Psychology Commons^™

Methylphenidate Conditioned Place Preference In Juvenile And Adolescent Male And Female Rats, Elizabeth D. Freeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This investigation was an analysis of the effects of methylphenidate (MPH; trade name: Ritalin) on drug reward using the conditioned place preference (CPP) behavioral paradigm in a rodent model and underlying mechanisms of this effect. Animals were conditioned in adolescence from postnatal day (P)33-39) or P44-49 with saline, 1 or 5 mg/kg MPH. Rats administered 5 mg/kg but not 1 mg/kg MPH, resulted in a significant preference that was more robust in younger male adolescent rats. The 5 mg/kg dose of MPH also resulted in a significant decrease of the dopamine transporter in both the nucleus accumbens and striatum, revealing …

Decentering Anthropocentrisms: A Functional Approach To Animal Minds, Matthew C. Altman

Between the Species

Anthropocentric biases manifest themselves in two different ways in research on animal cognition. Some researchers claim that only humans have the capacity for reasoning, beliefs, and interests; and others attribute mental concepts to nonhuman animals on the basis of behavioral evidence, and they conceive of animal cognition in more or less human terms. Both approaches overlook the fact that language-use deeply informs mental states, such that comparing human mental states to the mental states of nonlinguistic animals is misguided. In order to avoid both pitfalls -- assuming that animals have mental lives just like we do, or assuming that they …

Body Esteem, Peer Difficulties, And Perceptions Of Physical Health In Overweight And Obese Urban Children Ages 5 To 7 Years, Natalie A. Williams, Jennifer Fournier, Mace Coday, Phyllis A. Richey, Frances A. Tylavsky, Marion E. Hare

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective—To determine whether there is an association between body mass index (BMI) and body esteem in young overweight and obese urban children, and to test peer relationship difficulties and perceived physical health as mediators of this relationship.

Methods—Child self-reported body esteem, and parent-reported child peer relationship difficulties (being bullied by peers and peer rejection) and physical health perceptions were obtained from 218 overweight and obese children ages 5–7 years (81% racial/ethnic minority, M BMI = 25.3) and their primary caregivers.

Results—Higher BMI was associated with lower body esteem for both girls and boys. This relation was mediated …

Prenatal Development: Annotated Bibliography, Victoria J. Molfese, Amanda Prokasky, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Ibrahim H. Acar, Xiaoqing Tu, Kate Sirota, Brian Keiser

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

For decades, researchers have investigated how events in the prenatal period impact women and their infants. These studies, particularly by researchers in the medical, neuroscience, and behavioral science fields, led to discoveries of important information regarding the prenatal events that were strongly associated with mortality (or death) and morbidity (or incidences of injury, pathology and abnormalities/anomalies, and neurobehavioral sequelae) in the neonatal and infancy periods. Among the many common findings from early research studies, two are particularly noteworthy. First, maternal and fetal risk conditions arising in the prenatal period do not do so in isolation. Sameroff and Chandler characterized this …

Does The Presence Of A Learning Disability Elicit A Stigmatization?, Kelsey Lisle, T. Joel Wade

Faculty Journal Articles

Aims: To determine whether or not a Learning Disability(LD) label leads to stigmatization. Study Design: This research used a 2(sex of participant) x 2(LD label)x 2 (Sex of stimulus person) factorial design. Place and Duration of Study: Bucknell University, between October 2010 and April 2011. Methodology: Sample: We included 200 participants (137 women and 63 men, ranging in age from 18 – 75 years, M = 26.41. Participants rated the stimulus individual on 27 personality traits, 8 Life success measures, and the Big-5 personality dimensions. Also, participants completed a Social Desirability measure. Results: A MANOVA revealed a …

Perceptions Of Parental Awareness Of Emotional Responses To Stressful Life Events, Lisa Jobe-Shields, Gilbert R. Parra, Kelly E. Buckholdt

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

There is a need to better understand family processes related to recovery from past stressful life events. The present study aimed to investigate links between perceptions of parental awareness regarding stressful life events, continued event-related rumination, and current symptoms of depression. Students at a diverse, urban university completed a life events checklist and a semistructured interview regarding family processing of stressful life events, as well as self-report measures of event-related rumination and depression. Results indicated that perceptions of mothers’ and fathers’ awareness of sadness regarding stressful life events as well as mothers’ and fathers’ verbal event processing predicted symptoms of …

Risk Factors For Overweight/Obesity In Preschool Children: An Ecological Approach, Dipti A. Dev, Brent A. Mcbride, Barbnara H. Fiese, Blake Jones, Hyunkeun Cho, Strong Kids Research Team

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Background—Identification of risk factors is critical to preventing the childhood obesity epidemic. Risk factors that contribute to obesity are multifactorial. However, limited research has focused on identifying obesity risk factors using an ecological approach.

Methods—Baseline self-report survey data from the STRONG Kids program were used. The sample consisted of 329 parent-child dyads recruited from childcare programs in east-central Illinois. Child height and weight were measured and converted to age- and sex-specific z-scores using standard growth charts. An ecological model provided the theoretical framework for the selection of 22 previously reported childhood obesity risk factors. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used …

Strength, But Not Direction, Of Handedness Is Related To Height, Ruth E. Propper, Tad T. Brunyé, Karly Frank, Sean E. Mcgraw

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Left-handers are reputed to be shorter than right-handers. However, previous research has confounded handedness direction (left- versus right-handedness) with handedness strength (consistency with which one hand is chosen across a variety of tasks; consistent- versus inconsistent-handedness). Here, we support a relationship between handedness strength, but not direction, and stature, with increasing inconsistent-handedness associated with increasing self-reported height.

Risk Factors For Non-Initiation Of The Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Vaccine Among Adolescent Survivors Of Childhood Cancer, James L. Klosky, Kathryn M. Russell, Kristin E. Canavera, Heather L. Gammel, Jason R. Hodges, Rebecca H. Foster, Gilbert R. Parra, Jessica L. Simmons, Daniel M. Green, Melissa M. Hudson

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Effective vaccination is now available to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection and cause of cervical cancer. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of HPV vaccination among childhood cancer survivors and identify factors associated with HPV vaccine initiation and completion. Mothers of daughters aged 9–17 years with/without a history of childhood cancer (n = 235, M_age= 13.2 years, SD= 2.69; n = 70, M_age= 13.3 years, SD=2.47, respectively) completed surveys querying HPV vaccination initiation and completion along with socio-demographic, medical, HPV knowledge and communication, and health belief factors, …

Making More Room For Physical Activity In Home-Based Child Care, Nanci Weinberger

Applied Psychology Department Faculty Journal Articles

Imagine a public fountain that spans a large plaza. If young children were there, would they splish-splash in the giant puddle of water? Imagine an open field with large stones cropping up from the grass. Would young children try any way they could to climb on the stones? Imagine a home where couch pillows lie around on the floor. Would young children jump on the pillows?

Evaluation Of A Pilot Of The Oregon Department Of Transportation’S Ecodrive Program, Donald M. Truxillo, John Macarthur, Frankie Guros, Layla R. Mansfield

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Economical, ecological, and safe driving – eco-driving – is aimed at reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (Martin, Chan, & Shaheen, 2012). The adoption of energy-efficient driving styles and practices has been recognized as a means of reducing energy consumption, and estimates of energy savings attributed to eco-driving have been reported to range from 5% to as high as 20%, depending on the driving context (Barkenbus, 2010; Stillwater & Kurani, 2013; van der Voort, Dougherty & van Maareseveen, 2001). Eco-driving is being promoted in partnership among the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) (Planning, Safety and Motor Carrier Division), the …

Natural Area Stewardship Volunteers: Motivations, Attitudes, Behaviors, Corinne Handelman

Dissertations and Theses

To better understand the value of those who engage in environmental stewardship of natural areas, we studied volunteer steward's motivation to participate, their sustainable behaviors and attitudes toward stewardship-related constructs. Specifically, we designed and conducted a survey of volunteers who work as stewards in urban natural areas in Portland, Oregon. We hypothesize that as volunteer frequency increases: participants will be more motivated to participate for environmental reasons, volunteers will be more likely to feel a strong connection to the stewardship site, participants will be more likely to engage in public pro-environmental behaviors, and their level of environmental literacy will increase. …

Peak Of The Day Or The Daily Grind: Commuting And Subjective Well-Being, Oliver Blair Smith

Dissertations and Theses

To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and societal well-being, researchers are developing measurement techniques that go beyond satisfaction-based measures of travel. Metrics related Subjective Well-Being (SWB), defined as an evaluation of one's happiness or life satisfaction, are increasingly important for evaluating transportation and land-use policies. This dissertation examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and how it is shaped. Data are from a web-based survey of workers (n=828) in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., with three roughly equally sized groups based on mode: bike, transit and car users. Descriptive analysis shows …

Alaska Winter's Relationship To Domestic Violence And Alcohol Abuse, Jennifer Marie Read

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Alaska is known for its long, dark, cold winter months. Daylight savings time exists to cope with months that have little sunlight, but that still leaves on average, five hours of daylight. Special light bulbs exist to help with the darkness by providing light that tricks the body into thinking it is getting more sun than it really is. As daylight decreases, the weather turns colder; depression, alcohol, and domestic violence begin to rise. Studies show alcohol related crime and domestic violence occur more during the winter months in Alaska. This research paper will analyze the data pertaining to alcohol …

The Object Of Desire: How Being Objectified Creates Sexual Pressure For Women In Heterosexual Relationships, Tiffany Hoyt

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The objectification of women is widespread in the United States (American Psychological Association, 2007), although there is relatively little research on objectification in romantic relationships. The purpose of this research was to explore how partner-objectification might be related to sexual pressure in heterosexual relationships. It was hypothesized that men who objectify their partners would be more likely to sexually pressure and/or coerce their partners. Additionally, a woman who feels objectified by her partner was hypothesized to internalize the objectification, feel like she has less control in the relationship (i.e., less sexual agency), and perceive more sexual pressure and coercion from …

Evaluating A Possible Association Between Déjà Vu Frequency And Memory Performance To Explain Déjà Vu, Duncan Prince, Caleb Archuleta

Student Research Symposium

Prior research shows that reported frequency of déjà vu declines with age. Memory performance also declines with aging. This study investigated separately a relationship of recollection and familiarity performance with déjà vu frequency, in a sample of college students to control for age. The hypothesis was that there will be a positive correlation between déjà vu frequency and recollection, and there will not be a correlation between familiarity and déjà vu frequency. The Inventory for Déjà Vu Experiences Assessment, a valid and reliable instrument, was used to quantify déjà vu frequency. Recollection and familiarity were quantitated separately by a memory …

Activation And Suppression Of The Innate Immune System: Effects On Alcohol Intake, Marjorie Levinstein

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Effects Of Rating Accuracy On Treatment Fidelity, Joshua Labeff

Honors Theses

The current study attempts to evaluate if there is a relationship between treatment fidelity and interobserver agreement. Participant performance on rating the accuracy of a video demonstration of a functional analysis session was analyzed in comparison to their performance in implementing a mock functional analysis session. Video models (some with confederates and some with the actual participant) of functional analysis conditions were shown to and graded by participants and were immediately followed by their participation in a mock functional analysis session with a confederate child. The results of the study tend to show little to no relationship between the two …

The Effect Of An Exercise Regimen On The Psychological Health Of Parkinson's Disease Patients, Alexander Stephens

Honors Theses

This paper reports a study on the effect of an exercise regimen on the psychological health of Parkinson's disease patients. The 11 participants of the study were Parkinson's disease patients who were participants of a six-week exercise program titled 'Delay the Disease,' which was specifically designed for Parkinson's disease patients. The participants of the study were given the Geriatric Depression Scale twice before the start of the exercise regimen, and once per week for the duration of the six-week exercise regimen. They were also given a quality of life questionnaire at the beginning and end of the regimen. The data …

The Effects Of Hiv/Aids On The Mother-Child Relationship, Margaret Gross

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

39 semi-structured interviews were conducted with HIV+/- mothers living in central Uganda. Interviews were assisted by a translator and recorded manually on paper then coded and analyzed. The majority of HIV+ mothers were found to be single, supported 5+ children, worked longer days to get by, and emphasized the importance of having a counselor. These findings suggest a strong relationship exists between HIV and motherhood. There is a need for further attention to help single mothers and foster programs that encourage economic growth within their families, nutritional improvement, and overall attention to a group that is currently receiving little assistance.

The Psychological Relationship Between Spirituality And Emotional Responses To Music, Anais D. Norman

Senior Honors Theses

A study was conducted with 251 undergraduate psychology students at a Christian university to determine the nature of the relationship between spirituality and music-based emotions. Two hypotheses were proposed: First, students with higher levels of spirituality would experience higher emotional intensity while listening to music. Second, students will experience equal emotional intensity when listening to the “sacred” or “secular” selections. In answer to the first hypothesis, results indicated that overall intensity in emotional response to musical selections did significantly and positively correlate with higher spirituality scores. In answer to the second hypothesis, the strength of emotional intensity did differ, and …

Pornography Addiction And Mental Health Disorders, Tabitha Cassidy

Senior Honors Theses

This study aims to understand the differences between mental health disorders in a sample of pornography users, addicts, and non-users. Participants in the study included males and females who visited a paraprofessional counseling center on a college campus (n=1048). Between non-users and users of pornography, one-way analysis of variance planned comparison results indicated that participants significantly differed in scores of Depression, Anxiety, and Global Severity Index as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI 18). Non-Suicidal Self-Injurious behaviors as measured by the Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory; and Grandiosity/Narcissism as measured by the Spiritual Assessment Inventory. Independent sample t-test scores indicated …

Correlates Of Help-Seeking Following Stalking Victimization: A Study Of College Women, Saige E. Jutras, Katie Edwards, Kateryna Sylaska

Honors Theses and Capstones

The current study explored factors related to college women’s coping processes associated with stalking using an online survey methodology. Results (N= 305 college women reporting stalking victimization within the last three years) showed that 85% of women disclosed their stalking experiences most commonly to female friends. Additionally, women used a variety of coping mechanisms in response to their stalking victimization; although avoiding thinking about or acting on the stalking experience were the most common strategies, victims rated direct forms of coping as more effective in deterring the stalking behavior. Women’s coping responses to stalking were related to a …

Genre, Birth Cohort, And Product Perception: Responses To Background Music In Commercial Advertising, Cassidy R. Cavanah

Scripps Senior Theses

Research shows that music transmits both embodied (universally perceptible) and referential (culturally specific) meanings. The present study sought to explore the persuasive power of music in commercial advertising, and the complex ties that exist between music, life experience and perception. The study looked at how the perception of a product could be altered in accordance with specific embodied and referential meanings. With a focus on the effects of music genre and birth cohort on product perception, embodied meanings were expected to produce similar results across birth cohorts, and referential meanings were expected to produce significantly different results. A total of …

Comparison Of Voice And Text Atc Communications In The Cockpit For Esl Pilots, Shannon Marie Cummings

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Throughout the course of any flight, pilots and air traffic control (ATC) are in constant radio communication regarding the position and route of the aircraft. Effective pilot-ATC communication helps to increase safety by increasing the situation awareness of both the pilot and controller. In the current pilot-ATC communication system, auditory messages are sent back and forth between the pilot and controller. The nature of these auditory messages makes them highly susceptible to memory and information processing limitations. This effect is magnified when dealing with pilots who have learned English as a second language (ESL) as people have more difficulty processing …

Eurasian Jays Predict The Food Preferences Of Their Mates, Alan C. Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

The cognitive abilities of animals continue to fascinate both scientists and nonscientists. Although the abilities of the primates, our closest living relatives, generally attract most interest, several different lines of research have demonstrated high levels of intellectual capacity in birds, particularly corvids. The members of this family are known for their large brains and have performed well in many cognitive tasks using different paradigms (1–3). This finding has led to substantial revision of thinking about avian intelligence, including the suggestion of convergence in the evolution of cognitive abilities between corvids and primates (4). In PNAS, Ostojić et al. (5) add …

An Examination Of Summer Bridge Programs For First-Generation College Students, Emily Christine Otewalt

Psychology and Child Development

During the last fifty years, nearly half of all students who entered a two- or four-year university withdrew without obtaining a degree. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic minority students, and students who were the first in their family to attend college were particularly vulnerable to this attrition. The following senior project examines current research on the backgrounds and attrition rates of first-generation college students, how "Summer Bridge Programs" aim to assist these students, and where shortcoming exist in current "Summer Bridge Program" assessments.

Using The Scientific Method To Guide Learning: An Integrated Approach To Early Childhood Curriculum, Hope K. Gerde, Rachel E. Schachter, Barbara A. Wasik

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how early childhood programs prepare young children for science. Due to a number of factors, including educators’ low self-efficacy for teaching science and lack of educational resources, many early childhood classrooms do not offer high-quality science experiences for young children. However, high-quality science education has the potential to lay an important foundation for children’s knowledge and interest in science as well as reinforcing and integrating critical language, literacy, and math readiness skills. This paper examines the current research on science in preschool classrooms and provides suggestions on how to teach science that …

“I’Ve Devoted My Entire Life To My Daughter—And She Knows It”: Exploration Of Identity Development Among Now-Adult Navajo Native American Adolescent Mothers, Rochelle L. Dalla, Kathryne Bailey, Ashley Cunningham, Nicolette Green, Jenna L. Vyhlidal

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

n 1992 (n = 21) and 1995 (n = 8), the principal investigator collected data from 29 reservation-residing Navajo Native American teenage mothers. A primary goal of the 1992 and 1995 investigations (Time 1) was to examine the identity status of the young women in relation to commitment to the maternal role using Marcia’s (1980) framework. Results revealed that an approximately equal number of participants could be classified as achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused (see Dalla, 2000). In 2007 (Time 2), the principal investigator returned to collect follow-up data at the Navajo Reservation, where she interviewed 21 (72%) of the …

Let’S Discuss: Teaching Students About Discussions, Eve Brank, Lindsey Wylie

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Research consistently demonstrates the benefits of employing classroom discussions; however, there has been less attention given to teaching students about discussions. The current research compared 2 advanced social psychology courses: 1 without (control) and 1 with (experimental) a week devoted to learning about and discussing discussions. Several different indicators showed marked improvements for the experimental group as compared to the control group. The differences between the two classes were particularly noticeable at the beginning of the semester. Even though the control group was able to eventually obtain similar scores, the differences at the beginning of the semester suggest that students …