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Language Acquisition Intervention: A Prototype In Supplemental Children's Education Through Media, Kelly A. Vidovic
Language Acquisition Intervention: A Prototype In Supplemental Children's Education Through Media, Kelly A. Vidovic
Honors Capstones
The purpose of this project is to design a game which will help narrow the divide in child development between households and improve vocabulary skills. It has been found that there is a positive correlation between parent’s speaking with their children and the child’s educational development, particularly in language (Fernald, Marchman, & Weisleder, 2013). This is thought to be a result of the child being exposed to more words more often, which aids in their language development and continues to assist in their educational development over time. Further studies have also indicated that early life interventions’, such as educational tv …
Evidence For Viability-Vulnerability: Early Stress Predicts Inhibition In Girls, But Not Boys At 24 Months, Marissa M. Dawson
Evidence For Viability-Vulnerability: Early Stress Predicts Inhibition In Girls, But Not Boys At 24 Months, Marissa M. Dawson
Honors Capstones
Current literature within the field of child cognitive development lacks the understanding of the effects of child sex on cognitive development. . It is previously known that children’s social and cognitive development can be affected, positively or negatively, by outside factors, such as low socioeconomic status, but additional factors need to be examined. This study aims to fill these gaps. This study examined the associations between early cognitive development, child sex, and contextual stress through use of data from an overarching longitudinal study. Mothers completed self-report paper questionnaires, gathering basic background information and levels of anxiety and depression, at 4 …
Art & Psychology: How The Brain Revolutionizes And Transforms The Arts, Emma G. Beck
Art & Psychology: How The Brain Revolutionizes And Transforms The Arts, Emma G. Beck
Honors Capstones
Art and Psychology: How the Brain Revolutionizes and Transforms the Arts, a high school art curriculum, explores how the theories of psychology can be applied and adapted to an art class and create a critical educational experience for students. Students will explore this curriculum through 3 units, Biopsychology and Art, Motivation and Art, and Social Psychology and Art. Each unit explores a variety of medium and theme all based around applying personal reference to real world issues.
Relation Between Parents' Goals And Early Adolescents' Social Skills, Justin B. Arms
Relation Between Parents' Goals And Early Adolescents' Social Skills, Justin B. Arms
Honors Capstones
This project studied adolescent outcomes of different parent goals. Specifically, this project looks at whether parent centered goals and child centered goals are correlated with adolescent social skills. We broke down adolescent social skills into four different categories- assertion, cooperation, empathy, and self-control. Participants in the study were 78 7th graders and their primary caregiver (usually the child’s mother). Data was collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted during home visits. The study failed to find significant correlations between parent centered goals and the outcome variables, as well as between child centered goals and the outcome variables. Because of this, …
Gender Similarities And Differences In Military Sexual Trauma, Megan A. Boehning
Gender Similarities And Differences In Military Sexual Trauma, Megan A. Boehning
Honors Capstones
While treatment and knowledge of military sexual trauma has improved, there are still issues in understanding MST and how well victims adjust. There are various consequences that affect MST survivor’s lives, including health, psychological, and lifetime implications. Though men and women both face many of the same outcomes of MST, they also endure gender-specific sequela. This manuscript will examine the similarities and differences in barriers, symptoms, and treatment for men and women service members. Much of the research that is presented in this paper includes meta-analyses as well as singular studies. The main demographics in the studies tend to be …
Bullying Participant Role Behavior And Social And Emotional Outcomes, Bethany S. Beggs
Bullying Participant Role Behavior And Social And Emotional Outcomes, Bethany S. Beggs
Honors Capstones
The current study was designed to investigate bullying participant role behavior and their associated social and emotional outcomes. Bullying is an important and prevalent problem in schools today, with participation in bullying indicating negative outcomes later in life. Data were collected from 303 students attending a middle school in the rural Midwestern United States. Participants were asked for demographic information and were given two measures: the Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire (BPBQ) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The bullying role behaviors from the BPBQ were used as independent variables: bully, victim, assistant, defender, and outsider. Four of the five …
Psychological Perspectives On The Lives Of Transgender Individuals: A Review Of The Literature, Kaitlyn N. Fritz
Psychological Perspectives On The Lives Of Transgender Individuals: A Review Of The Literature, Kaitlyn N. Fritz
Honors Capstones
Transgender people as a whole suffer from social invisibility, as the general public is often misinformed about them. Because of the misinformation and ignorance surrounding public opinion of transgender people, it is difficult to conduct psychological studies involving this population. The purpose for this review is to shed some light on how the lives of transgender peoples actually are. The main areas that will be addressed in this review include tracking how transgenderism has been viewed from a clinical psychology perspective in the current and past editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, how transgender people face transphobia and are …
What Is The Relationship Between Adolescent Adjustment And Distress From Ostracism?, Taylor A. Nelson
What Is The Relationship Between Adolescent Adjustment And Distress From Ostracism?, Taylor A. Nelson
Honors Capstones
This investigation examined the relationship between adolescent adjustment and distress from ostracism. Specifically, it looked at whether peer victimization and maternal consulting about peer relationships moderate the relationship between adolescents' overall depression and distress from ostracism. Several questions were of interest. First, is the relationship between adolescents' overall depression and distress from ostracism moderated by maternal consulting? It was hypothesized that higher levels of overall depression in conjunction with higher levels of consulting will be related to lower levels of distress. Second, is the relationship between adolescents overall depression in distress from ostracism moderated by victimization? It was hypothesized that …
The Effects Of A Serious Game On Learning, Gary Timmins
The Effects Of A Serious Game On Learning, Gary Timmins
Honors Capstones
This study tested the hypothesis that video game attributes (e.g., points, competition, pedagogical agents) affect learning and engagement in a computerized learning environment. Thirty-two undergraduate psychology students were randomly assigned to two computerized learning environments meant to teach aspects of scientific inquiry (e.g., the need for control groups). Both groups read, critiqued and identified flaws in short descriptions of research. One group used a program that simulates a video game environment while the other used a traditional computer-assisted instructional format. Both conditions were given a pre-test and post-test. An interaction between time of test and the game was found, indicating …
The Role Of Executive Functions In Facilitating Soothing Behavior During Interactions With A Simulated Distressed Infant, Katie M. Laws
The Role Of Executive Functions In Facilitating Soothing Behavior During Interactions With A Simulated Distressed Infant, Katie M. Laws
Honors Capstones
Prior work has noted the importance of parenting for supporting the development of emotion regulation in infants/children. The goal of this study was to examine the influence of adult EF on behavioral responses to infant distress. The current investigation used a novel methodological approach, the infant simulator paradigm (ISIM), to evaluate the effects of participant EF on soothing behavior during interactions with an inconsolable, simulated infant. Given the importance ofEF in regulation of behavior, it was predicted that participants with lower EF would engage in fewer soothing behaviors (i.e., sensitive vocalizations, soothing touch, distracting, and caretaking efforts) than participants with …
A Comparison Of Alcoholics Memories Of Their First Drinks As Compared To Non-Alcoholics, Jill Mech
A Comparison Of Alcoholics Memories Of Their First Drinks As Compared To Non-Alcoholics, Jill Mech
Honors Capstones
This study examined the relationship between alcoholics' memories of their first drinks as compared to non-alcoholics' memories of their first drinks. The participants were 36 members of Alcoholics Anonymous and 12 non-alcoholic volunteers (39 male, 8 female, 1 did not indicate gender). Results did not indicate a significant relationship between whether or not the participant was an alcoholic and the vividness of their memories of their first drink. However, results did indicate that alcoholics remembered their drink as being slightly more pleasant than non-alcoholics.
Gender And Ethnicity As Moderator Of Young Adults' Perception With Their Mother And Grandparents, Erika Quezada
Gender And Ethnicity As Moderator Of Young Adults' Perception With Their Mother And Grandparents, Erika Quezada
Honors Capstones
Limited research is available on adolescent-grandparent relationships, especially from the young adult perspective and across ethnicities. This study explores the perception of the child-mother and the grandchild-grandparent relationships across Caucasian, African American and Hispanic ethnicities as well as the role young adults' gender plays in predicting the quality of the grandchild-grandparent relationship. This study was based on answers to a structured questionnaire from a sample of274 undergraduate students aged 19-24 at a large Midwestern university. Mixed results suggest that perception of the relationship is moderated by ethnicity and gender. Findings suggest that young adults of Caucasian descent perceived a more …
The Effect Of Audience Type On Written Argumentation, Chelsey Gibson
The Effect Of Audience Type On Written Argumentation, Chelsey Gibson
Honors Capstones
Many students have difficulty constructing a quality written argument, especially when they must consider an audience. The difficulty may be that they do not possess an adequate schema for constructing an argument. In this study, we manipulated two conditions: audience type (friendly, hostile, mixed) and instructions (tutor, no tutor) in order to determine the effect they have on number of rebuttals, explanations, counters, reasons, adaptations, appeals, and pejoratives, We hypothesized that participants in the tutor condition will perform better than those in the no tutor condition at all levels of audience type. We also hypothesized that students with a hostile …
Do Higher Exam Grades Predict Higher Standards Of Success And More Test Anxiety?, Shannon B. Iverson
Do Higher Exam Grades Predict Higher Standards Of Success And More Test Anxiety?, Shannon B. Iverson
Honors Capstones
The current study used a short-term, prospective design to examine the relationships among test anxiety, test performance, students' standards for success, and students' test selfefficacy (i.e., performance expectancies). College freshmen (N = 171) enrolled in an introductory psychology course during their first semester of college completed Time 1 questionnaires about one week before their first in-class exam. One hundred two participants (56% of Time 1 participants) completed Time 2 questionnaires up to one week after learning the results of their test scores and about two weeks prior to their second in-class exam. Irrelevant Thinking subscale scores on the Revised Test …
Assessing Hormones In Response To Trauma, Corina E. Klein
Assessing Hormones In Response To Trauma, Corina E. Klein
Honors Capstones
Hormones produced in the body may be important in ameliorating the effects of traumatic stress. Previous research bas shown that the concentration of several hormones, such as cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA-sulfated (DHEAS) in a given individual who has been exposed to a traumatic event may be indicative of the likelihood that the individual will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The current study assessed whether higher levels of cortisol in comparison to DHEA or DHEAS could indicate a predisposition toward future mental illness following an emotionally stressful event. Female students from Northern lllinois University provided salivary samples before and following …
Can Contempt Cost You An Election?, Megan Geyer
Can Contempt Cost You An Election?, Megan Geyer
Honors Capstones
Are politicians who show contempt less likely to attract support from voters? In this project we tested this question using a laboratory experiment. 37 students were recruited from undergraduate courses at NIU. Participants viewed video clips of politicians (both signaling contempt and more neutral emotions), respond to a number of survey quesitons. The emotions signaled in the stimulus videos were FACS coded. Although statistical significance was not achieved, the results were in the hypothesized direction, indicating that politicians were perceived more negatively when contemptuous compared to when facially neutral.
Effects Of Utility Value And Goals On Task Performance And Interest, Jeffery J. Kosovich
Effects Of Utility Value And Goals On Task Performance And Interest, Jeffery J. Kosovich
Honors Capstones
The perception of utility in tasks has been shown to facilitate performance and interest. This study (N = 160) is an extension of work by Hulleman and colleagues and is a 2 (success expectancy: high, low) x 2 (utility level: No Utility, Utility) x 2 (goal level: no goal, difficult goal), between-subjects design. Previous findings have shown that individuals with low success expectancies benefit from a utility manipulation, but high success expectancy individuals do not. The current study aimed to facilitate performance and interest, particularly in high expectancy participants. Participants learned a new math technique. After the practice session, participants …
Children Giving Eyewitness Testmionies In A Court Of Law, Kaitlin Hargate
Children Giving Eyewitness Testmionies In A Court Of Law, Kaitlin Hargate
Honors Capstones
In a court of law, the issue of a child giving an eyewitness account has been debated among professionals. There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting that children are unable to give a reliable account. Their cognitive ability to perceive a questionable situation is not fully developed, and neither is their ability to recall memories. In order to examine the different variables surrounding this issue, a literature review was conducted. The results of numerous studies suggest that although children may not be the most reliable witnesses, sometimes they are the only witnesses. The following literature review discusses the conditions …
Conceptualization Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder : Differences By Trauma Type And Gender, Tracy Muklewicz
Conceptualization Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder : Differences By Trauma Type And Gender, Tracy Muklewicz
Honors Capstones
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder has carried various implications for clinicians, particularly in the areas of gender and trauma type. Extensive literature review provides indication that individual research is fairly restricted to highly specific types of PTSD symptoms and presentations, which could limit the overall effectiveness of the disorder as a diagnostic tool. A history of PTSD as a diagnosis is presented. Three types of trauma are discussed in a research setting: Crime victims, military personnel, and gender non-specific traumas. Each study is reviewed in light of future directions for PTSD research to make the diagnostic category less ambiguous and more applicable …
Explanatory Style And Goal Setting, Michele A. Rozhon
Explanatory Style And Goal Setting, Michele A. Rozhon
Honors Capstones
I conducted a longitudinal study to investigate whether the diathesis stress model of learned helplessness could account for differences in goal setting and performance. One week before a midterm exam, 136 college students completed questionnaires measuring explanatory style, threat appraisals, situational constraints, academic ability, level of depression, goal priorities, and academic goals. One week after the midterm exam, course grade goals were measured again and midterm exam scores were obtained. Results suggested modest support for the diathesis-stress model of learned helplessness: 1) Pessimists set lower goals with respect to the exam, but not with respect to course grade, 2) situational …
Childhood Abuse, Assertiveness, And Date Rape : Uncovering Precursors To Future Victimization, Karen L. Wareham
Childhood Abuse, Assertiveness, And Date Rape : Uncovering Precursors To Future Victimization, Karen L. Wareham
Honors Capstones
One-hundred-seventy-one undergraduate females completed three questionnaires concerning childhood abuse, assertiveness, and date rape in an attempt to uncover precursors to recidivism of abuse. As predicted, significant positive correlations were found between child abuse before and after age 13. However, no significant correlation was found between childhood abuse and date rape. In examining lack of assertiveness as a precursor, the mean assertiveness scores of child abuse and date rape survivors after age 13 were lower than the overall mean; however, the combined score of those abused as children either before or after 13 and the score of those abused before 13 …
The Literary Traveler As A Metaphor Of A Human Psychological Cycle, Jeff Guga
The Literary Traveler As A Metaphor Of A Human Psychological Cycle, Jeff Guga
Honors Capstones
Readers of literature are frequently exposed to principal characters who are travelers. The traveler and his adventure are metaphors of a human psychological cycle—a cycle driven by the need to come to terms with our forthcoming deaths and a cycle which ends, if successful, with a perceived understanding of his or her existence. In pursuing this thesis, an analysis is made of the following novels: Candide, Don Quixote, Gulliver’s Travels, and the Divine Comedy (three books).
Minority Influence In Group Decision Making As A Function Of Influence Type And Majority Goal Orientation, Kelli A. Saelens
Minority Influence In Group Decision Making As A Function Of Influence Type And Majority Goal Orientation, Kelli A. Saelens
Honors Capstones
The effectiveness of minority influence in group decision making was investigated as a function of the form of influence asserted by the minority confederate (either normative or informational), the goal orientation of group members, (either task or harmony) , and the sex of the individual. Regarding influence mode, normative influences exerted by the deviant minority appealed to social norms, whereas informational influence was factual in nature. Individual goal orientation of the three group members was determined by an adaptation of the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ). Task-oriented individuals have agentic goals in group situations, whereas harmony-oriented individuals are communally oriented.
Size And Complexity As Stimulus Characteristics Effecting Choice Behaviors On A Learning Task In Young Children, Kristia A. Stout
Size And Complexity As Stimulus Characteristics Effecting Choice Behaviors On A Learning Task In Young Children, Kristia A. Stout
Honors Capstones
The study examines the effects of the qualitative factors size and complexity of stimulus objects on preschool and first grade children on a learning task. Choice behavior is looked at with regards to initial choice (with the eyes) and final choice (with the hands). Other variables included in the analysis are long-term novelty and proportion of looks towards the rewarded object as a function of positive (choosing the rewarded object) and negative (choosing the unrewarded) choice outcomes. The results showed that first grade children are better at utilizing stimulus characteristics to aid their choice behavior, and further, that the specific …
The Influences Of Caregiver Experience And Cry Type Upon Adults' Caregiving Behaviors, Karen Sears
The Influences Of Caregiver Experience And Cry Type Upon Adults' Caregiving Behaviors, Karen Sears
Honors Capstones
Past research has investigated both cry perception and cry acoustics to determine whether cries elicited by differing stimuli can be distinguished by adults and whether caregiving experience affects this ability. Although these questions have been studied since the 1920s, a state of controversy still exists. More recently, Wolff (1969) and Murray (1979) have proposed that cries elicited by hunger and pain are not discrete cry types, but rather, are two different levels of one single, graded signal. According to Wolff, a cry’s causal stimulus can be identified only during the initial wails, after which the cry settles into a basic …