Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Comparing Effects Of Praise Rates On Classroom Behavior, Brittany Pigg

Master's Theses

High-quality academic instruction, and, in turn, student success, are correlated with effective classroom management (Gage, Scott, Hirn, & MacSuga-Gage, 2018; Johnson, 1997; Stronge, Ward, & Grant, 2011; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993). Students are spending up to 50% of their instructional time engaged in non-instructional activities such as classroom procedures, transitions, and discipline (Codding & Smyth, 2008). However, academic activities should account for at least 70% of classroom time (Little & Akin-Little, 2008). Praise, a simple classroom behavior management procedure, includes statements commending behavior and is intended to increase the future probability of the behavior that warranted praise. Behavior-specific praise …

Tempers Rising: The Effect Of Heat On Spite, Jake C. Cosgrove

Master's Theses

The relationship between heat and harmful outcomes is well documented, with research connecting various adverse economic outcomes to the climate. In the presence of increasing global warming and climate change, understanding why the climate leads to negative economic outcomes is essential for forming peaceful institutions of the future. We study how behavioral economic outcomes change in the presence of heat through a lab experiment involving 1,110 observations conducted in five different countries. This paper specifically focuses on the social preference outcome of spite. We find that increased time exposure to the treatment effect of heat is required to elicit an …

Impacts Of Rising Temperatures On Human Behavior With A Focus On Gender Differences, Stephanie Marie Emilia J. Hermoso

Master's Theses

Climate change is one of the biggest and most pressing issues the world is facing today. While its economic implications are substantial, it is also important to investigate the effects of climate change on human behavior. This paper examines the relationship of rising temperatures and its effect on an individual’s cooperative behavior – specifically egalitarianism, generosity, selfishness, and spite. This study will focus on the differences between how males and females react to the temperature. Research indicates that there are substantial behavioral differences between men and women. How do the economic decisions of men and women differ when interacted with …

Motives For (In)Effective Giving: Comparing Rural And Urban Groups In South Africa., Luvuyo Bulelani Magwaza

Master's Theses

Different cultures have their own set of norms and values that not only shape people’s motives but also influences their decision making. What may be viewed as logical and ethical in one culture, may be seen as illogical or unethical in another. One area that is consistently affected by cross-cultural differences in motives is charitable giving. Recently, there has been an increase in interest around effective altruism— a social movement and philosophy that argues, people should give to charities that do the most good. Prior research that has found that people do not give based on efficiency; instead, people give …

Stability Of Universal Screening Over Time: An Examination Of The Student Risk Screening Scale, Rebecca Wagner Lovelace

Master's Theses

Universal screening is a proactive method to identify students that are at risk for social-emotional and behavior (SEB) problems and provide information to schools to support early intervention for at risk children. Current recommendations for practice indicate screening should be conducted at three time points during the school year. Previous studies suggest that this recommendation is not empirically based and fewer screenings per year may be sufficient for identifying students at risk. The current study seeks to extend the literature regarding the stability and consistency of screening scores over time by analyzing ratings from the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS) …

Do Pinnipeds Have Personality? Coding Harbor Seal (Phoca Vitulina) And California Sea Lion (Zalophus Californianus) Behavior Across Contexts, Amber J. De Vere

Master's Theses

Personality has now been studied in species as diverse as chimpanzees (King & Figueredo, 1997) and cuttlefish (Carere et al., 2015), but marine mammals remain vastly underrepresented in this area. A broad range of traits have been assessed only in the bottlenose dolphin (Highfilll & Kuczaj, 2007), while consistent individual differences in a few specific behaviors have been identified in grey seals (Robinson et al., 2015; Twiss & Franklin, 2010; Twiss, Culloch & Pomeroy, 2011; Twiss, Cairns, Culloch, Richards & Pomeroy, 2012). Furthermore, the context component of definitions of personality is not often assessed, despite evidence that animals may show …

Towards A Better Understanding Of Zebrafish Sleep Behavior, Kanza Musarrat Khan

Master's Theses

Sleep serves many vital functions in humans, ranging from energy restoration to memory consolidation and information integration. Sleep deprivation is linked to worsened physiological states and psychological conditions. Zebrafish are an emerging model in neurobehavioral research and have recently demonstrated great utility in the study of sleep. This teleost species possesses several of the same neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems that are involved in the regulation of sleep and waking rhythms in higher order mammals. Previous study of these animals has revealed a differential gene and proteomic expression following sleep deprivation through changes in environmental stimuli. The present study sought to …

The Effects Of Tootling On Disruptive And Academic Behaviors In High School, John Dylan Ken Lum

Master's Theses

Considered the opposite of tattling, tootling is a procedure where students report their classmates’ positive behavior instead of inappropriate behavior. This study examined the effects of tootling on students’ behavior in three general education high school classrooms. An A-B-A-B withdrawal with follow-up design was used to assess the effects of the intervention on decreasing classwide disruptive behavior and increasing academically engaged behavior. Students wrote tootles anonymously on paper slips, and deposited them into a marked container. An interdependent group contingency procedure was used to create a class goal for the number of submitted tootles, which led to a class reward …

Effects Of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury On Spatial Working Memory, Amanda L. Smith

Master's Theses

Children born prematurely or at very low birth weight (VLBW) have an increased risk for hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HI). HI refers to a lack of adequate blood and oxygen flow in the brain. HI can also occur in the term infant due to birth complications such as prolonged labor, placental dysfunction, or cord prolapse. In both populations (though exact patterns of neuropathology vary) brain damage is likely to occur in the form of decreased hippocampal and cortical volume, and enlargement of the ventricles (Kesler et al., 2004, Nagy et al., 2009). Resulting neuropathology can in turn lead to cognitive …

Motherhood, Memory And Aging : Object Recognition Performance, Julia Margaret Friedenberg

Master's Theses

Reproductively experienced female rats have been shown to have attenuated stress responses, improved visual systems, and better memory and learning. This study sought to extend those findings by comparing aged reproductively experienced and aged virgin female rats on an object recognition task, as well as comparing levels of corticosterone and 17p-estradiol and neural activation. Multiparous (MP, 2 reproductive experiences) females performed better on the task and demonstrated quicker habituation to the task than nulliparous (NP, no reproductive experiences) females. No hormonal or neural activation differences were found. The present study contributes to the growing research areas of reproductive experience and …

A Role For Vasopressin And Oxytocin In Parental Behavior Of The Male Sprague-Dawley Rat, Ekaterina V. Karelina

Master's Theses

Paternal behavior, though infrequent in many mammalian species, can be induced under laboratory conditions through manipulation of either hormonal or environmental states. Rodent studies of parental behavior have implicated similarities for males and females in not only the actual behavioral repertoire, but also the brain mechanisms governing the set of behaviors in both sexes. The current project investigated changes in oxytocin and vasopressin in the hypothalamus of paternal male rats. We found that paternal behavior, which was readily induced through sensitization (chronic pup exposure), was significantly correlated with increasing oxytocin and vasopressin immunoreactivity within the paraventricular nucleus. Further, corticosterone levels …

Learned Fear And Reaction To Novel Stimuli: Behavioral And Hormonal Stress Responses In The Maternal Rat, Brandi Nicole Rima

Master's Theses

The present thesis examines the relationship between reproductive experience and the behavioral, neural, and hormonal processes of learned fear in the female rat. Multiple research models indicate that reproductive experience functions to decrease the female's stress response in potentially harmful environments, thus providing her with numerous survival benefits, including decreased fearfulness, increased aggression, and refined hunting skills. Based on existing understandings of maternal experience and unconditioned fear, this study was designed to determine how nulliparous (no reproductive experience, NP), primiparous (one reproductive experience, PP) and multiparous (more than one reproductive experience, MP) rats comparatively respond to a Pavlovian paradigm of …

The Presence Of Pups After Birth : Effects On Spatial Memory And The Pre-Synaptic Protein Synaptophysin, Abbe Hoffman Macbeth

Master's Theses

A newly maternal rat goes through many changes when she gives birth, mostly due to prolonged elevation of hormones, particularly estrogen. Estrogen has been shown to increase memory capabilities by increasing synaptic activity in the CA1 hippocampus, but exactly how is still unknown. The current project uses reproductive experience to determine whether high hormone levels experienced during pregnancy and lactation affect spatial memory and synaptophysin, a pre-synaptic protein that controls vesicle exocytosis and thus may be responsible for enhanced synaptic connectivity. We found that reproduction itself does not affect memory of a spatial task, but the presence of pups has …

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Maternal Behavior : Neuronal Alterations In The Medial Preoptic Area And Suppression Of Pup Attacks, Lillian Flores Stevens

Master's Theses

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), by virtue of its relationship to various neurotransmitter systems, hormones, and to estrogen in particular, may play a role in maternal behavior. To explore this possible role, female virgin Sprague Dawley rats received continuous intracerebroventricular infusions ofBDNF sense oligonucleotide and were exposed to pups for maternal behavior testing. Behaviorally, BDNF sense had no effect on maternal behavior but did significantly suppress pup attacks during the first 24 hours of exposure. BDNF had a significant effect on neuronal morphology in the medial preoptic area (mPOA) as well, such that neurons in this region exposed to BDNF had …

Glial Cell Alterations In The Rat Medial Preoptic Area And Hippocampus As A Function Of Reproductive State, Gordon Wentworth Gifford

Master's Theses

Changes in reproductive state are accompanied by fluctuating levels of female gonadal hormones at higher levels and for longer periods of time than the normal estrus cycle. These hormones have been noted, in cell culture and over the regular estrus cycle, to influence structural changes in neurons and glial cells in areas of the brain associated with the conduct of maternal behavior. The purpose of this project was to characterize changes in GFAP immunoreactivity and astrocyte morphology in the mPOA and hippocampus as a function of reproductive state and female steroid hormone treatment. Results of this investigation noted an increases …

The Effects Of Litter Size On Behavioral Development And Adult Emotinoality In The Rat, Elizabeth N. Pully

Master's Theses

The effects of the early experience variable of litter size is examined at two developmental time periods (infancy and adulthood) in the rat. The study departs from the majority of the early experience experimentation in its use of a naturally occurring independent variable in place of the typical handling and shocking procedures. Large (n = 9), medium (n = 5), small litters (n = 3) were developed by pooling rat pups at birth and then distributing them to randomly selected, lactating females. Observations of behaviors (including maternal grooming) during the preweaning stage of development disclosed substantial differences in response activity …

Effect Of Self-Concept Upon Performance Following Failure Stress, Daniel Stern

Master's Theses

Jahoda (1958) has summarized the thinking, which has been done about a group of behaviors jointly labeled "positive mental health." After reviewing the conceptualizations of both phenomenologically and analytically oriented writers, Jahoda distilled six classes of responses, which have been listed as representative of mental health. These general classes of responses includes (1) positive self-attitudes, (2) self-actualizing behavior, (J) integrative behavior, (4) autonomous behavior, (5) accurate perceptual behavior, (6) behavior by which the subject obtains mastery over his environment. Of the six response classes listed, two were chosen for the present study. Specifically, the relationship between the general categories of …

Timidity, Emotionality, And Activity In Rats Deprived Of Grooming, Josiah B. Henneberger

Master's Theses

The purpose of this current study was to investigate the effect of restriction of grooming, by means of collars, on activity, emotionality, and timidity. On the basis of the common occurrence of grooming when under stress some relationship between licking and emotionality was assumed to exist by the author. it was therefore expected that differences would be found among the treatment group.

The current study made use of a three factor design. One factor was the treatment factor, another factor was the replications factor, and the third was the days factor. The days factor has repeated measures and the replications …

Classically Conditioned Licking And Acquired Orienting As A Function Of Qualitatively Different Ucs Values : Acquisition, Shifting And Extinction, Jerry Weeks Rudy

Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (A) to study classically conditioned licking in rats as a function of a qualitative UCS difference, defined as 15% sucrose concentration and 0% concentration (plain tap water); (B) to study acquired orienting as a function of these UCS values. Several aspects of conditioned performance were investigated: (1) the effect of UCS intensity on level of responding during acquisition; (2) the effect of UCS intensity on rate of approach to terminal level of responding; (3) a possible learning performance distinction in appetitive classical conditioning; (4) rate of extinction as a function of the …