Psychology Commons^™

Strengthening Adolescents With Anxiety Through Drama Therapy, Jeremy M. Moeller

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Strengthening Adolescents with Anxiety Through Drama Therapy

Jeremy Moeller

In recent years the issues associated with social anxiety have become increasingly common in adolescents. With these issues becoming more common it is important that they continue to be nurtured and helped. With so many forms of therapy though it may be hard for someone to find a practice that suits them. That is where drama therapy comes in. Drama therapy is a fairly new practice that helps these adolescents to become more expressive and engaging in their everyday lives, decrease their social anxieties, and build a new sense of confidence …

Psychology: The Effect Of Guided Meditation And Meditation History On False Memory Susceptibility, Caroline G. Firmin, Jessica Dahm, Khalil Dabdoub, Benjamin Brown

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Meditation is a practice that has been around for thousands of years with numerous benefits ranging from stress reduction to decreases in stress and anxiety. Research also suggests there may potentially be negative consequences of meditation. However, research has not assessed how long-term practitioners of meditation differ from those with less experience. Our study looks at long-term and short-term practitioners’ susceptibility to false memories. To do this, participants were randomly assigned to either a guided meditation or a mind-wandering condition and then tested on the DRM paradigm. Meditation history was also recorded through a questionnaire.

Social Physique Anxiety And Exercise Motivation, Elise Crause, Sade Alalade, Maeve Carei, Audrey Lyle, Beth Virostek, Patrick Morse Phd

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The benefits of exercise are clear; they include better overall health, better mood, and less stress (Schultchen et. al., 2019). However, exercise motivations vary (Pate, 1995). Some of these motivations include: health and fitness benefits, social/emotional benefits, weight management, stress management, enjoyment, and appearance (Dacey, 2008). When exercising, many are exposed to an environment of comparison, which has been shown to foster social physique anxiety (Chen, Ku, & Wang, 2012), defined as the “feeling of distress associated with the perceived evaluation of one's physical self” (Frederick & Morrison, 1996). Exercise behavior has been found to change in people with higher …

Can State Gratitude Be Increased Through Mindfulness Practice And A Gratitude Story?, Grace Gray, Grace Harris, Gabrielle Givers, Caroline Hopper, Grabriella Gonzalez

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Abstract

Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and readily showing appreciation for opportunities in life. Gratitude in an individual can be experienced on two levels: trait and state. Trait gratitude involves a predisposition, interpersonal experience that an individual holds on a daily basis. State gratitude is context based and is experienced during specific events. In past research there seems to be a relationship between meditation practice and levels of trait gratitude, but there is little literature investigating this same connection with state gratitude (Chen et al., 2017). For our research, we wanted to expand on this research and test …

The Relationship Between Moral Foundations And Substance Abuse Attitudes, Olivia Haffey, Christina Duncan, Samantha Driggers

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Individuals who abuse substances are often morally judged and disregarded in society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between moral values and attitudes towards substance abuse. Participants were recruited from introductory to psychology courses at Belmont University and given a modified version of the Perceived Substance Abuse Scale and a scale to measure how they value certain domains of morality (harm, ingroup, purity, authority, reciprocity) using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. We expect to find positive correlations between the harm, purity, ingroup, and authority domains of morality with negative attitudes towards substance abuse. We also expect there …

Material World: The Effects Of Meditation Content On Materialistic Values, Azalia White, Katie Young, Hannah Wright, Nicole Walheim, Samantha Urban

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

In the twenty-first century, Western cultures are highly materialistic and defined by consumeristic goals to garner as much “stuff” as possible (Berger, 2015). This constant pursuit has demonstrable adverse effects on personal and social well being (Bahl et al., 2016; Wang, et al., 2017), while overconsumption also has devastating impacts on the global environment. Previous studies found a negative relationship between levels of mindfulness and levels of materialism (Nagpaul & Pang, 2015; Watson, 2019), indicating the potential for mindfulness to combat otherwise materialistic behaviors. Furthermore, previous research demonstrated gratitude interventions led to lower scores on materialism (Chaplin, et al., 2018), …

Color And Memory, Hanna Vafiades, Alyssa Stephens, Tanner Clark, Sydney Susano

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Effects of Color on Working Memory Performance

Primary Investigator: Hanna Vafiades

Associate Investigators: Tanner Clark, Sydney Susano, Alyssa Stephens

The intersection of color and working memory is a fascinating but inconclusive domain of cognitive psychological research. Some studies have demonstrated that the color black is found to be the least stimulating in terms of attention and memory (Meacham 2005), whereas colors found in nature are effective in facilitating attention and memory in young children (Dutta & Baruah, 2018). Another study found that only images or image descriptions in grayscale are better for memory tasks and that color memory is poor …

Perceptions Of Parenting, Self-Esteem, And Relationships, John Bannec, Georgia Foss, Essence Hamer, Mary Elizabeth Holloway, Lauren Peterson

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Levels of satisfaction in our close relationships can be the direct causes of break-ups, divorces, longevity, and many other outcomes. Using self-esteem as a connecting variable, it is possible to trace our satisfaction in relationships all the way back to the way in which we were treated as children. Specifically, children who grow up in a household with authoritative parenting end up with higher self-esteem than those who don’t (Zakeri & Karimpour, 2011; Pinquart & Gerke, 2019; Yousaf, 2015). Further, individuals with higher levels of self-esteem tend to have higher levels of satisfaction in their close relationships, romantic or platonic, …

The Relationship Between Neuroticism And Situation Perception, Elizabeth G. Lester, Gigi Emiliani, Keeley Trainer, Kaylianna Mccormick

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Personality traits, in particular neuroticism, can influence the way individuals perceive situations as seen in Rauthmann’s study (2015) that saw consistent perceptions within the same traits. A study by Thomson (2016) found evidence for a relationship between negative perspectives and neuroticism. Additionally, McNulty (2008) saw that neurotic couples tended to have more relationship difficulties due to the negative assumptions. These negative viewpoints and assumptions translate to situation perception. The participants were recruited from Belmont University’s Introduction to Psychological courses. The subjects took two self-reported surveys regarding their personality, particularly anxiety and neuroticism, and were presented with hypothetical situations to see …

Relationships Among Personality, Burnout, Perceived Stress In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Emma Keegan, Kate Grady, Teya Haughey, Camille Witt

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the measures taken for social distancing have caused a wide range of consequences for one’s social life, mobility, and working life (Getzmann, Stephan, et al. 2021). Personality can be a protective or risk factor in relation to these changes, as it influences not only the exposure to potential stressors or negative stimuli, but can also exert influence on the way each adolescent manages them (Plomecka, Martyna, et al. 2021). Studies have found that personality differences are related to distinct behavior patterns in school context (Carvalho et al., 2014). Our study aims to uncover the differences in …