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Psychology

Department of Psychology

Northern Illinois University

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The Effects Of The Estrous Cycle On The Pca Index, Lana T. Samuel May 2024

The Effects Of The Estrous Cycle On The Pca Index, Lana T. Samuel

Honors Capstones

Females experience a wide range of hormonal changes throughout their menstrual cycle. These hormonal changes can have significant effects on a female's behavior, food and fluid intake, stress levels, motivation, memory, and social interactions. One effect of hormones is that they can increase sugar cravings, leading to higher sugar intake. Hormonal changes can also cause females to feel unmotivated and depressed, which can impact their daily functioning. To gain a better understanding of these effects, I used the rodent as a model to better understand the impact of hormonal fluctuations on reward processes for a highly palatable sugar reward. The …


Childhood Sexual Abuse And The Role Of Experiential Avoidance In College Alcohol Use, Regina Montes May 2024

Childhood Sexual Abuse And The Role Of Experiential Avoidance In College Alcohol Use, Regina Montes

Honors Capstones

Childhood trauma has been related in numerous studies to maladaptive behavior as well as risky behaviors in adulthood, such as alcohol use. However, few studies have focused specifically on the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and alcohol use. Moreover, experiential avoidance has been shown to be an important factor in poor behavioral outcomes in young adults with a history of childhood trauma. The present study explores experiential avoidance as a mediating factor of the relationship between CSA and alcohol severity in college students. Data for this current investigation was collected as a part of a larger study of undergraduate …


The Effects Of The Estrous Cycle On The Pca Index, Lana T. Samuel May 2024

The Effects Of The Estrous Cycle On The Pca Index, Lana T. Samuel

Honors Capstones

Females experience a wide range of hormonal changes throughout their menstrual cycle. These hormonal changes can have significant effects on a female's behavior, food and fluid intake, stress levels, motivation, memory, and social interactions. One effect of hormones is that they can increase sugar cravings, leading to higher sugar intake. Hormonal changes can also cause females to feel unmotivated and depressed, which can impact their daily functioning. To gain a better understanding of these effects, I used the rodent as a model to better understand the impact of hormonal fluctuations on reward processes for a highly palatable sugar reward. The …


Test Anxiety Inflation, Brian Podkulski, David P. Valentiner May 2024

Test Anxiety Inflation, Brian Podkulski, David P. Valentiner

Honors Capstones

Mental health conditions are higher than ever worldwide, despite best efforts to increase public awareness and deliver informed solutions. To account for this rise, some suggested models argue that measures taken to ameliorate mental health problems are actually contributing to their inflation through iatrogenic effects. The current proposed study seeks to identify the possibility of iatrogenic effects on test anxiety as a product of psychoeducational material. The scope of this study includes the immediate effects of viewing a typical short-form informational video on core and adjacent symptoms of test anxiety. Participants will engage with our study entirely through an online …


Trauma Type, Resilience And Sense Of Self, Caitlin R. Callahan May 2024

Trauma Type, Resilience And Sense Of Self, Caitlin R. Callahan

Honors Capstones

Most individuals will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime (Alim et al., 2008), potentially leading to a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD can have significant psychological and physical repercussions (Brady et al., 1997). Experiencing trauma, such as interpersonal or non-interpersonal, can negatively impact resiliency and sense of self. The current study hypothesized that participants who reported interpersonal trauma as their worst event would report lower resilience and sense of self compared to participants reporting a non-interpersonal trauma. Four hundred and twenty-nine undergraduate students were given questionnaires to assess traumatic experiences, resiliency, and sense of self using …


Gender Differences In Youth’S Mental Health Problems During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kimberly A. Hohlfeld Dec 2023

Gender Differences In Youth’S Mental Health Problems During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kimberly A. Hohlfeld

Honors Capstones

The purpose of this research paper is to examine whether young girls were more likely to experience depression and anxiety symptoms than young boys during the COVID-19 pandemic at two time points, in April of 2020 and May of 2020. An additional hypothesis that was examined was whether the presence of siblings in the home moderated the association between gender and depression and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. T-tests were used to analyze the mean differences in youth mental health symptoms based on gender. Young girls were found to experience significantly higher anxiety symptoms in May of 2020 than …


Assessing The Association Between Experiential Avoidance, Resilience, And Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms, Victoria G. Latayan Dec 2023

Assessing The Association Between Experiential Avoidance, Resilience, And Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms, Victoria G. Latayan

Honors Capstones

Resilience is a specific skill that can be fostered over time which, when mastered in greater amounts, allows individuals to more readily cope with interpersonal conflict and stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which experiential avoidance of distressing stimuli and trait resilience predict Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. To test this, participants were instructed to complete self-report questionnaires that assessed experiential avoidance and resilience. Each participant also completed the PTSD checklist for DSM-5. The results of the study showed that while trait resilience did not significantly predict Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS), experiential avoidance and …


The Effects Of Color On Flavor, Tiffany S. Yoo May 2023

The Effects Of Color On Flavor, Tiffany S. Yoo

Honors Capstones

Color and its relation to flavor, is a complex cognitive phenomenon that researchers today are still trying to decipher. The present literature review is an examination of the history of color, process of color perception, the effects of additional factors such as saturation, the exploration of senses that may potentially contribute to perception itself, and the different modern theories suggested. The purpose of this project was to review, revise, and narrow down which theories can be deemed as accurate in terms of the amount of support addressed by modern literature. While a clear-cut answer was not concluded, three potential theories …


Analyzing Parent Trust As A Predictor Of Parental Involvement With Adhd As Moderator, Justin D. Ligeski May 2023

Analyzing Parent Trust As A Predictor Of Parental Involvement With Adhd As Moderator, Justin D. Ligeski

Honors Capstones

The current study examined the relationship between parent trust and parent involvement. Higher levels of parent involvement have been shown to have positive effects on child behavior and achievement, and past studies have found significant positive correlations between levels of trust and involvement. ADHD was examined as a possible moderator of the association between trust and parent involvement. Extant data from a larger study involving parents of students in kindergarten was examined. Regression was used to examine the association between parent trust and parent involvement behaviors. ADHD was included in the regression models as a moderator. Results indicated that some …


Perpetrators’ And Victims’ Folk Explanations Of Aggressive Behaviors And Desires For Apologies, Randy J. Mccarthy, Jared Wilson Jan 2023

Perpetrators’ And Victims’ Folk Explanations Of Aggressive Behaviors And Desires For Apologies, Randy J. Mccarthy, Jared Wilson

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

After an aggressive interaction, perpetrators most want to offer apologies when they have unintentionally harmed another person and victims most want to receive an apology when another person intentionally harmed them. Perpetrators and victims also explain aggressive behaviors differently—perpetrators often explain their own aggressive behaviors by referring to beliefs they considered that led to their behaviors (i.e., “belief” explanations), whereas victims explain perpetrators’ behaviors by referring to background factors that do not mention the perpetrators’ mental deliberations (i.e., “causal history explanations”). Putting these ideas together, the current Registered Report had participants recall either a time they intentionally harmed another person …


Are All High-Potentials Successful Leaders? Exploring The Underlying Effect Of Impostor Syndrome And Evaluative Concerns On The Relationship Between Hipo Designation And Leadership Self-Efficacy., Anjishnu Chakrabarti, Lisa M. Finkelstein May 2022

Are All High-Potentials Successful Leaders? Exploring The Underlying Effect Of Impostor Syndrome And Evaluative Concerns On The Relationship Between Hipo Designation And Leadership Self-Efficacy., Anjishnu Chakrabarti, Lisa M. Finkelstein

Honors Capstones

The rising prevalence of high-potential (HiPo) employee programs in organizations has led academicians to begin to research this newly developing area under the realm of industrial/organizational psychology. High-potential programs are intended to find employees with the maximum potential to succeed in strategic leadership roles within the organization and provide those individuals with specialized training and related developmental opportunities. The term “HiPo” refers to such employees who are designated as having higher potential than the average. This study aimed to explore the relationship that exists between employees being designated as HiPo and their self-perception of being successful leaders (measured as leadership …