Social Psychology Commons^™

Policy, Practice, And Perceptions Of K-12 Social-Emotional Learning, Janice Filer, Ebony C. Cain, Della Thompson-Bell

Education Division Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of K-12 school staff who participate in social-emotional learning (SEL). Since the global pandemic, several school districts have included SEL as part of the school curriculum. Teachers, counselors, social workers, school psychologists, and school administrators participate in SEL instruction and/or practices. Classroom teachers instruct students in SEL instruction and other school staff practice the SEL components of self-awareness, self-management, decision-making, social awareness, and relationship skills through their daily interactions with students. This study was conducted in various schools throughout the Los Angeles area using open-ended interview questions that utilized focus …

Training In Trauma-Responsive And Anti-Racist Telehealth: A Model For Behavioral Health Clinicians And Providers, Ritchie Rubio

Psychology Division Scholarship

Telehealth's uptake in behavioral health services has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many clinicians continue to lack focused training in providing trauma-informed and culturally-responsive telehealth care. This article outlines a model curriculum that was created to instruct and coach behavioral health providers in California on how to integrate anti-racist and trauma-responsive techniques into telehealth. Topics like evidence-based trauma therapies, racial/ ethnic trauma, marginalized communities, digital divide, and provider selfcare were all covered in the nine-part curriculum. Every three-hour session included evidence-informed didactic content, telehealth skills practice, and concrete planning for implementation. Trauma-responsive frameworks such as the tri-phasic model …

Making Deception Fun: Teaching Autistic Individuals How To Playfriendly Tricks, Adel Naj, Megan St. Clair, Kacie Massoudie, Jonathan Tarbox, Lauri Simchoni, Marianne Jackson, Angela Persicke

Psychology Division Scholarship

Perspective taking is a critical repertoire for navigating social relationships and consists of a variety of complex verbalskills, including socially adaptive forms of deception. Detecting and being able to use socially adaptive deception likelyhas many practical uses, including defending oneself against bullying, telling white lies to avoid hurting others’ feelings,keeping secrets and bluffing during games, and playing friendly tricks on others. Previous research has documented thatsome Autistic1 children have challenges identifying deception and playfully deceiving others (Reinecke et al., 1997). Thecurrent study employed a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the use of multiple exemplar training, rules,modeling, practice, and …

Religion And Spirituality In Psychotherapy: A Personal Bedrock Of Faith, Edward Shafranske

Psychology Division Scholarship

Personal beliefs and values conjoin with professional training to influence clinical practice. This article examines the role of religion and spirituality (R/S) through the lens of the author’s personal experiences and illustrates the confluence of faith, belief, identity, and practice in professional life. An autobiographical “glimpse” introduces the author’s formative experiences as a Roman Catholic and illustrates how religious narratives furnished conceptions of suffering, forgiveness, and transcendence that contributed to authentic hope for the client. Although often seemingly silent, R/S may influence psychotherapy practice. Clinical supervision provides a context to examine these personal factors.

Neurobiology And Treatment Of Relationships, Harvey Joanning

University Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper presents a neurobiological theory of how intimate human relationships develop over the life span. It begins with an exploration of affective neuroscience, the study of emotions, and applies these concepts to the stages of relationship development. It goes on to explore the role of neurobiology in parenting, family life, divorce, and death of a spouse. Therapeutic interventions appropriate to each stage of relationship development are also explored. Every attempt is made to make this theory scientifically sound by basing the concepts described on published scientific research. “Hard science” has been differentiated from “clinical lore.” The reader is invited …

Midas’ Children: Affluent White Families And The Effects Of Parental Bias On Child Outcomes, J. Sema Bruno

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Navigating parental biases within White affluent homes assumes family dynamics as yet unexplored within family therapy praxis. This dissertation examines parental biases directed toward domestic laborers employed in affluent White homes and how these biases might affect the parent-child relationship and the emerging values of children in these homes. Research from other fields demonstrates that domestic laborers experience social bias within the workplace; what this highlights is the likelihood that children in these settings are navigating unspoken subtleties of racism and classism in the context of developing socio-emotional maturity and family relationships. The first article within this dissertation critically reviews …

The Influence Of School Policies On Black Students' Mental Health, Ama Ogyaa Boateng

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

When educators target Black students’ hair through school policies, they inadvertently target their racial identity, causing harm to their mental health (Joseph- Salisbury & Connelly, 2018). While previous research has looked at the relationship between a school’s racial climate and Black students’ mental health (Mattison & Aber, 2007), this research study explored the mental health of Black adults who have experienced racial discrimination or racial microaggressions, in relation to hair and dress codes, as Black students in the K-12 school system.

A retrospective survey was used to explore the experiences that Black young adults had in the K-12 school system …

Proteomic Profiles Of Cytokines And Chemokines In Moderate To Severe Depression: Implications For Comorbidities And Biomarker Discovery, Kathleen T. Watson, Jennifer Keller, Caleb M. Spiro, Isaac B. Satz, Samantha V. Goncalves, Heather Pankow, Idit Kosti, Benoit Lehallier, Adolfo Sequeira, William E. Bunney, Natalie L. Rasgon, Alan F. Schatzberg

Psychology Division Scholarship

Objective: This study assessed the proteomic profiles of cytokines and chemokines in individuals with moderate to severe depression, with or without comorbid medical disorders, compared to healthy controls. Two proteomic multiplex platforms were employed for this purpose. Metods: An immunofluorescent multiplex platform and an aptamer-based method were used to evaluate 32 protein analytes from 153 individuals with moderate to severe major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls (HCs). The study focused on determining the level of agreement between the two platforms and evaluating the ability of individual analytes and principal components (PCs) to differentiate between the MDD and HC groups. …

Oh No, We're Moving, Devina Parker

Psychology Division Scholarship

This wonderful book helps children identify and express their feelings, face the challenges that come with moving to a new place, and ease difficult emotions such as worry and fear. Devina's compassionate storytelling and insightful guidance provide invaluable support to young readers and their families during times of transition.

From We To Me: Moving Towards An Examination Of Self Identity In An Online, Global, Collaborative, Learning Environment, Danielle P. Espino, Eric Hamilton, Kristina Lux, Seung B. Lee

Education Division Scholarship

This paper reflects on previous work using QE to examine patterns of discourse of adolescent learners in a virtual, global, collaborative informal learning setting. The collective impact of involvement in the project on participants’ experiences was observed in various reflective interviews over the last five years. The deep reflection of this work resulted in a research shift from the general impact on the participants to a shift towards examining how such experiences shape self-identity, such as recognizing identity congruence, relational self, and overcoming negative identity fostered by master narrative frameworks. An initial examination of pre-assessment interviews indicates that younger students …

Sharing Culture In A Tech World: Grandparent–Grandchild Cultural Exchanges Over Video Chat., Doug Piper, Subul Malik, A-Nya Badger, C. Washington, B. Valle, Gabrielle Strouse, Lauren J. Myers, Elisabeth Mcclure, Georgene L. Troseth, Jennifer M. Zosh, Rachel Barr

School of Education Faculty Publications

Grandparents who were separated from their infant grandchildren during COVID-19 sought other ways to connect, including video chat. Video chat supports learning, and its features (e.g., contingent responsiveness) may allow for cultural exchange. However, technological problems may disrupt these exchanges. In a semi-naturalistic, longitudinal study, 47 families submitted up to three video chats and surveys. Families were predominantly White/Caucasian, highly-educated, and lived between 1 and 2700 miles apart. Multilevel models were used to predict the proportion of the sessions devoted to exchanging culture (e.g., holidays, parenting advice) and managing tech problems. Culture exchange did not change as a function of …

Presence At A Distance: Video Chat Supports Intergenerational Sensitivity And Positive Infant Affect During Covid-19, Ellen Roche, J Rocha-Hidalgo, Doug Piper, Gabrielle Strouse, Lucinda I. Neely, Jenna Ryu, Lauren Myers, Elisabeth Mcclure, Georgene Troseth, Jennifer Zosh, Rachel Barr

School of Education Faculty Publications

COVID-19 disrupted infant contact with people beyond the immediate family. Because grandparents faced higher COVID-19 risks due to age, many used video chat instead of interacting with their infant grandchildren in person. We conducted a semi-naturalistic, longitudinal study with 48 families, each of whom submitted a series of video chats and surveys and most (n = 40) also submitted video of an in-person interaction. Families were mostly highlyeducated, White/Caucasian and lived between 1 and 2700 miles apart. We used multilevel models to examine grandparents’ and parents’ sensitivity during video chat across time (centered at February 1, 2021, the approximate date …

Psychology In The Modern World, Kutay Agardici

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is created for the two courses I will be teaching at City College in the psychology dept. Topics include cognition, language, learning, memory, nature vs. nurture, abnormal psychology, social psychology, etc.

Harnessing Growth Mindsets To Help Individuals Flourish, Jeni L. Brunette, Crystal L. Hoyt, Joseph Billingsley

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Psychologists are uniquely positioned to help with our collective obligation to advance scientific knowledge in ways that help individuals to flourish. Growth mindsets may offer one such tool for improving lives, yet some research questions the potential to replicate key findings. The aims in the current work are to help explain mixed results and outline ways to improve intervention impact. To reach these goals, we first offer a brief overview of the links between growth mindsets and psychological flourishing. Second, we outline key theories of causal mechanisms and summarize sources of meaningful heterogeneity in growth mindset interventions, with a focus …

Emerging Adult College Students' Perceptions Of Immigrants: A Multisite Experimental Study, Alexa Dee Barton

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) has consistently had the largest populations of immigrants worldwide over the last two centuries, contributing to immigration’s ongoing importance as a political, social, economic, and health topic. A central point of focus has been attitudes toward immigration, which prior research has noted is influenced by both individual level and sociopolitical contextual factors. However, few studies have examined these attitudes comparatively across differing immigrant populations (e.g. nation of origin, type of immigration). Nor has the influence of perceivers’ stage of identity and social development been considered (e.g. emerging adult, generation of immigration, civic values). Utilizing quantitative methods, …

Resilience And Grit: Foundations Of Mindset Differences In Adult Children Of Alcoholics And Adult Children Of Non-Alcoholics, Christopher Vance

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Alcoholism is a destructive consequence of a combination of environmental, genetic, and social influences. While it is the choice of an individual to consume alcohol, their family is facing the consequences as well. Children of alcoholics (CoAs) face a unique set of challenges growing up with one (or two) alcoholic parents. This study seeks to investigate the presence of a difference in grit and resilience in adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs). Furthermore, the study aims to uncover the influence grit and resilience have on an individuals’ mindset; whether they maintain a growth or fixed mindset. A survey containing four different …

The Relationship Between Infant-Family Routines, Number Of Caregivers And Infant Basal Cortisol, Vanessa Newell, Hannah B. White

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Background: Family routines have been found to be related to child adjustment, marital satisfaction, and parenting competence (Fiese, 2002). Persistent stress, and the resulting frequent activation of the body’s stress responses, can result in excessive wear-and-tear on the body and brain known as allostatic load (McEwen, 2000). In infants, basal cortisol levels act as an instrument to measure allostatic load (White, 2020). To our knowledge, no existing work on the impact of routines on infant development has examined the role of family structure. In traditional and minority cultures it is common for caregiving responsibilities to be divided among multiple individuals. …

Paternal Parenting Stress During Middle Childhood: The Impact Of Covid-19, Vanessa Newell, Kathryn E. Cherry, Emily D. Gerstein

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Background: Parenting stress is the unpleasant psychological reaction to the demands of parenthood, including perceptions of competence at and knowledge of the day-to-day and long-term tasks of parenting (Deater-Deckard 2006). While most research has examined mothers, father parenting stress is also critical to children’s development, predicting increased problem behaviors (Cabrera & Mitchell 2009) and poorer cognitive skills (Harwood, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic may increase parental stress in multiple ways, as parents are at home more with their children while fulfilling occupational and personal responsibilities. Parents have reported increased stress due to job loss, school closures, and other stressors (van Tilburg …

Adolescent Social Networks And Violence In Rural Colombia, Ana L. Rodriguez De La Rosa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines violence in adolescent social networks in the context of a rural and resource-limited community in the Caribbean region of Colombia. Utilizing mixed methods data (focus groups and surveys) from 242 school-enrolled adolescents, three empirical studies explored adolescent violence experiences in their community, school, and intimate partner violence relationships. Study one utilizes a social complexity framework and mixed methods design to address victimization. Social network data showed that adolescents' psychological and physical violence victimizations occurred across their community, household, school, and emotionally adverse relationships; and were more likely in girl-nominated relationships, a relationship that shared more alters or …

Well-Being In The Time Of Covid-19: Do Metaphors And Mindsets Matter?, Jeni L. Burnette, Crystal L. Hoyt, Nicholas Buttrick, Lisa A. Auster-Gussman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Communications about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) often employ metaphors, which can help people understand complex issues. For example, public health messages may focus on “fighting” the disease, attempting to rouse people to action by instilling a sense of urgency. In contrast, change-focused metaphors may foster growth mindsets and self-efficacy—cornerstones of well-being and action. We randomly assigned participants to read one of two articles—either an article about coronavirus that focused on fighting the war or an article that highlighted the possibility of change. In Study 1 (N = 426), participants who read the war, relative to the change, message …

How Multidimensional Is Emotional Intelligence? Bifactor Modeling Of Global And Broad Emotional Abilities Of The Geneva Emotional Competence Test, Daniel Simonet, Katherine E. Miller, Kevin Askew, Kenneth Sumner, Marcello Mortillaro, Katja Schlegel

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Drawing upon multidimensional theories of intelligence, the current paper evaluates if the Geneva Emotional Competence Test (GECo) fits within a higher-order intelligence space and if emotional intelligence (EI) branches predict distinct criteria related to adjustment and motivation. Using a combination of classical and S-1 bifactor models, we find that (a) a first-order oblique and bifactor model provide excellent and comparably fitting representation of an EI structure with self-regulatory skills operating independent of general ability, (b) residualized EI abilities uniquely predict criteria over general cognitive ability as referenced by fluid intelligence, and (c) emotion recognition and regulation incrementally predict grade point …

“They Let Me Loose, Will You Hold Me Tight?” Adult Adoptees And Their Romantic Partners' Experience Of Attachment After Participating In The Hmt Program, Bethany Baker

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Adult adoptees may be blocked from feeling securely attached to their romantic partners and they may not even know it or what to do about it. The literature shows adult adoptees being overrepresented in insecure attachment styles, and not enough attention has been paid to the effect this has had on adoptees in their romantic relationships. In fact, no known study, to date, has provided an attachment-based psychoeducational approach for this marginalized population. The purpose of this introductory qualitative study was to explore the experiences and meaning-making of attachment, specifically related to adoption, for the adult adoptee and their romantic …

"The Candy Problem, Solved!": White Children And White Parents Grappling With Dysconscious Whiteness, Lindsay E. Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

During an amplification of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, white children and parents have faced multiple interruptions to their protective territory of dysconscious whiteness—an uncritical approach to a structural status quo that favors white lives. Through semi-structured activities and interviews with ten children ages 3 to 9 and nine of their parents who observed these activities, I discovered a parent–child subsystem of dysconscious whiteness. White children and parents revealed aspects of this subsystem by grappling with dysconscious whiteness (grappling) as they struggled to avoid implicating skin color in resource inequality. Through grounded theory analysis of the process of grappling, …

The Role Of Faculty In Fostering Psychosocial Wellbeing Among University Students, Kelley Wick

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The transition to college represents a major life event, and successfully navigating this shift has implications for students’ psychosocial wellbeing. While there is ample support for the idea that social relationships can facilitate student wellbeing during the transition to college, there is limited understanding of the unique role faculty may play in supporting students. The aim of this study was to determine the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing and self-efficacy, independent of peer support and student level of stress. Additionally, the primary questions were to examine whether self-efficacy mediated the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing, and …

Gender Differences In Moral Influences On Adolescents’ Eyewitness Identification, Toni Spring, Herbert D. Saltzstein, Leeann Siegel

Publications and Research

In this study, 232 (89 11- to-12-year-olds, 71 13- to-14-year-olds; 72 15- to-16-year-olds) students recruited from grades 6th–11th in an urban public high school participated in a study of eyewitness identification. The focus of this study was on the effects of age, gender and moral orientation on decisional bias and, as a secondary outcome, on accuracy (using signal detection analysis). The primary purpose of this and previous studies in this series is to uncover implicit moral decision-making in decisional bias. In this study the perpetrator, the bystanders and the foil were all females. Prior to completing the eyewitness identification task, …

Psychosocial Factors Promoting Personal Growth Throughout Adulthood, Masahiro Toyama, Heather R. Fuller, Joel M. Hektner

Psychology Faculty Research

Personal growth is essential in the lives of adults of any age and is associated with a variety of well-being outcomes. Building on previous research on psychosocial factors associated with personal growth, the present study aimed to investigate whether and how psychosocial factors (including working, generativity, positive interpersonal relationships, and spirituality) could affect aging adults’ personal growth longitudinally. Using three waves of Midlife in the United States data from adults with baseline ages of 20–75, two-level hierarchical linear modeling analyses were conducted to examine the effects of psychosocial factors as well as age and gender on levels and trajectories of …

Parental Nurturance In Childhood And Adolescence Correlated To Anxiety In College Students, Julianne R. Urban

Senior Honors Theses

Parental nurturance is important for individuals in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. In general, high levels of parental nurturance helps individuals to be well-adjusted. However, anxiety disorders are prevalent among emerging adults, so the present study investigated a potential correlation between parental nurturance and college student anxiety. Participants consisted of undergraduate students who were at least 18 years old and enrolled in at least one psychology course. They were asked to complete the Parental Nurturance Scale and Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale. The results indicated a significant negative correlation between the two variables. Specifically, increases in parental nurturance were …

The Project Talent Twin And Sibling Study: Zygosity And New Data Collection, Carol A. Prescott, Ellen E. Walters, Thalida Em Arpawong, Catalina Zavala, Tara L. Gruenewald, Margaret Gatz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The Project Talent Twin and Sibling (PTTS) study includes 4481 multiples and their 522 nontwin siblings from 2233 families. The sample was drawn from Project Talent, a U.S. national longitudinal study of 377,000 individuals born 1942–1946, first assessed in 1960 and representative of U.S. students in secondary school (Grades 9–12). In addition to the twins and triplets, the 1960 dataset includes 84,000 siblings from 40,000 other families. This design is both genetically informative and unique in facilitating separation of the ‘common’ environment into three sources of variation: shared by all siblings within a family, specific to twin-pairs, and associated with …

Gender And Ethnicity: Are They Associated With Differential Outcomes Of A Biopsychosocial Social-Emotional Learning Program?, Ronnie I. Newman, Odikia Yim, David Shaenfield

Psychology Faculty Publications

Context: Social-emotional learning (SEL) program outcomes may be enhanced when programs take into account gender and ethnicity differences, yet few studies directly examine these variables. The limited literature further suggests improved outcomes accrue by integrating physiological techniques, such as yoga and meditation, directly into SEL curricula to reduce stress.

Aims: This study investigated the association between outcomes of a yogic breath-based biopsychosocial SEL intervention across gender and ethnicity.

Methods: Fifty-nine high school students were evaluated on 4 positive (self-esteem, identity formation, anger coping ability, planning, and concentration) and 3 negative SEL outcomes (impulsivity, distractibility, and endorsement of aggression). Using a …

Putting Adversity In Perspective: Purpose In Life Moderates The Link Between Childhood Emotional Abuse And Neglect And Adulthood Depressive Symptoms, Andree Hartanto, Jose C. Yong, Sean T. H. Lee, Wee Qin Ng, Eddie M. W. Tong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background: Childhood emotional abuse and neglect is linked with a host of adverse outcomes later in life, including depression. However, potential psychological resources that may mitigate the adverse outcomes of childhood emotional abuse and neglect are not well-understood. Aims: Drawing from the insight that having a sense of purpose can help individuals deal with setbacks and difficulties better, we propose that purpose in life can also help sufferers of childhood maltreatment cope more effectively and reduce the onset of depressive symptoms. Methods: Participants were drawn from two large, nationally representative studies comprising a total of 3664 respondents. Purpose in life, …