This story is a gothic-themed narrative which represents the amalgamation of two academic fields: creative writing and psychology. Told from the perspective of the main character, Euanthe, the focus of the story is to provide the reader with a recounting of a moment in her life as she contemplates her existence as a vampire. Set in a decaying gothic city, this is an excerpt of a more extensive narrative and is intended to serve as a self-contained piece within a larger story. Sources such as folk tales, historical accounts of vampirism, popular literature, religious beliefs, and architectural symbolism were all influences that contributed to the conceptualization of the story and its themes.

When designing a space, all of the human senses should be considered in order to keep in mind the wellness of the client. How should the built environment be designed for user wellness through a nature-based full-body experience of a space? There are many theories and concepts that have been studied and researched regarding the three concepts that will be touched on. Psychology of design, empathetic design, and nature all connect to each other. These concepts link together, prompting additional questions and needed research to find the answers. This research suggests that Biophilic Design is the answer.

As the use of social media becomes more prevalent, especially in adolescents and young adults, there is a growing need to understand how social media use affects psychological well-being in the emerging adult population. Prior research has found that exposure to nature reduces stress and increases attention in comparison to urban environments, but nature has not been studied as a way to reduce the potentially negative effects of social media. The current study aimed to determine if viewing social media or nature for a brief time affected psychological well-being, social comparisons, future self-identification, and awe, and to test whether viewing nature scenes could buffer the effects of viewing social media. Data was collected from 275 participants using a survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results showed that emerging adults exposed to nature scenes had significantly less negative affect compared to those exposed to their social media feeds. Exploratory analyses showed that those who spent more time outside tended to experience decreased negative affect when they viewed both social media and nature photos, but those who spent more time outside experienced increased negative affect when only viewing social media. Those who used social media more often generally experienced lower negative affect. Findings show that relations between humans, social media, and nature, are complex, and further research into these relations and their underlying causes may be beneficial.

In intrafamilial Child Sexual Assault (CSA) cases, siblings often confide in each other about their abuse. It is important for defense attorneys to question siblings about their conversations surrounding abuse to assess their credibility and honesty. The present study qualitatively analyzes the content of questions defense attorneys are asking siblings in intrafamilial CSA cases across 67 transcripts. These questions were then categorized into four content categories which included confiding in which the child talked to their sibling about their abuse, co-preparing in which siblings discussed what they would say in court, disclosure in which they discussed whom to disclose the abuse to, and awareness in which they try to ascertain if a sibling was aware of another sibling’s abuse. Within the 67 selected transcripts 1,384 questions were asked about siblings but only 18% (n = 250) were about conversations between the siblings. Of these identified questions, 63.6% of questions asked about confiding, 13.6 % questions asked about co-preparing, 20% of questions asked about disclosure, and 2% of questions asked about awareness. This may indicate a need for these questions to be asked during the child’s forensic interview to elicit an accurate account. Children’s forensic interviews use protocols to help children produce detailed and accurate accounts of abuse and in trials children are likely to experience distress while providing testimony which may lead to a child misremembering or forgetting details of their abuse. Analyzing this study’s qualitative data could aid children undergoing legal procedures when reporting abuse.

This thesis explores the potential reasons individuals may romanticize violent serial killers and seeks to eradicate the idea that this phenomenon is due to any singular reason alone. In light of the recent explosion of interest surrounding serial killers and other true-crime genre media, this work aims to help the general public understand, not only the reasons that we may feel inclined to romanticize such evil individuals, but also the potential dangers behind such romanticization. This research led to the conclusion that a fascination for media or entertainment surrounding and related to this topic has been long standing in human history. Additionally, it was concluded that, while the personal reasons each individual may have for romanticizing serial killers may vary, today’s media representations of violent serial killers (both fictional and not) appeal to these reasons by subtly portraying killers as more palatable to the public. Ultimately, this project compiled numerous potential causes of romanticizing serial killers in order to conclude that no single reason is the source for this phenomenon, but that it is rather a complex culmination of factors.