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.
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- Creators: O'Flaherty, Katherine
DescriptionThis project is designed to generate enthusiasm for science among refugee students in hopes of inspiring them to continue learning science as well as to help them with their current understanding of their school science subject matter.
ContributorsSipes, Shannon Paige (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Gregg, George (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
This thesis project examines the likely factors that cause students to drop out of Barrett, the Honors College. Honors literature regarding retention and attrition suggests four areas encompassing individual student attributes and honors program characteristics which may impact a student's decision to stay or leave an Honors College. The primary question in focus is, "Why do students leave the Honors College?" followed by the tertiary questions of, "what can be done to mitigate this occurrence?" and, "how does this affect the quality of an honors education?" Assessing attrition can be broken down into biographical, cognitive-behavioral, socio-environmental, and institutional-instrumental components. Students who graduated with honors and those who did not graduate with honors were assessed on these four components through survey methods and qualitative interviews to investigate specific reasons why students leave the honors program. The results indicated a wide array of reasons impacting student attrition, the most significant being negative perceptions towards (1) honors courses and contracts, (2) difficulty completing a thesis project, and (3) finding little to no value in "graduating with honors." Each of these reasons reflect the institutional-instrumental component of student attrition, making it the most salient group of reasons why students leave the Honors College. The socio-environmental component also influences student attrition through peer influence and academic advisor support, though this was found to be within the context of institutional-instrumental means. This project offers solutions to ameliorate each of the four components of attrition by offering standardized honors contracts and more mandatory honors classes, mandatory thesis preparatory courses instead of workshops, and emphasizing the benefit Barrett gives to students as a whole. These solutions aim at increasing graduation rates for future honors students at Barrett as well as improving the overall quality of an honors education.
ContributorsSanchez, Gilbert Xavier (Author) / Parker, John (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The transition from high school to college is associated with considerable life strain for adolescents, including higher reported levels of daily stress and negative affect (NA), and alterations in stress physiology have been linked to poor health. The purpose of this thesis was to use an ecological momentary assessment design to study associations between momentary experiences of negative affect and cortisol levels in a sample of adolescents transitioning to college. I also examined the potential moderating effects of two potential vulnerability or protective factors, alone status and perceived social support from friends. Adolescents provided salivary samples and completed paper-and-pencil diary reports of socioemotional experiences and alone status five times per day for three consecutive weekdays, as well as completed self-report questionnaires on perceived social support from friends. Within-person increases in momentary negative affect were associated with momentary cortisol reactivity. Alone status significantly moderated this association such that the association between momentary negative affect and momentary cortisol levels was only significant when individuals were with others and not when they were alone. Perceived social support from friends did not significantly moderate the within-person associations between negative affect and momentary cortisol levels. The findings add to our understanding of physiological correlates of socioemotional experiences, as well as contexts in which these associations may be exaggerated or attenuated. The findings inform our understanding of potential pathways by which physiological reactivity to socioemotional experiences may affect the health of adolescents as well as how prevention efforts could reduce potential poor health outcomes associated with heightened stress reactivity.
ContributorsKomarnisky, Sydney-Paige Milan (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Sleep is an extremely important component of living a healthy life than can impact development and behavior starting in childhood. We expanded on past research regarding this topic to determine the role of childhood sleep and the onset of problem behaviors (externalizing and internalizing behaviors) among a sample of school-aged children. We predicted that lower sleep duration, decreased sleep efficiency, and prolonged sleep latency along with negative sleep habits would be associated with problem behaviors. Our sample was made up of 381 school-aged children (M = 8.49 years old, 49.6% female, 56% Caucasian) who were recruited through the Arizona Twin Study when the children were 12 months old. Mixed-model regressions included sex, socioeconomic status, and zygosity as covariates. Correlations and mixed-model regressions showed a significant relationship between negative sleep habits and problem behaviors (both externalizing and internalizing). Our results revealed that those who experience higher amounts of parent-reported negative sleep habits also demonstrate externalizing behaviors (aggression) and internalizing behaviors (anxiety). The findings in the current study are consistent with past research on this topic and suggest that poor sleep impacts daytime functioning and behavior.
ContributorsLee, Jenna Nicole (Author) / Valiente, Carlos (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Zoraida Ladrón de Guevarra was born in 1936 in Coyula, Mexico, a small village in the state of Oaxaca. Her father’s passing required Zoraida to find a job at age fourteen to support her family. Her story, a 200-page memoir entitled “After Papa Died,” follows Zoraida’s time as a servant and eventual nanny in Veracruz. Flashing back to memories of her hometown and the people living in it, the story ends before she enters America first as a visitor in 1954, and later on a working Visa in 1957—the first woman in her village to leave to the United States. Hers is a story relevant today, evident with the paradoxes explored between poverty and riches, patriarchy and matriarchy, freedom and captivity. Assimilation impacts the reading of this memoir, as Zoraida began writing the memoir in her 80s (around fifty years after gaining American citizenship). This detailed family history is about the nature of memory, community, and in particular, the experience of being an immigrant. This thesis project centers on this text and includes three components: an edited memoir, informational interviews, and an introduction. Beginning as a diary steeped in the tradition of oral history, the memoir required a “translation” into a written form; chapters and chronological continuity helped with organization. Topics of interest from the story, such as identity, domestic violence, and religion, are further explored in a series of interviews with Zoraida. The inclusion of an introduction to the text contextualizes the stories documented in the memoir with supplemental information. The contents of the project are housed on a website: alongwaybabyproject.net.
ContributorsVan Slyke, Shea Elizabeth (Author) / Meloy, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Academic success in childhood is crucial for later academic, occupational, and life success (Heckman, 2006; Kuncel, Hezlett, & Ones, 2004; Spengler, Brunner, Damian, Lüdtke, Martin, & Roberts, 2015). Recent research suggests sleep is important for academic success but lacks objective measures of sleep (Buckhalt, El-Sheikh, Keller, & Kelly, 2009; Curcio, Ferrara, & De Gennaro, 2006; Dewald, Meijer, Oort, Kerkhof, & Bögels, 2010; Philbrook, Hinnant, Elmore-Staton, Buckhalt, & El-Sheikh, 2017). The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between sleep and academic success among children through objective measures of sleep in order to expand on the literature. Our sample consisted of 381 twins (50.4% male; 56% Caucasian; 36.5% same sex dizygotic) participating in an 8-year assessment from a longitudinal twin study. Actigraphy was used to assess sleep while various measures were used to assess academic success. A series of mixed model regressions were used to test the main predictions, with family entered as a random effect. Sex, age, Hispanic, SES, and zygosity were controlled for. Significant negative relations were revealed between sleep latency and reading and sleep latency and school liking. Additionally, SES was the most consistent significant positive predictor of our measures of academic success. These results suggest sleep and effects of SES should be considered when developing ways to help children’s school performance.
ContributorsAlvarez, Rachel Marie (Author) / Valiente, Carlos (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Alcohol use remains a large part of collegiate life and is a major public health concern. Alcohol use generally peaks during the early twenties and declines with age. These declines, referred to as "maturing out," are presumed to be the result of the acquisition of adult roles (e.g. marriage, parenthood, employment) incompatible with alcohol use. Recent empirical evidence suggests that variables other than role transitions (e.g. personality) during emerging adulthood may also be important in understanding this process. Conceptually, changes in identity that occur during emerging adulthood may also be linked to the process of maturing out of heavy drinking, though no studies have yet addressed this possibility. Utilizing data from a large sample of graduating college students during senior year and the two following years (N = 907), the current study examined relations between aspects of emerging adult identity development (identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and experimentation/possibilities) and drinking outcomes (alcohol use and problems). Using multiple regression, changes in emerging adult identity development accounted for significant variability in alcohol use over and above relationship and employment status. Decreases in experimentation/possibilities significantly predicted decreases in alcohol use. Conversely, increases in feeling in-between significantly predicted decreases in alcohol use. The findings have important implications for both theories of "maturing out" and the development of prevention and early intervention efforts targeting alcohol abuse during this high-risk developmental period.
ContributorsGates, Jonathan Ryan (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Childhood trauma has been linked to an increased risk of chronic pain in adulthood. One potential mechanism is via childhood trauma's impact on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) response to stress, reflected in changes in salivary cortisol levels (Nicolson et al., 2010). This study sought to determine the relations between childhood trauma, increases in cortisol levels following induced pain, and pain perceptions in adults with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition. It drew on data collected from participants enrolled in an investigation comparing the effectiveness of behavioral treatments for chronic pain. Before receiving treatment, participants attended a laboratory session during which they first rested, and then were exposed to heat stimuli to assess pain threshold and tolerance. Saliva samples were collected from each participant immediately following the rest, and twice during pain induction. Fibromyalgia participants with a history of childhood trauma were expected: 1) to report lower pain threshold and tolerance levels (i.e., have higher pain sensitivity), 2) to exhibit a higher resting cortisol level, and 3) to have greater increases in cortisol in response to acute pain induction than fibromyalgia participants without a history of childhood trauma. Findings showed that childhood trauma scores were: 1) related to lower pain tolerance (but not pain threshold), 2) unrelated to resting cortisol levels, and 3) unrelated to changes in cortisol in response to pain induction and pain tolerance, contrary to prediction. However, a subtype of childhood trauma, i.e., emotional maltreatment: 1) predicted lower pain tolerance, and 2) moderated the cortisol changes over time in response to pain induction during the laboratory session in the expected direction. That is, individuals who reported higher levels of childhood emotional maltreatment showed greater cortisol responses to the pain induction than individuals who reported lower levels of exposure to emotional maltreatment. Cortisol responses did not relate to pain perception. Thus, childhood emotional trauma predicted greater pain sensitivity and cortisol reactivity, but cortisol did not relate to pain perception. The findings suggest that early childhood trauma predicts cortisol reactivity and pain sensitivity, but that cortisol reactivity is not a mediator in the trauma-pain relation.
ContributorsCiaramitaro, Marissa Catherine (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Yeung, Wan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Full Disclosure, an honors thesis painting exhibition presented by Bachelor of Fine Arts candidate, Natalie Saez, strives to visually document the mental progression of people undergoing the transformative process of art therapy. Although often times a term that brings people on edge under certain circumstances, full disclosure brings to light information that otherwise would not have been expressed. In this same way, the process of art making - specifically referring to art therapy - presents a form of full disclosure. Varying stylistic approaches ranging from naturalistic to more abstracted portraits within the exhibition serve as a way to depict the uninhibited expression that results from the creative process.
ContributorsSaez, Natalie Marie (Author) / Schoebel, Henry (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Obuck, John (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Undergraduate on-campus residential education is a topic of significant inquiry within the field of higher education, and specifically student affairs. It has become commonplace for institutions of higher education in the United States to leverage the intersections between academics and residence life in order to promote student success by offering on-campus housing options that strategically place students in residential communities that provide additional connection to the students' academic experience, often by major, college, department, or other focus areas. Such models vary by institution, but are often referred to as living-learning communities or residential colleges, depending upon their structure and goals. For example, Barrett, the Honors College on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University implements a residential college model within its student housing; honors students live and study together, with the addition of three "special communities" designed for students majoring in Engineering, Business, or the Arts. This honors thesis case study describes and investigates the impact the visual and performing arts Barrett residential community has upon its residents in their first-year college experience. Through the lens of student development theory, this research focuses upon examining this specific residential community in detail in order to gain an understanding of its effect upon residents' academic and personal well being.
ContributorsBieschke, Sara Danielle (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Rendell, Dawn (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05