Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ways Forward In Energy Markets And The Environment, Jacob Nelson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Renewable energy sources have come to the forefront of energy production policy over the last twenty years. Studies of external and direct costs of both renewable and nonrenewable energy sources have contributed to growing understandings of ways in which these energy sources can be compared in a monetary context. Using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) alongside international data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) among other sources, we have developed forecasts for the future costs, both direct and social, of each energy source as well as a difference-in-difference experiment to determine potential effects of state-level energy …

The Impact Of Human Rights Abuses And Emigration In Venezuela, Caroline Hanna

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My overall goal with my Honors project is to have a better understanding of the human rights situation in Venezuela and how human rights abuses are one of the many factors in the high levels of emigration. The influx of migrants has led to serious issues in many South American countries, especially Colombia, as many countries face economic hurdles, and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the global economy. I want to address the international response to this crisis as well due to the differing responses of the Syrian refugee crisis and the Venezuelan migration crisis. In order to do this, …

Military Influence On Middle Eastern Democratization Following The Arab Spring, Andrew Fleming

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Despite experiencing countless wars, sectarian extremism, imperialism, and authoritarian rule, very few events have impacted the Middle East more significantly than the Arab Spring. Starting in 2010, the Arab Spring marked a turning point in which the people of numerous Arabic states collectively gathered to protest and combat the oppressive regimes that had controlled the region for decades. The Spring was indicative of the strong, recurring ambitions for revolution and regime change across the Middle East, presenting the Arab nations with an opportunity to reform their states from within. For some Middle Eastern states, the Arab Spring served as a …

The Cycle Of Violence And Its Effect On Revictimization, Shelby Stevens

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This thesis proposes a study that examines the link between child abuse and victimization as an adult in an abusive relationship. In using experience from an internship at a domestic violence shelter combined with a literature review with studies that have analyzed similar concepts, this study is proposed to take place across the state of Ohio. The rates of domestic violence and child abuse will be collected to determine if child abuse makes revictimization more likely later in life.

Impact Of Unemployment Insurance Benefit Generosity On Re-Employment Wages During The Great Recession, Hayden Cobb

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper examines the impact of the replacement ratio on re-employment wages during the great recession. This is done using a data set from IPUMS CPS displaced workers supplement between 2005 and 2012. Using OLS analysis, I estimated the impacts of the replacement ratio on the ratio of re-employment wages to pre-unemployment wages. I found that a replacement ratio of one would lead to a 77.6% increase in the ratio of re-employment wages to pre-unemployment wages, without the consideration of any other variables. The findings of the replacement ratio support economic theory and contradict the findings of some major papers …

Analysis Of Modern Barn Design, Gunther Soehnlen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The agriculture industry is always changing. Barn structures are one of the most important aspects of the agriculture industry. As the agriculture industry changes, so does the design and construction of barns. There are many types of barns, but over the last 300 years four of the most prevalent types have been the Bank Barn, Open Span Truss Barn, Hoop Barn, and Transverse Frame Barn. The Bank Barn and Transverse Frame Barn have been popularly built for over 200 years. The Hoop Barn and the Open Span Truss Barn have been recently introduced to the industry, becoming popular within the …

What Accounts For The Variations In Educational Outcomes?: A Quantitative Analysis, Rachel A. Madigan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

High quality educational outcomes are a coveted item throughout the advanced industrialized world. This paper is a quantitative analysis of the educational outcomes of thirty-seven Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member countries. The overarching goal is to determine what variables account for this variation. Causes investigated include the type of party system, wealth, inequality, health of democracy, government spending on education, access to affordable healthcare, and student-teacher ratios. Socioeconomic variables, including wealth and income inequality, and the level of political freedom have the greatest impact on quality of education. Other more bureaucratic factors, including access to healthcare, student-teacher …

The Dangers Of Free Speech In The Modern World, Katie Yoak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In our modern day individuals often feel safe being able to say whatever they want from behind a computer. The ability to say whatever we want online has both positive and negative effects. This digital form of communication can bring out both the best and worst in us. Many people in our modern age take this technology and use it to engage in aggressive behavior that may not normally occur or be seen by as many people. In this modern day of internet aggression I wish to explore how the ability to speak freely online and through social media services …

The Evolution Of Technology, Kelly Cooper

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As per outlined by Dr. Quinn, this literature review will be a comprehensive review paper including an overview of current and previous research done in the field of Memetics. This will further include sifting through literature to hone in on a specific, new area of memetics Dr. Weeks is focused on, the evolutionary change of abiotic factors through purchasing. This is to be completed with the help of the library worshops designed to teach the skills necessary to undergo a literature review of this size. I will also participate in weekly reading groups to discuss papers and work closely with …

The Link Between Humor And Personality, Alexander R. Hawley

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study sought to expand upon the research on humor and personality by attempting to find connections between the two through a digital survey. The participants of this study were 51 individuals obtained through social media that were 74.5% women, 23.5% men, and 2% non-binary. The Humor Styles Questionnaire and Midlife Development Inventory were used to assess humor styles and personality factors. Then, a correlation matrix was computed to examine associations between the two sets of variables. Four significant relationships were found: self-enhancing and openness to experience, self-enhancing and extraversion, aggressive and agreeableness, and self-defeating and neuroticism. These results can …

“Eyes In The Home”: Addressing Social Complexity In Veterans Affairs Home-Based Primary Care, Elizabeth Catherine Hulen, Avery Laliberte, Sarah S. Ono, Somnath Saha, Samuel T. Edwards

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND: Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) has demonstrated success in decreasing risk of hospitalization and improving patient satisfaction through patient targeting and integrating long-term services and supports. Less is known about how HBPC teams approach social factors.

OBJECTIVE: Describe HBPC providers’ knowledge of social complexity among HBPC patients and how this knowledge impacts care delivery.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Between 2018 and 2019, we conducted in-person semi-structured interviews with 14HBPCproviders representing nursing,medicine, physical therapy, pharmacy, and psychology, at an urban Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center. We also conducted field observations of 6 HBPC team meetings and 2 home visits.

APPROACH: We …

Identifying Consumer Preferences From User-Generated Content On Amazon.Com By Leveraging Machine Learning, Jikhan Jeong

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inexperienced consumers may have high uncertainty about experience goods that require technical knowledge and skills to operate effectively; therefore, experienced consumers' prior reviews can be useful for inexperienced consumers. However, one-sided review systems (e.g., Amazon) only provide the opportunity for consumers to write a review as a buyer and contain no feedback from the seller's side, so the information displayed about individual buyers is limited. Therefore, this study analyzes consumers' digital footprints (DFs) for programmable thermostats to identify and predict unobserved consumer preferences, using a dataset of 141 million Amazon reviews. This paper proposes novel approaches (1) to identify unobserved …

Living Together In Precarious Times: Covid-19 In The Philippines, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the necessity—for social scientists and the rest of the public alike—of an ecological; non-anthropocentric view of the world as humans grapple with microbes; surround themselves with plants; and engage with non-human animals in ways that range from abuse to affection. This chapter uses this multispecies perspective to reflect on the Philippine experience of COVID-19; offering illustrative examples; sketching tentative insights; and concluding with a research agenda for future work.

Journeying With Communities: A Community Engagement And Organizing Handbook For University Extension Workers, Mark Anthony Dayot Abenir, Abegail Martha S. Abelardo, Froilan A. Alipao, Melanie D. Turingan

Development Studies Faculty Publications

This handbook highlights the public and social mission of higher educational institutions (HEI) through Community Engagement; a term that brings forth the important use of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Community Organizing for Community Development (COCD). The unique contribution of this handbook is that it specifically situates HEI Community Engagement within the unique historical context of the Philippines; thus adding a Philippine voice in the literature of Community-Engaged Scholarship (CEnS). It also provides activity exercises and case studies where readers can situate themselves and apply the theories; concepts; and tools they have learned so they can enhance the Community Engagement …

Transformative Service-Learning Experience Through Participatory Project Management, Mark Anthony Dayot Abenir

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Studies have shown that for Service-Learning (SL) to be truly valuable and transformative, it must employ participatory project management practices and is ideally conducted in a face-to-face setting. This case study aims to highlight the strategies used to make SL projects long-term and participatory. It also measures the effectiveness of such approach in achieving a valuable and transformative SL experience for students and partner communities. Qualitative results show that students were able to develop desired personal, professional, and civic competencies. On the part of the partner communities, qualitative results reveal that they appreciate the year-long participatory SL engagement with the …

Evaluating The Feed-In Tariff Policy In The Philippines, Joyce Marie P. Lagac, Josef Teofisto T. Yap

Ateneo School of Government Publications

To address the problems of climate change and energy security; the Philippines enacted the Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008. The law mandated the Feed-In Tariff (FiT) policy; which was designed to provide a guaranteed fixed price to RE investors for 20 years to develop renewable technology. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the FiT policy in promoting renewable energy development in the Philippines by assessing its costs and benefits. Data show that while the FiT has led to an increase in RE generating capacity; the share of renewable energy in the country has been declining since 2011. …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Environmental Regulations On Retail Gasoline Price Seasonality, Michael C. Davis

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Stricter environmental standards on gasoline have had impacts on the prices of gasoline including the seasonality of gasoline prices. Using both national data and individual station data, the paper tests for a possible explanation for this increase. Three theories are tested: that gasoline seasonality increases due to higher costs, due to greater market power because of segmented markets, or due to greater asymmetry because of greater inattention on the part of customers. The results suggest that gasoline price seasonality has increased both due to higher costs and greater market power with mixed results on the inattention of consumers.(JEL Q41, Q53, …

Using The Civic Voluntarism Model To Compare The Political Participation Of Us And Swiss Social Workers, Jason Ostrander, Tobias Kindler, Janelle K. Bryan

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Various international and national social work ethical principles call social workers to participate in politics, although not all social workers in the USA and Switzerland embrace politics in their professional practice. A growing body of social work literature addresses social workers’ participation in politics. This article presents a comparative study of political participation, political efficacy, and political ideology among social workers in the USA and Switzerland. This study used two separate cross-sectional surveys to better understand the political participation, political efficacy, and political ideology of social workers in the USA (n = 3033) and Switzerland (n = 1242). …

Perceived Effectiveness Of A Mentoring Program For Training Adventist Chinese Evangelists, Terry Man-Yuen Tsui

Dissertations

Problem

The fact that evangelism in the Unorganized Territories of the Chinese Union Mission was done mainly as personal evangelism and that public evangelism was limited to a one-day seed sowing meeting had led to a serious need for equipping pastors in effective public evangelism methods. It required a model of public evangelism, which is adaptable to the local Chinese culture, and a mentoring program that accompanies evangelists, who were still developing their skills in public evangelism.

Method

This study used a parallel mixed methods design to measure the perceived effectiveness of selected methods in the mentoring program. This design …

Healthcare Leadership In The Context Of Cognitive Diseases Of Aging: A Community-Based Participatory Research Model, Dean Sherzai

Dissertations

The Problem

The world is facing a tsunami of chronic diseases of the brain such as dementia, Parkinson's, and stroke. But all populations are not affected equally. Though we are all at greater risk of developing these diseases, minority communities such as the Black and Hispanic populations are at much greater risk of succumbing to these conditions. To date we have spent billions of dollars on research and public health measures that have repeatedly failed, but over the last decade it has become evident that much of these diseases can simply be averted through effective public health and community-based measures …

Effectively Managing Bias In Teacher Preparation, Natasha Johnson

CJC Publications

This is the call for teacher preparation programs to actively incorporate an emphasis on social justice education and the development of teachers committed to creating equitable schools. Education in today's multicultural, pluralistic society must be actively concentrated on and successful at creating more just and unbiased schools for underserved students. Similar to Ladson-Billings' argument for a redefining of ‘good teaching,' there must be a redefinition of that which constitutes social justice teaching. It is the role of today's teacher preparation programs to equip teachers with the essential skills necessary to develop students, manage bias, and create a culture of equity …

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Self-Efficacy And Self-Regulation As Predictors Of Academic Motivation Among Undergraduate Students In The United States, Fatimah Aljuaid

Dissertations

Problem

Some undergraduate students demonstrate lack of academic motivation which negatively affects engagement and perseverance in higher education (Busse & Walter, 2017; Rizkallah & Seitz, 2017; Dresel & Grassinger, 2013). Amotivated students are more likely to drop out of school and disengage from learning activities or underachieve (Wang & Pomerantz, 2009). Although the lack of academic motivation is correlated with deficiency in self-regulation and self-efficacy, relatively little studies have been conducted to examine the impact of these factors on academic motivation particularly in the U.S. This study constructed a hypothesized model to investigate the role of self-regulation and self-efficacy in …

Mind Wandering As A Result Of Failed Self-Regulation: An Examination Of Novel Antecedents, Kent Etherton

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of self-regulatory mechanisms when predicting mind wandering. I collected data from a sample of undergraduate psychology students (N = 168) and full-time workers (N = 660). The hypothesized model did not produce acceptable fit. However, through alternative model testing, I discovered a well-fitting model of self-regulatory predictors of mind wandering. These results contributed to the literature by providing evidence that motivational mechanisms significantly predict mind wandering in both student and work contexts and raise issues relating to 1) the uni- versus multi-dimensionality of approach and avoid-motivational temperaments, 2) distinctions between …

Spaces To Breathe, Ryan Rinn

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

The author's vision is of a racially equitable Richmond that looks like every resident having the mental and physical health benefits of green space easily walkable from where they live. He outlines ideas for achieving this vision, with Black and Brown-led onboarding of new parks in neighborhoods and communities where no greenspaces exist within walking distance. Community-led creation of public open space is the inverse of annexation; it is an anti-racist land use strategy that empowers residents to build and enjoy places for the people.

Radically Reimagining Our Systems, Danny Tk Avula

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

The author recommends ways organizations can do the difficult and sustained work it requires to realize equity in the Richmond Region: recognize that our systems perpetuate disparity; develop cross-sector solutions; drive change with data; partner with the people.

Intentionally Connecting With The Other, Oscar F. Contreras Telón

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

The author advocates for communication as a means to combat racism and bias. As Richmonders, we need to seek out conversations, even if they are not initially comfortable, so we can learn about each other and act with compassion. This is true, especially if we find ourselves in a position of influence or privilege. One way to connect across cultures is by creating cross-cultural community spaces for joy, healing and sharing experiences.

The Case For Meaningful Language Access, Tanya M. González

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

Through her experience working with the immigrant community in Richmond, the author makes the point that the Richmond metropolitan area needs a comprehensive immigration integration policy that centers language access services and that is implemented by localities, nonprofits, and other human service providers to begin to move towards racial equity for immigrant families.

Reparative And Equitable Practices And Partnerships, Meghan Z. Gough

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

The author's vision of a racially equitable Richmond is one in which resourced institutions, such as higher education, invest in reparative and equitable practices that respect lived expertise and are built on partnerships. As we rethink our roles and responsibilities, we should invest in reparative and equitable planning practices that include 1) acknowledging structural racism as a societal problem; 2) prioritizing lived expertise; and, 3) building long-term and mutually-beneficial partnerships.

Reframing Equity: The Gift Of Being A Giver, Damon Jiggetts

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

The author focuses on the power of giving, seeing equity as being achieved when those perceived as having little power, resources, or gifts can give of themselves in ways that are not only meaningful to someone else or to the community, but also in ways that evoke a sense of pride, self-worth, and value in themselves.