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The Power Of Our Imaginations Combined: Collaborative Imagination’S Role In Facilitating Social Connection, Sarah Smith May 2023

The Power Of Our Imaginations Combined: Collaborative Imagination’S Role In Facilitating Social Connection, Sarah Smith

Psychology

Imagined events and scenarios can influence our perceptions, cognitions, and emotions. It has been found that our imaginations are abundant with social scenarios and can affect how we think of our relationships with others, but can imagining an event together further impact our connection with others? And does the vividness of that imagined event correspond to social connection? In this study, we recruited 126 participants and separated them into pairs of which were then randomly assigned into one of three conditions. Collaborative imagination was found to increase social connection more so than individually imagining a shared social scenario. The vividness …


Do “Groove” Inducing Sounds Need To Be Perceived As Music For Individuals To Show Movement?, Edward Smith May 2023

Do “Groove” Inducing Sounds Need To Be Perceived As Music For Individuals To Show Movement?, Edward Smith

Psychology

Since rhythm can be found anywhere in the world, generated by humans, animals, and machines, a question arises about what makes us move to music. If an individual knows that the sounds they hear are music, do they move differently than if they do not think that the sounds are music? To address this, we designed an experiment with two between-subjects conditions in which all participants will be administered the same musical stimulus. One group of participants will be told that the stimulus is music, whereas the other group will be told that the stimulus is merely ambient sound that …


Neuronal Glutamate Transporters Mediate Stereotypic Reward-Based Behaviors, Jaci Yong Apr 2023

Neuronal Glutamate Transporters Mediate Stereotypic Reward-Based Behaviors, Jaci Yong

Psychology

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by obsessions (uncontrollable and recurring thoughts), and compulsions (behaviors that one has the urge to repeat several times). One of the genes carrying non-functional mutations in OCD is Slc1a1, the gene that encodes the neuronal glutamate transporter EAAC1. However, we still have an incomplete understanding of how EAAC1 contributes to the onset of compulsivity in OCD-like behaviors. EAAC1 is abundantly expressed in the striatum, the input nucleus of the basal ganglia implicated with compulsivity and reward. Here, we use a series of behavioral assays to determine whether and how reward-based …


Building Resilience, Julie Jasewicz May 2022

Building Resilience, Julie Jasewicz

Psychology

Amongst those most negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and other harmful events we find many examples of individuals who are able to “bounce back” from their adversities more easily than others. This reflects the concept of resilience—the process of positively adapting and evolving during and after experiencing adversity thereby becoming less vulnerable to future adversity. Due to a need to build resilience among college students, and without clear guidance as to how to do that, the present study investigated the effects of a resilience intervention. 232 college student participants were assigned to either an experimental group, who received the …


The Effects Of Metformin On High-Fat Diet-Induced Neuroinflammation And Cognitive Impairment, Caleb Levine May 2020

The Effects Of Metformin On High-Fat Diet-Induced Neuroinflammation And Cognitive Impairment, Caleb Levine

Psychology

Chronic high-fat feeding is associated with neuroinflammation, cognitive impairment, and anxiety-linked behaviors in rats. Metformin, a popular treatment for type II diabetes, has been shown to attenuate metabolic dysregulation and weight gain associated with an obesogenic diet. We demonstrated that HFD caused elevated fasting blood glucose, glucose intolerance, and increased body weight without cognitive impairment or anxiety as measured by novel object recognition and open field testing. Further, we demonstrated that metformin did not produce cognitive impairment, which was a concern associated with its chronic use. Further work will elucidate the impact of chronic HFD and metformin treatment on molecular …


The Societal Perception And Judgements Of Sexual Violence Targeting Victims From Varying Demographic Backgrounds, Hanna Bogart May 2020

The Societal Perception And Judgements Of Sexual Violence Targeting Victims From Varying Demographic Backgrounds, Hanna Bogart

Psychology

Abstract Sexual violence affects people of all color and gender, but extant research has mostly focused on reactions toward female (and often White) survivors. With a sample of 77 undergraduate University participants (Mage = 18.82), the current study examined the effects of survivors’ race and gender on recommended punishment of the sexual violence incidents. The results indicated that severity of the assault and recommended punishment for the perpetrator had a significantly positive relationship, such that individuals’ recommended more severe punishments for more severe sexual violence incidents. Furthermore, sexual violence incidents involving female victims were recommended more severe punishments than those …


Behavioral Effects Of Early Postpartum Offspring Removal In Rats, Jayda Melnitsky May 2020

Behavioral Effects Of Early Postpartum Offspring Removal In Rats, Jayda Melnitsky

Psychology

The maternal experience has been associated with alterations in behavior and in many different areas of the brain. Soon after giving birth and throughout the postpartum period, maternal behavior and care of offspring in particular have been shown to stimulate the dopaminergic system in postpartum women and rats alike. Around 15% of women who give birth develop postpartum depression (PPD), which has been associated with downregulation of dopamine activity. This experiment tested whether the removal of offspring immediately after parturition would alter the anxiety and depressive-like behavior of dams, as well as the expression of dopaminergic neurons. Adult female Sprague-Dawley …


Collective Imagination, Haley Lynch May 2020

Collective Imagination, Haley Lynch

Psychology

Life is filled with experiences that contribute to who we are, who we will become, and the social connections we make. We are constantly reflecting on past experiences, be it alone or with others, as well as thinking about what is to come and where we see ourselves in the future. Social and cognitive psychology research has focused on the processes behind autobiographical memory and episodic simulation. The link between collective memory and episodic simulation is the focus of the present study. The specific aim is to explore the potential link between reflecting on past experiences and imagining the future …


Social Connectedness And Eating Disorder Symptomatology, Nicole Nunez May 2019

Social Connectedness And Eating Disorder Symptomatology, Nicole Nunez

Psychology

Eating disorders are a well-known and well-documented issue with known deleterious effects on one’s health. Because of this fact, it is important to identify protective factors against the development and/or maintenance of eating disorders. Social support has been identified as a factor that can play a role in recovery from eating disorders. While the importance of social support has been broadly examined in research, social connectedness specifically has been explored less explicitly. Social connectedness involves feelings of belonging, identification with others, and healthy social interaction. This study sought to assess the role of social connectedness in eating disorder symptomatology. We …


Emotion Processing In The Survival Paradigm, Destiny Valentine May 2019

Emotion Processing In The Survival Paradigm, Destiny Valentine

Psychology

The literature shows that words processed according to their survival relevance typically produce a memory advantage. Similarly, words containing an emotional connotation tend to lead to better memory. The current study examined whether combining both the survival processing effect and the emotion processing advantage would cause an interaction that amplified the effects on memory. Using a modified version of the traditional survival processing paradigm, participants rated emotion words (positive, negative, or neutral) on their relevance to a survival context or home-moving control context. They were later given a surprise recall task for the rated words. The results did not show …


The Impact Of Exposure To The Thin Ideal On Chocolate Cravings In U.S. -Born Women, Kathryn M. Helm May 2019

The Impact Of Exposure To The Thin Ideal On Chocolate Cravings In U.S. -Born Women, Kathryn M. Helm

Psychology

Food cravings are experienced by a large proportion of the population and have a variety of negative implications- including overweight/ obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Prior research has shown a lack of support for biological causes of craving. As such, we look to other factors such as culture, cognition, and sex, to explore why such factors have an influence on craving. The purpose of this study is to look at the impact of viewing thin ideal images on chocolate cravings in United States born women-including (but not restricted to) their reports of ambivalence towards chocolate. Participants were randomized …


Visual Search Array Structure And Satisfaction Of Search Errors: Evidence From Eye Movements, Leah Gloskey Dec 2018

Visual Search Array Structure And Satisfaction Of Search Errors: Evidence From Eye Movements, Leah Gloskey

Psychology

Multiple-target visual searches are susceptible to errors when the recognition of one target hinders the detection of another. This phenomenon is known as "satisfaction of search" (SOS; Tuddenham, 1962) or more recently "subsequent search misses" (SSM; Cain, et al. 2013). Although this phenomenon was first identified in radiology, SSM errors extend beyond the medical domain. Exploring SSM errors in proofreading, this study examines whether the discovery of one misspelled word interferes with the detection of a second misspelled word amongst other correctly spelled words. Manipulating the display structure of task, it is hypothesized that the pattern of SSM errors may …


Empathy And Negative Reciprocity As Predictors Of Third-Party Punishment, Olivia Johansen May 2018

Empathy And Negative Reciprocity As Predictors Of Third-Party Punishment, Olivia Johansen

Psychology

What motivates us to punish others? Individual differences dictate most of our behaviors, so our beliefs about fairness and retribution play into the type and degree of punishment we administer. Past work has highlighted the significant negative correlation between empathy and punishment, but a potentially stronger predictor of punishment behavior exists. This study pits empathic concern against negative norms about reciprocity to see which is a better predictor of punishment behavior in an economic goods game. We predicted that the negative reciprocity would be a better predictor of punishment than empathy, but ultimately found that empathy prevailed as the stronger …


Effects Of Stereotype Threat On Black And White Individuals’ Verbal Responses In Police Encounters, Samantha N. Strine May 2018

Effects Of Stereotype Threat On Black And White Individuals’ Verbal Responses In Police Encounters, Samantha N. Strine

Psychology

I examined whether Black and White individuals have different verbal behaviors in police encounters and, if so, whether stereotype threat explains these differences. This question is important because police officers use certain verbal behaviors as evidence of deception. Thus, unconscious behaviors arising from concern about being stereotyped as a criminal could cause Black men to be perceived by police as suspicious and, in turn, contribute to discrepancies in police treatment of Black versus White men. In this study, Black and White men interacted with a White security officer in a staged encounter that varied in stereotype relevance (low or high). …


Developmental Changes In Corticotropin Releasing Factor Receptor 1 In The Postnatal Dentate Gyrus, Danielle Fico Apr 2018

Developmental Changes In Corticotropin Releasing Factor Receptor 1 In The Postnatal Dentate Gyrus, Danielle Fico

Psychology

Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) has been established as a key modulator in the stress response. Areas of research have primarily focused on brain regions that control the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. However, extensive research has yet to be conducted on the CRF receptor 1 (CRFR1) in the dentate gyrus, a region associated with memory functions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate age-related changes in CRFR1 in the granule layer and the hilus layer of the dentate gyrus in CRFR1 reporter mice at three different age groups; pre-pubertal (p21), adult (p90), and old (22-24 months) age. The results of …


Follow-Up To An Early Intervention For Parents Of Young Children With Or At-Risk For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alexandra Payne May 2017

Follow-Up To An Early Intervention For Parents Of Young Children With Or At-Risk For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alexandra Payne

Psychology

The goal of this research was to study a training program for parents of young children with or at genetic risk for autism and assess the program’s impact on self-reported parent stress levels and competence beliefs. The current study was part of a larger parent training project at the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Parents completed assessment measures of stress, knowledge, and competence at pre-training, post-training, and again six weeks following the completion of the parent training. Paired samples t-tests were used to assess for significant changes in …


The Intrinsic Motivation Of Immigrant Women In Male-Dominated Fields Of Study, Cassandra Edwards May 2017

The Intrinsic Motivation Of Immigrant Women In Male-Dominated Fields Of Study, Cassandra Edwards

Psychology

The present study examined the hypothesis that female students with first- or second-generation immigrant status (vs. their native-born peers) would be better prepared academically and have stronger intentions of pursuing and staying within their current field of study. We focused specifically on students in STEM versus non-STEM fields, as STEM fields are traditionally male-dominated. We predicted that female immigrant STEM majors in particular would not only perform better than their non-immigrant male peers, but also cope with stressors more efficiently and be less vulnerable to stereotype threat. We tested our predictions by assigning participants to one of two possible conditions …


Psychotherapy Clients’ Recalled Treatment Experiences: A Survey Of Perceived Evidence-Based Practice Elements, Yadi Chen May 2017

Psychotherapy Clients’ Recalled Treatment Experiences: A Survey Of Perceived Evidence-Based Practice Elements, Yadi Chen

Psychology

Background: Common evidence-based practice (EBPs) elements can be observed across cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) manuals for commonly occurring disorders. Example EBP elements include exposure, cognitive restructuring, teaching active coping skills (e.g., relaxation), enhancing positive affect, and facilitating a positive working alliance. It is unclear if EBP elements are frequently delivered or prioritized in routine psychotherapy. Also, little is known about the prevalence or pervasiveness of EBP elements from the routine clients’ perspective. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess psychotherapy clients’ self-reported retrospective treatment experiences with regard to common EBP elements. Method: Participants (N = 592) …


Investigating The Roles Of Felt Obligation And Politics In The Context Of Procedural Justice-Outcome Relationships, Caitlin Briggs May 2017

Investigating The Roles Of Felt Obligation And Politics In The Context Of Procedural Justice-Outcome Relationships, Caitlin Briggs

Psychology

Social Exchange Theory positions employee felt obligation as a mechanism by which organizational justice leads to positive organizational outcomes such as decreased turnover and increased job satisfaction. However, little has been done to test the empirical value of this theoretical claim. Additionally, although organizational politics is generally negatively correlated with justice, investigation of the mechanism by which politics might influence justice is lacking. Here, I look at whether politics has a moderating role on procedural justice and felt obligation, and thus turnover intentions and job satisfaction, or in words, whether politics reduces the positive relationship between procedural justice and felt …


The Rise Of Artificial Intelligence: An Analysis On The Future Of Accountancy, Cara Jaslove May 2017

The Rise Of Artificial Intelligence: An Analysis On The Future Of Accountancy, Cara Jaslove

Psychology

The concern for the replacement of accountants with an artificial intelligence system is a current and pressing issue. As new certified public accountants enter the field, they must adapt to the rapid changes and innovations of today. This thesis will exam ine and analyze how the accounting industry has been impacted by artificial intelligence, as well as potential threats to new hires. Ultimately, accountants should not fear replacement, but rather must tailor their abilities to the newest technologies. Ove rall, artificial intelligence will add value to the accounting industry, as certified public accountants can shift their attention from monotonous tasks …


Irrational Eigenvalues Of The Discrete Laplacian: A Study Of Simplical Complexes, Brian Bollen May 2017

Irrational Eigenvalues Of The Discrete Laplacian: A Study Of Simplical Complexes, Brian Bollen

Psychology

We study the behavior of eigenvalues of the discrete Laplacian of an abstract simplicial complex K when subdividing a single face of K . We show that if K is a simplex, performing this kind of restricted subdivision twice on a single face produces irrational eigenvalues for the discrete Laplacian.


The Contributions Of Perceived Ethnic Discrimination And Rumination To Depression, Anxiety, And Anger In Emerging Adults, Alexis M. Lima May 2017

The Contributions Of Perceived Ethnic Discrimination And Rumination To Depression, Anxiety, And Anger In Emerging Adults, Alexis M. Lima

Psychology

Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED), a type of race-based social stress, is conceptualized as a subjective experience of discrimination based on phenotype, linguistic, or cultural characteristics. As an environmental stressor, it is associated with the same negative outcomes as other stressors such as greater depressive and anxious symptoms, poorer academic performance, and poorer health outcomes. Previous research has focused on PED’s association with mental and physical health outcomes, but cognitive factors (i.e., cognitive ruminations, coping strategies, executive functioning) that might mediate or moderate outcomes have received less attention. Moreover, while some research has investigated the associations of anger rumination and perceived …


How Emerging Adults Are Affected By Parental Chronic Illness: A Study Of Psychosocial Functioning And Academic Achievement, Ashley May Jan 2017

How Emerging Adults Are Affected By Parental Chronic Illness: A Study Of Psychosocial Functioning And Academic Achievement, Ashley May

Psychology

Chronic illness is widespread and often affects parents, yet the impact of parental chronic illness on emerging adults has been largely ignored by research. The existing literature on the impact of chronic illness on family members suggests spousal and parental caregivers can suffer significant adverse psychological, social, cognitive, and physical consequences. This study was designed to examine the effects of parental chronic illness on children transitioning to adulthood. Participants were asked to complete several questionnaires, which quantified psychosocial and academic functioning of college students. Upon comparing those with parents with chronic illness to those without, we found that emerging adults …


Homophobia In Non-Heterosexuals And Their Families, Merel Hermans May 2016

Homophobia In Non-Heterosexuals And Their Families, Merel Hermans

Psychology

Homophobia is described as the negative attitudes towards non-heterosexual individuals. The evolutionary advantage of homophobia and of sexualities other than heterosexuality remain poorly understood within evolutionary psychology. This research extends Gallup’s 1995 research, in which people were found to respond more negatively towards same-sex pairs (i.e. imagining their daughter spending time with a lesbian mother, and a son spending time with a gay father), than opposite-sex pairs.Gallup’s original study did not include lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, however given the increasing acceptance of these groups it is now appropriate to expand this research to include these groups. One …


The Mediating Effect Of Moral Beliefs On Responses To Cyberbullying Scenarios, Valdis Rice May 2016

The Mediating Effect Of Moral Beliefs On Responses To Cyberbullying Scenarios, Valdis Rice

Psychology

Just as in traditional bullying, bystanders play a pivotal role in cyberbullying as well. The current study sought to elucidate characteristics that distinguish individuals who act as passive bystanders from those who intervene on a victim’s behalf who is cyberbullied (“active bystanders”). Of particular interest was to examine whether empathy, moral beliefs and emotion regulation predict bystanding. Social self-efficacy, i.e., the belief in one’s ability to express one’s opinion and handle interpersonal conflict, was also examined. A sample of 400 college students completed a set of self-report instruments assessing these constructs and cyberbullying. Additionally, participants were asked how they would …


The Effects Of System Justification And Reminders Of Ingroup Disadvantage On Just World Beliefs, Lukas Sotola May 2016

The Effects Of System Justification And Reminders Of Ingroup Disadvantage On Just World Beliefs, Lukas Sotola

Psychology

The tendency to believe that people get what they deserve—termed just world beliefs—is a pervasive phenomenon associated with acceptance of the suffering of others. We tested whether we could decrease just world beliefs. We experimentally manipulated system justification, and gave participants false feedback on a gender Implicit Association Test telling them that they favor the “opposite” gender. For female participants, this false feedback represented a reminder of their ingroup’s low status by suggesting that they support the status quo that disadvantages women. Participants then completed a self-report measure of just world beliefs. As an indirect measure of just world beliefs, …


Effects Of Massive Familiarization On Crossmodal Aesthetic Preference, Nicholas J. Voss, Dylan S. Campbell, Ronald S. Friedman May 2016

Effects Of Massive Familiarization On Crossmodal Aesthetic Preference, Nicholas J. Voss, Dylan S. Campbell, Ronald S. Friedman

Psychology

An investigation was carried out to determine whether familiarization to the experience of visual dissonance would have crossmodal effects on the preference for dissonant and consonant musical stimuli. We hypothesized that subjects who viewed a large number of disharmonious color combinations would come to show greater liking for dissonant musical stimuli than their counterparts who had seen either harmonious or single color images. Findings showed that there was no difference in preference between groups, though musical experience and score on a benign masochism measure predicted larger differences between average ratings of consonant and dissonant chords. These results are discussed in …


Role Of Recent And Remote Context Exposures On Incubation Of Fear Memories, Peter Zambetti Dec 2015

Role Of Recent And Remote Context Exposures On Incubation Of Fear Memories, Peter Zambetti

Psychology

Studying learning and memory through the methods of Pavlovian fear conditioning has been a topic of behavioral neuroscience research for decades. Anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder can be modeled in rodents through fear conditioning. This study took on a different approach to study the learning and recall of a fear memory by using a within subjects group. This group was tested at both a recent and remote interval. The recent timepoint was three days after conditioning and the remote timepoint was thirty-one days after conditioning. The timepoints are used to observe the effect the passage of time has …


The Effects Of Interpersonal And Noninterpersonal Loss On Music Preference, Alberte Bjornsson May 2015

The Effects Of Interpersonal And Noninterpersonal Loss On Music Preference, Alberte Bjornsson

Psychology

Through a series of studies, Lee, Andrade, and Palmer (2013) predicted and found that sadness caused by an interpersonal loss creates greater preference for listening to mood-congruent music than sadness caused by a noninterpersonal loss. However, in their experimental procedures, they inadvertently confounded the intensity of the sadness induced in the noninterpersonal and interpersonal sadness conditions, such that the interpersonal sadness condition created stronger feelings of sadness. The current study sought to replicate Lee et al.’s (2013) findings with the modification of unconfounding the intensity of sadness in the interpersonal and noninterpersonal conditions. After controlling for intensity, this study found …


The Effect Of Harsh Parenting On Anxiety Levels In Adolescents As Moderated By Rsa And Family Stability, Laura B. Welburn May 2014

The Effect Of Harsh Parenting On Anxiety Levels In Adolescents As Moderated By Rsa And Family Stability, Laura B. Welburn

Psychology

The present study examines the relation between harsh parenting experienced during adolescence on anxiety symptoms during adulthood as moderated by the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity and family stability. Participants completed questionnaires assessing parenting styles, the regularity or family activities, and current anxiety symptoms (61 adults; mean age = 19.39 years; 50.8% European American; 47.5% male). PNS activity was measured by resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The results suggest that among males, relatively high RSA buffers the effects of harsh parenting on anxiety symptoms. Also, for males, the stability of home life at relatively high levels can be a protective …