Barrett

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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Growth Mindset and Future Self-Connectedness as Explanations for Cultural Differences in Self-Improvement

Description
The purpose of this thesis study is to widen the understanding of the effect culture on self-improvement. Past research found that Japanese students, when compared to their North American counterparts, are more likely to strive for self-improvement by persisting when they encounter academic setbacks. In addition to North Americans and…

The purpose of this thesis study is to widen the understanding of the effect culture on self-improvement. Past research found that Japanese students, when compared to their North American counterparts, are more likely to strive for self-improvement by persisting when they encounter academic setbacks. In addition to North Americans and Asians, this thesis examines South Asians as well. It is hypothesized that South Asians will have similar levels of self-improvement as East Asians. This thesis also looks at possible explanations for why culture affects self-improvement. Two variables, future self-connectedness and growth mindset, are proposed as these explanations. It is hypothesized that culture affects future self-connectedness and growth mindset, and those two variables in turn influence self-improvement. 

For this thesis, 100 undergraduate and recent college graduates completed online self-report measures. Results of independent t-tests showed that there were no significant differences between South and East Asians in self-improvement, which is consistent with what was hypothesized. There were also no differences between South and East Asians in future self-connectedness or growth mindset. The two Asian groups were then combined and compared to North Americans. Further independent t-tests were run, and results found that while the trend was as expected and Asians exhibited higher levels of self-improvement than North Americans, they did not exhibit significantly higher levels. There were also no significant differences between North Americans and Asians in growth mindset, however, North Americans had significantly higher levels of future self-connectedness than Asians, contrary to expectation. Results of mediation regressions found that neither future self-connectedness nor growth mindset significantly explained the effect of culture on self-improvement.
ContributorsShaikjamaludeen, Shaikhameedha (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / Shiota, Michelle (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
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Predicting Future Vividness and Academic Success Using Household Income and Incarceration Rate

Description
This thesis explores how different environments including poverty and crime rates relate to an individual’s perception of the future and academic success. The results from this study of 709 participants (15 of the participants were omitted due to incorrect or invalid information being submitted) showed that household income significantly predicted…

This thesis explores how different environments including poverty and crime rates relate to an individual’s perception of the future and academic success. The results from this study of 709 participants (15 of the participants were omitted due to incorrect or invalid information being submitted) showed that household income significantly predicted both vividness of the future and cumulative GPA; there was a positive correlation with GPA and a negative correlation with vividness. Incarceration rate was a marginally significant predictor of future and did not significantly predict cumulative GPA. It was also observed that men are more impacted by lower household income and higher incarceration rates than women when using at GPA as an outcome. The future vividness outcome showed no significant difference between men and women for either household income or incarceration rate. This study could be improved by having a group of participants whose population is more representative of different backgrounds.
ContributorsHsu, Ryu (Author) / Kwan, Virginia (Thesis director) / McMichael, Samantha (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05