Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Vote Or Die: The Power Of The Black Vote, Stephen J. Smith, Harlin Miller

Black Issues Conference

The progress of Blacks in America can, in many ways, be attributed to the advancements made by gaining the right to participate in the political process. From establishing equal opportunities in housing to leveling the playing field in the workplace, the quality of life we as African-Americans enjoy today would not be possible if those before us did not fight for the right to vote. However, today’s Black America exhibits great apathy when it comes to voting on all levels. Most, when asked about their political views and/or affiliation, cannot clearly articulate the differences between Conservative and Liberal, Democrat or …

#Trending Now: Why Black Folk Need To Be In Psychotherapy, Samantha Lynn Gray

Black Issues Conference

Despite evidence that mental health problems (ranging from very mild to severe) affect all people, the rates of minorities engaged in personal psychotherapy have remained low throughout the past few decades. Historically, minorities have tended to devalue the importance of mental health, and stigmatize therapeutic interventions. This session will focus on why we need to shed the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and detail where we’ve been, where we are, and where we need to head in term of opening ourselves to self-exploration within the realm of psychotherapy. Also learn about how our physical health is intertwined with our mental …

Cultural Brokering And Bicultural Identity: An Exploratory Study, Jorida Cila, Richard Lalonde, Zohrah Haqanee

Western Migration Conference Series

Abstract: Cultural brokering refers to a process where individuals mediate between two parties that are experiencing some type of cultural misunderstanding. Our exploratory study indicates that cultural brokering is a diverse experience that spans the boundaries of one’s family and includes various norms, values and traditions.

Attachment And Couple Sexual Functioning, Kathryn Z. Devis, Melissa A. Louder, Kara L. Thompson, Katherine M. Hertlein

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Within the last several years, there has been a surge in the publications that focus on attachment within the couple relationships, including how it pertains to infidelity treatment. Despite the interest in couple relationships and attachment, however, a limited amount of literature focuses on how varying styles of attachment manifest in a couple's level of sexual functioning. This study is a response to the need to explore the literature and related gaps in literature.

Decision-Making Techniques Used By Elected Officials, Michael Gordon

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Politicians often make decisions that lead to contradictory outcomes from situations with seemingly similar circumstances and related factors. Recent examples include the U.S. reaction to the uprising in Iran contrasted with the call for the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak after the 18 Day Revolution in Egypt.

This frustrating reality, frequently based on perceived risks of publication of state secrets, has various far-reaching effects. Two effects of this reality include the loss of trust in government and government officials to do the right thing as well as the frequency of market fluctuations.

Driving Forces: Police Fatalities, Carol Servino

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Law enforcement is an inherently risky occupation. The number of traffic-related fatalities for law enforcement officers in the U.S. during the past 13 years has been increasing; however, the number of fatalities for the general population in motor vehicle traffic incidents declined during the same time period.

The federal government reports that federal motor vehicle safety standards aswell as behavioral and vehicle safety programs implemented by state and local law-enforcement agencies contributed to the downward trend for the general public.

What accounts for the pattern and problem with police driving-related deaths?

Clark County Mental Health Court: An Outcomes-Based Evaluation Model Of Residential And Treatment Programs Beyond Recidivism, Mark J. Nichols

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

The number of America’s mental health courts has grown significantly over the course of the past 15 years. Mental health courts can be seen as a form of therapeutic jurisprudence where the court implements therapeutic interventions, case management and treatment (Palermo, 2010). A mental health court was established in Clark County during 2003. Its mission is to promote engagement in treatment, improve quality of life, decrease recidivism, and increase community safety and awareness (Glass, 2008).

The focus of the evaluation of the Clark County Mental Health Court, limited to performance measures related to the decreased recidivism by its clients and …

The Effects Of Working Memory On High And Low Working Memory Capacity, Colleen M. Parks, Christine Agnir

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Acute stress is a factor that impairs working memory (McHugh et al.,2010). Emotional stimuli have been used in long-term memory studies. The emotional content of information is important in long-term memory studies that have focused on stress, but it is unknown if the valence of the stimuli matter for working memory tasks. Little research is know to use emotional pictures of N-back stimuli. Our goal is to determine whether these factors may significantly disrupt the working memory process of efficiently completing complex tasks.

Relationship Between Perceived And Actual Quality Of Data Checking, Hunter Speich, Sophia Karas, Dan Erosa, Kelly Grob, Kimberly A. Barchard

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Data quality is critical to reaching correct research conclusions. Researchers attempt to ensure that they have accurate data by checking the data after it has been entered. Previous research has demonstrated that some methods of data checking are better than others, but not all researchers use the best methods. Perhaps researchers continue to use less optimal data checking methods because they mistakenly believe that they are highly accurate. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived data quality and actual data quality. A total of 29 participants completed this study. Participants checked that letters and numbers …

Learning Mechanisms For Acquiring Knowledge Of Tonality In Music, Rikka Quam, Matthew Rosenthal, Erin Hannon

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Most people think that musical knowledge is exclusive to trained musicians. Actually, casual music listeners have implicit knowledge of important structural aspects of music, such as tonality. Tonality contributes to the feeling of anticipation one would experience when hearing someone sing “do re mi faso la ti” without singing the final “do”. Knowledge of tonality may be learned through the statistics of music (Krumhansl, 1990). However, learning mechanisms have rarely been investigated experimentally (Creel et al., 2002). Artificial grammar learning experiments have shown that listeners can acquire highly structured knowledge such as syllable co-occurrence and language syntax through passive exposure. …

Examining The Construct Validity Of The Metaphors Test, Jane Park, Kelly Grob, Yevgeniya Verenikina, Kimberly A. Barchard

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Emotional Intelligence is a multi-faceted construct. Existing tests do a good job of measuring some aspects of Emotional Intelligence. The Metaphors Test (Barchard, 2004) was designed to measure the ability to decipher the emotional content of ambiguous sentences. This test may measure a new facet of Emotional Intelligence. The purpose of this research was to examine the construct validity of the Metaphors Test as a measure of Emotional Intelligence. Using a sample of 281 undergraduates, the Metaphors Test was correlated with the four branches of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT; Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004): Perceiving Emotions, Using Emotions …

Analysis Of Morris Water Maze Data With Bayesian Statistical Methods, Maxym V. Myroshnychenko, Anton Westveld, Jefferson Kinney

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Neuroscientists commonly use a Morris Water Maze to assess learning in rodents. In his kind of a maze, the subjects learn to swim toward a platform hidden in opaque water as they orient themselves according to the cues on the walls. This protocol presents a challenge to statistical analysis, because an artificial cut-off must be set for those experimental subjects that do not reach the platform so as they do not drown from exhaustion. This fact leads to the data being right censored. In our experimental data, which compares learning in rodents that have chemically induced symptoms of schizophrenia to …

How Experience Influences Infants’ Recognition Of Male And Female Faces, Jennifer L. Rennels, Veronica A. Glover, Andrew J. Cummings, Andrea J. Kayl, Mateusz Orlewicz, Roanne J. Tiongson, Brooke Ditzler

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Young infants with female primary caregivers are able to differentiate familiar female faces from novel female faces but not male faces. Experience processing faces may be important for being able to discriminate among similar-looking faces. Subsequently, increasing infants’ experience with less familiar faces should improve their ability to differentiate those types of faces. This study examined if infants’ experience with faces affected their recognition of new faces. Prior to testing, 2-3 month old infants were assigned to one of three conditions: a male video, a female video, and no video condition. Infants were familiarized to both male and female faces …

Can Female Genital Mutilation Victims Benefit From Corrective Surgery: To Regain Sexual Pleasure And Be “Whole” Once Again?, Monique Sulls

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization, (WHO), as the removal or cutting of the external female genitalia. WHO estimates between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide currently live with the consequences of FGM. The study finds that through corrective surgery, pre/post therapy, counseling, and sexual education victims to FGM can regain sexual pleasure providing them a chance to be “Whole” once again.

The Evolution Of Social Pain: Understanding The Neural Network Of Social Ostracism Through Electroencephalogram Waves, Daniel Kern, Joseph Williams, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

The lack of belonging or frequent exposure to social ostracism has maladaptive psychological and physical consequences. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the neural processes of social ostracism. Previously, Williams (2009) showed a decrease in theta power in the frontal lobe when female participants were ostracized in a virtual chat-room. Using male and female Illinois Wesleyan college students, this study manipulated two powerful social cues (biological sex and attractiveness level) to determine their effect on prefrontal brain activity in response to social ostracism in a virtual chat-room environment. Using EEG technology, frontal theta power (4-8Hz) was measured using …

Effects Of Gender Based Descriptors On A Deity And A Corresponding Religious Group, Hannah Jones, Jennifer Daniels, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Explanatory Disclosure Booklet Study, Anna Genchanok, Linda Kunce, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Evaluating A Sensorimotor Intervention In Children Who Have Experienced Complex Trauma: A Pilot Study, Lauren Hansen, Robert Lusk, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Maintenance Of Conversation In Students With Autism, Jessica Clemens, Linda Kunce, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Cyberostracism And Social Monitoring: Social Anxiety's Affects On Reactions To Exclusion And Inclusion Online, Claire Karlen, Jennifer Daniels, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Previous research has shown that ostracism ―the equivalence of exclusion in a social situation―improves social monitoring abilities ― a natural practice by individuals that serves to gather information through social cues about what is happening in their social worlds (Pickett, Gardner, & Knowles, 2004). Current knowledge on social anxiety, defined as a chronic fear of social situations that put one in the position of evaluation by others, describes hypersensitivity in those individuals in cases of social monitoring others (Barlow, 2002; Craske,1999). The current study investigated how those two constructs interacted in a cyberostracism paradigm. After measuring their social anxiety levels, …

Efficacy Of A Cocaine-Schizophrenia Model In Rats: Behavioral And Physiological Measures, Andrew W. Ross, Joseph Williams, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Examining Political Defection: An Analysis Of Affective Intelligence, Media Attention, Political Knowledge And Issue Agreement, Kyle Sloan, Carolyn Brown-Kramer, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

In politics the political party affiliation of the voter often serves as a predictor for the voting behavior of that individual. However, a voter may occasionally vote against his or her political party, an action known as defection. The present study serves two purposes. The first is to compare defectors and non-defectors across a variety of relevant characteristics, including emotion experienced for one's in-party candidate, attention to media, political understanding, and issue agreement between oneself and one's in-party candidate. The second is to examine the correlations between the individual elements of these theories with one another. Results of this study …

Pulsed Radiofrequency Neuromodulation Of Peripheral Nerve Injury, Alex Willett, Joseph Williams, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Pulsed-radiofrequency neuromodulation (PRF) is a pain management technique that involves placing a needle electrode near nerves and generating electrical current pulses in order to modulate the transduction of somatosensory information through those nerves. This technique evolved from a similar radiofrequency (RF) procedure in which constant current is distributed to a nerve or neural structure. RF interrupts nerve conduction and prevents somatosensory information from reaching the brain. In the case of continuous radiofrequency, however, the destructive lesion can cause further complications and unwanted side effects. According to research, PRF, unlike RF, is non-destructive yet still induces analgesia and consequently represents a …

Examining The Effects Of Ostracism On Neural And Behavioral Indices Of Cognitive Self-Regulation, Aaron Ball, Jason Themanson, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Neural Activity During Social Exclusion: An Exploratory Examination, Stephanie M. Khatcherian, Jason Themanson, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Family Stress And Functioning In Clients Of A Post-Adoptive Service Who Were Referred For Attachment Therapy, Elizabeth Schilling, Amy James, Robert Aseltine

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.

Attachment Stories: The Attachment Experiences Of Special Needs Adoptive Families, Colette Duciaume-Wright, Ruth Mcroy, Susan Ayers-Lopez

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.

Adoption Mentoring Partnership: A Supportive Intervention In The Lives Of Adopted Individuals, Harold Grotevant, Quade French, Jen Dolan, Renee Moss

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.

Hoarding Behaviors In Foster Care: A Series Of Case Studies, Alana Curewitz, Edward Plimpton, Randy Frost

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.

Becoming A Family: Parenting Stress And Internationally Adopted Infants' Stress Responsivity, Jessica Matthews, Chie Kotake, Katie Aasland, Ann Easterbrooks

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.