Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Accountability: Construct Definition And Measurement Of A Virtue Vital To Flourishing, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Sung Joon Jang, Byron R. Johnson, C. Stephen Evans, Jack W. Berry, Joseph Leman, Robert C. Roberts, John Peteet, Andrew B. Torrance, Ashley N. Hayden

Faculty Publications

Embracing accountability to others for one’s responsibilities within relationships is important for flourishing, yet underexamined. An interdisciplinary team defined the construct of accountability and developed an 11-item single-factor Accountability Scale. In national samples with US census demographic representation (total N = 1257), we conducted psychometric analyses using methods from classical test theory (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) and item response theory. The Accountability Scale demonstrated internal consistency, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and incremental validity. Accountability correlated positively with relational variables (agreeableness, empathy) responsibility-oriented variables (conscientiousness, self-regulation), virtues (gratitude, forgiveness, limitations-owning humility), relational repair, perceived meaning presence, and flourishing, inversely with …

A Many-Analysts Approach To The Relation Between Religiosity And Well-Being, Suzanne Hoogeveen, Alexandra Sarafoglou, Balazs Aczel, Yonathan Aditya, Alexandra J. Alayan, Peter J. Allen, Sacha Altay, Shilaan Alzahawi, Yulmaida Amir, Francis-Vincen Anthony, Obed Kwame Appiah, Quentin D. Atkinson, Adam Baimel, Merve Balkaya-Ince, Michela Balsamo, Sachin Banker, František Bartoš, Mario Becerra, Bertrand Beffara, Julia Beitner, Theiss Bendixen, Jana B. Berkessel, Renatas Berniūnas, Matthew I. Billet, Joseph Billingsley, Tiago Bortolini, Heiko Breitsohl, Amélie Bret, Faith L. Brown, Jennifer Brown, Claudia C. Brumbaugh, Jacek Buczny, Joseph Bulbulia, Saúl Caballero, Leonardo Carlucci, Cheryl L. Carmichael, Marco E. G. V. Cattaneo, Sarah J. Charles, Scott Claessens, Maxinne C. Panagopoulos, Angelo Brandelli Costa, Damien L. Crone, Stefan Czoschke, Christian Czymara, E. Damiano D'Urso, Örjan Dahlström, Anna Dalla Rosa, Henrik Danielsson, Jill De Ron, Ymkje Anna De Vries, Kristy K. Dean, Bryan J. Dik, David J. Disabato, Jaclyn K. Doherty, Tim Draws, Lucas Drouhot, Marin Dujmovic, Yarrow Dunham, Tobias Ebert, Peter A. Edelsbrunner, Anita Eerland, Christian T. Elbaek, Shole Farahmand, Hooman Farahmand, Miguel Farias, Abrey A. Feliccia, Kyle Fischer, Ronald Fischer, Donna Fisher-Thompson, Zoë Francis, Susanne Frick, Lisa K. Frisch, Diogo Geraldes, Emily Gerdin, Linda Geven, Omid Ghasemi, Erwin Gielens, Vukašin Gligorić, Kristin Hagel, Nandor Hajdu, Hannah R. Hamilton, Imaduddin Hamzah, Paul H. P. Hanel, Christopher E. Hawk, Karel K. Himawan, Benjamin C. Holding, Lina E. Homman, Moritz Ingendahl, Hilla Inkilä, Mary L. Inman, Chris-Gabriel Islam, Ozan Isler, David Izydorczyk, Bastian Jaeger, Kathryn A. Johnson, Jonathan Jong, Johannes A. Karl, Erikson Kaszubowski, Benjamin A. Katz, Lucas A. Keefer, Stijn Kelchtermans, John M. Kelly, Richard A. Klein, Bennett Kleinberg, Megan L. Knowles, Marta Kołczyńska, Dave Koller, Julia Krasko, Sarah Kritzler, Angelos-Miltiadis Krypotos, Thanos Kyritsis, Todd L. Landes, Ruben Laukenmann, Guy A. Lavender Forsyth, Aryeh Lazar, Barbara J. Lehman, Neil Levy, Ronda F. Lo, Paul Lodder, Jennifer Lorenz, Paweł Łowicki, Albert L. Ly, Esther Maassen, Gina M. Magyar-Russell, Maximilian Maier, Dylan R. Marsh, Nuria Martinez, Marcellin Martinie, Ihan Martoyo, Susan E. Mason, Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Phil Mcaleer, Thomas Mccauley, Michael Mccullough, Ryan Mckay, Camilla M. Mcmahon, Amelia A. Mcnamara, Kira K. Means, Brett Mercier, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Benoît Monin, Jordan W. Moon, David Moreau, Jonathan Morgan, James Murphy, George Muscatt, Christof Nägel, Tamás Nagy, Ladislas Nalborczyk, Gustav Nilsonne, Pamina Noack, Ara Norenzayan, Michèle B. Nuijten, Anton Olsson-Collentine, Lluis Oviedo, Yuri G. Pavlov, James O. Pawelski, Hannah I. Pearson, Hugo Pedder, Hannah K. Peetz, Michael Pinus, Steven Pirutinsky, Vince Polito, Michaela Porubanova, Michael J. Poulin, Jason M. Prenoveau, Mark A. Prince, John Protzko, Campbell Pryor, Benjamin G. Purzycki, Lin Qiu, Julian Quevedo Pütter, André Rabelo, Milen L. Radell, Jonathan E. Ramsay, Graham Reid, Andrew J. Roberts, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Robert M. Ross, Piotr Roszak, Nirmal Roy, Suvi-Maria K. Saarelainen, Joni Y. Sasaki, Catherine Schaumans, Bruno Schivinski, Marcel C. Schmitt, Sarah A. Schnitker, Martin Schnuerch, Marcel R. Schreiner, Victoria Schüttengruber, Simone Sebben, Suzanne C. Segerstrom, Berenika Seryczyńska, Uffe Shjoedt, Müge Simsek, Willem W. A. Sleegers, Eliot R. Smith, Walter J. Sowden, Marion Späth, Christoph Spörlein, William Stedden, Andrea H. Stoevenbelt, Simon Stuber, Justin Sulik, Christiany Suwartono, Stylianos Syropoulos, Barnabas Szaszi, Peter Szecsi, Ben M. Tappin, Louis Tay, Robert T. Thibault, Burt Thompson, Christian M. Thurn, Josefa Torralba, Shelby D. Tuthill, Ann-Marie Ullein, Robbie C. M. Van Aert, Marcel A. L. M. Van Assen, Patty Van Cappellen, Olmo R. Van Den Akker, Ine Van Der Cruyssen, Jolanda Van Der Noll, Noah N. N. Van Dongen, Caspar J. Van Lissa, Valerie Van Mulukom, Don Van Ravenzwaaij, Casper J. J. Van Zyl, Leigh Ann Vaughn, Bojana Većkalov, Bruno Verschuere, Michelangelo Vianello, Felipe Vilanova, Allon Vishkin, Vera Vogel, Leonie V. D. E. Vogelsmeier, Shoko Watanabe, Cindel J. M. White, Kristina Wiebels, Sera Wiechert, Zachary Z. Willett, Maciej Witkowiak, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Dylan Wiwad, Robin Wuyts, Dimitris Xygalatas, Xin Yang, Darren J. Yeo, Onurcan Yilmaz, Natalia Zarzeczna, Yitong Zhao, Josjan Zijlmans, Michiel Van Elk, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers

Faculty Publications

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given …

The Eschatological Hope Scale: Construct Development And Measurement Of Theistic Eschatological Hope, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall, Julie J. Exline, David C. Wang, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, David G. Myers, Alexis D. Abernethy, John D. Witvliet

Faculty Publications

This study aimed to expand psychological research on hope by contributing a construct and scale to measure central dimensions of theistic eschatological hope derived from Christian scriptures. Eschatological hope was conceptualized as the anticipation that God will make all things new, raising people to everlasting life with God in joyful celebration, including people from every culture and nation, ending all personal pain and suffering, eliminating all societal evil and harm, and bringing reconciliation and healing to all of creation. We developed the Eschatological Hope Scale with three studies (N = 1,466). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the single-factor structure …

Accountability And Autonomy, Motivation, And Psychiatric Treatment, John R. Peteet, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, C. Stephen Evans

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Accountability As A Key Virtue In Mental Health And Human Flourishing, John R. Peteet, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, C. Stephen Evans

Faculty Publications

We propose that accountability plays an implicit, important, and relatively unexamined role in psychiatry. People generally think of accountability as a relation in which one party is held accountable by another. In this paper, we examine accountability as a virtue, drawing on philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology to examine what it means to welcome being accountable in an excellent way that promotes flourishing. When people manifest accountability as a virtue, they are both responsive to others they owe a response, and they are responsible for their attitudes and actions in light of these relationships. Psychiatric treatment often aims to correct disordered …

The Benefit Of Gratitude: Trait Gratitude Is Associated With Effective Economic Decision-Making In The Ultimatum Game, Gewnhi Park, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Jorge A. Barraza, Benjamin U. Marsh

Faculty Publications

The current research investigated the role of gratitude in economic decisions about offers that vary in fairness yet benefit both parties if accepted. Participants completed a trait/dispositional gratitude measure and then were randomly assigned to recall either an event that made them feel grateful (i.e., induced gratitude condition) or the events of a typical day (i.e., neutral condition). After the gratitude induction task, participants played the ultimatum game (UG), deciding whether to accept or reject fair offers (i.e., proposer: responder ratio $5:5) and unfair offers (i.e., proposer: responder ratios of $9:1, $8:2, or $7:3) from different proposers. Results showed that …

Conceptualizing Spirituality And Religion As Psychological Processes: Validation Of The Factor Structure Of The Bmmrs, Brick Johnstone, Patricia Bruininks, Erin I. Smith, Dong Pil Yoon, Daniel Cohen, Laird Edman, Joseph Bankard, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet

Faculty Publications

This study validated previous principal component analyses of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) that have been conducted with persons with diverse medical conditions and traumatic brain injuries from diverse cultures (India, US), ethnicities (African American, Caucasian, South Asian), and religions (Christian, Hindu, Muslim). Participants included 398 healthy undergraduate students who completed the BMMRS online. A principal components factor analysis identified a five factor solution accounting for 64.00% of the variance in scores, labelled as: (1) Positive Spiritual Experience; (2) Negative Spiritual Experience/Congregational Support; (3) Forgiveness; (4) Religious Practices; and (5) Positive Congregational Support. The current analysis is supportive …

Apology And Restitution: The Psychophysiology Of Forgiveness After Accountable Relational Repair Responses, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Everett L. Worthington Jr., Jo-Ann Tsang

Faculty Publications

Apology and restitution each represents wrongdoers’ accountable repair responses that have promoted victims’ self-reported empathy and forgiveness in crime scenario research. The current study measured emotional and stress-related dependent variables including physiological measures, to illuminate the links between predictors of forgiveness and health-relevant side effects. Specifically, we tested the independent and interactive effects of apology and restitution on forgiveness, emotion self-reports, and facial responses, as well as cardiac measures associated with stress in 32 males and 29 females. Apology and restitution each independently increased empathy, forgiveness, gratitude, and positive emotions, while reducing unforgiveness, negative emotion, and muscle activity above the …

Superior Colliculus Lesions Lead To Disrupted Responses To Light In Diurnal Grass Rats (Arvicanthis Niloticus), Andrew J. Gall, Alyssa M. Goodwin, Ohanes S. Khacherian, Laura B. Teal

Faculty Publications

The circadian system regulates daily rhythms of physiology and behavior. Although extraordinary advances have been made to elucidate the brain mechanisms underlying the circadian system in nocturnal species, less is known in diurnal species. Recent studies have shown that retinorecipient brain areas such as the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) and olivary pretectal nucleus (OPT) are critical for the display of normal patterns of daily activity in diurnal grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus). Specifically, grass rats with IGL and OPT lesions respond to light in similar ways to intact nocturnal animals. Importantly, both the IGL and OPT project to one another …

Functional And Anatomical Variations In Retinorecipient Brain Areas In Arvicanthis Niloticus And Rattus Norvegicus: Implications For The Circadian And Masking Systems, Dorela D. Shuboni-Mulligan, Breyanna L. Cavanaugh, Anne Tonson, Erik M. Shapiro, Andrew J. Gall

Faculty Publications

Daily rhythms in light exposure influence the expression of behavior by entraining circadian rhythms and through its acute effects on behavior (i.e., masking). Importantly, these effects of light are dependent on the temporal niche of the organism; for diurnal organisms, light increases activity, whereas for nocturnal organisms, the opposite is true. Here we examined the functional and morphological differences between diurnal and nocturnal rodents in retinorecipient brain regions using Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (Rattus norvegicus), respectively. We established the presence of circadian rhythmicity in cFOS activation in retinorecipient brain regions in …

Let It Rest: Sleep And Health As Positive Correlates Of Forgiveness Of Others And Self-Forgiveness, Loren Toussaint, Andrew J. Gall, Alyssa Cheadle, David R. Williams

Faculty Publications

Objective: The present study examined forgiveness of others, self-forgiveness, sleep, and health in a nationally representative sample of United States adults. It was hypothesised that sleep would mediate the associations of forgiveness of others and self-forgiveness with health.

Design: A nationally representative survey of 1,423 United States adults.

Main Outcome Measures: Measures included forgiveness of others, self-forgiveness, sleep quantity, sleep quality, psychological distress, life satisfaction, and self-rated physical health.

Results: Forgiveness of others (β = .20, p < .001) and self-forgiveness (β = .11, p < .01) were associated with sleep and forgiveness of others (β = .24, p < .001) and self-forgiveness (β = .27, p < .001) were associated with health. Sleep was associated with health (β = .45, p < .001) and also acted as a mediator of the associations of forgiveness of others (β = .09, p < .01) and self-forgiveness (β = .05, p < .01) with health.

Conclusions: Forgiveness of others and self-forgiveness may attenuate emotions such as anger, regret, and rumination and provide …

The Effects Of Ambient Temperature And Lighting Intensity On Wheel-Running Behavior In A Diurnal Rodent, The Nile Grass Rat (Arvicanthis Niloticus), Garrett M. Fogo, Alyssa M. Goodwin, Ohanes S. Khacherian, Brandi J. Ledbetter, Andrew J. Gall

Faculty Publications

Environmental conditions, such as the light-dark cycle and temperature, affect the display of circadian rhythmicity and locomotor activity patterns in mammals. Here, we tested the hypothesis that manipulating these environmental conditions would affect wheel-running activity patterns in a diurnal rodent, the Nile grass rat (Arvicanthis niloticus). Grass rats are diurnal in the field, however, a subset switch from a day-active pattern to a night-active pattern of activity after the introduction of a running wheel. The mechanism of this chronotype switch remains largely unknown. In the present study, grass rats were presented with running wheels in 12:12 light-dark conditions. First, subjects …

Steadfast Standards Or Fluctuating Fancies? Stability And Change In People’S Mate Criteria Over 27 Months, Carrie A. Bredow, Nicole Hames

Faculty Publications

Although research on mate preferences has been built on the assumption that the criteria people report at one point in time should predict their future partnering behavior, little is known about the temporal stability of people’s standards. Using survey data collected at four time points from 285 originally unmarried individuals, this study examined the rank-order, meanlevel, individual-level and ipsative stability of people’s mate criteria over 27 months. Overall, reported standards exhibited moderate to high baseline stability, with rank-order and ipsative estimates comparable to those reported for personality traits. At the same time, mean- and individual-level analyses revealed small, but significant, …

Enhanced Memory For Fair-Related Faces And The Role Of Trait Anxiety, Gewnhi Park, Benjamin U. Marsh, Elisha J. Johnson

Faculty Publications

The current research examined whether fair consideration—a social norm that people inherently prefer to confirm—would modulate face recognition. Each neutral face was associated with fair or unfair offers via an economic decision task, the Ultimatum Game (UG) task. After the UG, participants were asked to identify the faces of proposers who made different offers. Enhanced memory was observed for fair-related compared to unfair-related faces. Furthermore, high trait anxiety was associated with reduced memory for fair-related faces. These results were further confirmed by signal detection theory. The current research provided initial evidence that people showed enhanced memory for faces that made …

Worldview Conflict In Daily Life, Mark J. Brandt, Jarret T. Crawford, Daryl R. Vantongeren

Faculty Publications

Building on laboratory- and survey-based research probing the psychology of ideology and the experience of worldview conflict, we examined the association between worldview conflict and emotional reactions, psychological well-being, humanity esteem, and political ideology in everyday life using experience sampling. In three combined samples (total N = 328), experiencing disagreement compared to agreement was associated with experiencing more other-condemning emotions, less well-being, and less humanity esteem. There were no clear associations between experiencing disagreement and experiencing self-conscious emotions, positive emotions, and mental stress. None of the relationships were moderated by political ideology. These results both replicate and challenge findings from …

Gratitude Predicts Hope And Happiness: A Two-Study Assessment Of Traits And States, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Fallon J. Richie, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Daryl R. Van Tongeren

Faculty Publications

Gratitude is the appreciation of a gift received; happiness is the enjoyment of a present good; and hope is the desire for a valued future. Two studies investigated gratitude as a predictor of hope and happiness. In Study 1, hierarchical regressions (N = 181) revealed that trait gratitude exceeded other constructs (forgivingness, patience, self-control) in predicting trait hope and happiness. In Study 2, we experimentally tested the impact of a gratitude-related writing intervention on state hope and happiness. Participants (N = 153) first wrote about a current, meaningful, hoped-for outcome and completed state hope and happiness measures. Participants …

Understanding The Role Of Religious Comfort And Strain On Depressive Symptoms In An Inpatient Psychiatric Setting, Alexis D. Abernethy, Joseph M. Currier, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Sarah A. Schnitker, Katharine M. Putman, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Joshua D. Foster, Andrene Spencer, Heather Jones, Karl Vanharn, Janet Carter

Faculty Publications

Understanding the role of religion in mental illness has always been complicated as some people turn to religion to cope with their illness, whereas others turn away. The overarching purpose of this study was to draw on quantitative and qualitative information to illuminate ways in which religiousness might be associated with changes in depressive symptomatology in a spiritually integrated inpatient treatment program. This repeated measures mixed method study examined the relations among religious comfort (RC), religious strain (RS), and depression in an inpatient psychiatric sample. Adult inpatients (N=248; Mage = 40.78 years; SD = 18.97) completed measures of RC, RS, …

It's More Than Self-Presentation: Mum Effects Can Reflect Private Discomfort And Concern For The Recipient, Jayson L. Dibble

Faculty Publications

Is the reluctance to share bad news (i.e., the MUM effect) motivated more by a public display or private concern, and does it benefit mainly the messenger or the recipient? An experiment (N = 309) that crossed good/bad news with three communication channels (face to face, text messaging, email) revealed that messenger reluctance was greatest under conditions of bad news and did not vary based on channel through which the recipient contacted the messenger. In contrast with earlier work, this MUM effect was more consistent with a private fear of distressing the recipient. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.

Virtue, Positive Psychology, And Religion: Consideration Of An Overarching Virtue And An Underpinning Mechanism, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet

Faculty Publications

The virtues are a central focus of research at the intersection of positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality. Humility, patience, and gratitude are addressed in the target articles of this special issue. Beyond examining each individual virtue, we argue here that the connections among virtues also warrant empirical attention. Specifically, we explain the unity of the virtues thesis, which suggests that individual virtues may be a part of a larger overarching construct, which we propose may be practical wisdom, or simply general virtuousness. Similarly, we propose that a common mechanism, such as automatic self-regulation, may facilitate these …

Normal Behavioral Responses To Light And Darkness And The Pupillary Light Reflex Are Dependent Upon The Olivary Pretectal Nucleus In The Diurnal Nile Grass Rat, Andrew J. Gall, Ohanes S. Khacherian, Brandi Ledbetter, Sean P. Deats, Megan Luck, Laura Smale, Lily Yan, Antonio A. Nunez

Faculty Publications

The olivary pretectal nucleus (OPT) is a midbrain structure that receives reciprocal bilateral retinal projections, is involved in the pupillary light reflex, and connects reciprocally with the intergeniculate leaflet (IGL), a retinorecipient brain region that mediates behavioral responses to light pulses (i.e., masking) in diurnal Nile grass rats. Here, we lesioned the OPT and evaluated behavioral responses in grass rats to various lighting conditions, as well as their anxiety-like responses to light exposure. While control grass rats remained diurnal, grass rats with OPT lesions exhibited a more night-active pattern under 12h:12h light-dark (LD) conditions. However, when placed in constant darkness, …

Body Esteem And Appearance-Based Self-Worth: A Test Of Religious Moderators In Men And Women, Mary Inman, Charlotte Vanoyen Witvliet

Faculty Publications

Basing self-worth on appearance is inversely related to women’s body esteem, but studies have not examined whether religious factors moderate this relationship in women or men—controlling for positive and negative affect. We tested two possible moderators: basing self-worth on when one has God’s (conditional) love or having positive attitudes toward God (trusting and feeling loved and supported by an all-knowing and all-powerful God). In women (N=287) and men (N=124), correlations showed that basing self-worth on appearance was negatively related to body esteem, whereas positive attitudes toward God were positively related to body esteem. In women, basing self-worth on perceptions of …

Positive Reappraisals After An Offense: Event-Related Potentials And Emotional Effects Of Benefit-Finding And Compassion, Justin C. Baker, John K. Williams, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Peter C. Hill

Faculty Publications

Using a within subjects design, three emotion regulation strategies (compassion‐focused reappraisal, benefit‐focused reappraisal, and offense rumination) were tested for their effects on forgiveness, well‐being, and event‐related potentials (ERPs). Participants (N = 37) recalled a recent interpersonal offense as the context for each emotion regulation strategy. Both decisional and emotional forgiveness increased significantly for the two reappraisal strategies compared to offense rumination. Compassion‐focused reappraisal prompted the greatest increase in both decisional and emotional forgiveness. Furthermore, both reappraisal strategies increased positively oriented well‐being measures (e.g., joy, gratitude) compared to offense rumination, with compassion‐focused reappraisal demonstrating the largest effect on empathy. Late positive …

The Contribution Of The Pineal Gland On Daily Rhythms And Masking In Diurnal Grass Rats, Arvicanthis Niloticus, Dorela D. Shuboni, Amna A. Agha, Thomas K. H. Groves, Andrew J. Gall

Faculty Publications

Melatonin is a hormone rhythmically secreted at night by the pineal gland in vertebrates. In diurnal mammals, melatonin is present during the inactive phase of the rest/activity cycle, and in primates it directly facilitates sleep and decreases body temperature. However, the role of the pineal gland for the promotion of sleep at night has not yet been studied in non-primate diurnal mammalian species. Here, the authors directly examined the hypothesis that the pineal gland contributes to diurnality in Nile grass rats by decreasing activity and increasing sleep at night, and that this could occur via effects on circadian mechanisms or …

Self-Forgiveness And Forgiveness-Seeking In Response To Rumination: Cardiac And Emotional Responses Of Transgressors, Sérgio P. Da Silva, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Blake Riek

Faculty Publications

Self-forgiveness and forgiveness-seeking are important and understudied aspects of forgiveness. We examined the cardiac and emotional patterns of healthy young adults (40 women, 40 men) who recalled an unresolved offense they had caused another person. Participants engaged in four imagery conditions: ruminating about the offense, being humbly repentant and engaging in self-forgiveness, seeking forgiveness from the victim and receiving forgiveness, and seeking forgiveness from the victim and being begrudged. Being repentant and begrudged forgiveness by one’s victim was associated with the same level of guilt as when ruminating, but significantly more negative emotion, less control, and less empathy than when …

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus And Subparaventricular Zone Lesions Disrupt Circadian Rhythmicity But Not Light-Induced Masking Behavior In Nile Grass Rats, Andrew J. Gall, Dorela D. Shuboni, Lily Yan, Antonio A. Nunez, Laura Smale

Faculty Publications

The ventral subparaventricular zone (vSPVZ) receives direct retinal input and influences the daily patterning of activity in rodents, making it a likely candidate for the mediation of acute behavioral responses to light (i.e., masking). We performed chemical lesions aimed at the vSPVZ of diurnal grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus) using N-methyl-D,L-aspartic acid (NMA), a glutamate agonist. Following NMA lesions, we placed grass rats in various lighting conditions (e.g., 12:12 light-dark, constant dark, constant light); presented a series of light pulses at circadian times (CT) 6, 14, 18, and 22; and placed them in a 7-h ultradian cycle to assess behavioral masking. …

Religious-Body Affirmations Protect Body Esteem For Women Who Base Self-Worth On Appearance Or Others’ Approval, Mary Inman, Anna Snyder, Kelvin Peprah

Faculty Publications

Women who base their self-worth on appearance or others’ approval are especially vulnerable to low body esteem when they view media images of thin models. We explored one way religion might mitigate the harmful media effects in these women. We tested whether basing self-worth on appearance or others’ approval was positively related to body comparisons and body surveillance. We tested whether reading religious body-affirming statements enhanced feelings of being loved, which would increase body esteem in women who base self-worth on appearance or others’ approval. This experiment manipulated the type of body-affirming statements (religious, spiritual, control) and assessed women’s body …

Intergeniculate Leaflet Lesions Result In Differential Activation Of Brain Regions Following The Presentation Of Photic Stimuli In Nile Grass Rats, Andrew J. Gall, Lily Yan, Laura Smale, Antonio A. Nunez

Faculty Publications

The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) plays an important role in the entrainment of circadian rhythms and the mediation of acute behavioral responses to light (i.e., masking). Recently, we reported that IGL lesions in diurnal grass rats result in a reversal in masking responses to light as compared to controls. Here, we used Fos as a marker of neural activation to examine the mechanisms by which the IGL may influence this masking effect of light in grass rats. Specifically, we examined the patterns of Fos activation in retinorecipient areas and in brain regions that receive IGL inputs following 1-h light pulses given …

Oh, Behave! Behavior As An Interaction Between Genes & The Environment, Emily G. Weigel, Michael Denieu, Andrew J. Gall

Faculty Publications

This lesson is designed to teach students that behavior is a trait shaped by both genes and the environment. Students will read a scientific paper, discuss and generate predictions based on the ideas and data therein, and model the relationships between genes, the environment, and behavior. The lesson is targeted to meet the educational goals of undergraduate introductory biology, evolution, and animal behavior courses, but it is also suitable for advanced high school biology students. This lesson meets the criteria for the Next Generation Science Standard HS-LS4, Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity (NGSS Lead States, 2013).

The Development Of Sleep-Wake Rhythms And The Search For Elemental Circuits In The Infant Brain, Mark S. Blumberg, Andrew J. Gall, William D. Todd

Faculty Publications

Despite the predominance of sleep in early infancy, developmental science has yet to play a major role in shaping concepts and theories about sleep and its associated ultradian and circadian rhythms. Here we argue that developmental analyses help us to elucidate the relative contributions of the brainstem and forebrain to sleep-wake control and to dissect the neural components of sleep-wake rhythms. Developmental analysis also makes it clear that sleep-wake processes in infants are the foundation for those of adults. For example, the infant brainstem alone contains a fundamental sleep-wake circuit that is sufficient to produce transitions among wakefulness, quiet sleep, …

Do Religious Affirmations, Religious Commitments, Or General Commitments Mitigate The Negative Effects Of Exposure To Thin Ideals?, Mary Inman, Erica Iceberg, Laura Mckeel

Faculty Publications

Western pressures for thinness tell women that having a thin body makes a person worthy. Two factors that may provide alternative means of self-worth are religion and general commitment to a meaningful goal. This study experimentally tested whether religious-affirming statements buffered against exposure to thin models for everyone, or only for women with strong religious commitment. It also examined the relationships among religious commitment, general commitment, and body satisfaction. One hundred eleven women at a religious-affiliated college completed the commitment scales and baseline body measures. They were later randomly assigned to read one set of affirming statements, after which they …