Psychology Commons^™

Examining The Influence Of A Negative Affect Induction Task On Self-Reported Cannabis Use, Expectancies, And Problems, Brianna Rose Altman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Substance use disorders and affective disturbances often covary. One commonly endorsed expectancy for substance use is stress relief, and using substances to cope with negative affect (NA) often covaries with greater use and problems. While strong evidence of these relations exists, NA might bias reporting of substance use due to hindered recall processes. This hypothesis warrants further research, as accurate reporting of substance-related variables is crucial in both research and treatment settings. The present study examined the influence of NA on reporting of cannabis variables using an affect-induction paradigm. Over 1,000 individuals recruited from Amazon’s MTurk participated. After reporting demographics …

The Influence Of Facial Exposure On Confidence In Eyewitness Identification, Madelynn Fancher

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In crimes in which there is an eyewitness identification, confidence is usually a good predictor of accuracy. However, in some cases, estimator variables might affect the relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy. This study analyzes the effect of exposure duration on confidence during an eyewitness identification. According to the pristine conditions hypothesis (Wixed & Wells, 2017), if the system variables are optimal, confidence and accuracy will be strongly related, even if the viewing conditions are suboptimal. Participants in this online study viewed a mock crime in one of two conditions: brief exposure or long exposure. Following viewing the crime, participants …

Coffee, Music, And Taste: Why We Like What We Like, And Why That Matters, Thomas Curdt '22

Honor Scholar Theses

Research Questions

In both my research and performance, I will investigate three aspects of taste:

How do we Taste?

• What are the mechanical and physiological mechanisms through which we taste food and hear music?

How do we communicate Taste?

• How do we translate physical senses and taste into language?
• What is the role of metaphor in communicating taste?

How does our worldview affect our Taste?

• How do our emotions affect our taste?
• How does our identities affect our taste?
• How does technology affect our taste?
• How can we be more intentional about our taste?

Practicing Trauma-Informed Care In Nursing For A Better Outcome In Hospitalized Adolescents With Adverse Childhood Experiences And Trauma, Allysa Mia Fabricante

Nursing | Senior Theses

As nurses we want to give our patients the best care. That is why trauma-informed care (TIC) is important to include into nursing practice. TIC is a fairly new idea that addresses a patient's whole past and present life. Incorporating it into nursing practice can benefit patients who have adverse childhood experiences and trauma. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur to a person starting from birth to 17 years old. In a hospital setting an adolescent patient can be triggered if ACEs and trauma is not properly addressed. The long-term effects of ACEs can affect adolescents into …

Reimaging Take-Up In Challenging Times: Determining The Predictive Value Of Publicly Available Socio-Demographic Data For Social Assistance Programs, Margaret Dempsey

Honors Theses

Social assistance programs throughout the nation have experienced major obstacles to both funding and service provision related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study examines one strategy that a local Chattanooga nonprofit organization, Chattanooga Endeavors, explored to increase the rate of participation in a 21-day online program that assists justice involved individuals to address goals related to employment, education, and public assistance. The organization has access to judgment orders from Hamilton County (TN) Criminal Court and has used this information to identify individuals who have been sentenced to serve a prison term and who are eligible for an outreach program …

Evaluating The Use Of A Mobile App In High School Seniors To Monitor Cellphone Use While Driving: A Quality Improvement Project, Kristen Mankus

DNP Projects

Background: Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death in teenagers in the United States. Driver distraction is responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes. Evidence from 9 critically appraised articles including two systematic reviews support the need to reduce distracted driving among teenagers; mobile applications along with education can impact behavioral change to encourage teens to refrain from this unsafe practice.

Purpose: The use of the mobile application “Safe2Save” that financially rewards users for not unlocking their cellphone while driving may motivate teenagers to reduce this high-risk behavior. The global aim for this project is …

Early Mathematical Abilities Of 48-Month-Old Children With Williams Syndrome., Jenna N. Tinnell

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with relative strengths in concrete vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and verbal short-term memory and considerable weaknesses in visuospatial construction and relational language. While the cognitive profile of WS has been studied extensively, there have been few studies of the early mathematical abilities of children with WS and the cognitive predictors of these abilities. The purpose of this study was to describe the early mathematical abilities of 48-month-olds with WS and determine the concurrent cognitive predictors of these abilities. The Differential Ability Scales–second edition (DAS-II) was used to determine cognitive and mathematical abilities …

The Relationship Among Social And Psychological Inclusion, Marginalized Group Membership, And Student Outcomes, Katheryn Munguia

Education (PhD) Dissertations

As diversity grows in the United States, schools are tasked with supporting diverse students. This dissertation explored the concept of social and psychological inclusion as a potential protective factor for marginalized students. It examined the variables of inclusion, marginalized group membership, and student outcomes using the California Healthy Kids Survey administered to secondary students. Marginalized group membership included examining race, ethnicity, and the presence of bullying for a disability. Student outcomes included self-reported grades and attendance. This study revealed that the degree of inclusion affected students’ self-reported grades and attendance, with students reporting higher grades and attendance with higher degrees …

Effectiveness Of Affective Based Intervention Depending On Personal Relevance To A Conspiracy Belief, Mallory Macdonald

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the increase in conspiracy theory beliefs, there is a need for intervention techniques. Do some intervention techniques work better when taking into account the personal relevance a person has towards a topic? One hundred and sixty undergraduate students first read an article that introduced the conspiracy theory and established personal relevance. To manipulate personal relevance, participants were told that a new vaccine mandate would be put into place either July 2023 or July 2031. Then, they considered an article that worked to intervene the conspiracy belief. Participants either read an article that was focused on affective or cognitive intervention …

Differential Neural Correlates Underlying Different Cognitive Control Strategies And Their Relationship With The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, Carroll Bentley

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Impulsivity is defined as a rapid unplanned action to a stimulus, where the person does not consider the consequences of their actions (Moeller et al., 2001). Various measurement techniques exist in the study of impulsivity and include self-report, behavioral and physiological measures. This breadth of measurement techniques affords researchers the opportunity to understand what is likely a multifaceted nature of this construct. Previous literature shows mixed results between the relationship of the three measures. The present study seeks to add clarity between the three different modalities of measuring impulsivity. To address this relationship, an undergraduate sample (n = 171) completed …

The Association Between Adolescent Dating Violence And Internalizing Symptoms: Insecure Attachment As A Moderator, Jasmine Blake

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines whether insecure attachment styles moderate the relationship between adolescent dating violence (ADV) victimization and internalizing symptoms. It was hypothesized that an insecure attachment style would strengthen the existing relation between ADV victimization and internalizing symptoms. It was also hypothesized that this association would be stronger for girls than boys. One hundred and fifty-two adolescents participated in this study (M age = 15.61 years, SD = 1.086, 74.3% girls) and were asked to complete a survey that assessed ADV victimization, internalizing symptoms, and attachment style. Bivariate correlations did not reveal a significant associations between ADV victimization and …

The Effect Of Pet Ownership And Interaction On Stress During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lucinda Prettyman

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event in most people’s lives across the entire world. There has not been an event in recent history that has affected the globe in a similar way. This has created a unique opportunity to study the stress that this global event has caused. This exploratory study sought to examine the interplay between stress experience by participants during the COVID-19 pandemic and various aspects of pet ownership. A sample of 743 adult participants was asked to complete several self-report, online measures about their experiences with stress, pets, and interpersonal closeness during the COVID-19 pandemic. …

It’S Not You, It’S Me: Relationship Conflict, Self-Criticism, And Emotion Regulation, Danielle Shaver

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Close relationships are of immense importance to personal well-being, and regulating emotions after interpersonal conflict is essential to promoting relationship stability and mental health. Across two studies, we examined if individual differences (self-criticism) would interact with situational context (relationship factors) to predict emotion regulation use following relationship conflict. In Study 1 (n = 177), we hypothesized self-criticism would predict maladaptive emotion regulation (etc., rumination, withdrawal) and that these associations would be greater in romantic relationships than friendships. Participants completed a self-criticism measure and were randomly assigned to describe a conflict in either a romantic relationship or friendship. They then …

Twitter Posts, Gist, And The Perceived Harmfulness Of The Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, Candice Fawn Coffman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Individuals frequently encounter two types of information when evaluating the risk of a vaccination: statistical evidence describing the frequency of positive and negative outcomes, and anecdotal evidence describing positive and negative personal experiences. The present study evaluated the relative importance of both types of evidence when considered simultaneously. We predicted that the presentation of even one negative anecdote would have an effect on the key risk information (the â??gistâ??) that subjects extracted from the statistical and anecdotal data. Self-generated twitter posts (tweets) and standard measures of perceived risk were used to test the latter prediction. The current findings partially supported …

#Metoo: The Literary And Social Impact Of Sexual Violence Narratives, Aura Comer

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

To fully understand the severity of sexual violence and its pervasiveness in America, I will present statistics of rape and sexual assault, as well as available legal court statistics of justice and punishment for offenders (or a lack thereof). However, there must be an acknowledgment of the disparity in information and representation pertaining to indigenous, LGBT+, immigrant, and minor communities. Note that these statistics do not speak to the complete pervasiveness of rape and sexual assault in the United States, given the negligent protection and lack of belief in victims, which results in victim silencing and a lack of reporting.

Associations Between Trauma History And Dimensions Of Self-Concept In College Students, Francisco Carrillo-Alvarez

Honors Scholar Theses

Past research in the literature of the self has considered the influence of potentially traumatic or adverse events. In this study, we aim to explore this relationship among undergraduate students utilizing various measures of self-concept including global self-worth, self-concept clarity and domain specific measures of self-perception. Various measures were administered to 308 participants that aimed to determine the instances of potentially traumatic events experienced and the subjective level of distress, in addition to the self-concept measures of global self-worth, self-concept clarity and the domain specific measures of self-perception including self-fulfillment, autonomy, and emotional self-adjustment. The results reveal that global self-worth …

The Influence Of Tetrabenazine On Operant Behavior And Binge-Like Eating Model In Rats, Reileigh Fleeher

Honors Scholar Theses

Tetrabenazine (TBZ), a vesicular monoamine transporter-2 (VMAT-2) inhibitor that preferentially depletes dopamine (DA), produces depressive symptoms including motivational symptoms in humans. In rodents, it reduces selection of high-effort effort alternatives in effort-based choice tasks, but does not affect food intake or preference (Nunes et al. 2013; Yang et al. 2020). However, no studies have focused on the effects of TBZ on binge-like eating to determine if it would influence “hedonic eating”. The current study used both binge-like eating and effort-based operant tasks in rats. To assess effects on binge-like eating, non-food restricted rats (n=8) were exposed to chocolate over 12 …

Implementation Of A Self-Management Program For Hispanic Patients With Chronic Non-Cancer Pain, Genesis M. Ladinez Velez

DNP Projects

Background: Chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) is a major public health issue that affects over 100 million Americans. From January 2019 to September 2021, the number patients seen at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) was 41, 974 of these 40.12% were Hispanic. Of the total patient population at this FQHC, 904 patients had preexisting opioids prescriptions for CNCP. The Hispanic population represents 41.15% of the preexisting prescriptions. Nonopioid alternatives to manage CNCP have been shown to decrease pain and improve functioning similarly to opioids.

Purpose: To implement a CNCP SMP at a FQHC in the Northeast. This quality improvement …

Adjusting For Speaking Rate When Perceiving Speech In Background Noise., Dawson C Stephens

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Speech perception is a very relevant concept occurring every day. Acoustic context effects such as temporal contrast effects (TCEs) influence perception significantly. For instance, when a faster context sentence is spoken, the participant should perceive the following target word as slower and more like /t/ in “tier”; when a slower context sentence is spoken, the participant should perceive the following target sound as faster and more like /d/ in “deer”. Recent work by Bosker et al. (2020) concluded that selective attention (directing attention to a specific stimulus while ignoring surrounding stimuli) had no effect on TCEs, suggesting they were automatic …

The Effect Of Object Contact On Pre-Reaching Infants' Causal Perception., Mallory L. Thompson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The Sticky Mittens (SM) paradigm is an object manipulation task that provides infants the opportunity to explore objects through active experience before they have the necessary motor skills to do so on their own. Positive cognitive outcomes like increased attention to objects, object engagement, object exploration, and causal perception have been shown to result from active SM experience (Libertus & Needham, 2010; Rakison & Krogh, 2012). Researchers are interested in understanding which aspects of SM training are important for infant learning. Although there have been many SM studies looking at different variables, such as active vs. passive experience and parent …

Inducing Cognitive Reflection And Its Impact On Contradictory Beliefs., Margaret Powers

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Currently, there is extensive research within psychology about two distinct processing models where one is fast, automatic, and relatively effortless and the other is slow, systematic, and effortful. One mechanism of effortful processing is cognitive reflection which is one’s ability to reflect on their intuition. While there is research on explicit instructions of certain cognitive mechanisms and implicit induction of cognitive reflection, there is a lack of research on the explicit induction of cognitive reflection specifically. In this study, two techniques were investigated to see if cognitive reflection could be explicitly induced. Participants either read a prompt before beginning the …

Examining Body Trust And Body Listening In Sexual And Gender Minorities., Emma G. Roberts

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Introduction: Minority stress theory posits that sexual and gender minority individuals (SGM) may be at higher risk for poor mental health outcomes due to unique social experiences of stigma and discrimination. Interoception (i.e., awareness of one’s body and bodily sensations; Mehling et al., 2012) is a factor that has been linked to mental health broadly, however, SGM individuals may experience interoceptive awareness differently than cisgender and heterosexual individuals given experiences of stigma. In this paper, we aim to examine how two specific facets of interoceptive awareness (body listening and body trusting) relate to differences in mental health outcomes among SGM …

The Interaction Of Spaced Retrieval Practice And Element Interactivity., Cameron K. Mattingly

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Our study investigates the interaction of retrieval practice and element interactivity. Spaced practice is the process of breaking up the retrieval of information into smaller chunks across a longer period of time as opposed to learning everything in one time block. Retrieval practice is the process of testing yourself on previously learned material. Spaced retrieval practice is the merger of these two ideas. This style of learning is well-suited for learning many items that must be retained indefinitely (Lyle et al., 2019). Element interactivity describes the amount of learned items (elements) that are interrelated and must be processed together in …

Multi-Region Local Field Potential Signatures And Brain Coherence Alternations In Response To Migraine Attacks, Zhen Wang

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Migraine is a recurrent primary headache disorder with moderate to severe disability. It has been ranked as the second leading cause of disability and the sixth most prevalent disease. However, the pathophysiology of migraine headaches remains not fully understood. Consequently, safe and effective therapies to alleviate migraine headaches are limited. Local field potential (LFP) recording, as a neurophysiological tool, has been widely utilized to investigate the combined neuronal activity. The purpose of this proposed study was to determine differential LFP signatures and brain coherence alternations from multiple brain regions associated with migraine-relevant pain networks, which enabled to remove barriers to …

Oh, The Place You’Ll Go: The Effects Of Commuting Time On Work, Family, And Health Related Outcomes, Lauren Kistler

All Theses

People spend a majority of their lives working and commuting is an essential part of most workers’ daily schedule. According to the 2017 American Community Survey distributed by the U.S. Census Bureau, the average commute for Americans is approximately 27 minutes. Time spent commuting has increased in recent decades (Denstadli et al., 2017; Gimenez-Nadal & Molina, 2019; Hoehner et al., 2012; Künn‐Nelen, 2016). Commuting to work is often a source of stress for workers, and its detrimental impacts are a rising public health issue as well as an area of concern for occupational health psychologists. Commuting is not considered a …

Tribal Identity And The Rise Of The American Indian/Alaskan Native Population, Angel M. Stevens

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Today, most tribal nations in the United States identify by federal recognition, yet on the American Community Survey, American Indian/Alaskan Native respondents can self-identify as a member of a specific tribal nation. Most researchers argues that this tribal identification fortifies the reflection of the American Indian/Alaskan Native identity. There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States today. Between 2000-2020, the US Census Bureau and the American Community Survey noted a significant surge in the American Indian/Alaskan Native population. This population growth went from a mere 2 million to almost 10 million in a 20-year time span. In this …

Factors Influencing The Credibility And Believability Of Victims Of Sexual Assault, Stephanie Carlson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The purpose of this research is to answer the question of which factors that influence the believability of a woman who comes forward to disclose a sexual assault are the most impactful. My methodology consisted of conducting interviews with attorneys who have participated in both the defense and prosecution of criminal sexual conduct cases to evaluate whether the trends revealed in the literature on a macro scale apply to the micro-scale in northern Minnesota. Findings showed that the majority of patterns revealed in the literature did in fact influence the credibility of victims of sexual assault in Beltrami County, Minnesota …

The Use Of Hallucinogens In The Treatment Of Mental Health Disorders, Brianna Gagen

Honors College Theses

The percent of people with mental health disorders in the United States have skyrocketed over the past decade. With stigma surrounding the discussion of mental health and the symptoms associated with it, often those that are suffering do not receive sufficient treatment, as they might with a physical illness. The current, common treatment options for common psychological disorders, like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, are sometimes not effective in patients, due to resistance or poor response outcomes. Consequently, in order to research alternative therapeutic approaches for mental health disorders, scientists are researching the effects of several hallucinogenic drugs in …

Methodological Considerations For The Study Of Cognitive Reserve And Its Relationship To Cognitive Decline In Older Adults, Kerry A. Howard

All Dissertations

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a key construct in promoting healthy cognitive aging. Methodological inconsistencies have limited the ability for researchers to make broad conclusions about relevant life experiences that may build CR and delay cognitive decline. This dissertation explored notable issues within the operationalization of CR based on proxy life experiences by applying a systematic approach toward understanding the use of CR, as well as an understanding of consequences of inconsistent operationalization. The project had three aims: review and explore the association between various CR proxies utilized in the literature and develop a composite score for CR, describe differences in …

Perceptions Of Risk, Work, And Lifestyle Changes On Mental Health Of Healthcare Workers Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Awatef Ergai, Leeanna Spiva, Lin Li, Ryan Breshears, Ginny Q. Zhan

Faculty Articles

The COVID-19 outbreak is significantly affecting the mental health of healthcare workers worldwide. This study aims to investigate mental health outcomes of healthcare workers in a health system located in the Southeastern US during the first peak of the pandemic and examine the association of specific factors on the mental well-being of healthcare workers. A cross-sectional survey of 388 healthcare workers was conducted. Data were collected using a 79-item questionnaire, which included the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) instrument, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) instrument, and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, and …