Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Introduction: Jewish Gamevironments – Exploring Understanding With Playful Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

The study of Judaism, Jewish civilizationi, and games is currently comprised of projects of a rather small set of game scholars. A sample of our work is included in this issue.

Attitudes And Norms Affecting Scientists’ Data Reuse, Renata Gonçalves Curty, Kevin Crowston, Alison Specht, Bruce W. Grant, Elizabeth D. Dalton

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

The value of sharing scientific research data is widely appreciated, but factors that hinder or prompt the reuse of data remain poorly understood. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action, we test the relationship between the beliefs and attitudes of scientists towards data reuse, and their self-reported data reuse behaviour. To do so, we used existing responses to selected questions from a worldwide survey of scientists developed and administered by the DataONE Usability and Assessment Working Group (thus practicing data reuse ourselves). Results show that the perceived efficacy and efficiency of data reuse are strong predictors of reuse behaviour, and that …

Individualism, Collectivism, And Trade, Aidin Hajikhameneh, Erik O. Kimbrough

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

While economists recognize the important role of formal institutions in the promotion of trade, there is increasing agreement that institutions are typically endogenous to culture, making it difficult to disentangle their separate contributions. Lab experiments that assign institutions exogenously and measure and control individual cultural characteristics can allow for clean identification of the effects of institutions, conditional on culture, and help us understand the relationship between behavior and culture, under a given institutional framework. We focus on cultural tendencies toward individualism/collectivism, which social psychologists highlight as an important determinant of many behavioral differences across groups and people. We design an …

Possible Breakdown Of Dopamine Receptor Synergism In A Mouse Model Of Huntington's Disease, Samantha F. Kennedy

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The model of basal ganglia function proposed by Albin, Young and Penney (1989) describes two anatomically independent motor pathways, the direct and indirect. However, under normal conditions striatal dopamine (DA) is required for the expression of motor behavior, and DAergic control of the two pathways (via D1 and D2 receptors, respectively) is dependent on co-activation. We tested for a possible breakdown of D1/D2 synergism using transgenic R6/1 mice bearing the human huntingtin allele (Htt). Motor stereotypy, observed prior to the onset of HD-related symptoms, was rated on a 5-point scale following activation of: A) D1 receptors alone, B) D2 receptors …

Do Flashbulb Memories Transmit Across Generations? 9/11 As A Case Study, Shanique Meyler

Student Theses

Psychologists have only recently begun to examine the extent to which personal memories transmit across generations. When they have, they typically focus on family stories (see Merrill & Fivush, 2016) or memories of historical events (Svob & Brown, 2012). The present study extends this line of research to flashbulb memories, or memories of an individual’s circumstances when first learning about a consequential, historical event (Brown & Kulik, 1977). To this end, the present study examines the extent to which flashbulb memories surrounding the events of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 transmit to the next generation. The results suggest that flashbulb …

A Translational Evaluation Of Renewal Of Inappropriate Mealtime Behavior, Vivian Ibañez, Cathleen C. Piazza, Kathryn M. Peterson

Theses & Dissertations

The term renewal describes the recurrence of previously extinguished behavior that occurs when the intervention context changes. Renewal has important clinical relevance as a paradigm for studying treatment relapse because context changes are necessary for generalization and maintenance of most intervention outcomes (Podlesnik, Kelley, Jimenez-Gomez, & Bouton, 2017). The effect of context changes are particularly important during intervention for children with feeding disorders because children eat in a variety of contexts, and extinction is an empirically supported and often necessary intervention. Therefore, we used an ABA arrangement to test for renewal during intervention with 3 children diagnosed with a feeding …

Privileging Autistics Of Color: A Human Rights Approach To Applied Behavior Analysis (Aba) Therapy, Rebecca Rubey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project examines the social construction of autistic people of color through the pathology paradigm and the associated human rights violations. The purpose of the project is to disrupt the pathology paradigm by privileging voices of autistic people of color in professional development workshops for ABA therapy providers. The workshops aim to help ABA therapy providers understand the historical context of ABA, how it fits into the wider systems of white supremacy and ableism, and how these dynamics are re-enacted in every day practice with autistic people of color.

A Comparison Of The Social-Adaptive Perspective And Functionalist Perspective On Guilt And Shame, Heidi L. Dempsey

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Within the field of guilt and shame two competing perspectives have been advanced. The first, the social-adaptive perspective, proposes that guilt is an inherently adaptive emotion and shame is an inherently maladaptive emotion. Thus, those interested in moral character development and psychopathology should work to increase an individual’s guilt-proneness and decrease an individual’s shame-proneness. The functionalist perspective, in contrast, argues that both guilt and shame can serve a person adaptively or maladaptively—depending on the situational appropriateness, duration, intensity, and so forth. This paper reviews the research conducted supporting both positions; critiques some issues with the most widely used guilt- and …

Comparison Of Trial-Based, Synthesized Trial-Based, And Traditional Functional Analyses, Kara Leigh Forck

MSU Graduate Theses

I evaluated a synthesized trial-based functional analysis with two students who engaged in problem behavior by combining the methods from the trial-based functional analysis and synthesized contingency functional analysis. Multiple test conditions were combined into one test condition and were evaluated in 2-min trials. The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of correspondence of the results between the trial-based, synthesized trial-based, and traditional function analyses. One participant showed exact correspondence between the three functional analyses, while the other participant showed partial correspondence.

The Effects Of Goal Setting Type And Feedback On Basketball Skill Improvement, Shelby Diane White

MSU Graduate Theses

Goal setting is a process that is used by many people in a variety of settings. For example, goals can be set for weight loss, career milestones, or anything a person would like to increase or decrease. According to Locke and Latham (1984), the best way to set a goal is to make sure the goal is specific. If someone wants to lose weight, the individual should state exactly how much weight they would like to lose and set a specific deadline for achieving the weight loss. A second aspect to goal setting is to make sure the goal is …

Liking, Craving, And Attentional Bias In Non-Dependent Drinkers, David Lovett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to better understand alcohol use problems by examining the effect of alcohol liking on alcohol attentional bias among non-dependent drinkers. An adapted model of Robinson and Berridge’s (1993) incentive-sensitization theory of addiction was proposed which theorized that manipulation of alcohol liking would produce alcohol attentional bias (assessed via visual probe task) among non-dependent drinkers. To test this adapted model, alcohol liking was manipulated and the effect on alcohol attentional bias was examined. Participants were 53 legal-age, college drinkers (Mage = 23.49; 32.1% female; 67.9% White Non-Hispanic). Participants completed measures of alcohol drink preference, …

A Comparison Of Traditional, Trial-Based, And Synthesized Contingency Trial-Based Functional Analyses, Kaitlin S. Curtis

MSU Graduate Theses

Researchers have developed functional analyses (FAs) to improve efficiency and correspondence that still use core components of the traditional format. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the correspondence between the trial-based FA and the traditional FA. I also evaluated the correspondence between the synthesized-contingency trial-based FA and the traditional FA. Within this study, I determined that by combining methods, I was able to reduce false negatives for escape found within the trial-based FAs and false-positives found within the synthesized contingency FAs.

Training Personal Information To Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Diana C. Carlos

Theses and Dissertations

For many children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, learning emergency information such as their parents’ names, contact information, or important health information may be useful in case of elopement, getting lost, or abduction. In the present study, I evaluated the use of video self-modeling (VSM) to facilitate acquisition of personal information in comparison to echoic prompts using a parallel treatments design with children with ASD. Components of the intervention included: a test, followed by the prompt (e.g., echoic or VSM) for no response given or for an incorrect response. The use of VSM involves the learner viewing a video of …

Evaluation Of A Tool To Identify The Variables Responsible For Poor Parent Treatment Implementation: The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Parent, Jamie Villacorta

Theses and Dissertations

In applied behavior analysis, parents are often taught to implement treatment programs in order to decrease their child’s problem behaviors and increase appropriate behaviors. Unfortunately, many parents have trouble implementing these programs correctly. It has been suggested that higher treatment integrity for a specified treatment program may be associated with higher levels of its success. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the use of an assessment tool (i.e., the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Parent, or PDC-P) to develop a treatment specifically targeted to address the variables responsible for poor program implementation by parents. First, the PDC-P was administered to …

Behavioral Intervention Teams: An Exploration Of Team Member Perceptions At Oklahoma Regional Universities, Sheila J. Self

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine Behavioral Intervention Teams from the perspective of twelve team members at four regional universities in Oklahoma. This study strengthened the knowledge base regarding team-member perceptions of Behavioral Intervention Team effectiveness, functioning, resources, needs, state factors, and campus impacts, and added qualitative data to the existing body of literature. Behavioral Intervention Teams were designed to be a tool for preventing campus violence and addressing behaviors of concern through information gathering, analysis, and intervention. While it may never be known how many acts of violence, suicides, or other student issues have been prevented or …

An Examination Of Behavior Analysts' Treatment Selection Behavior For Escape-Maintained Problem Behavior, Rebecca Eldridge

Dissertations

The advent of functional analysis procedures has helped identify reinforcers for problem behavior; however, the behavior analyst is then faced with the task of selecting an appropriate treatment for problem behavior. When selecting treatments, in addition to behavioral function, behavior analysts also need to consider contextual variables, such as current client repertoires, setting conditions, time and resources of current caregivers, as well as client and caregiver goals (Benazzi, Horner, & Good, 2006). Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) must consider these factors when developing treatment according to their ethical code (Behavior Analyst Certification Board [BACB]’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code [PECC], …

Teaching Students Who Have Difficulty Mastering Lmitation, Jennifer Mrljak

Dissertations

Some children with autism are unable to acquire imitation despite receiving early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) meant to teach that and other important skills. Many EIBI programs use physical-prompting hierarchies either as a component of the discriminative stimulus or the correction procedure following an error (Lovaas, 1981; Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996). But even after lengthy exposure to these teaching techniques, some children still do not acquire imitative repertoires. In the present study, working with students who were not acquiring imitative repertoires, we started with shaping the initial imitative responses as a method to gain stimulus control and then introduced …

Volition And Action In The Human Brain: Processes, Pathologies, And Reasons, Itzhak Fried, Patrick Haggard, Biyu J. He, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans seem to decide for themselves what to do, and when to do it. This distinctive capacity may emerge from an ability, shared with other animals, to make decisions for action that are related to future goals, or at least free from the constraints of immediate environmental inputs. Studying such volitional acts proves a major challenge for neuroscience. This review highlights key mechanisms in the generation of voluntary, as opposed to stimulus-driven actions, and highlights three issues. The first part focuses on the apparent spontaneity of voluntary action. The second part focuses on one of the most distinctive, but elusive, …

Beyond Personal Control: When And How Executives' Beliefs In Negotiable Fate Foster Entrepreneurial Orientation And Firm Performance, Evelyn W. M. Au, Xin Qin, Zhi-Xue Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Negotiable fate, the belief that fate imposes boundaries within which personal actions can shape outcomes, is rooted in Chinese collective wisdom. This belief is hypothesized to prompt executives to use of available resources to create opportunities by directing their attention to controllable aspects of unpredictable environments. Thus, executives' endorsement of negotiable fate beliefs is expected not only to enhance firm-level entrepreneurial orientation, but also to positively predict firm innovation and financial performance. We further expect these mediation effects to be stronger under dynamic environments. Studies of top executives in China support the theorized moderated-mediation model. By providing evidence for its …

Entrainment Of Voluntary Movement To Undetected Auditory Regularities, Aaron Schurger, Nathan Faivre, Leila Cammoun, Bianca Trovó, Olaf Blanke

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In physics “entrainment” refers to the synchronization of two coupled oscillators with similar fundamental frequencies. In behavioral science, entrainment refers to the tendency of humans to synchronize their movements with rhythmic stimuli. Here, we asked whether human subjects performing a tapping task would entrain their tapping to an undetected auditory rhythm surreptitiously introduced in the guise of ambient background noise in the room. Subjects performed two different tasks, one in which they tapped their finger at a steady rate of their own choosing and one in which they performed a single abrupt finger tap on each trial after a delay …

Better Health Through Horticulture: Using Horticulture To Influence Behavior And Reduce Stress, Rachel Ochylski

All NMU Master's Theses

Horticultural intervention in the form of gardening workshops connect participants to nature while they nurture another living organism. Horticultural intervention provides opportunities to socialize and engage in a meaningful activity, which have been recognized as helpful in the treatment of common mental health difficulties such as depression and anxiety. There is a lack of experimental studies based on quantitative data that focus on the effects of horticulture on holistic human health. The author evaluated the effects of a horticultural intervention on two separate groups, older adults and college students. The behavioral effects of engaging in gardening activities were evaluated using …

Using Peer-Mediated Self-Monitoring To Increase Procedural Integrity Of Net Implementation In A Clinic Setting, Miranda Johnson

All NMU Master's Theses

Behavioral interventions have been shown to be effective at addressing many of the core skill deficits and excesses associated with autism spectrum disorder. Natural Environment Training (NET), developed by Sundberg and Partington (1998), is one such effective strategy for teaching language to children with autism. Even though effective interventions have been identified, clients are unlikely to benefit from them unless they are implemented correctly. A number of effective behavioral techniques for increasing procedural integrity of interventions have been identified, including the use of self-monitoring checklists and peer-training. An unpublished thesis by Tenowich (2014) used video-self monitoring to increase procedural integrity …

Above, On, Or Shang (上)? Language And Spatial Representations Among English–Mandarin Bilinguals, Wei Xing Toh, Lidia Suãrez

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study investigated if exposure to spatial language could affect spatial cognition in English-Mandarin bilinguals by focusing on contact/noncontact distinctions, an area that has been a source of contention in the language-and-thought literature. Sixty-three participants were first primed with sentences containing spatial terms (e.g., above, on) before performing a spatial decision task. Approximately half of the participants (n = 33) were primed in English; for the remaining participants (n = 30), primes comprising Mandarin spatial terms―which mark spatial distinctions differently than in English (e.g., shang in Mandarin signifies both above and on in English)―were employed instead. Our findings revealed that …

Decision Making: Do People With Dark Triad Traits Utilize Advice?, Elizabeth D. Mcnamara, Alexander T. Jackson, Aneeqa T. Thiele, Stacey M. Stremic, Satoris S. Howes Dr., Michael Hein, Mark C. Frame

River Cities Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference

This research study seeks to gain a better understanding of the effects of the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) on advice taking. This research examined whether or not the dark triad traits result in working professionals being more or less likely to accept advice when making a decision. Past research has shown that outcomes are generally more favorable when the person who is making the decision takes the advice of another person into consideration. Despite this fact, I hypothesized that people with higher narcissistic or psychopathic traits will not accept advice when making a decision. Additionally, I hypothesized that Machiavellians …

Jonestown, Paradise Lost: An Investigation Of Jim Jones And The People’S Temple, William Beltran

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author offers a fascinating, historical look at the life and actions of Jim Jones and his followers. Taking cues from throughout the troubled life of Jones, the author presents us with the harrowing details of how people can be corrupted, and the insatiable drive for power by the corrupters. Adding to the narrative, the author utilizes what other scholars have said about the Jonestown phenomenon.

Beliefs In Advance Care Planning Among Chinese Americans: Similarities And Differences Between The Younger And Older Generations, Mei Ching Lee, Ha Do Byon, Katherine Hinderer, Carla Alexander

Asian/Pacific Island Nursing Journal

The purpose of this research is to explore behavioral, normative, and control beliefs in the discussion of advance care planning (ACP) among older and younger Chinese Americans. Ethnic minority groups have been identified as less engaged in ACP and this represents an ethnic and cultural gap. Older Chinese American adults often have different beliefs and values compared to the younger generation who are more acculturated to American mainstream culture. These differences may hinder the discussion of ACP with Chinese older adults.

A qualitative design was used. The Theory of Planned Behavior guided the development of the interview guide. We recruited …

Weight-Loss Treatment-Induced Physical Activity Associated With Improved Nutrition Through Changes In Social Cognitive Theory Variables In Women With Obesity, James J. Annesi, Nicole Mareno

Health Behavior Research

Behavioral weight-loss treatments have typically been unsuccessful and a theoretical. Even when treatments were scientifically derived, theory has rarely been used to decompose, and understand the bases of, their effects. This 2-year study evaluated mediation of the prediction of nutritional changes by changes in physical activity, through social cognitive theory variables. Data from women with Class 1–2 obesity, classified as “insufficiently active” (N = 50; Mage = 47.6 years), were extracted from 2 initial trials of a new cognitive-behavioral intervention. That treatment sought to improve self-regulation, mood, and self-efficacy through increased physical activity, to then induce improved eating …

Does First Sex Really “Just Happen?” A Retrospective Exploratory Study Of Sexual Debut Among American Adolescents, Lisa D. Lieberman, Eva S. Goldfarb, Samantha Kwiatkowski, Paul Santos

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

First sex marks a significant transition for most adolescents, yet teens often report that it was unplanned. Seventy-four college students participated in exploratory focus groups about their first sex. Although initially asked whether their first sex was spontaneous or planned, many participants revealed evidence of forethought or anticipation, signifying a third option, anticipation. This study suggests that the development and timing of sexual health messages should build on the apparent, albeit often unacknowledged, planning and thought that accompany the transition to first sex. Specifically, during the time immediately preceding first sex, young people might be particularly open to such messages.

Racial Bias In Drivers' Yielding Behavior At Crosswalks: Understanding The Effect, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, Jean M. Mcmahon, Tara Goddard, Arlie Adkins

TREC Final Reports

This project explores social identity factors (race and gender) that influence drivers’ behavior in interactions with pedestrians at crosswalks. One dangerous potential point of conflict for pedestrians within the transportation system is interactions with drivers at crosswalks (NHTSA, 2009). In 2010, there was one crash-related pedestrian death every two hours and an injury every eight minutes, and racial minorities are disproportionately represented in these pedestrian fatalities (CDC, 2013). In light of this disparity, this project examines whether racial discrimination occurs at crosswalks, which may lead to disparate crossing experiences and disproportionate safety outcomes. Racial minorities experience racial discrimination across various …

Self-Compassion, Self-Injury, And Pain, Wesley Ellen Gregory, Jillian V. Glazer, Kathy R. Berenson

Psychology Faculty Publications

We conducted an experiment to examine self-compassion and responses to pain among undergraduate women with and without histories of self-injury. After a writing task that has been shown to increase self-compassion in a values-affirming condition relative to a neutral control condition, participants completed a self-report measure of state self-compassion and the cold pressor task. As predicted, participants with a history of self-injury reported lower trait self-compassion than those without such a history, and participants in the values-affirming condition reported significantly higher state self-compassion than those in the control condition. Moreover, participants with a history of self-injury demonstrated significantly less insensitivity …