Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Measuring Community Violence, Trauma, And Family Functioning Among Youth Living In Low-Income, Urban Environments, Kyle Deane

Dissertations

Exposure to community violence is a pressing public health concern that has profound effects on an adolescent’s development and psychological well-being, and is disproportionately experienced by ethnic minority youth living in economically disadvantaged urban environments. Efforts to measure violence exposure and its sequelae have centered primarily on the use of retrospective questionnaires and cross-sectional design and often fail to consider other contributory risk or resilience factors. Comprised of three related studies, the goal of this dissertation is to address the relations between of exposure to community violence, adjustment difficulties, such as posttraumatic stress, and family functioning among African American and …

Actor's And Partner's Self-Discrepancy As Moderators Of The Relationship Between Negative Events And Reflected Appraisals: A Daily Diary Study Examining The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model In African American Couples, Natalie J. Hallinger

Dissertations

Self-worth influences how individuals perceive the health of their romantic relationships

in response to adverse experiences, especially interpersonal threats. Though explicit

self-esteem is often used as an indicator of self-worth in investigations of relationship

functioning after interpersonal threats, particularly those focusing on perceptions of felt

love and acceptance, actual:ideal self-discrepancy is an evaluative aspect of the self

that may have more direct impacts on romantic relationship functioning after negative

events that are unrelated to the relationship. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence

Model to analyze dyadic data from 150 African American couples using multilevel

regression models, the current study’s results were contrary …

Best Practices In Global Mental Health: An Exploratory Study Of Recommendations For Psychologists, Kimberly Hook

Dissertations

This qualitative study aimed to provide best practice recommendations for psychologists who work within the field of global mental health. Global mental health seeks to improve mental health treatment equity on a worldwide scale, through mechanisms such as task shifting, advocacy on a governmental/community/systems level, and through capacity building. Global mental health is a growing field, and there have been calls for increased engagement in these efforts from the psychological community. Nevertheless, few recommendations are in place regarding how to practically move towards these goals in an ethical, culturally-relevant manner, though other related disciplines, such as psychiatry and public health, …

Affect And Cognitive Control: The Influence Of Naturalistic Mood On Interference Processing, Lorri A. Kais

Dissertations

Every day planning and execution of goal-directed human performance is dependent upon cognitive and emotional processes that are inherently interlinked. However, the effect of naturalistic mood states on cognitive control remains relatively unexamined. The present study builds upon existing literature regarding affective and executive processes by investigating the relationship between naturally occurring positive mood state and interference processing during a modified Color-Word Stroop Task (CWST). To further clarify the time course and recruitment of neural resources during different conditions of the CWST the present study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs). Incongruent stimuli were compared to congruent stimuli in blocked (same congruency) …

The Path Toward Religious And Cultural Inclusivity: The Need For Critical Inquiry, Nina Marie Ricci

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

The following thesis seeks to explain the essential practice of critical inquiry in the religious sphere. It explores Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim attitudes on the subject of critical inquiry and assesses how these varying stances affect engagement in interreligious dialogue. The thesis presents the impact a religion has on a society’s perception of other religious and cultural practices. Overall the thesis argues for more open-minded attitudes and the need for religious and cultural inclusivity by promoting the proposition that practicing critical inquiry is a necessity to moving forward.

Gendered Subjectivity In Refugee Resettlement Processes: From Somalia To Lewiston, Me, Elena Gleed

Honors Projects

Refugee Resettlement to the United States is a globalized and transnational process of making home. After Somali state collapse in 1991, more than a million displaced people fled to refugee camps across the Kenyan border. Today, over 12,000 Somali people now live in Lewiston, ME, an old mill town located along the Androscoggin River. As refugees are resettled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees they enter a system created over fifty years ago in response to World War II. Using post-colonial and feminist scholarship, this project analyses the “female refugee” subject as she appears in the official discourse …

Improving Software Projects With Cloud Computing, Sunil Maddipatla

Dissertations and Theses

As organizations are experiencing regular unforgiving financial conditions, ideas, for example, outsourcing, deft and lean administration, change administration and cost diminishment are always increasing more consideration. This is on the grounds that these ideas are altogether gone for saving money on spending plans and confronting sudden changes. Most recent innovations like cloud computing guarantee to turn IT, that has dependably been seen as a cost focus, into a wellspring of sparing cash and driving adaptability and dexterity to the business. The motivation behind this paper is to first incorporate an arrangement of properties that administer the deftness benefits added to …

Sentient Plants? Nervous Minds?, Arthur S. Reber

Animal Sentience

The commentaries by Calvo (2018) and Mallatt & Feinberg (2017) on my 2016 target branch out from a common conceptual node like forks in a road. Calvo criticizes me for not acknowledging that plants too are likely to be sentient and claims I have fallen into the kind of category error of which I accuse others ─ a zoocentric bias that fails to grant consciousness to flora. Mallatt & Feinberg maintain that I've gone too far in granting sentience to any species that lacks a nervous system. Calvo makes some good points but there are other issues concerning plant sentience …

Fish Consciousness, David Gamez

Animal Sentience

Woodruff makes two arguments to support his claim that ray-finned fish are conscious: (1) Fish neuroanatomy has similarities with the structures in the human brain that support consciousness. (2) The complexity and flexibility of fish behaviour suggest that they are conscious. This commentary will argue that neither the neuroanatomical nor the behavioural argument can provide conclusive evidence for consciousness in fish. We should suspend judgement until we have discovered mathematical theories of consciousness that can reliably map between states of consciousness and states of the physical world.

Well-Being Correlates Of Perceived Positivity Resonance: Evidence From Trait And Episode-Level Assessments, Brett C. Major, Khoa D. Le Nguyen, Kristjen B. Lundberg, Barbara L. Fredrickson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Positivity resonance is a type of interpersonal connection characterized by shared positivity, mutual care and concern, and behavioral and biological synchrony. Perceived positivity resonance is hypothesized to be associated with well-being. In three studies (N = 175; N = 120; N = 173), perceived positivity resonance was assessed at the trait level (Study 1) or the episode level, using the Day Reconstruction Method (Studies 2 and 3). Primary analyses reveal that perceived positivity resonance is associated with flourishing mental health, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and illness symptoms. These associations largely remain statistically significant when controlling for daily pleasant emotions or social …

Quantifying Cortical And Cancellous Bone Volume: A Computed Tomography Approach, Hannah Rutkowski

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Human identification primarily uses long bones of the body such as femora and tibiae which have a high cortical bone amount, these are thought to contain the highest amount of DNA. However, current research shows this is not the case, cancellous bone could contain more DNA in the porous spaces than dense cortical bone. This study aims to measure the variation in the amount of cortical and cancellous bone taken from sampling sites of seven individuals from ten different skeletal elements: femur, tibia, middle rib, calcaneus, first cuneiform, patella, third metacarpal, third metatarsal, first distal phalanx, and cervical vertebra. This …

Before The Peace: Ceasefire Durability In Ethnic Civil Wars, Justin Winokur

Government and International Relations Honors Papers

Why do some ceasefires last for days, while others last for months or years? Previous research on ceasefires has not directly considered the question of ceasefire durability, or has focused solely on the dynamics of ceasefire durability in interstate war. In order to address these knowledge gaps, this study explores the question of ceasefire durability in the context of ethnic civil wars. It is hypothesized that ceasefire durability is related to belligerents’ territorial satisfaction, relative power, and actor cohesion. Analyzing two ceasefires from the Bosnian civil war, the study finds that durability is a function of the interaction between territorial …

Destined To Authoritarian Rule?: A Comparative Analysis Of The Processes Of State Creation And Regime Formation Of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, And Iran, Caroline Glass

Government and International Relations Honors Papers

Democracy is complex regime type, one that has been analyzed extensively. Yet the intricate nature of a democratic regime, and the challenges associated with keeping it running effectively, make it a continued object of scholarly research. Some countries with regimes that can be considered democratic maintain their democracies more effectively than others. This study attempts to analyze factors that have obstructed democratization in three non-Western countries: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

My first goal is to outline processes of state creation and regime building in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. A democratic regime cannot evolve without a state structure in …

The Dark Tetrad And Rape Myth Acceptance, Grace Boland

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With the influx of research into the "dark" personality traits, as well as the prevalence of sexual assault and rape, specifically on college campuses, it has become important to explore the possible relationships between the Dark Tetrad of personality (i.e., sub-clinical levels of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism) and rape myth acceptance. This study was an extension of a prior study by Jonason, Girgis, and Milne-Home (2017) looking at these traits, without sadism, and rape myth acceptance. Positive relationships between each of the Dark Tetrad traits and each rape myth were found, with the strongest correlation being between sadism and …

Factors That Influence Mexican Emigration To The United States: The Role Of Economics, Education Quality, Crime, And Violence, Kristina Aiad-Toss

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study explores the factors that influence Mexican emigration to the United States. By determining the relationship between emigration and different economic, social, and demographic variables, this paper seeks to determine the relative importance of factors that drive Mexicans to leave their country. This paper looks at the following emigration push and pull factors: home-country economic conditions, employment opportunities, education quality, crime, drug-cartel related violence, social ties in the U.S., gender, age, and income. Using a nationwide survey opinion data from 2015, the perceptions of Mexican individuals support the hypotheses that social ties, home-country education quality, gender, and age are …

Conversation Station Digital Media Style Guide, Ciara Davis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This style guide serves as training material for online communication strategies at the Conversation Station, an afterschool nonprofit organization for students in rural Ashtabula County (Orwell). By utilizing this guide, board members of the Conversation Station will be able to understand the importance of online engagement with the community to accomplish goals, hire communication liaisons based on the skills and knowledge necessary to perform tasks in the guide, and hold the liaison accountable by the fulfillment of tasks detailed. The style guide will also insure that despite communication liaisons coming and going, the Conversation Station’s online character remains consistent. By …

Welfare-To-Work: The Effect Of Childcare Subsidies On Labor Force Participation Rates For Low-Income Single Mothers, Ariana Cubela

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The allocation of funding toward childcare has historically been debated due to conflicting views on the effect childcare subsidies have on low-income, single mothers. Some suggest that federal, state and local funding could put the money allocated for childcare subsidies to better use – or perhaps that there is no need for additional federal, state and/or local funding. However, there is sufficient evidence that children raised in a family structure with low-income single mothers may face long-term negative consequences not only socially, but also economically. An increase in labor force participation rates as a result of childcare subsidies not only …

Campus Climate Sexual Assault Survey (2015) Analysis, Felicia Rosin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The issue of sexual assault has garnered widespread attention in recent years, as is evident by the growing number of high-profile cases and mainstream social movements. With this increasingly bright spotlight, it is no surprise that The University of Akron has interest in improving the sexual violence education programs offered to students. In 2015, the university conducted a survey to gather information on the campus climate surrounding sexual assault. This analysis dives into a deeper analysis of the data gathered in an attempt to pinpoint areas that require the university’s attention. The analysis covers topics identified by Dean of Students …

Camp Wanake Information Dissemination: Retreatant Literature And Materials, Erica Rymer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Retreat groups are an integral part of nonprofit camp communities. Their attendance and volunteer efforts directly correlate with the success of the organization. Therefore it is necessary to understand why retreat groups visit camp environments and volunteer their time, as well as how they prefer to receive information in order for them to be best supported throughout their experience. It is key, as a nonprofit, to understand the best and most efficient methods of presenting retreatants with information, so that retention is increased and communication uncertainty is decreased. In addition, it is essential to understand the communication processes within the …

A Quality Control Performance-Based Methodology For Pavement Management Systems, Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transportation Asset Management is a decision-making process, which allocates available resources for operating, maintaining, enhancing, and expanding transportation infrastructure while considering its entire life cycle. Transportation infrastructure includes different types of assets and pavements are one of the main assets due to its social, economic, and environmental impacts to society. Transportation agencies implement Pavement Management Systems to support the pavement management process. While implementing and operating a Pavement Management System, one of the costliest procedures is collecting pavement condition data from the field. Good quality for pavement condition data is required to select the right preservation treatments, estimate the associated …

Empowerment Or Threat: Perceptions Of Childhood Sexual Abuse In The #Metoo Era, Melissa Samantha De Roos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) will not disclose the abuse until they reach adulthood. When victims do disclose, they often face negative responses such as disbelief or blame. The specifics of both the individual and the abuse can create barriers for individual victims to disclose the abuse (i.e. gender of the perpetrator or age of the victim at the time of abuse). These situational and individual differences create societal expectations and stereotypical beliefs about CSA that further complicate the disclosure process for the victim. The aim of these studies is to explain why men tend to be less …

Assessment Of Climate Change Impact On Hydraulic Design Procedures Of Bridges, Anjuman Ara Akhter

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The significant change in climate is evident from the records of increased temperature, changed precipitation pattern, increased frequency of extreme weather events like storms, floods, and so forth. Like other infrastructure highway infrastructures also suffer the consequences of these climate change. Since the hydraulic design of these infrastructures is performed using historical climate data, the designs may not be able to provide services because designs are not considering climate change influence especially in terms of precipitation intensity. This study aims at identifying the most accurate source of climate database that predicts future climate change with less uncertainty and links them …

Globalization And Immigration: How A Changing Demographic Landscape Influenced The 2016 Presidential Election, Jacob Rusnock

Honors Theses

The 2016 presidential election results varied significantly from many forecasts. The media proposes that the radically atypical candidacy of Donald Trump motivated pockets of the electorate to support the Republican Party more so than they had in past elections. This paper examines the following questions: Which traditional predictors of the election failed to foresee a Republican victory? If the traditional predictors were unsuccessful, can the results be explained using county level economic and demographic data? Is there evidence to support the media’s proposed explanations of the results? By utilizing the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data, this paper examines some …

Moving Beyond The "Old Boys' Club" In Environmental Organizations: Investigating The Behaviors, Attitudes And Perspectives Of Men And Women, Kat Pardoe

Honors Theses

This study interrogates the exclusionary culture of environmentalism with respect to gender, and in doing so, illuminates elements of function and dysfunction with respect to gender dynamics in environmental organizations. I utilize social science-based quantitative and qualitative methods as a foundation for my analysis. My research investigates the role of gender both at the micro level, with individuals, and the macro level, by evaluating the persistence of the “Old Boys’ Club” culture in environmental organizations. Thirteen people participated in interviews, and forty people responded to an online survey. Personal reflections gathered from the survey reveal gendered trends in environmental problem …

The Euro Effect On Trade In The Emu Core And Periphery: A Pre And Post-Crisis Analysis, Kerri Harner

Honors Theses

As the world financial crisis hit Europe in 2008, the financial shock had asymmetric effects across the eurozone; by 2010, its effects led to a sovereign debt crisis in the euro area. The shock created a clear distinction between strong, core economies in the European Monetary Union (EMU), and a struggling indebted periphery that fared worse in the period of crisis. The sovereign debt crisis revealed inherent fragility in the EMU. In light of recent populist movements, the common currency is under unprecedented scrutiny. This study seeks to assess the euro effect on exports for a clearly distinguished EMU core …

Blogging As Marketing: From Writing To Revenue, Matthew Headland

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper explores the evolution of writing from a form of self-expression into a tactic to build community and to earn revenue in the form of web logs, or blogs. A history tracing blogging back to personal diaries and journals operates to set the context for the methods by which current day blogs create persona, community, and revenue. Through research conducted utilizing industry reports, academic texts, and professional blog articles, a thorough examination of 3 types of blogs outlines the methods of creating a successful blog and how each type of blog is monetized. Current trends in personal blogging, …

The Incarceration Nation: Interpreting The United States Imprisonment Rate, Robert Sharp

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper begins by establishing the importance of studying the United States’ incarceration rate. Overall mass imprisonment and racial disparities in sentencing are two of the main concerns when discussing this issue. Previously published literature has indicated various contributory factors to the racial disparity in sentencing, such as judge’s discretion, educational attainment, and policy implementation. This paper tests five hypotheses that assess which factors influence the incarceration rate. The independent variables are overall minority population, public ideology, educational attainment, unemployment, and poverty. Each hypothesis predicts positive or negative relationships between the United States incarceration rate and the corresponding independent …

Smart-Teleprompter: An Online Teleprompter With Text Editing, Mikyla Wilfred

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Mikyla Wilfred

Major: Computer Science

Project Sponsor: Dr. Collard

Number of Project Credits: 3

Smart-Teleprompter

The smart-teleprompter is a website that allows a logged in user to edit text files as well as teleprompt them straight to the screen. A teleprompter is used by newscasters and other media professionals to read scripts while still looking at or near the camera. My project uses this concept creating a page that defaults to white font on a black background that can scroll through the script. The website allows the logged in user to save defaults of font color, background color, font style …

Intergenerational Transmission Of Educational Attainment: A Look At Racial Differences, James Imhoff

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a people, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that hard work alone can push even the most disadvantaged of us beyond our upbringing. The link between parental and child labor outcomes in the form of educational attainment, income, or social class is known as intergenerational correlation. Due to vast differences in black and white American educational attainment, this paper conducted a study to measure just exactly how parental education will impact a child’s future. As literature and theory suggest, parental education, family income, race, gender, and several other factors all have a tangible benefit on determining how much schooling …

Singapore: Commemoration And Reconciliation, Tze M. Loo

History Faculty Publications

Commemorations are in general highly political acts; in East Asia, the period around the anniversary of Japan's surrender on August 15 has, for some time now, become highly politicized. It is a moment in which postwar Japan performs its attitude toward its war responsibility and aggressive acts-performances that are invariably evaluated for their sincerity, or lack thereof. At the same time, nation states who suffered Japan's wartime aggres­sions use the period to present their understanding of the history of Japan's wartime conduct and, as is often the case, to include a criticism of the per­ceived inadequacies of Japan's contrition. The …