Other Psychology Commons^™

From Worry To Invention: Developing The Lunch Bunch As A Multimodal Expressive Arts Model For Regulation, Collaboration, And Peer Connection In Elementary Schools, Pascale Lauren Mimran-Ugbabe

Expressive Therapies Theses

This thesis documents the development of the Multimodal Expressive Arts Lunch Bunch, a small group intervention for elementary students delivered during the school lunch period at a public elementary school in Boston, Massachusetts. Grounded in multimodal expressive arts therapy, intermodal transfer theory, polyvagal-informed co-regulation, and principles of externalization, the intervention was designed as a low-barrier creative support group accessible regardless of diagnosis, referral status, or family pursuit of clinical services. Two cohorts of teacher-nominated students, one group of fourth-grade girls and one mixed-gender third-grade group, participated in a sequenced arc moving from worry externalization through collaborative invention, prototype construction, and …

Birth Control Use Alters Memory For A Stressful Experience, Julia N. Gross, Kristie Payment, Boyd R. Rorabaugh, Phillip R. Zoladz

Aurora

Hormonal birth control methods are widely used; however, some users suffer considerable side effects. Previous research suggests oral contraceptive users exhibit a blunted cortisol response to psychosocial stressors and alterations in emotional memory, including differential recall of emotional images and details of emotional stories. However, no studies have examined how birth control influences memory for a stressful experience.

The present study analyzes data previously collected from female undergraduate students. In this study, participants reported contraceptive use, then underwent a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or the friendly-TSST (f-TSST). The TSST required participants to deliver a ten-minute, …

Barriers And Bridges: Exploring Factors That Shape Mental Health Service Utilization In Rural America, Margaret Wiwuga

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Despite disproportionately higher suicide mortality rates and comparable prevalence of mental illness across urban and rural communities in the United States, rural populations across the nation experience significantly lower access to and utilization of mental health services, naturally leading to worse comprehensive outcomes. This literature review examines multifaceted factors shaping mental health service use in rural America, taking note of both barrier and enabling factors that impede or enable these unique populations’ willingness and ability to access and use mental health services. Ten articles published prior to September 9, 2025, were selected from the James Madison University Libraries’ Psychology and …

The Impact Of Partner Quality On Female Perception Of Ovulation Cues During Pregnancy, Zoe Michelle Hannabass

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Human ovulation is largely concealed, yet subtle fertility-related cues, including facial and vocal changes, may influence mate selection and intrasexual competition (Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008; Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2016). These cues are thought to “leak” across the menstrual cycle and shape social perception in ways that are not always consciously detected. Pregnancy represents a unique context in which reproductive priorities shift, as women become increasingly dependent on partner resources for maternal and fetal well-being. As a result, traits signaling physical attractiveness, signaling genetic quality, become less important while those signaling partner investment may become more important among pregnant females. This …

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Jung’S Active Imagination: A Review And Hypothesis, Charles R. Fox

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Active imagination is a key technique of Jungian analysis. Despite its centrality, and its potential importance beyond Jungian psychology to the area of systems neuroscience, psychology, and consciousness studies, there are no known neurological mechanisms underlying this psychological phenomenon. There is a history of using the types of mental imagery used in active imagination to explore consciousness. The development and use of active imagination is briefly reviewed, and a case is developed that the neurology underlying active imagination would be fruitfully explored by considering it a special case of mystical experience. Active imagination primarily uses the right hemisphere processing of …

I Lost My Number, Can I Have Yours? Body Image Satisfaction With Sexually Dimorphic Traits Is Associated With Men's Dating Anxiety And Confidence, David A. Frederick, Tania A. Reynolds, Nikoline L. Smart, Justin R. Garcia, David A. Puts

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Evolutionary scientists posit that sexual selection processes caused males to develop sexually dimorphic traits to aid them during intrasexual competition and increase their likelihood of being chosen as mates. Evolutionary social sciences have extensively examined women's preferences for traits such as muscle mass and voice pitch, reasoning that these traits serve as cues of men's ability to provide direct benefits (e.g., resources) and indirect (genetic) benefits passed on to offspring. At the same time, body image researchers have extensively focused on the social causes and consequences of men's dissatisfaction with their muscularity and body fat. We connected these two research …

Targeting The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation To Improve Depression And Anxiety In Parkinson's Disease, Brock Renicks

Honors Theses

The aim of this study is to observe the outcomes of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a treatment for Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This study will primarily look at changes in depression and anxiety, as these symptoms are often comorbid with Parkinson’s Disease. Transcranial direct current stimulation is a non-invasive, very low-intensity form of electrical stimulation of the brain. It is being increasingly used as a form of treatment for Parkinson’s Disease and depression and anxiety, however the literature is ambiguous, showing mixed results throughout various studies, with no standardization of tDCS administration. To determine the effect of tDCS on …

Social Media Usage And Motives In Socially Anxious Individuals, Emma Eddy

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Social media use (SMU) has grown rapidly in recent years, alongside the rate of social anxiety. Plenty of research has been previously conducted exploring the relationship between SMU and social anxiety, as well as potential motivations for using social media which may explain the recent incline in usage. However, this study combines the two relationships together to test the association between social anxiety and problematic SMU as well as to investigate motives of SMU as potential mediators of problematic SMU. Problematic social media usage, social anxiety, passive vs active SMU, and four different motives of SMU were all looked at. …

Targeting The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation To Improve Depression And Anxiety In Parkinson’S Disease, Brock Renicks

Poster Presentations

Around 40% of people with Parkinson’s Disease experience depression and anxiety (Zhao et al, 2025). Depression and Anxiety have been said to be localized to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brunoni et al, 2016). Transcranial Direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to modulate depression and anxiety by targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Sreeraj et al, 2023). It is beneficial due to its cost, portability, and simplicity of use. Thus we will be assessing the efficacy of tDCS in reducing depression and anxiety in individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.

Expressive Suppression Within Male Blue-Collar Coloradans, Kelsi C. Smits

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Blue-collar workers are a population that impacts nearly everyone who interacts with modern infrastructure.  Although they are crucial to modern life they are a population that is not widely researched or understood. This study aims to gain a more robust understanding of blue-collar workers by investigating male blue-collar workers in Colorado. This study will investigate how male blue-collar workers regulate their emotions. Emotional regulation will be measured using the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire. It is hypothesized that male blue-collar workers within Colorado will show that emotional suppression is a used emotional regulation tactic. It is essential to understand this because emotional …

What Are The Roles Of Vocabulary And Working Memory In Metaphor Comprehension?, Claire Simpson

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

One of the most notable factors that influence sentence comprehension is the presence of metaphors (e.g., Inhoff, Lima, & Carroll, 1984). The metaphor interference effect (MIE) is a very interesting result of metaphor comprehension. It is a well-known linguistic effect (e.g., Al- Azary et al., 2021; Glucksberg et al, 1982) that can result in participants taking longer to determine that a metaphoric statement is false compared to other non-metaphoric literally false statements. The present study investigated the impact that vocabulary knowledge, working memory capacity, and memory load have on the metaphor interference effect. We predicted that each of these characteristics …

Leading The Choreography: Preserving Creative Agency In Ai-Supported Problem-Solving, Mikhaila Ackerbauer

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

As artificial intelligence tools become increasingly present in creative and problem-solving contexts, a critical question emerges: how can users engage with AI in ways that preserve rather than erode their own creative capacity? This project explores that question through research synthesis, practitioner conversations, coursework, international conference presentations, and the development of custom AI chatbots trained in the Creative Problem-Solving process. The central finding is a theoretical triangle comprising three interdependent capacities: autonomy, creative self-efficacy, and critical thinking. Grounded in Rhodes' (1961) Four P's framework, the triangle sits within the Person dimension. Convergent themes across the literature, practitioner conversations, and direct …

Evaluating The Psychometric Validity Of Science Curiosity, Brooke Simila

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

As political polarization and mass distrust in scientific consensus increases, psychologists have sought to understand individual differences that contribute to polarized political and scientific reasoning. One emerging concept in this area is science curiosity (SC), the disposition to seek and engage with scientific information for personal gratification (Kahan et al., 2017). A handful of studies have identified SC as an offsetting variable in politically motivated reasoning (Motta et al., 2021). However, the psychometric structure of SC remains underexplored; it is unclear whether SC represents a distinctive, unidimensional disposition or merely a manifestation of general curiosity traits. The purpose of this …

Narcissism And Eyewitness Identification, Haley M. Hearn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

According to the Innocence Project, 69% of individuals exonerated by DNA evidence were initially found guilty due to an eyewitness misidentification (Innocence Project, n.d.-a). A way that investigators attempt to prevent misidentification is by assessing how confident eyewitnesses are in their identifications. There is a large body of research suggesting that these confidence estimates can, in many instances, operate as reliable barometers of accuracy. However, what if an eyewitness is overconfident? Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by overconfidence. If a narcissistic eyewitness reports confidence in their identification of a suspect, should this report be trusted? Two studies were conducted …

Big Feelings, Fast Decisions: Emotion Regulation As A Moderator Of Impulsivity In Binge And Emotional Eating, Emma G. Folk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Emotion-driven impulsivity and difficulties with emotion regulation are both associated with maladaptive eating behaviors, including binge eating and emotional eating. However, it remains unclear whether broader emotion regulation difficulties intensify the influence of impulsive responses to emotional states on these behaviors. This study examined whether emotion dysregulation moderates the relationship between emotion-driven impulsivity and maladaptive eating behaviors. Participants were 266 adults (ages 18–65) who completed measures of impulsivity, emotion regulation difficulties, binge eating, and emotional eating. Moderation analyses were conducted using PROCESS in SPSS, controlling for body mass index (BMI) and gender. Negative and positive urgency were significantly associated with …

Language Control Over Structural Representation In Bilinguals, Anahy Barragan-Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In daily life, bilinguals sometimes speak each of their languages in situations where the other language cannot be understood. To avoid saying words in the wrong language in such situations, bilinguals inhibit lexical representations from the non-target language (Green, 1998). But do they inhibit structural representations? This study investigated how inhibitory control operates over structural representations in English-dominant Spanish-English bilinguals via a picture description task. An experimental group was asked to describe dative-eliciting pictures in English (Baseline Phase), followed by dative pictures in Spanish (Manipulation Phase), and once again dative pictures in English (Target Phase), while a control group followed …

“Everybody's So Punk On The Internet:” What Online Discourse On Taylor Swift’S Life Of A Showgirl Tells Us About Social Movements, Media, And Activism, Kaela Joseph, Tanya Cook

The Manuscript: Journal of Taylor Swift Studies

Taylor Swift’s twelfth album (TS12), Life of a Showgirl, broke multiple records in charting and sales (Sisario), however, early online discourse focused less on the album’s commercial success and more on Swift herself as a public figure in the current sociopolitical landscape. While some critiques were typical, discursive of Swift’s lyricism and composition, as well as the expectations set by Swift’s marketing of the album, others questioned what the album says about Swift’s sociopolitical positionality. More specifically, discourse questioned how the album contributes to, or detracts from, Swift’s role as a starticipant; a celebrity who contributes to the success …

A Trauma Psychology Approach To Space Psychology And Long-Duration Space Travel In Consideration Of Isolation, Resource Scarcity, And Group Dynamics., Alden Nicoll

Honors Projects

As modern societies research and prepare for long-duration deep space travel, psychological research becomes increasingly prevalent into understanding the effects of trauma on the psyche. This present study looks at the current research outcomes of “Team Dynamics”, “Social Isolation”, and “Resource Scarcity” within the literature of Space Psychology. Current research on social isolation is taken from past missions in outer space and analog missions in Antarctica, at sea, and prison research. While research is vast on social isolation, it doesn’t consider how trauma could be intensified with both time and duration in space. Next, when considering team dynamics and how …

Attitudes Toward Menstruation In Transgender/Nonbinary Menstruators, Destiny J. Pacchelli

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the unique experiences and attitudes that transgender and/or nonbinary (TNB) menstruators have related to menstruation. Participants (n = 103) were 19 to 60-year-old Americans who identified as TNB and have menstruated, and whose primary language is English. They were recruited through Prolific and asked to describe their first period and how their gender identity influenced their feelings toward menstruation. Additionally, participants responded to quantitative questions related to menstrual symptoms, attitudes, beliefs, and emotions, body image, well-being, and demographic questions to determine family culture at childhood and now. TNB menstruators reported …

Who Will Grow Our Food In The Future? Factors Influencing A-State Agricultural Student’S Intentions To Enter Production Agriculture, Kamana Kafle

Create@State

The future of agriculture depends on what motivates today’s student to pursue careers in production agriculture. This study identifies key drivers of career intention among College of Agricultural students at A-State using an extended Theory of Planned Behavior framework. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The model explained a substantial 74.2% of the variance in agricultural career intention. Results revealed that Career Planning was the strongest positive predictor, followed by Attitude Towards Agriculture and Perceived Value. Interestingly, factors such as Perceived Behavioral Control, Subjective Norms, and access to Facilities …