Comparative Psychology Commons^™

How Valuable Are Clinical Neuropsychological Assessments? A Meta-Analysis Of Neuropsychological Tests With Comparison To Common Medical Tests And Treatments, Murphy N. Harrell

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a general decrease in neuropsychological assessments at a time when medical diagnostic technology and treatments have expanded, leading to a faulty assumption that medical tests and healthcare treatments provide more reliable or valid data than psychological assessments. A landmark report from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Psychological Assessment Work Group (PAWG) found that validity coefficients for many psychological tests were indistinguishable from those of medical tests (Meyer et al., 2001). An updated systematic review of the advancement in neuropsychological testing is essential to the continued advancement of the value of neuropsychological assessment in healthcare. This meta-analysis sought …

Threat Detection From Phenotypic Facial Features, Melissa L. Kern

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated people's ability to accurately and quickly make snap judgments of trustworthiness from viewing individuals' faces (Todorov, Pakrashi, & Oosterhof, 2009; Willis & Todorov, 2006). The study of how human beings make meaningful predictions from phenotypic facial features about trustworthiness, among other traits, warrants additional scrutiny and investigation. Further, other research suggests the facial width to height ratio (fWHR) is a more specific indicator used by human beings to gauge, often accurately gauge, trustworthiness with some accuracy. As such, past research found participants rated people with larger fWHRs as less trustworthy and more aggressive (Carré & McCormick, …

Withdrawal From Voluntary Oral Methamphetamine Reveals Female Specific Susceptibilities To Behavioral Deficits And Neurochemical Perpetuators Of Neurotoxicity And Drug Seeking Behavior, Nicoletta K. Memos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

MA is a potent, highly addictive psychomotor stimulant known to produce neurotoxic effects on the brain leading to neurological impairments^1-6 characterized by neurodegeneration of dopaminergic fibers, cell bodies and pathways, as well as brain regions such as the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and midbrain^1,5.

In MA addiction, women are more vulnerable to the behavioral and cognitive effects of MA compared to men. Adult human literature reveals gender differences in usage patterns and women demonstrate increased vulnerability to the neurotoxic effects and health effects of MA use. Women begin drug use at an earlier age, escalate drug use quicker, …

Prevalence Of Postpartum Depression In Occupied Palestine, Amneh Amro

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

In a world where everything has been modernized and progressively accepted, has modern medicine kept up? With a growing population, is the accessibility to healthcare service meeting the demand and without bias? More importantly, has the growing population broken down the stigmas associated with medical conditions, like postpartum depression? There has been a notable disparity in mental health treatment worldwide, and even more so in Palestine and other third world countries of similar nature.

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 …

Diagnostic Featural Detection Or Filler Siphoning: A Red Box Study, Brynn Schuetter

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study is a replication and extension of previous research by Colloff and Wixted (2020). In their study, they created a novel identification procedure called the simultaneous showup. They found support for the diagnostic feature detection theory over the filler siphoning theory. The current study was interested in seeing if covert filler siphoning was still occurring in their novel procedure by asking participants how photos of fillers influenced their identification decision. Participants of the study viewed two crime videos and completed an identification task. If they were assigned to the simultaneous showup task, they were asked if and how …

Investigation Of Behavioral Responses Including Visual Side Biases To Social Stimuli In Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Jennifer R. Savoie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cetacean field studies have reported consistent population-level side biases for foraging behaviors and this right side feeding bias is arguably the strongest in any species next to handedness in humans. Notably, experimental studies with cetaceans, particularly dolphins, have struggled to find laterality in other behaviors, and some have reported patterns that are inconsistent with those typically found in vertebrates. Side biases related to social processing have been reported in a few observational studies of wild delphinids but have not been successfully evaluated in a controlled experimental context. This dissertation investigated viewing side biases of bottlenose dolphins in two contexts: when …

Not So Different As Cats And Dogs: Companionship During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Shelly Volsche, Elizabeth Johnson

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

COVID- 19 lockdown provided a unique, in situ opportunity to probe caretaker experiences of living with companion animals during a stressful event. We launched an online survey in the United States that included standard demographic questions, questions related to household structures, and 25 Likert scale questions that probed perceptions of whether and how respondents’ relationships changed during social isolation. This paper uses a subset of that data specific to dog and cat guardians. A principal components analysis and Mann-Whitney U test returned no significant differences between cat and dog guardians on three scales (Scale 1: Psychological Well-being, Scale 2: …

Unresolved Issues Of Behavioral Analysis In Invertebrates, Charles I. Abramson, Paco Calvo

Animal Sentience

Crump et al. (2022) provide a framework for determining the presence of sentience in organisms. Their target article is interesting and thought-provoking, but it does not consider the many unresolved issues related to behavioral analysis – especially when it concerns invertebrates. We feel that no real progress can be made until such fundamental issues as the need for a consistent definition of conditioning phenomena, the lack of a generally accepted behavioral taxonomy, and the use of cognitive terms to explain invertebrate behavior are examined critically.

Sentience In Decapods: Difficulties To Surmount, Michael L. Woodruff

Animal Sentience

In the target article Crump et al. present 8 criteria to assess whether decapods experience pain. Four of these -- sensory integration, motivational trade-offs, flexible self-protection, and associative learning -- could be used to assess sentience in general. In this commentary I discuss difficulties with using these criteria to provide evidence of sentience in decapods, particularly if this evidence is to change public opinion and policies. These difficulties are lack of evidence, the potential to eventually explain the neurobiological basis of the behaviors chosen as criteria, thereby eliminating any explanatory work for sentience, and the reluctance to bring animals that …

Ethnic Differences In The Way College Students Cope With Stress, Temavulane N. Motsa

Masters Theses

Stress is one of the key concerns for students and has also been labelled the highest factor impacting students’ academic performance in colleges. A student’s ability to adequately cope with their stressors could determine their academic success or failure. This study examined whether there are any ethnic differences in the way African American and Caucasian American Students cope with stress. Data were collected from Students at Eastern Illinois University which included 45 African American Students and 40 Caucasian American students. The results revealed no significant differences in the way Caucasian American and African American students cope with stress. This paper …

Motivated Science: What Humans Gain From Denying Animal Sentience, Uri Lifshin

Animal Sentience

Resistance to the idea that non-human animals are sentient resembles erstwhile resistance to the theory that the earth is not the centre of the universe, or that humans evolved from “apes”. All these notions are psychologically threatening. They can remind people of their own creatureliness and mortality and might make them feel guilty or uncertain about their way of life. An honest debate over animal sentience, welfare and rights should consider the human motivation to deprive animals of these things in the first place. I briefly review empirical evidence on the psychological function of denying animal minds.

Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph

Theses and Dissertations

Elephants have shown remarkable olfactory capabilities. Their sense of smell impacts their foraging choices, behavior, and ultimately, survival. Being able to detect a target odor can allow elephants to locate specific resources, identify threats, and find receptive conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that elephants can consistently detect target odors, but have not identified the limits of this detection. Thus, to investigate the extent of elephants’ odor detection capabilities, we tested Asian elephants in a two-step odor discrimination task. First, we investigated whether elephants could detect odors at varying levels of dilution after a training procedure, and then whether they could …

Mental Health In Italy: Systems, Stigma, And Impact Of Covid-19, Charley Nyzio

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

In 1978, Italy became the first European nation to radically change its mental healthcare system. Psychiatric hospitals were shut down, and a community-based publicly-funded system of mental healthcare took its place. This reform sought to restore dignity to those with mental illnesses through rehabilitation and increased participation in the community and daily activities. Though characteristics of marginalization and exclusion were relatively eliminated, covert stigmas surrounding mental illness remain a persisting problem. This review seeks to 1) evaluate the historical progression of mental health reform as well as the effectiveness of the current system of mental healthcare in Italy 2) explore …

The Combined Influences Of Race, Sexuality, And Gender On Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment, Courtney House

Honors Theses

The current research examines the perceptions of sexual harassment based on the influence of the victim’s gender, and the race of both the victim and the perpetrator, and perceiver’s feminist beliefs. By using vignettes (a brief description of an event), we manipulated a) the gender of the victim (man or woman), b) the race of the victim (POC or white), and c) the race of the perpetrator (POC or white). Our hypotheses were as follows: a) vignettes depicting same-sex harassment will be less in line with the definition of sexual harassment; b) vignettes portraying the victim as a woman of …

Racial And Gender Discrimination Predict Mental Health Outcomes Among Healthcare Workers Beyond Pandemic-Related Stressors: Findings From A Cross-Sectional Survey, Rachel Hennein, Jessica Bonumwezi, Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako, Petty Tineo, Sarah R. Lowe

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Racial and gender discrimination are risk factors for adverse mental health outcomes in the general population; however, the effects of discrimination on the mental health of healthcare workers needs to be further explored, especially in relation to competing stressors. Thus, we administered a survey to healthcare workers to investigate the associations between perceived racial and gender discrimination and symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and burnout during a period of substantial stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a national racial reckoning. We used multivariable linear regression models, which controlled for demographics and pandemic-related stressors. Of the 997 participants (Mean …

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Comparing Short-Term, Intensive Therapy To Traditional, Long-Term Therapy, Laura Gonzalez, Sean Kruckenberg

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health diagnosis that occurs following a traumatic event, and military veterans are at higher risk of exposure to hazardous or life-threatening situations that may result in psychological trauma. PTSD sufferers experience symptoms such as distressing memories, nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance, and heightened arousal. Individuals with PTSD also experience higher rates of depressive and substance use disorders, involvement with the justice system, and self-harm and suicide. Many agencies, such as the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) provide treatment PTSD, however most programs experience dropout rates as high as 36%. Recent studies have shown that …

Investigating The Memorization Of The Quran Using The Grounded Theory Methodology, Nikhat Parveen

The Qualitative Report

Grounded theory methodology was utilized to investigate the process of memorization of the Quran in India from a psychological perspective as it occurs in the absence of semantic comprehension of the Arabic language. Data collection methods included participant observation in a seminary, semi-structured interviews with students and teachers of memorization, study of documents employed during the learning process, and practical demonstrations. Sample comprised of thirteen individuals including students and teachers. Data coding and analyses resulted in a large number of open codes, and eleven axial code categories besides a selective code that gave a comprehensive summation of the research study …

Colombian Women’S Experiences Of Cosmetic Surgery And Its Relationship To Body Image, Austin Gonzalez-Randolph

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand women’s experiences of cosmetic surgery and its effects on body image on women from the Colombian cities of Bogotá and Pereira. The participants of this study were women of Colombian descent, who reside in Colombia. This was done with the hopes of better understanding how culture impacts views on cosmetic surgery. Colombia appears to have a culture that is very enmeshed with cosmetic surgery. This study provides an initial exploratory and qualitative investigation into the perception of body image as it relates to cosmetic surgery among six young women living in Colombia; …

From Psychology To Phylogeny: Bridging Levels Of Analysis In Cultural Evolution, Mason Youngblood

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cultural evolution, or change in the socially learned behavior of a population over time, is a fascinating phenomenon that is widespread in humans and present in some non-human animals. In this dissertation, I present an array of cultural evolutionary studies that bridge pattern and process in a wide range of research models including music, extremism, and birdsong. The first chapter is an introduction to the field of cultural evolution, including a bibliometric analysis of its structure. The second and third chapters are studies on the cultural dynamics of music sampling traditions in hip-hop and electronic music communities and far-right extremism …