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: Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics
- Creators: Kashiwagi, Jacob
Description
The main objective of the research was to gather as much information and arguments about why we need to end the war on drugs and put them into one piece of work that was compelling and thorough, but also concise. This goal was achieved through first explaining how addiction is strongly related to the environment around the addict and whether they have adequate tools to bond with those around them. After coming to the conclusion that the war on drugs has been a failure and is misunderstood by most people, the strategy for legalization of recreational drugs was outlined as well as the economic, social, and health benefits of pursuing that strategy. The conclusion is that while the war on drugs has good intentions, it has been largely ineffective and imposed cruel punishments on addicts that end up causing more harm than they prevent, it is time to move forward and legalize all recreational drug use with licensed sales, harm reduction programs, and proper education to create a more effective strategy of preventing drug use and the harm it brings.
ContributorsArndt, Nicholas Brandon (Author) / Koretz, Lora (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Objectives: The goal of this study was to compare older adults (ages 60 to 80) with a fixed sleep schedule compared to a restricted sleep schedule. The purpose was to determine if reducing one's sleep by an hour each night for 12 weeks, led to worse cognition and mood over time. Study Design: The study contained two groups: older adults with their sleep restricted and older adults with their sleep un-restricted. Participants were recruited by researchers at Arizona State University and The University of Arizona by advertising in newspapers, on flyers in senior centers, and on radio stations. After rigorous screening for health conditions, current sleep patterns and depression, individuals entered the study. Participants completed the Geriatric Depression Scale after two weeks of baseline, and again after treatment week 14 of the study. Likewise, males and females performed three cognitive tests after two weeks of baseline, and again after treatment week 14 of the study. These cognitive tests included Stroop Color and Word Test, Trail making and PVT. Results: The depression scale and three cognitive tests showed that there was no significant difference with cognition and mood over 14 weeks between individuals with a fixed sleep schedule compared to a restricted sleep schedule. Conclusions: Reducing older adult's sleep duration by an hour each night for 14 weeks does not produce negative effects, and does not provoke signs of depression or weakened cognition.
ContributorsSchneck, Morgan Gail (Author) / Youngstedt, Shawn (Thesis director) / Petrov, Megan (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Arizona State University. College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Climate change presents a significant threat to human health, both mental and physical; as a result, it has become one of the most commonly discussed phenomena of the 21st century. As many people are aware, a wide range of social and physical factors affects mental health. However, many people fail to realize that these increases global temperatures also have a significant impact on mental health as a result of increased vulnerability that is often manifested through one's emotions. By analyzing perceptions of people across the globe, in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Fiji, we were able to pinpoint these emotions and trace them individual's feelings of worry, distress, and hope that resulted from their perceived impacts on climate change. Overall, we found that people tend to have overall more negative emotional reaction when it comes to the perceived effects of climate change. Of the respondents, more men than women expressed concern regarding the various negative implications. Finally, those in the United Kingdom exhibited a stronger emotional response, followed by those in New Zealand and Fiji, respectively.
ContributorsSmith, Austin Lee (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / du Bray, Margaret (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Teeth are an important part of people's lives. A scrutiny of the teeth structure and function is necessary for the public, as well as for pre-dental students going into dentistry. This paper contains the information necessary, in simplest terms, for understanding teeth structure, function, occlusion, and development patterns. The paper also depicts dental problems faced in today's society, such as tooth decay. Treatment options including root canal, crown, implant, dentures, orthodontics, and orthognathic surgery are also described. Having a basic understanding of how dental professionals treat dental problems will allow the general public to identify problems such as decay, teeth loss and malocclusion, and participate in the decision-making process regarding their dental health. It will also allow them to have a realistic expectation for the outcomes of these types of procedures.
ContributorsPark, Steven (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Information Measurement Theory (IMT) is a system created by Dr. Dean Kashiwagi to minimize subjective decision-making, the amount of data needed to understand situations, and optimize processes by removing risk. IMT uses the ideas of Kashiwagi Solution Models to identify high performing and low performing characteristics. IMT proposes the usage of Best Value Approaches to achieve high performance while minimizing risk through quality control. For my project, I prove how IMT can be applied to a long-term project to reduce stress, create a quality product, and minimize opportunities for failure. My project focuses on the creation and release of a vinyl record. IMT was developed for use with construction projects, so my goal is to apply IMT ideals to an industry where it has not been used whatsoever and show how IMT can be applied to any project that is either difficult, requires careful analysis of options, or is completed on a long-term basis. Since I am not an expert in music production or releasing physical copies of music, I also prove that IMT helps provide guidelines and measures of how to complete a project where not all information is known at the beginning. With the usage of dominant information and the alignment of expert assistance, a high quality product was produced and a successful release followed.
ContributorsPfisthner, Jess (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This research addresses the importance of factors such as gestational weight gain (GWG) and postpartum weight of mothers, as well as obesity rates in infants born to these mothers who are included in the population of low-income Mexican-American mothers and infants enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Evaluating these factors will contribute to finding recommendations to help solve the obesity epidemic in this specific population. Breastfeeding duration, mother BMI, infant birth weight, and infant weight z-scores were statistically analyzed from a WIC population in Houston. The study participants are involved in a five year intervention study where the home environment and education on feeding practices, breastfeeding duration and obesity are evaluated. The results found that: (1) breastfeeding initially indicates a further continuation of breastfeeding; (2) mothers who breastfed for six months were likely to have a lower BMI at twelve to eighteen months than those who did not; (3) the birth weight of the infant is associated with the weight pattern of the child later; (4) the weight/height percentiles of a newborn are somewhat likely to stay the same until age three; (5) the prenatal weight of the mother impacts the weight of the newborn infant; and (6) the mother's postpartum BMI at one week is associated with a similar BMI at 12 months postpartum. In conclusion, women in this population tend to not breastfeed for 6 months and are not losing gestational weight postpartum, leading to increased wright retention after pregnancy, as well as heavier babies that will maintain this weight in early childhood. Further breastfeeding, nutrition, exercise, obesity, and proper infant feeding education are needed to reduce the rate of obesity in low-income Mexican-American WIC populations.
ContributorsSchmid, Emily Grace (Author) / Reifsnider, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Danielson, Kim (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Arizona State University. College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation (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
Equal access to community facilities and resources is vital to the educational development of children. Yet, many times community programs and activities are not appropriately adapted for children with disabilities. This thesis project explored how public library spaces and programs can be adapted to become more accessible for children with special needs. Forty-one library youth staff members were surveyed to understand their training needs and inform the development of a professional workshop. In partnership, Arizona State University and Scottsdale Public Library System created a professional development training to educate library youth staff on cultural responsivity. One component of the training, "Creating Safe Library Spaces for Children with Special Needs," was developed to teach library youth staff about techniques for ensuring equal educational opportunities for all children in libraries. Sixteen library staff members participated in the training and were asked to complete a post-workshop survey evaluating their satisfaction and perceived usefulness of the training.
ContributorsFessenden, Wyatt J. (Author) / Taylor, Michelle (Thesis director) / Gaias, Larissa (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Exercising is becoming an important part of life, and yet not everybody is exercising regularly as they should. This project is focused on the exercising level of people in China and the United States therefore to determine the factors that prevent people from exercising. By extensive research and observations in the gyms of China and the United States, 6 major factors were determined and those are: Food, Education, Aesthetic/ Beauty standard, Gym membership fee, Government and control, and Work/ Society. The author found that with the extensive government control, people in China do not have full access to internet and therefore they do not have information about exercising. Education is should be refocused because government and school are not paying attention to students' health, students at school have excessive homework and assignment which prevent them from playing sports and exercising. Government of China should become more open-minded and open the access of internet instead of control. Both the United States and China should set more sports related classes, and reduce assignment and homework load. For China, more public infrastructure and facility should be built and open to the public who has less income can have access to exercise. Lastly promote healthy lifestyle, and bring knowledge to the general population such as healthy diet, and the dangers of being unhealthy.
ContributorsShao, Dongnan (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), a qualitative research method, combined with quantitative data, this study was designed to examine what it means to be an adolescent living with muscular dystrophy, a life-limiting disease. A sample of twelve adolescents with Duchenne (eight), limb-girdle (two), and friedreich's ataxia (two) as subsets of muscular dystrophy were interviewed one-on-one, as were their parent or adult guardian. Interviews consisted of 16 opened-ended questions for adolescents, and 17 open-ended questions for parents or guardians. Participants also completed a pre-interview online survey consisting of 38 closed-ended questions using a Likert-type scale to gather demographic and treatment information. The focus of these interviews included peer relationships, self-concepts, and family dynamics in the lives of adolescents with muscular dystrophy. Each of these categories was examined in relation to participants' processes of making meaning of their experiences. It was discovered that parent and child attitudes towards disability run parallel, whether that be positive, negative, or neutral in regards to quality of life with a disability. It was also determined that at least one parent must be a stay-at-home job or be able to work from home in order to be the caliber of caregiver required for their child. Adolescents in this study all had a strong support system in place, with the predominant support system being their family. Self-reports on whether or not adolescents worried about how their muscular dystrophy affected their families were split. Families planned activities within their family unit by utilizing a complete activity inclusion approach, separate opportunities for siblings approach, or activity elimination approach. Regardless of level of family support, it was found that the majority of adolescents in this sample try not to think about muscular dystrophy, or have neutral feelings towards these thoughts. They also thought that people who do not have muscular dystrophy do not know what it is like to live with this disease, and felt neutrally towards the way that they look. Medically speaking, the majority of adolescents reported feeling neutral towards the support that they receive from their medical providers, and that their providers do not talk directly to them but rather to the rest of their family or caregiver instead. These adolescents could not manage their own medical needs and their medical appointments were made by a parent or other type of caregiver. A strong misperception that a physical disability also signals the presence of an intellectual disability when at school was evident. Adolescents were also quick to point out the social stigma that comes with having the assistance of an aid at school with able-bodied peers. However, a small few, particularly those younger in age, reported a lack of peer stigma, and even the social benefit of having an adult friend at school. While the Muscular Dystrophy Association is trusted in coordinating patient care, their treatment advisements are perceived to be outdated, and Goodwill Ambassador program considered manipulative by patients. Application to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Transitions Program are named so that the organization formerly relied upon most to serve these families and who has a program designed to serve this exact population can benefit from them. With zero families interviewed having heard of or utilized this program, a clear change in their programs and practices need to take place. The information gathered from this study provides insight for developing and to guide new programs to assist this population in making the difference the MDA Transitions Program aims to do.
ContributorsBlotner, C (Author) / Spinrad, Tracy (Thesis director) / Seeley, Bridget (Committee member) / Brougham, Jennifer (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12