Our thesis revolved around the Maryvale community and was centered by a Photovoice project that was a Youth Participatory Action Research method. Being a project led by the youth we continued their stories and expanded off of the topics that we discussed in our photovoice meetings. In our thesis podcast we discussed the expectation and reality of moving to a new country, the colorism our community as well as other communities face, and the health disparities that are present within underrepresented communities. We were able to expand on these topics and tie it back to the conversations we had with each other four years prior to doing our podcast and how little or how much these topics have changed and evolved.

This paper examines the effects of childhood maltreatment on attachment and development. Humans are social beings; connection is at the core of human behavior. This social nature is what drives the need to form relationships with others. Relationships help humans learn and understand the social world around them relatively safely and securely. However, to ensure that these relationships bring safety and security, the ability to do so must be established during the first 18 months of children’s lives (Kennedy & Kennedy, 2004). The relationships humans form are based on how they establish attachments, or emotional and long-term bonds and relationships, to a primary caregiver or parent as children (Bowlby, 1969). These primary attachments include secure, anxious-preoccupied, insecure-avoidant, or fearful-avoidant attachments and can have significant effects on individuals or emerging adults in early adulthood (ages 18-25). Primary attachments act as a safe and organized view of how human interactions and relationships work and act as a secure base for children to explore and successfully understand the social world around them (Feeney & Noller, 1996). However, this depends on whether or not safety, a secure base, and an organized view of relationships are formed between the caregiver and child during the first 18 months of the child’s life. Moreover, if a child experiences maltreatment such as abuse and neglect from primary caregivers during their first 18 months of life, it can severely affect what type of attachment style is formed and how development occurs in early adulthood (Connell-Corrick, 2011). Therefore, to thoroughly understand how childhood maltreatment affects attachment and development, an overview of both attachment theory and childhood maltreatment, the effects of childhood maltreatment on both attachment and development, and the importance of protective factors, interventions, and preventions will be discussed.

Many people are familiar with the practice of parents, step-parents, or other caregivers continuing the abuse they experienced as a child unto children they are taking care of, but are unable to name this experience or explain how it continues. To those who are victims to this phenomenon, it is a struggle to comprehend what is occurring without a basic understanding. Through a comprehensive literature review compiling empirical and non-empirical resources, the phenomenon labeled as “intergenerational transmission of abuse” is defined and risk factors are explained for victims coming to terms with this experience.

Archetypes are commonly seen throughout different media such as artwork, film, or literature. Similar ideas or perceptions come together to create said archetypes. As defined by Faber and Mayer (2008), “an archetype is an internal mental model of a typical, generic story character to which an observer might resonate emotionally”. Carl Jung, famed psychoanalyst, first created this concept to describe how all human beings know of these commonalities through the collective unconscious. Today, we typically think of archetypes when looking at the development of fictional characters. Star Wars, one of the largest film franchises in the world, uses many of these archetypes in its character development. A great example of this phenomenon is Luke Skywalker, as the archetype of the Hero. Tarot cards are another form of media that also convey these archetypes, however they do so through each card’s imagery. With the use of different colors and symbols tarot cards can convey the same archetypes that can be seen in film and literature. While there are tarot decks in existence, they all use different art and art styles to depict the same archetypal messages. Within this project, I created my own version of the major arcana in a tarot deck using the imagery seen within the Star Wars saga. I then completed a comparative critical analysis of how Star Wars contains some of the same allegories, archetypes, and imagery seen within tarot cards. By looking at the archetypes of both Star Wars and the tarot we are able to gain a stronger grasp of the themes present in both types of media, film and art.

Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that affects an individual's ability to function per societal expectations, leading to the onset of stigmatization and discrimination. This can affect the course and outcome of the individual's diagnosis, which impacts several aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships, self-care, and medical attention. Reclassifying the term "schizophrenia" can create a better understanding of the disorder's symptoms and increase funding and research to alleviate the stigmatization currently affecting individuals with this diagnosis.

The Lord of the Rings films are an immensely popular early 2000s film trilogy. Yet the films’ popularity goes deeper than critical acclaim. The films have a cult following, enough for the films to have frequent theatrical re-releases and for Hollywood to begin producing more Lord of the Rings content starting in 2022 with Amazon’s Rings of Power. Why do these films, the first live-actions adaptations of Tolkien’s books, have such long-lasting appeal? Academic scholars have thoroughly attempted to answer this question. Some scholars have even utilized the theories of Carl Jung—including his theory of archetypes—to explain the purpose of certain characters within the films. Few, however, have utilized Jung’s theory of archetypes in great depth alongside his theory of the collective unconscious. This piece attempts to supplement the works of previous scholars in explaining the Lord of the Rings films’ appeal by emphasizing subconscious appeal, utilizing the theories of Carl Jung. Specifically, this piece analyzes the characters of Gollum as a portrayal of the shadow archetype, and the characters of Aragorn and Arwen as the anima and animus archetypes respectively. Further, this piece argues that Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious in humans not only be applied to the portrayal of the race of men in the films, but also to the races of elves and orcs. Elves and orcs are shown to have similar but different collective unconsciouses which viewers can then subconsciously compare to the collective unconscious of men portrayed. This analysis serves to explain a number of subconscious appeals of the Lord of the Rings films which explain their immense and long-lasting popularity.