Browse Exhibits (109 total)

In this study, we explore motivations for fasting during pregnancy among three populations in India.

Faculty Mentor: Caitlyn Placek, PhD

Department of Telecommunications 

Undergraduate

The stigma associated with mental illness describes the shame placed on those experiencing a mental disorder or seeking help for distress. The three types of stigma help spread stereotypes and prejudices to individuals facing these issues, which results in reduced hope, lower self-esteem, and more difficulties with relationships and every-day activities. The community needs to continue focusing on the education of mental illness, as well as provide resources for those experiencing a disorder. By addressing both parties, society becomes more accepting of mental disabilities, which ends in more people openly seeking help without embarrassment.

Faculty Mentor: Gerry Waite

Economics

Undergraduate

Honors College

The paper discusses the alignment of learning objectives with speaking and listening skills, materials, and assessments. They are developed through participation in international students' presentations with their faculty studying at the Intensive English Institute (IEI). These presentations are part of social events organized by the International Office called Rinker Center for International Program (RCIP) at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The goal is to improve speaking and listening skills, the most difficult to develop in classroom activities. The methodology was based on a survey measuring the efficacy of the objectives addressing speaking and listening skills. The survey results conducted among instructors provided clear evidence that future participation in these events will consolidate cultural knowledge, pronunciation, and taking notes skills in front of a speaker despite time constraints of the IEI. These results were valid in alignment with the learning objectives of speaking and listening. Regarding the material to prepare ahead and the assessments, relevant ideas were pointed out both in the close-ended and open-ended questions. This research is framed in the more general importance of a collaboration between the English Institute of a university and the International Office because many international students attending a university in the US at least in Indiana attend the English Institute. This collaboration becomes essential in building students’ intercultural competence and communicative skills to succeed both in real life and at the academic level.

Faculty Mentor: Megumi Hamada

Department of English

Graduate

Recreational firearm users are exposing themselves to prolonged and repeated sound intensity levels that are considered dangerous to human hearing. While many shooting ranges and gun clubs require shooters to wear hearing protection while shooting is going on, often the type of hearing protection devices appropriate to the sound levels shooters are exposed to are not clear. Another consideration is that while someone may use hearing protection devices (HPDs) while at shooting ranges or gun clubs, they may be less likely to do so on their own property. This study sought to determine what attitudes of local recreational shooters are towards hearing protection devices and noise induced hearing loss, as well as to determine if there were differences in the attitudes of different age groups through the use of a survey. Another goal of this study is to use information obtained from survey responses to aid the researchers in catering hearing conservation information for shooters that is more finely focused on local attitudes and any adjustments that may need to be made to these attitudes. The hearing conservation information will then be distributed to local shooting ranges and gun clubs, as well as through social media. In general, survey responses indicate that there are some differences between age groups, though further research is needed.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lynn Bielski, Ph.D.

Speech Pathology and Audiology

Graduate

Internalizing disorders are characterized by several negative symptoms including stress, anxiety, and mood instability (Ben-Porath, 2012; Duffy et al., 2017). The literature suggests that more women than men are diagnosed with internalizing disorders like depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994). One mechanism that has been supported as influencing this difference is gender stereotypes, which encourage women and men to express emotions differently (Rosenfield et al., 2000). One specific area within the internalizing spectrum where we may see these gender differences is anger proneness. Anger proneness (ANP) is the tendency to become easily angered, upset, or impatient with others (Ben-Porath, 2012). Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that men tend to express anger more externally whereas women tend to express anger more internally (Dawson et al., 2010).

Despite past research on gender differences in internalizing disorders, previous literature has not examined gender differences in specific scales like the MMPI-2-RF ANP scale. Thus, the current study examined whether gender differences exist on the MMPI-2-RF ANP scale. We hypothesized that men would score higher than women. To achieve this goal, we used an archival dataset of college students who scored higher than average on the MMPI-2-RF Emotional/Internalizing Dysfunction scale. The assumption of normality for an independent samples t-test was violated so, we conducted an independent samples Mann-Whitney U test. The independent samples Mann-Whitney U test indicated that women and men endorsed similar levels of anger proneness, p=.72.

The MMPI-2-RF ANP scale captures negative emotional experiences of anger, but not how individuals act on these emotions. So, gender differences in anger may be better captured by the MMPI-2-RF Aggression scale which measures aggressive behaviors in response to feelings of anger. It may be that women and men experience feelings of anger similarly, but act on these emotions differently. For example, one’s culture and adherence to stereotypes affects the extent to which they engage in stereotype-consistent behaviors (Eagly et al., 2019). Thus, we may have a sample who more loosely adheres to gender stereotypes and therefore engages in fewer stereotype-consistent behaviors. Future research should investigate the effect of stereotypes on anger-related behaviors when other characteristics are accounted for.

Faculty Mentor: Tayla T.C. Lee

Department of Psychological Science

Graduate