Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Yingyin's Vow, Jackson Keys

BYU Asian Studies Journal

Romantic fiction of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) often contains a scene that reads as such: Two lovers, usually a young scholar and a beautiful young woman, cast their fate towards heaven as they decide to make vows of devotion, promising each other that they will marry none but the other. This couple will then go through challenges and setbacks, and although it seems there is no possible way for them to be together, their devotion to one another allows them to ultimately overcome all obstacles and live happily together. This structure, with roots dating back to the Tang (618–907) chuanqi …

दहेज: Dowry And Its Repercussions On Indian Society, Lindy Miller

BYU Asian Studies Journal

I n Dudu, a small village in the Indian state of Rajasthan, the bodies of three sisters and their children were found at the bottom of a well in the spring of 2022. Kalu, Kamlesh, and Mamta Meena stated in their suicide letter, “We don’t wish to die but death is better than their abuse. Our in-laws are the reason behind our deaths. We are dying together because it’s better than dying every day” (CBS 2022).

Asian American Identity And Museum Collections, Natasha Wang

BYU Asian Studies Journal

In June of 2022, the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture Act was passed in Congress (Commision to Study 2022, 117-140):

As part of the report, the Commission will need to address: (A) The availability and cost of collections to be acquired and housed in the Museum (B) The impact of the Museum on existing Asian Pacific American history-related museums. (Hirono 2022)

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Journal

No abstract provided.

How The West Is Represented In Modern Fictional Chinese Dramas, Natalie Lyman Shields

BYU Asian Studies Journal

Lois Tyson once said, “Neither human events (in the political or personal domain) nor human productions (from nuclear submarines to television shows) can be understood without understanding the specific historical circumstances in which those events and productions occur” (Tyson 2006, 54). To parrot Lois Tyson, in order to understand human productions such as modern Chinese dramas, one must understand the specific historical circumstances set around those story plots. This paper will dive into how the West is represented in modern fictional Chinese dramas. In order to do this, this paper will explore the cultural and political circumstances at the time …

Social Anxiety, Worry, And Intolerance Of Uncertainty, Yu-Jin Eun

Masters Theses

Numerous cognitive aspects of social anxiety have been examined. For example, the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) has been incorporated into the cognitive-behavioral model of Social Anxiety (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997), and more recently the Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE) has received great interest (c.f., Weeks et al., 2008). Other relevant cognitive aspects of social anxiety have received less attention. Of interest, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is highly related to worry but also to social anxiety (e.g., Boelen & Reijntjes, 2009; Dugas et al., 2001). However, no research, to our knowledge, has examined whether social anxiety or worry accounts for …

Excess Capacity In The Banking Sector And Its Effects On The Sub-Saharan Economy, Fu-Ad Wumpaeh Alhassan

Masters Theses

The banking sector plays a critical role in driving economic growth and financial stability in any region. However, the issue of excess capacity within this sector can have a profound effect on the overall health of the economy. This study investigates the excess capacity in the banking sector within the context of the Sub-Saharan region and explores its implications on the economic performance of countries within this area.

This research employed a mixed methods approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Firstly, a review of existing literature on excess capacity in the banking sector and its impact on economies …

Patterns Of Risk Behaviors And Their Value: A Latent Class Growth Modeling Approach, Anthony Naranjo

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The current body of individual risk behavior research has been mainly driven by two streams of literature. Stable risk researchers propose individuals tend to display similar risk behaviors across time and situations due to individuals' underlying propensity to either engage in risk averse or risk seeking behaviors. Changeable risk researchers have sought out to examine variability in risk behaviors due to factors such as personality and contextual characteristics. However, might it be the case that there are subgroups of individuals who may be more prone to display static risk behaviors and other subgroup whose risk behaviors are more amendable? To …

Body-Image Distress In Breast Cancer Survivors And Their Evaluation Of Medical Tattooing Following Surgery, Miranda Proctor

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

A review of the literature reveals a high incidence of body-image distress among breast cancer survivors who have undergone surgery, which is a natural response to the significant changes in their appearance. Reconstructive surgery, utilizing implants or flaps, may be employed to restore breast size and shape. Medical tattooing can simulate the nipple-areola complex and decorative appliques can conceal scars and skin color variations. Both reconstructive surgery and medical tattoos are associated with patient-reported satisfaction, yet further research is necessary to understand their combined impact on body-image distress. To investigate this, a survey was distributed among national breast cancer support …

Revisiting The Vigilance Taxonomy: Are Findings Consistent In A Remote Environment?, Grace E. Waldfogle

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Previous research has highlighted key taxonomic factors that have been found to influence human performance on vigilance tasks. However, previous literature has focused on research conducted in laboratory settings but has not examined vigilance tasks in remote environments. The present dissertation addresses this gap in the literature by examining human performance on a remote vigilance task, as well as workload and stress associated with the task. Qualitative data were collected to further understand the environment and distractions that participants experienced. Across three experiments, 372 participants were asked to complete a vigilance task and answer surveys pertaining to stress, workload, and …

Halloween 2023: It's A Barbie World!, Jin-A Choi, Yi Luo, Bond Benton, Keith Green

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

Move over, black and orange, and step aside for the color that is going to dominate Halloween this year, “Barbie Pink.” And yes, Ken, “it won’t matter what you do, you will always be number two,” at least when it comes to Halloween costumes in 2023. And those wildly popular Star Wars and Marvel character costumes traditionally seen during the “spookiest” time of the year? It seems they won’t match the popularity of the fictional character, Barbie, who reemerged this year on the pop culture scene after the incredible success of the Warner Bros. film “Barbie” released in July.

Based …

2023 Scotus Report: Americans Reacted With Disgust And Sadness Toward The Scotus' Recent Rulings, Yi Luo, Bond Benton, Jin-A Choi

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

On June 29, SCOTUS struck down affirmative action, ruling the race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities unconstitutional. Then, on June 30, SCOTUS handed down another landmark ruling which outlawed student loan forgiveness and terminated President Biden’s plan to provide student loan reliefs for tens of millions of Americans. This high court’s decision on student loans will likely affect one in eight Americans, leaving student loan borrowers feeling frustrated, defeated, and angry. As online media have increasingly played a central role in facilitating civic engagement and shaping individuals’ decisions on contested issues, this study thus examines how social media users …

Binge Drinking And Non-Consensual Drug Intoxication, Jake Blendermann

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Sexual violence towards women on a college campus have remained an issue the past few decades, with about one out of every four female students becoming a victim of it (Rosoff, 2018). Coupled with high rates of binge-drinking on college campuses (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2021), it can be argued that now, more than ever, that attention needs to be drawn to how females can try to be aware of strategies to help combat such predators. Previous research also shows a link between functionally inhibiting drugs referred to as "roofies" that can be slipped into the drink …

The Roles Of Media Multitasking And Technology Use In Selective Attention And Task Switching, Katina Chris

Honors Undergraduate Theses

A number of studies have explored the impact of multitasking on specific cognitive skills, primarily with regard to non-media multitasking activities. While briefly addressing technology, its use in the modern era regarding media multitasking and its associated cognitive declines has not been extensively examined. Forty-nine participants were required to complete a series of cognitive tasks including the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Trail Making Test. Data were also collected for how often participants media multitask, the amount of technology they use, as well as other demographic variables. The goal of this study was to empirically examine the role …

Understanding School Shootings Using Qualitatively-Informed Natural Language Processing, Quan K. Do

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Prior literature has investigated the connection between school shootings and factors of familial trauma and mental health. Specifically, experiences related to parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, marital violence, or severe bullying have been associated with a propensity for carrying out a mass shooting. Given prior research has shown common histories among school shooters, it follows that a person's violent tendencies can be revealed by their previous communications with others, thus aiding in predicting an individual's proclivity for school shootings. However, previous literature found no conclusions were drawn from online posts made by the shooters prior to the mass …

It's Not The Same As It Was: Analysis Of Modern Coping In The Age Of Virtual Media, Elizabeth M. Gajdzisz

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Among young adults, stress triggers social media use, especially as a coping strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic (Wolfers & Utz, 2022). Similarly, video games offer a way for players to engage in escapism to cope with stressors (Prinsen & Schofield, 2021). Increased use of virtual media continues despite social distancing orders being largely lifted; while the risks and potential negative impact of social media on mental health remain uncertain (Orben & Przybylski, 2019). The current study examined the use of virtual media and virtual gaming as coping mechanisms among traditional-age undergraduate students. Undergraduate participants (N=310) attending a large metropolitan university …

The Implications Of Religion And Internal Motivations On Health Behaviors, Sarah Jamaleddine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

It is considered that religion and internal motivations may act as guiding forces behind the thoughts and actions of individuals. The purpose of this thesis is to explore if religiousness and internal motivations may influence individual health behaviors. To explore these relationships, a convenience sample using a 5-minute Qualtrics survey with questions regarding religiousness, internal motivations, and health behaviors was developed. This survey was offered to UCF students over the course of a few semesters. It is hypothesized that individuals that indicate more religiousness and stronger internal motivations (greater internal locus of control and self-efficacy) will demonstrate more positive health …

An Exploration On The Spanish Caribbean Dialectical Community: ¿Unidos O Separados?, Bryan J. Jimenez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Latin America holds a diverse array of people and language. Even regions and countries that speak the same language tend to speak it differently. This leads to interesting variations in language and speech. Most people of Latin American origin are able to note that Mexican Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish are different in terms of intonation, speech pattern, vocabulary, and more. Most popular theories that section Latin America off by dialects group the entirety of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean into a single dialectical community. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic each hold unique histories and are home to a fascinating …

The Effects Of Past Betrayals On Trust Behavior, Trenton D. Lam

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Experiencing interpersonal betrayals or trust violations can often create negative consequences for victims when creating new relationships. Past studies have found that trauma from previous betrayals can impair trust and thereby trust behavior for victims in the future. However, little research has been done to empirically characterize this connection and existing studies have provided conflicting results. The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between past trust violations, measured through the Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey (BBTS), and present self-reported trust and trust behavior. Differences in trust behavior between those with or without a history of betrayals was measured …

Analyzing Help-Seeking Behaviors And Barriers Among Hispanic Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Emely Mejia

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is experienced by millions of women in the U.S. every year. As the population of Hispanic women continues to grow, there is more attention to the unique experience of these women and the factors that disproportionately affect this population when they experience IPV. The objective of this study was to identify the help-seeking behaviors and barriers to help-seeking in Hispanic survivors of IPV. The last published systematic review on this topic was in 2011, showing a gap in our understanding of the prevalent barriers affecting these Hispanic women over the last decade. To assess the current …

Beauty In Sorority Life: An Anthropological Analysis Of Beauty Ideals And Body Modification, Delaney C. Mclinden

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Sororities are social organizations on college campuses categorized by selective membership and exclusive social events for active members. This research focuses on how sorority members' ideas about beauty relate to their appearance management behaviors in order to gauge how sorority culture contributes to their understanding of physical beauty. Ethnographic

data collection took place at a university in the southeastern United States. I conducted 17 semi- structured interviews with members of different sororities and participant observation at sorority

recruitment events. There's a common thread that connects every interview: beauty and appearance carry importance. Sorority culture encourages women to put "effort" into …

The Beauty Of Hip-Hop Culture: Linguistic Connections Through Music, Poetry, And Literature, Aminah Patel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis enters the developing conversation in the linguistic domain about the culture and struggles of the Black community. It explores the collectivist perspective of the Black community in the 20^th and 21^st century through the umbrella of Linguistics and its subfields. Collectively, the literary and musical works in this study demonstrates the frustrations of the Black community—including its correlation to antebellum slavery—the lamentations of oppression, which showcases in a collection of poems and their syntactical aspects, and the Black pride emulating from the societies. Despite the clear correlation between Hip-Hop culture and literary works from the early …

Development And Initial Validation Of The Safe Cannabis Consumption Identity Measure (Sccim), Luke Salomone

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Previous research has suggested that observed factors of cannabis use including use patterns, motives, and consequences are mirroring the same factors for alcohol use. As the prevalence of cannabis continues to grow, the ambiguous nature of a popularizing substance calls for more empirical approaches toward treating cannabis-related problems. Narrowing in on a flexible state of identity as opposed to inflexible states of behaviors show to promote long-lasting behavior change. While implementing this context with interventions, measures regarding a healthy identity with cannabis have yet to be explored. A measure that quantifies the extent a healthy identity with consuming cannabis was …

Measuring Brain Activity Using Fnirs During Discomfort Mitigation With Vr Meditation, Jordan Sammarco

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Pain perception can be drastically affected by external factors in the surrounding environment. Previous studies relying on subjective ratings of pain have shown that guided meditations supplemented by virtual reality (VR) can reduce the perception of pain more successfully than the audio alone. The research question for this study was: How does the efficacy of meditation as a means of pain mitigation differ with and without the application of VR? To answer this question, we used fNIRS to visualize changes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which has been shown to play a role in the larger pain matrix in …

Provider Perceptions On The Usage Of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy To Influence Behavior Change In Individuals With Substance Use Disorders, Leia T. Rausch

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Recent research studies and clinical trials have suggested that psychedelic therapy with psychological support can offer beneficial and synergistic effects in reducing or eliminating substance use disorder (SUD) patterns and symptoms. However, very little is known about SUD healthcare providers' perceptions of the usage of psychedelic-assisted therapy in SUD treatment. The present study assesses biomedical SUD healthcare providers' perceptions and concerns to better understand potential barriers to the effective implementation of psychedelic-based therapies and formulate further recommendations for research efforts surrounding them. This study collected data through a short survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews from nine participants involved in SUD …

Selma: A Filmic Description Of History, Hunter L. Tierman

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis will determine the validity of the claim made by Joseph Califano, an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, that the film Selma is not historically accurate, especially regarding the Johnson character. This topic was picked to critique historical accuracy in the film and provide a framework to determine if the film would be suitable for use in an educational setting. This thesis used multiple academic monographs, telephone conversations, interviews, and presidential archives to come to a conclusion. After thorough research, it has been determined that Selma can be used as an educational resource with appropriate cautions stated beforehand regarding …

Perceptions Of Music Performance Anxiety Throughout The Covid-19 Pandemic And Their Predictors, Caroline E. Villacis

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Performance anxiety affects individuals across many fields, from sports to medicine to music. Research in the area of Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) has been of particular importance to instrumental and vocal soloists and ensemble members for several decades. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many musicians have been required to change the format and location of their performances. These adjustments, as well as musicians' existing unique characteristics and life experiences, may have impacted their experience of MPA. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors on MPA. Participants (N = 251) were …

The Effects Of Psychiatric And Physical Cannabis Use Motivational Categories On The Development Of Cannabis Use Disorder, Kassidy B. Jacques

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The legalization of cannabis is increasing across the United States, for both recreational and medical use. This has resulted in a change in public opinion regarding the risks of cannabis use. This is particularly true for the current generation of older adults, which experiences a greater prevalence of cannabis use than previous members of this cohort. Due to decreased perception of risk and medical or emotional issues associated with old age, older adults increasingly use cannabis to cope with their psychiatric and medical symptoms. Current studies provide evidence of an association between using cannabis for medical symptoms and the development …

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Self-Esteem, And Identity Among College Students, Julie Hall

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore if Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is related to identity in undergraduate adults, as well as their self-esteem. Also investigated was whether prior diagnosis (including early detection versus later-in-life detection) would be related to higher self-esteem and healthier identity formation. College students in large metropolitan southeastern universities enrolled in psychology classes (N = 368) took an anonymous online self-report survey battery in exchange for course credit. The screening tool for ADHD identified close to 50% of the sample as possibly having ADHD, which is much higher than any previous study has …

Sexual Violence, Identity Centrality, And Mental Health Among Racial And Sexual Minoritized Individuals: An Application Of Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory, Brettland D. Coolidge

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Sexual violence (SV) is a pressing concern in the United States. SV (i.e., unwanted sexual contact, coercion, and wanted or unwanted penetration of another). Individuals with minoritized sexual, racial/ethnic, and gender identities experience worse psychosocial outcomes than their majority counterparts. People with multiple marginalized identities have been shown to experience traumatic events at greater rates and with significantly different outcomes compared to those with one minoritized identity. Cultural betrayal trauma theory proposes that these differences in mental health outcomes may be explained in part by a shared cultural identity between a SV perpetrator and victim, which is posited to exacerbate …