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Reducing Stigma Associated With Growing Up Poor: How To Create A More Equitable Future For Working Class Adolescents, Jessica Goodpaster

University Honors Theses

I examine how stigma associated with socioeconomic status (SES), or social class, has the potential to negatively impact individuals during adolescence. Specifically, I focus on the impact of class stigma, and the institutional barriers faced by adolescents as they prepare for adulthood. These barriers and the stress felt due to both stigmatization, and environmental stimuli specifically pertaining to low-income neighborhoods/environments, can hinder or alter the development of the four major domains of development: physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. Stigmatization has resulted in physically and socially isolating low-income communities from middle- or high-income communities, hindering social mobility for L-SES adolescents. …

Where To Draw The Line: Evaluating Visuospatial And Attentional Processing In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Alisha Steigerwald

University Honors Theses

Objective: We investigated visuospatial processing in individuals with autism using bisection and quadrisection tasks to evaluate the presence of a possible downward vertical spatial bias that could provide insights into the preference for attending to the mouth in ASD populations.

Methods: Twenty participants with ASD and 20 age, IQ, and sex-matched control participants were recruited (ages 6-23). Participants were asked to bisect, quadrisect from the top, and quadrisect from the bottom vertical lines placed in their left, center, and right visual spaces. Distance from the true midpoint and quadripoint were calculated and compared between the two groups.

Results: No significant …

Fostering Connectedness Amidst Crisis: Lgbtq Communities In 2020, Daniel Leister-Gray

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate LGBTQ communities’ responses to the global and national crises that took place in 2020. To accomplish this, the thesis ties together and summarizes relevant multidisciplinary constructs, and highlights specific examples of the actions taken by LGBTQ communities in 2020. The secondary goal was to tell an anecdote providing ecological validity for relevant empirical data. The thesis is informed by LGBTQ psychology, medical sociology, LGBTQ history, modern events, neuroendocrinology, and neuroscience. The paper concludes that LGBTQ communities used activism, internet, and music to embody resilience and solidarity during 2020. The paper aims to …

Cognitive Ability And Ambivalence Toward Alcohol: An Examination Of Working Memory Capacity’S Influence On Drinking Behavior, Emily T. Noyes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research stemming from dual-processing theories suggest that working memory capacity may have an important role in the ability to inhibit automatic tendencies when there is the motivation to do so (Barrett, Tugade, & Engle, 2004). Ambivalence, the simultaneous desire to engage in (approach motivation) and inhibit (avoidance motivation), often occurs with problematic behaviors like alcohol abuse. The current study sought to determine whether individual differences in working memory capacity moderate the relationship between approach, avoidance and subsequent drinking behavior in a clinical sample. A total of 66 individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) participated in a baseline assessment of working …

Identifying A Typology Of Homelessness Based On Self-Sufficiency: Implications For Rapid Re-Housing Interventions, Quinmill Lei

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Aims: There is limited research on the characteristics of individuals experiencing homelessness

who achieve positive housing outcomes in rapid re-housing (RRH) interventions. This study

aimed to identify a typology of homelessness based on Self-Sufficiency Matrix (SSM) domains

and examine its relation to sociodemographic characteristics and housing placement in RRH.

Methods: Homeless Management Information System data, including sociodemographics, SSM

domains, and housing outcomes, were obtained for 261 Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program participants in Indianapolis, IN.

Results: Latent class analysis revealed three subgroups based on SSM domains. Latent class

regression found the subgroups were significantly associated with race and significantly …

Contextualizing Teacher-Directed Violence In Special Education, Kayleigh E. Zinter

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Violence in school settings is a global phenomenon. Research tends to focus on peer-to-peer student aggression, however teacher-directed violence in school settings by various aggressors is also being explored to better understand the scope of school violence (Bounds & Jenkins, 2016; McMahon et al., 2014; Ozdemir, 2012; Sundaram, 2016; Werthein, 2003; Zeira et al., 2004). Few studies have focused on special education teacher experiences with violence, and their differing experiences from their general education counterparts. This mixed-methods study examines the extent to which general and special education teachers experience teacher-directed violence, as well as incorporates an ecological lens to contextualize …

A Life Course Person-Centered Approach To Adult Trauma Histories And Examination Of Intergenerational Trauma In Preschoolers, Jessica Annabel Arizaga

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This study seeks to address gaps in intergenerational trauma research by focusing on a predominantly Latine and racially minoritized sample, applying Life Course Theory concepts to the measurement of trauma exposure among parents, and using person-centered methods to uncover trauma typologies (subgroups with similarly patterned trauma histories). Participants were 143 parents (91 primary caregivers and 52 secondary caregivers, of which 42 were fathers) and their preschool age children (n = 91; 51.1% boys) recruited from three Head Start Programs in the Chicagoland Area (65.65% of families had low household incomes). Five distinct trauma typologies were found through Latent …

Reducing Prejudice Through Law: Evidence From Experimental Psychology, Roseanna Sommers, Sara Burke

Law & Economics Working Papers

Can antidiscrimination law effect changes in public attitudes toward minority groups? Could learning, for instance, that employment discrimination against people with clinical depression is illegal cause members of the public to be more accepting toward people with mental health conditions? In this Article, we report the results of a series of experiments that test the effect of inducing the belief that discrimination against a given group is legal (vs. illegal) on interpersonal attitudes toward members of that group. We find that learning that discrimination is unlawful does not simply lead people to believe that an employer is more likely to …

The Heterogeneity Of Selective Mutism: A Primer For A More Refined Approach, Christopher A. Kearney, Melanie Rede

Psychology Faculty Research

Selective mutism is a persistent and debilitating psychiatric disorder in which a child fails to speak in situations where speaking is expected. Although listed as an anxiety disorder, the multifaceted and heterogeneous nature of selective mutism indicates that a more accurate conceptualization may be as a neurodevelopmental disorder. This article serves as a primer of historical and clinical presentations, empirical clinical profiles, clinical distinctions, assessment, and treatment related to the complexity of selective mutism. The article includes a brief discussion of selective mutism within a developmental psychopathology perspective with an eye toward reformed efforts for prevention, assessment, and treatment regarding …

Development Of The Infant Gut Microbiome Predicts Temperament Across The First Year Of Life, Molly Fox, S. Melanie Lee, Kyle S. Wiley, Venu Lagishetty, Curt A. Sandman, Jonathan P. Jacobs, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Perturbations to the gut microbiome are implicated in altered neurodevelopmental trajectories that may shape life span risk for emotion dysregulation and affective disorders. However, the sensitive periods during which the microbiome may influence neurodevelopment remain understudied. We investigated relationships between gut microbiome composition across infancy and temperament at 12 months of age. In 67 infants, we examined if gut microbiome composition assessed at 1–3 weeks, 2, 6, and 12 months of age was associated with temperament at age 12 months. Stool samples were sequenced using the 16S Illumina MiSeq platform. Temperament was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R). Beta …

Creative Occupations And The Precipitating Factors Of Burnout, Natasha E. Koval

Honors Projects

Creativity is an intrinsic part of the human life; however, it is one of the most challenging concepts to be understood. In this paper, I am examining occupations driven by creativity, their economic significance, and how sustainable these occupations are for the creative employees. I will be particularly looking at burnout and its precipitating factors as a way to understand the wellness of the creative workforce. Creative occupations, if fostered properly, can lead to job growth, increased income, and potential for investment in vulnerable communities. This makes them valuable resources for urban economic development goals. Literature suggests that there is …

The Many Faces Of Schizophrenia Risk: Can Measures Of Risk Be Aggregated?, Thomas W. O'Kane

Theses and Dissertations

There are currently many different conceptualizations of schizophrenia risk, which we argue is detrimental to any efforts to build a cumulative science in this area. This paper sought to evaluate various conceptualizations of schizophrenia risk and the extent to which they overlap. This paper attempts to identify overlap by utilizing meta-analytic methods in conjunction with data collected from a sample of undergraduate college students (n = 80). To do so, we first collected estimates of various schizophrenia risk measures and risk correlates from the literature. These estimates were subsequently combined with collected data. This paper attempted to analyze review data …

Design, Development, Implementation, And Support (Ddis): A Curriculum Supporting Online Doctoral Candidates, Donna Russell

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively describe and justify the case design of an approach for the integration of synchronous virtual meetings to support nontraditional online doctoral candidates. As more nontraditional doctoral students are completing their degree programs virtually through online universities, the nature of their degree progression and the development of critical knowledge and skills differ from traditional on-campus programs.

Method: The case design of an approach to integrating synchronous online interactive meetings to support these learners is identified and justified through references to research in the learning sciences including sociocultural learning, heutagogy, and constructivist instructional …

Full Issue

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

No abstract provided.

The Etiology Of Mdd In Sexual Minority Youth And Its Implications For Treatment, Keith Burns

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Greater tolerance and understanding of homosexuality, transgenderism, and other forms of gender nonconformity have sparked an increased effort to reach out to and help sexual minorities (i.e., groups whose sexual identity, orientation, or practices differ from cisgender heterosexuality), especially those who experience mental health challenges. Despite immense progress in society, deeply rooted social stigma, prejudice, and discrimination have often left sexual minorities feeling bullied, ostracized, and isolated, which tends to reinforce a host of negative mental health outcomes, such as increased risk of major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicidality (Hatchel et al., 2018). While mental health clinicians have become increasingly …

Failure To Report: The Detrimental Effects Following Sexual Assault, Lindsey R. Osborne

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Sexual assault is a prominent issue in society, yet many people remain unaware of the serious effects following sexual assault. Victims who report to legal authorities tend to experience disbelief and blame because of the prevalence of rape myths. Due to the severity of the trauma, hormones released by the brain hinder proper brain functioning and can cause a little-known evolutionary response termed tonic immobility (TI). The psychological outcome of sexual assault commonly results in or worsens several psychological conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and drug and alcohol abuse. Guilt, self-blame, and adverse emotions are accelerated with negative interactions while …

Sociocultural Factors Of Female Sexual Desire And Sexual Satisfaction, Matysen Evensen

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Historically, research on the human sexual-response cycle has not accounted for individual differences in gender and context. As a circular female response cycle was introduced in the latter end of the 20th century, differentiation between male and female sexuality was embraced, and individual variation between women became commonly known for the first time. As part of this historical shift, sexual desire became an integral part of the sexual experience (Basson, 2000). Most research on female sexual desire focuses on low desire and diagnosable conditions, but, among researchers, there is a growing consensus for additional focus into the roots of female …

Shame Proneness As A Vulnerability Factor For Negative Emotions In The Context Of Interpersonal Stressors: An Experience Sampling Study, Oxana L. Stebbins

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Shame proneness is associated with psychopathology and may serve as a risk factor for experiencing distressing emotions at subclinical and clinical levels across diagnoses. Additionally, shame-prone individuals may have increased sensitivity toward interpersonal stressors and negative shifts in self-evaluations. However, little to no research has examined shame proneness as a prospective risk factor for distressed moods following interpersonal stressors using experience sampling methods. Furthermore, disagreement on theories of shame make it difficult to achieve consistent results in the literature. The purpose of this study was to assess whether shame proneness acts as a risk factor for distressed moods in the …

Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory And Erotophobia [Chapter 6], Gila Ashtor

Literature

Can queer theory be erotophobic? This book proceeds from the perplexing observation that for all of its political agita, rhetorical virtuosity, and intellectual restlessness, queer theory conforms to a model of erotic life that is psychologically conservative and narrow. Even after several decades of combative, dazzling, irreverent queer critical thought, the field remains far from grasping that sexuality’s radical potential lies in its being understood as “exogenous, intersubjective and intrusive” (Laplanche). In particular, and despite the pervasiveness and popularity of recent calls to deconstruct the ideological foundations of contemporary queer thought, no study has as yet considered or in …

Influence Of Drd4 Receptor Gene Polymorphism On Aspirational Quality And Approach Motivation, Harry Henry-Ojo

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

The present study investigates the presence of a molecular genetic basis of the quality of aspiration and motivation for behavior described by Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory and Gray’s biopsychological theory of personality respectively. In this study, investigation was carried out to determine the impact of DRD4 receptor gene polymorphism on intrinsic and extrinsic aspiration as well as approach motivation using the Aspiration Index scales and Behavioral Inhibition and Activation (BIS/BAS) scales as our psychometric instrument of evaluation. In a pilot study consisting of 9 healthy subjects, the 7R allele of DRD4 receptor gene was associated with higher mean score …

Application Of Psychology In The Modern World, Hawai Kwok

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Uncovering Roots Of Systemic Oppression Within Law Enforcement: A Qualitative Study Exploring Why Police Officers Discriminate Against The Black Community, Alexandra Bouziotis

Dissertations

“Uncovering roots of systemic oppression within law enforcement: A qualitative study exploring why police officers discriminate against the Black community.” Rationale for this study is to uncover behavior and psychological reasons to uncover why police discriminate and oppress the Black community with little consequences for their actions. The dominant explanation for this trend uncovers previous research addressing oppression and the structure of institutions such as law enforcement that have relied heavily on past policies and tactics protecting an institution in the United States that has rarely been challenged. Recent riots and civil unrest against law enforcement institutions and dominant laws …

Familiarity And Mate Preference Assessment With The Partner Preference Test, Annaliese K. Beery

Psychology: Faculty Publications

In contrast to traditional laboratory animals, prairie voles form socially monogamous partnerships in the wild and exhibit lasting social preferences for familiar individuals-both mates and same-sex peers-in the laboratory. Decades of research into the mechanisms supporting pair bonding behavior have made prairie voles an important model organism for the study of social relationships. The partner preference test is a laboratory test of familiarity preference that takes place over an extended interval (typically 3 hr), during which test subjects can directly interact with conspecifics and often engage in resting side-by-side contact (i.e., huddling). The use of this test has enabled study …

Natural Variation In The Oxytocin Receptor Gene And Rearing Interact To Influence Reproductive And Nonreproductive Social Behavior And Receptor Binding, Todd H. Ahern, Sara Olsen, Ryan Tudino, Annaliese K. Beery

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Individual variation in social behavior offers an opportunity to explore gene-by-environment interactions that could contribute to adaptative or atypical behavioral profiles (e.g., autism spectrum disorders). Outbred, socially monogamous prairie voles provide an excellent model to experimentally explore how natural variations in rearing and genetic diversity interact to shape reproductive and nonreproductive social behavior. In this study, we manipulated rearing (biparental versus dam-only), genotyped the intronic NT213739 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the oxytocin receptor gene (Oxtr), and then assessed how each factor and their interaction related to reciprocal interactions and partner preference in male and female adult prairie voles. We …

Information Justice: The Histories And Futures Of Technology And Social Categories, Patrick Sweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation examines two controversies related to emergent uses of information from social media in psychological research and application. It focuses on controversies surrounding studies of face-based gaydar and the use of psychographic targeting by Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 US presidential election. Each controversy is analyzed in a case study that explores the issues specific to that study in relation to broader patterns across contexts to identify emergent trends in the use of information from social media in psychological research. Qualitative Content Analysis is used to analyze extant texts relevant to each case. In each study, findings related to …

From Psychology To Phylogeny: Bridging Levels Of Analysis In Cultural Evolution, Mason Youngblood

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cultural evolution, or change in the socially learned behavior of a population over time, is a fascinating phenomenon that is widespread in humans and present in some non-human animals. In this dissertation, I present an array of cultural evolutionary studies that bridge pattern and process in a wide range of research models including music, extremism, and birdsong. The first chapter is an introduction to the field of cultural evolution, including a bibliometric analysis of its structure. The second and third chapters are studies on the cultural dynamics of music sampling traditions in hip-hop and electronic music communities and far-right extremism …

Delayed Modulation Of Glutamate Receptors By Anti-Epileptic Drugs After Traumatic Brain Injury In Rats, Edgar Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant health concern. Around 74 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury worldwide. The damage caused by TBI produces two types of injury; primary and secondary injuries. Primary injury is caused within milliseconds and is irreversible. Secondary brain injury is delayed and produced by molecular, cellular, and structural disruption after the initial injury. One of the most devastating dysfunction after TBI is glutamate neurotransmitter overactivation that could lead to neurotoxic levels of glutamate in the brain (i.e., excitotoxicity). Excitotoxicity has been linked with the development of epilepsy after TBI, also known as post-traumatic epilepsy …

Circuits Underlying Serotonin Mediated Sex Differences In Fear Learning, Rebecca Ravenelle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-related disorder characterized by intense fearful memory formation. Women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD, indicating there may be sex differences in the underlying neural circuits. Given that serotonin (5-HT) dysfunction is implicated in PTSD, and 5-HT modulates fear learning, we investigated whether there are sex differences in the modulation of fear learning by 5-HT. We administered the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram (20mg/kg or 10m/kg, i.p.) once to male and female mice prior to auditory fear conditioning and tested the effects on fear memory the next day. We found …

A Neuroscientist's Guide To The Vole, William M. Kenkel, Morgan L. Gustison, Annaliese K. Beery

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Prairie voles have emerged as an important rodent model for understanding the neuroscience of social behavior. Prairie voles are well known for their capacity for pair bonding and alloparental care. These behavioral phenomena overlap with human social behavior but are not commonly observed in traditional rodent models. In this article, we highlight the many benefits of using prairie voles in neuroscience research. We begin by describing the advantages of using diverse and non-traditional study models. We then focus on social behaviors, including pair bonding, alloparental care, and peer interactions, that have brought voles to the forefront of social neuroscience. We …

Micro-Expressions Of Fear During The 2016 Presidential Campaign Trail: Their Influence On Trait Perceptions Of Donald Trump, Patrick A. Stewart, Elena Svetieva

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2016 United States presidential election was exceptional for many reasons; most notably the extreme division between supporters of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In an election that turned more upon the character traits of the candidates than their policy positions, there is reason to believe that the non-verbal performances of the candidates influenced attitudes toward the candidates. Two studies, before Election Day, experimentally tested the influence of Trump’s micro-expressions of fear during his Republican National Convention nomination acceptance speech on how viewers evaluated his key leadership traits of competence and trustworthiness. Results from Study 1, conducted 3 weeks prior …