As is true for most majors at Bates, all psychology seniors must complete a senior thesis. This archive lists the name, title and a brief summary (abstract) of the projects of select seniors who graduated in 2022.

Please check out our complete Senior Thesis Archive.

Note: indicates an empirical thesis project and indicates a community-based learning thesis project.

Click a name to view that student’s abstract, or scroll down to view all students.

Taylor Alexander
Maxwell I. Bartley
Grace Beaudet
Johnny Esposito
Xavier Fallone
Julia Feist
Amanda Kaufman
Katie Manternach
Eliza McNulty
Imogen Micklewhite
Molly O’Brien
Danielle J. Reeves
Mary Richardson
Stella Santucci
Marguerite Schueler
Megan Seabury
Qifeng (Ricky) Sun
Kaley Swintak
Ava Owens Thomas

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Taylor Alexander       

Does Perceived Meaning in Life Predict Resilience to Academic Stress? Examining Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Optimism as Mediating and Moderating Factors

The aim of this study is to examine self-efficacy, social support, and optimism as mediating and moderating variables between perceived meaning in life and resilience to academic stress. 150 undergraduate students at Bates College took an online Qualtrics survey consisting of questions from five self-reported surveys. The survey measured perceived meaning in life with Steger et al.’s Meaning in Life Questionnaire and used modified questions from the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), a new multidimensional construct measure, to evaluate students’ academic resilience. The study also looked at self-efficacy, measured by the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), optimism, measured by the Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), and social support, measured by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The results indicated that meaning in life is able to predict students resilience to academic stress and that both self-efficacy and optimism are mediating variables in this relationship. The results also revealed that neither social support nor optimism were moderating variables, contradicting the hypothesis of this study. Implications for this study on the relationship between meaning in life and resilience to academic stress are discussed.

Maxwell I. Bartley       

Environments, Social Comparison & Imposter Phenomenon: An Experimental Vignette Study

A within-subject, experimental vignette design was used to explore how different environments and the presence of social comparison impact Imposter Phenomenon. Imposter Phenomenon is a term used to describe the inability to internalize success or acknowledge intellectual aptitude. Imposters fear that their intellectual inferiority will be exposed and they will be seen as a fraud. The phenomenon is especially common among high achieving professionals and students. Data were gathered from a sample of undergraduate college students (N=55) from a selective liberal arts school using a Qualtrics survey. Participants read six different vignettes in order to explore how environments and social comparison interact with imposter feelings. Findings from this study reveal that both environments and social comparison have significant effects on imposter feelings. Peer and admission environments with social comparison had the highest rates of Imposter Phenomenon. Imposter Phenomenon in classrooms remained relatively constant regardless of social comparison. These results indicate that social comparison and environments both interact with imposter feelings and certain environments foster these feelings in differently.

Grace Beaudet       

Recess and Developmental Play-Based Interventions for Elementary Students

Play is essential for the optimum development of children, as group play supports children’s physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Recess is a time that allows for children to engage in group play. The purpose of this study is to examine current recess practices at Raymond A. Geiger Elementary School in Lewiston, Maine. Through observations, interviews, and surveys, interventions will be provided to the school regarding additional ways to encourage and implement group play while considering appropriate developmental milestones for all children.

Johnny Esposito       

Boys at Risk: Examining Emotional Well-Being Experiences in All-Male-Identifying Adolescent Environments

Hypermasculinity, or traditional perceptions of masculinity dominated by ancient models of strength, independence, and a lack of vulnerability, can be detrimental for boys in terms of their emotional well-being, especially during adolescence. Due to the facilitation of a culture that encourages emotional suppression and a stigma around seeking help, boys, especially those in male-dominated spaces that unconsciously uphold the toxicity of what society perceives to be masculinity, are at risk. This research, evaluating both male-identifying high school graduates and alumni of all-boys high schools, sought to assess emotional well-being tendencies and experiences from adolescence, considering hypermasculine preconceptions of emotion regulation and seeking help. Results indicated that school climate, through perpetuation of social standards and use of resources and intervention, is impactful for student experience and development of their perceptions. Additionally, it was found that con formity and pressure to abide by these hypermasculine standards suggests a lack of seeking help and embrace of unhealthy emotion regulation tactics amongst male-identifying individuals. And given that all-boys schools are all boys, that influence is exacerbated. These boys are at risk, and will continue to be, if the environments they spend much of their adolescence in remain ignorant and refuse to take proper action.

Xavier Fallone       

Dancing on the Precipice: How People Reason about Threshold Problems in a Socially-Rich Real World Context

Moral psychology is largely concerned with finding moral universals through the study of descriptive ethics to understand how people make moral judgments and decisions. In this pursuit, much of moral psychology has focused primarily on the act structure of moral scenarios and little on the potentially important factors of observer identity (the identities participants bring to the study) and target identity (the identities of the characters in moral scenarios). The present studies utilized ‘threshold problems,’ introduced by Levine et al. (2020), bringing them into a real world context that included factors of both target and observer identity. In threshold problems, a harm threshold is crossed when too many people perform a specific action, leading to bad outcomes, but a small number can perform the action with no ill effects. In two studies, White participants completed a measure of racial ingroup identification and provided judgments about the moral acceptability of a plan that could cause harm to either a majority-Black or majority-White city if the threshold was crossed. I hypothesized that, as racial self-investment increased, acceptability judgments would decrease in the White city condition, but that the same decrease would not be seen in the Black c ity. However, neither study revealed the hypothesized interaction.

Julia Feist       

Cats ’22: An Impact Assessment of the Foster Program at Auburn Public Library

The current study examines the partnership between the Auburn Public Library (APL) and the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society (GAHS), in which the GAHS provides the library with one or more foster cats to care for until their adoption. The library has housed 29 cats since December 2020, allowing patrons and potential adopters to interact with fosters by request. Potential benefits of the program include increased morale among APL employees, visibility and social opportunities for shelter cats, and higher satisfaction among library visitors. These benefits were assessed in three ways: employee interviews, adopter surveys, and exit surveys for foster cat visitors.

Amanda Kaufman       

A Community-Engaged Exploration of the Impact of Sports Amongst Women and Girls in Maine

This research is a community engaged collaboration with the Maine Sport Commission, a nonprofit organization that works to advance, elevate and promote Maine as a four season sports destination. The transformative power of sport participation is indisputable (Zarrett & Veliz 2021, Eime et al. 2013). Benefits are diverse and vast in quantity ranging from physical health, mental well-being, leadership development, academic and professional achievement, self-assuredness, and confidence among others (Eime et al. 2013, Zarrett & Veliz 2021, Shifrer et al. 2015, Anderson-Butcher et al. 2013). Eime et al. (2013) proposes a conceptual model that summarizes the vast outcomes of sports participation and places them into three contexts: physical, psychological, and social. The purpose of this project is two-fold: (1) to capture and celebrate the positive impact of sports amongst women and girls in Maine, and (2) expand upon the Eime et. al (2013) model using the data collected in this pro ject. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with participants during which they were asked a series of questions about how sports have impacted them across their life. Of the 16 total participants, ages ranged from 7-77. Thirteen participants self-identified as white and three participants self-identified as women of color. All participants self-identified as female and currently reside in Maine or were Maine residents for a portion of their life. There was a wide range of sports represented. There was a variety of competition levels represented including: organized youth sport, collegiate athletics, Olympic/Paralympic athletes, national senior level athletes, international competing athletes, novice/recreational level athletes, and current coaches and team managers. The observed themes, each representing impacts of sport participation amongst participants, were overwhelmingly positive. The observed impacts sports had on women and girls were numerous and diverse. The se results suggest that sport participation amongst women and girls is extremely valuable. Creating networks between sport organizations and increasing overall access to sport participation opportunities for women and girls in Maine is paramount.

Katie Manternach       

Examining the Potential Relationship Between the Mental Well-Being of College Students and Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this research study was to examine the potential association between mental well-being and the presence of one or more learning disabilities within college students. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) presents well-being questions which are then measured on a 1 to 5 Likert scale and summed up to analyze an individual’s general level of mental well-being. Participants within this study were 91 Bates college students from all class years, who were asked to answer the questions presented within the WEMWBS scale which was posted on a Qualtrics survey. Out of the sample pool recruited, 34% had one or more learning disabilities, and 66% had no learning disabilities. I hypothesized that mental well-being scores among those with one or more learning disabilities would be significantly lower than of those who did not have any learning disabilities. However, this hypothesis was disproven by the results of a one-way ANOVA test, which presented a p value greater than .05. In conclusion, there was an insignificant difference between the mental well-being scores of students who had one or more learning disabilities, versus the scores of those who did not have any learning disabilities.

Eliza McNulty       

The Role of Athletic Identity in Athlete Burnout

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between athletic identity and athlete burnout and investigate the mediating and moderating variables found in the scientific literature. The participants are Bates College athletes, as well as participants recruited through Mechanical Turk who identify as an athlete: high school, collegiate or professional. All participants answered a Qualtrics survey, which included a selection of questions from seven standardized scales. Previous literature on athletic identity and athlete burnout, including Chang et al. (2018), use the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale and Athlete Burnout Questionnaire to measure athletic identity and athlete burnout, which is replicated in this study. Other variables measured that are possible mediators and moderators include gender, type of sport, team and coach relationships, psychological flexibility, general and sport anxiety. Statistical analysis explored their mediating or moderating role in the relationship between athletic identity and athlete burnout. I expected to find that athletes with a higher athletic identity would experience more athlete burnout. In addition, I expected to find that psychological flexibility and sport anxiety would be mediating variables, while general anxiety, gender, type of sport and relationship with coaches and teammates would moderate the relationship between athletic identity and athlete burnout. A simple linear regression found that athletic identity significantly predicts athlete burnout. Through the Hayes process tool, coach athlete relationships, psychological flexibility, general anxiety and sport anxiety were identified as mediators and teammate relationships and psychological flexibility were identified as moderators. High athletic identity leads to an increased susceptibility to athlete burnout, which supports the hypothesis. Good teammate relationships and high psychological flexibility weaken the relationship, while coach athlete relationships, general and sport anxiety help explain why these two variables are correlated.

Imogen Micklewhite       

Effects of Type of Praise and Gender on Self-Efficacy for Puzzles in Undergraduate Students

Abstract According to social-cognitive theory, self-efficacy is a personal process which can influence or be influenced by behavioral and environmental processes. One major environmental process in this field of research is praise and the different types of praise that exist. The types of praise analyzed in this study are person praise which focuses on an individual’s characteristics and process praise which emphasizes and affirms the effort put into a task. The following experiment replicates and expands on a study conducted by Lessard and colleagues by investigating the effect of type of praise and gender on self-efficacy. Eighty-four undergraduate students voluntarily participated in the study and answered demographic questions through a Qualtric survey. Participants completed a series of ‘Where’s Waldo?’ puzzles and was either given person praise or process praise throughout their task. After completing the puzzles, participants were tested for a self-efficacy rating using a measure adapted from Bandura’s test of self-efficacy. I expected that type of praise would not affect self-efficacy ratings across all genders. I also hypothesized that process praise would increase task performance compared to person praise. The results of the data produced no statistically significant interactions. Type of praise did not have an effect on self-efficacy or task performance. Additionally, there were no significant effects of gender on self-efficacy.

Molly O’Brien        

Are Self-Esteem and Attention to Environment Related to Perceived Social Pressure around Eating at Bates College?

Previous literature suggests that there is a negative relationship between self-esteem and social matching. Additionally, research also suggests that there is a positive relationship between perceived social pressures and social matching. The current study examined if the relationship between self-esteem and attention to environment are related to perceived social pressures from peers around eating. Data was collected through a self-report survey from self-identifying males and females from all class years at Bates College. This study used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and two self-created scales, the Perceived Social Pressures and the Attention to Environment Scales to assess this relationship. Additionally, four free responses questions were placed in the survey in order to get a better understanding of the types of perceived pressures participants were experiencing. The results of this study suggest that there is a negative relationship between self-esteem and perceived social pressure, as well as positive relationship between attention to environment and perceived social pressure. This means that students with lower self-esteem or those who are more attentive to their environment may experience higher perceived social pressure.

Danielle J. Reeves        

Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Incarcerated African-American Young Adults: Implications for Racial Trauma, Coping, Healing, Growth, and Prevention

African-American youth face enduring racial discrimination in their communities, leading to racial trauma. Subsequently, African-American youth may exhibit post-traumatic stress symptoms that are associated with risky behaviors and ultimately incarceration. The purpose of this literature review is to establish a link between the physical and mental effects of race-based stress and the high rates of incarcerated African-American youth and to provide coping strategies that aid in preventing, treating, healing from, and coping with racial trauma. Once healing and coping are achieved, youth possess the tools to prevent and resist racial discrimination through resilience and post-traumatic growth. The topics of racial discrimination, mental and physical effects of trauma, juvenile delinquency, coping strategies, healing, prevention, resilience, and post-traumatic growth, were searched in PsycINFO and Google Scholar to create a comprehensive review of existing literature. This review prov ides another perspective on the cause of the disproportionate amount of incarcerated African-American adolescents and influences the proposal of a new model that aids professionals, parents, and kids in preventing risky behavior from happening or continuing to happen.

Mary Richardson       

Forests, Fitness, & Fatphobia: Are Those with Greater Ties to Athletics and the Outdoors More Fatphobic than Others?

Fatphobia, defined as ‘the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against obesity or people with obesity’, is an omnipresent element of our society. Fatphobia is also found in the fitness sphere (both indoor and outdoor), be it in how fat people are treated by fellow athletes or things that are said to them while competing. This study aimed to establish whether one’s relationship with the outdoors and athletics correlates with their level of fatphobia. Four scales were used to analyze this relationship between fatphobia, outdoor sport identity, and athletic identity. These four scales are the 14-item Fat Phobia Scale, the 14-item Professional Musician Scale (generated by the researcher), the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, and the Bates Outdoor Sport Identity Scale. No correlations between AIMS and BOSIS scores and the 14-item Fat Phobia Scale were found. Analyses showed that those who scored highly on the 14-item Fat Phobia Scale also scored highly on the 14- item Professional Musician Scale, suggesting an in-group-out-group prejudice, not fatphobia.

Stella Santucci       

COVID-19, Reporting, and Sexual Assault on a Residential Campus

This study examines the ways in which COVID-19 has impacted the experience and reporting of sexual assault at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Data was collected through a Qualtrics survey being sent out by email and through volunteer participation for class credits (n=101). The Sexual Assault Severity scale was used to better understand the severity of physical and psychological assault. In addition, a COVID-19 Fear Scale helped gauge a participant’s fear towards COVID-19 and its impact on potentially risky behavior. Last, interested in something broader than rape/assault, we captured a range of sexual behaviors that were unwanted, from pressure and coercion to rape, using the Unwanted Sexual Contact Scale (Demers et al., 2018). It was found that in terms of assault, juniors and seniors had a higher rate, yet were less likely to report than first years and sophom ores. In addition, no significant difference was found in likelihood of reporting an incident of unwanted sexual contact during your first year at Bates and likelihood of reporting an incident of unwanted sexual contact during your first year at Bates if it involved breaking the public health guidelines, with males more willing to report hypothetical unwanted sexual contact during their first year at Bates and unwanted sexual contact during their first year if it involved breaking public health guidelines than females. A limitation to this study is the small and homogenous sample, lack of generalizability, and the fact that there is very little research that has been done on the impact of COVID-related changes on campus climate and experiences of assault.

Marguerite Schueler       

Predicting Social Mobility: The Relationship Between Social Dominance Orientation and Estimates of Future Mobility Among Racial Groups

Americans overwhelmingly overpredict levels of economic movement in the country, specifically when individuals estimate the historical economic advancement of minority groups, despite economic gaps between Black and White Americans persisting over time. Past work demonstrates that conservative ideology and support of social systems predict overestimates of historical social mobility. Research indicates that individuals who are high in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) see their status as being threatened by subordinate groups. Therefore, my research hypothesized that individuals who had high SDO would project higher future rates of social mobility of subordinate groups than individuals who were low in SDO. Overall, only a small aspect of the hypothesis was supported. Only SDO-E positively pre dicted future income estimates for Hispanic/Latino/a households when ideology was controlled for. SDO-E did not predict future income estimates for Asian American or Black households. SDO-D did not predict estimations of income for any groups. Further, there was no correlation between participants’ future class predictions and SDO-D or SDO-E for any groups. SDO-E may have predicted higher rates of Hispanic/Latino/a social mobility because media over the past several years has portrayed immigrants (specifically Mexican immigrants) as an economic threat to the United States. More research needs to be done on how belief in group-based hierarchies influences how people see the economic future of individuals in America.

Megan Seabury       

Impacts of Anthropogenic Climate Change on The Mental Health of Indigenous Communities

Background: Anthropogenic climate change is becoming of increasing concern within the global sphere. An expanding amount of evidence is demonstrating the negative human health-related impacts of environmental degradation including infectious disease spread, as well as worsened and increased rates of chronic disorders. As our climate continues to change as a result of human intervention in Earth’s natural systems, its effect on mental health is becoming increasingly relevant. Environmental changes such as natural disasters, technological disasters, sea-level rise, drought, and warming are extremely multifaceted in their consequences. Individuals and communities now face poor mental health outcomes as a result of the direct, indirect, and psychosocial repercussions associated with anthropogenic climate change. Economic disruptions, food insec urity, displacement, and news media are of mounting concern regarding the psychological stability of human society. These mental health burdens are particularly targeting an already vulnerable demographic, indigenous peoples. Not only does indigenous land hold significant cultural value, but these communities are generally in lower socioeconomic standings, reside in geographically susceptible regions, and rely heavily on the health of their land for sustenance. Methods: PsychInfo and Scopus were used as well as the bibliographies of useful sources to review the growing body of work documenting the ineluctable progression of human-induced climate change on mental health within native communities. Results: The accumulation of literature in this review demonstrates the link between anthropogenic climate change and negative mental health outcomes experienced by indigenous populations.

Qifeng (Ricky) Sun       

Cultural Differences in Opinions towards the Death Penalty

The death penalty is the most severe punishment, and the public has debated about it for centuries. There are many variables that can affect public opinion towards the death penalty. The current study explores how culture may relate to individuals’ opinion towards the death penalty for different crimes and victims. We recruited college students (N = 195) mostly from the US and asked them to finish a survey. We predicted that people with higher collectivistic score will demonstrate more support for death penalty, and people from Asian cultures, as compared to people from Western cultures, would be more supportive of the death penalty for family member-victim cases than stranger-victim cases. However, the results showed that higher individualistic score positively predicts the death penalty support, and the interaction between victim type and culture was not significant, but the interactions between culture and crime type and between victim type and crime type are significant. We discussed the implications of our findings, problems involved in our experimental design, and potential future research. Keywords: death penalty, public opinion, individualist culture, collectivist culture, cultural orientation, victim type, crime type.

Kaley Swintak       

The Impact of Mastery or Vicarious Experience on Self-Efficacy After Athletic Injury

The purpose of this research is to study factors that contribute to self-efficacy in the context of injury recovery, specifically mastery and vicarious experiences. The participants will consist of Bates College student athletes of all four years who will take part in an online Qualtrics survey. The Injury Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (ISEQ) and Bandura’s Guide for Self- Efficacy Scales will be adapted and used to measure self-efficacy after participants are presented with hypothetical sports injury scenarios. The study is within-subject design; thus, each participant answered questions based on four vignettes, each with a differing combination of mastery and vicarious experience. I expect that mastery experiences will significantly relate to lower levels of self-efficacy, while the opposite will occur for vicarious experiences. When participants are presented with vignettes integrating both mastery and vicarious experience, it is hypothesized that this will cause low levels of sel f-efficacy as well, however the most significant relationship with low self-efficacy falling when neither mastery nor vicarious experiences are at play. A repeated measures ANOVA test was conducted using the statistical software Jamovi. Statistically significant main and interaction effects were found for mastery and vicarious experiences. The results suggest that if you have experienced an injury, the impact of a mastery experience alone on self-efficacy is not as significant as when a mastery experience is combined with a vicarious experience. Implications for this study will address factors contributing to self-efficacy in the context of injury.

Ava Owens Thomas       

Examining the Effects of Dance on Flow in College Student Athletes

The current study aims to determine whether a dance intervention in Bates College student athletes increases flow. Previous data in individuals struggling with neurodegenerative diseases has demonstrated the success that movement has in developing neural plasticity (Rehfeld et al., 2018). Researchers have examined how team activities and connectedness can increase flow, a complete immersion and focus in a particular task, as well as the positive outcomes emerging from mindful-dance practices. The current study aimed to identify whether a dance intervention could assist in flow increase in cross-country athletes. The Bates Women’s cross-country team participated in one of two brief dance instructional sessions (ballet vs. hip-hop). Students’ levels of flow were measured via the Revised Flow State Scale (FSS) (Hung et al., 2021) before the intervention and after. Our results indicate that the dance intervention did not significantly increase levels of flow in the athletes. Additiona lly, we theorized that ballet dance instruction would increase flow more efficiently than hip-hop dance instruction. However, we were unable to test this hypothesis due to participants’ inability to recall their code names. Additional correlational findings and the implications of these findings are discussed.