Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Surveying Levels Of Staff Burnout Among Applied Behavior Analysis Practitioners, Marissa Howell

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) practitioners engage in highly demanding work duties from collaborating with schools and families and navigating funding sources to direct work with clients. Therefore, burnout is a prevalent issue in this field. However, it is infrequently studied in the literature in any of its components, including risk factors, overall levels of burnout, or means to mitigate its effects. The aim of the present study was to survey the levels of burnout among ABA practitioners in Northern California and attempt to identify higher levels of weekly engagement in self-care behaviors as one component in lower burnout scores. The …

Does The Thatcher Effect Extend To Infant Faces?, Sarang Jew

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Decades of research on the mechanisms of face processing have demonstrated that humans rely heavily on configural processing strategies when viewing faces. However, this work has been done using almost exclusively adult facial stimuli. More recently, researchers have proposed that infant faces may elicit different neural activity and behavioral responses than adult faces. These observed differences may start at the very early stages of face processing (i.e., the structural encoding occurring within 200ms of seeing a face). However, no studies to date have explored potential differences in processing strategies used for infant faces compared to adult faces. The current study …

Retention And Performance During Covid-19: Prosociality Perception, Social Isolation, And Online Engagement, Ashli L M Schick

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The experiences of university students impacted by COVID-19 and circumstances surrounding their experiences, help inform the future of higher education in the United States. In the uncertain and rapidly evolving higher education system, understanding retention patterns of students has become increasingly complex. This study examined how self-perceived prosociality and self-perceived social isolation among university students in an online education environment relate to the intention to re-enroll in university and their academic achievement (Grade Point Average; GPA). Ninety-seven university and community college students completed an online survey. Based on previous literature, we expected women to report higher prosociality perceptions than men …

Hormonal Medications And Partner Odor Preferences, Jeffrey Lee Frederick

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The ability to recognize kin through the olfactory sense has important survival and evolutionary implications when choosing mates. Failing to recognize kin when making a choice of whom to mate with can lead to an increase in detrimental genetic outcomes in offspring. Previous studies have indicated that normally ovulating heterosexual women and men prefer the body odor of those with dissimilar immune systems than those with similar immune systems. The use of hormonal contraceptives has shown a preference for similar immune system odors. The current study examines whether the use of hormonal medications predicts preference for body odor. Importantly, this …

Comedians Are Leaders: Comedians' Use Of Humor Makes Us Feel Like We Matter, Matthew Burt

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This research examines funny functions of shared group membership – how content that clearly demarcates ingroup membership may be at the root of humor. Participants in this study listened to a recording of a stand-up comedian who was defined as being either a fellow college/university student (ingroup) or a non-college student (outgroup). Additionally, the audio either contained audience laughter or no audience laughter. Upon finishing the recordings, participants were asked to answer survey questions about their experience with the comedian, rate their overall sense of shared group identity with the comedian, their level of positive affect, distinctiveness from an outgroup, …

Does Having Siblings Affect Caretaking Responses To Infants?, Kaitlin Rose Duskin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Infant facial cues affect a variety of caretaking-related responses in adults. These effects have primarily been explored as they relate to parental care, however infants receive care from others who are not their parents and it would be important for any caregiver, regardless of parental status, to respond to infant cues effectively. Because siblings often fulfill a caregiver role in the home, this study investigated whether having siblings, younger siblings in particular, influences the way in which adults respond to infant cues. Contrary to my predictions, the findings in this study indicate that having siblings does not influence how rewarding …

Teaching Conversation Skills Using Bst And Video Modeling Via Telehealth, Margaret F. Groves-Bradley

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the current state of education children have limited access to an environment where they can practice conversational skills with people outside of their immediate family. Traditionally, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a difficult time independently learning these skills, even in an environment that is ripe with social interaction(Grosberg & Charlop, 2017). The current study sought to use behavioral skills training, modeling, and prompting to teach the skills of responding to questions, asking questions, and changing the topic to one learner with ASD over telehealth. The study was conducted over three phases. The first …

Uncertainty, Populist Deprivation Rhetoric, And Extremism, Crane Conso

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The present study investigates the influence of leadership messages on support for extremism using a social identity framework. Specifically, the study highlights the potential role of populist deprivation rhetoric and self-uncertainty in generating support for leaders and extremism. The study seeks to fill a gap in the existing research to understand the use of deprivation rhetoric as a direct process of populist leadership. Political extremism can serve to reduce feelings of uncertainty. Group relative deprivation results from a social comparison in which a person believes another individual or group is denying them something to which they feel entitled. Leaders can …