Psychology Commons^™

Preterm Birth Among Opioid-Using Women And High-Risk Controls: The Potential Moderating Role Of Borderline Features, Summer Victoria Shore, Rachel Hickman

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Opioid use is a growing problem within this country (Maeda, Bateman, Clancy, Creanga, & Leffert, 2014). One implication of this is an increased incidence of preterm birth, defined as birth before 37 weeks gestation (Kramer et al., 2000; Norwitz & Robinson, 2001). Previous research supports an association between opioid use and preterm birth (Nørgaard, Nielsson, & Heide-Jørgensen, 2015). No research has evaluated the role mental health diagnoses aside from anxiety and depression (Benningfield et al., 2010) play in conjunction with opioid use in exacerbating the risk of preterm birth. In the proposed study, the focus is on Borderline Personality Disorder …

One Spark Can Light A Fire: How To Become A Mental Health Advocate, Marquinta Harvey, Shannon Jackson

Black Issues Conference

One Spark Can Light a Fire: How to Become a Mental Health Advocate

There is increasing awareness surrounding mental health and conversations are beginning to make their way to the forefront of issues that demand significant attention. However, the path from awareness to advocacy remains poorly understood. Mental Illness is an important issue that affects 1 in 4 individuals and unlike most chronic illnesses the onset occurs early in the life spectrum, usually in adolescence and young adulthood.

The issue of mental health is not limited to individual genetic predisposition and/or behaviors but involves many layers related to individual, family-related, …

Racism And Mental Health: When It Hurts To Be Black, Desiree Tallent

Black Issues Conference

This presentation provides information on types of racism, including personal, institutional and cultural aspects. The prevalence of racism among Black people is also highlighted. Additional attention is given to the negative emotional outcomes of experiencing racism as well as the resulting behavioral impact of experiences with racism among Black individuals. Special attention is given to how these issues may manifest in one’s personal life and student life. In addition to understanding how racism impacts mental and behavioral health, information is provided on positive coping methods which can lessen the dire effect of racism. These positive coping methods include the role …

Where Are The Resources?: Discussing Mental Health In Students Of Color On Utk’S Campus And The Call For Action, Zhannae S. Cummings, Diandra Walker

Black Issues Conference

Racial minority groups experience disparities in mental health and are prone to having more detrimental outcomes than their white counterparts. Current events have heightened the exposure of racial injustices experienced by communities of Black, Indigenous and people of Color (BIPOC). Given this context, the elimination of mental health disparities in people of Color requires critical attention and diligent work more so now than ever before. Culture, climate, and intrinsic bias leave some institute of higher education more challenged in promoting and supporting education for students of Color. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to educate participants about mental health …

Respectability Politics: A Mirror Into The Black Community, Max Ray A. Davenport Jr, Elisha M. Brewer

Black Issues Conference

Program Abstract

This presentation seeks to provoke deep and meaningful discussion related to issues of respectability within the African American community. More specifically, this presentation seeks to prompt audience members to critically evaluate the social practices of African American people that are deeply-seated in elitism and promote a culture of exclusion. By gaining a deeper knowledge of how racialized policing behaviors negatively affect our community, we aim to provide audience members with strategies for enduring and overcoming this issue.

Program Summary

The primary purpose of this presentation is aimed at facilitating a thought-provoking discussion centered around respectability politics. In achieving …

Mental Health Among Afro-Centric People; Every Piece Is Vital To The Puzzle, William J. Stubbs

Black Issues Conference

The workshop will discuss the state of mental health in general amongst minority groups in particular black afro-centric people. The workshop will present the problem that still exist regarding health care for minority groups and focus in on mental health. Participants will engage in the issue of mental health from the lack of information and understanding of mental illness, The God/Faith factor, the reluctance and inability of the people to engage and access care. The workshop will integrate the old concept of the village having a vital part in the cultivation of the mental state of afro-centric people and how …

Code Switching: The Unfortunate But Necessary Key To Opening Doors For Yourself And Others To Follow, Harold A. Wallace Iii

Black Issues Conference

"Code Switching: The unfortunate yet necessary key to opening doors for yourself and others to follow" this presentation touches on what "Code Switching" is, it's origin, and why it is simply a defense mechanism to make sure you are always able to feed yourself and your family. The more we become comfortable with the "Why" the more we can move forward on "How" it will help get others in the door. Ultimately finding the balance between being unapologetically and authentically you/black, and being the person you need to be to infiltrate the higher rankings of any industry, hopefully leave a …

The Effects Of Relationships On Ans Function And Wellness, Olivia M. Maples

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The quality of relationships and social networks plays a vital role on well-being (Feeney & Collins, 2015). Social support is linked to positive biological profiles in that social support protects against the negative effects of changes in cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune function. Furthermore, when exploring Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) function, higher heart rate variability has been shown to reflect a psychophysiological state compatible with social interaction (Quintana, Guastella, Outhred, Hickie, & Kemp, 2012). Social support has been shown to buffer against the negative effects of life stressors (Cohen & Wills, 1985), and ultimately, mortality (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010). In …

The Effects Of Stress And Anxiety On A Cued Attention Task, Catalina L. Gonzalez

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Previous research has shown visual attention tasks like the Infant Orienting With Attention (IOWA) Task are effective in identifying individual differences in spatial attention (Ross-Sheehy et al., 2015). Given visual attention is influenced by factors like stress/anxiety (Grillon et al, 2016) it may be possible to use attention tasks to identify participants high in stress and/or anxiety. Fifty-four adults completed a modified version of the IOWA task. Participants then completed the Perceived Stress Scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory, and were divided into three groups: Low_Stress/Low_Anxiety (LSLA), High_Stress/Low_Anxiety (HSLA), and High_Stress/High_Anxiety (HSHA). A Condition x Stress Group ANOVA revealed only a …

Acute Social Defeat-Induced Neuroinflammation In The Vmpfc Of Syrian Hamsters Via Microglial Activation, Thomas Clarity

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Research suggests causal relationships between neuroinflammation and stress-related psychopathologies. Exposure to moderate or chronic psychological stress in rodents leads to increased activation of microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. The ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a key limbic region involved in top-down regulation of psychological stress and mediates the deleterious effects of microglial activity following prolonged restraint stress. While there is a growing body of literature indicating that chronic social defeat increases microglial activity in the vmPFC, there has been little research investigating the effects of acute social defeat stress. Here, we used an acute social defeat paradigm in …

Generalizing Across Speaker And Gender During Early Word Learning: Evidence From A Statistical Learning Paradigm, Madison Newsom

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Before children can speak, they can track the likelihood that two syllables co-occur to pull words out of a continuous stream of speech. Previous research with 17-month-olds has suggested that words that have high co-occurrence statistics (i.e., high transitional probability, HTP) make better object labels than words with low transitional probability (LTP). Here we test whether infants can generalize the patterns tracked in a continuous stream of speech to a novel speaker and gender. Infants are familiarized with an Italian corpus produced by a female speaker, that contains both HTP and LTP words. Following familiarization, infants are trained to pair …

Neuroanatomical Differences Between Boys And Girls With Adhd: A Critical Review And Implications For Treatment, Shelby Clouthier, Jessica Anderson

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; 5th ed., American Psychiatric Association, 2013). About 5% of school age children are diagnosed with this disorder and about 65% will have symptoms that persist beyond adolescence (Friedman and Rapport, 2015). Although girls with ADHD exhibit different symptoms relative to boys with ADHD, there is a lack of research on sex-differences in ADHD-related neuroanatomical structures. There is evidence, however, that girls with ADHD have a 10% decrease in total cerebral gray matter volume compared to …

How Short Term Mindfulness Training Affects Emotion Regulation On College Students, Holly E. Flatt, Andrea Benadives, Kriston Ramsey

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Emotion regulation (ER) is the experience and expression of emotions which aids in the balancing of positive emotions and emotional processing (Gross, 2001; Hölzel, 2011). An important advancement in the field of psychology is greater understanding of how treatments can positively influence ER. One promising intervention to improve emotion regulation is mindfulness training—the practice of being aware of one’s current internal state and thoughts to provide a greater attentiveness and acknowledgement to one’s current environment (Hoffman et. al., 2010; Langer 2000). The current study examined the effect of brief mindfulness training on emotion regulation after a sad mood induction via …

Impulsivity And The Dissolution Of Romantic Relationships, Stephanie Marie Smith, Jerika C. Norona

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The primary aim of this study was to examine whether impulsivity is related to emerging adults’ motivations for breaking up with romantic partners. Previous findings indicate that emerging adults (ages 18-25) tend to base their decision-making on the fulfillment of their needs for independence and/or interdependence. The present study included 113 emerging adults who reported the reasons why they decided to end a romantic relationship in the past six months. These responses were coded for the presence of independence and interdependence motivations. The UPPS-P impulsive behavior scale measured five facets of impulsivity: negative urgency, lack of premeditation, …

Word Learning In Quiet And In Noise: A Preliminary Study, Grace Marie Wholley

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Word learning involves finding words in continuous speech and mapping them onto novel objects. Previous research has demonstrated that infants can track the transitional probability (TP) between syllables (i.e., the likelihood two syllables will co-occur) in continuous speech to discover word boundaries. Here we ask whether infants can map sound sequences they have extracted from fluent speech onto novel objects. We used a naturally produced Italian corpus in which the TP between syllables was manipulated in 4 target words: two high TP (HTP; TP=1.0) words with component syllables only occurring within those words, and two low TP (LTP; TP=.3) words …

Depressive Symptoms Predicted By Executive Dysfunctions, Jonathan Parks Fillauer, Evelyn R. Conner, Katherine E. Jacobs

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Poster Presentation & Judging of Undergraduate Research.

Bayes, Brains & Babies: Electrophysiology And Mathematics Of Infant Holistic Processing And Selective Inhibition, Matthew Singh

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

No abstract provided.

How To Change A Man, Egypt Robinson X

Black Issues Conference

Based on true stories, this workshop will reshape what was previously believed to be impossible. The key of this workshop is to prove women have always owned the power to alter how they’ve been treated. “Women set the standards on how they want to be treated. She’s the gate and he pays a fee. Sometimes it’s free, discounted or full price. No matter what, it’s her choice”-Egypt.

Most women don’t want to change a bad boy into a good man, nor is this workshop aimed at doing so. We’re giving women tools to teach men how to handle a good …

Would You Marry You? Black America & Marriage, Justin Nyke Coleman, Terry Esper Phd

Black Issues Conference

"Would You Marry You? Black America & Marriage"- The lack of marriage is becoming an epidemic in the black community. In this PowerPoint based discussion we will go over the state of black marriage as we college students see it. We will also discuss the difference in the statistical upbringing of a child from a household with one parent compared to a child from a married household looking into the likelihood of going to prison, going to college, and getting married themselves. We will also take the time to turn the mirror on ourselves and ask the question, Would You …

What's Sexy In Love And Relationships Part Iii: Communication Is The Key!, Ferlin G. Mcgaskey, Porche' Wynn Ph.D

Black Issues Conference

What’s “Sexy” In Love And Relationships is a frank and open discussion about relationships in the black community. In this session we will: A. Use clips from popular media sources to illustrate the issues that plague Black relationships B. Facilitate discussion based on the issues raised about attitudes towards love and respect. C. Provide tools men and women are able to use in order to build and sustain successful and loving relationships We will employ engaging pedagogical approaches to encourage critical assessment of the behaviors that have been found to damage or inhibit relationships. We will then help participants devise …

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 …