Psychology Commons^™

Demographic Characteristics And Cognitive, Emotional, And Social Adjustment In College Students, Erin Berzonski

Undergraduate Research Competition

Past research has examined elements of interest to this study in separate levels, like how gender and political party can affect the way you respond to the military (Park 2020), how military-connected students perform academically and socially in college (Williams-Klotz & Gansemer-Topf, 2017), and how college students perceive the COVID-19 vaccine (Brunson, Rohde, & Fulton, 2021). However, the combination of these factors and how they play a role together in college students' adjustment has received less attention. An online survey will be used to examine how undergraduate students' demographic characteristics and military affiliations relate to indicators of cognitive, emotional, and …

The Role Of Greek Life Participation On Student Risk Taking Behaviors And Perceptions, Margaret Smith

Undergraduate Research Competition

The current study will explore how participation in social Greek life organizations influences risk taking behavior, intentions, and expected benefits. Previous research has shown that participation in social organizations, like Greek life, correlates with an increased usage in substances and substance-related behaviors like driving under the influence or engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse. For this study, it is predicted that members of fraternities and sororities would also be more likely to engage in other risky behaviors as compared to their non-Greek peers. Approximately 100 undergraduate students will complete the Domain Specific Risk-Taking Scale (DOSPERT) to measure their likelihood to engage …

The Relationship Between Alexithymia, Callous Affect, And Aggressive Behaviors In Emerging Adulthood: Are Aggressive Acts Related To Not Feeling Or Not Knowing How You Feel?, Grace Sutz

Undergraduate Research Competition

During emerging adulthood, it is common for young adults to experience elevated levels of psychopathy in order to develop a sense of identity (Smits, et al. 2011). Psychopathic traits such as callous affect, impulsivity, and narcissism have been known to be a risk factor for aggressive behaviors (Marsee, et al. 2005). In prior research, callous affect has shown to be a driving factor in predicting aggression. Callous affect and Alexithymia are similar in the fact that they both hinder empathy (Young & Kyranides. 2021). Alexithymia, or difficulty accessing one's emotions and understanding how one feels, appears to be another trait …

Mirror Tracing: The Effect Of Different Shapes On Transfer Performance, Jillian Brennan

The Compass

No abstract provided.

In Your Face: Facial Expressions And Emotions, Sophia Lachance, Stephanie Afful

2022 Student Academic Showcase

Human beings process information in all different ways, but one of the first ways is through facial expressions. These facial expressions influence how we process information from infancy through adolescence, and how negative and positive stimuli affect our emotions. As we grow older other forms of stimuli, such as verbal and physical aspects, affect our emotions throughout our lifetime. As we gain recognition for these forms and understand how they affect the way we feel, the question is how can our understanding of other expressions be used as a mechanism for safety? This literary review discusses three types of ways …

Social Media And Body Image, Sydnie Hoyt

2022 Student Academic Showcase

Social media is an ever-growing phenomenon, and while having the world at our fingertips proves convenient, it also has the potential to cause harm in the form of mental distress. Several studies have investigated whether the use of social media may be linked to body image issues. The present study further explored the potential link between social media and body image, specifically looking for a correlation between the number of hours spent on social media and intensity of body image concerns. Adult participants were recruited through the social media platforms of Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, and Facebook. Participants completed a survey …

Perceptions Of Happiness Through The Lens Of Age And Gender, Alea Farmer

2022 Student Academic Showcase

The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate how people of different ages and gender perceive happiness, or what their idea of happiness is. The study will be conducted via survey and participants will be recruited through social media platforms (Twitter and Instagram) and physical flyers distributed on the campus of Lindenwood University. Anyone who is an adult (18 years or older) will be allowed to participate in the study by completing the survey. The survey will begin by asking participants to identify their age and gender. Then, participants will be asked to complete the Conceptions of Happiness Scale …

Hearing Productivity: Music And Productivity Study, Sydney Beins

2022 Student Academic Showcase

My study aim is to find which music genre increases one’s productivity the most. Participants listened to different genres of music: R&B, Classical, Latin, Rap while they typed as many nonsense words as they could in a minute. Participants were tested four times, each with a different genre of music playing. The preliminary findings will be discussed along with ways in which the results can be applied to everyday life.

Agreeableness And Covid-19 Safety Protocols, Brianna Huck

2022 Student Academic Showcase

The key role that agreeableness has played in human personality is to showcase how compassionate or cooperative a person can be. In this research, I used a person’s range of agreeableness to examine how likely they are to follow COVID-19 safety protocols through an anonymous survey, which included questions regarding safety policies, demographics, and an agreeableness scale. By using a Pearson's r correlation, I found that there was no significant correlation between level of agreeableness and compliance to COVID-19 safety protocols.

The Effects Of Imperfect Top-Down Selection On The Accuracy Of The Direct Range Restriction Adjustment, Alma Treon

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Accurate assessment of the effectiveness of personnel psychology functions is vital to the field. Many personnel decisions are made based on correlations between predictor variables and measures of job performance; however, those correlations are often affected by range restriction. As encountered in applied practice, range restriction weakens the strength of the correlation. Equations exist to correct for the effects of range restriction on correlations; these equations are widely accepted and used by Industrial-Organizational psychologists today. This study expands on research by Hall (2016), which examined the accuracy of the direct range restriction correction equation provided by Thorndike (1949) under varying …

The Caregiver's Conflict: The Toll Of Death And Dying On Nurses' Mental Health And Wellbeing, Madison Brown

Student Works

A major responsibility for nurses is caring for patients during the end-of-life process, as well as helping families and patients cope with the death and dying process. It is well known that death and dying greatly impacts families, but little holistic research has been done on how death and dying impacts nurses’ mental and emotional wellbeing. Using databases Google Scholar, Web of Science, and EBSCO, 14 articles were analyzed regarding the impact of death on nurses’ mental health. Results show that the age of a patient plays a bigger role on death impact than nursing specialty does, as younger patients’ …

Sleep Quality, Academic Performance, And Personality Examined, Marit De Lau

2022 Student Academic Showcase

I will be examining relationships between sleep quality, academic performance, and personality. Results showed that there was a negative correlation found between the PSQI score and conscientiousness (r = -.223) and between the PSQI score and emotional stability (r = -.445). There was no significant effect for the PSQI score t(76) = -1.6, p = .121, despite women (M = 8.06, SD = 3.49) attaining higher scores than men (M = 6.83, SD = 3.16). This study investigates whether there is a relationship between one’s sleep quality, personality traits, and academic performance.

• A negative relationship was …

Insight Into The Mind Of A Gifted Individual: A Research Proposal To Examine Opinions Of Adults Formerly Enrolled In Gifted Programs, Miranda Brannum

2022 Student Academic Showcase

This is a proposal for my study which aims to discover the opinions of adults formerly enrolled in gifted programs and/or assigned gifted Individual Education Plans (IEP) about these programs in general. I will investigate how they feel they may have been influenced by these programs, and any other comments they may have. The study is intended to be exploratory and provide information that could further future research. The results will give insight on first-hand interpretations of the gifted experience. My findings can potentially be used to reform gifted programs to better benefit those enrolled in them.

Do You See What I See? Do You Hear What I Hear?, Camryn O'Neal, Miranda Brannum, Sydnie Hoyt

2022 Student Academic Showcase

This is a proposal for a research study to investigate how widely people vary on their inner experiences and how they are using them. We will evaluate people’s capability to have mental imagery (via the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire; Marks, 1973) and inner speech (from subscales from the Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire; Andrade et al., 2014). We expect a positive correlation. Additionally, we intend to assess how people use mental imagery and inner speech by having them read a self-developed concrete ‘children’s’ story and ask how well they could visualize or hear the dialogue. This investigation has a non-directional …

Guilty By Reason Of Vanity?: The Relationship Between Jurors’ Socioeconomic Status And Trial Outcome, Zoe Sweaney

2022 Student Academic Showcase

The present study investigated the relationship between a juror’s socioeconomic status (SES) and the likelihood that they would convict a defendant. I hypothesized that a participant of a higher SES would be more likely to convict a defendant than would a participant of a lower SES. To investigate the validity of this hypothesis, participants posing as jurors completed an online survey in which they were tasked with evaluating the details of five different court cases void of any identifiable and/or demographic information about the defendant (and victim(s), if applicable) and submitting their final verdict on the case (guilty or not …

Free Will Without Consciousness?, Liad Mudrik, Inbal Gur Arie, Yoni Amir, Yarden Shir, Pamela Hieronymi, Uri Maoz, Timothy O'Connor, Aaron Schurger, Manuel Vargas, Tillman Vierkant, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Adina Roskies

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Findings demonstrating decision-related neural activity preceding volitional actions have dominated the discussion about how science can inform the free will debate. These discussions have largely ignored studies suggesting that decisions might be influenced or biased by various unconscious processes. If these effects are indeed real, do they render subjects’ decisions less free or even unfree? Here, we argue that, while unconscious influences on decision-making do not threaten the existence of free will in general, they provide important information about limitations on freedom in specific circumstances. We demonstrate that aspects of this long-lasting controversy are empirically testable and provide insight into …

The Influence Of Misinformation From The American Perspective, Tyler W. Nelson

Honors College Theses

Over the last decade, conspiracy theorists and larger groups have become much more prominent across the United States, despite conspiracies being present for decades. Previously, they have been dismissed by most, however over the last decade due to an explosive political climate and growing numbers, these groups have begun to act on their beliefs. Events such as the January 6th Insurrection on the United States Capitol building is an unfortunate example as to how far these groups are willing to go. This study’s purpose is to use a nationwide survey to help determine who exactly are these types of individuals …

The Connection Between Body Modification And Personality, Taylor Shoemaker

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

Previous research has been inconsistent in its findings regarding the associations between body modifications (e.g., piercings, tattoos, augmentation, scarification, split tongue) and the Big Five personality traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). All traits have been found to be significantly correlated with body modification in at least one study, but their significance differed from study to study. The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between body modification and each domain of personality concurrently to add to the literature surrounding differences between modified and unmodified individuals. To participate in this study, participants were asked …

School Violence And Its Impact On Student Academic Achievement, Kewanis Kennedy

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

This study explores the occurrence of school violence and its impact on academic success and attendance. This study will encompass K-12 academic institutions in the state of Kentucky during the 2018-2019 academic school year, with an in-depth analysis of data submitted to the Kentucky Department of Education by the 171 participating school districts. The participating schools shared data in the form of disciplinary actions, attendance, graduation rates, academic achievement, and other relevant demographics. The collected data was analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference among attendance rate, graduation rate, math ACT benchmark scores, and English ACT benchmark …

Effects Of Autonomy, Competence, And Relatedness On Employee Outcomes: A Literature Review, Joseph Wilson

Student Works

Most business organizations understand that employees are an essential part of their success and as such, much research has gone into understanding the most effective ways of eliciting favorable employee outcomes. The self-determination theory (SDT) is one result of the extensive research that has been done on the topic. SDT suggests a relationship between positive employee outcomes and the satisfaction of employees’ three basic psychological needs (TBPN): autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This literature review was undertaken to examine empirical studies that have researched the ways psychological needs are satisfied, and the effects of the TBPN on employee outcomes in the …

Thalamic Shape Abnormalities Differentially Relate To Cognitive Performance In Early-Onset And Adult-Onset Schizophrenia, Derin J. Cobia, Chaz Rich, Matthew J. Smith, Pedro Engel Gonzalez, Will Cronenwett, John G. Csernansky, Lei Wang

Faculty Publications

Early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) shares many biological and clinical features with adult-onset schizophrenia (AOS), but may represent a unique subgroup with greater susceptibility for disease onset and worsened symptomatology and progression, which could potentially derive from exaggerated neurodevelopmental abnormalities. Neurobiological explanations of schizophrenia have emphasized the involvement of deep-brain structures, particularly alterations of the thalamus, which have been linked to core features of the disorder. The aim of this study was to compare thalamic shape abnormalities between EOS and AOS subjects and determine whether unique behavioral profiles related to these differences. It was hypothesized abnormal thalamic shape would be observed in …

Obesogenic Environments And Cardiovascular Disease: A Path Analysis Using Us Nationally Representative Data, Fangqi Guo, Georgiana Bostean, Vincent Berardi, Alfredo J. Velasquez, Jennifer W. Robinette

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction

People living in obesogenic environments, with limited access to healthful food outlets and exercise facilities, generally have poor health. Previous research suggests that behavioral risk factors and indicators of physiological functioning may mediate this link; however, no studies to date have had the requisite data to investigate multi-level behavioral and physiological risk factors simultaneously. The present study conducted serial and parallel mediation analyses to examine behavioral and physiological pathways explaining the association between environmental obesogenicity and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods

This cross-sectional observational study used data from the 2012–2016 Health and Retirement Study, a representative survey of US older …

Happily Ever After, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Book Chapters

I have been lucky in my upbringing and education, and especially in having advisors who let me do what I wanted to even when they didn’t think it was a good idea. This allowed me to have a deeply rewarding career devoted to two entirely different topics – basic theory and research on emotion, and applied theory and research in psychology and law. My career spanned the period from when women were considered unsuitable for scientific or academic work through the rise of feminism, so although I faced obstacles, the culture was changing quickly enough that my unusual choices soon …

Is Parental Encouragement (As Measured By Piccolo) During Toddlerhood Correlated With High-Risk Behaviors In 5Th Grade? Are These Correlations Different For First-Born Children Versus Children With Older Siblings?, Jocelyn Meyers

Student Research Symposium

Children need support through healthy, positive relationships with adults, but they also need room to grow, learn, and slowly gain independence. The PICCOLO User's guide defines Encouragement as an “Active support of exploration, effort, skills, initiative, curiosity, creativity, and play” (Roggman, et.al., 2013). Parental support and encouragement of autonomy is correlated with better development of self-regulation and brain development, and can even influence executive functioning and parent-child relationships (Bernier, et al., 2010). Studies have already shown that proper encouragement in early childhood is linked to healthy development, Ispa, et al. (2004) found that maternal intrusiveness or lack of encouragement and …

The Need For Gender Neutral Spaces, Ainsley Statham

Student Research Symposium

An ongoing problem all over the country are universities and the lack of gender-neutral spaces. Students all over are asking for safe and welcoming spaces so they do not have to fear for their safety while on campus. Over the last 10 years, universities have started to adapt their already built spaces to accommodate the needs of their students and faculty by making them gender neutral. I started to research what universities in the country are going above and beyond to make sure their students are safe in contrast to the not-so-great campuses that choose to ignore their students needs. …

Would Free College Tuition Detriment Or Benefit Our Future Society?, Alexee Bambrough

Student Research Symposium

College tuition costs are becoming increasingly more expensive. My research was to understand if eliminating college tuition would benefit or detriment our future society. In conducting my research I used library databases to find primary and secondary sources. I focused heavily on statistics and first hand experiences. From these sources I was able to discover that the college tuition costs are contributing to large amounts of student debt, bigger gaps in equality, and a less educated society. It can be argued that eliminating college tuition costs would overall benefit our future society.

Pet Therapy On College Campuses: Putting The “Paw” In Pawsitive Mental Health, Tyler Cook

Student Research Symposium

College students often are not able to receive the help they need when they have mental health problems. Research has shown that pet therapy is a very effective and practical solution to this shortage of resources. It has been used to help students who suffer from common concerns such as depression, stress, anxiety, and loneliness. The research and accounts in this essay communicates how this therapy works and why it works. By using online databases, I collected primary sources and diverse statistics to evaluate the topic. As I analyzed the data I found that pet therapy is highly-favored by college …

Music And Mental Health Disorders, Caroline Schaner

Student Research Symposium

My research outlines the preventative measures that music can have on depression and similar disorders. I cover several neurotransmitters, but focus primarily on Dopamine and Serotonin. The goal of my research is to educate teens and young adults on how music can be used as a preventative measure to delay or eliminate the onset of major depressive disorder.

How Childhood Emotional And Verbal Abuse Influences Future Adult Relationships, Kinlee Meade

Student Research Symposium

Abuse is a societal issue all around the globe especially emotional and verbal abuse whereas it has the least amount of awareness and no clear definition. My research had the sole purpose of studying how childhood emotional and verbal abuse affects the victims' future adult relationships. My research looked into the long term effects abuse has on the psyche and behavior, including various primary source studies that applied the concepts into environmental situations, and how they influence relationships. It has been discovered that emotional and verbal abuse received during childhood create or worsen pre existing mental health conditions such as; …

Consideration Of Sex And Gender In Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Disorders From A Global Perspective, Michelle M. Mielke, Neelum T. Aggarwal, Clara Vila-Castelar, Puja Agarwal, Eider M. Arenaza-Urquijo, Benjamin Brett, Anna Brugulat-Serrat, Lyndsey E. Dubose, Willem S. Eikelboom, Jason Flatt, Nancy S. Foldi, Sanne Franzen, Paola Gilsanz, Wei Li, Alison J. Mcmanus, Debora Melo Van Lent, Sadaf Arefi Milan, Elizabeth C. Shaaban, Shana D. Stites, Erin Sundermann, Vidyani Suryadevara, Jean-Francoise Trani, Arlener D. Turner, Jet M. J. Vonk, Yakeel T. Quiroz, Ganesh M. Babulal

Social and Behavioral Health Faculty Research

Sex or gender differences in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) differ by world region, suggesting that there are potentially modifiable risk factors for intervention. However, few epidemiological or clinical ADRD studies examine sex differences; even fewer evaluate gender in the context of ADRD risk. The goals of this perspective are to: (1) provide definitions of gender, biologic sex, and sexual orientation, and the limitations of examining these as binary variables; (2) provide an overview of what is known with regard to sex and gender differences in the risk, prevention, and diagnosis of ADRD; and (3) discuss …