Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evolving Crisis Communication In Social Media Era: Analysis Of Tweets And News Stories Of The Manchester Arena Bombing, Allyson R. Staton

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research study was to better understand the evolving crisis communication methods used on traditional media and social media following organizational crises such as the Manchester Arena bombing. The research was primarily conducted by analyzing the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) online article archives and stakeholder Twitter accounts, including @ManchesterArena, @ManCityCouncil, @ArianaGrande and @GMPolice. Tweets under the hashtags #ManchesterBombing, #Manchester, #OneLoveManchester as well as the Manchester Bombing Twitter Moment were also analyzed for crisis communication responses to understand how traditional media and social media were used to communicate with the public following this crisis.

The results of this …

The Effects Of Harmful Male Body Representation: Uncovered Through The Lens Of Podcasting, Madelynne Thompson

Honors Theses

A body of recent studies suggest men are objectified in the media, as men report increasing levels of body dissatisfaction and potentially, an array of negative consequences in response. Western media images of men, exemplified through media such as advertisements, television, and social media promote a “drive for muscularity” with attention to the upper body and abdominal region. Societal standards and norms have a documented influence on self-concept, and the current study investigates explicitly which influences hold the greatest magnitude during the development of one’s self-perception. In the present thesis project, men aged 18-25 were interviewed to gauge their perspectives …

“A Moral Imperative To Prevent Aids”: Race And Religion In Atlanta’S Aids Activism, 1981-1993, Madison Bailey

Honors Theses

The early years of the AIDS epidemic marked a tumultuous period of American history, calling into question the authority of doctors and the ability of scientists to cure disease. Already marginalized groups, such as gay men and intravenous drug users, appeared to be most vulnerable to a deadly virus with no cure or effective treatments. In the face of discrimination, activists rose up to provide necessary services for AIDS patients and advocate on their behalf. This activism uniquely characterized the early AIDS epidemic and permanently changed the field of biomedical research. The current historiography of AIDS activism tends to focus …

Envisioning Success: An In Depth Look At The Relationship Between Episodic Future Thinking And Academic Goal Achievement, Braden Sanford

Honors Theses

Episodic future thinking is defined as the ability to mentally project oneself self into the future and pre-experience an event. Prospective memory, on the other hand, is often defined as remembering to complete future intentions. Prospective memory includes two kinds of prospective memory tasks: event-based, or prospective memory prompted by some form of external cue or event, and time-based, or a task that an individual must remember to complete at a specific time. One area that synthesizes these two subjects is the realm of goal achievement, specifically academic goal achievement. In this study, I explored how episodic future thinking, when …

Empathy, Perceived Similarity, And Online Aggression, Olivette Petersen

Honors Theses

As social media usage continues to rise, the prevalence of non-traditionally famous online entertainers and other popular online personas (e.g., YouTubers and social media influencers) is increasing. Online practices such as video blogging and social media upkeep make it easier for viewers and fans to feel closer to the online personas they follow, regardless of whether any in-person social interaction ever takes place. Due to the increased amount of time adolescents and young adults spend on social media, it is clear that these online personas are becoming an important part of adolescents’ and young adults’ socialization. Furthermore, when online entertainers …

North And South Korea: Division By Constructions, Hannah Horton

Honors Theses

This paper focuses on aspects of social identities that have been constructed over time in North and South Korea and their implications on the division of the Korean peninsula. This project seeks to answer the question of how social groups and individual dynamics differ between North Korea and South Korea with special attention to the experience of division? And, how these differences structure the dynamics of formal division and the larger politics of reunification? These questions have been ignored because of the emphasis on the realist and institutionalist scholars’ analysis of the division. It focus on analyzing the division through …

Through The Elementary School Years: Self-Regulation Predicting Social Competence With Student-Teacher Relationships As Mediators, Kelsie Anderson

Honors Theses

Using a longitudinal, nationally representative dataset, ECLS-K:2011, research was conducted to determine the predictive relationship between Self-Regulation in kindergarten and first-grade years and Social Competency in the third- and fourth-grade years of elementary school. Along with this, Student-Teacher Relationships were studied to determine if they could mediate the relationship between Self-Regulation and Social Competency. These aspects have been extensively studied individually in previous research, but this study looks at how these aspects work together and the implications that these relationships have. The current study documented that a) Working Memory predicts indices of Behavioral Engagement and Internalizing Behavior Problems in the …

The Rise Of The Postmodern Presidency: The Evolution Of Rhetoric And Media Usage In Presidential Election Campaigns, Logan Garrett

Honors Theses

This study characterizes the evolution of rhetoric used in certain presidential campaigns as evidenced through primary and secondary research, including research on the radio electioneering in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign, television advertisements and speeches in President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign, and the Twitter usage of President Donald Trump during his 2016 Presidential Campaign and the first year of his presidency. The research focuses on these presidents’ use of each medium to disseminate campaign materials by examining specific word choice, use of visuals or audio, and how these messages translated into behavioral changes in terms of voter turnout. The …

Mindful Yoga As A Means Of Reducing College Student Stress, Jaylee K. Oliver

Honors Theses

Thousands of years ago, yoga was intended to refocus and prepare an individual for self-exploration. Today, the “colloquial yoga” has manifested as an exercise fad. The aim of this study was to further investigate yoga as a stress reducing technique among a sample of college students. This study examined yoga as a distinct discipline by comparing 3 separate conditions (yoga, active-control, and neutral-control). This research aimed to demonstrate an overall decrease in perceived stress, increase in self-esteem, and increase in ability to psychologically detach from stressors after engaging in a yoga practice, as compared to the two control conditions. Overall, …

College Student Perceptions Of System-Culpability In The Frequency Of Wrongful Convictions: Gauging The Importance Of Respondent Characteristics, Merideth Smith

Honors Theses

Prior literature has highlighted several factors that contribute to wrongful convictions and described the frequency in which these factors influence wrongful convictions; they include mistaken eyewitness identification, mishandling of forensic evidence, and misconduct among criminal justice professionals. The literature concerning perceptions of the influence of these factors on wrongful convictions is limited, however, by its failure to consider the impact of respondent characteristics on their perceptions. In this study, I extend this line of research by examining the influence of respondent characteristics on perceptions of the culpability of criminal justice actors, contamination of forensic evidence, and mistaken eyewitness identification in …

A Comparative Analysis Of Appalachian And Chukchi Folktales, Maggie Bishop

Honors Theses

Comparative folktale studies have revealed high quality emic data in past Anthropological study, but not nearly enough studies have been done. This thesis proposes an ideal avenue of study for delineation of patterns to reveal historically particular emic data as well as universal ideals. The avenue of study is that of comparative analysis of six folktales from two vastly different cultures. The people of the icy Chukotka peninsula in Northern Russia and the people of the temperate Appalachian Mountains share rich folktale traditions that provide a look into the cultural valuables and undesirables within both of these cultures. Through a …

Assessing The Role Personality Plays In Puppy Raisers And Guide Dogs In Training, Cassidy D. Wood

Honors Theses

Several factors affect how guide dogs in training fare during the period before the dogs are paired with their future handler. One factor that has not been researched in the past is personality compatibility between the puppy raiser and the dog in training. For the needs of the visually impaired community to be met, guide dog schools need to efficiently train and match dogs to handlers without the dogs failing. To help reduce the number of dogs that fail guide dog training, this study suggests the assessment and comparison of personality for the dog and potential puppy raisers to better …

Anxiety Moderates The Relationship Between Peer Exclusivity And Peer Relational Aggression Among College Students, Hailee Buras

Honors Theses

Relational aggression (i.e., harming the victim’s relationships, reputation/status, or feelings of belongingness) is associated with a number of adverse correlates among college students (Dahlen, Czar, Prather, & Dyess, 2013; Ostrov & Houston, 2008). Peer exclusivity (i.e., the desire that one’s close friends do not have other close friends) has been shown to be positively related to relational aggression in peer relationships (Kawabata, Youngblood, & Hamaguchi, 2014); however, this relationship has not been widely explored. Anxiety is also relevant to relational aggression among college students (Cooley, Frazer, Fite, Brown, & DiPierro, 2016; Gros, Gros, & Simms, 2010) and may inform our …

Learning To Love Bats, Bethany J. Lawson

Honors Theses

Throughout history, bats have often become entangled in various myths and legends that have negatively influenced human perceptions of bats. Media outlets often sensationalize the relationship of bats to novel diseases, which also creates negative perceptions of bats in the human imagination. Bats are beneficial to our ecosystems and provide pollination services, seed dispersal, and insect control. However, bats are currently facing a variety of life-threatening issues, such as habitat destruction, fatalities at wind energy sites, climate change, and most notably, white-nose syndrome – a disease that has killed millions of North American bats in the past decade. With bats …

A Qualitative Analysis Of The Barriers Faced By Nursing Assistants And Medication Aides In The Care Of Dysphagia Residents, Lauren Kreuzberg

Honors Theses

Dysphagia refers to the symptom of difficulty in swallowing that accompanies several prevalent conditions in the older adult population, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease), stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, dementia, various cancers, and brain tumors (Allari, 2014). Many older adults who suffer from these conditions reside in nursing facilities, where most of their care is provided by certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and medication aides (MAs). However, the extent of these workers’ knowledge and competence in providing care to nursing home residents with dysphagia is vastly under-researched. The qualitative analysis investigates themes among interviews with fifteen CNAs and …

Ptsd Symptoms And Alcohol-Related Outcomes In College Students: The Mediating Role Of Positive And Negative Coping Styles, Tatum Freeman

Honors Theses

This study evaluated the mediating role of coping styles (problem-solving and avoidance coping) on the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol outcomes (i.e. hazardous drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences [ARNC]). A national sample of 672 traditional age (i.e. 18-25 years old; M = 22.35, SD = 1.97) college students who reported alcohol consumption in the past month were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website. Participants were 55.1% male and 60.9% White, and they completed measures of PTSD symptoms, coping styles, hazardous drinking, and ARNC. Problem-solving coping (an adaptive form of coping) mediated the positive relationship between PTSD …

‘I Want It, I Got It’: Cultural Appropriation, White Privilege, And Power In Ariana Grande’S “7, Alyssa T. Bass

Honors Theses

Black women often suffer from not receiving recognition for their work. Still, nonblack people continue to use black women’s contributions to pop culture to rebrand themselves. This is especially relevant in the music industry. Cultural appropriation is the act of a dominant group taking cultural elements from a minority group without acknowledging the cultural significance of those elements. The counterpublic Black Twitter gives black Twitter users the space to hold appropriators accountable. I used Grounded Theory to analyze tweets about Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” to explore how Black Twitter responded to Grande allegedly appropriating black women for financial gain. Critical …

The Impact Of Hurricane Katrina On Crime In Louisiana, Eleanor A. Casey

Honors Theses

The literature surrounding variables affecting crime is infinite; however, little of that research, especially in economics, focuses on how hurricanes affect crime. In addition, much of the research that has been conducted on this is conflicting. Thus, this paper seeks to shed light on this topic using Hurricane Katrina’s impact on Louisiana as a case study. Using crime data from the FBI UCR and ICPSR from 1995-2014, I employ a differences-in-differences (DD) strategy to estimate the hurricane’s effect on burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, robbery, aggravated assault, and murder. My findings suggest burglary, larceny, and robbery increase following the hurricane, …

Crime Television Viewership And Perceived Vulnerability To Crime Among College Students, Madison S. Seymour

Honors Theses

This study focused on college students’ viewership of the crime drama television shows NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, and CSI as well as students’ perceived vulnerability to crime. The aim of the study was to determine if there is a relationship between the viewing of crime dramas and perceived vulnerability, based on the theories of mean world syndrome and cultivation. The study also examined the platform viewers used to watch crime dramas, whether that was streaming services or other options such as cable or satellite television. The chosen platform was also compared with perceived vulnerability to crime.

To collect …

The Effects Of Disease Contamination On Memory For Touched Objects In Older Adults, Jessica M. Runnels

Honors Theses

Recently it has been shown that individuals have better memory for objects that have been touched by an individual with a contagious disease relative to an individual with a non-contagious disease or who is healthy (Gretz & Huff, 2019). This pattern has been suggested to occur due to the activation of the Behavioral Immune System (BIS)—an avoidance-based system designed to thwart sources of potential pathogens. The BIS has been suggested to operate through an evolutionary-based mechanism in which avoidance of pathogens increases the likelihood of survival, increasing reproductive success. Given this approach, an important question is how the activation of …

Effects Of Sexualized Images In Media On Attitudes Toward Public Breastfeeding, Hannah J. Powell-Yost

Honors Theses

Although breastfeeding is known to promote both physical and emotional health in both infant and mother, many women are hesitant to breastfeed in public due to perceived attitudes toward public breastfeeding. This research explores the relationship between frequent exposure to sexuality in mass media and people's positions regarding breastfeeding. It was hypothesized that sexualized portrayals of the female body perpetuated in mass media would negatively impact individuals’ attitudes toward breastfeeding. No significant correlation was found between media exposure and negative attitude toward public breastfeeding. However, a few interesting results were observed. Individuals who responded positively to sexual media were more …

Prevailing Facets Of Spanish Colonialism: The Roots Of Exploitation And Inequality In Latin America, Camden Eckler

Honors Theses

Four main facets characterized Spanish colonialism in Latin America and contributed to the persistence of inequality and exploitation in colonial institutions – conversion, easy money, centralism, and political violence. The facets of conversion, easy money, centralism, and political violence are not institutions in themselves, but rather practices and logics of Spanish colonialism whose presence can be seen in social, political, and economic institutions and traced throughout history despite changes and developments in institutions. These facets’ entrenched presence in the foundations of Latin American social, political, and economic institutions has manifested throughout the shared and unique histories of Latin American countries. …

Examining School Safety And Security: A Situational Crime Perspective, Jessica A. Barnett

Honors Theses

In recent years, an interest in focus of research addressing school safety and security has increased; however, this literature lacks a cohesive theoretical perspective for addressing solutions to school crime and violence. The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review of the literature on school safety and security. Then, analyze this literature in light of the situational crime prevention perspective. A literature search using Web of Science yielded 45 eligible studies. Results indicated that each of the 45 articles could be organized into one of the five mechanisms of Situational Crime Prevention: increasing effort, increasing risk, removing …

Applying International Law To The Regulation Of Media Incited Genocide: Rwanda And Myanmar, Savannah Whittemore

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate the connection between word and action in relation to the media incited genocide. By employing the operational definitions of intent, incitement, genocide, and hate speech from legal texts such as the Genocide Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, this thesis shows that there is suitable jurisprudence on the crime of direct and public incitement to genocide with the legal bodies statute mirrors the language of the Genocide Convention. This in conjunction with the language gradient on the changing role of messages before and during genocide shows that regulation …

Why Families Flee: A Study Of Family Migration Patterns From The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Claire Williams

Honors Theses

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented increase in migrant families from the Northern Triangle, the region of Central America comprised of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The mass influx in family migration has important consequences for destination countries like the United States and Mexico as well as the countries which they leave behind. This study aims to answer the question of how family migration patterns in the Northern Triangle of Central America have changed in the past decade and why. I outline the migration decisions of families through a qualitative and quantitative lens. I use newspapers and NGO reports …

A Thumb On The Scale: Chinese Investment And Influence In Ecuador And Colombia, Christina Pendergrast

Honors Theses

Over the past two decades, Chinese involvement in the developing world has increased dramatically, raising concerns over the intentions behind the provision of development packages. Critics have accused China of a practice known as debt-trap diplomacy, a method of ensnaring less developed nations by providing more loans than those nations have the ability to feasibly pay back. While China denies that their loan and investment packages are provided with any ulterior motive, the influence held by an investor like China has the potential to impact these partner countries for decades to come. In light of the scope of China’s role …

Mind Your Youth: Youth Unemployment And Islamic Radicalization, Caleb Ray

Honors Theses

This study examines the potential existence of a correlation between youth unemployment and Islamic Radicalization in the MENA using data from the World Bank, the Global Terrorism Database, and the Arab Barometer. It aims to add to the current body of research regarding socioeconomic drivers for radicalization and terrorism.

Measuring Religious Demographic Group Threat Among Americans And Its Impacts On Their Political Beliefs, Karsen Bailey

Honors Theses

Identity is one of the key drivers of American political behavior. Among these identities, be it partisan, ethnic, class, etc., religious identity has been more or less assumed to be one of the more powerful identities. I set out to measure how the threat of Christianity’s decline in the United States impacts the salience of religious identity and feelings towards religion-adjacent policies. Building off of an experimental design from Major et al (2016), I hypothesized that when exposed to data showing the decline of religiosity in the United States, subjects would demonstrate both a stronger religious identity and more conservative …

The Role Of Action In Affordance Perception Using Virtual Reality, Ashley J. Funkhouser

Honors Theses

Space perception in virtual reality (VR) is distorted. Does action in conjunction with an avatar's presence improve perception in VR? Participants judged whether a virtual ball was within reach. Condition 1 was perception-only, where the participant was not allowed to move nor could see their arms. Condition 2 was perception with nonvisible action, where the participant could move their real arm to reach but could not see an avatar representation of the arm. Condition 3 was perception with visible action, where the participant could move and see a virtual hand that corresponded to the actual arm movement. Participants overestimated their …

An External Expression Of The Inner Spirit: Dance, Religion, And Taboos In Christianity, Erin E. Ingram

Honors Theses

Dance, religion, and the presence of taboos have each been recognized as what is known throughout the social sciences as “cultural universals.” For example, though not every individual dances, dance can be found in all societies (Brown, 2004). Furthermore, many cultures use dance as part of religious or ritual worship. The following thesis explores possible answers to these three intertwined questions: “Many cultures across the world have developed dances for the purpose of religious or spiritual rituals and celebrations. Does dance as a form of expression stem from a biological, spiritual, or cultural need? Why do cultures turn to dance …