Matching Items (23)
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- All Subjects: psychology
- All Subjects: Education
- Creators: College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
The quality of user interface designs largely depends on the aptitude of the designer. The ability to generate mental abstract models and characterize a target user audience helps greatly when conceiving a design. The dry cleaning point-of-sale industry lacks quality user interface designs. These impaired interfaces were compared with textbook design techniques to discover how applicable published interface design concepts are in practice. Four variations of a software package were deployed to end users. Each variation contained different design techniques. Surveyed users responded positively to interface design practices that were consistent and easy to learn. This followed textbook expectations. Users however responded poorly to customization options, an important feature according to textbook material. The study made conservative changes to the four interface variations provided to end-users. A more liberal approach may have yielded additional results.
ContributorsSmith, Andrew David (Author) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Thesis director) / Gottesman, Aaron (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The degree to which adolescents describe themselves as gender typical, as defined by their interests, activities, personal qualities, and other characteristics, is related to a broad range of adjustment indices. The goal of this thesis was to review studies conducted between 2000 and 2017 to provide a summary and critique of this research. A total of 18 studies were reviewed. The majority of findings indicate a positive association between gender typicality and beneficial adjustment outcomes, and a negative association between gender typicality and poor adjustment outcomes. Suggestions for future research and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
ContributorsCohen, Alexandra Danielle (Author) / Updegraff, Kimberly (Thesis director) / Miller, Cindy (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Nutrition has been around for as long as human beings have resided on the planet, giving it one of the most impactful roles in history, particularly in medicine. Certain herbs or dietary restrictions could help individuals recover from illnesses—this form of healing has been passed down generations, which medical providers from all over the world take advantage of. Before the era of antibiotics and pharmaceutical companies, food was the medicine used to treat. As civilization has flourished and become progressive, it seems that certain qualities of the past have been forgotten, such as the power of diet. Medical providers like to push patients towards pharmaceutical intervention because of the financial profit that this method entails, which has been shown to backfire. These interventions are not solving the true problem, but only applying a short-term solution. Dietary restrictions as well as the increase in heart-healthy foods can entirely reverse these conditions in order to avoid the fatal effects they may have. With the increase in nutritional education amongst the population via medical providers, specifically primary care providers, patients are able to reverse the symptoms of effects of chronic cardiovascular disease amongst others.
ContributorsTarin, Marjan (Author) / Huffman, Holly (Thesis director) / Moore, Marianne (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
I analyzed a non-profit's educational content website called SolarSPELL and proposed to redesign its interface. SolarSPELL is a solar-powered, offline site that can be accessed without wifi. It looks and behaves exactly like a real website. SolarSPELL is used by children and community members in developing countries across the world, including Africa and the Pacific Islands. The original site was not intuitive or easy to use, which deterred users with low technical literacy, lowering its effectiveness and defeating its purpose of providing educational materials to schools in the community, because users were less likely to use it to access educational content. The website was not responsive, meaning that it did not resize well to fit tablet and mobile devices. I redesigned the site's UX based on user feedback and expert advice to create wireframes that improved the site's layout and user flow to make it more intuitive. I pulled user comments from past surveys on the site and designed solutions to each of the user's complaints. I implemented a filter system and a universal search bar to improve the process of finding specific pieces of content. I designed prototypes using Adobe Illustrator to create the visual side of the interface. I designed my wireframes and prototypes with responsiveness in mind, creating versions for desktop, mobile and tablet. I also illustrated banners for the East Africa and Native American versions of the site, featuring landscape and wildlife from the respective regions. This interface redesign will be coded into a working site and distributed to communities around the world.
ContributorsThielen, Bethany Meishal (Author) / Hosman, Laura (Thesis director) / Ralston, Laurel (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Science and technology have significant influence over the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. As these two disciplines have become more advanced, their influence has only become more pronounced, leading to many socioscientific issues and bioethical dilemmas that society and scientists must grapple with. In order to create informed, thoughtful citizens and effective future scientists, science educators must provide students with the skills they need to assess, evaluate, and address bioethical controversies. To do this, educators must explicitly teach students about bioethics and scientific argumentation. However, currently, this content is not commonly taught in science classrooms. Instead, science is presented as a discipline in which there are clear answers. Students are often expected to memorize lists of facts and are not made aware of the impact that science has on their own lives and those of others. This three-lesson unit seeks to help students make the connections between science content and its social implications and teach them the scientific argumentation skills necessary to critically evaluate and defend their positions regarding bioethical dilemmas. In the first lesson, students learn about bioethics and practice developing potential solutions to hypothetical bioethical dilemmas. In the second lesson, students are introduced to scientific argumentation and use their new skills to create mini-arguments regarding the bioethics of what happened to Henrietta Lacks, a black woman whose cervical cancer cells were used in research without her consent. Finally, in the third lesson, students work in groups to create fully developed arguments that support their position regarding the issue of tissue ownership. The last two lessons of the unit were implemented in a high school science classroom. After implementation, it was found that students have strong opinions regarding scientific controversies and enjoy learning and arguing about the social implications of science. However, students struggled to understand the mechanics of scientific argumentation and had trouble clearly expressing their ideas and opinions via argumentation. Additionally, students were very dogmatic in their positions and displayed a lack of understanding of the nuance of bioethical controversies.
ContributorsNath, Anita Lakshmi (Author) / Walters, Molina (Thesis director) / Oliver, Jill (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Psychedelics have sparked widespread interest as they offer a potential new form of therapeutic treatment. This thesis paper explores the current and upcoming psychedelics that are being researched for their use in a therapeutic setting. The main substances discussed are lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy/molly/MDMA), and ketamine (esketamine). This paper also discusses the mechanism of action for each drug and the underlying research that has been found to support the ethical use of these substances alongside talk therapy
ContributorsPiemont, Sabrina (Author) / Jimenez Arista, Laura (Thesis director) / Ocampo Hoogasian, Rachel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Asian Americans are facing unprecedented and growing mental health issues brought by anti-Asian Racism and other forms of hyper-visible oppression (Yellow Horse et al., 2021). In response to racism, one potential solution for bolstering mental health outcomes among Asian Americans is critical reflection. Critical reflection is the process through which oppressed and marginalized people critically analyze oppressive social conditions (e.g., racism, sexism, and more) and consider actions they can take to change them (Watts et al., 2011). Recent research suggests that, overall, there is a strong link between critical reflection and the well-being of youth of color (Maker Castro et al., 2022). However, this relationship may vary based on additional factors, such as strategies used to cope with racism-related stress. For instance, Asian Americans with lower critical reflection about racism (e.g., as evidenced by endorsement of colorblind racial ideology, or the belief that racial differences are irrelevant and racism no longer exists) had a higher tendency to use avoidant coping mechanisms to deal with discrimination (Yi et al., 2022; Lewis et al., 2019). Additionally, there is other evidence to support that Asian Americans who held more colorblind racial attitudes experienced less anxiety when challenged with ambiguous discrimination compared to Asian Americans who held less colorblind racial attitudes (Lee, 2016). Overall, the literature suggests the importance of the relationship between critical reflection and mental health. However, studies have yet to quantitatively explore the impacts of critical reflection and strategies to cope with discrimination on mental health outcomes among Asian Americans (Spanierman et al., 2021) and young adults (Maker Castro et al., 2022).
The current study seeks to address this gap in the literature by examining the role of strategies to cope with discrimination in the relationship between Asian Americans’ critical reflection and mental health outcomes. It is crucial to explore these factors as Asian American students continue to shoulder prejudice, stereotypes, and systemic racism in professional and educational institutions. We hypothesize that the relationship between critical reflection and mental health will be mediated by the strategies used to cope with discrimination. More specifically, we expect that low levels of critical reflection (as indicated by high levels of color-blind racial attitudes) are related to greater use of internalization, substance use, and detachment strategies to cope with discrimination, which is related to greater endorsement of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms.
Data for this study were drawn from a larger study on college students’ experiences in ethnic studies courses. Participants were 288 Asian Americans recruited from ethnic studies courses at universities in various regions of the United States. During the first two weeks of their ethnic studies course, participants completed an online survey about their racial attitudes, critical consciousness, and psychological well-being. Mediation analyses will be conducted using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2022) on SPSS version 27. Critical reflection, as measured by participants’ total mean score on the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (Neville et al., 2000; Keum et al., 2018) will be included as the independent variable; subscale scores on the Coping with Discrimination Scale (Wei & Alvarez, 2010) will be mediators; and each subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Henry & Crawford, 2005) will be the dependent variable in separate analyses. Relationships between the study variables and Asian subgroup (i.e., East, Southeast, and South Asian) will also be examined.
While analyses are currently ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that strategies to cope with discrimination and mental health outcomes vary between East Asians, Southeast Asians, and South Asians. Additionally, preliminary findings suggest that the use of substance use and detachment to cope with discrimination explains the relationship between low critical reflection and mental health outcomes.
Findings have implications for encouraging mental health specialists and educators to have open conversations about racism while helping those who experience discrimination cope in healthy ways. Thus, this research can contribute to improved psychological well-being of Asian American young adults.
ContributorsInocentes, Angeline (Author) / Ahn, Lydia (Thesis director) / Tran, Alisia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
This research highlights how problems that women face at the structural, social, professional and individual level impact their business success, personal growth, and the business economic environment. The first section of the paper provides a global view about gender gaps and challenges. The second section is narrowed down to the city of Baños de Agua Santa in Ecuador where the findings were sought through a grounded theory research. After the analysis of the findings, a business model has been developed which addresses the major challenges and problems that women and the city are currently encountering. The ultimate purpose is to implement the project in the city; it promotes entrepreneurial education, innovation, association, and personal growth. The overall research is a cutting-edge study as it emphasizes that the business success of women entrepreneurs is not solved by one big fixed but more through a holistic solution.
ContributorsCurrat Luna, Daphne Christelle (Author) / Mary, Sully De Luque (Thesis director) / Joshua, Ault (Committee member) / Thunderbird School of Global Management (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
A review of current research on the relation between growth mindset and students with disabilities was completed. The goal for this project was to provide support for the idea that cultivating the growth mindset of students with disabilities could result in better academic outcomes and an overall improvement in the students’ lives including but not limited to self-efficacy skills, motivation, and dedication. Findings were used to design an evidence-based workbook for cultivating growth mindset in college students with disabilities.
ContributorsTrevino-Casias, Savannah (Author) / Bodman, Denise (Thesis director) / Van Vleet, Bethany (Committee member) / Corte, Corinne (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
My thesis/creative project is a series of videos, supplemented by a paper documenting all the research. The project focuses on domestic and feral cats through the viewpoint of the “warrior cats” book series. The use of a particular fandom as a vehicle for science communication is a unique platform for use as a thesis/creative project. The narrated videos are made with the intention of being presented on YouTube or a similar viewing platform to an audience that is already familiar with the book series. The videos would fit on the site as a form of educational film known as video essays. The videos cover a range of topics to relate this book series to real situations with domestic animals, particularly cats, and wildlife. Each video is around ten to twenty minutes long and presented as episodes in a series.
The objective of my thesis project is to help bridge the gap between entertainment and science. I grew up reading the warrior cats, and I assume I was similar to many other children and young teens who did not understand domestic cats or ecology enough to question anything in the books. I know that much of these books are fictional, but that does not mean that it can’t be analyzed and used as a tool for teaching. The goal is to reach common ground with those people who have an interest in the warrior cats series, and help them understand it in a new light, as well as the world around them. I aim for the takeaway of this series to encourage people to explore the concepts I discuss and consider expanding upon the ideas within the Warriors universe or with their own cats.
The objective of my thesis project is to help bridge the gap between entertainment and science. I grew up reading the warrior cats, and I assume I was similar to many other children and young teens who did not understand domestic cats or ecology enough to question anything in the books. I know that much of these books are fictional, but that does not mean that it can’t be analyzed and used as a tool for teaching. The goal is to reach common ground with those people who have an interest in the warrior cats series, and help them understand it in a new light, as well as the world around them. I aim for the takeaway of this series to encourage people to explore the concepts I discuss and consider expanding upon the ideas within the Warriors universe or with their own cats.
ContributorsGarcia, Johnny Nico (Author) / Bateman, Heather (Thesis director) / Meloy, Elizabeth (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05