medical education standards, such as AAMC Core EPAs and ACGME requirements, is essential for identifying instructional gaps …