Psychology Commons^™

Appreciating And Promoting Resilience In Families, John W. Eagle, Susan M. Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Families comprise the primary context for a child’s development. As the composition of the family system continues to change, the adult caregivers’ role has become increasingly important in fostering healthy developmental trajectories for their children. Family relationships and interaction styles are central to developing competence and promoting adaptive educational, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Families give children an informal education (Turnbull et al., 2015), which is a prerequisite to successful experiences in the classroom (Adams & Christenson, 2000). Whereas the school environment sets up developmental tasks for students, the family serves as an important resource for the acquisition of these …

Stepping In The Right Direction? Exploring Mental Health Providers’ Beliefs About, Training In, And Use Of Stepped-Care Practices, Caroline Lucy

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Interventions that can be efficiently and effectively delivered to a larger number of people are needed to address the large, unmet need for mental health services. Stepped-care models have the potential to address this need and provide benefit to a significant number of patients while managing provider burden. The present study sought to clarify providers’ current use of, beliefs about, and training in stepped care practices, as well as barriers to its use. Providers generally agreed with the model and believed in the effectiveness of lower intensity methods. While the majority endorsed engaging in multiple stepped practices, few reported explicitly …

Terror Management Theory And Legislation: An Analysis Of How Patterns Evolve And Change, Elizabeth Roth

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Recent legislation passed in states including Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky have included clauses that govern “divisive” material and the manner in which this material is discussed, particularly in schools. The term “divisive” is never truly defined beyond content that is “patently offensive to prevailing standards.” The emphasis has been placed on the fact that students should not be biased by the information that they are taught or allowed to access, but definitions are lax as to what constitutes inappropriate information. The loose criteria as to what counts as “unsuitable” opens up divisive material to easy censorship based on partisan and …

A Study Of Public Opinion: The Importance Of Mental Illness Diagnosis And Perceptions Of Recidivism On Parole Eligibility, Emily Pedigo

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The present study examined the impact a mental illness diagnosis has on parole eligibility mediated by the participants’ perceptions of whether the prospective parolee would commit future crimes if released. Participants watched a video vignette of an individual charged with second degree manslaughter and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, or bipolar disorder while incarcerated. Results indicated that a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder indirectly reduced parole success compared to bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder when mediated by participants’ perceptions of whether the convict would recommit a crime following release.

A Study On The Relationship Between Stimulated Oxytocin And Morality, Gabriella Gonzalez, Davis Eddleman, Grace Gray, Giulia Solomon

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

No abstract provided.

Must Be Music On The Brain: The Effects Of Music On Performance Accuracy, Hannah Wright, Jillian Graham, Cameron Smith, Ephreme Megenta

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Music is present during a large portion of our day-to-day lives. Previous research has shown varying results on the effects of music on an array of cognitive-based task performance. Much of the previous literature has solely focused on the effects of one type of music or the effects of music on one specific task; furthermore, many of the tasks used to measure cognitive performance have been lab-based and unnatural from what would be encountered in the real world. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the effects of multiple types of music on multiple relevant, naturalistic cognitive tasks. …

Investigation Of The Organizational And ​Activational Effects Of Testosterone On Empathy, Samantha Urban, Rachael Arnold, Jess Dahm, Raul Rodriguez-Calvillo

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Empathy is integral to individual, relational, and cognitive health. Sex differences in empathy are prominent, yet investigation of the biological basis is lacking. Since men have higher testosterone levels than women on average, sex differences in empathic ability may be partially due to sex differences in testosterone. Testosterone has negatively correlated with empathy in men, but not women. More research is needed on how findings differ based on measuring organizational and activational effects of testosterone, with some studies showing prenatal testosterone exposure positively associated with affective empathy in women while others demonstrate heightened levels of activated testosterone reduced or impaired …

Gender Bias In Story Recounting, Cecilia Garcia, Zali White, Keeley Trainer, Madison Oliver

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Gendered language permeates sections of our lives in ways that we may not realize. Previous research indicates a relationship between biases and gendered language; however, it has primarily been conducted with children as the participants rather than adults (Seitz, et al., 2020). This study aimed to investigate this and identify the relationship between gendered language and implicit bias. Passages using gendered language can alter the listener's perspective in terms of the gender identification of an otherwise unlabeled protagonist. Therefore, to explore this phenomenon, participants of this study were given an androgynous story with masculine and feminine phrases. Then, a multiplication …

Does How Much You Work Matter?, Khalil Dabdoub Dabdoub, Jill Graham

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Previous literature has suggested an inverted U relationship between hours worked and life satisfaction, with those who work more closely to 40 hours a week showing greater life satisfaction. Overtime work hours are associated with increased stress, fatigue,m and greater family-interference which can be detrimental to mental health. Furthermore, previous literature suggests that mental disorders are highly linked to life satisfaction. However, previous literature has focused on factors such as sex and specific occupations, with worker’s preference being . Therefore, we found a gap in the literature when investigating if specific countries who, on average, had longer work weeks had …

Coping Mechanisms In Boys And Girls And The Consequences Of Domestic Violence Witnessed By Children, Janhavi Sharma

Senior Seminars and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Covid-19: Social Support Among The Bereaved, Fernande Nanda Mamane

Theses and Dissertations

Bereavement is a universal experience. Presently, there have been over 1,024,611 deaths in the United States alone related to the COVID-19 virus and this number is growing (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). With the significant rise in deaths, as well as subsequent societal health and safety measures due to the pandemic, social support for the bereaved is expected to be severely impacted. Limited access to social spheres, as well as adjustments to typical funeral practices, may impact the perception of support by those grieving. The purpose the study was to gain a better understanding of bereaved individual’s experiences …

Defining Business As Usual In Preschool Interventions For Challenging Behavior, Eleanor Bold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Challenging behavior (CB) is a major barrier to service delivery in preschool classrooms. Persistent CB has been found to significantly impact children’s academic and social success long-term, especially amongst children from historically minoritized populations and those with disabilities. Numerous evidence-based intervention strategies exist to prevent and reduce CB, yet preschool teachers continue to voice a desire to increase their capacity to do so in the classroom due to high rates of CB continuing to be observed. This dissertation seeks to address this research to practice gap by ascertaining the current baseline intervention practices utilized to manage CB in preschool classrooms …

A Qualitative Study On The Effect Of Misattributed Parentage Experiences, Jodi Klugman-Rabb

Collected Faculty Scholarship

Identity formation is a lifelong process, significantly influenced by factors involving social groups such as family, culture, and life events. Identity confusion can result from Misattributed Parentage Experiences (MPE), when people learn they are not biologically related to a parent(s) who raised them as such, possibly triggering genealogical bewilderment, the state when uncertain knowledge of biological parents, or lack thereof, leads to maladjustment, confusion, and uncertainty (Leighton, 2012) in identity. The present study is a qualitative analysis of the effect genealogical bewilderment has on identity formation and crises for MPE adults in the United States between 2012 and 2022. Using …

Rhythmically Modulating Neural Entrainment During Exposure To Regularities Influences Statistical Learning, Laura J. Batterink, Jerrica Mulgrew, Aaron Gibbings

Psychology Publications

The ability to discover regularities in the environment, such as syllable patterns in speech, is known as statistical learning. Previous studies have shown that statistical learning is accompanied by neural entrainment, in which neural activity temporally aligns with repeating patterns over time. However, it is unclear whether these rhythmic neural dynamics play a functional role in statistical learning, or whether they largely reflect the downstream consequences of learning, such as the enhanced perception of learned words in speech. To better understand this issue, we manipulated participants’ neural entrainment during statistical learning using continuous rhythmic visual stimulation. Participants were exposed to …

Characterizing And Predicting Canadian Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptoms In The First Year Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Haley E. Green, Andrew R. Daoust, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer, Pan Liu, Kasey Stanton, Kate L. Harkness, Elizabeth P. Hayden

Psychology Publications

To date, most longitudinal studies of adolescents’ internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic include few time points, limiting knowledge about the long-term course of adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic. Moreover, examining intraindividual variability in symptoms, which may have important implications for adolescents’ adjustment beyond mean or “typical” symptoms, requires multiple time points. We examined the course of internalizing symptoms in 271 Ontario adolescents (mean n = 193 across time points) during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020–April 2021) via mixed-effect location scale models, drawing upon established internalizing symptom risk factors as predictors of mean trends and intraindividual …

Dentate Gyrus Integrity Is Necessary For Behavioral Pattern Separation But Not Statistical Learning, Helena Shizhe Wang, R. Shayna Rosenbaum, Stevenson Baker, Claire Lauzon, Laura Batterink, Stefan Köhler

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Pattern separation, the creation of distinct representations of similar inputs, and statistical learning, the rapid extraction of regularities across multiple inputs, have both been linked to hippocampal processing. It has been proposed that there may be functional differentiation within the hippocampus, such that the trisynaptic pathway (entorhinal cortex > dentate gyrus > CA3 > CA1) supports pattern separation, whereas the monosynaptic pathway (entorhinal cortex > CA1) supports statistical learning. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the behavioral expression of these two processes in BL, an individual with highly selective bilateral lesions in the dentate gyrus that presumably disrupts the trisynaptic pathway. We tested pattern …

Polygenic Scores Ignore Development And Epigenetics, Dramatically Reducing Their Value, David S. Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Polygenic scores cannot elucidate the mechanisms that produce behavioral phenotypes (including “intelligence”). Therefore, they are unlikely to yield helpful interventions. Moreover, they are poor predictors of individuals’ developmental outcomes. Burt’s critique is well-supported by the details of molecular biology. Specifically, experiences affect epigenetic factors that influence phenotypes via how the genome functions, a fact that lends support to Burt’s conclusions.

Molecular And Systemic Epigenetic Inheritance: Integrating Development, Genetics, And Evolution, Robert Lickliter, David S. Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Currently, a central problem for theoretical biology is the integration of development with genetics and evolutionary theory. Through the late 20^th century, biologists held that animals resemble their ancestors strictly because of the transgenerational transmission of DNA. This view effectively wrote development out of evolutionary biology. However, many molecular and developmental biologists now understand that phenotypes—anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits—are not determined by genes (i.e., DNA segments) alone; instead, they emerge epigenetically from developmental processes involving co-acting genetic factors, environmental factors, molecular epigenetic factors, and other non-genetic factors within organisms’ bodies. This insight forces a rethinking of biological inheritance. …

Predictive Language Comprehension In Parkinson's Disease, Katharine Aveni, Juweiriya Ahmed, Arielle Borovsky, Ken Mcrae, Mary E Jenkins, Katherine Sprengel, J Alexander Fraser, Joseph B Orange, Thea Knowles, Angela C Roberts

Psychology Publications

Verb and action knowledge deficits are reported in persons with Parkinson's disease (PD), even in the absence of dementia or mild cognitive impairment. However, the impact of these deficits on combinatorial semantic processing is less well understood. Following on previous verb and action knowledge findings, we tested the hypothesis that PD impairs the ability to integrate event-based thematic fit information during online sentence processing. Specifically, we anticipated persons with PD with age-typical cognitive abilities would perform more poorly than healthy controls during a visual world paradigm task requiring participants to predict a target object constrained by the thematic fit of …

Staying Engaged During The Remote Work Revolution: An Integrated Job Crafting Perspective, Christopher Legion Chen

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Hybrid and remote workers now comprise nearly one-third of the working population in the U.S. and Canada (Barrero et al., 2021; StatCan, 2021), while employee engagement has dropped to its lowest point in a decade (Harter, 2023). It is now more crucial than ever to identify valuable strategies for individuals and organizations to increase engagement at work. Job crafting is a bottom-up approach to work design (Chen, 2022a, 2022b; Donaldson et al., 2021; Tims et al., 2012; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), extensively studied as a proactive employee behavior associated with increased engagement among other positive work outcomes (Lichtenthaler & Fischbach, …

Virtues In Community, Gretchen Olson, Joshua Parkhurst, Dr. Julie Yonker

Summer Research

This project consisted of three different arms: (systematic review of literature, analyzing existing data from two studies, and faculty and staff interviews).

1. Learn more how virtues are thought about and implemented in education, did an extensive systematic review of literature.

2. Examine data from virtue intervention in Psychology course, ran statistical tests using Jamovi to analyze this data.

3. Conduct faculty and staff interviews of those using virtue practice pedagogy, gathered information on different virtue practices at Calvin.

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Physical Therapists’ Pyschological Characteristics And Feedback Methods, Dustin Cox

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Providing treatment interventions to clients with chronic pain is a complex task for any professional. Research suggests that clients with chronic pain experience declines in physical, emotional, and psychological quality of life. Client’s that have chronic pain have complex effects from dealing with this condition in their lives. Hashmi and colleagues found that clients with chronic pain (i.e., pain lasting > three months) process pain through the emotional and reward circuitry in the brain. The literature base provides evidence that clients with chronic pain who receive psychologically based interventions along with physical rehabilitation have better outcomes than individuals with chronic pain …

Validation Of The Occupational Depression Inventory In Sweden, Markus Jansson-Fröjmark, Farzaneh Badinlou, Tobias Lundgren, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Background The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently devised to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. One purpose of the ODI is to overcome limitations in current assessments of job-related distress. This study aimed to validate the Swedish version of the ODI.

Methods The study involved 365 individuals employed in Sweden. In addition to the ODI, the study included the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, the Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire, the GAD-2, and the PHQ-9. We inquired into the factorial validity, dimensionality, scalability, test-score reliability, criterion validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and measurement invariance of …

Examination Of The Role Of Adrenergic Receptor Stimulation In The Sensitization Of Neuroinflammatory-Based Depressive-Like Behavior In Isolated Guinea Pig Pups, Rachel R. Kessler, Patricia A. Schiml, Sean M. Mcgraw, Erin N. Tomlin, Mikayla J. Hoeferlin, Terrence Deak, Michael B. Hennessy

Psychology Faculty Publications

Early-life attachment disruption appears to sensitize neuroinflammatory signaling to increase later vulnerability for stress-related mental disorders, including depression. How stress initiates this process is unknown, but studies with adult rats and mice suggest sympathetic nervous system activation and/or cortisol elevations during the early stress are key. Guinea pig pups isolated from their mothers exhibit an initial active behavioral phase characterized by anxiety-like vocalizing. This is followed by inflammatory-dependent depressive-like behavior and fever that sensitize on repeated isolation. Using strategies that have been successful in adult studies, we assessed whether sympathetic nervous system activity and cortisol contributed to the sensitization process …

The Grateful Leader: Using Gratitude Mindset To See Victory, Serve In Love And Lead In Peace, Lexus Potts

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

The Grateful Leader is a book manuscript. Every leader experiences a particular adversity that tests them to their limits, and it is in that place that they learn who they are and who they want to become. A leader's mindset can help or hinder them as they face adversity. We don't have a choice in what challenges or hardships come to us in life, but we do have a choice in how we respond to them. Gratitude is a tool that can increase resilience to empower leaders to overcome challenges with grace, hope, and confidence.

In The Grateful Leader, I …

Updated Perspectives On Linking School Bullying And Related Youth Violence Research To Effective Prevention Strategies, Dorothy L. Espelage, Susan M. Swearer

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Bullying, a subset of aggression, has been an international focus of scholarship for several decades and has been declared as public health concern globally (Espelage, 2015; Hymel & Espelage, 2018; Kann et al., 2018). An abstract literature search with the terms “adol*” and “bully*” yielded 382 peer-reviewed journal articles from 2001 through 2010, and an astounding 1585 articles from 2011 through 2020.

Within the last decade, there has been a concerted effort among scholars to reach a consensus on how bullying should be defined, operationalized, and assessed, how it differs from other forms of aggression (e.g., dating violence), and how …

Nebraska Child Care Market Rate Survey Report 2023, Alexandra Daro, Greg W. Welch, Venessa Bryant

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 was reauthorized with renewed emphasis on the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program, which seeks to provide equal access to quality child care for families. The CCDF program is necessary to ensure children from families with lower income have the opportunity to experience stable, high-quality early experiences while their parents experience a pathway to economic stability. A primary goal of the CCDF program is to ensure that families with lower income receive CCDF funds to help them access quality child care in the same manner as families that …

Profiles Of Well-Being Among Early Childhood Educators, Amy M. Roberts, Alexandra Daro, Kathleen C. Gallagher

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

Research Findings: This study used a person-centered data analytic approach to identify distinct subgroups of early childhood educators (n= 133) based on their responses to multiple indicators of well-being (psychological, financial, and health indicators). Various fit indices established a two-class solution. Specifically, one group was characterized by more positive well-being and the other by less positive well-being. Subgroup differences were the greatest for indicators of psychological well-being, including self-care and self-compassion. In addition, educators with less than a bachelor’s degree, working as assistant teachers, receiving less pay, with more adverse childhood experiences, were overrepresented in the less positive …

Assessment Of The Triple Reuptake Inhibitor Diclofensine: Effort-Based Decision-Making In A Rodent Model Of Motivational Dysfunction, Sofia Papanikolaou

Holster Scholar Projects

Serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly prescribed antidepressant medications. Despite their popularity, they remain relatively ineffective at treating effort-related motivational symptoms of depression such as fatigue and anergia. Increasing research on triple reuptake inhibitors (TRIs) that target three neurotransmitters—dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine—has suggested that TRIs could have efficacy in targeting motivational dysfunction due to their dopaminergic effects. Previous research has shown that the dopamine depleting agent tetrabenazine can reliably induce motivational deficits in rats, as evidenced by a shift towards low-effort behavior in effort-based choice tasks, and provide a validated approach to creating a model of motivational dysfunction. …

Superhero Media As A Potential Context For Investigating Children's Understanding Of Morally Relevant Events, Justin Martin

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Currently, superhero films are one of the more popular film genres, and the genre does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. In addition, the lives and exploits of superheroes are told through other forms of media such as animated films and television series targeted towards children. However, these narratives are also violent. If older children (i.e., approximately 7-11) engage with superhero media, then it is important to understand the ways they attempt to make sense of this genre. To this end, the essay examines how superhero media may serve as a potential context for older children's understanding of …