Extracurricular Associations: Does Participation in Extracurricular Activities with Advantaged Peers Increase College Enrollment

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Aaron Miles and Dr. Benjamin Gibbs, Department of Sociology Our project has culminated with a presentation at the 2012 American Sociological Association conference in Denver, and is currently under review at the journal Social Science Research. We hope to heard back in the coming weeks in regarding its status, hopefully receiving a revise and resubmit. […]

A Modern Ethnohistorical Understanding of Ancient Plant Use, Emphasis on the Fremont Near Goshen, Utah, Insight into Diet and Medicine

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Madison Mercer and Dr. Michael Searcy, Department of Anthropology The research for this project began in August 2011 and finished in April 2012. The goal was to understand how plants were anciently used for food or medicine. To determine this, archaeological data would have to be coupled with more modern ethnographic data of living peoples. […]

Religious Influence on Adolescents and Their Parents Faculty Mentor: Sam Hardy, Psychological Sciences

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Carrolyn McMurdie and Dr. Sam Hardy, Department of Psychology For decades, research has shown religious involvement and religious belief to predict positive outcomes for adolescents and adults, including better physical and mental health, fewer risk-taking behaviors, and greater involvement in moral or pro-social and helping behaviors (Hood, Hill, & Spilka, 2009). However, the current body […]

To Stand on Their Own Legs: Independence and Other Motivations for Women’s Pursuit of Post- Graduate Studies, and Their Parents’ Influence on Them, in Vishakhapatnam India

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Colleen McDermott and Dr. Charles Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology In recent years, there have been countless studies on the benefits of educating women. Though there is a general consensus on the positive results of women’s education, their access to education is still rather limited in many areas of the world. One such area is India, […]

Options and Distributional Characteristics

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David Mauler and Dr. James McDonald, Department of Economics My BYU ORCA grant provided valuable funding which allowed me to spend significant time on an interesting research question Dr. McDonald and I had considered late last year. We wanted to investigate whether the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine (IHS) distribution would allow for a more accurate option-pricing […]

Positional Segregation in Sport: How Rugby Introduces New Ethnicities to Research

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Dylan Lubbe and Dr. Mikaela Dufur, Department of Sociology Modern scientists continue to argue over an issue that has existed since the first time a person realized that his or her skin was a slightly different shade or tint than someone else’s: Does skin color serve as an indicator for something deeper? The conversation about […]

Negative Affect in Individuals with Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Implications for Acquiring New Learning

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Spencer Liebel and Dr. Michael Larson, Department of Psychology The goal of this project was to clarify the additive role that negative affect plays in the capacity for individuals with moderate-to-severe (M/S) traumatic brain injury (TBI) to acquire new learning. Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States, […]

Religion and Jane Eyre

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Bradley Kime and Professor Paul Kerry, Department of History Modern readers might be surprised to learn that the 1847 publication of Jane Eyre caused an uproar. Plenty of critics praised the novel’s author, but many of the loudest voices were shocked by its content. In a satirical essay the next year, Edwin Whipple surveyed the literary […]

A Little Help for My Friends: Do Foreign Aid Donors Reject NGOs in Favor of their Blatantly Corrupt Allies?

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Nicholas Jones and Dr. Darren Hawkins, Department of Political Science Our research examines whether donor countries care about the quality of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) when giving foreign aid to poor countries. When donor states give foreign aid to recipient states, such the US giving foreign aid to Uganda, the donor states must choose what is […]