Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Psychology

Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 15901 - 15930 of 20700

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Women's Cognitive Appraisals Of Their Birth Experience As Predictive And Maintaining Factors Of Postpartum Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity, Lauren Carr Spooner Dec 2011

Women's Cognitive Appraisals Of Their Birth Experience As Predictive And Maintaining Factors Of Postpartum Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity, Lauren Carr Spooner

Dissertations

Empirical support has accumulated for evidence of posttraumatic stress symptoms following approximately 30% of childbirth experiences (Olde, van der Hart, Kleber, & van Son, 2006). Researchers have suggested that there is a complex relationship among predisposing, precipitating, and maintaining factors that impact postpartum PTSD (Slade, 2006). Anxiety, perception of support, and negative cognitions are such factors that have been shown to significantly correlate with PTSD symptoms (Foa & Rothbaum, 1998; Olde et al., 2006; Soet, Brack, & Dilorio, 2003), but have not been studied together in relation to PTSD associated with traumatic birth. The current study controlled for trait anxiety …

Go to article

The Effects Of Physical Activity On Self-Injurious Behavior, Lynnette D. Aguilar Dec 2011

The Effects Of Physical Activity On Self-Injurious Behavior, Lynnette D. Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Auto-mutilation is a maladaptive coping mechanism and a major problem confronting behavioral medicine with no known treatment to date to place the behavior on complete extinction. The purpose of this experiment is to examine the possible beneficial effects of running relative to caffeine-induced SIB. Female Sprague Dawley rats (n = 4) served as subjects with each having a different extended baseline and treatment condition. Visual analysis of a multiple baseline graph did not support the hypothesis that as treatment (physical activity) was implemented SIB would decrease. It was found that subjects who drank more caffeinated water had higher amounts of …

Go to article

Enriched Vs Impoverished Housing: Food Choice And Consumption, Berenice Martinez Dec 2011

Enriched Vs Impoverished Housing: Food Choice And Consumption, Berenice Martinez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study focused on the relationship between environmental setting, eating choices and food intake. Ten Swiss Webster female subjects were socially housed under impoverished environmental conditions and ten under enriched housing conditions. Subjects were exposed to a nutritious food and sweet fat-laden food diet together with ad lib access to regular tap water on a 12 h light and dark cycle for four weeks. Results showed that an impoverished environment does not lead to an increase in body weight (t(6)= 0.293, p > .05) and environmental manipulations do not delineate a preference for diet type (t(6)= .877, p >.05). Further research …

Go to article

The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Cognitive Symptoms Of Depression, Katy Manganella Dec 2011

The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Cognitive Symptoms Of Depression, Katy Manganella

Psychology and Counseling Theses

Existing research on exercise habits typically focuses on the physical health benefits. However, this research tends to neglect the potential psychological benefits of exercise. The present research adopts a different perspective by investigating the relationship between exercise and different symptom types of depression. By establishing the amount of physical activity participants consider to constitute exercising on a regular basis, participants were separated into self-reported high and low-exercise groups and completed the Zung-Self Rating Depression Scale. By employing a factor analysis of the Zung SDS, the results were analyzed assessing each symptom type of depression: Cognitive, affective, and somatic. Results suggest …

Go to article

The Social Negotiation Of Ambiguous In-Between Stigmatized Identities: Investigating Identity Processes In Multiracial And Bisexual People, Vali Dagmar Kahn Dec 2011

The Social Negotiation Of Ambiguous In-Between Stigmatized Identities: Investigating Identity Processes In Multiracial And Bisexual People, Vali Dagmar Kahn

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

To date, most bisexual and multiracial identity models in psychology capture a largely internal developmental process (Collins, 2000; Kich, 1992; Weinberg, Williams & Pryor, 1994). However, individuals learn to manage their socially stigmatized identities in social interactions (Goffman, 1963). While the demands to socially negotiate stigmatized identity affect all minority peoples, individuals with in-between ambiguous stigmatized identities, such as multiracial and bisexual people, must negotiate also being situated at the margins of their own reference groups (e.g. heterosexual and gay/lesbian). Using a comparative grounded theory approach, this study explored the question: How do experiences of socially negotiating an in-between ambiguous …

Go to article

Examining Experience In Depressed And Nondepressed Individuals, Jedidiah D. Gunter Dec 2011

Examining Experience In Depressed And Nondepressed Individuals, Jedidiah D. Gunter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The inner experience of nine depressed and nine nondepressed individuals was explored using Descriptive Experience Sampling. Each participant completed four days of descriptive experience sampling, exploring about six moments of their inner experience on each sampling day. Although the Depressed participants self-reported substantially higher levels of depressive symptomatology on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) on each day of sampling, the differences in the frequency of depressive symptomatology in the inner experiences of these two groups were not statistically significant. Despite the group differences not reaching statistical significance, the Depressed group experienced somewhat more frequent moments of depression, …

Go to article

Mexican American Youths’ Academic Outcomes: The Role Of Ethnic And Academic Socialization In Buffering Discrimination, Spencer M. Richards Dec 2011

Mexican American Youths’ Academic Outcomes: The Role Of Ethnic And Academic Socialization In Buffering Discrimination, Spencer M. Richards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An increasingly diversifying educational landscape in the United States has accompanied distressing academic disparities among ethnic minority youths. As Latinos represent the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group within the U.S., particular attention to their academic outcomes is warranted. Alarming educational statistics have been reported for Latinos, with some estimating that nearly half fail to complete high school, and only a fraction go on to complete a degree in higher education. As Latinos grow to represent an increasing segment of the American educational system, more attention is required to understand what leads Latinos to engage (or disengage) in the …

Go to article

Pain Tolerance And Thresholds In Women With Dyspareunia: Do Pain And Sex Primes Have Differential Effects?, Lea Thaler Dec 2011

Pain Tolerance And Thresholds In Women With Dyspareunia: Do Pain And Sex Primes Have Differential Effects?, Lea Thaler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Dyspareunia, defined as recurrent pain in the genital/pelvic region during sexual intercourse, is one of the most common types of female sexual dysfunction, affecting approximately 15% of women between the ages of 18 and 24. Women with dyspareunia display similar cognitive and emotional styles evidenced in other chronic pain conditions (e.g. hypervigilance for pain information, catastrophization, and negative affect); however, dyspareunia is a unique pain disorder in that it directly involves sexual functioning. This pairing of pain and sex raises the issue of conditioning. Is it possible that because intercourse is painful for women with dyspareunia, the presentation of any …

Go to article

Visual Attention To Erotic Stimuli In Androphilic Male-To-Female Transsexuals, Sarah A. Akhter Dec 2011

Visual Attention To Erotic Stimuli In Androphilic Male-To-Female Transsexuals, Sarah A. Akhter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present study investigated sex differences in visual attention to erotic stimuli by comparing three groups of individuals: heterosexual men, heterosexual women, and androphilic MtF transsexuals. Twenty men, 20 women and 13 MtF transsexuals were shown 10 split-screen slides, each featuring one nude erotic photo of a man shown on half of the screen and one nude erotic photo of a woman shown on the other half of the screen. Eye movements were tracked as participants viewed the slides. All participants were heterosexual (Kinsey 0-1) relative to gender identity, thus erotic targets for natal men were nude women in the …

Go to article

The Relation Between Children's Perceived Containment And Parental Antisocial Behavior, Joye L. Henrie Dec 2011

The Relation Between Children's Perceived Containment And Parental Antisocial Behavior, Joye L. Henrie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have invoked a variety of theories when discussing the relation between children's orientation to authority and the development of antiSocial behavior (ASB). Here, the focus is children's sense of containment. Previous studies revealed an association between perceived containment and child externalizing behaviors. In this study, the degree to which a child's sense of containment is related to parents' level of ASB was examined. One hundred sixty aggressive children and their parents participated. I hypothesized that ineffective discipline would moderate the relation between parent ASB and child perceived containment. I expected to find an inverse relation between parents' level of …

Go to article

Evolution, Terror Management Theory, And Humans’ Relationship With Nature, Joshua Warren Vinocour Nov 2011

Evolution, Terror Management Theory, And Humans’ Relationship With Nature, Joshua Warren Vinocour

Dissertations

This study investigated the savannah hypothesis, an evolutionary explanation for human environmental preference. It aimed to address some of the methodological shortcomings of prior research while simultaneously investigating the role of non-evolutionary influences, such as existential anxiety and individual differences. Ninety-eight undergraduate participants were shown photos of Natural, Mixed, and Built settings and rated the visual attractiveness of each photo. Results showed that Built scenes were preferred over Natural and Mixed scenes, in contradiction to the savannah hypothesis. Existential anxiety, however, did not appear to influence photo ratings. Individual differences, such as ethnicity and the quality participants’ previous outdoor experiences …

Go to article

Comparing The Efficacy Of Two Cognitive Dissonance Interventions For Eating Pathology: Are Online And Face-To-Face Interventions Equally Effective?, Kasey Serdar Nov 2011

Comparing The Efficacy Of Two Cognitive Dissonance Interventions For Eating Pathology: Are Online And Face-To-Face Interventions Equally Effective?, Kasey Serdar

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical and subclinical eating pathology are common, especially among female undergraduates. Such problems are often chronic and associated with a range of negative medical and psychological outcomes. Thus, it is important to develop effective prevention programs to reduce eating disorder risk. Numerous studies suggest that dissonance-based prevention programs are the most successful in reducing eating disorder risk factors, however, such programs might not be convenient for students limited by scheduling restraints or geographic proximity. Further, some students may be reluctant to attend such groups due to lack of anonymity. One way to address these potential barriers is to adapt dissonance-based …

Go to article

Evaluating The Incremental Validity Of The Mmpi-2-Rc Scales For Custody Litigants, Elizabeth Wheeler Nov 2011

Evaluating The Incremental Validity Of The Mmpi-2-Rc Scales For Custody Litigants, Elizabeth Wheeler

Theses and Dissertations

The use of psychological testing in child custody assessments has become more common and important as psychologists are increasingly used as expert witnesses in contested child custody and visitation cases. Currently, the MMPI-2 is the most commonly used psychological test in child custody cases, but there is no research indicating which version of the measure (K-corrected, non-K-corrected, or the RC scales) provides the most accurate picture of the custody litigant in terms of substantial correlations with external variables. This study represents the first examination of the convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of the MMPI-2 K-corrected Basic Clinical Scales, the MMPI-2 …

Go to article

Sex Talk: Factors That Influence Parent-Child Communication About Sex, Tiffany Abrego Nov 2011

Sex Talk: Factors That Influence Parent-Child Communication About Sex, Tiffany Abrego

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Between 50 and 70% of young people are first sexually active between the ages of 15 and 17, and almost 90% by age 18. This early sexual debut puts adolescents at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancy if they are uneducated about safe sex. For this reason, it is important to determine the variables that contribute to early sexual debut. One factor that researchers have explored is the communication between parents and their children concerning sex. Researchers have found that the communication about sex is influenced by parents’ own beliefs, experiences, and comfort level discussing sexual topics. …

Go to article

The Effect Of Sexblindness And Sexawareness On Workplace Related Gender Bias, Katie Nichol Nov 2011

The Effect Of Sexblindness And Sexawareness On Workplace Related Gender Bias, Katie Nichol

Theses and Dissertations

The present study was an adaptation of Richeson and Nussbaum's (2004) study of racism to gender bias. Two different gender ideologies were theoretically analyzed, then the influence of these ideologies on implicit and explicit forms of gender bias was examined. Psychology undergraduates were presented with a prompt promoting either a sexblind or sexaware approach to reducing gender bias. Participants then completed a measure of implicit (IAT Gender/Career) and explicit (MAWWWS) bias. Results suggested that, relative to the sexaware perspective, the sexblind perspective generated less implicit gender bias. There was no difference between ideological groups on the explicit measure. The findings …

Go to article

Learned Recognition And Avoidance Of Invasive Mosquitofish By The Shrimp, Paratya Australiensis, Joshua D. Bool, Kristen Whitcomb, Erin Kydd, Culum Brown Nov 2011

Learned Recognition And Avoidance Of Invasive Mosquitofish By The Shrimp, Paratya Australiensis, Joshua D. Bool, Kristen Whitcomb, Erin Kydd, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Little is known about the learning ability of crustaceans, especially with respect to their anti-predator responses to invasive species. In many vertebrates, anti-predator behaviour is influenced by experience during ontogeny. Here, predator-naïve glass shrimp (Paratya australiensisis) were exposed to a predatory, invasive fish species, Gambusia holbrooki, to determine whether shrimp could learn to: (1) avoid the scent of Gambusia via classical conditioning; and (2) restrict their activity patterns to the night to reduce predatory encounters. Conditioned shrimp were placed in containers in aquaria containing Gambusia for 3 days during which time they could be harassed but not consumed by Gambusia. …

Go to article

The Creation Of Art Books With Adolescents Diagnosed With An Eating Disorder: Effectiveness, Self-Esteem, And Related Factors, Eileen Chaves Nov 2011

The Creation Of Art Books With Adolescents Diagnosed With An Eating Disorder: Effectiveness, Self-Esteem, And Related Factors, Eileen Chaves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This pilot study undertook a mixed methods exploration of the interaction of art therapy and self-esteem in an adolescent eating disorder population. Using therapeutic art books in a group format, adolescents created art about their feelings, their eating disorder, or whatever else they deemed important. This art technique is relatively new and novel as an art therapy intervention. Therefore, this study aimed to look at the technique's effectiveness at decreasing participants' negative mood states and investigated the technique's ability to affect participants' perceptions of their self-esteem. Measures of global self-esteem and art therapy related self-esteem were measured using the Rosenberg …

Go to article

Distress Tolerance Moderates The Relationship Between Negative Affect Intensity With Borderline Personality Disorder Levels, Marina Bornovalova, Alexis Matusiewicz, Elizabeth Rojas Nov 2011

Distress Tolerance Moderates The Relationship Between Negative Affect Intensity With Borderline Personality Disorder Levels, Marina Bornovalova, Alexis Matusiewicz, Elizabeth Rojas

Psychology Faculty Publications

A number of studies have suggested that negative emotionality and negative affect intensity play key roles in the development and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, more recent research indicates that one's response to affective discomfort may be an even more important variable in the pathogenesis of BPD than either negative emotionality or negative affect intensity per se. As such, the current study aimed to empirically test the moderating role of 2 well-validated laboratory measures of the ability to tolerate psychological distress (distress tolerance) in the relationship of negative emotionality and negative affect intensity with BPD levels. Results provide …

Go to article

Factors Associated With Participation And Retention In A Group Treatment For Child Sexual Abuse, Mollie Dittmer, Grace Hubel, David J. Hansen Nov 2011

Factors Associated With Participation And Retention In A Group Treatment For Child Sexual Abuse, Mollie Dittmer, Grace Hubel, David J. Hansen

McNair Scholars Research Journal

The current study examines factors associated with participation and retention in a child sexual abuse (CSA) outpatient program. Participation and retention are vital if children are to receive the intended benefits of treatment designed to promote healthy coping following CSA. However, little is known about factors that impede or encourage families to consistently attend sessions. Several factors possibly related to child participation and retention were examined, including demographic variables such as income level and education, characteristics of the abuse, and parent and family pretreatment functioning. Participants in the sample included 175 children and adolescents and their non-offending primary caregivers seeking …

Go to article

Linking Impulsivity And Inhibitory Control Using Manual And Oculomotor Response Inhibition Tasks, Walter Roberts, Mark T. Fillmore, Richard Milich Nov 2011

Linking Impulsivity And Inhibitory Control Using Manual And Oculomotor Response Inhibition Tasks, Walter Roberts, Mark T. Fillmore, Richard Milich

Psychology Faculty Publications

Separate cognitive processes govern the inhibitory control of manual and oculomotor movements. Despite this fundamental distinction, little is known about how these inhibitory control processes relate to more complex domains of behavioral functioning. This study sought to determine how these inhibitory control mechanisms relate to broadly defined domains of impulsive behavior. Thirty adults with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 28 comparison adults performed behavioral measures of inhibitory control and completed impulsivity inventories. Results suggest that oculomotor inhibitory control, but not manual inhibitory control, is related to specific domains of self-reported impulsivity. This finding was limited to the ADHD group; no …

Go to article

Levels Of Altruism, Martin Zwick, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher Nov 2011

Levels Of Altruism, Martin Zwick, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human sociocultural realm. This paper sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that span these two realms and are grounded in an ever-expanding sense of "self." Discussion of this framework notes difficulties associated with altruisms at different levels. It links scientific ideas about the evolution of cooperation and about hierarchical order to perennial philosophical and religious concerns. It offers a conceptual background for inquiry into societal challenges that call for altruistic behavior, especially the challenge of environmental and social sustainability.

Go to article

Sex Differences In Cooperation: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Social Dilemmas, Daniel Balliet, Norman P. Li, Shane J. Macfarlan, Mark Van Vugt Nov 2011

Sex Differences In Cooperation: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Social Dilemmas, Daniel Balliet, Norman P. Li, Shane J. Macfarlan, Mark Van Vugt

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Although it is commonly believed that women are kinder and more cooperative than men, there is conflicting evidence for this assertion. Current theories of sex differences in social behavior suggest that it may be useful to examine in what situations men and women are likely to differ in cooperation. Here, we derive predictions from both sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives on context-specific sex differences in cooperation, and we conduct a unique meta-analytic study of 272 effect sizes—sampled across 50 years of research—on social dilemmas to examine several potential moderators. The overall average effect size is not statistically different from zero (d …

Go to article

Tracking Development Of The Corpus Callosum In Fetal And Early Postnatal Baboons Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Kimberley A. Phillips, P. Kochunov Nov 2011

Tracking Development Of The Corpus Callosum In Fetal And Early Postnatal Baboons Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Kimberley A. Phillips, P. Kochunov

Psychology Faculty Research

Although the maturation of the corpus callosum (CC) can serve as a sensitive marker for normative antenatal and postnatal brain development, little is known about its development across this critical period. While high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging can provide an opportunity to examine normative brain development in humans, concerns remain over the exposure of developing fetuses to non-essential imaging. Nonhuman primates can provide a valuable model for normative brain maturation. Baboons share several important developmental characteristics with humans, including a highly orchestrated pattern of cerebral development. Developmental changes in total CC area and its subdivisions were examined across the antenatal (weeks …

Go to article

Event Perception, Gabriel A. Radvansky, Jeffrey M. Zacks Nov 2011

Event Perception, Gabriel A. Radvansky, Jeffrey M. Zacks

Psychological & Brain Sciences Faculty Research

Events are central elements of human experience. Formally, they can be individuated in terms of the entities that compose them, the features of those entities, and the relations amongst entities. Psychologically, representations of events capture their spatiotemporal location, the people and objects involved, and the relations between these elements. Here, we present an account of the nature of psychological representations of events and how they are constructed and updated. Event representations are like images in that they are isomorphic to the situations they represent. However, they are like models or language in that they are constructed of components rather than …

Go to article

Indirect Screening: Enhancing Identification Of Illicit Drug Use During Pregnancy, Courtney Smith Oct 2011

Indirect Screening: Enhancing Identification Of Illicit Drug Use During Pregnancy, Courtney Smith

Theses and Dissertations

OBJECTIVE: Most drug use screening measures rely on and are validated against self-report. Fear of negative consequences often promotes denial of drug use. For pregnant women, social stigma and fear of legal consequences make underreporting of drug use even more likely. An indirect screener that could effectively identify pregnant women at risk for illicit drug use without reliance on disclosure would be clinically significant. The purpose of the current study was to develop and validate an indirect measure of prenatal drug use by comparing correlates of prenatal drug use to urinalysis results. METHOD: Pregnant women attending an OB appointment at …

Go to article

Regional Gray Matter Correlates Of Perceived Emotional Intelligence, Nancy S. Koven, Robert M. Roth, Matthew A. Garlinghouse, Laura A. Flashman, Andrew J. Saykin Oct 2011

Regional Gray Matter Correlates Of Perceived Emotional Intelligence, Nancy S. Koven, Robert M. Roth, Matthew A. Garlinghouse, Laura A. Flashman, Andrew J. Saykin

Dartmouth Scholarship

Coping with stressful life events requires a degree of skill in the ability to attend to, comprehend, label, communicate and regulate emotions. Individuals vary in the extent to which these skills are developed, with the term ‘alexithymia’ often applied in the clinical and personality literature to those individuals most compromised in these skills. Although a frontal lobe model of alexithymia is emerging, it is unclear whether such a model satisfactorily reflects brain-related patterns associated with perceived emotional intelligence at the facet level. To determine whether these trait meta-mood facets (ability to attend to, have clarity of and repair emotions) have …

Go to article

Birth Order And Its Effect On Depression In Adults, Sambul Zaidi Oct 2011

Birth Order And Its Effect On Depression In Adults, Sambul Zaidi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to find the relationship between birth order and depression. It hypothesized that first-borns are more susceptible to depression than laterborns. Subjects were male and female undergraduate students from Rowan University. These students were over the age of 18 and were kept anonymous. The study collected data from fifteen participants by using a Birth Order survey which included questions about personality traits that pertain to a certain birth order position. Each subject was asked to indicate the exact birth order rank and if they have experienced depression or signs of depression. Results showed that differences …

Go to article

Individual Differences In Anxiety Sensitivity: The Role Of Emotion Regulation And Alexithymia, Amrit Kaur Oct 2011

Individual Differences In Anxiety Sensitivity: The Role Of Emotion Regulation And Alexithymia, Amrit Kaur

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The literature has shown anxiety sensitivity to be a significant risk factor in the development of pathological anxiety. Recent theoretical models have also emphasized the additional importance of emotion regulation in predicting the development of anxiety disorders. The present study examined the interactive influence of anxiety sensitivity and emotion regulatory strategies on anxiety symptoms in an ethnically diverse sample recruited in Singapore in order to determine the most appropriate anxiety prevention strategies to pursue. Results indicate that emotion regulation skills had a much greater effect on anxiety levels in this non-clinical sample than anxiety sensitivity and, second, that emotion regulation …

Go to article

Self-Regulation Of Emotion, Functional Impairment, And Comorbidity Among Children With Ad/Hd, Arthur D. Anastopoulos, Taylor Smith, Melanie E. Garrett, Erin Morrissey-Kane, Nicole K. Schatz, Jennifer L. Sommer, Scott H. Kollins, Allison Ashley-Koch Oct 2011

Self-Regulation Of Emotion, Functional Impairment, And Comorbidity Among Children With Ad/Hd, Arthur D. Anastopoulos, Taylor Smith, Melanie E. Garrett, Erin Morrissey-Kane, Nicole K. Schatz, Jennifer L. Sommer, Scott H. Kollins, Allison Ashley-Koch

Psychology and Child Development

Objective: This study investigated the role of self-regulation of emotion in relation to functional impairment and comorbidity among children with and without AD/HD. Method: A total of 358 probands and their siblings participated in the study, with 74% of the sample participants affected by AD/HD. Parent-rated levels of emotional lability served as a marker for self-regulation of emotion. Results: Nearly half of the children affected by AD/HD displayed significantly elevated levels of emotional lability versus 15% of those without this disorder. Children with AD/HD also displayed significantly higher rates of functional impairment, comorbidity, and treatment service utilization. …

Go to article

In Search Of The Neurobiological Substrates For Social Playfulness In Mammalian Brains, Stephen M. Siviy, Jaak Panksepp Oct 2011

In Search Of The Neurobiological Substrates For Social Playfulness In Mammalian Brains, Stephen M. Siviy, Jaak Panksepp

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play behavior is a fundamental and intrinsic neurobehavioral process in the mammalian brain. Using rough-and-tumble play in the juvenile rat as a model system to study mammalian playfulness, some of the relevant neurobiological substrates for this behavior have been identified, and in this review this progress. A primary-process executive circuit for play in the rat that includes thalamic intralaminar nuclei, frontal cortex and striatum can be gleaned from these data. Other neural areas that may interact with this putative circuit include amygdala, ventral hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray (PAG), and deep tectum, as well as ascending dopamine systems which participate in all …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last