1,983,661 research outputs found
Anxiety: An Epidemic Through the Lens of Social Media
Anxiety: An Epidemic was originally inspired by the mental health crisis in my hometown, Palo Alto, California, and evolved to specifically focus on social media-related anxiety. I examined the question: How has social media evolved over the last decade and what effect does the proliferation of social media have on the young adult population? I hypothesized that social media would have a predominately negative effect, especially on young women, and set out to create a theatrical piece inspired by my research. In my meta-analysis of studies conducted, I found that more data needs to be collected on the relatively new phenomena surrounding social media usage both as positive and negative forces. The research I conducted inspired two new artistic works: a physical theatre piece entitled MASKS: An Ode to Young Women, and a children’s story entitled “The King Who Lost His Smile” (both artistic works can be found in full in appendix A). I discovered that while more research needs to be conducted to definitively find if social media usage has a predominantly positive or negative effect, the artistic works I created can serve as a forum to start important conversations between young adults and their communities at large about their experiences with anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Obstacles, Benefits, Solution
I began this research project with the question, “Will the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ever be opened with the current nation-wide opposition to it”? I began my research and shortly found out my hypothesis, which is: “ANWR can be opened, but it will take a neutral position from both sides and both sides must compromise”. Throughout my research I ran into two main obstacles for ANWR: the United States Congress and their constituents. I argue that the constituents are the largest problem because without their support, Congress won’t open it. I have divided up the constituents into two groups: environmentalists and pro-drillers. After looking at both sides, I realized that in order to open ANWR, both sides must take a neutral approach to ANWR and the only approach I could come up with was a cost-benefit analysis. After both sides look at that they will realize that compromise is necessary. How do we get both sides (America) to see that compromise is necessary and the importance of ANWR? We begin a national grassroots campaign that can educate America on the positives and negatives of ANWR and the importance of it. Once America knows how important and necessary opening ANWR is, they will request their congressional members to support it. Only then will ANWR be opened
Coming Together: Graduate Students and Community Engagement
The purpose of my research was to explore how graduate students regard and participate in community engagement opportunities at the University of San Diego (USD), specifically within the School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES). Thus, my research question was: How can I explore and facilitate community engagement among SOLES graduate students? Through my work, I found that community engagement efforts are of interest to the USD graduate student population while greater efforts for access and involvement would be appreciated. By focusing on the current role of this topic among the graduate population and fostering greater awareness, I was able to improve my professional and educational practice
It\u27s All Fun and Games
The question that I decided to do for my self-study was: How does the use of play-based activities impact my teaching practice? I had originally decided on the question of: How does the use of play-based activities in math impact my teaching practice? I decided to change my question during the fall semester because in my regular education classroom, math is at the end of the day. It was very difficult for me to get into the classroom to see the end of the day because of the way my classes were scheduled at Susquehanna. I was not able to interact much with my original self-study question because of this. The days that I was able to go into my placement to see math were very slim and I did not feel comfortable taking anything over, as it is a co-taught class, as well. I felt uneasy having a self-study question that I was not really interacting with. All of these reasons helped me to decide to adjust my self-study question. I then decided on a question about how play-based activities, in any subject, can impact my teaching. I wanted to work with my self-study question in the fall as well which is why I decided to change the question. Before I even changed my question, I noticed myself using play-based activities in my placement already in other subjects like reading, spelling, and science. I would find new spelling games for my students to use to practice their spelling words before a spelling test. I was also able to do an Oreo activity in science to help my students understand the different phases of the moon. I also chose this question because I love games and play-based activities myself and I want to be able to incorporate my creativity and passion for games and play into my cooperating classroom to see if that affects my teaching practices. I have interacted with this question during my work in a summer school program as well, so the question seemed to flow naturally with my teaching preferences. I noticed that many times in my observations students get bored in school or say they hate school because it is boring. I wanted to help my students learn to love learning and school. Through the use of play, I wanted to help students learn more and see if it has an impact on my teaching practice as a pre-service teacher. Before I began this study, I believed that play-based activities were a way to help students learn without them realizing they were even learning anything. I also wanted to make school more understandable for students who struggled, and I believed using play-based activities was just another way for me to help reach all students no matter what their struggles may have been. Play-based activities can be differentiated for lower and higher-level learners which is what I strived for in my classroom. My question is aligned with my self-study research because my research is based on play in the classroom. After changing my question, I felt a lot better about what I needed to accomplish, and I found myself interacting with my question a lot more in a more impactful way
My Mother\u27s Legacy: Trying to Make a Difference through Teaching and Research
Asked to write about how I became interested in social justice research, I realized that the question had two parts for me: how I got interested in social justice and how I got interested in research. To answer these questions, I found myself thinking back to my early adolescence, and to my mother. I remember a day when I was about 12 and saw a TV news report on poverty and hunger in some 49 underdeveloped part of the world. When it was over, I flung myself across my mother\u27s bed, crying. My mother came into the room and asked me why I was crying. I said something like Mommy, it just isn\u27t fair that so many people are suffering and starving, while others are rich. She comforted me by saying that we should try to do whatever we can to make the world a better place, even if we can\u27t cure every world problem
Exploring the Narratives of Underrepresented Southeast Asian Students in Higher Education
In my study, I examined how underrepresented Southeast Asian (SEA) students, specifically Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotian students, navigate college by exploring their personal narratives. The research question I used to inform my study was how could I represent and better support underrepresented SEA students in the surrounding San Diego, California colleges and universities? I found that the focus groups I facilitated contributed to meaningful engagement. Oftentimes SEA students are never in the same room with other students like themselves. Through interviews, interactive activities, and dialogue, I found that we need to provide spaces, platforms, and workshops for SEA students to speak their truths, share their stories, and validate their needs
Stuck in Somatic Countertransference: A Heuristic Study
This heuristic research study explored how somatic countertransference in my own body, as a clinician, is related to my freeze response when working with clients in a behavioral health hospital. Primary questions that led the research, included: what does somatic countertransference feel like in my own body as a clinician, what happens in my body during a stress response of freezing, and, how can I modulate through my stress response to become regulated in session? These curiosities led to my ultimate research question, how can I, as an emerging dance/movement therapist, modulate through my freeze response while experiencing somatic countertransference with patients in hospital programs for mental health? Data were collected in the form of journal entries, watercolor paintings, and embodied writing and were analyzed, with the aid of a research collaborator, through Moustakas’ approach to heuristic research. Findings indicated how the freeze response and somatic countertransference are connected in my body through feelings of anxiety and fear. Also, I explored the use of body based coping techniques to assist in modulating through my freeze response in order to be fully present with the group. Lastly, I discovered how to be connected physically, mentally, and emotionally in my body during dance/movement therapy group facilitation. I found an increased understanding of my own somatic countertransference symptoms. The process I created for myself to modulate out of a freeze response may assist other novice dance/movement therapists understand how to regulate their bodies in a group session, creating a fuller experience for all parties involved in the group process. 65 pages
Grumpy Cat On Hump Day: Animals\u27 Effects On Mind, Body, and Spirit--And What We Ought to Do About It
How ought we to live? It is the Jesuit question, the question that guides our classes and our lives, the question we must answer to fulfill our call to become men and women in service of others. Throughout our Jesuit education, we often hear the question How ought we to live? We also often hear cura personalis. We eventually learn that how we ought to live inextricably ties to how we ought to nurture our minds, bodies, and spirits. We can help our students meet this goal by allowing them to implement cura personalis in their daily lives that is, in and through school-sponsored housing. One way we can help students to achieve cura personalis is by allowing them to own pets pets that can nurture their minds, bodies, and spirits. Human-animal interaction (HAI) has long been the subject of psychological research. The effects of animals on the mind are well known: research has consistently shown that HAI relaxes humans. The effects of animals on the body are equally as well known: research has shown that HAI confers several health benefits, including decreased blood pressure especially in pet owners. However, although years of correlational and anecdotal research suggest that animals increase empathy and compassion, I found no experimental studies that assessed animals\u27 effects on these emotions. In the Honors in Neuroscience portion of my thesis, I used a combination of EEGs and empathy and compassion surveys to assess how both consistent and inconsistent HAI impacted empathy and compassion. 1 also tested participants one full week and three full weeks after the initial interaction to see how long these effects lasted. I found that consistent, but not inconsistent, HAI increases: empathic concern, compassionate love of humanity, and compassionate love of specific close others. The combination of my research and previous research on HAI shows that consistent HAI such as that provided by pet ownership nurtures cur a personalis. When asking How ought we to live? we are also challenged to ask the costs. Attempting to answer the At what cost? question, in my own study I assessed the effects of consistent and inconsistent petting on rats\u27 anxiety. I found that consistent HAI does not increase rats\u27 anxiety and that it may benefit the animals by decreasing their anxiety (findings consistent with previous research). This then implies that students can achieve cura personalis while serving another (a pet). I therefore propose that we allow animals to live in designated areas of Regis-sponsored housing (one section of Residence Village), basing my proposal on the successful implementation of pet-friendly policies at other colleges. Implementation of this proposal will allow students to live how they ought to live not just in the future, but today
Black Students Resisting And Coping With Racism At Predominately White Institutions
Black students attending predominately white institutions (pwis) have many obstacles to overcome while navigating their college career. Black students at pwis experience micro-aggressions and different forms of racial discrimination. Various studies have focused on the experiences of black students and some focused on the responses to their experiences in terms of coping; however, literature is lacking when it comes to how students of color at pwis are also effectively simultaneously resisting racism through their coping mechanisms. My research question is how do black students at pwis cope with and resist the micro-aggressions found within the structure of new racism? To answer the question, I first describe micro-aggressions. Then, I delve into the theory of new racism as outlined by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Patricia Hill-Collins as a theoretical framework that is needed in examining the black experience today. My research was done at a pwi located in the south. I conducted 12 in-depth qualitative interviews to determine how black students resisted and coped with micro-aggressions and different forms of racial discrimination when attending pwis. I found that forms of resistance and coping vary from ostracizing oneself, to minimizing, ignoring, and excusing racism. I also found that some use humor while others engross themselves in campus activities and lifestyle. I conclude that the covert structure of new racism caused my participants to be most fearful of micro-insults. This resulted in the avoidance technique being the most comform used in resisting and coping with micro-aggressions. I end with a discussion and suggestions for future research
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