Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 11
Filtering by
- All Subjects: psychology
- Creators: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Creators: Kashiwagi, Jacob
Description
There is a disconnect between the way people are taught to find success and happiness, and the results observed. Society teaches us that success will lead to happiness. Instead, it is argued that success is engrained in happiness. Case studies of four, established, successful people: Jack Ma, Elon Musk, Ricardo Semler, and William Gore, have been conducted in order to observe an apparent pattern. This data, coupled with the data from Michael Boehringer's story, is used to formulate a solution to the proposed problem. Each case study is designed to observe characteristics of the individuals that allow them to be successful and exhibit traits of happiness. Happiness will be analyzed in terms of passion and desire to perform consistently. Someone who does what they love, paired with the ability to perform on a regular basis, is considered to be a happy person. The data indicates that there is an observable pattern within the results. From this pattern, certain traits have been highlighted and used to formulate guidelines that will aid someone falling short of success and happiness in their lives. The results indicate that there are simple questions that can guide people to a happier life. Three basic questions are defined: is it something you love, can you see yourself doing this every day and does it add value? If someone can answer yes to all three requirements, the person will be able to find happiness, with success following. These guidelines can be taken and applied to those struggling with unhappiness and failure. By creating such a formula, the youth can be taught a new way of thinking that will help to eliminate these issues, that many people are facing.
ContributorsBoehringer, Michael Alexander (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Evidence thus far has not lent credence to facilitate lie detection by the average person. According to studies, there are five major signs of lying: lip pursing, narrowed eyebrows, shoulder shrugs, looking to the left, and smirking. The present study aims to determine whether training people in detecting the five signs of lying will facilitate lie detection in the average person. We analyzed the accuracy of lie detection by examining the verdicts of 155 undergraduate students during simulated police interrogations. Comparisons between the trained and untrained subjects support the hypothesis that the average person is no better than chance at detecting lies through non-verbal cues.
ContributorsRivera, Aylin Melissa (Author) / Lanyon, Richard (Thesis director) / Aiken, Leona (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
The Information Measurement Theory proposes that Type A people are perceptive and Type A people are capable of quicker change/adaptation. This study evaluated how transparency with past and present environments predicts their ability to grow and change in their current environment. People responded to a survey based on statements about personal life, specifically their relationship to their parents and the effect their parents have on their personal life. If a participant answered a certain way on the survey, they were asked for a further interview to evaluate IMT beliefs and environment beliefs more closely and specifically. The answers were evaluated using correlations, linear regression and a t-test. The results implicated that transparency is indicative of growth in Type C personalities but not necessary for growth in Type A personalities. The results also implicated that non-profit organizations are beneficial to growth in society.
ContributorsPelech, Ashley Anne (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Previous studies exploring variability in sentencing decisions have consistently found gender differences, such that women receive lighter sentences than men. In the proposed study, I present a new framework for understanding gender differences in sentencing preferences, including circumstances under which no gender differences should emerge. The Affordance Management Approach suggests that our minds are attuned to both group- and individual-level threats and opportunities that others afford us. I conceptualize the sentencing difference between men and women as driven by perceived affordances that assist or hinder an individual in achieving certain fundamental goals. When faced with sanctioning an offender in our community, the offender's sex, the victim's age, and environmental variables such as the ratio of men to women may influence our decision-making, because these factors have affordance implications. Thus, I hypothesized that individuals will express differences in the sentencing of offenders who commit assault, and that these differences vary by offender sex, victim age, and sex-ratio. The results indicate that, as predicted, female offenders received lighter sentencing than men when the offender committed an assault against a same-sex adult, but received equally punitive sentences as men when the assault was committed against a child. In general, results do not support a consistent effect of sex ratio as a factor when making sentencing decisions. Although results do not fully support the current study's specific hypotheses, there remains much to be gained from applying an affordance management perspective to understanding variability in sentencing between the sexes.
ContributorsUzzanti, Charlene Ann (Author) / Neuberg, Steven (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Salerno, Jessica (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Information Measurement Theory (IMT) is a revolutionary thinking paradigm. Its principles allow an individual to accurately perceive reality and simplify the complexities of life. To understand IMT, individuals start by first recognizing that everything must follow natural law and cause and effect, that there is no randomness, and that everyone changes at a certain rate. They then move on to understanding that individuals are described by certain characteristics that can be used to predict their future behavior. And finally, they discover that they must learn to understand, accept, and improve themselves while understanding and accepting others. The author, who has spent a considerable amount of time studying and utilizing IMT, believes that IMT can be used within the field of psychology. The extraordinary results that IMT has produced in the construction industry can potentially be produced in a similar fashion within the psychology field. One of the most important principles of IMT teaches that control or influence over others does not exist. This principle alone differentiates IMT from the traditional model of psychology, which is dedicated to changing an individual (through influence). Five case studies will be presented in which individuals have used the principles of IMT to overcome severe issues such as substance abuse and depression. Each case study is unique and exhibits a remarkable change within each individual.
ContributorsMalladi, Basavanth (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MSBR) is a clinically standardized meditation process that has been shown to facilitate the treatment of a variety of mental and physical disorders. The known efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction is derived from research on participants who are defined as unhealthy in some form. The potential benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction for individuals who are considered to be healthy is under-studied, as less attention has gone into this subject area. Information Measurement Theory is a predictive theory that simplifies reality, and through this logical simplification, allows people to predict and see into the future. The concepts that are central to Information Measurement theory are natural laws, unique conditions, and relationships of unique conditions between the past, present, and future and the event model. This project aims to answer the question of if individuals, who are considered to be healthy, experience the same beneficiary results, that mindfulness-based stress reduction models execute, through the conception and knowledge of Information Measurement Theory. This study aims to compare MBSR and IMT in order to determine the consequences of each on the individual. The purpose of this study is also to highlight the promising success that Leadership Society of Arizona has achieved through the teaching of IMT in leadership courses.
ContributorsPirotte, Genevieve Katherine (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
To many people, shopping is just a chore that needs to be done in order to get groceries, household supplies and clothing. To others, shopping is a sacred time where people relieve themselves of all stress and worries by spending money. Going into the mall with a lot on ones mind can be dangerous because as soon as one become distracted with items in the stores, they can truly get whisked away in spending money. Spending money and buying luxury goods actually brings a lot of excitement to people's lives. Retail therapy is defined as method to positively improve one's mood through shopping (Yarrow 2013). About 62% of consumers have purchased something to cheer themselves up and another 28% had purchased as a form of celebration (Atalay 2011). More than half of Americans participate in some sort of retail therapy in their day-to-day lives (Yarrow 2013). Retail therapy is so prevalent in people's lives because of its basis that people are striving for self-regulation of their happiness or looking for a quick and easy happiness booster. If people are motivated to want to look good or feel better about them, they are self-regulating to where they strive for these goals, which leads them to partake in retail therapy. Shopping is a chance of finding visualization for their future lives. When people go shopping and see a certain item, they automatically picture themselves in the item and what event they will be wearing the item to. It is so easy to get mentally lost during a shopping spree due to these expectations and visualizations that it feeds into people's heads. The happiness boost, the high expectations and the escape from reality are the main factors as to why shopping does indeed make people happier. This thesis will observe the concept of Retail therapy and whether or not it actually makes people happier
ContributorsDawoud, Mariam (Contributor) / Higbee, Yasmine (Contributor) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Humans use emotions to communicate social cues to our peers on a daily basis. Are we able to identify context from facial expressions and match them to specific scenarios? This experiment found that people can effectively distinguish negative and positive emotions from each other from a short description. However, further research is needed to find out whether humans can learn to perceive emotions only from contextual explanations.
ContributorsCulbert, Bailie (Author) / Hartwell, Leland (Thesis director) / McAvoy, Mary (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The portrayal of those with mental health disorders in film and television, particularly those with disorders that label them as psychopaths, have often been overlooked. It is all too common for mental health disorders to be romanticized, dramatized, or simply depicted incorrectly. The historical fiction films Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and My Friend Dahmer depict serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer respectively, and while depict historical events to a degree of accuracy, still take creative liberties. The proper definition of psychopathy must be analyzed more and the reason why films about psychopaths are popular with audiences must be as well.
ContributorsCompanik, Noah (Author) / Arce, Alma (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Many people are familiar with the practice of parents, step-parents, or other caregivers continuing the abuse they experienced as a child unto children they are taking care of, but are unable to name this experience or explain how it continues. To those who are victims to this phenomenon, it is a struggle to comprehend what is occurring without a basic understanding. Through a comprehensive literature review compiling empirical and non-empirical resources, the phenomenon labeled as “intergenerational transmission of abuse” is defined and risk factors are explained for victims coming to terms with this experience.
ContributorsEnciso, Lourdes (Author) / Sturgess, Jessica (Thesis director) / Blais, Rebecca (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2023-05