Psychology Commons^™

"Living In The After": Examining How "Grey's Anatomy" Portrays Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emily A. Grant

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Over seventeen seasons, Grey's Anatomy (2005) has tackled rare physical conditions, medical miracles, and mental illness, including PTSD. Previous research on mental illness representation in television suggests that oftentimes, through pejorative or romanticized stereotypes, portrayals enhance stigma and have detrimental effects on viewers. Using inductive research, focused on PTSD-centric episodes regarding two main characters, this study revealed that Grey's Anatomy emphasizes a mostly empowering portrayal of PTSD. These findings suggest that future representations of mental illness like those in Grey's can eradicate stereotypes and stigmas as the norm and replace them with representations that encourage acceptance, openness, and communication.

What Is The Readiness Potential?, Aaron Schurger, Pengbo 'Ben' Hu, Joanna Pak, Adina L. Roskies

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The readiness potential (RP) has been widely interpreted to indicate preparation for movement and is used to argue that our brains decide before we do. It thus has been a fulcrum for discussion about the neuroscience of free will.

Recent computational models provide an alternative framework for thinking about the significance of the RP, suggesting instead that the RP is a natural result of the operation of a stochastic accumulator process of decision-making, analyzed by time-locking to threshold-crossing events.

These models call for a reevaluation of: (i) the ontological standing of the RP as reflecting a real, causally efficacious signal …

Associations Between College Students' Social Media Use And Psychological Adjustment During Covid-19, Bridget Mcguinness, Isabelle Warren

Arts & Sciences Student Symposium

The purpose of this study is to examine whether higher levels of social media use are associated with higher levels of psychological distress, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, and perceived stress. We hypothesize that social media use will be positively correlated with psychological difficulties. The sample includes 522 undergraduates from two liberal arts institutions from the Southeast US. Participants were administered an online survey in the fall of 2020. A second wave of data will be collected during the last week of February 2021. Measures include the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Perceived Stress Scale, Adapted Social Media Use Integration Scale, …

Supporting Social Hierarchy Is Associated With White Police Officers’ Use Of Force, Jillian K. Swencionis, Enrique R. Pouget, Phillip Atiba Goff

Publications and Research

Three studies translate social dominance theory to policing, testing the relationship between individual officers’ endorsement of social hierarchies and their tendency to use force against residents. This article demonstrates a link between officer psychological factors and force. Because police are empowered to use force to maintain social order, and because White officers hold a dominant racial identity, we hypothesized social dominance orientation (SDO) would relate to force positively for White officers. For Black officers, we hypothesized a weak relationship between SDO and force, if any. To test these predictions, we examined the relationships between SDO and force using negative binomial …

Body States Of Asian Elephants Within And Around Protected Areas In The Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Caitlyn Thai

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers are becoming increasingly aware that studying a species’ landscape of fear or, more broadly, their emotional states, can better inform cognitive questions about how animals navigate their environments. Vigilance behaviors are one way to determine how certain species perceive and respond to risky situations. Due to rapid environmental change, large animals such as elephants are experiencing risky encounters with humans more often than ever before. This study aims to investigate Asian elephants’ expressions of body states and how they might regulate their behavior based on perceived environmental risk or change. Specifically, we investigated the behavioral responses of Asian elephants …

Understanding Black Experiences And Access Barriers In The Expressive Arts Activities And Therapies, Jadea Harris, Ana K. Marcelo

Psychology

Black individuals in America experience racism, discrimination, and microaggressions that can affect their mental and physical health. (Alvarez, Liang, & Neville, 2016). Unfortunately, Black individuals typically do not seek out mental health treatment because of mistrust, stigma, misdiagnosis, and lack of culturally sensitive approaches to treatment (NAMI, 2002). One way to encourage Black individuals to seek mental health support and to provide more support could be through expressive arts. Expressive outlets may act as a protective barrier against adverse experiences and serve as an opportunity to bring healing amongst uncomfortable feelings of racial trauma and more. Historical and empirical evidence …

054— Introducing Young Minds To Topics In Neuroscience, Cole Zsemlye, Karissa Garbarini, Sean Mcbride, Edwin Hugh, Isabel Ross, Terrence Bazzett

GREAT Day Posters

The Applications in Neuroscience (NEUR 215) course allows SUNY Geneseo neuroscience majors to share their knowledge and interests with local elementary-aged children through a partnership with the local R-Kids program. R-Kids is an afterschool program that provides children with homework tutors and interactive enrichment activities. Due to COVID-19, NEUR 215 activities were entirely online and designed to be done virtually by the children at home. Activities were designed to increase interest in STEM-related fields, particularly neuroscience. Topics covered during the enrichment sessions included the neurons’ anatomy, neurotransmitters, learning, memory, brain health, and brain safety. These topics were covered through Google …

016— Quality Of College Students’ Close Peer Relationships, Erin C. Donahoe, Mary Simpson, Madeline I. Bird, Kaitlyn J. West, Karen S. Mooney

GREAT Day Posters

This study compares the quality of different types of college students’ relationships: same-sex (SS) friendships, other-sex (OS) friendships, and romantic relationships. Previous research by Hand and Furman (2009) indicated that adolescents perceived their OS friendships as less supportive than both their SS friendships and romantic relationships. Adolescents also perceived their OS friendships as having less conflict than their romantic relationships.

The current study attempts to replicate these findings with college students, who tend to have more time and opportunity to develop close OS friendships. In addition, we examine the power dynamic in these relationships, as well as several factors of …

249— The Role Of The Indirect Basal Ganglia Pathway In A Mouse Model Of Repetitive Circling Behavior, Gavin Vaughan, Allison R. Bechard

GREAT Day Posters

Repetitive behaviors are associated with a variety of disorders in humans and are diagnostic for autism spectrum disorders. Repetitive behaviors can be modeled in rodents. In our previous experiments, we have been able to reduce repetitive circling behaviors in mice using a ketogenic diet. The mechanisms behind the ketogenic diet are still under investigation. Previous investigations have indicated that the ketogenic diet plays a role in neurotransmitter functioning. This study sought to investigate the potential role of neurotransmitters in repetitive behaviors by investigating how three drugs (L-741,626, a dopamine receptor antagonist; CGS21680, an adenosine agonist; & CDPPB, a glutamate positive …

258— Differential Response To Cocaine In Mice Exposed To Stress, Gavin Vaughan, Melissa Herman, Isabel Ross, Katie Bugbee, April Rowell, Jennifer Bodzon, Allison R. Bechard Ph.D.

GREAT Day Posters

Exposure to trauma is a risk factor for substance use disorders. Using a mouse model of PTSD, we tested the effects of exposure to a stressor (synthetic fox pheromone: TMT) on response to cocaine. Cocaine induced locomotion and cocaine seeking behavior in a conditioned place preference (CPP) were assessed. TMT was an effective stressor, indicated by freezing behavior, which is a known fear response in mice. In both males and females, TMT-exposed mice showed a greater locomotor response to cocaine compared to control mice, resulting in the interaction between time and TMT treatment. TMT-exposed males, but not females, were overall …

048— Sibling Relationship Quality In Emerging Adulthood: A Phenomenological Study Of Latinx College Students, Carmen Martinez, Cassidy Jones-Goucher, Daniella Quiroz, Olivia R. Sanchez, Nicholas P. Palumbo

GREAT Day Posters

This phenomenological research examined Latinx college students’ sibling relationships in emerging adulthood. Researchers developed and employed a coding schema based on the work of Buhrmester and Furman (1987) to code for relationship quality. A thematic analysis revealed differences in relationship quality based on participants’ culture identity.

055— Ketogenic Diet And Dendritic Morphology In A Mouse Model Of Repetitive Behavior, Samantha Seeger, Yume Iriyama, Allison R. Bechard

GREAT Day Posters

Repetitive motor behaviors are invariant movements with no apparent function. They are associated with several disorders, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, little is known about the causes of these restricted behavior patterns, and effective treatments are lacking. ASD has recently been treated with a ketogenic diet (KD). Now a popular fad, KD is a high-fat, low-carb diet that has treated intractable epilepsy for decades. However, the mechanisms mediating KD’s beneficial effects are still unclear. We first show KD can attenuate repetitive circling behavior. We then assessed dendritic spine density in the left and right dorsolateral striatum as a potential …

012— Disentangling Nature Versus Nurture In A Mouse Model Of Alcohol Use, Laura Bauer

GREAT Day Posters

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a significant issue with a lifetime prevalence of 29.1% in the U.S. (Grant et al., 2015), so understanding how it develops is a crucial point of research. This research investigates the role of parenting on the development of AUD in mice. Two strains of mice, one genetically predisposed to drink alcohol (B6) and the other not genetically predisposed (FVB), were cross-fostered. It was hypothesized that pups not predisposed to drink reared with dams predisposed to drink would drink more alcohol. It was also hypothesized that mice predisposed to drink reared with dams not predisposed to …

Effects Of Planning And Repeated Writing Interventions On Writing Fluency, Katherine Lea Moore

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Writing is an essential skill for academic success. Evidence shows students with writing difficulties experience lower overall academic performance (Graham & Perin, 2007). The development of fluent writing is particularly important, as it has been shown to be a strong predictor of global writing quality (Malecki & Jewell, 2003). Limited research exists on writing interventions specifically targeting writing fluency. While performance feedback procedures have been found effective for increasing writing fluency (Hier & Eckert, 2016), interventions such as story-mapping and self-regulation strategy development (SRSD), which target higher order writing skills, have also been shown to improve writing fluency abilities (Harris, …

Mental Health Support And Advocacy For Undergraduate Bgsu Students In Wood County, Oh, Robert Lince

Honors Projects

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health has been a topic receiving significant focus on college campuses across the United States. Thus, it is important for all undergraduate college students to understand the available organizations and facilities that will provide the most quality and effective mental health care. With BGSU undergraduates already facing academic and social pressures, in addition to the financial and other hardships brought on by the pandemic, it is imperative that students are aware of resources both on campus and in the local community so that their needs can be met appropriately and in a …

Activities In A Long-Term Care Facility Amidst A Global Pandemic, Kayla Valente

Honors Projects

This paper focuses on the lives of individuals in Wood Haven Health Care in Bowling Green, Ohio during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Living in a long-term care facility can be difficult any time, but since the lockdown began life has been especially challenging for the individuals in nursing facilities. I worked directly with the residents at Wood Haven during my internship with the activities department. With this position, I was tasked with creating fun and engaging activities that also kept residents safe. I will be discussing different research about activities in long-term care facilities, specifics about activities during the COVID-19 …

Intellectual Access And Spirituality: The Twin Urgencies Of Responsible American Education, Matthew Schmitz

Educational Studies Honors Papers

America is increasingly, and perhaps overwhelmingly, becoming a society characterized by political divisiveness. At its most extreme form, Hannah Arendt argues such a division can make us vulnerable to a loneliness that destroys our confidence and leaves us dependent on ideologies. A renewed sense of spirituality and intellect are prime candidates for helping us develop a healthy relationship with ourselves that can help counteract this loneliness. Not only that, but fully accessing our intellectual and spiritual sides can give us the confidence to tackle democratic republican citizenship the way Thomas Jefferson envisioned it. Here, Jacques Rancière helps us to construct …

Ego-Identity Status And Life Satisfaction In Emerging Adult Third Culture Kids And Individuals With Multicultural Identities, Melody Young, Steven V. Rouse

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

We investigated life satisfaction and identity development in emerging adult (age 18-30) monocultural European American individuals, multicultural individuals, and Third Culture Kids (TCKs). TCKs are defined as individuals who lived for a significant amount of their developmental years in a country that their parents did not grow up in and that has a culture different from that of their parents’ native country. We hypothesized that in emerging adulthood TCKs and multicultural individuals experience (1) less life satisfaction and (2) different levels of identity exploration and commitment compared to monocultural European American individuals. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers were screened to qualify …

The Effects Of Diverse Body-Positive Instagram Posts On Body Image Across The Spectrum Of Adulthood, Sophie Nelson, Cindy Miller-Perrin, Jennifer Harriger

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Recent studies have examined the effects of diverse body-positive social media content on levels of body acceptance and appreciation. However, these studies have not addressed how different types of Instagram content affect women across the spectrum of adulthood in an ecologically valid manner. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by examining the effects of diverse body-positive Instagram content on body image in women across the spectrum of adulthood. We randomly assigned 205 women (18-76 years old) to view either diverse body-positive, thin-ideal, or neutral Instagram content. Participants completed a variety of measures in an online survey that …

Sleep, Pray, And Status: Religiosity As A Moderator In The Association Between Subjective Social Status And Sleep In African American Young Adults, Elissa Kim, Elizabeth A. Brown, Alison Kwan, Amara Craig, Nataria T. Joseph, Laurel M. Peterson

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Abstract 2101

SLEEP, PRAY, AND STATUS: RELIGIOSITY AS A MODERATOR IN THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SUBJECTIVE SOCIAL STATUS AND SLEEP IN AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS

Elissa Kim, HS, Elizabeth A. Brown, HS, Alison Kwan, HS, Amara Craig, HS, Nataria T. Joseph, PhD, Psychology, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, Laurel M. Peterson, PhD, Psychology, Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr, PA

Background: With growing importance being placed on biopsychosocial health, researchers have raised awareness about the role that subjective social status (SSS) plays in sleep. This is particularly important when examining African Americans given that they are at higher risk for experiencing poor sleep quality. …

Domestic Violence In The World Of Athletics, Abbigayle L. Gesler

ONU Student Research Colloquium

There is an ongoing debate whether athletics is linked to domestic violence in professional athletes or individuals who were athletes for a long period of time. The purpose of this research is to see if being an athlete leads to domestic violence, and if so, to find ways to decrease the numbers. Professional athletes with a history of domestic violence will be researched and this could help determine if there is a link between the two. To get an idea on aggression levels in athletes, the Buss & Perry Survey was sent out via email to all Ohio Northern students, …

The Impact Of Social Media Use On Well-Being And Stress In Adolescents And Young Adults, Elisabeth Moeller

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Over the past couple of decades, as technology has become more readily available to individuals, social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram have had an impact on how adolescents and young adults communicate with peers. There has been much debate on whether social media usage negatively impacts the lives of adolescents and adults or not. The present literary review examines findings from 20 studies that investigated the effect of social media usage on the well-being and stress levels of adolescents and young adults. The conclusion of this literary review is that there are many mixed findings in studies examining …

Living The Deeds Of A Love So Noble, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.

The Joint Influence Of Social Support And Coping On Anxiety In Aya Cancer Survivors, Genevieve Durso

Theses and Dissertations

Background Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors experience unique psychosocial needs during remission. Cancer-related anxiety is endemic amongst AYA survivors and can impede upon the survivor’s life post-cancer treatment. Independent of one another, confiding in a social support system and frequent engagement in coping mechanisms benefit those throughout the cancer experience, leading to more positive psychosocial outcomes. Hypothesis The dual utilization of one’s social support network and coping mechanisms would reduce cancer-related anxiety in AYA cancer survivors. Methods This study’s data was derived from a prior study conducted at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, consisting of 128 adolescent and …

The Effects Of Training Intensity On Functional Outcome In A Mouse Model Of Stroke, Kelsey Wyman

Honors Projects

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability with most patients suffering from persistent unilateral upper-limb impairments. These impairments impede daily living and independence as well as impose many other social and financial burdens. Current rehabilitation methods focus on compensatory movements relying largely on the nonimpaired limb. Unfortunately, the current methods of rehabilitation do not effectively promote full recovery of motor skills on the impaired body side. Rehabilitation in a mouse model of stroke has shown promising results, however, the training regimen used is much more intensive than the rehabilitation that human survivors receive, and the minimum amount of intensity …

The Language Of Pandemic Leaderships: Mapping Political Rhetoric During The Covid-19 Outbreak, Cristina J. Montiel, Joshua Uyheng, Erwine Dela Paz

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

This paper maps political rhetoric by national leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify and characterize global variations in major rhetorical storylines invoked in publicly available speeches (N = 1201) across a sample of 26 countries. Employing a text analytics or corpus linguistics approach, we show that state heads rhetorically lead their nations by: enforcing systemic interventions, upholding global unity, encouraging communal cooperation, stoking national fervor, and assuring responsive governance. Principal component analysis further shows that country-level rhetoric is organized along emergent dimensions of cultural cognition: an agency-structure axis to define the loci of pandemic interventions, and a hierarchy-egalitarianism axis …

Bed And Breakfast: The Role Of Sleep In Breakfast Intake, Ashley R. Macpherson, Natalie D. Dautovich

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Breakfast intake is associated with numerous positive physical and mental health outcomes, yet skipping breakfast remains common in adults. Sleep behaviors show potential as predictors of breakfast intake; the existing literature, however, has methodological limitations. The current investigation explored the association of means and intraindividual variability of a variety of sleep behaviors (bedtime, midsleep, sleep duration) as predictors of the frequency of eating breakfast and frequency of high-protein breakfast intake. Hierarchical regressions were conducted to assess direct associations between sleep behaviors and breakfast intake frequency. Variability in bedtime was a significant predictor of the frequency of breakfast intake, with greater …

Psychological Capital, Positive Affect, And Organizational Outcomes: A Three-Wave Cross-Lagged Study, Shu Da, Ze Zhu, Hongyu Cen, Xianmin Gong, Oi Ling Siu, Xichao Zhang

Psychology Faculty Publications

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a higher-order construct comprising hope, efficacy, optimism, and resiliency, which has attracted more and more attention from both academics and practitioners. Despite promising progress made in the PsyCap literature, the underlying mechanisms linking PsyCap to organizational outcomes still need more investigation utilizing longitudinal research design. Moreover, the reciprocal relationships between PsyCap and positive affect require more attention. Therefore, we aim to test the central role of positive affect in the relationships between PsyCap and affective organizational commitment (AOC) on one hand and organizational citizenship behaviour toward organization (OCBO) on the other hand as well as the …

Temperature Scale Influence On Perceptions Of Climate Risk, Chelsea Spaman

Honors Theses

This study explored how the use of the temperature scales Fahrenheit and Celsius in climate science communication affects climate change concern. The study specifically targeted Americans due to their familiarity with the Fahrenheit scale, which is not the primary temperature scale used in scientific communication. The study employed a survey, in which the anonymous participants read a short introduction about climate change and temperature rise and then answered a series of questions regarding levels of climate change concern. These questions covered concerns about climate change in general and its potential to harm individual survey participants, flora and fauna, future generations, …

Gender Biases In Jury Decision Making, Sidney Mclaughlin

Undergraduate Research Competition

Several factors have been found to impact jury decision-making in death penalty cases. Previous research indicates that a defendant's gender can influence jury decisions. The present study will examine the jury's potential biases by jury decisions in cases of men versus women defendants. Participants will be presented with detailed case information pertaining to a crime. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the man or woman defendant scenario and asked to determine if the punishment of death fits the crime. A t-test will be used to compare group differences. This study is important because it shed light on gender biases …