Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Democratic Disenfranchisement: Analyzing The Factors That Contribute To Or Hinder The Ability Of Marginalized Groups To Run For Public Office In Kentucky, Isaac Keller

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Much has been written about barriers that lead to unequal representation, focusing largely on situational characteristics of the individual voter (socioeconomic status, efficacy, socialization, etc.) and on structural (institutional) obstacles to voter turnout and participation. However, political participation is inclusive of more than just voting. This research seeks to identify and analyze the factors that contribute to or hinder the ability of marginalized candidates to run for public office. To explore whether or not marginalized candidates face unique obstacles when running for public office, a qualitative approach with one-on-one interviews between a convenience sampling in Kentucky of ten political candidates …

Pathways To Self-Governance And Success: An Exploratory Study Of Community Gardens In Louisville, Kentucky, Amanda Beavin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Those involved in community gardens face multiple challenges to survival, including land tenure, lack of funding, lack of sustained interest, and poor infrastructure, but many successful, long-lasting gardens have found management style to be a key aspect of their success. This project investigated three community gardens in Louisville, Kentucky, in order to determine how self-governance, or internal management by gardeners, overlaps with other success indicators and what development processes lead to successful self-governance. Using qualitative, semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the researcher gathered and analyzed data relative to each garden site’s land tenure, community engagement, environmental design, resource mobilization, and …

Banking On Her: The Effects Of Microfinance On Women’S Autonomy In Developing Economies, Zena Pare

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Once applauded as a way to empower the world’s poorest, and in particular benefit women, the practice of microfinance is now perceived with a much more cautious and nuanced lens. Some perspectives state that microfinance improves women’s lives and uplifts communities, while others claim that it increases over-indebtedness and does not provide a viable path to escape poverty. In order to determine if microfinance is an effective use of resources to empower women, this paper analyzes the relationship between women’s autonomy and microfinance to provide further insight into its proposed positive and negative effects. Using ordinary least squares regression analysis, …

The Design, Development, And Implementation Of A Coding System For A "Hot" Self-Regulation Task, Hannah Martin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Effortful control is one component of self-regulation that consists of the ability to delay a dominant response in favor of a non-dominant response. One way to measure effortful control is through “Hot” self-regulation tasks, which are when a participant is asked to delay a dominant response when there is a reward or punishment associated with the task. There are two types of “Hot” self-regulation tasks: effective decision making and delay of gratification. One way to assess of delay of gratification abilities is through an experimental task known as Snack Delay, where participants (usually children) are shown a snack but are …

Ua68/17 Wku Dance: Creating, Thinking, Artists, Wku Theatre & Dance

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Dance program.

Ua19/16/2 Soccer Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

Press releases, photos and game statistics for WKU soccer team in 2021.

Ua19/16/2 Softball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

Press releases, photos and game statistics for WKU softball team in 2021.

Informing Sustainable Urban Forestry Policy With Carbon Sequestration Analysis, Ellen Danford

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Urban forestry is an environmental solution for an increasingly city-centered world. The ecosystem services that trees provide in natural settings, including carbon sequestration, oxygen production and aesthetic beauty, also apply in urban settings. Every tree in the Western Kentucky University (WKU) urban forest provides these services and each tree was measured to determine how much carbon they sequestered a year on average between 2015 and 2020. With an interactive map of the forest and its carbon sequestration, the condition of the forest and change over the five year period was analyzed. Comparing the welfare of the forest with the plans …

Investigating Special Education Services For Elementary English Language Learners Within The South-Central U.S.: A Survey Of General Education, Special Education, And Esl Teachers, Kylie Bray

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This paper explores solutions to the issue of overrepresentation in special education among the English Language Learner (ELL) population. Reasons for overrepresentation of this population can be summarized into three main categories: diagnostic problems, TESOL shortages, and improper assessment tools. By educating future and current teachers on proper ways and techniques to teach, academic failure among ELL students is prevented. Assessment forms need to be revised and accountability needs to exist to ensure that poor teaching and learning environments are not being diagnosed as a disability. An attempt to find how effectively these solutions have been implemented into schools, overrepresentation …

I Hear You: The Everyday Struggle Living With Misophonia, Ashton Jones

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The term misophonia is derivated from the Greek words misos, (hate), and phónè, (voice); it translates as hatred of sound. It is the term used to describe people who are irregularly affected by everyday noises. The first scientific observations by Pawel J. Jastreboff regarding misophonia indicate “individuals with misophonia are sensitive to a specific set of trigger sounds, which are usually recognized since childhood.” These types of sounds tend to be trivial noises, such as chewing or crunching, sniffing, breathing, clicking, lip smacking, and tapping. The noises can trigger an onslaught of negative emotions and violent reactions.

This documentary film …

The Effect Of School Return During The Covid-19 Pandemic On Children’S Physical And Mental Health, Kaitlynn Craig

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Flashback to midnight on January 1st, 2020. It was New Year’s Day, the beginning of a new decade. Many were filled with excitement and hope to make this year the best one yet. Little did they know that their entire world would be turned upside down a short two months later with a worldwide pandemic, the coronavirus. COVID-19 has affected people in many ways. Some lost their jobs, others struggled to maintain their education virtually, and unfortunately, too many lost their lives. As a nursing student, fear grew while imagining the role of becoming one of the frontline workers battling …

Public Perceptions Of Language Education In Taiwan: English In A Multilingual Context, Isabel Eliassen

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Language policy in Taiwan has been a focus of the government since the days of the Kuomintang (KMT) dictatorship, when languages other than Mandarin were ruthlessly suppressed. After democratization, local languages were allowed again, but soon English became Taiwan’s top language education priority. However, not all Taiwanese agree with the decision to prioritize English. Despite claims that English is important for economic and diplomatic reasons, my survey found that most Taiwanese did not support English education when it threatened local Taiwanese languages. The survey also found that despite a significant amount of debate in academic literature about the role of …

Studying The Relationship Between Financial Risk Aversion And Income With The Jeopardy! Daily Double, Miles Johnson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

It has long been up for debate as to whether there is a link between financial risk aversion and income. This study’s purpose is to, using data from the game show Jeopardy!, investigate this question through analytical research. This study made use of multiple regression analyses in order to examine the relationship between income and risk aversion in Jeopardy! contestants who appeared on the show between January 2019 and October 2020. Specifically, this study looked to isolate the potential impact a contestant’s estimated annual income had on their willingness to bet on the Jeopardy! Daily Double question. It was …

Solving The Persistence Problem: Application Of Peer Mentorship In The Rotc Community, Thomas Pelkey

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Western Kentucky University, a medium-sized university in Kentucky, currently has a persistence rate of 74% (Helbig et al., 2020). The current public health crisis also poses a risk to university retention. A new method needs to be used to increase the rate in the next ten years. Dr. Brian Kuster, Vice President of WKU suggested a mentoring program for “at-risk” freshmen. Freshmen go through a lot of stress and anxiety in their first year of college. This is known as the “first-year adjustment” reaction. A myriad of factors contributes to the reaction, such as being by themselves for the first …

The Role Of Protective Factors For Nonsuicidal Self-Injury In Sexual Minorities, Kendra Rigney

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Sexual minorities have been shown to have increased risk of suicide in comparison to their heterosexual counterparts. This demographic has also been shown to have decreased levels of protective factors, which function as a measure to protect an individual from attempting suicide. The goal of the present study was to examine how individuals with sexual minority status differ from heterosexual individuals on suicide attempts and the protective factors of resilience, life satisfaction, and subjective happiness within a sample who all have NSSI history. A sample of 2,130 undergraduate students completed an online survey assessing nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide behaviors, …

Answers In The East: An Examination Of China's Renewable Energy And Its Application To Central Appalachia, Lillian Hamm

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

While much of China’s electrification has depended on coal, recent decades illustrate the country is heavily investing in and implementing renewable energy as a power source. Even China’s coal-rich provinces, like the northeastern province of Shanxi, have been making the transition to renewable energy. The central Appalachian states comprised of eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, western Virginia, and northeastern Tennessee share many characteristics with China’s Shanxi province including economic resources, climate, and geography. Yet, central Appalachia has not been able to easily transition to renewable energy. However, there are various cultural, political, and technological differences between the two regions to explain …

The Socioeconomics Of Homelessness In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Ben Hanson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Though the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky has experienced tremendous economic growth in recent years, poverty and homelessness have become a problem for residents and city officials. This project seeks to expand research on homelessness in Bowling Green, Kentucky in order to prescribe policies that could be enacted by local government entities. Construction of low-income housing, rent subsidies, rent ceilings, and tougher eviction laws are all policy measures that have been discussed by previous literature. To analyze the effectiveness of these four policies, this project proposes a regression model that explores the relationship between the homeless population and each of …

Crafting Character: Exploring Elder Identity Through Story, Cameron Fontes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The following thesis is a culmination of several key activities I have engaged in as a creative writer with a single focus: to create fiction that employs the perspectives, the voices, of persons at later stages of their lives, a population vulnerable to disease and, more insidious, loneliness. First, I discuss my experiences reviving the Western Kentucky student organization Companions of Respected Elders. C.O.R.E. allowed undergraduates to work with local residential centers (nursing homes) by engaging their residents in the collaborative act of creating stories from picture prompts and encouraging questions, following the training and paradigm of TimeSlips^TM. …

Pupillary Effects During Retrieval: Influenced By Cognitive Load And Strength Of Memory, Valentina Pinilla

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Memory retrieval is influenced by cognitive processes that occur during encoding, some of which can be measured with pupillary responses. For example, during retrieval, pupils dilate more to previously-seen old items compared to new items, a phenomenon called the pupil old/new effect. Encoding variables that influence the strength of the memory trace for encoded stimuli play a role in successful discrimination of new versus old items. Additionally, the cognitive load during encoding (i.e., the effort needed to encode information), also impacts memory success by taking up mental resources needed to successfully encode information. In this study, I conducted a meta-analysis …

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, And The Enneagram: A Study Of The Effects Of Enneagram Training On College Student Leaders, David Weafer

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis investigates the impact of Enneagram training on perceived empathy and self-awareness in college student leaders. The EQ-i 2.0 was used to assess the emotional intelligence of 16 student leaders, before and after the Enneagram training intervention. Qualitative methods, specifically open-ended journal prompts and semistructured interviews, added a rich description of the participants’ perceptions of the Enneagram training’s usefulness. The quantitative data and qualitative data seemingly contradict each other with the former showing no statistical relationship between the Enneagram and self-awareness and empathy, while the latter is saturated with examples of positive effects. Participants felt they were able to …

How Connected Is Parenting Stress And Child Adaptability Through Child Prosocial Talk?, Lindsey Powell

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Previous research demonstrates parenting stress can affect mental health outcomes of children who are exposed to a traumatic event. Child adaptability can significantly affect how a child responds to traumatic events. Thus, it is important to identify factors associated with child adaptability, since such factors could serve as important targets in trauma treatment. Interventions (e.g., Parent-Child Interaction Therapy [PCIT]) have been created for families to learn skills to treat children with disruptive behavior problems. These behavior problems contribute to child maltreatment and trauma. The current study seeks to examine whether parenting stress predicts child adaptability and if this relationship is …

Read My Hands: Evaluating The Deaf Community's Perception Of Survivor Access To Mental Health Services, Liz Sandlin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The limited research done on the Deaf community depicts inflated rates of mental illness and trauma compared to the general population. However, overall, members of the Deaf community are less likely to seek help due to perceived barriers in obtaining adequate mental healthcare. This study aimed to investigate the modern-day American Deaf community’s rates of mental illness and traumatic events and experiences with behavioral and mental healthcare systems. Barriers related to seeking treatment as well as receiving adequate care are explored as well. It was hypothesized that the Deaf community still faces an increased likelihood of trauma and mental illness …

Ua42/4 Delo Knicely Center, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Knicely Conference Center.

Ua64/4 College Of Education & Behavioral Sciences Human Relations Center, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Human Relations Center.

Ua1c11/114 Carol Braddy Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photos of Hilltoppers Quartet exhibit.

Ua37/43 Faculty Staff Personal Papers John Minton, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers of John Minton.

Ua12/2/68 Sigma Nu, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Sigma Nu fraternity.

Ua3/1/1 President's Office-Cherry Reports, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Reports made by Henry Cherry to the Board of Regents and departmental reports made to Henry Cherry.

Parenting Stress And Child Disruptive Behaviors: The Mediating Role Of Parental Negative Talk, David Roehm

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

High parental stress and child disruptive behaviors tend to coexist. Furthermore, parental negative talk towards children cam impair child functioning later in life. In the present study, we sought to determine whether parental negative talk was a mediating variable between parenting stress and child disruptive behaviors. Fifty-two parent-child dyads from Eastern Kentucky participated in an analog Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) behavioral observation and parents were given self-report measures for parenting stress and child disruptive behaviors.

Bivariate and multiple regression analyses were used to predict variance in child disruptive behaviors based on parenting stress with parental negative talk as a mediating …

Ua1f Kern Alexander Vertical File Part 3, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Records

Digitized vertical file materials regarding WKU President Kern Alexander and his tenure as president 1986-1988.