Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Counseling Experiences In Physically Disabled Individuals, Leah Schulze

Honors Projects

This pilot study covers the effects that counseling has on the physically disabled community. 5 individuals were interviewed on a mid-sized college campus about their experiences.

Anxiety & Icebreakers, Sara Jurkiewicz

Honors Projects

Icebreakers are a common activity conducted at colleges and universities at various times during a student’s career. They may be performed at orientations, class meetings, in student organizations, and even in jobs. Anxiety can arise from participants in icebreakers for various reasons and as anxiety is a health concern, it is important to consider the impact icebreakers can have on students. Anxiety is related to shyness and sociability of a person as these traits can impact how a person participates in life.

Emerging Viral Diseases: Generation Z'S Outlook, Ian Mcwhorter

Honors Projects

Generation Z differs notably from previous generations like Baby Boomers or Generation X. In recent years, young adults have been persisting through the COVID-19 pandemic, though not unscathed. This paper seeks to answer the following question: How does Generation Z differ in its outlook on Viral diseases compared to previous generations? Using a series of three surveys conducted on three seperate Viral diseases (HIV, Zika, and COVID 19), it was found that while Generation Z has improved in its ability to combat Viral outbreaks due to factors like high digital literacy, other factors such as poorer mental health show that …

Outside The Box: Gender Roles, Gender Incongruence, And Psychological Wellbeing, Ashton Boffa

Honors Projects

My project explores the impacts of gender roles and gender identity on psychological wellbeing. Previous research has shown that gender roles are negatively associated with psychological wellbeing, and transgender individuals have lower psychological wellbeing than the cisgender population. Since transgender individuals have had unique experiences with gender roles, it leads to a question of how these individuals have been affected by gender roles. Participants responded to a confidential questionnaire about their experiences with gender roles as they were growing up, their gender incongruence, and their psychological wellbeing. The results were consistent with previous research. Furthermore, my results suggest that transgender …

Exporting U.S. Cosmetics To China's Lower-Tier Cities, Kaitlynn Quach, Audrey Stephanie

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

What is the cosmetics market like in China's lower-tier cities for U.S. brands? In order to create market entry strategies, China has city-tier classifications that are commonly used in business. Classifications are based on GDP, political administration, and population. In 2020, Chinese consumers spent more than ¥340.0 Billion RMB ($53.46 Billion) on cosmetic products. This number increases from year to year and is especially affected by globalization. The United States is one of the top exporters of cosmetics brands.

Although popular, United States cosmetics brands face strong competition in China's first-tier cities. First-tier cities are considered the largest and wealthiest …

"We Could And Should Be Doing More": Domestic Violence Advocates' Perceptions Of Agency Training, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Shon M. Reed

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Domestic violence advocates are an under-represented part of the criminal justice system. Because of the role that advocates play in supporting diverse populations of victims/survivors, it is important that they be given the opportunity to express their needs regarding onboarding and supplemental trainings. The current study gathers qualitative data from domestic violence advocates around the United States and explores advocates' recommendations for future trainings. Participants generally expressed the need for increased training regarding various victim sub-populations (e.g., LGBTQ+). Future policy implications and avenues of research will be presented.

How Children And Adults Make Judgments About Who To Trust, Rachel E. Dewald, Jennifer L. Rennels, Kindy Insouvanh

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

"Beauty is Good Stereotype": Higher attractive individuals are thought to be more intelligent, more successful, and happier overall. They also obtain more visual attention and are deemed more trustworthy.

Making a choice based on a person's appearance and attributes might lead to dangerous consequences and lead to being deceived.

We investigated how the appearance of male and female experts influence whether children and adults trust statements made by the expert, establish what that expert knows and determine that expert's attributes (warmth and competence). The results of this study will help us better determine what cues children and adults use when …

Recognition Memory For Auditory And Visual Objects, Sharica Lee, Alexa Salomon, Kevin Mohawk, Laura Werner

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Visual object memory is superior to auditory object memory. Our past research showed that auditory memory was less sensitive to divide attention during study, which may be attributable to representational differences between auditory memory and visual memory.

In the present study, we attempted to equate auditory and visual memory representations in order to adequately investigate the impact of dividing attention on recognition memory.

Recognition memory is thought to rely on two distinct processes, recollection and familiarity. Recollection involves the retrieval of precise qualitative detail and is the most sensitive to dividing attention.

Infants' Intermodal Knowledge Of Gender Using Faces And Voices, Bijoux Cheun, Christina Saliba, Alexis Rice, Marian Espina

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Infants begin to use intermodal knowledge to match male and female faces to the corresponding voice, in their first year of life.

Infants have more experience with female faces which should lead to greater intermodal knowledge of female faces.

Previous studies have found inconsistent results. This could be due to the type of stimuli used.

This study uses several pairs of static and dynamic faces to investigate how methodological differences may impact infants' performance.

Portrayals Of Characters Of Color In Teen Media, Janelle Ferraris, Lindsay Denecker, Kristin Vierra

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Some teen television shows are actively addressing race and racism.

Teen television shows are highlighting the development of ethnic-racial identity. This is promising considering scholars label the development of ethnic-racial identity to be an essential product of the development of older children and adolescents (Syed & Azmitia, 2008, Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014).

Teen television shows are emphasizing factors in a person of colors' community or interactions with peers that may influence their overall well-being. This is encouraging considering research suggests that hearing stories from individuals of various backgrounds can help individuals better recognize systems of oppression and discrimination (Freire, 1995). …

Forgetting In Item Recognition And Pattern Separation, Mateo Marquez, Rhiannon Soriano Smith

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Forgetting is commonly defined as the inability to access information that was once successfully encoded and could be retrieved with a cue, but now leads to memory failure (Frankland et al. 2013).

Memory representations based in the hippocampus engage in pattern separation and are more prone to decay than interference (Sadeh & Pertrzov, 2020).

Extra-hippocampal representations are more prone to interference than decay (Hardt et al. 2013).

Pattern Separation refers to keeping memory representations distinct from one another.

Is there more decay in pattern separation and more interference in item recognition?

The Influence Of Unitization On Recognition Memory, Ting Tong, Amaya D. Bolling-Mcdevitt Hernandez, Audrey Kirsch, Alanna N. Osmanski

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Previous research on recognition memory assumes that associative recognition relies on recollection, whereas item recognition relies on a combination of recollection and familiarity. Unitization refers to the encoding strategy where two separate items are perceived as a single coherent entity or object. Research has demonstrated that unitization can facilitate familiarity-based recognition by generating representations of the stimulus and integrating it into a unified whole. To investigate this issue, we examined the effect of unitization on memory for word-pairs through two types of tests:

Associative Recognition: judge whether word pairs occurred together

Item Recognition: judge whether single words are old or …

The Relationship Between Masculinity & Friendships: A Thematic Analysis On The Qualities Of Male Friendships, Dulshi Fernando, Valeria Aguilera, Kristin Vierra, Diana Gutierrez

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Certain masculinity norms such as toughness, emotional stoicism, and homophobia appear to be barriers to forming intimate friendships between boys and men.

Boys and men who do not successfully build close connections may experience low self-esteem and impaired psychological health.

Boys and men who effectively build intimate relationships benefit from peer support and companionship as well as a decrease in anxiety and depression levels.

Scholars have yet to conduct a meta-synthesis exploring the relation between masculinity and friendship.

Uncovering Themes Of Masculinity Within Male Friendships And Synthesizing Future Interventions, Maria Isabelle Avenido, Valeria Aguilera, Kristin Vierra, Diana Gutierrez

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Masculinity norms such as toughness, emotional stoicism, and homophobia are suggested to impede the formation of close male friendships. A lack of close friendships can lead to poor self-esteem and impaired psychological health. Boys and men who effectively build intimate relationships gain from peer support and companionship as well as a decrease in anxiety and depression levels. Scholars have yet to develop a data-driven intervention to assist boys and men in critically analyzing masculinity, thus the current study's findings will contribute to the development of these interventions that could encourage boys and men to properly assess harmful elements of masculinity …

The Role Of Interference In Short-Term Forgetting, Monserrat Leal-Arcos, Gabriel Hull, Francisco Sanchez, Rhiannon N. Soriano Smith, William B. Ridgway

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Two explanations have been proposed to explain forgetting: decay (forgetting occurs as a function of time) and interference (mental activity can impinge on the consolidation of a recently acquired memory). Wickelgren (1974) proposed a model of forgetting which suggests that forgetting is a function of both decay and interference, best expressed as a power-exponential function. The present research will be the first to directly examine whether Wickelgren's model accurately predicts the observed effects of these two components on forgetting. This research will further the study of human memory by improving current models, and helping to resolve the debate surrounding decay …

A Study Of Improvement In The User Experience Of Unlv's Campus Safety Mobile Application, Mayra Carrera, Mustafa Diallo, Cecilia Garcia-Leon, Khristine Le, Kristine Monsada

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

In 2019, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), reported an average of 28,000 crimes on college campuses across the United States. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has taken measures to address campus safety through their app, RebelSAFE. However, there is little research showing how effective such apps are in aiding students through emergencies. This study aims to evaluate the usability of RebelSAFE through usability testing and surveys.

Is There An App For That? Social Support, Depression, And Anxiety Among Users Of A Digital Mental Health App, Bryce V. Brown, Teresa J. Walker, Christine Guardian, Matthew Schurr

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Perceived social support has been associated with mental health. Social distancing guidelines due to COVID-19 heavily shifted social engagement to digital formats. It is important to understand the role of digital mental health interventions in mental health outcomes.

Who Is Gonna See The Shrink? Anxiety And Depression's Relationship To Openness And Willingness To Engage In Weekly Psychotherapy, Bryce V. Brown, Teresa J. Walker, Christine Guardian, Matthew Schurr

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Digital mental health interventions may offer an alternative to in-person psychotherapy. It is important to understand attitudes about traditional in-person psychotherapy among app users to contextualize treatment seeking and better understand treatment options.

U.S./Russia Export Relationship, Adam Nishino, Mohammad Saad Bin Shahzad, Yonathan Assefa, Trel Lakindanum

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Russia and the United States have a long history of trading as early as 1913. Over the years, Russia has become a notable player in US imports. By using the United States Census database and the Office of the United States Trade Representative database. In short, our research will discuss the trade relationship between Russia and the United States over the last century, through history and data analytics, and its effects on trade and politics to the rest of the world.

The Effects Of The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine On Exports To Italy, Stephen Johnson, Ryder Hankins, Nathan Carter

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Italy imported 122,000 tons of soft wheat from Ukraine and 72,000 from Russia. During the current events international food and feed prices have increased by 8 to 22% causing mass shortages around the world. On top of the ethical and moral dilemmas of continuing business with Russia, insurance premiums have jumped 400% for doing business with the invading country.

Peripheral Blood Cell Counts As Potential Biomarkers For Alzheimer's Disease: A Look At Polygenetic Risk Scores, Melika Cummings, Yimei Lu, Joan Manuel Cue, Neel Patel, Jenifer Do

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Blood-based biomarkers for neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been extensively researched. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurological illness whose progression has been ascribed to gene expression. However, the pathophysiology of these disorders and its relationship to other abnormalities remain unknown. AD has been connected to PBCs, which include erythrocytes, platelets, and leukocytes and have a complicated interaction with the brain system. The pathogenesis of PBCs has been related to a negative influence on established neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's. Candidate gene association studies have become more common as progress in mapping the human genome has increased …

Review Of Diabetes Among Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander People, Katherine Ride, Samantha Burrow

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease condition globally. Type 2 diabetes in particular, has reached epidemic proportions, with the greatest burden falling on socially disadvantaged groups and Indigenous peoples.

This review focuses primarily on type 2 diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which is responsible for the majority of cases of diabetes in this population. It provides general information on the social and cultural context of diabetes, and the behavioural and biomedical factors that contribute to diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This review provides detailed information on:

• the extent of diabetes among Aboriginal and …

From Paywalls To Public Works: Information Policy Infrastructure For More Inclusive And Impactful Scholarship, Will Cross

Digital Initiatives Symposium

As the academy is increasingly invested in making scholarship open, many practitioners have focused on open licensing as the defining legal mechanism for openness. While licenses are critical for removing many barriers of cost, open scholarship requires much more in order to meet its mission as ethical, inclusive, and impactful. Open and public scholarship requires intentional design for public engagement that leverages the full suite of permissions, exceptions, and limitations built into the law. In this session we will explore the legal and policy tools available to scholars and the opportunities they create to build a system of scholarly communication …

Emerging Challenges For Financial Regulation At National Level, Mritunjay Kumar

Management Dynamics

Through this article effort has been made to identify key regulatory tasks and objectives of RBI as regulator of key financial markets. The Increase in systemic risk due to greater integrity of the Indian market with the global market and with emergence of new markets and instruments have made the task of regulator most difficult as it has to constantly keep up pace with the changing marketplace and prescribe new regulatory safeguards for all market participants. The effort is to make unregulated or poorly regulated markets & instruments under better regulation. However, there are border problem between regulators over the …

Stepping Back To Move Toward A More Equitable Future For Digital Library Users And Workers, Jennifer Ferretti

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Libraries were actively set up to be inhospitable to racialized individuals including barring them from physical buildings, structuring rules and systems to value and uphold whiteness, and evidenced by the lack of racialized individuals in the library profession. Digital libraries, while comparatively newer, suffer from the legacy of these structural inequities and the same lopsided demographics. We need to take a step back and examine these legacies so that this avenue of library work has a chance to become more equitable. This discussion on examining the profession with race and power embedded is relevant for anyone in the profession whether …

The Academic Leadership Framework, Stefan Niewiesk, Gates Garrity-Rokous

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The Academic Leadership Framework helps unify and direct efforts to improve academic leadership, while providing a foundation for assessment, training, and collaboration. Its six domains (Values and Behaviors, People, Decision making, Goal setting, Organization, Oversight) provide foundational skills and experiences for the development, assessment, and improvement of academic administrative work.

Not Your Typical Administrator, Shaunda French-Collins, James F. Koehn, Wendy Waugh

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will examine the trend of “wearing many hats” in higher education leadership. For example, being both a department chair and faculty member. In addition, the notion of successfully managing up, the importance of understanding each role you have, and understanding your situational role and the communication we use will be discussed. Lastly, participants will engage in case study scenarios challenging participants to consider various administrative situations and identifying reasonable approaches based on which “hat” you are wearing.

Developing And Evaluating A Psychoeducation Booklet About The Mental Health Effects Of Discrimination, Margarita Manzano, Ellalandra Arakelow, Aldona Chorzepa, Leigha Clarke, Skylor Loiseau, Dawson Hughes, Theodore Macgowan, Elizabeth Brondolo

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Discrimination has been consistently linked to depression. Despite evidence suggesting that individuals targeted for discrimination want to discuss discrimination-related stress, research suggests that therapists are not engaging in these conversations. There are limited psychoeducational materials available to support conversations about race-related stress and mental health, and there are limited data on their effects. This paper describes the development and initial evaluation of a new psychoeducational booklet which provides information about discrimination and depression. The information provided is based on social cognitive models of the relations of discrimination to depression. We provide a description of the development of the psychoeducational materials, …

Providing Immunizations In The Early Stages Of The Covid-19 Pandemic; A Community Pharmacist And Student Pharmacist's View, Nicole Yioupis, Sophia Villa, Noelle J. Ryan-Bloom, Carmela Avena-Woods

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

This article describes the experience of a community pharmacist and two student pharmacists early in 2020. It shares their unique experiences in providing novel vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic while completing their Community Pharmacy Advance Pharmacy Practice Experientials (APPEs) at St. John’s University, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Having the ability to participate in vaccination clinics, serving various communities, during an unprecedented time had a positive impact not only the community they served, but the experience also helped to cultivate them as future pharmacists.

Discrimination, Acculturative Stress, And Academic Achievement In Emerging Adults, Rebecca Steele, Amanda Rosado, Nancy Hernandez, Elizabeth Brondolo

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Researchers report an association of racial discrimination to academic achievement for racial/ethnic minority students. Racial discrimination is manifest on multiple levels, including interpersonal discrimination, discrimination in schools, and societal and cultural discrimination. Researchers have generally focused their efforts on examining the effects of one type of discrimination on academic achievement. Further, mediators of this relation have not been fully explored. In a sample of 78 college students, we found only interpersonal racial/ethnic discrimination, and not school-based or societal discrimination was negatively associated with GPA. However, the effects did not hold once controlling for demographic factors. We examined two potential mediators …