Digital Commons Network^™

They See Me Scrolling, And I'M Hating: Instagram Usage And Its Effect On Self-Esteem And Body Image, Keva Brianna Natalie Chang

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Research has consistently shown that exposure to thin-ideal media images negatively influences self-perception. Given the escalation of reliance on social media and the heavy online presence of young adults, particularly women, it is essential to identify ways that social media can influence perceptions of body image and self-esteem. This research proposal presents an exploratory investigation into the impact that social media, specifically Instagram, has on women’s views of themselves and their bodies. The aim of the present study is to examine the potential effects of celebrity images, compared with equally attractive peer images and scenery (control) images, on body image …

Body Dissatisfaction: Searching For A Link Between Depressive Symptoms, Body Image, And Eating Patterns, Lucy Sorrell

Senior Projects Spring 2019

The ideal body sizes for men and women in the United States have decreased significantly over the last 50+ years, while average body sizes increased. This discrepancy has been accompanied by elevated levels of body dissatisfaction in both women and men. In turn, body dissatisfaction can predict unhealthy eating habits and weight loss behaviors such as dieting. Body image research has found a relationship between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms. The present cross-sectional study aimed to test if depressive symptoms moderated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and eating patterns. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) measured depressive …

Keeping It In The Family: How Family Functioning And Childhood Environment Impacts Social Anxiety In College Students, Shira Prusky

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) affects approximately 7% of the United States population yearly. Certain factors such as disturbed family functioning and the occurrence of adverse life events during childhood or adolescence significantly increase the risk of developing social anxiety later in life. This study proposal examines the relationship between childhood experiences with the severity and occurrence of SAD in the college population to see if childhood experiences affect the ability to focus on a single task after exposure to socially salient information. 250 undergraduate students will be randomly placed in either a control condition, without any exposure to a social …

An Exploration Of Musical Performance Anxiety (Mpa) And Its Relation To Perfectionism And Performance, Gitta Marko

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Musical Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a critical and common issue for musicians, as much of their success and income depends on their quality of performance. MPA is the experience of distressful apprehension about and/or impairment of performance, not reflecting the individual’s musical abilities. Since the pressure to perform their best is extremely high for musicians, striving for perfection in this field is typical. In my senior project, I investigated the elements and mechanisms behind the development of MPA and its relation to perfectionism. Seventeen Bard Conservatory musicians’ levels of MPA and perfectionism were assessed using established measures prior to their …

Stimulus Regulation In Pediatric Trichotillomania, Tia Rose Lee

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Previous research on pediatric trichotillomania (TTM) has focused on the difference between two different subgroups of hair-pullers: “focused” pullers (i.e. those who pull within their awareness) and “automatic” pullers (i.e. those who pull outside of their awareness; Christenson et al., 1992; Flessner et al., 2008; Penzel, 2003). To date, only one other study has examined how sensory processing may differ between these two groups, or how these differences may impact these groups’ hair-pulling triggers (Falkenstein et al., 2018). Thus, the aim of the current study was to analyze how sensory processing patterns may differ between predominantly focused pullers and predominantly …

“Only Girls Play With Those”: An Analysis Of Preschoolers’ Gender Schema Development Through Gender Stereotype Knowledge And Recognition Of Gendered Information, Abigail Lee Sullivan

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Since Sandra Bem’s introduction of Gender Schema Theory (GST), researchers have analyzed how gender schemas influence children’s information processing (Signorella, Bigler, & Liben, 1993; Welch-Ross & Schmidt, 1996). These studies, however, tested schema processing using familiar gender-atypical information (e.g., “only boys play with dolls”) instead of novel gender-atypical information (e.g., “only girls play with xylophones”). The present study seeks to fill this gap in the research by using novel gender-atypical information in order to test the extent to which children’s schemas influence their information processing. First, I tested children’s memory and preference for two picture books, one with a female …

To Conceive Of Consonance In Chaos: The Influence Of The Harmonic Series On The Perception Of A New Musical System, Luke Sandbank

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

A Wizard Hat For The Brain: Predicting Long-Term Memory Retention Using Electroencephalography, Noah Libby

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Learning is a ubiquitous process that transforms novel information and events into stored memory representations that can later be accessed. As a learner acquires new information, any feature of a memory that is shared with other memories may produce some level of retrieval- competition, making accurate recall more difficult. One of the most effective ways to reduce this competition and create distinct representations for potentially confusable memories is to practice retrieving all of the information through self-testing with feedback. As a person tests themself, competition between easily-confusable memories (e.g. memories that share similar visual or semantic features) decreases and memory …

A Test Of Obedience Or Patience? A Modified Replication Of “Nothing By Mere Authority” By Haslam Et Al. (2014), John J. Machen

Senior Projects Spring 2019

After Milgram’s infamous experiments and their subsequent ethical critiques, social psychologists have been challenged to search for ways to learn more about the psychology of destructive obedience while still holding true to modern IRB standards of participant protection. One of the ways in which this has been attempted is through the invention of newer and safer paradigms of the Milgram task, perhaps the best known of which would be Jerry Burger's (2009) partial replication of Milgram’s voice-feedback experiment. Five years later, a team of researchers devised a completely new obedience task, the simplified premise of which was to have naive …

Motivation In Minority Populations: Perceived Locus Of Control And The Effect Of Ethnic Matching, Matthew R. Agosto

Senior Projects Spring 2019

The aim of this study is to measure the differences in perception of the locus of control of a target individual in two motivational scenarios and discover the effect of ethnic/non-ethnic matching conditions. Two different motivational strategies were used to assess the role of ethnic matching in perceiving other people as well as identifying with them. Rotter’s Internal External locus of control scale (I-E scale) is utilized in a novel way. Subjects were asked not to report their own control beliefs, but rather, the beliefs they perceive the target individual to hold true. The following study measures participants’ perceived locus …