The Honors College

Universities are becoming increasingly aware of the need to create more globally minded students as the world becomes increasingly intertwined. The impacts that study abroad programs have on creating these types of students is becoming recognized as a driver to global competencies.

The desirability bias (or wishful thinking) referrers to a situation when an individual’s desire for an outcome inflates their optimism that the desired result will occur. The desirability bias is often tested using the marked-card paradigm. Participants are asked to make dichotomous outcome predictions, wherein they have a desire for one of the outcomes over the other. An abundance of past research has shown that mood influences judgments and decision-making.

In today's society there is a controversy found within the deaf community concerning the use of cochlear implants. To understand the controversy of today and to see the future of the deaf community one must understand how we hear, the subcultures found within the deaf community, and the cochlear implant and the advances found within hearing aid technology. The use of cochlear implants will break down the glass wall found within education and the work place for the deaf. The deaf will finally receive the same amount of pay when compared to their hearing peers.

Over a million adolescents run away from home each year.  This paper examines 13 factors to see how they predict and impact the probability that an adolescent will run away from home.  This paper also discusses the historical perceptions of adolescent runaways and key theoretical explanations behind runaway behavior.  The definition used throughout this paper for a runaway is: “someone under the age of 18 who stays away from home at least overnight without parental permission” (Tyler & Bersani, 2008, p.

The phenomenal success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is dependent upon its realistic depiction of relatable issues such as class-based and racial prejudice. Many critics accuse Rowling of classism and racism, claiming she stereotypically portrays socially-inferior magical classes and races, solidifying readers’ prejudices against their real-world parallels.

The popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) has elicited concern that this is yet another context for the perpetration of cyber-bullying. The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence and correlates of cyber-bullying during MMOG play. The goal of the study was to examine the characteristics of perpetrators and victims of MMOG bullying and typical bullying behavior in the game context.

The purpose of this study was to gain insights about the academic and social struggles that ELL students face in schools, and practices that teachers and school personnel can employ to alleviate these struggles. Data was collected by conducting interviews with ELL students and school staff, observing classrooms, and surveying students using a Sociogram social survey. Several academic challenges faced by ELL students were found, which include difficulties with reading comprehension, academic vocabulary, and a lack of background knowledge.

The present study attempted to replicate and extend previous research conducted by Unterhalter, Farrell, & Mohr (2007), which investigated whether men and women display memory biases that are consistent with gender-specific body image concerns. To determine whether exposure to media imagines of ideal body shape influence people's cognitive models of body image (e.g., Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, S., 1999), a priming condition was added to Unterhalter et al.'s paradigm.

Business education in U.S. universities is under heavy criticism from employers, politicians and students. However, it faces also large competitive threats from alternative forms of education such as “massively open online courses,” which are usually free and are perceived to deliver superior quality. In order for U.S. business schools to remain competitive, drastic changes are needed. This study examines the problems business education is facing in the context the history of business education.

Brand loyalty is considered a major factor in marketing outcomes, such as brand preference, purchase intention, and profitability. Researchers have found that trust and satisfaction contribute to brand loyalty, but new research indicates that the stable personality factors of consumers may influence loyalty-building as brand personality congruence (BPC) appears to have a positive effect on loyalty. This study assesses BPC’s relationships with trust, satisfaction, and loyalty using a newer brand personality scale.