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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Nonmedical Stimulant Use In An Undergraduate College Student Sample: Demographics, Academics, Stress, And Other Substance Use, Ashley Skye Vanover, Meredith K. Ginley, Shelby Whalan Dec 2023

Nonmedical Stimulant Use In An Undergraduate College Student Sample: Demographics, Academics, Stress, And Other Substance Use, Ashley Skye Vanover, Meredith K. Ginley, Shelby Whalan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nonmedical use of prescription stimuluants (NMUS) can cause adverse outcomes for college students including academic impediments, such as a lowered GPA, and polyuse of illicit substances (Garcia et al., 2021; Holt & McCarthy, 2019; Norman & Ford, 2018). The current study investigated the demographics, academics, stress, and polysubstance use between students who endorsed NMUS and those who did not in an undergraduate college population sample at a large public university in the Southeast. The sample consisted of 429 undergraduate students who completed online measures of demographics, perceived stress, stressful life events, and substance use. Overall, 3.4% of the sample reported …


The Effects Of The Transition From Pre-Nursing To Nursing On Mental Health, Andrew J. Davis, Paige R. Mullins, Kimberly A. Sell May 2022

The Effects Of The Transition From Pre-Nursing To Nursing On Mental Health, Andrew J. Davis, Paige R. Mullins, Kimberly A. Sell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mental health is an ever-growing crisis among adolescents and young adults, with suicide as second leading cause of death and the number of those negatively affected continually on the rise. Transitions are one of the major stressors prevalent among these age groups, placing individuals at risk for mental health deficits. This quantitative voluntary response comparative study assesses the transitional mental health of pre-nursing students and students in the nursing program at East Tennessee State University. Emailed to all with a declared major of pre-nursing or nursing, this study measured mental health using evidenced based assessment tools. The PHQ-9 for depression …


Indicators Of Deception: Science Or Non-Science, Kristina Vasquez Jan 2022

Indicators Of Deception: Science Or Non-Science, Kristina Vasquez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Deception detection is used by many law enforcement professionals who work in interviews and interrogations. The ability to detect deception or having knowledge on the signs of deception is very important in not only law enforcement, but in other careers and everyday life. The question remains: is deception detection a science or not a science? There are three areas where someone can learn how to detect deception and those are verbal communication, non-verbal communication, and paralanguage. The use of verbal communication looks at what the person is saying with their words. The use of non-verbal communication looks at what someone …


Rock, Rap, And Rage: Which Genre Elicits Negative Emotional Contagion, Sarah Vinson Jan 2022

Rock, Rap, And Rage: Which Genre Elicits Negative Emotional Contagion, Sarah Vinson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Previous studies have analyzed the effects of the heavy metal and rap music genres, both together and separately, to study the music’s influence on aggressive behavior. A lack of studies analyzing the effect of one group against the other are available to assess which group it is that elicits higher negative emotional contagion. The current study is a follow-up to a pilot study conducted to assess whether it was heavy metal or rap music that elicited higher negative emotional contagion. Personality type using the 10-Item Big Five Inventory and the Trait Anger Scale allowed the researcher to compare several personality …


Understanding Ideal Social Networking Strategies Based On Relational Mobility And Environmental Stability, Angela Vasishta May 2021

Understanding Ideal Social Networking Strategies Based On Relational Mobility And Environmental Stability, Angela Vasishta

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The two studies within this paper look to determine the optimal social networking strategy across a combination of the social and ecological variables of Relational Mobility and Environmental Stability. Researchers Oishi and Kesebir (2012) hypothesize that societies characterized by low Relational Mobility and low Environmental Stability would choose to form narrow networks consisting of deep ties while societies characterized by high Relational Mobility and high Environmental Stability would choose to form broad networks consisting of weak ties. The Strength of Weak Ties Hypothesis argues that across all combinations of social and economic variables, social networks with broad, weak ties would …


The Creation Of Personal Happiness, Jayme Zesiger Jan 2021

The Creation Of Personal Happiness, Jayme Zesiger

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Happiness is something human beings strive to acquire but how to obtain this elusive feeling remains a longstanding and intriguing inquiry. One reason for this is that there is no one specific definition of happiness and no standard measurement for it. This project focuses on defining what is believed to affect happiness from an individual’s personal perspective and aims to shed light on the current research and understanding of how to define happiness and what common variables lead to happiness. To this aim, a structured literature review was conducted which led to the development of a mixed methods survey designed …


Is There A Relationship Between Experiences Of Workplace Discrimination And Self-Stigmatization Among Mental Health Peer Support Workers?, Nicole King May 2020

Is There A Relationship Between Experiences Of Workplace Discrimination And Self-Stigmatization Among Mental Health Peer Support Workers?, Nicole King

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis aimed to explore whether a statistically significant relationship existed between experiences of workplace discrimination and self-stigmatization among mental health peer support workers. This relationship has not previously been explored in this group. The Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (ISMI) was used to measure self-stigmatization, and a 3-measure scale adapted by Stromwall, Holley and Bashor (2011), alongside a newly created measure, were used to assess perceived workplace discrimination. The sample was a convenience sample of 20 participants. The researcher expected a positive correlation between workplace discrimination and self-stigmatization. Ultimately, no statistically significant relationship was found between the two …


Exploring The Relationship Between Misophonia Severity And Anterior Insular Cortex Activity, Nicole M J Sedlak Apr 2020

Exploring The Relationship Between Misophonia Severity And Anterior Insular Cortex Activity, Nicole M J Sedlak

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Misophonia is an under-recognized neuropsychological condition involving a severe sensitivity towards specific sounds called triggers. The aim of this study was to investigate how activity in the anterior insular cortex (AIC) differed with varying levels of sound sensitivity (SS); misophonia being the most severe. Data was collected from university undergraduates/young adults (N = 31). Participants completed an online survey to assess their misophonia severity and symptoms. A case study was conducted on some of the students (N = 4) to assess misophonia at a neurological level. In addition to experiencing a heightened sensitivity to sounds, the misophonia group reported having …


Impact Of The Csi Effect And Authority Bias On Juror Decisions, Meredith Scruggs Jan 2020

Impact Of The Csi Effect And Authority Bias On Juror Decisions, Meredith Scruggs

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The recent increase in number of crime drama television shows raises the issue that these fictional portrayals may impact real proceedings in the justice system. This phenomenon has become known as the CSI effect. This includes the concept of authority bias, by which laypeople place higher value on information provided by those that they perceive to be in positions of authority. 289 college students completed a survey comparing their likelihood to match an unknown fingerprint to a suspect’s, after actors portraying evidence technicians either confirm the match or provide no conclusion. Results showed no significant interaction between the confirmation condition …


Attentional Bias Measured In The Addiction Stroop Task For Problem Internet Gamers, Samantha Marie Rundle Jan 2017

Attentional Bias Measured In The Addiction Stroop Task For Problem Internet Gamers, Samantha Marie Rundle

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study aims to determine the relationship between individuals’ attentional bias scores, measured in a modified Addiction Stroop task, with four other variables; level of involvement in Internet games, impulsivity, behavioural inhibition/activation, and sensation seeking. Recruitment was gathered through the Psychology Sona Research Participation Pool at Western University and was exclusive to male, English speaking, non-colour blind individuals. Participant’s completed a version of the Addiction Stroop task modified for assessment of attentional bias related to Internet gaming. Additionally, participants completed five questionnaires: a Demographics form, the Problem Online Gaming Questionnaire (POGQ), the Barratt Inhibition Scale (BIS), the Behavioural Inhibition/Activation …


The Effects Of Musical Mood And Musical Arousal On Visual Attention, Angela B. Marti Marca, Tram Nguyen, Jessica Grahn Apr 2014

The Effects Of Musical Mood And Musical Arousal On Visual Attention, Angela B. Marti Marca, Tram Nguyen, Jessica Grahn

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The presence of music is a visceral part of the human experience and its influence on cognitive function is a growing area of research in psychology. In particular, perceptual properties of music (mood and arousal) have been shown to significantly affect performance. There has been minimal research in the field on the interaction of mood and arousal and their influence on attention, thus the purpose of this study. Fifty undergraduate students currently enrolled at the University of Western Ontario were recruited for this study. Given that music is a highly subjective experience, participants rated an assortment of music clips on …


The Interaction Between Spatial Working And Reference Memory In Rats On A Radial Maze, Nicole Ann Guitar Apr 2014

The Interaction Between Spatial Working And Reference Memory In Rats On A Radial Maze, Nicole Ann Guitar

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present study investigated the interaction between working and reference spatial memory in an effort to develop an animal model of this interaction. Twelve male Long-Evans rats were tested on an eight-arm radial maze in a two-phase procedure. In the study phase, a rat was allowed to enter four randomly selected arms for a food reward placed at the end of each arm. The test phase allowed the rat access to all eight arms, but only the previously unentered arms contained food. Two of the correct test arms were defined as reference memory arms because they were always correct. The …


Individual Differences In Ownership Reasoning: A Twin Study, Callista Forchuk Apr 2014

Individual Differences In Ownership Reasoning: A Twin Study, Callista Forchuk

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Vast similarities in ownership behaviour across species and age ranges have been used to support the notion of an innate basis for ownership reasoning. Using a twin study paradigm, this is the first study to investigate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in ownership reasoning. 65 pairs of adult monozygotic (MZ) twins, and 16 pairs of same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins completed a 24-item ownership questionnaire, which included items on (1) new ownership and (2) appropriate transfers of ownership. For both of these factors, it was found that MZ correlations were larger than DZ correlations. …