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Advertisements Effects On Childhood Obesity, Sarah Peters
Advertisements Effects On Childhood Obesity, Sarah Peters
Undergraduate Research Posters
Junk food advertisers spend billions of dollars every year on advertising aimed at children. These foods are known to be major contributors to the obesity epidemic, a growing problem around the world. Food advertising should be regulated to exclude advertisements that appeal to those under twelve as these children do not have fully developed cognitive defenses. This paper investigates the effects of cartoon characters, packaging, and branding in television advertisements on childhood obesity by analyzing various pieces of literature related to obesity, cognitive defenses, home environments, and advertisements. Advertising and branding overcome children’s cognitive defenses and thus negatively influence childhood …
Detecting Changes In Coherence In Trauma Narratives Using Latent Semantic Analysis, Rose Bono
Detecting Changes In Coherence In Trauma Narratives Using Latent Semantic Analysis, Rose Bono
Undergraduate Research Posters
Repeatedly writing about a traumatic event can be therapeutic. This may be due to fuller cognitive processing of the traumatic memory. Greater written coherence, or the degree to which ideas relate to one another within a document, is one potential marker of cognitive processing. This investigation set out to determine how assigned writing topic affects coherence in a set of personal narratives (n=246). Participants were asked to come into the lab three times to write about either their daily activities (neutral condition) or the most traumatic event of their lives (trauma condition). The resulting narratives were submitted to a program …
The Relationship Between Gabra 2 And Illicit Substance Use, Hassan Khuram
The Relationship Between Gabra 2 And Illicit Substance Use, Hassan Khuram
Undergraduate Research Posters
Spit for Science: the VCU Student Survey aims to understand how genetic and environmental factors come together to influence substance use and emotional health. Previous studies in the literature have shown a relationship between variation in GABRA2 and substance use. It is of great interest to find out whether or not variations in the GABRA2 gene are associated with illicit drug use in this sample. It is hypothesized that polymorphisms in GABRA2 will have an association with increased use of illicit substances. In the fall of 2011, incoming VCU freshman had a chance to take the Spit for Science survey …
Relationship Between High School Antisocial Behavior And The Gabra2 Gene As Moderated By Peer Deviance, Sydney Levan
Relationship Between High School Antisocial Behavior And The Gabra2 Gene As Moderated By Peer Deviance, Sydney Levan
Undergraduate Research Posters
Spit for Science: the VCU Student Survey (S4S) is a university-wide project that aims to understand how genetic and environmental factors come together to influence substance use and emotional health. We investigated the association between GABRA2 and high school antisocial behavior as well as the potential moderating influence of peer deviance. 1,474 undergraduate students from the 2011 S4S cohort were genotyped at 8 SNPs in the GABRA2 gene and individual sum scores for both high school antisocial behavior and high school peers’ deviance were calculated. This study could strengthen known association findings between GABRA2 and related variables in the literature.
Associations Between Cultural Beliefs And Asthma Self-Efficacy In Pediatric Asthma, Crystal Mcnair
Associations Between Cultural Beliefs And Asthma Self-Efficacy In Pediatric Asthma, Crystal Mcnair
Undergraduate Research Posters
Cultural beliefs about medication effectiveness have been shown to differ by racial and ethnic backgrounds and can contribute to pediatric asthma disparities. Given that child asthma is managed within the family system, the caregiver beliefs about asthma medications may impact a child’s efficacy to manage their asthma. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between caregiver beliefs about asthma medications and child asthma self-efficacy.
Behavioral Inhibition And Anxiety, Alexis Exum
Behavioral Inhibition And Anxiety, Alexis Exum
Undergraduate Research Posters
Behavioral inhibition is the relationship between the tendency to experience distress, and the level of withdrawal from unfamiliar situations, people, or environments (Fox et al., 2004). The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) measures one of the underlying systems of behavior. The goal is to gauge one’s reactions to aversive motive, or the movement away from something unpleasant. Previous studies have examined the relationship between inhibition levels and anxiety or nervousness. Results have shown that adults who suffer from higher levels of anxiety or nervousness as measured by self-reports of nervousness (Carver et al., 1994) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Newman …
Expressions Of Grief And Change In The Poetry Projects Of Bereaved Vcu Students, Michael Pease, Sarah Gilbert, Brittany Amber Holloway, Lubna Zia-Uddin
Expressions Of Grief And Change In The Poetry Projects Of Bereaved Vcu Students, Michael Pease, Sarah Gilbert, Brittany Amber Holloway, Lubna Zia-Uddin
Undergraduate Research Posters
A large proportion of college students, (40%) have experienced the death of someone close to them (Holland, Currier, & Neimeyer, 2006), but little is known about how college students experience and cope with loss. Expressive writing has been posited as a method for dealing with traumatic experiences (Pennebaker, 1997), but its use with the bereaved has been called into question (Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, 2006). A stress management course at VCU allows students to complete loss-focused writing exercises, including acrostic “alphabet poems” for course credit. The current study aims to test the hypothesis that stages of grief (based on Rando’s …
Beta-Testing Of An Intervention Workbook To Promote Humility, Fatemeh Barghamadi
Beta-Testing Of An Intervention Workbook To Promote Humility, Fatemeh Barghamadi
Undergraduate Research Posters
A Beta-Testing of an Intervention Workbook to Promote Humility Fatima Barghamadi and Caroline Lavelock Abstract Background: Humility is a virtue that minimizes the importance of the self in the interest of others. It has been associated with a host of benefits, including better self-rated physical health, better relationship quality, higher academic performance, higher patience and empathy, and higher ratings of job performance (Davis et al., 2013; Krause, 2010; Peters, Rowatt, & Johnson, 2011). Lavelock et al. (under review) tested a workbook intervention to promote humility, and in its inaugural efficacy study, this workbook promoted trait humility in its participants over …
Child Anxiety Sensitivity In Juvenile Adolescent Twins, Laura E. Hazlett, Dever M. Carney
Child Anxiety Sensitivity In Juvenile Adolescent Twins, Laura E. Hazlett, Dever M. Carney
Undergraduate Research Posters
Child Anxiety Sensitivity in Juvenile Adolescent Twins. Researched by Laura Hazlett from the VCU Psychology Department. Help from faculty mentors Dr. John Hettema, Psychiatry and Dr. Roxann Roberson-Nay, Psychology. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a dispositional trait where one is fearful of anxiety symptoms, and is distinguishable from the trait of anxiety itself. (Eke & McNally, 1996). These fears of anxiety-related sensations are an important factor in predicting the emergence and severity of panic symptoms (McNally, 2002). The Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) is the child version of an 18-item self-report questionnaire commonly used to measure anxiety sensitivity. Zinbarg et al. …
Prevalence And Problematic Outcomes Associated With Dating Violence In Emerging Adults, Elisabeth Alison, Chrissy Ammons
Prevalence And Problematic Outcomes Associated With Dating Violence In Emerging Adults, Elisabeth Alison, Chrissy Ammons
Undergraduate Research Posters
Dating violence is a prevalent problem among emerging adults. As young people explore novel romantic relationships, conflicts inevitably arise that sometimes escalate to the point of violence (Salvatore, Collins, & Simpson, 2012). It is important to understand the prevalence of dating violence among emerging adults and the negative implications that may result. The current study explored the predictive relationship between sexual, psychological, and physical forms of dating violence in both perpetrators and victims on internalizing outcomes. Participants included 209 undergraduate students (78% female) at Virginia Commonwealth University enrolled in an Introduction to Psychology course, between the ages of 18 and …
A Review Of Life Stories For Themes Of Agency And Communion Within An Undergraduate Population, Courtney Jane Belmonte, Jennifer Wartella
A Review Of Life Stories For Themes Of Agency And Communion Within An Undergraduate Population, Courtney Jane Belmonte, Jennifer Wartella
Undergraduate Research Posters
Career decision-making and exploration are important activities for graduating undergraduates, yet previous studies reveal many students have not initiated this process in part due to lack of identity formation at this stage of development. A life story review exercise has been identified as one possible strategy for solidifying identity formation and increasing career decision-making and exploration. The Life Story exercise is a writing project that prompts students to write about key experiences that shape their identity. Previous research has demonstrated that these stories often revolve around themes of agency and communion. A recent study indicated that students that completed the …
Using The Life Story To Promote Identity Formation And Career Decision-Making In An Undergraduate Population, Courtney Jane Belmonte, Jennifer Wartella
Using The Life Story To Promote Identity Formation And Career Decision-Making In An Undergraduate Population, Courtney Jane Belmonte, Jennifer Wartella
Undergraduate Research Posters
Career decision-making and related preparation can be problematic for undergraduates approaching graduation. Previous studies reveal lack of identity formation can be an important barrier that partially accounts for challenge. Accordingly, this study explores whether a written project that prompts students to look at key experiences that shape identity can strengthen identity formation and career-decision-making in this group. Students completed an LS paper as well as questionnaires before and after paper submission. It was expected that undergraduate identity formation and career decision-making would increase following paper completion. Results partially confirmed this hypothesis. Statistically significant differences were found in career decision making …
Disordered Eating From Interpersonal Relationships And Body Comparisons, Taylor L. Dawson
Disordered Eating From Interpersonal Relationships And Body Comparisons, Taylor L. Dawson
Undergraduate Research Posters
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how women's relationships (with sisters, mothers, female friends and significant others) along with thin ideal media shape beauty ideals and contribute to eating disorders. I studied scholarly articles pertaining to exposure to underweight and healthy weight models and its effect on women. I also examined articles that discussed different types of comparisons that women made on themselves against the female figures in their lives. I examined studies on parental disordered eating and perceived body image. My preliminary conclusion is that women's comparisons in their interpersonal relationships have more of an effect on …