Psychology Commons^™

Reinforcement In The Information Revolution, Phillip M. Baker

SPU Works

This chapter will outline what it means to be a behaving human and how AI makes sense of these concepts. It will then explore possible near-future implications of our remarkable progress in understanding how human behavior works with the assistance of AI from a neurobiological basis. A focus on understanding the reinforcement mechanisms of the brain will reveal the consequences of ceding control of so much of our brain-environment interactions to AI. It will conclude by offering a potential Christian response to this digital reality from a uniquely Anabaptist perspective.

Relationship Between Higher Education And Health Insurance Coverage And Healthcare Utilization For Black Or African American Individuals, Emma Revoir

Psychology Student Works

Higher education may decrease mortality due to higher income and health insurance availability (Buckles et al., 2016). Education can increase understanding and utilizing health insurance (Gallo et al., 2020). There is a gap in how this relationship affects racial minorities. This study aims to understand how health insurance is affected by education level for Black or African American individuals.

The Association Between Sibling Relationships And Personality, Rebecca Ramsey

Psychology Student Works

Differences in self perception (specifically aggression) was discovered in participants with siblings, and no difference of intelligence, outgoing personalities, creativity, competitiveness and family orientation (Van Volkom, Guerguis, & Kramer, 2017). Sisters were found to have more empathy than the brothers along with higher intimacy, knowledge, and emotional support (Walęcka-Matyja, 2017). There is a gap in my research between sibling jealousy and depression, sibling negativity, and intimacy in young adulthood (Hamwey & Whiteman, 2020). My study examines the similarity of personality to siblings. Some personality traits may include jealousy, outgoingness, competitiveness, and creativity.

How Quality Of Paternal Relationship Impacts Depression Development In Adulthood, Rachel Lane

Psychology Student Works

Previous studies show that paternal involvement directly correlates to a decrease in the child’s probability of developing a mental illness (O’Gara, et.al. 2019). Research shows, the more supportive and the more affection a parent gives, the less likely a child is to develop depressive tendencies (Del Barrio, et. al. 2016) There is a gap in investigating whether or not having a loving father postpones the age at which someone is diagnosed with depression. This study provides insight into paternal closeness and the age at which someone is diagnosed with depression.

The Association Between Promiscuity And Marital Satisfaction, Shelby Kate Christopher

Psychology Student Works

Research has suggested that premarital cohabitation is linked to a heightened risk of divorce and dissatisfaction if it occurs with someone other than the marriage partner (Teachman, 2004). The number of partners is linked to marital dissatisfaction for both men and women (Legkauskas & Stankevičienė, 2008). Involvement in church groups is linked to a 5x increase in likelihood of abstinence (Paul et al, 2000). Previous studies have used small sample sizes with little diversity and few men. However, my research will use a large, diverse sample size with both men and women.

The Association Between Religiosity And Alcohol Use In Adolescents, Daphny Vang

Psychology Student Works

Research has found that the age and strength of religion directly correlate to the level of alcohol consumption(Mason & Windle, 2002). Previous studies show that adult women with stronger religious beliefs consume less alcohol compared to those with weaker religious beliefs (Mattila & et al., 2001). There is a gap in investigating the relationship between religiosity and alcohol use in adolescents. This study provides insight into the relationship between religiosity and alcohol consumption with adolescents.

The Relationship Between Adults Education Level And Their Mental Health Status, Kelsey Bergan

Psychology Student Works

Research has shown that those with a higher education are more likely to seek out sources to help them with mental disorders (Ibrahim, et al., 2019; Neimeyer, et al., 2011). Previous studies have found that students with a lower GPA show signs of depression, anxiety and eating disorders (Eisenberg, Globerstein & Hunt, 2009). There is a gap in investigating the relationship between education level and an adult’s mental health experiences. This study will provide insight to the relationship between an adults education level and their mental health.

The Relationship Between Adolescents’ Participation In Religious/Spiritual Activities And Mental Health As An Adult, Tiara Lamb

Psychology Student Works

Many receiving mental health treatment across the U.S. see spirituality and religion as very helpful in supporting their mental state (Oxhandler et al., 2021). How often black Americans attended church in adolescence is related to how as a young adult they could spiritually handle mentally stressing situations (Alexander, 2017). There’s a gap in previous studies because most of them study specific groups rather than using a representative sample of the U.S. In addition, there is a lack of studies investigating the relationship between adolescent religiosity/spirituality and adult mental health. This study uses a representative sample and investigates the association between …

The Association Of Maternal Relationships And Acts Of Violence In Adults, Cameron Shores

Psychology Student Works

Through research it has been found that people who do not feel close to their parents are more likely to react with violence (Cano-Lozano et al., 2020). Studies have also shown that people who reported adverse relationships as children, tend to have more violence-related outcomes (Duke, 2010). There is currently a gap in explaining the association between maternal closeness and violent tendencies. This study is meant to help fill that gap and bring cognizance to the relationship between maternal closeness and violence.

Technical Report 2019-01: Pupil Labs Eye Tracking User Guide, Joan D. Gannon, Augustine Ubah, Chris Dancy

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Timing Is Everything: Temporal Dynamics Of Brain Activity Using The Human Connectome Project, Francesca Lofaro

Summer Research

Most neuroimaging studies produce snapshots of brain activity. The goal of this project is to examine the temporal dynamics of how these areas interact through time, using fear as a case study to assess how regions involved in fear interact. Working with Matlab computer code, I sort through the large fMRI dataset known as the Human Connectome Project to extract neuroimaging data from patients with different NIH Toolbox Fear-Somatic survey scores to assess the temporal dynamics between brain regions. The results will allow an understanding beyond which areas are involved, and instead will provide a picture of how these areas …

The Psychology Of Baseball: How The Mental Game Impacts The Physical Game, Kiera Dalmass

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study was to find whether or not sports psychology can be effective. Baseball was chosen as the sport for the study because baseball can be analyzed for nearly every single factor of the game, with the exception of the mental readiness or state of the player when he steps onto the field. It therefore provides the optimal atmosphere to provide clinical and statistical support to the field of sports psychology. Despite the various, numerous pieces of literature that praise and show support for sports psychology, there hasn’t been clinical research to support it. Additionally, multiple sports …

Under The Influence, Leonardo Cavicchio

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The purpose of this Honors Capstone entitled Under the Influence is to assess the validity of claims concerning the possible influence of roommates on one another, concerning alcohol on college campuses. This will be done by examining data collected in a prior study conducted over a two-year period. This analysis will focus on how alcohol consumption changes in correlation with the personality factors of roommates over an extended period of time. This secondary analysis of de-identified data will focus on primary and secondary subquestions. The primary question that will be addressed with the data set collected from the University of …

Enrichment Of Putatively Damaging Rare Variants In The Dyx2 Locus And The Reading-Related Genes Ccdc136 And Flnc, Andrew K. Adams, Shelley D. Smith, Dongnhu T. Truong, Erik G. Willcutt, Richard K. Olson, John C. Defries, Bruce F. Pennington, Jeffrey R. Gruen

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Eleven loci with prior evidence for association with reading and language phenotypes were sequenced in 96 unrelated subjects with significant impairment in reading performance drawn from the Colorado Learning Disability Research Center collection. Out of 148 total individual missense variants identified, the chromosome 7 genes CCDC136 and FLNC contained 19. In addition, a region corresponding to the well-known DYX2 locus for RD contained 74 missense variants. Both allele sets were filtered for a minor allele frequency ≤0.01 and high Polyphen-2 scores. To determine if observations of these alleles are occurring more frequently in our cases than expected by chance in …

Managing A Large Scale Project: Using Strengthsfinder In The Website Redesign, Laura Edwards, Cristina Tofan

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

After doing a library-wide StrengthsFinder assessment that highlighted the strengths of its individuals, EKU Libraries decided to put this strategy into practice by applying it to one of the most complex projects in the life of an academic library: the website redesign. This decentralized approach allowed project managers to align strengths-based teams with phases of the redesign that would most benefit from that team’s unique strengths.

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …

Possible Bias In Asset Valuations: An Application Of The Fraud Risk Triangle To Divorce Cases, Jennifer Tomasetti

Honors Projects in Accounting

No abstract provided.

How Sexism Makes The Man: Examining The Relationship Between Masculinity, Ambivalent Sexism, And Gender Stereotyping, Mariah L. Wilkerson

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Masculinity is a precarious social status, meaning it can be lost through social and gender transgressions (Bosson & Vandello, 2011). Men often act in stereotypically masculine ways to reassert their masculinity and restore their social status after it has been threatened. The current study also examines masculinity in a new way, as a collective gender identity (e.g., Tajfel, 1982). I hypothesized that threatened men and men who identify as more masculine will display masculinity through more polarized attitudes towards traditional and nontraditional groups of men and women, endorsing traditional gender stereotypes, and intensified ambivalently sexist attitudes. Two empirical studies tested …

Hierarchical Graphical Bayesian Models In Psychology, Guillermo Campitelli, Guillermo Macbeth

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The improvement of graphical methods in psychological research can promote their use and a better comprehension of their expressive power. The application of hierarchical Bayesian graphical models has recently become more frequent in psychological research. The aim of this contribution is to introduce suggestions for the improvement of hierarchical Bayesian graphical models in psychology. This novel set of suggestions stems from the description and comparison between two main approaches concerned with the use of plate notation and distribution pictograms. It is concluded that the combination of relevant aspects of both models might improve the use of powerful hierarchical Bayesian graphical …

Configuration As A Source Of Information, Joseph W. Houpt, Robert D. Hawkins, Ami Eidels, James T. Townsend, Michael J. Wenger

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fundamental Properties Of Simple Emergent Feature Processing, Robert D. Hawkins, Joseph W. Houpt, Ami Eidels, James T. Townsend, Michael J. Wenger

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Statistical Test For The Capacity Coefficient, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From Deep Space 9 To The Gamma Quadrant!, James T. Townsend, Joseph W. Houpt

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Extension Of Sic Predictions To The Wiener Coactive Model, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

The survivor interaction contrasts (SIC) is a powerful measure for distinguishing among candidate models of human information processing. One class of models to which SIC analysis can apply are the coactive, or channel summation, models of human information processing. In general, parametric forms of coactive models assume that responses are made based on the first passage time across a fixed threshold of a sum of stochastic processes. Previous work has shown that the SIC for a coactive model based on the sum of Poisson processes has a distinctive down--up--down form, with an early negative region that is smaller than the …

A Multiple Regression Analysis Of Personality’S Impact On Actuarial Exam Performance, Matthew Ciaffone

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Existing literature indicates that there is some connection between personality and both academic and work-related performance. The author's intent for the research described herein is to explore this connection for students majoring in actuarial mathematics with regard to their performance on actuarial certification exams. Specifically, using the five-factor model of personality, the author seeks to predict the number of attempts required to pass the first two exams in the process (Exam 1/P - probability; Exam 2/FM - financial mathematics) using measures of the five dimensions of the five-factor model (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability) through regression …

Nice Guys Finish Fast And Bad Guys Finish Last: Facilitatory Vs. Inhibitory Interaction In Parallel Systems, Ami Eidels, Joseph W. Houpt, Nicholas Altieri, Lei Pei, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

Systems Factorial Technology is a powerful framework for investigating the fundamental properties of human information processing such as architecture (i.e., serial or parallel processing) and capacity (how processing efficiency is affected by increased workload). The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) and the Capacity Coefficient are effective measures in determining these underlying properties, based on response-time data. Each of the different architectures, under the assumption of independent processing, predicts a specific form of the SIC along with some range of capacity. In this study, we explored SIC predictions of discrete-state (Markov process) and continuous-state (Linear Dynamic) models that allow for certain types …

Educators' Attitudes Toward Outdoor Classrooms And The Cognitive Benefits In Children, Carlie Speedlin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at a K-5 elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraksa. This school is Saratoga Elementary School and is a United States Title I Distinguished School1 under No Child Left Behind. It has a population of 266 students, with 47% being minority, 1% gifted, and 28% special education (LPS School Profile Brochure). 80% of the student population is eligible for free/reduced meals, implying that it’s a school with a lower socioeconomic status. At this school a garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented for this case study. The club had been running since …

The Statistical Properties Of The Survivor Interaction Contrast, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) is a powerful tool for assessing the architecture and stopping rule of a model of mental processes. Despite its demonstrated utility, the methodology has lacked a method for statistical testing until now. In this paper we briefly describe the SIC then develop some basic statistical properties of the measure. These developments lead to a statistical test for rejecting certain classes of models based on the SIC. We verify these tests using simulated data, then demonstrate their use on data from a simple cognitive task.

If These Men Could Still Talk, Rebecca Damphousse

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

For this assignment, two theorists in psychology were selected to engage in conversation. Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget were chosen and their theories of human development were researched. Erikson was asked how his experiences as a child impacted the formation of his theories. The question for Piaget was directed at the permanence, relevancy and universality of his theory into the 21st century. While a large amount of research was conducted, the questions and answers were pure conjecture.