The 14th Annual

NC State University
Undergraduate Research Symposium

 

Humanities, Social Sciences, and Management Abstracts

Abstracts are listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the corresponding author.

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Bergstrom, Erin M.

Leader, Chervonne

Department(s):       

Social Work

Research Mentor(s): 

Jocelyn Taliaferro/Social Work

Jessica DeCuir-Gunby/Curriculum and Instruction

Marc Grimmett/Educational Research & Leadership & Counselor Education

Adrienne Dixson/School of Teaching and Learning, Ohio State University

Title of Presentation:

The Success Project, The Unbroken Circle: Closing the Achievement Gap

 

 

African-Americans have experienced many successes in America; however disparities persist in nearly every social context. One example is the achievement gap between high school students of color and White high school students. Working with NC State faculty, we are participating in a policy/program evaluation of the Triangle Urban League's National Achiever's Society (NAS); a program designed to address the racial achievement gap.

            This effort will concentrate on three central areas. The first area addresses the program's conceptual framework, exploring the project’s theoretical foundation. The second area concerns its implementation model; school personnel engagement, and how parents interact with the program. The third area explores students’ academic achievement, extracurricular activity involvement, academic and racial identity attitudes, community engagement, and interactions with parents. The specific research questions that drive this study are: To what extent, if at any, does participation in the NAS impact the achievement of participating students? Do participating students experience changes in (a) academic performance, (b) extracurricular activity involvement (c) community engagement, (d) transition from middle to high school, and (e) career development? How does African American students' racial identity influence their perceptions of school? What are African American students' attitudes towards academic achievement?

            The research team will collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data will be collected using survey instruments that assess constructs such as students’ academic attitudes and family relationships, Black racial identity, career decision-making, and parental involvement. Individual and focus group interviews with students, parents, principles, and National Achiever’s Society facilitators will provide qualitative data.

            The project’s findings will be used to make recommendations to the Triangle Urban League for improving their current NAS model. Student presentations will also encourage other organizations to apply the results to their respective communities and in programs that they are implementing.

 

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Campbell, Matthew P.

Department(s):       

Mathematics, Science & Technology Education

Research Mentor(s): 

Hollylynne Stohl Lee/Mathematics, Science & Technology Education

Title of Presentation:

Using the Integrated Approach in the Traditional High School Mathematics Curriculum

 

 

Integrated curricula such as the Core-Plus Math Project (CPMP) provide a comprehensive high school mathematics curriculum.  Replacing the traditional sequence of courses, programs such as CPMP use interwoven stands of topics to advance students’ understanding.  I worked on applying the approach of the integrated curricula to lessons in a traditional setting by focusing on the connections that can be made between algebra and geometry.  I reviewed literature on the learning of algebra and geometry, teaching and learning with technology, and learning with connections in order to develop lessons and activities using the integrated approach.  These lessons would be fully developed in order to be implemented in a high school mathematics classroom.  The key ideas in algebra are the understanding of the technical language of algebra, and the concept of variable, relations, and functions.  Geometry requires an open-ended learning environment allowing students to conjecture, explore, and draw conclusions.  Geometry must also be taught using a structured progression of understanding.  When using technology in the classroom, you open up the investigation of real world problems and can use multiple representations in hopes of reaching deeper conceptual understanding.  The integrated approach calls for teachers to switch their role from instructor to facilitator by planning lessons complete with investigations and a set of prompts and guiding questions.  I developed a lesson connecting the concepts of area and variable in geometry to the concept of function in algebra.  The lesson calls for the use of technology in small groups where, when given prompts, students will make conjectures, generate discussion, and draw conclusions.  This has been shown during an implementation of this lesson in a general classroom setting. 

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Carpenter, Kelley E.

Department(s):

Psychology

Research Mentor(s): 

Shari Lane/Psychology

Title of Presentation:

Soothing Fears, Preventing Hysteria: The Effectiveness of  Methods to

Educate the Community about Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever

 

 

In the event of a terrorist attack involving filoviruses, widespread panic and fear would likely be invoked among the general population, disproportionate to the actual potential damage of the attack.  To minimize the devastating effects of an attack involving Ebola virus, healthcare workers, as well as the general population, should be educated about Ebola virus to prevent irrational reactions and impairment to United States emergency response infrastructure.  An educational brochure and a lecture were created to educate the general population about Ebola virus, Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, the risk of contracting the virus by tourists to Africa, and the potential use by terrorists of Ebola virus as a biological weapon.  Study participants were pre-tested on their knowledge of Ebola virus, received either a lecture or brochure about Ebola virus, and finally, were post-tested on their knowledge of Ebola virus.  The brochure and lecture given to study participants were compared for their abilities to create a significant increase of participants’ knowledge about Ebola virus.  While both methods of health education proved effective in increasing participants’ knowledge, the brochure was more effective.   

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Coleman, Bliss E.

Department(s):

Textile Technology 

Art and Design

Research Mentor(s): 

Nancy B. Powell/Textile & Apparel, Technology & Management

Title of Presentation:

The Knitted Hat as Wearable Art (design project)

 

 

Hats have been worn though out history by women and men for warmth, protection, status, and fashion. Their significance in some cultures has slowly disappeared over time making them only occasionally worn. The purpose of this project is to bring the hat back to life by combining textile knitting with art which forces the hat to push the boundary between art and fashion. Research was done on hats, fashion trends, knit structures, felting, wearable art, artists, and designers to complete this project. Integration of technology, fashion, textiles, and art was used to create a series of hats that also becomes functional wearable art.  These hats were created by sketching, making small models, knitting and felting wool, and draping the resulting fabric on hat forms to create the style.  Each hat can be worn or displayed in a variety of ways creating a multitude of styles.  This project will be of interest to designers and academic researchers interested in textiles as well as art and design.

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Conley, Shequita N.

Department(s):       

Business Management

Research Mentor(s): 

Theodore A. Feitshans/Agricultural and Resource Economics

Title of Presentation:

Financing Land Preservation

 

 

Protection of working lands, including farmland and forestland, and protection of critical habitat for rare and endangered species are among the most important environmental issues facing North Carolinians today.  Preservation of land with unique characteristics was once seen as primarily the role of the public sector.  With the public sector feeling pressure from tax cuts, deficits, and other priorities, land preservation has increasingly been conducted by the private, nonprofit sector.  One of the greatest challenges facing both the private, nonprofit sector, as well as governments, has been finding funding to support land preservation activities.  This presentation addresses the issue by examining traditional as well as nontraditional funding sources including use of tax benefits, public-private partnerships, and other means.  Major tools for protecting land from development pressures include use valuation, agricultural district programs, conservation easement programs, purchase of development rights programs, transfer of development rights programs, and programs to increase the profitability of agriculture and forestry.  Alternatives to funding these programs from federal, state or local tax revenues that will be discussed in this presentation include use value (reduced valuation) programs, user fees, federal and state income tax incentives to encourage donations, federal and state estate tax relief, market-based solutions, installment sale contracts and other purchase techniques that spread acquisition costs over time.

 

 

Student Author(s): 

 
Davis, Lynette G.

Department(s):

Psychology

Research Mentor(s): 

Sharolyn Lane/Psychology

Title of Presentation:

 
Influence in Group Decision Making: Normative vs. Informational Influence

 

 

Social influence is extremely important for understanding when normative (harmonious) and informational (task focused) influence will be used in group decision making. According to Kaplan (1989), normative influence often diminishes the quality of group decision making and occurs more often when members have a group goal of harmony, when group decisions are shared, and when the decision requires no perceptible accurate answer.  In comparison, informational influence transpires when the goal of the group members is to make the highest quality decision, as well as to make private decisions, and the outcome has a tenable accurate answer. A study was performed to test Kaplan's hypotheses that groups who were told to make a harmonious decision by including all members of the group would produce more normative statements than groups who were told to make the best quality decision, even if they had to alientate other group members to do so. To test the hypotheses, a 2 (Influence: Normative vs. Informational) x 2 (Involvement:  High vs. Control)Factorial ANOVA was completed with frequency counts of assertion of opinion statements serving as the dependent variable.  As expected, there was a significant main effect for influence (normative vs. Informational) but not for involvement (high vs. control) as was not expected. Also as predicted, the highest number of opinion statements was for normative, high involvement group, and the lowest number was the information, control involvement group. The study results provide support for the group decision making hypotheses of Kaplan. 

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Davis, Lynette G.

Department(s):       

Psychology

Research Mentor(s): 

Pamela Martin/Psychology

Title of Presentation:

Seeking the Prince: Fairytales and the Word of God

 

 

Fairytales and rap music videos represent images that teach adolescent girls about romantic relationships. The influence of a fairytale logic or rap music video logic may have deleterious consequences for adolescent girls that endorse these socialization messages in their romantic relationships.  For instance, Guthrie (2004) found that adolescent girls who believed in the fairy-tale logic were more likely to engage in inappropriate behaviors such as sexual intercourse, and they also reported dating violence than girls who had never engaged and less likely to believe in the fairy-logic.  Likewise, researchers have shown that a high endorsement of a music video logic, especially "gangsta" rap, exposes adolescent girls to risk behaviors such as heightened incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and greater acceptance of violence (Dixon & Brooks, 2002; Wingood, 2003).  The purpose of this poster presentation is to examine how adolescents distinguish between religious socialization messages and the messages conveyed in fairytales and rap music.  Eight focus groups were conducted with African American adolescents.  The participants were recruited from faith communities in a large urban Midwestern city.  The findings revealed that church going adolescents from African American faith communities enjoy listening to rap music.  However, they make sharp distinctions between their religious socialization and what they identified and described as “worldly” behaviors.

 

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

DeCamp, Michele H..

Department(s):       

English

Research Mentor(s): 

Barbara Bennett/English

Title of Presentation:

What it Feels Like for a Girl: The Importance of Contemporary Female Bildungsromans

 

 

Women have yet to find a voice in many high school English classrooms.  When teachers assign bildungsromans to their students, they almost always rely onThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Lord of the Flies, and A Separate Peace; yet, all three books depict coming of age sequences for young male protagonists.  No one questions whether female students will be interested in reading books that focus only on young men and, in the case of Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace, include no female characters.  However, these same school systems often do not include texts that are populated predominantly by female characters.  In order to highlight this current crisis in classrooms, I read through several textbooks and critical reviews of young adult literature that all acknowledged in various ways how educators fail to use female-driven young adult literature in their lessons.  I also compiled a short history of how female protagonists have functioned in literature from the late 1800s to today to highlight where older novels failed in depicting female characters away from the kitchen. This history partially explains why female-oriented texts have been disregarded in the past. After my initial research, I did an in-depth critical analysis of three contemporary young adult novels, The Golden Compass, My Dear One, and Shabanu, that combine strong literary themes, archetypal coming-of-age experiences with strong, multi-cultural female protagonists who could teach all young people important lessons about growing up. This thesis compiles all of the above to encourage educators to become aware of how their current book choices exclude more than half their students’ perspectives and what texts they can begin using to combat this long-running trend in secondary education. 

 

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

DeYoung, Sarah E.

Department(s):       

Psychology

Research Mentor(s): 

Shari Lane/Psychology

Title of Presentation:

Body Shape and its Influence on Perceived Attractiveness: How Males and Females Evaluate Levels of Attractiveness Based on Distribution of Body Fat

 

 

Evaluations of human attractiveness are based upon various biological and cultural influences.  This is a study designed to investigate the effect of gender on the perceived attractiveness of various body shapes, specifically, various levels of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Waist-to-hip ratio is calculated by finding the ratio of the circumference of the waist to the hip circumference.  A lower than average waist-to-hip ratio is also known as “the hourglass figure.”  Previous research  indicates that lower WHR is perceived to be more attractive than a higher waist-to-hip ratio.  Fifty-six participants (28 males, 28 females) were asked to evaluate images with 4 levels of WHR (.7, .8, .9, and 1.0) on a Likert scale, 1 being considered as the least attractive, and 5 as the most attractive.  A mixed model analysis of variance found that there was no significant effect of gender (of participants) on the perceived  attractiveness, F (1, 54) =. 06, p =. 81, However, there was an overall preference of the lowest WHR image of .7 (M=3.98, SD= .924).  Image B, the highest WHR of 1.0, was ranked overall as the least attractive (M=2.50, SD= .894). The implications of this study- that a lower WHR (or “hour-glass” figure) may be perceived to be more attractive than a high WHR, could be relevant to advertisers or evolutionary psychologists.  However, in terms of broad pragmatics, this research could prove to be more useful if there had been additional independent variables.  For example, there has been much concern over the recent increase in rigorous standards of body shape and size (Gordon, 2000; Schwitzer, 1998).

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Drischel, Crystallyn

Department(s):       

English

Research Mentor(s): 

Denise Heinze/English

Title of Presentation:

Ghosts Beyond the Boundary in Beloved and Medea

 

 

The horror of the act of infanticide resonates within the works of literature throughout the centuries. For example, although epochs apart,  
the mothers in Beloved by Toni Morrison and Medea by Euripides are driven to commit infanticide due to similar social pressures. Medea, 
written in 431 BCE, is a play about the betrayal of the infamous witch Medea by her husband Jason. The couple meet and marry after 
Medea helps Jason win the Golden Fleece from Colchis. The play begins with Medea being asked to leave Corinith with her children after 
her husband, Jason, deserts her to marry a local princess. Due to the slight of her husband and the impending threat of banishment, 
Medea murders her children in a desperate attempt to keep them from Jason. Many centuries later, Sethe, the mother in the novel, 
Beloved, published in 1987, also murders her child to protect her from imminent danger. Living in a rural community close to Cincinnati in 
the nineteenth century, Sethe, a runaway slave from the south, tries to raise her family peacefully until one of her masters finds her new 
home. In an act of defiance, similar to Medea, Sethe murders her daughter to keep her out of the hands of her enemies. In both texts, 
Sethe and Medea are driven to infanticide because important men in their lives fail them; they are forced to run away and live in an alien 
society; they are both viewed as inferior to the dominant culture because of their ethnicity; and they are also oppressed by institutions that 
deprive them of their rights. Therefore, a more extensive study of the works reveals that both of these tragedies are the result of similar 
burdens acting upon socially vulnerable mothers.
 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

 
Ducote, Jonathan L.
Edens, Anna C.

Department(s):

Accounting

Biological Sciences

Research Mentor(s): 

Steven H. Greene/Political Science

Title of Presentation:

 
Practical Applications of On-line Visualized Student Social Networks as 
Election Prediction Models

 

 

The 2005 NC State Student Body elections saw the advent of a new campaigning tool through the online friend tracking tool called The Facebook. The analysis we performed tests our hypothesis that The Facebook can be used to accurately predict the outcome and winning margins of candidates for student body elections at NC State. We conducted studies comparing the membership totals of election-related groups on The Facebook less than 30 minutes before polls closed for the General Election with the official results per the NC State elections commission collected between April 4 and 5, 2005 by online voting. This process was repeated during the run-off election on April 11 and 12, 2005 in the same manner as prescribed above. The gathered numbers reveal that in situations where the voter can clearly identify the candidate as an individual, The Facebook proved to be an accurate representation of the official outcome of the race to between .85 and 1.0 correlation values.  The implications of this data can be employed in future campaigns as an accurate form of university polling. Evidence proving this hypothesis and future implications are discussed.

 

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Duncan, Charles C.

Department(s):       

English

Research Mentor(s): 

George Barthalmus/Undergrad Research Office

Susan Katz/English

Title of Presentation:

Undergraduate Research Publication

 

 

The most valuable experience for students is research or independent study during their undergraduate years.  Independent study or assisting professors and graduate students with research give undergraduates the real-world experience and knowledge to compete for highly coveted jobs or slots at top graduate schools.  One of the main problems with getting undergraduates involved in research and independent studies is that students do not know about the resources available.  Publishing undergraduate research in a campus-oriented journal shows students what they are capable of and that there are resources and outlets available for their creativity and ingenuity.  Research publication in a scholar-reviewed setting gives students early experience with academic publishing, a valuable skill in the publish-or-perish world of academia.  The UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL OF NC STATE UNIVERSITY is currently publishing its second issue and the first edition of the URJ-NCSU SUBMISSION AND STYLE BRIEF.  The Journal will publish regular issues twice a year and special issues as the need arises.  The submission guide will be updated at least once a year by the editor in chief.

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Herron, Elizabeth L.

Department(s):       

Psychology

Research Mentor(s): 

Sharolyn Lane/Psychology

Kartik Bhavsar/Psychology

Title of Presentation:

Recall with Variations in Presentations

 

Teaching styles can vary among teachers.  Likewise, learning styles an vary among students.  It is important to find the best ways for  learning to occur.  Giving students the opportunity during their undergrad to explore these options is a  great way to find out more information about this topic.  Thirty participants (M=22.47 years) were divided randomly into two even groups - A and B.  Each group heard the same 25 words from a word list.  The presenter spoke the words to Group A.  The presentation was recorded, and Group B heard the layback of words on a tape recorder.  After each group was done hearing the words they were given three minutes to recall as many words as possible.  Results from an Independent Measures t-test revealed a significant difference between the mean words recalled between Group A and Group B, t(28) = 4.093, p = 0.0003.  Specifically, Group A (M=9.467, SD=2.167) recalled more words than Group B (M=6.333, SD=2.024).  Memory and teaching styles will be discussed.

 

 

 

Student Author(s):                          Kim, Paul Y.

Department(s):                                 Psychology

Research Mentor(s):                       Christopher B. Mayhorn/Psychology

Title of Presentation:                      Performance of Activity-, Event-, and Time-based Prospective

                                                             Memory Tasks

 

 

Forty-five participants (M=18.87 years, SD=1.36) answered ninety questions which had the three types of intentions (activity-, event-, and time-based prospective memory tasks) embedded during the lab session. While answering the questions, they were asked to circle the answer whenever a question was related to telephones (event-based), write their initials every 3 minutes (time-based), and write their names after each block of questions (activity-based). Following the lab session, they were asked to keep a record of their planned activities for one week. A 2 (Context: Lab versus Diary) x 3 (Intention Type: activity-, event-, versus time-based) repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted. Results revealed a main effect of context such that participants were better at performing intentions in the naturalistic setting represented by the diary data than in the laboratory. A marginally significant (p= .09) main effect of intention type revealed that event-based tasks were more likely to be performed than activity- and time-based tasks. An interaction of context and intention type suggested that participants were significantly better at performing time-based tasks in the naturalistic setting than in the lab. Implications of these data to everyday cognitive tasks will be discussed.

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Powers, Kathleen M.

Department(s):       

Accounting

Research Mentor(s): 

Roby Sawyers/Accounting

Title of Presentation:

An Exploration of Possible Causes and Solutions to the

Growing Difference between Book and Tax Income

 

 

This paper discusses differences between the amount of corporate income reported to investors via financial statements included in annual reports (book income) and income reported to the government via tax returns (tax income). Over the past fifteen years, these differences have grown substantially. In this paper, I examine possible reasons for the growing gap between book and tax income and describe acceptable temporary and permanent book-tax differences. The paper then explores the link between book-tax differences and the increasing use of illegal and unethical tax shelters. Tax shelters are transactions that generally add little if any economic benefit to the company, except to save them money through increasing tax deductible expenses or decreasing taxable income.

               The paper concludes with an exploration of three possible options to reducing tax shelter activity and the corresponding discrepancy between book and tax income: (1) requiring public disclosure of corporations’ tax returns; (2) conforming book income and tax income; (3) and partially disclosing certain items from corporations’ tax returns. Option 1 arguably provides too much unnecessary information to the public and may put a company at a disadvantage by potentially disclosing proprietary information. Option 2 poses more questions than answers, such as who would control policy, congress or an independent body and whether book income would  conform to tax income or vice versa. The third option, requiring corporations to disclose certain tax return information appears to be the most effective way to curb tax shelter use and shrink the book-tax difference, because it provides the right amount of information and does not require absolute conformity between book and tax income.

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Terrio, Megan A.

Department(s):       

Psychology

Research Mentor(s): 

Sharon Lane/Psychology

Title of Presentation:

Effect of Study Tools on Test Performance

 

 

There have been several studies that examined possible predictors of academic performance like study time, motivation, and test anxiety. To succeed academically, students often utilize their individual study habits in order to perform optimally when it comes to test time. The present study examined whether or not participants who engaged in active studying by highlighting and taking notes on the text would differ in terms of test performance than participants who simply read the text without taking any notes or highlighting any important information. It was hypothesized that the participants who either took notes on the test information or took notes and highlighted the information would have a better test performance than the participants who just read the information. There were three participant groups examined, each with a different level of study tools. One group was given no study tools, another group was given a pen to underline and take notes, and a third group was given a pen and a highlighter. Each group of ten participants was given the same story to read over for exactly five minutes. After the five minutes had finished, the story was taken away and a six-question test was administered. Results from a two-way ANOVA determined that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of test performance. It was evident that individual difference had a significant effect on the outcome of the study. Future studies should attempt to eliminate these individual differences, possibly through a repeated-measures design.

 

 

 

Student Author(s): 

Windham, Carolyn L.

Department(s):       

Office of Extension and Engagement

Research Mentor(s): 

Michael A. Davis/Office of Extension and Engagement

Title of Presentation:

Island Stories: Uncovering the Documentary History of a North Carolina Barrier Island

 

 

Stretching more than 324 miles from the Virginia border to the tip of South Carolina, North Carolina’s barrier islands have battered both public scrutiny and the brunt of hurricane-force winds. Lost beneath the swell of seaside construction and below the debris of hurricanes past, however, has been the collection and presentation of the story of these island communities. Through the collection of oral histories and archival evidence, this research tells the story of one North Carolina barrier island: Sunset Beach. From theories on barrier island evolution to the impact of the island’s shifting sands on seaside residents, this project follows the story of the island from its geological beginnings to the past and future importance of environmental development with a particular emphasis on the historical aspects unique to island life such as transportation, hurricane history, and the impact of coastal building. The purpose of this research is to preserve and showcase  the unique natural aspects of barrier islands and the contributions and legacies of early developers in preserving their shores for posterity.

 

 

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Last modified February 2005 by Sharon E. Hunt, WordHunting