College of Arts and Sciences: Recent submissions
Now showing items 1-20 of 356
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An Evaluation of the Validity of English Placement Tests at Imam Abdurrahman Bin Faisal University: A Critical AnalysisThis study examines the validity and reliability of English placement exams at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University and their ability to forecast academic success in English foundation courses. Using a quantitative correlational approach, the research analyzed data from 300 students to assess the relationship between placement test scores and subsequent course grades. Findings indicate that test scores moderately predict course performance, explaining about 38.4% and 36.2% of the variance in grades for two core courses. However, significant variability in test effectiveness across different academic disciplines suggests that the exams may not consistently capture diverse academic needs and language proficiencies. The study recommends targeted refinements in the exam structure and scoring to enhance fairness and accuracy in student placements, addressing specific disparities found across disciplines. These adjustments are crucial for better aligning placement procedures with the educational demands and language competencies at the university.
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Confronting The Over-sexualization of Afro-Latina Women in The Bluest Eye and The Poet XAfro-Latina women experience over-sexualization within contemporary society in ways that their white, female counterparts do not experience. Since the Reconstruction era, black women have been stereotyped as being promiscuous and oversexed. These sexualized stereotypes have carried weight within society for generations and have begun to encroach on other minority races, such as Latina women. Within their novels, The Bluest Eye and The Poet X, Toni Morrison and Elizabeth Acevedo do not shy away from discussing sex, sexualized stereotypes, and how sex impacts young women of color. Instead, they have confronted over-sexualization in their coming-of-age novels about Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl living in Loraine, Ohio during the 1940s, and Xiomara Batista, a young Dominican teenager living in Harlem, New York during the 2000s. Both authors utilize the complicated world of a teenage girl in a society that is accepting of negative sexualized stereotypes and challenge the over-sexualization through their main characters. This thesis analyzes how both authors confront the over-sexualization of Afro-Latina women to give a voice to young women who may be suffering in silence, and who are struggling to navigate a world that tells them they are only valued for what their body can give to a man.
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Death Unto BloomThis is a narrative screenplay that focuses on a fictional dark fantasy world populated by both humans, and the monstrous ice beings that hunt and threaten their survival. It is a narrative that jumps between characters and scenes, not focusing solely on one main character in particular, in order to tell an overarching story. Other genres present in this screenplay's influences are gothic horror, post-apocalyptic, and religious horror.
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Browsing in Disequilibrium: How Media Behaviors are Influenced by Excess and DeficitThe widespread use of smartphones has made it easier to browse the internet and consume various forms of media, including videos and advertisements. This study aimed to investigate the effects of restricting video access while increasing exposure to advertisements. Specifically, we examined whether participants would watch fewer videos when exposed to more advertisements and whether they would tolerate more ads to gain additional video-watching time. We recruited four students from Salem State University to participate in an experiment designed to manipulate their video and advertisement viewing behavior. Baseline levels of advertisement and video viewing behaviors were measured to create two conditions of disequilibrium: Deficit and Excess. Deficit conditions restricted access to videos while Excess conditions bombarded participants with more advertisements than they viewed during baseline. The results demonstrated that disequilibrium could alter participants' media consumption habits by increasing or decreasing time spent watching advertisements and videos. The current study also examined the nature of “browsing” during disequilibrium. Noncontingent browsing was available to determine whether or not participants would engage in this alternative behavior during disequilibrium conditions. Lastly, the current study highlights the ethical implications of disequilibrium, as companies could potentially exploit it for profit.
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Practical Application of Behavior Analysis with Wild Animals in a Sanctuary SettingWhile applied behavior analysis (ABA) is associated with human services, there is a historical basis for applying behavior analytic principles and procedures to the behaviors of domestic and wild animals. Recent research indicates that there are already procedural similarities between the work of applied behavior analysts and animal behavior professionals. A pronounced difference, however, is the absence of behavioral data collected in zoological settings. Caretakers report that they understand the importance of data collection but cite a lack of time and financial resources as barriers. This study explored alternative data collection methods at an educational wolf sanctuary using visitor collected data. Visitors were asked to collect data on either one or two animal behaviors during a 50-minute presentation. Interobserver agreement was calculated to determine whether visitors could collect data in agreement with an independent observer. Results indicated that visitor collected data was within the acceptable range of agreement. Additionally, Q methodology was used to measure visitor beliefs about captive wildlife before and after attending an educational presentation with captive gray wolves present. Results indicated that while visitor beliefs varied from pre- to post-sort, these changes were not statistically significant.
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Garden Rememory In My Garden (Book) By Jamaica KincaidMy Garden (Book) is a collection of essays by Jamica Kincaid. In My Garden (Book) rememory is part of the storytelling and the overall narrative structure. Rememory appears as a recursive happening that allows Kincaid space to return to the historical record to offer recovery. Rememory is present in Kincaid's connection to Antiguan botany and a past that flourishes in the modern present; it exists as a bridge upon which much of the western African diaspora flows. Rememory is also present in the narrative structure of My Garden (Book). Kincaid shakes up the expectations of a narrative form; she breaks sentence structure with thought interruptions, jumps through time and place, inserts lists, and letters, and disrupts categorization and order, such as chapter titles. Rememory becomes an active agent in the narrative storytelling of the garden, excavates otherwise forgotten narratives, and demands a change in thinking, form, and the historical record.
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Balk: A Geographic Analysis of the Impact of a New Professional Sports Stadium on Residential Real Estate Values in MinneapolisThe City of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Hennepin County, Minnesota are among the many government entities that have committed taxpayer funds to finance a professional sports stadium. Both the city and county approved the financing of Target Field in 2007. The new stadium is now the home of the Minnesota Twins, a Major League Baseball franchise. Previous empirical studies have offered differing opinions on whether a new professional sports stadium has an effect on residential real estate values in the surrounding area. This thesis uses a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to analyze the effect that Target Field had on residential real estate values in the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Using GWR analysis of a hedonic real estate price model, this thesis concludes that being close to Target Field had a significantly positive effect on residential real estate values in Minneapolis in 2016. However, when applying the same model to real estate sales data from a year prior to the approval of Target Field, properties in the vicinity of the location of the ballpark may have been more valuable before the ballpark was built then they were in the years that followed its opening.
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Arizona as Testing Ground for School CensorshipAs censorship in the United States focuses on critical race theory and arguments about the ways history is taught in our schools, this essay examines Arizona’s 2010 law HB 2281. Passed in a politically charged context, HB 2281 was widely seen to target for elimination a Mexican American studies program in Tucson’s public schools. This essay locates this legislation as a precursor to today’s bills, laws, and guidelines being proposed and passed by local and state governments, as well as school districts across the country. The essay argues that Arizona’s law was more a reflection of the noisy political discourse from the time and disregarded both the need for and success of the Mexican American studies program in Tucson Unified School District. Indeed, research has more than demonstrated that the culturally relevant pedagogy used in Tucson produced academic success by multiple measurements. Despite this, the political discourse of the moment ruled the day, the law was passed, and the Mexican American studies program ceased to exist in the form that it was conceived. Lastly, this essay couches this discussion in political terminology from the past and argues for the need of a new definition that will help us look to the future.
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From One Mentally Ill Artist to Another: An Actor Takes on Bo Burnham's Bleak Musical Humor, Inside-styleIn 2020, actor and comic Bo Burnham filmed, directed, produced, and acted in Inside, a musical comedy special filmed in his guesthouse. Inside is a piece of artwork dripping with sarcasm that reflects Burnham's cynical view of the world. It is laden with apparently genuine moments brought into question by Burnham's performativity. Burnham and his stage persona are two very different people, and Inside shows how he straddles this line and blends the personal and the performer into one entity whose mental stability is questionable at best. Upon my first viewing of Inside during COVID-19, I heard my voice overlaid with Burnham's. His performativity and self-criticism resonated strongly with my creative spirit. The harshly realistic concepts of acting to survive and existing in a hyper-critical, Internet-saturated world felt like he was peering into my anxiety-riddled mind. Analyzing Burnham's comedy specials and considering the suffocating post-COVID landscape I still find myself in, I selected songs and monologues I could re-perform. Pulling from fevered breakdowns and journal entries, I wrote monologues, weaving together my texts and his into a cohesive story, interspersed with my recreations of his witty and often startlingly melancholy music, and created, filmed, and recorded this all in one academic year, solely in my dorm room. This film is a space where the lines between my acting and ramblings, captured by the camera, are blurred so indistinguishably that no one, perhaps even myself, can tell the difference.
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Higher Education in Crisis: How Attacks from Conservatives, Elites, and Financiers Hurt Our Public UniversitiesWhen discussing the state of contemporary public higher education, the conversation centers around an unfortunate, yet accidental, institutional failure. With statewide funding and federal student aid decreasing overall,1 universities have elected to cut programs, take on debt, and raise tuition and fees.2 Rising prices leave students either unable to afford higher education or push them further into debt, decreasing enrollment at four-year public universities.3 However, this crisis did not develop on its own and students are not to blame. This structural imbalance results from a long-term attack by conservative thinkers, elites, and financiers who use higher education to retain power and maximize their wealth. As examples of these trends, white supremacist ideology used privatization to circumvent the desegregation of public schools ruled in Brown v the Board of Education (1954). Throughout the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960’s, university administrations shifted the responsibility of paying for education onto students to keep them from demonstrating against oppressors.4 Private interests, bankers, and financiers used policy to further the assault on education through lobbying, tax avoidance, and investments. Tax loopholes create less tax revenue for already limited state budgets. Private nonprofit or for-profit institutions take the remaining subsidies, denying public universities crucial funding.5 This paper will outline the choices and events that created the current failure of public higher education. 1 Ma, Jennifer and Matea Pender. Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2022. New York: College 2 Mitchell, Michael, Michael Leachman, Kathleen Masterson, and Samantha Waxman. Unkept Promises: to Higher Education Threaten Access and Equity. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 3 National Center for Education Statistics. Total undergraduate fall enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by attendance status, sex of student, and control and level of institution: Selected years, 1970 2030. Digest of Education Statistics, 2021. 4 Maclean, Nancy. Democracy in Chains. Penguin Random House: New York, 2018. 5 Eaton, Charlie, Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education. University of Chicago Press, 2022.
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A Families' Guide to Emotional Intelligence in Early ChildhoodThis literature review looks over multiple research articles from researchers who investigated emotional intelligence, the different aspects of it, as well as its importance and how it can positively affect a person. Intelligence has long been considered the number one way to determine how successful someone is going to become, but plenty of research ahs been done to prove that it is far from the truth. but a different type of intelligence called emotional intelligence has been found to support success in both a person's career and social life.Emotional intelligence itself can be broken down into multiple aspects: emotions identification (identifying your emotions), emotions utilization (expressing your emotions in the right way), emotional understanding (understand your emotions as well as the emotions of others), emotions regulation (a person’s ability to respond and regulate their emotions), and empathy (understanding and being able to sense and understand the feelings of others, whether or not you yourself are feeling those same emotions or have ever felt those emotions before). The development of these skills helps support lower stress levels and better relationships with others, both in an individual’s personal life and their work life. These aspects can be taught at any point during a person’s lifetime, but the younger the individual is, the longer period of time this individual will have to develop and incorporate these skills in their lifetime. Also, although this may seem like something new to many, these skills are already being taught through practices that families utilize today such as building relationships, having open and clear communication with one another, and modeling how families themselves regulate their emotions. My work is dedicated to educating and supporting families interested in teaching their young children emotional intelligence to further build their children to success.
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The Social Dimensions of STEM Culture: How Does Lack of Diversity and Inclusivity Affect a Student’s Socialization?Diversity and inclusivity matters in STEM and without them, STEM would fall apart. In the United States, Latine and African American students are severely underrepresented in STEM fields and they obtain fewer STEM degrees compared to their white counterparts (Hall, Nishina, Lewis 2017). The reasoning behind this can be due to societal, social, individual issues, or ethnic discrimination (Wiedemann 2019). This can affect retention rates, academic outcomes, self-efficacy, and one’s socialization (Estrada 2021). Students and educators need a sense of belonging to be able to thrive in the rigorous STEM environments. Students from underrepresented backgrounds need experiences of love, kindness, and a sense of belonging regardless of their diverse backgrounds. For many students and educators, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of stress and only increased the need for compassion and kindness. Students are working from home, “juggling pets, children, elderly relatives, economic pressures, unstable internet, health disparities, political unrest, climate disruptions, racism, violence, and death” (Estrada 2021). While efforts are being made to reduce this large disparity in STEM, it is not enough. Trends in the STEM fields can also be seen at Salem State University (SSU). This presentation will describe a study that attempts to understand how SSU fosters a more inclusive STEM environment for minorities and how students can find support from others like themselves. This study employs a mixed methodology that will study the institutional diversity statement and policy at SSU, and current students will be asked to fill out an anonymous survey on their sense of belonging, experiences at SSU, and how well students feel that they are supported. At the end of the survey, there is an option where students can participate in a personal interview to learn about their experiences on campus.
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Math in OrigamiGeometry is not only used for math but also to create art! Geometry is used to create Origami, the ancient Japanese art of folding paper. There are seven origami axioms that can be used to solve general cubic equations through the Beloch fold (corresponds to an origami axiom). Origami is also being used to revolutionize technology, from space, to the least explored environment on Earth, the ocean! NASA James Webb Space Telescope and the ocean robotic device RAD, are just a few of the many new origami-inspired technologies.
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Creating Character Through Costume: The Costume Design Process for Small Mouth SoundsAs people, we use our appearance to convey ourselves for others to see. This concept pertains to Theatre Arts as well. In theatre, the costume designer creates costumes, or appearance, of a character. The job is to curate a perception of the character that matches the director’s vision. To achieve this, there is a process. Every designer’s different. I chose to document this process, leading to the creation of my thesis. I designed Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds. Unlike many, this play has minimal dialogue. Without the aid of character dialogue, my costume choices had to express the personality of the six characters. The rigorous design process is too large to cover in the world of an abstract. However, it is spoken about, in detail, in my process paper: a personal recollection of my process, and thoughts, throughout my costume design journey. This consists of an explanation of my process, from analysis to conceptualization, to final costume. Paired with my personal commentary on my findings and thinking for each stage of the process. Imagery, from early sketches to finalized renderings, even the accredited stage photography of the final costumes is included in the form of a digital portfolio. This collection of images will provide insight into my rapidly evolving designs, with yes, even more commentary, as I gained a better understanding of both the world of the play, and the world of costuming.
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The Relationship Between Abusive Relationships and Substance AbuseVictims of abusive relationships attempt to leave seven times before officially ending the relationship (Respond, 2023). This behavior pattern characterized by leaving and returning to their abusive partner may also be seen in substance abusers, as a user terminates drug use but relapses to it three or more times. Both cases share patterns of incidence behavior representing a vicious cycle. The aim of this literature review is to study this vicious cycle of victims of abuse relationships and substance abusers to increase our knowledge on the inconsistent leaving process. The second objective is to find similarities between abusive relationships and substance abuse in neuropsychological, behavior analytical, and social aspects. Lastly, the third objective is to suggest a more effective treatment plan to eliminate the negative stigma characterizing victims of abusive relationships. It is possible to dismantle this stigma of "character flaw" by educating individuals about the vicious cycle characterizing abusive relationships and substance abuse. This study contributed to improve our understanding of abusive relationships by showing that there is a connection between abusive relationships and substance abuse proposed in the neuropsychological, behavior analytical, and social perspectives. Each view provided a rationale to understand the behaviors of victims of abusive relationships and substance abuse, showing that both cases share neurological dopamine pathways, behavior patterns, and mental health disorders. Together, the present findings demonstrated that abusive relationships and substance abuse are related to one another, and they should be treated in comparable ways. It is concluded that the productive treatment plan for victims of abusive relationships could be like that elaborated to substance abuse. This conclusion is important because it will guide future researchers to develop successful treatment plans for victims.
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The Role of Attachment and Well-Being on Adult RelationshipsThis study looked at the relationship between the attachment theory, familial systems, gender, culture, conflict resolution skills and well-being. All participants recruited in the study were 18 years or older from the social media platforms Instagram and Snapchat, along with SONA, Salem State University’s Psychology Department Research Participation System. Data were collected from 63 participants who completed a survey including self-reported information about well-being, conflict resolution skills, and relationship satisfaction. Consistent with some of the hypotheses in the study, participants who identified as Hispanic were higher in collaborating conflict resolution style than participants from other racial/ethnic groups, and secure attachment was positively correlated with self-acceptance. Contrary to our hypotheses, there were no significant differences in conflict resolution styles between men and women, gender was also not related to anxious or avoidant attachment. Individuals who come from married households scored higher on avoidant attachment than those from unmarried households. There was no significant relationship between collaborating, accommodating, and compromising conflict resolution styles and secure attachment. Other findings indicated that the competing conflict resolution style was negatively related to well-being, and fearful attachment was strongly negatively correlated with personal growth, relationship well-being, and self-acceptance.
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Black Honors Students in Honors SpacesThere are not many studies addressing Black Honors students and their sense of belonging to the Honors program. This study addresses Black honors students in honors spaces. This study examines students’ interactions with the honors programs, their racial identity development, and their sense of belonging. To measure racial identity development the Multidimensional inventory of Black identity (MIBI) was used. To measure sense of belonging the Community subscale of the Relational Health Indices (RHI-C) was used. Black honors students (N=26) were surveyed from thirteen different 4- year and 2-year colleges in the United States. Overall, there was a high sense of belonging among participants, though there was little time spent interacting with the program. There was a positive correlation between Humanist and Nationalist ideologies with sense of belonging. Assimilationist ideology had a positive correlation with how often students attend events. There was a positive correlation between Oppressed Minority ideology and time spent interacting with others in the program. These findings can help determine whether honors programs need extra support for Black students.
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Evaluating Template-Switch Mutations (TSM) in E.Coli After Treatment with Dexamethasone, an FDA-Approved Anti-Inflammatory DrugThis presentation will provide an overview of an experiment to discover potential side-effects of current FDA-approved drugs, Dexamethasone, that can cause mutations in DNA. Mutations in DNA can change the structure and function of cells. DNA can transform into non-β form structures that stall replication and cause genomic instability. Quasi-palindromes (QP) are imperfect inverted repeats of DNA sequences which can block the DNA replication fork during DNA synthesis. If the DNA replication fork is blocked by quasi-palindrome structures, DNA polymerase can use an alternative method to continue DNA replication, called “template-switching,” which results in a perfect palindrome – a perfect inverted repeat of DNA. There is limited research for template-switch mutagenesis which tests selected FDA-approved drugs to understand the effect of TSM. The goal of this research project is to investigate the cellular effects of Dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid, which prevents the release of DNA, in quasi-palindrome mutations using E. coli as the model organism. The aim is to understand the consequence of selected drugs in template-switching quasi-palindrome mutations to increase our knowledge of the potential side effects for current FDA-approved drugs.
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The American Dream: From the Latino PerspectiveIn this paper, the American Dream is observed from the perspective of Latino immigrants living in the United States. Latinos are currently one of the largest growing minority groups and one of the largest growing populations in the US. We have seen a growth of the Latino population over the years, and although the American Dream was previously something that past generations were able to achieve, this paper will discuss the barriers that most recent generations are facing and how those barriers are affecting the mental health of these individuals. The barriers focused on specifically include legal status, educational access, exclusion, and opportunity. There is also a focus on the perception that Latinos living in other countries may have of the American Dream, especially their optimism of it. In 2016, Pew Research Center conducted a study regarding how Latinos felt about the American Dream. Results from this study indicate that most Latinos believe in the American Dream, in terms of being able to be successful with only hard work and determination. This optimistic perception of the American Dream leads to an immense amount of unrealistic hope for these individuals. This meaning of the American Dream creates a picture that only these two things are needed to achieve success, and individuals are truly passionate about it. However, the barriers in place, especially for Latino immigrants, are not being considered or even discussed more often. The result of these barriers coming to individuals as a surprise, has led to higher rates of mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety, within Latino immigrant communities.
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The Securitization of Migration: The Case of Haitian Immigrants Since The 1970sUS immigration policies have negatively impacted Haitian migrants for decades, including, most recently, through policies like Title 42 and the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)--also called the Remain in Mexico Program. My paper argues that laws like these and how they are enforced are problematic and unjust because they negatively impact immigrants of color, especially Black immigrants. They exemplify the extent to which racism continues to affect immigration policy. The paper also shows how Haitian refugees as a group are systematically discriminated against based on their intersecting identities of being both migrants and Black. The paper makes a contribution to the securitization theory of migration, which argues that governments increasingly frame migration as a security threat, in part to scapegoat migrants and to distract from other issues. Relying on in-depth interviews with five Haitian migrants, the paper also shows how immigrants are forced to embark on a dangerous journey through the Mexican border because existing policies have made it impossible for them to come via other ways.