It is considered that religion and internal motivations may act as guiding forces behind the thoughts and actions of individuals. The purpose of this thesis is to explore if religiousness and internal motivations may influence individual health behaviors. To explore these relationships, a convenience sample using a 5-minute Qualtrics survey with questions regarding religiousness, internal motivations, and health behaviors was developed. This survey was offered to UCF students over the course of a few semesters. It is hypothesized that individuals that indicate more religiousness and stronger internal motivations (greater internal locus of control and self-efficacy) will demonstrate more positive health behaviors. Data analysis was conducted using a statistical software package (SPSS) with univariate, bivariate, and regression analysis being performed. Results reveal that internal motivations and religiosity appear to be significantly associated with some of the specific health behaviors tested. Place of worship attendance was found to be significantly associated with a lower number of health behaviors compared to other religiousness-related questions. Of all the internal motivation statements included, feeling helpless when dealing with some problems in their life was significantly associated with the largest number of health behaviors tested. These findings are critical as the links established between religiousness, internal motivations, and health behaviors may serve as a point of emphasis when developing positive health interventions for individuals.

With the increased use of online communication in our everyday lives, there is a growing need to understand social influence in such settings. The current research posits that online social norms can influence readers‟ anti-social and pro-social behaviours online, specifically individual expressions of prejudice. Participants read an online article proposing an increase to international student scholarship funding, then were randomly placed in one of two normative conditions where they read Anti-Prejudiced or Pro-Prejudiced comments allegedly placed by other users. Participants then left their own comments before completing a self-report prejudice questionnaire and an implicit association test (IAT). Social norms created by the fictitious comments influenced respondents to comment with more or less bigoted sentiments aligned with the fictitious social norm. Participants reading prejudiced online comments showed increased implicit and explicit prejudice, while those reading anti-prejudiced online comments showed the reverse. Participants‟ internal and external motivations to control prejudice were also measured and hypothesised to moderate the effects of social norms on bias expressions. However, this hypothesis was unsupported with participants‟ internal and external motivations to control prejudice inconsistently moderating the effects of the social norm on their prejudice expressions. These findings suggest possible avenues for social change in online environments, and criteria to help establish more positive online social norms.