Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

Given most people gain information about COVID-19 from news media, it is important to understand if news framing of COVID-19 can influence people’s intentions to take preventive behaviors and their actual behaviors, which may affect public health and many people’s life safety. Based on framing and functional emotion theory, this research examined how exposure to differently framed news (threat, positive future, or neutral news) influenced emotional reactions, intentions to take preventive action, and actual subsequent protective behaviors. 196 undergraduates participated in a two-part online experiment. First, they read two COVID-related news stories appropriate to their condition, and then reported their emotional reactions and behavioral intentions. Two days later, they reported their COVID-related protective behaviors. Results indicated that threat news in the frame of fear evoked fear as expected and positive future frames in the frame of hope evoked hope, as expected. Although frames did not directly influence intentions or behaviors, indirect effects were found such that threat frames generated fear, fear influenced behavioral intentions, and intentions predicted behavior 2 days later.

Language is tied directly to identity formation, especially in the way individuals express themselves and are perceived by others. This extends to language being proven to have the ability to change an individual’s personality depending on the language they are speaking (Ramirez-Esparza et al. 2006; Pavlenko, 2006; Wedérus, 2017). This study expands on these findings by comparing these theories to the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse multilinguals. This study is particularly concerned with the experiences of bilingual immigrants in the US and how issues of acculturation and xenophobia may affect these phenomena. This project aims to help better understand how language shapes identity, as well as gain insight into the challenges of immigration and multilingualism.

The acceleration and advancement of today’s technology has led to the growing use of machine learning algorithms in everyday life. Therefore, our collective trust in algorithmic decision making becomes increasingly important to consider. Current literature suggests that people may be skeptical of relying on algorithmic judgment rather than human judgment, regardless of performance quality or accuracy (Logg, 2018). However, conflicting results have arisen from previous studies regarding this algorithmic aversion or appreciation. An online experiment was conducted using a 2x2 design with 120 adult participants in order to examine how the control and risk environment of an algorithm’s decision making process affects human trust towards algorithmic decision making. Results indicate that humans are less trusting, or more averse, of automated systems in situations with higher perceived risk and lower human control. These findings shed light on the evolving relationship between humans and the automated systems we rely upon and have implications for the development and operation of automated systems we generate.

Previous research examined the effect of familial conflict on college students and how this affects familial relationships and causes feelings of guilt. However, there has not yet been a study looking specifically at emotional burden stemming from not fulfilling familial expectations in regard to major choice at college. In this study, we examined the correlation between negative affective experiences and familial conflict over major choice. We focused on the experience of negative emotions when deviating from familial expectations, as well as the cultural differences and similarities between Asian and European Americans going through this experience. We assessed participants’ experience of familial expectations regarding major choice, their decision to fulfill or subvert those expectations, and their emotions as a result of their decision. Our findings showed that negative emotions such as sadness and guilt were stronger when subverting expectations while positive emotions such as happiness were stronger when fulfilling expectations. In addition, we found that Asian American students were more likely to experience a familial expectation regarding their major choice and reported significantly more guilt when subverting familial expectations than European Americans students. Overall, familial expectations play a crucial role in Asian American students' major choice and emotional well-being at college.

Teenage depression has long been a significant yet underreported and therefore undertreated disease. In recent years depression-centric narratives like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Dear Evan Hansen, and All the Bright Places have garnered both attention and controversy in print, film, and even Broadway, bringing the conversation around teenage mental health into the spotlight. While some of these depictions have been praised for promoting empathy and understanding, others have been criticized for including graphic or even sensationalized representations of teen depression and suicide. These depictions, fictional as they may be, contribute to the larger societal discourse on teen mental health. This paper examines one of the most influential works concerning adolescent mental health in recent years: Netflix’s Thirteen Reasons Why, with the aim of exploring how its status of both an “activist” work of art and a product affect its depiction of depression and anxiety — and how these depictions might affect a population that, in the wake of the pandemic, reports higher rates of depression and anxiety than ever.

The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on many of the inequalities people face because of their socioeconomic status. Some of these disparities include accessible health care, medicine, consistent income, and the everyday risk of exposure. However, this division between the upper and lower socioeconomic classes is not new. This can be seen time and time again throughout history, especially in the cases of past pandemics in early modern Europe. Diseases such as the Black Plague, leprosy, and cholera infiltrated and affected communities throughout Europe and Italy, the latter being the focus of this article. In it, we compare the ways that past pandemics affected people in cities like Rome and Venice, and who was affected most and why. Did the same disparities between socioeconomic classes exist as they do today with the current COVID-19 pandemic? Have we progressed much as a society? It is important to explore how these socioeconomic differences emphasize the inequalities within society when it comes to basic human needs and rights, like safety and public health, and how they track from centuries ago to the present day.

The Klamath river—the second longest river in California, stretching 257 miles from South Crescent City to Oregon—has been an object of environmentalist and humanitarian concern since the 1970s. And it was long before the acknowledgement of the Klamath’s worsening state that climate change, along with anthropogenic factors such as dam implementation, agricultural runoff, commodified farming, and racist governmental policy, had begun to irreversibly damage the once flowing water supply and diverse flora and fauna that used to characterize the Klamath area. These long-standing issues have culminated in mass environmental degradation in the Klamath basin—drought, poisonous algae blooms, mass fish kills, pollution—that threaten the Klamath ecosystem at large. Indigenous tribes like the Yurok people, who have lived in the Klamath area for decades, have been disproportionately negatively affected by the environmental degradation of the Klamath.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, inmates at USP Lompoc were subjected to increased exposure of the virus due to inaction from staff, guards, and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). This paper focuses on the history behind prisons and incarceration as a punishment, the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to events happening in Lompoc, and includes interviews from two former inmates at USP Lompoc, Bernd Appleby and Ron Shehee. Looking at the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affected inmates at Lompoc, the conscious refusal by staff and guards to follow instructions given by the Attorney General, the absence of personal protective equipment, and the lack of structure and testing led to the death and health issues of inmates. Appleby and Shehee highlight the apathy, power imbalance, and inhumane conditions they faced during their time at USP Lompoc. They share specific details into accounts from other prisoners and the health and administrative problems that inmates faced.

Incarceration not only affects inmates but their communities as well and more visibility around the injustices at USP Lompoc is needed to show that the ineffectiveness of prisons to handle a pandemic comes at the cost of inmates and their lives.

We have been presented the properties of asset return by simulation within the empirical data. However, is it possible to illustrate properties by statistical analysis? Most currently existing models fail to reproduce all these statistical features. In this paper, we will elaborate the properties by applying different statistical models: Geometric Brownian Motion and Ehrenfest URN. We will focus on the following properties: distributional properties, tail properties and extreme fluctuations, path-wise regularity, linear and nonlinear dependence of returns in time and across stocks. In this project, I will use S&P 500 index return as the data and apply it with the models to compare the results with empirical data.

Over 100 million people worldwide use oral hormonal contraception (OC), and yet there is still little knowledge surrounding the consequences of contraceptives on the human brain. In particular, the intersection of autobiographical memories, stress, and OC is important to study for real-world applicability. Previous research has shown that women on OC demonstrate a negativity bias when recalling an event by reporting more information for negative experiences compared to other emotional situations. This negativity bias could be an indication of the ease of recall which is defined by the speed, accuracy, and intensity of the memory search. The present study examined the reported ease of autobiographical recall of OC users compared to those who are naturally cycling (NC) for negative and neutral events. It was predicted that those on OC would report an easier time recalling a stressful event and report less difficulty for the neutral event compared to NC women. There were no significant differences between those who are NC and on OC in terms of ease of recall ratings for either event. However, within NC women rated remembering negative events more easily than neutral. Suggestions for future studies are discussed.