Psychology Commons^™

Considering Constitutionally Relevant Evidence: An Assessment Of Childhood Physical Abuse As A Non-Statutory Mitigating Circumstance, Fotine Konstantopoulou

Psychology Theses

The present study examines the role of a specific instruction designed to guide jurors on non-statutory mitigating circumstances in determining sentence recommendation. To date, there is no research examining whether specific instructions provide more guidance, and improve jurors’ discretion compared to the current general instructions. We predicted that specific mitigating instructions would increase confidence in life sentencing compared to generic instructions as well as revised instructions. We also predicted that expert testimony of childhood physical abuse would minimize death penalty recommendations. Contrary to our predictions, we found that exposure to generic instructions increased confidence in a life sentence. In addition, …

Dangerous Criminals Or Misunderstood? Assessing Police Perceptions Of The Mentally Ill, Amy Roach

Psychology Theses

People diagnosed with mental illnesses are often confronted with stigmatization and discrimination because they are stereotyped as dangerous and unpredictable. Police officers are typically the first to respond to a potentially dangerous mentally ill person and therefore, it is important to understand how police officers’ perceive mentally ill persons and how they respond to a call regarding a suspect displaying symptoms associated with mentally illness. Sixty police officers read one of six vignettes involving a call to investigate a suspicious male loitering behind a store. The vignettes differed only on the perceived severity of the mental illness (mild or severe) …

Of Mice And Mozart: Testing Spatial Reasoning And Memory Of Rats, Kaitlin O'Toole

Honors Theses

An increase in spatial-temporal reasoning has been documented in the presence of Mozart's sonata K.448; this enhancement of physical and psychological activities is called the "Mozart Effect" (Hughes 2001). This effect has been recorded in humans and animals alike, and its influence reaches a myriad of applications including calming wild animals to increasing test scores in college students to lowering high blood pressure. Using a cheeseboard apparatus to test spatial reasoning in rats, this experiment recorded the results from maze tasks completed in the presence of sonata K.448 compared to trials completed in silence. Results showed a significant difference between …

Relationship Between Exposure To Familial Violence And Rapists’ Offense Level Of Force, Courtney A. Meyer

Psychology Theses

There has been substantial research on the effects of familial violence on rapists and factors which lead a person to rape (Connolly & Woollons, 2008; Jaffe, Wilson, & Wolfe, 1986; Kitzman, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003; Lee, Jackson, Pattison & Ward, 2002). However, there has been no research in identifying the factors which link rapists’ offense level of force and exposure to familial violence. In the present study we investigated how offenders exposed to domestic violence differ from those not exposed in the following factors: rates of physical abuse, rates of sexual victimization by both men and women, rates of …

Racial Socialization In A Black-White Interracial Family In Virginia, Rebecca Hubbard

Theses and Dissertations

The Black-White biracial population is the largest and fastest growing subgroup of multiracial individuals in the United States. Despite substantial research literature on the positive relationship between Black racial identity and psychological wellbeing, Black-White biracial individuals are underrepresented in studies that provide evidence for this relationship. Root (1998) put forward an Ecological Metamodel of Biracial Identity, comprised of several factors related to contextual (e.g. class, regional history of race-relations, parental identity, extended family) and intra-psychic processes (e.g. social skills, coping skills). The ecological metamodel served as the theoretical framework for the current study. This study is a comprehensive investigation of …

Posttraumatic Stress And Myocardial Infarction Risk Perceptions In Hospitalized Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients, Donald Edmondson, Jonathan A. Shaffer, Ellen-Ge Denton, Daichi Shimbo, Lynn Clemow

Publications and Research

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is related to acute coronary syndrome (ACS; i.e., myocardial infarction or unstable angina) recurrence and poor post-ACS adherence to medical advice. Since risk perceptions are a primary motivator of adherence behaviors, we assessed the relationship of probable PTSD to ACS risk perceptions in hospitalized ACS patients (n = 420). Participants completed a brief PTSD screen 3-7 days post-ACS, and rated their 1-year ACS recurrence risk relative to other men or women their age. Most participants exhibited optimistic bias (mean recurrence risk estimate between "average" and "below average"). Further, participants who screened positive for current PTSD (n …

Conversion Theory Through The Cognitive Science Of Religion Lense In A Christian-Muslim Context, Jennifer A. Garcia

Scripps Senior Theses

The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in recent years is beginning to become more popular. This project evolves around the development of the field as well as critiques of the field. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of CSR, it lends an interesting way to understand religion as well as religious experiences. One of those religious experiences, conversion, is examined and explored through the use of conversion narratives from western women who were formally Christian but converted to Islam. Many themes arise out of this research that paves the way for trying to understand religious experiences. Overall, the project focuses on …

Linguistic Devices, Emotionality, And Memorability Of Computer Mediated Communication, Angela M. Mion

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

I examined whether college students use shortcuts, pragmatics, and errors in text messages differently depending on their gender and the emotionality of the message. Results indicate that the prevalence of particular shortcuts differed across happy, sad, and angry messages, but gender did not influence use of linguistic devices. In a second study, I examined the emotionality and memorability of text messages versus voicemails. Results indicate that texts may be remembered better than voicemails, and happy, sad, and angry messages may be remembered differently by men and women.

Emotion And Inhibition: Pride Versus Happiness, Emery K. Hilles

Scripps Senior Theses

The central question of my thesis is how different positive emotions affect inhibition. Katzir, Eyal, Meiran, and Kessler (2010) addressed this question using an antisaccade task and found that happiness decreased inhibition compared to pride, which they attribute to the links between pride and long-term goals and happiness and short-term goals. I attempted to generalize their results to a color-naming Stroop task and predicted that their results would not generalize because their study had little supporting research and their method had several limitations. I tested 45 students of the Claremont Colleges and found partial support for Katzir et al. Participants …

The Effect Of Preconceived Expectations Of Alcohol And College Life On Freshmen's Drinking Behaviors, Trisha Nicole Wilcox

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Drinking on college campuses is a primary concern of university staff, administration, law enforcement, and parents. In a study that evaluated the normative perceptions about college life and alcohol use with 147 college freshmen, normative perceptions of the college experience were evaluated with their relationship to drinking behavior. Researchers surveyed the residential, incoming freshmen class about their perceptions their first night on campus and followed up with these students on their behaviors after a full semester on campus. Researchers aimed to pinpoint a relationship between the expected student role, the typical student role, and the campus climate. It was hypothesized …

Expressed Emotion And Attitudes Toward Body Image And Food, Toni Marie Maraldo

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In numerous studies over the years, body image and dysfunctional attitudes toward food have shown to be related to the genesis of eating disorders. Recent research has particularly focused on the influence that families have on both the development of eating disorders as well as their impact on their child's body image and eating attitudes. In general, higher levels of expressed emotion are often found in families with children who have either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. However, there is a lack of research on sub-clinical populations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the influence that expressed …

Sleep Deprivation And Delusion Proneness: Influence On Dream Bizarreness, Anna Leigh Lezon

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

While evidence for many types of psychotic experience exists in the general population, dreams have been a particularly prominent model for hallucinations and delusions in otherwise healthy individuals. This definition of "bizarreness" in dreams mirrors the description of psychosis in schizophrenia patients when their psychosis remits (Colace, 2003). Babkoff et al, (1989) found a linear association - less sleep caused more waking-state hallucinations. While the relationship between psychotic symptoms and sleep deprivation is well established, most existing data regard waking-state psychotic symptomology. The relationship between sleep deprivation and dream-state psychotic symptomology has not been investigated. Further, no sleep deprivation study …

Using Brain Research To Aid Reading Comprehension, Mia Alyssa Claretto

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"Does it matter to learning if we pay attention? ...You bet it does" (Medina, 2007, p. 74). Studies John Medina, Richard Mayer, and numerous others prove the more attention the brain gives to a certain stimulus results in better retention of the information due to the fact that the information is more elaborately encoded. The more attention grabbing something is, the more emotion that is involved, means the better that information is remembered. As a future teacher, this detail has many implications for me. If I want students who are learning, then I need to design lessons that invite the …

The Effect Of Affect On Group Memory, Dominick Joseph Atkinson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Memory typically improves when recollecting in a group - the larger the group, the better the memory (McClure 2010; Atkinson 2011). High arousal at the time of encoding also improves memory (Bohannon, Gratz, & Cross 2007; Libkumen, et al., 1999). In this study 342 participants viewed either an emotional or neutral slideshow and then recalled either alone or with a group of three (triad). The participants were tested using both probed and free recall questionnaires. We found that for perceptually central items, the emotional material only helped the individuals, and not the collaborative groups. However, for the perceptually peripheral items, …

Various Gaits Of African Elephant Calves, Elizabeth Anne Jennings

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

It is commonly believed that elephants exhibit only one gait, a lateral sequence walk. However, recently there have been several interesting studies on the footfall patterns of adult African elephants (Loxodonta africana). Scientists have recognized that elephants actually exhibit two patterns of locomotion: a lateral sequence walk and an amble. The amble is a slight modification of the lateral sequence gait. The present study extends this work by examining the relationship between gait and speed in African elephant calves at the Indianapolis Zoo. I collected frame-by-frame observational video data from a newborn calf born at the Indianapolis Zoo across a …

Pharmacy And Empathy: Evaluating The Impact Of A Pharmacy Student's Project In A Service-Learning Course, Carly D'Agostino

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Background: Empathy is taking on a larger role in the pharmaceutical field as pharmacists place emphasis on patient centered care. Service-learning courses can expose pharmacy students to future patients, allowing them to interact and develop empathy. While this study suggests service-leaming can foster empathy, further research is needed to assess the specific outcome of empathy as a result of incorporating a project in a service-learning course for pre-pharmacy students.

Objective: To evaluate the effect on a pharmacy student's empathy after completing a one-on-one patient interview project during a service-learning experience. A secondary objective is to assess tile validity of a …

Personality Traits And Desire For Social Distance From Individuals With Mental Illnesses, Emily Lazar

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The current study sought to examine the relationship between personality traits and desire for social distance from an individual perceived as having a mental illness. Each participant received information about a confederate's (person pretending to be a participant) past mental illness diagnoses before interacting with them. This information was presented in the form of a demographic questionnaire completed by the confederate and, among other details, mentioned that the confederate had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia. Participants' desire for social distance from the confederate was measured both by videotaped behavioral reactions and by attitudinal reactions reported on a social distance questionnaire …

Measures Of Social Cognition In The Laboratory And Real World: Towards Temporal Dynamics Of Implicit Other-Regard, Danielle Tucci

Scripps Senior Theses

Social cognition is a fundamental aspect of human experience that enables us to have relationships with and understanding of other people. Social relationships have been shown to mitigate cognitive decline in old age and benefit cognitive functioning, and the social interaction on which these relationships rely requires an extensive network of cognitive processes, and by extension neural systems, that have not, as of yet, been widely studied in older adults. Nor has the function of these systems been tied to social relationships in the real world. Here, I will compare self-reports of real-world quality and extent of social networks with …

Language Brokering A Dynamic Phenomenon: A Qualitative Study Examining The Experiences Of Latina/O Language Brokers, Adriana Esquivel

Scripps Senior Theses

Language brokers are children of immigrants who use their skills as bilinguals to interpret or translate for their family and/or community members. Although language brokering may begin in childhood or preadolescence, language brokering may continue until adulthood. While there are a small number of studies that have touched upon change over time, this study’s primary focus is on language brokers’ experiences relating to change over time. This was accomplished through semi-structured in depth retrospective interviews among Latina/o young adults attending small liberal arts colleges. Three aspects of language brokering were examined, the practice of language brokering, feeling towards language brokering, …

If You're Happy And You Know It: Concentrate!, Kristi Michelle Summers

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The phenomenon of mind wandering involves a situation in which a person's executive control switches from the current task to unrelated thoughts (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). Previous research has indicated that individuals mind wander more often when they are in negative moods than when they are happier (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Smallwood, 2009). One theory of mind wandering, the Working Memory Capacity Theory, claims that participants with a lower working memory capacity (WMC) experience more mind wandering during a challenging primary task than participants with a higher WMC because those with higher WMC can better use their executive control to …

Self-Regulation: An 'Active Ingredient' In The Spirituality-Health Relationship, Claire Ellyn Brownson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Recent research suggests that spirituality promotes physical well-being. Explaining this relationship proves difficult. This cross-sectional study was conducted to test whether self-regulatory ability acts as a mediator between spirituality and health. It has been proposed that high levels of spirituality are related to strong self-regulation, which in turn should be related to better physical well-being. To address this hypothesis, a questionnaire containing validated measures of the targeted constructs was administered to a sample of 78 Butler students. Additionally, some ancillary data were collected concerning participants' level of religiosity. Regression-based mediational analyses indicated that self-regulatory ability does indeed function as a …

Alexithymia, Emotional Intelligence, And Their Relation To Word Usage In Expressive Writing, Kate M. Pluth

Scripps Senior Theses

This correlational and experimental study examines how people with different levels of alexithymia and emotional intelligence write about their emotional experiences. Because research on expressive writing (writing about important emotional experiences) has found such far-reaching therapeutic benefits, and attributes much of it to expressive writing's linguistic properties, exploring how a person's emotional understanding relates to language matters. Sixty-eight participants engaged in Pennebaker's expressive writing paradigm, and their word usage was measured on a number of categories, as given by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. Results indicated that different levels of emotional intelligence and alexithymia correlated with certain parameters …

Vantage Point And Visual Imagery: Effects On Recall In Younger And Older Adults, Allison J. Midden

Scripps Senior Theses

The current study explored the influence of priming vantage point at retrieval on the recall of younger and older adults, in addition to the effects of visualization ability on recall. Based on McIsaac and Eich’s (2002) findings of the effects on younger adults’ recall, it was hypothesized that recollections would be more likely to include certain features when retrieved through the field vantage point (FVP) than through the observer vantage point (OVP) and vice-versa. Additionally, it was expected that older adults would recall more detailed memories from the OVP than from the FVP. Finally, it was hypothesized that visualization ability …

Supply Vs. Demand: Re-Entering America's Prison Population Into The Workforce, Marissa Leigh Enfield

Scripps Senior Theses

Because rejoining the workforce may prevent against ex-offender recidivism, securing gainful employment is one of the best indicators of successful societal reintegration for released prisoners. However, the stigma attached to a criminal history, combined with ex-prisoners’ lack of human capital, may threaten their ability to obtain a job. The present study examines hiring managers’ attitudes towards previously imprisoned offenders applying for positions in their workplace. Using a combination of brief, fictional applicant biographies and surveys, this mixed-groups factorial study explores how hiring managers (N= 28) consider gender, type of offense, and race when an ex-offender is assessed during the application …

Navigating The Diverse Dimensions Of Stereotypes, With Domain Specific Deficits: Processes Of Trait Judgments About Individuals With Disabilities, Christina G. Boardman

Scripps Senior Theses

Stereotype groups are interrelated. For example, in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, racial minorities are referred to special education at a much higher rate than are majority racial groups (Tse, Lloyd, Petchkovsky, and Manaia, 2005; Harry, Arnaiz, Klingner, Sturges, 2008). The Stereotype Content Model describes stereotype relationships in terms of an interaction between competence and warmth. Warmth is the more consistent dimension. The nature of competence remains elusive (Fiske, Cuddy, and Glick, 2007; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, and Xu, 2002). Knowledge of relationships between stereotype groups, which themselves may be effects of bias, could factor into observed competence effects. …

The Relationship Between Resistance To Conformity And College Students’ Alcohol Use, Alcohol-Related Consequences Experienced, And Pbs Use, Melissa Ambrosino

Honors Theses

College students’ alcohol use has reached alarming heights in the past 25 years and shows no signs of slowing; experiencing alcohol-related negative consequences is on the rise for this demographic. Protective behavioral strategies (PBS) can help prevent negative consequences. This study sought to determine if relationships existed between resistance to conformity and college students’ alcohol consumption, alcohol-related negative consequences experienced, and PBS use. Data were collected via online surveys from students at a Southeastern mid-sized university. As hypothesized, resistance to conformity had negative relationships with alcohol consumption (r = -.094, p = .05 ) and number of alcohol-related negative …

The Story Of Taste: Using Eegs And Self-Reports To Understand Consumer Choice, Charnetta Brown, Adriane B. Randolph, Janée N. Burkhalter

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The authors investigate consumers’ willingness to switch from a preferred manufacturer brand to an unfamiliar private-label brand if taste is perceived as identical. Consumer decisions are examined through recordings of electrical brain activity in the form of electroencephalograms (EEGs) and self-reported data captured in surveys. Results reveal a willingness of consumers to switch to a less-expensive brand when the quality is perceived to be the same as the more expensive counterpart. Cost saving options for consumers and advertising considerations for managers are discussed.

Attitudes And Social Factors As Predictors Of Male Perpetration Of Sexual Assault, Andrea A. Massa

Honors Theses

Previous research has demonstrated a significant association between sexual assault perpetration and hooking up, male peer support for woman abuse, alcohol consumption, and rape myth acceptance (Burt, 1980; Flack, Daubman, Caron, Asadorian, D’Aureli, Gigliotti & Stine, 2007; Schwartz & DeKeseredy, 1997). In the present study, we tested these relationships on the collegiate level by asking male students to indicate levels of male peer support for woman abuse (MPS), acceptance of rape myths (RMA), alcohol consumption, and history of hooking up and sexual assault perpetration during their undergraduate experience. Participants in this study were 200 male Bucknell students (sophomores - seniors) …

The Role And Impact Of Bullying Bystanders In An Urban School Setting, Courtney Casey

Theses and Dissertations

The current study focused on bystander interventions in hypothetical real world and cyber world bullying scenarios. Participants included 87 5th-8th grade students living in an urban community in southern New Jersey. The intervention of bystanders, taking into account their cultural awareness of snitching was explored. The bystanders' relationship with the bully and victim, and the bystanders' method of intervention were examined. An original survey of bullying scenarios was administered to collect data. Results showed the majority of bystander intervention levels as moderate (50.57%) or high (35.63%). The cultural relevance of snitching yielded no significant impact on bystander intervention. Future research …

Disclosing Sexual Assault Victimization To Others, Nicole S. Shea

Honors Theses

Previous research has demonstrated that victims of sexual assault disclose their assaults most frequently to members of their intimate social circle. Unfortunately, some friends and family members give support in ways that are perceived as unhelpful by victims. The present study found that victims' reports and non-victims' expectations of positive support after disclosure differed significantly. These results indicate that significant efforts are needed to change the campus culture by increasing support for sexual assault victims.