Digital Commons Network^™

The Study Of The Potential For Positive And Negative Color Connotation Through Associations, Jamesa Mecayla Gray

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project explored word associations with colors and shades of colors in a controlled manner to test the hypothesis that people associate negative descriptor and emotion words with darker shades and colors and positive descriptor and emotion words with lighter shades and colors. Two parts were completed. In the first, participants saw 8 colors in 3 different shades for a total of 24 colors presented, one at a time. In a first round of trials, participants were instructed to give the first three words that came to mind when they saw each color. In a second set of trials, participants …

Sleep And Early Childhood Stressors In College Students: Examining Alcohol Use As A Moderator, Sylvain N. Chassagneux

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Early childhood stressors (ECS) consist of certain emotional, physical, or sexual experiences that may have long term consequences including sleep problems. Previous research has also found that alcohol use can negatively affect sleep; however, few studies have investigated alcohol use as a moderator of the relationship between sleep and other variables. In the current study, we examined whether the relationship between a general measure of ECS and sleep in college students may be moderated by alcohol use, a common psychoactive substance among this age group. Additionally, we examined this model with emotional abuse and neglect as a measure of ECS. …

Examining Measures Of Eeg As Biomarkers For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Shuhan Liang

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A central aim of this study was to determine whether there are consistent differences in a variety of ERPs and/or resting state measures of EEG between children diagnosed with ASD and psychiatric controls. Additionally, we aimed to determine whether any of those differences would generalize to the neural correlates of continuous measures of autistic tendencies in the general population. We classified EEG data into three categories: basic sensory responses, cognitive/perceptual ERPs, and resting state measures. Our study indicated that basic sensory responses and cognitive/perceptual event-related potentials (ERPs) did not differentiate autistic individuals from controls. For resting-state measures, the high gamma …

Cognitive Decline And Contact Sports: The Relationship Between P3 Amplitude And Sub-Concussive Head Impact, Elizabeth Kerman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present study sought to explore the effect of repetitive sub-concussive head impacts on the P3 event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and measures of movement kinematics. University students participating in collision, contact, and non-contact sports at the club and varsity level completed a cued visuomotor adaptation task. Results indicated that participants who estimated experiencing four or more sub-concussive head impacts per week display a significantly reduced P3 amplitude across both normal and adaptive trials. Additionally, participants who estimated experiencing less than four sub-concussive head impacts per week displayed no significant changes in P300 amplitude between “switch” and “stay” trials. This research …

Associations Among Self-Regulation, Life Stress, And Suicidal Ideation In Adolescents: A Developmental Psychopathology Approach, Yifan Yuan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Suicide is a major public health concern among adolescents. Although research has made progress in identifying risk factors for youth suicidality, there has been less focus on early developmental antecedents of youth suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Taking a developmental psychopathology perspective, we examined longitudinal associations among multiple aspects of self-regulation (i.e., emotion regulation, emotion reactivity, parasympathetic regulation, inhibitory control), life stress, and suicidal ideation. We hypothesized that deficits in self-regulation during middle childhood and early adolescence and greater life stress during early and middle childhood would predict higher lifetime suicidal ideation reported in adolescence.

Method: Participants were adolescents ( …

Aggression In And Out Of The Surrounding Space, Marissa Incer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Social isolation is a type of punishment used to address misbehavior in individuals, such as children with time-outs and prisoners in solitary confinement. It was thought to be an effective method for teaching good behavior or alleviating tense situations. However, this type of punishment may worsen the punished individual’s aggression depending on the environment of isolation. The current study was divided into two experiments. In the first experiment, participants were isolated in a small (2x2 feet) or large (6x6 feet) space to observe if the space alone affected their aggression. In the second experiment, a frustration-inducing task was given to …

Investigating The Relationship Between N2pc And Rapid Saccadic Eye Movements, Kezhen Qi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this study, we investigated the impact of temporal variability on the N2pc component during overt and covert visual search tasks, with a focus on potential differences in the efficiency of search strategies. Employing an eye tracker and a modified algorithm for saccade detection, our analysis considered the potential influence of eye tracker performance and data cleaning methods on the interpretation of results. Additionally, we adopted ERPimage analysis to enhance the rigor of our statistical examination. Our findings confirmed the temporal relationship between the N2pc and first saccade onset, with the N2pc occurring after the saccade. Furthermore, we identified a …

The Superpower Of Sleep: Poor Sleep Quality Predicts Worse Executive Control Under Conditions Of Stress, Lilly M. Mcclendon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Over 60% of college students do not obtain the minimum recommended amount of sleep daily and over 54% experience above average levels of stress. Exposure to stress and poor sleep are each related to executive control, which is a set of cognitive abilities that are essential for daily functioning. Despite the prevalence of poor sleep and high stress, studies have rarely examined the joint impact of sleep and stress on executive control in students.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the impairing effect of stress on executive control is stronger in individuals who obtain poor …

The Role Of Stereotype And Moral Values In Predicting Victim Blaming, Jihye Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Exposing participants to a victim with different racial identities (Asian American vs. African American vs. White American) under two different types of misfortunes (poverty vs. disease), the present study aimed to find whether the victim-blaming patterns differ depending on the victim’s race and whether the difference in victim-blaming tendency could be explained by the interaction between pre-existing stereotypes and situational relevance.

The Experiences Of Colorism For South Asian Women: A Qualitative Study, Aishwarya Nambiar

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Research has limitedly explored how colorism shapes the mental health and well-being of South Asian women across the diaspora. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenology study was to understand how South Asian women experience colorism and how these experiences shape their mental health and well-being. A total of 14 participants were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews and an artifact symbolizing experiences of colorism served as the methods of data collection. Critical Race Theory and Womanism were employed as the theoretical framework and the lens in which data was analyzed. A total of six main themes emerged in the study. The themes and …

Examining Racial Differences In Psychophysiological Responses To Exposure To Police Brutality, Autumn Scarborough

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

​​​​​Despite the prevalence of police brutality videos online, research examining the effects of exposure to such videos is extremely limited. The current work examined racial differences (among both participant and victim) in psychophysiological responses to videos of police brutality. Over the course of three sessions, participants (total N = 56) responded to questionnaires measuring attitudes toward police legitimacy, trait empathy, and justification of police use of force. EEG activity was recorded while participants watched four short videos depicting real-life incidents of excessive police use of force (two with Black victims and two with White victims). We examined mu suppression, commonly …

The Faces Of Substance Use: A Reverse Correlation Analysis Of Perceptions Of Alcohol And Cannabis Use, Madison Hallie Colby

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Alcohol and cannabis are some of the most ubiquitous substances on college campuses. While the reason for use varies between each individual, from social lubricant to sleeping aid, nearly half of higher-education students endorse alcohol and/or cannabis use in the last month. Despite this popularity, there is still a deeply ingrained level of stigma around substance use and substance use disorders and people who use substances or struggle with substance use disorders are subject to a litany of damaging perceptions, such as being deemed violent, unpredictable, weak, and untrustworthy.. Most research on the stereotypic thinking surrounding substance use focuses on …

A Qualitative Investigation Into The Ethnic And Racial Identity Development Of Counseling Students, Philippa Chin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This transcendental phenomenological study sought to understand the experiences of graduate counselor students during the development of their ethnic and racial identity (ERI). The research questions for the study were: How do counseling students experience ethnic and racial identity development during their graduate program and what is the meaning made by graduate students in their experiences with ERI development in their graduate program? Participants were recruited from a CACREP accredited graduate counseling program and the purposive sampling technique was used to identify those who have experience with the phenomena. In-depth, open ended questions were utilized to gather comprehensive descriptions of …

Self-Stigma And Problematic Alcohol Use: Risk Factor, Protective Factor, Or Both?, Victoria Olegovna Chentsova

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

While research has examined the effect of stigma from others towards individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUD), few studies have examined the relationship between perceived self-stigma related to AUD and corresponding engagement with alcohol among non-clinical samples. Present Study. The present studies examined the relationships between perceptions of self-stigma of AUD, proximity to others with AUD, and alcohol use behaviors and outcomes. Methods. In Study 1, participants (n = 3,169; 73.9% female) were college students within the U.S. recruited to participate in an online survey on substance use including questions on AUD self-stigma, alcohol use behaviors and negatives alcohol use …

Mindfulness And Avoidant Coping: Examining The Behavioral Correlates Of Suicidal Ideation Among Sexual Minority College Students, Matt Siroty

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals are at higher risk for mental health problems including suicidal ideation (SI). Previous research has indicated that coping strategies and mindfulness may explain disparities in SI among LGB individuals. The aim of the present study was to examine how coping strategies (self-sufficient, avoidant, socially-supported) and trait mindfulness facets (observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, non-reactivity) contribute to these differences. The sample consisted of 927 college students, 124 of whom identified as LGB. Within the analytic sample, a majority identified as women (n = 639, 68.9%), 18 or 19 years of age (n …

Do You Salt Your Soup: Investigating The Effect Of Interference Control On The Cognitive Reflection Test, Matthew Lowrie

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present study seeks to examine the role of interference control in solving the Cognitive Reflection Test (Frederick, 2005). Participants were given the CRT, CRT-2, and completed a novel adaptation of the Stop-Signal Task called the Change-Signal Task. The Change-Signal Task is similar to a stop-signal paradigm except that the participant must switch their response when a change-signal is present in the Change-Signal Task instead of withholding a response. This study found that interference control as assessed by the Change-Signal Task was important for determining performance on the CRT-2 but not for the CRT. Implications of these findings and interpretations …

Psychological Peacebuilding: When The Time Is Ripe For An Election, Kaiming Chen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Elections play a key role in post-conflict peace-building operations since the end of Cold War. Its conflictual nature and conflicting purposes may lead to another war. This thesis proposes three psychological factors that may predict peace after an election: parity of esteem, integrative complexity, and vocal rejection of violence. Drawing on the successful transition to peace in Mozambique 1994 and the failure of the 1992 Angolan election, this thesis argues that a high respect for the opponents, a complex thinking process, and a vocal rejection of violence would lead to peace after elections in post-conflict settings.

Communism And The Politics Of Cultural Labeling: Patriotism And Piety In American Life, Mark Smith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this paper is to analyze the history of Marxism and its emergent opponents in American political, religious, and cultural spheres. Examining Karl Marx and his influences reveals that, contrary to popular belief, Marxist thought has deep roots in ancient philosophy and literature. Marx drew upon these influences to highlight industrial and economic problems and propose a dialectically-based prescription for these ailments that sought to eradicate class divides and abolish private property. Marx’s reception in the United States came long after his death and was coupled with the rise of the Soviet Union and the end of World …

Bias In Artificial Intelligence: The Morality And Motivation Behind The Algorithm, Avery Freeman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

More than 180 cognitive biases have been identified in humans, and these biases relate to feelings towards a person or a group based on perceived group membership (Dilmegani, 2020). The development of artificial intelligence has fallen into the hands of engineers and statisticians, people who work within fields that have well-established race and gender diversity disparities (Panch et al., 2019). Thus, it is no surprise that the aforementioned biases have made their way into the algorithms behind artificial intelligence. The current study explored how participants’ pre-existing biases and level of outgroup contact have the potential to affect their decision-making pertaining …

The Cognitive & Educational Implications Of Color Use In Drawing To Learn, Juliana F.M. Cantarutti

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Drawing to Learn (D2L) is a learning aid that encourages STEM students to interact with abstract concepts in STEM by sketching. D2L is not an intuitive skill, and researchers strive to provide students with guidelines on how to master this method. One potential way to enhance the D2L method for students is by incorporation of visual cues, specifically color. While many students choose to incorporate color into their models without explicit instruction to do so, we have found no research on: a) why students use color in sketching, b) its effects on D2L. This study used interviews, surveys, and course …

Connecting Moral Injury And Ptsd Among Military Veterans: The Role Of Problem-Focused Thought Rumination & Social Support, Emma Ackerman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present study seeks to expound upon previous research indicating a connection between moral injury (MI), problem-focused thought rumination, PTSD, and social support among military veterans. Specifically, we examined the effect of MI factors (Atrocities of War, Psychological Consequences of War, and Leadership Failure/Betrayal) on PTSD via problem-focused thought rumination and whether social support would moderate these associations. The sample was composed of 282 current or former military veterans who had been deployed at least once for 90 days or more. Most participants were White (n = 199, 70.6%), male (n = 169, 59.9%), Christian (n = …

Transpersonal In Counselor Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Unity Nova Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The aim of this qualitative study was to capture the experiences of master's levelcounselors-in-training who take transpersonal counseling courses. Instructors of such courses aim both to help students develop competence in counseling clients who have had transpersonal experiences--those that, despite their occurrence beyond the usual limits of reality, are believed by experiencers to be real (Holden, 1999), and to promote counselor development (Walker, 2022). Participants were four students who had completed such a course, two each from two U.S. universities, one located in the Southwest and the other in the East. I conducted a transcendental phenomenological analysis by interviewing participants, …

The Importance Of Sleep For Flexibly Coping With Daily Stress, Calissa Leslie-Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Coping flexibility, the ability to match coping strategy choice to the demands of a situation, has been found to diminish the effects of daily stress. Despite the importance of high levels of coping flexibility, little research has explored factors that can predict one’s ability to demonstrate coping flexibility. One promising avenue for such research is the role of sleep. This research aims to explore the importance of sleep as a predictor of daily coping flexibility across two studies. Study one consists of one hundred and fifty college student participants who were recruited in the Spring 2021 semester at the College …

The Impact Of Facial Coverings On Emotion Recognition Accuracy And Confidence During The Covid-19 Pandemic: An International Comparison, Fatima Zahera Nayani

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

With increased face mask usage globally following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand factors that influence mask wearing behavior. One factor that may influence mask wearing behavior is the degree to which they potentially impair emotion recognition. Previous research that has suggested that there may be cultural differences in facial regions that people in Japan and the United States attend to when inferring a target’s emotional state, whereby Japanese are more likely to look to the eyes and Americans are more likely to look at the mouth (Yuki et al., 2006 & Jack et al., …

What Lies Beneath? Examining The Explicit And Implicit Attitudes Of Omnivores Towards Vegetarians, Harini Krishnamurti

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Vegetarians are a unique social minority group because they fail to engage in dominant social norms with respect to meat consumption. Research has revealed that vegetarians reported lower self-esteem, lower psychological adjustment, less meaning in life, more negative moods, and more negative social experiences than omnivores. These experiences may be the result of experiencing ostracism, exclusion, disrespect, and derogation from omnivores. Although previous research has shown that omnivores report relatively positive explicit attitudes toward vegetarians, these reports can be susceptible to social desirability biases and may undermine the degree of negativity of omnivores’ attitudes toward vegetarians. To understand the nature …

Emotional Resilience In Children With Incarcerated Mothers: A Person-Centered Approach, Jenna B. Marzougui

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

According to Bioecological theory, social and environmental contexts (e.g., parental incarceration) shape child outcomes (Brofennbrenner & Ceci, 1994). Research suggests that children with incarcerated parents are at heightened risk of experiencing adverse outcomes, yet, little research has focused on resilience in this population (Arditti et al., 2020). Conceptualized within a Bioecological framework (Brofennbrenner & Ceci, 1994), the present study used a person-centered approach to investigate emotional resilience in children with incarcerated mothers. Participants were 148 children (Mage = 9.87 years, SD = 1.65 years, range = 7- 13 years, 52.7% female, 66% Black), their 116 incarcerated mothers (Mage = 32.8 …

Error Commission And Aging: Using Single-Trial Movement Kinematics To Decode The Time-Course Of Response Monitoring Processes During Complex Decisions In Older And Younger Adults, Emily Norton

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

We are constantly making decisions in everyday life that involve interactions with our environment: from simple behaviors like deciding to reach for your cup of coffee to complex behaviors like deciding which route to take to work. It is well known that these decisions require constant monitoring, such that decision-making is not a discrete event and requires initiation, monitoring, and evaluation for success. This process can be seen during error-corrections, in which an initial plan was implemented, an error was recognized, and a new plan was implemented to correct the initial response. While we have learned a great deal about …

Alcohol-Related Craving And Response Inhibition: Examining Effects Of Mindfulness Among Binge Drinking And Cannabis Using College Students, Eleftherios Mehael Hetelekides

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The present study aimed to examine several research questions related to alcohol craving, state mindfulness, and response inhibition in binge drinking college students who do and do not use cannabis. Before and after listening to a mindfulness or a control audio clip, participants (N = 30) completed a cued Go/NoGo task. EEG activity was measured throughout, and alcohol craving was assessed before and after each task. We examined whether P300 amplitude would differ as a function of the within-subjects variables Block (1 vs. 2), Target (Go vs. NoGo), and Cue (Alcohol vs. Neutral) of each task. We also examined if …

Intergroup Perceptions Of Discrimination, Neelamberi Klein

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Efforts to effectively combat discrimination require an understanding of how groups in power think about those experiencing prejudice and discrimination. To study how White individuals think about the discrimination faced by different racial groups (Non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, Middle Eastern, Native and Indigenous, Latinx and Hispanic, and Mixed-Race men and women), 304 White participants completed an edited version of the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Hypervigilance scale for each of these 14 groups to assess participants’ perceptions that these targets experience discrimination. Further, explicit attitudes towards each group were assessed with feelings thermometers. Results of our within subjects ANOVAs found …

Promoting The Well-Being Of Youth Involved In The Juvenile Justice System: An Ecological Perspective, Jennifer Marie Traver

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system often express hope for their future. However, most research on this population centers on negative outcomes, such as being re-arrested or developing mental health problems. The purpose of the current study was to better understand factors that promote positive development of youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979), we examined whether the following variables were associated with well-being: maternal warmth, peer warmth, school bonding, neighborhood conditions, or procedural justice.

The current study used data from the Crossroads Study. Participants included 1,216 adolescent male first-time offenders who …