Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Filtering by

Clear all filters

132299-Thumbnail Image.png

Emotional Arousal of Children with Autism to Pixar Videos

Description
Internal and external emotion recognition is universal knowledge individuals begin to understand in early childhood. Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have physiological impairments that affect their social functioning, behavior, and emotion regulation. They often have difficulty revealing true emotions as opposed to mimicked emotions, which can make social…

Internal and external emotion recognition is universal knowledge individuals begin to understand in early childhood. Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have physiological impairments that affect their social functioning, behavior, and emotion regulation. They often have difficulty revealing true emotions as opposed to mimicked emotions, which can make social connections challenging. In this pilot study, children with high-functioning and low-functioning ASD were observed in their therapy clinic, KidzSPOT Therapy, while watching a four-minute Pixar™ video as pre and post measures. The children were their own control from pre to post-evaluation. The animated characters and situations shown in the Pixar™ videos throughout the study exhibited two specific emotions: happy and sad. For six-weeks at home, children and their caregivers were asked to watch two, four-minute PixarTM videos a week on non-consecutive days and were recorded with cellular devices. Noldus FaceReader™ was used to analyze and determine increased emotional arousal of the children from recordings sent by their caregivers as they watched the videos at home. The Circumplex Model of Affect from the Noldus FaceReader™ analysis exposed the children’s active and inactive responses. The children sought support from their caregivers and therapists as a form of validation and situational understanding. The data did not display evidence of significant correlation between variables and emotional change over the course of the study. There were many limitations to this pilot study resulting in inadequate conclusions for a whole subpopulation. These findings were limited to sample size, participant interest and age-range availability within the clinic.
ContributorsGonzalez, Alereese (Author) / Chisum, Jack (Thesis director) / Brown, Glenn (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
165078-Thumbnail Image.png

Ethnic Discrimination, Socioeconomic Status, and Health in India

Description

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other…

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other Backward Classes.” This method obscures the diversity of experiences, indicators of well-being, and health outcomes between castes, tribes, and other communities in the “scheduled” category. This study analyzes data on 699,686 women from 4,260 castes, tribes and communities in the 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey of India to: (1) examine the diversity within and overlap between general, government-defined community categories in both wealth, infant mortality, and education, and (2) analyze how infant mortality is related to community category membership and socioeconomic status (measured using highest level of education and household wealth). While there are significant differences between general, government-defined community categories (e.g., scheduled caste, backward class) in both wealth and infant mortality, the vast majority of variation between communities occurs within these categories. Moreover, when other socioeconomic factors like wealth and education are taken into account, the difference between general, government-defined categories reduces or disappears. These findings suggest that focusing on measures of education and wealth at the household level, rather than general caste categories, may more accurately target those individuals and households most at risk for poor health outcomes. Further research is needed to explain the mechanisms by which discrimination affects health in these populations, and to identify sources of resilience, which may inform more effective policies.
ContributorsClauss, Colleen (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-05