Senior Honors Theses - Undergraduate

Shân Cantrell (May, 1997)
"Gender differences in children's stories: Selective appropriation and symbolic reworking"

Meredith Abrams (May, 1998) (University Scholars Program)
"The critical tension between individual and society: How society affects the development of the individual" (won a Williams Writing Prize)

Travis Beebe (May, 1998) (University Scholars Program)
"The development of main character in young children's stories"

Amy Lederer (May, 1998) (University Scholars Program)
"Do peer groups affect the nature of spontaneous stories children tell?"

Victoria Sbrocco (May, 1998)
"Gender differences in preschool children's narratives: A prehistory of moral orientations"

Carlita Johnston (May, 1999)
"Structured storytelling by low-income children and its influence on achievement of language and literacy skills"

Geneia Esterly (May, 2000)
"Teacher-child interactions in Head Start classrooms: Types of child-directed speech, language acquisition, and emotional development"

Leigh Wickham (May, 2000)
"Are there gender differences in stories and play of low-income preschool children?"

Elizabeth Rankin (May, 2000)
"Theory of mind and mental states talk in low-income children"

Charlene Tai (May, 2000)
"Preschool children's conceptions of 'good guys' and 'bad guys'"

Kira Florence (May, 2001)
"Once upon a time: Differences between middle- and low-income children's narrative skills"

K. Brady Garrity (May, 2004)
"Social competence in Head Start classrooms: An assessment of a play intervention"

Katie Lomas (December, 2004) (Senior Paper)
"Children's reading achievement: The importance of oral language and narrative skills"

Amy Rikoon (2005 - in progress)
"Late adolescents' self-defining memories and their relation to psychological well-being"

Master's Theses

Elizabeth S. Richner (M.S., 1999)
"From actors to characters to persons: The development of character representation in young children's narratives" (won the Donald T. Campbell Social Science Research Prize)

Dorene McNamara (M.A. in Sociology, 1999)
"Individual differences in adult attachment styles and their connection with representations of actual and ideal love" (won the Donald T. Campbell Social Science Research Prize)

Deborah Ferrara (M.S., 2002)
"Adolescent narrative self-understanding"

Ruohong Wei (M.S., 2004)
"Peer collaboration and narrative development in a preschool classroom"

Carolyn Brockmeyer (M.S., in progress)
"Preschoolers' narrative abilities under different storytelling conditions"

Ph.D. Dissertations

Susan Cushman (Ph.D. in English, Fall 2002 - outside committee member)
"The politics of storytelling: Cultural memory and national identity in U.S. postmodern fiction"

Elizabeth Richner (Ph.D., in progress)
"Narrative as a special context for promoting theory of mind development"