Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Sociosexuality, Testosterone, And Life History Status: Prospective Associations And Longitudinal Changes Among Men In Cebu, Philippines, Lee T. Gettler, Patty X. Kuo, Stacy Rosenbaum, Josephine L. Avila, Thomas W. Mcdade, Christopher W. Kuzawa

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Sociosexuality is defined as an individual's interest in uncommitted sexual activity and can be measured in terms of both psychological orientations and behavioral expression. In socio-ecological contexts in which adults monogamously partner and cooperate to raise children, individuals with unrestricted sociosexuality are likely to prioritize mating/competition over committed partnering and parenting. Given the importance of mother-father cooperation in the evolutionary past, humans may have the capacity to facultatively and opportunistically downregulate sociosexuality to focus on priorities related to invested partnering and parenting. To date, no prior studies have used longitudinal data to track within-individuals changes in sociosexuality as it relates …

Characterizing The Development Of Episodic Memory And Assessing The Reliability Of Fmri Measures, Lingfei Tang

Wayne State University Dissertations

The ability to remember past events is critical for everyday life and showed robust improvement over development from childhood to adulthood. With advances in noninvasive neuroimaging methods such as functional MRI in recent years, research efforts have been focused on identifying neural correlates underpinning developmental gains in memory performance. In my dissertation work, using a widely-validated subsequent memory paradigm, I aim to characterize functional MRI correlates of memory development. Specifically, I focused my investigation on identifying age differences in the functional patterns of two brain regions critical for memory, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Focusing on the prefrontal cortex …

Proximity, Touching, And Testosterone: An Observational Study Of Mate Retention Tactics In Humans, Kraig Shattuck

Wayne State University Dissertations

Mate guarding behaviors are strongly selected for in species that suffer from infidelity and cuckoldry. Two forms of mate guarding behaviors that have been found in self-report studies on humans are proximity and touching. Proximity actively prevents infidelity though the physical act of being present. Touching indirectly prevents infidelity by signaling to any potential rivals that their partner is taken, as well as signaling to the partner that they are being watched. Testosterone is a hormone implicated in competition and aggression. When in the presence of a potential rival, testosterone levels tend to increase. This increase should be related to …

Great Sexpectations: Analyzing The Influence Of Expectation And Desire On Sexual Behaviors Performed In Hookups, Mariel Boyle

Research Days Posters 2016-2019

Sexual acts performed in college hookups are determined by a variety of factors. A significant problem is that culturally driven taboos cloud open communication during hookups leading to unexpressed expectations. These unexpressed expectations play a large role in sexual decision-making. Ideally, hookup partners would only engage in acts they desire, but culturally driven expectations are powerful forces, and may lead to the performance of less-preferred acts. Norm driven expectations develop into persistent sexual scripts that young adults follow closely. Moreover, the influence of expectations may be gendered due to sex role traditionality. Implications for hookup behavior are discussed.

Aging And Visual Spatial Integration, Alexia J. Higginbotham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study evaluated the ability of 20 younger and 20 older adults to discriminate shapes depicted by Glass patterns. On any given trial, observers identified a particular pattern as either possessing a radial or concentric organization. Detecting a shape defined by a Glass pattern requires the successful detection of the orientations of its constituent local dipoles. In addition, long-range processes are needed to integrate the spatially separated dipoles into perceivable contours that have a particular (e.g., radial or concentric) organization. In the current experiment, the shapes were defined by either 40 or 200 oriented dipoles spread over an area …

The Protective Role Of Parenting Behaviors In The Development Of African American Adolescents, Kelsey Johanna Sala-Hamrick

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation aimed to understand how African American parents protect their teens from developing psychopathology in the face of extreme adversity. To do this, I examined three dimensions of parenting behavior, stress exposure, and behavior problems in order to understand the direct and moderating relations between parenting behaviors, cumulative stress and youth internalizing, externalizing, and total psychological problems. 150 African American primary caregivers reported on their adolescent children’s internalizing, externalizing and total behavior problems, exposure to stressful events, and their own parenting behavior. 150 inner-city African American adolescents reported on their exposure to traumatic stressors and a subsample of 43 …

Unmet Expectations In Healthcare Settings: Experiences Of Transgender And Gender Diverse Adults In The Central Great Plains, Heather Meyer

Trans Collaborations Academic Papers

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals face a long-term, multi-faceted process if they choose to begin a gender affirmation journey. Decisions to go on hormone therapy and/or have a surgical procedure necessitate the TGD individual to set up an appointment with a healthcare provider. However, when TGD patients interact with healthcare practitioners, problems can arise. This article documents and categorizes the types of unmet expectations that are common in the TGD patient-healthcare provider social dynamic in the Central Great Plains of the United States. Utilizing a community-based participatory research model, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 TGD individuals about …

Buffett Early Childhood Institute: Five Year Report 2013-18, Buffett Early Childhood Institute

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

The Buffett Early Childhood Institute began operations in June 2013. We were charged with creating a new model for how public higher education can engage in early education by helping to transform the lives of young children and their families. This report presents a by-thenumbers profile of who we are and what we’ve accomplished in our first five years. Following the numbers you’ll find brief descriptions of programs, initiatives, financials, and the Institute itself.

The Nebraska Panhandle: An Assessment Of Birth-Grade 3 Care And Education, Panhandle Birth – Grade 3 Leadership Team

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

This report summarizes the collaborative work of the Panhandle Partnership, Inc., Educational Service Unit (ESU) 13, and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska in documenting and assessing birth through Grade 3 programming in the Nebraska Panhandle. The report summarizes findings from 15 school-community conversations and includes data snapshots from local communities that provide information about the status of young children and the services and supports that exist to serve them and their families. Work in the Panhandle was undertaken on the basis of an agreement between the three organizations to work together to better understand and …

Nebraska Child Care Market Rate Survey Report 2019, Greg W. Welch, Elizabeth Svoboda, Amanda Garrett, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Molly Goldberg, Alexandra Daro

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 was reauthorized with renewed emphasis placed 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 low-income families 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 low-income families receive CCDF funds to help them access quality child care in the same manner as families that pay the full …

What Contributes To Well-Being In Later Life? How Two Life-Span Perspectives Explain The Process, Yeojin Rho

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Goals influence the direction of life. Because of this, goals play major roles in our motivations, behaviors, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2015). Thus, it has been one of the important topics in developmental psychology to study how goals are formed and changed over the life-span. Selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) theory and socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) explain goal changes throughout life. Although these theories focus on different factors that led to goal changes and on different aspects of goals, both theories assert that people can achieve their goals, be satisfied with their life, and finally experience successful …

Exploring Higher Order Thinking Strategies In Georgia's Top Performing Middle Schools, Karen Kister

Ed.D. Dissertations

Developmental psychologists defined adolescent cognitive development as a period of time when individuals learn to mentally separate from adults and establish a self‑sufficient identity capable of the autonomous thought necessary to apply higher-order thinking. In contrast, college professors of the millennial generation stated that students demonstrate increased immaturity levels inconsistent with those of prior generations. Hence, the focus of this study was to examine the higher-order thinking strategies that teachers of adolescents have implemented within the five top performing middle schools in the state of Georgia. The findings offered a potential coexistence of higher-order thinking abilities and autonomous behavior and …

Risk Factors For Depression Among Early Childhood Teachers, Amy Roberts, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Alexandra Daro, Iheoma U. Iruka, Susan Sarver

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

This study examined possible risk factors associated with teachers’ depression in a variety of early childhood settings. Teachers with lower pay, no health insurance, multiple jobs, greater job stress, and more adult-centered beliefs reported more symptoms of depression. To reduce these symptoms, efforts should be made to support teachers’ mental health at multiple levels, including individual, environmental, and policy.

Researchers used data collected in 2015-16 from a large survey of early childhood educators in Nebraska. Four early childhood settings were sampled: licensed family child care homes (home-based), licensed child care centers (center-based), state-funded PreK programs, and elementary schools serving children …

Cinq Cles Pour Aider Vos Enfants A Developper Leurs Talents, Kenneth A. Kiewra

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Certains pensent que le talent est inné. La légende de Mozart commençant à jouer du piano à 3 ans, puis à composer à l’âge de 5 ans, renforce de telles croyances.

"I Couldn't Play With Anyone That Day... I'M So Frustrated": Making Meaning Out Of Frustrating Experiences In Early Childhood, Megan Welliver

Honors Program Theses

The aim of the present study was to explore the content and sources of children’s independently narrated stories about personal experiences with frustration. Additionally, the study examined internal state language in stories that shifted to a resolution or positive emotional tone. Seventeen children (ages 46 – 61 months) attending a laboratory preschool, and twenty children (ages 65 – 78 months) attending kindergarten at a public elementary school shared stories about “a time when you were frustrated.” Stories were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded for reports of total, unique, negative and positive emotions, cognitive states, emotional tone shift/resolution, and resolution strategies. Grounded …

Investigation Of Intergroup Bias In Two Neuromaturationally Distinct Age Cohorts: An Erp Study, Reuven M. Hanna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Currently, sociological investigation of adolescent behavior focuses on the intersection of biography, history, and structure to explain adolescent risk-taking, reward-seeking, impulsivity, novelty-seeking and peer-salience. However, the preponderance of the evidence points away from social ecology and to a significant neuromaturational restructuring event between the 12th and 25th years of life as the root of adolescent behavioral tendencies. As a result, sociological social psychology can benefit from engaging in basic research using neuroscience methods. The present study expands the dual systems model of brain development to account for maturational changes in the social brain network as a way to explain social …

Parental Bonding: Validity, Stability And Predictor Of Mental And Physical Health During Pregnancy, Delicia Dorothy Pereira

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background: Parental bonding during childhood is known to have a significant impact on an individual’s life-long health. The influence of early parent-child relationships may be particularly strong in mothers who are pregnant with their first child. In this study, these emotional bonds were explored using the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), a retrospective and quantitative measure of parental bonding. The PBI has not been validated in a pregnant population, nor has its consistency been examined across the birth of a child. Therefore, this study: i) validates the factor structure of the PBI for the first time in an Australian population of …

Predictors Of Adolescents’ Interest In Stem Majors And Careers, Ei Myint

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Advanced Research Winner 2019:

The United States currently faces a shortage of qualified workers in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The first critical step in preventing the labor shortage in STEM is understanding the factors that guide adolescents toward STEM pursuits. Drawing on Eccles’ expectancy-value theory (EVT), the current study aims to identify factors that are relevant to adolescents’ interest in STEM majors and careers. Data were collected from 629 adolescents (M_age = 16.09). Participants attended a high school in northern California and predominantly identified as Asian American (82% of the sample). Preliminary analyses …

Resilience And Healthy Adult Relationships Post-Childhood Maltreatment, Nicole Sharie Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of resilience and protective factors (PFs) in the life of women who have experienced childhood maltreatment (CHM). A further purpose was to understand how women who faced CHM develop resilience, and how the proper use or misuse of PFs later affected their adult relationships, whether intimate, social, or familial. Resiliency theory was the theoretical foundation that informed the study. A qualitative methodology with an interpretative phenomenological analysis design was used in this study. Participants included 7 women who were recruited through social media support groups for adult survivors of child …

Multicase Historic Studies Of Innovative Work Behavior Among Intellectually Gifted Adults, Karen Denise Gaskins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research study was conducted to examine whether investing in innovation and gifted intelligence would improve America's economic well-being. The investment issue became a problem because educational researchers researched innovation as creativity rather than as productive behavior. Moreover, in the literature, adult giftedness was perceived as negative development rather than as alternate normative behavior. The purpose of this research study was to generate new knowledge about innovation and adult giftedness. WICS (wisdom, intelligence, creativity, synthesized) theory of intelligence provided the theoretical framework because intelligence is a measure of human productivity potential. The neuropsychological conceptual framework facilitated a cognitive …