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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Psychology

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The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Journal

2018

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Perception Of Facial Expressions In Social Anxiety And Gaze Anxiety, Aaron Necaise Jan 2018

Perception Of Facial Expressions In Social Anxiety And Gaze Anxiety, Aaron Necaise

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This study explores the relationship between gaze anxiety and the perception of facial expressions. The literature suggests that individuals experiencing Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) might have a fear of making direct eye contact, and that these individuals also demonstrate a hypervigilance towards the eye region. Some have suggested that this increased anxiety concerning eye contact might be related to the tendency of socially anxious individuals to mislabel emotion in the faces of onlookers. An improved understanding of the cognitive biases associated with SAD could lead to more efficient intervention and assessment methods. In the present study, I used the Depression …

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When Moms Say Bad Words: Family And Peer Influence On The Frequency Of Swearing, Emily Simpson, Joshua Duarte, Brianna Bishop Jan 2018

When Moms Say Bad Words: Family And Peer Influence On The Frequency Of Swearing, Emily Simpson, Joshua Duarte, Brianna Bishop

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Swearing is taboo in modern culture. Even though this habit is deemed negative, many people continue to swear frequently every day. The purpose of this study is to determine who exerts the most influence on one's swearing habits: one's family or one's peers? Seven hundred and sixty-three university students were asked via survey who (mother, father, siblings, friends, or peers) swore most frequently during their upbringing. These questions were compared through linear regression to measure participants' level of swearing. We anticipated that peers would have a more significant impact on one's swearing frequency. However, we found that an individual's mother …

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The Self-Reference Effect, Emotion, And Self-Esteem, Analise Mcgreal Jan 2018

The Self-Reference Effect, Emotion, And Self-Esteem, Analise Mcgreal

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This study examines the effect of emotionally-charged stimuli on surprise recall rates of self-referentially processed words. In a between-subjects experimental design, 101 undergraduate students from the University of Central Florida (UCF) were randomly assigned to one of three groups (positive words, negative words, or neutral words) and presented with a list of seven adjectives describing appearance (e.g. cute, appalling, tall); experimental procedures were carried out through the UCF Qualtrics online survey design platform. After self-referential processing, a significant difference between all three groups was demonstrated by completion of a one-way ANOVA, with recall rates decreasing from the neutral, to the …

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The Effect Of Misogynistic Humor On Millenials' Perception Of Women, Natasha Vashist Jan 2018

The Effect Of Misogynistic Humor On Millenials' Perception Of Women, Natasha Vashist

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Humor is often a controversial genre of entertainment. It is not critically examined due to its intentionally offensive nature. This study examines the impact of sexist humor on millenials' perception of women. Students (n = 1,096) from a four-year university were divided into two groups and both participated in a survey examining attitudes toward women and media-viewing habits. One group was exposed to clips of sexist humor from television shows and the other was not. A series of analyses of variance (ANOVA) conducted on the two groups did not find significant differences between those who had viewed sexist clips and …

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Parentification In Deployed And Non-Deployed Military Families: A Preliminary Assessment, Taylor Truhan Jan 2018

Parentification In Deployed And Non-Deployed Military Families: A Preliminary Assessment, Taylor Truhan

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in parentification in military families with a deployed parent and without a deployed parent. Parentification has been defined as a parent-child relationship in which the child is given roles and responsibilities that are inappropriate for the child's developmental level. Previous research has highlighted increased rates of parentification in situations involving parental absence or unavailability, such as divorce, parental illness, parental alcoholism, and domestic violence. This construct was assessed using the Parentification Questionnaire – Youth, a 20 item self-report survey for children and adolescents. Participants consisted of 22 children, ages 7-17, …

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The Role Of Parenting And Attachment In Identity Style Development, Kaylin Ratner Jan 2018

The Role Of Parenting And Attachment In Identity Style Development, Kaylin Ratner

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The present study set investigates the role of the parent-child relationship in identity formation using a sample of 264 students collected from two high schools in the central Florida area. Maternal responsiveness fosters both the informational and normative identity style, as well as positive attachment. Such results suggest that a warm and loving maternal figure allows children to feel safe in their environment, which encourages exploration. Furthermore, positive attachment was found to significantly predict a normative identity style. Despite both responsiveness and attachment independently predicting a normative identity style, issues were raised in regards to multicollinearity of the variables utilized …

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Exploring Cognitive Dissonance Between College Students' Religious And Spiritual Beliefs And Their Higher Education, Shawn Gaulden Jan 2018

Exploring Cognitive Dissonance Between College Students' Religious And Spiritual Beliefs And Their Higher Education, Shawn Gaulden

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

With perceptions of conflict between religion and science often appearing in popular discussions and academic writings, cognitive dissonance may result if college students find their epistemological beliefs challenged during their undergraduate education. The purpose of this study is to explore whether students experience cognitive dissonance between their religious and spiritual identity and their college education and experiences, as well as whether certain factors in college life lead to cognitive dissonance. College students (N = 272) from the Central Florida area were surveyed with measures exploring the dimensions of college life that affect the likelihood of students experiencing tension between their …

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Associations Between Positive Health Behaviors And Psychological Distress, Marlaine Monroig Jan 2018

Associations Between Positive Health Behaviors And Psychological Distress, Marlaine Monroig

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Research examining the relationship between psychological distress and health behaviors is limited, as most such studies examine specific types of psychological distress and specific types of health behaviors. To address this limitation, the current study assessed a broad range of health behaviors (Health Behavior Checklist) and psychological symptoms (Brief Symptom Inventory) in 762 undergraduate students. Results revealed that the total BSI score showed statistically significant negative correlations with the HBC total score and three of the four HBC subscales (Wellness-Maintenance, Substance Risk, Traffic Risk ). Thus, participants reporting more overall psychological distress engaged in fewer positive health behaviors across all …

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How Perceptual And Cognitive Factors Are Involved In A Car Accident: A Case Study, Vanessa Dominguez, Marc Gentzler Jan 2018

How Perceptual And Cognitive Factors Are Involved In A Car Accident: A Case Study, Vanessa Dominguez, Marc Gentzler

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Several factors are considered in car accident analysis. Human factors research has shown that different perceptual and cognitive factors influence driving performance, leading to improvements in vehicle and road design. This case study provides a deeper understanding of the potential influence of major perceptual and cognitive variables on driving performance in general, including (a) driver expectancy effects, (b) glare, (c) general visibility such as lighting, (d) driver's dark adaptation, (e) road illusions, and (f) driver perception-reaction time. This analysis describes in detail how these certain perceptual and cognitive factors may have been involved in a particular car accident. Future research …

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Asperger's Disorder And Social Phobia: A Comparison Of Social Functioning, Nomara Santos Jan 2018

Asperger's Disorder And Social Phobia: A Comparison Of Social Functioning, Nomara Santos

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Asperger's Disorder (AD) is a pervasive developmental disorder in which individuals show impairment in social skills by engaging in eccentric behavior, which leads to social isolation and rejection. Social Phobia (SP) is a disorder in which individuals report excessive anxiety while in social situations, resulting in significant distress and avoidance of social situations. A diagnosis of either AD or SP in childhood bears a significant impact on academic, social, and emotional development. As a result, a child can find it difficult to establish friendships, resulting in feelings of loneliness. Although studies have addressed the issue of loneliness in children with …

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Self-Silencing In Response To Sexist Behavior: Exploring Women's Willingness To Confront Sexism, Marie Sabbagh, Tess Hare, Erika Wheelhouse, Holly Mcfarland Jan 2018

Self-Silencing In Response To Sexist Behavior: Exploring Women's Willingness To Confront Sexism, Marie Sabbagh, Tess Hare, Erika Wheelhouse, Holly Mcfarland

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Past studies on confronting sexism suggest that sexism is not an innocuous annoyance but a serious issue with negative psychological impact. To the best of our knowledge, no research has yet utilized a high-impact design to explore how to encourage women to confront sexist behavior. The present study was designed to explore women's willingness to confront sexist comments and whether it is possible to increase the level of confrontation by modeling confronting behavior. Twenty-nine female psychology students were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions, one in which confronting behavior was modeled, and one in which it was not. …

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