Psychology Honors Theses

Fos Activation in the BST Following Juvenile Social Subjugation

Chandler E. Puhy — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:05:15 PST

Females are disproportionately affected by stress- related mood disorders. Child abuse is the single greatest environmental risk factor for mood disorders. An animal model of child abuse, juvenile social subjugation (JSS), was used to determine whether males and females differentially process stress, specifically in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST). Rats (n=36) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: JSS, Benign Control (BC) or Handled Control (HC). Following this procedure, brains were processed for Fos, which indicates neural activity. It was hypothesized that the JSS condition would evoke more neural activation than other conditions and would do so more in females. Across both sexes, we hypothesized there would be significantly more activation in the posterior BST than in the anterior BST. Based on earlier research, we hypothesized there would be and a sex difference in total neuron number, favoring males, in the posterior BST.

Islamic Parochial Education in the United States: A Study of Two Atlanta-Area Schools

Sacha M. St-Onge Ahmad — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:11:02 PDT

Through a comparative study of two Atlanta full-time Muslim parochial schools, this study examines Muslim approaches to Islamic education by analyzing school leaders' secular and religious goals, their main obstacles and concerns, and what they believe the best practices are. The study explores leaders’ visions of socialization and community development by juxtaposing findings from two schools. In order to answer the aforementioned questions, this study 1) assesses national trends in K-12 Islamic parochial schools across the United States through related research, 2) engages Muslim leaders from both institutions through semi-formal interviews, and 3) supplements findings through an extended period of participant observation.

Affective Responses to Inequity in Capuchin Monkeys

Danny Fernandez — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:21:26 PST

Many studies have documented adverse affects to inequitable situations in non-human primates. The behaviors that have predominantly been examined include food taking, collecting, giving, and refusals between the primate subjects and the experimenters. However, no studies had looked at the affective responses to inequity in primates. In a recent study, four-year old children who were rewarded inequitably accepted the reward, however they showed affective signs of dissatisfaction. For this study, we looked for affective displays in capuchins during inequitable exchange tasks. We predicted that the capuchins that were experiencing inequity would show more signs of agitation and aggression than those in equitable situations. We saw no increase in agitation or aggression when subjects were treated inequitably. There was higher aggression towards partners who received the lower reward in inequitable situations and less agitation seen by partners during frustration controls. Future studies may find our hypothesized results using different methodologies.

Acculturative Stress and Gang Involvement among Latinos: U.S.-born versus Immigrant Youth

Alice N. Barrett — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:49:07 PDT

Quantitative and qualitative data from the 2002 Latino Adolescent Transition Study were used to explore differences in acculturative stress and gang involvement between foreign-born and U.S.-born Latino middle school students. Regression analyses showed significant interactions between discrimination stress and immigration status as well as adaptation stress and immigration status. U.S.-born youths were significantly more likely to be gang-involved if they experienced discrimination stress. They were also less likely to be gang-involved if they experienced high adaptation stress. A minority of primarily foreign-born youths identified economic inequality and prejudicial attitudes as factors that differentiated them from Americans. Those reporting economic inequality were more likely to be gang-involved than those who did not. These findings suggest that the origins of gang involvement could differ between the two immigrant generations. Whereas U.S.-born Latinos may be more negatively affected by discrimination, foreign-born Latinos may be more sensitive to their comparatively low economic status.

Task-Demand Effects on Self-reported Stress State

Stefanie C. Wellons et al. — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:12:53 PST

Removed

The Effect of Auditory Sensory Abnormalities on Language Development in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Melissa Tatyana Nikolic — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:43 PST

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by atypical development in the domains of social, emotional, language and cognitive functioning in the first few years of life. Research indicates an associated phenomenon of sensory processing abnormalities in the ASD population (Baker, Lane, Angley, & Young, 2008), and specifically auditory domain (Tecchio et al., 2003) which may relate to language deficits (Baranek, David, Poe, Stone & Watson, 2006). This study researched the effect of auditory sensory abnormalities on language in young children with ASD (n = 118), specifically receptive and expressive language and prosody. A specific subdomain of auditory abnormalities, sensory seeking, was found to be predictive of expressive language (β = .30, p=.009), perhaps due to a focus on auditory stimuli to the exclusion of expressive language interaction. There was no significant effect for receptive language (β = .16, p=.16) and prosody (β = -.09, p=.493).

Set-Switching and Learning Transfer

C. Dustin Johnson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:43 PST

In this experiment I investigated the relationship between set-switching and transfer learning, both of which presumably invoke executive functioning (EF), which may in turn be correlated with intelligence. Set-switching was measured by a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sort Task. Another computer task was written to measure learning-transfer ability. The data indicate little correlation between the ability to transfer learning and the capacity for set-switching. That is, these abilities may draw from independent cognitive mechanisms. The major difference may be requirement to utilize previous learning in a new way in the learning-transfer task.

Ethnic and Racial Differences in Emotion Perception

Linda Cheng — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:42 PST

This study analyzed racial differences in the way African Americans and Caucasians perceive emotion from facial expressions and tone of voice. Participants were African American (n=25) and Caucasian (n=26) college students. The study utilizes 56 images of African American and Caucasian faces balanced for race and sex from the NimStim stimulus set (Tottenham, 2006). The study also utilized visual and auditory stimuli form the DANVA2. Participants were asked to judged emotion for each stimulus in the tasks. The BFRT, the WASI, and the Seashore Rhythm test were used as exclusionary criteria. In general the study found few differences in the way African Americans and Caucasians perceived emotion, though racial differences emerged as an interaction with other factors. The results of the study supported the theory of universality of emotion perception and expression though social influences, which may affect emotion perception, is also a possibility. Areas of future research were discussed.

I Wish I were a Tiger... Domestic Violence Research with Children Who Have Witnessed Domestic Violence

Margaret Pearman Jones — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:42 PST

This paper presents the results of a study conducted at a domestic violence safehouse for an undergraduate Honors Thesis. Twenty-three children ages 4-16 from African American and immigrant communities were interviewed while residing at a safehouse for victims of domestic violence regarding their beliefs and attitudes about perceptions of self, conflict resolution skills, and feelings of anger and coping strategies. The study found a strong relation between length of stay & positive coping strategies. Age & gender were also related to conflict resolution skills. Qualitative data provided interesting & potentially important insights into children’s internal experiences of being witnesses of domestic violence. The study did not support past research in terms of child witnesses exhibiting low self-esteem, poor conflict strategies, and high rates of aggression. This study concludes that more research needs to be conducted on protective factors and resiliency to the effects of domestic violence to explain this study’s results.

Gender Bias in Observer Ratings of Pediatric Procedural Pain

Jeff Sims — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:41 PST

The current study attempted to discern the extent to which a gender bias influences the adult ratings of observed childhood pain. While gender differences in pain sensation are well documented in physiologically mature individuals, there seems to be no such difference in children. The effect of manipulating gender on the procedural pain ratings of 201 university undergraduate and nursing students was examined via a deceptive pain observation task. Results demonstrated no significant difference between gender conditions; however a strong link was established between prior exposure to painful pediatric medical procedures and lower pain ratings. The results suggest that, while a gender bias failed to alter pain ratings, desensitization to viewing painful procedures could alter how much pain healthcare professionals believe a patient is experiencing.

Emotional Awareness and Psychophysiological Markers of Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task

Cory Inman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:41 PST

The present study examines the relationship of emotional awareness to anticipatory psychophysiological markers and performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT is a computerized card game that simulates real-life decisions through uncertainty of reward or punishment. The participant’s goal is to make advantageous card choices. Anticipatory somatic markers of physiological arousal, like electrodermal activity and heart rate, have been proposed to bias decisions in the IGT. The central hypothesis is that a participant’s emotional awareness is related to their ability to make advantageous decisions through biasing psychophysiological responses. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale was used to assess each participant’s emotional awareness. Less emotional awareness was associated with enhanced performance on the IGT. However, anticipatory physiological arousal (electrodermal activity and heart rate) and emotional awareness yielded no significant relationships. Findings suggest a need for further research on cognitive models, such as the expectancy valence model, in relation to decision-making.

Eating, Body Satisfaction, Ethnicity, and Women's Relationship with God

Sharrunn Nicole Rhone — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:40 PST

The hypotheses of the current study are that (1) black women will be more spiritual and (2) will have more knowledge of the Holy Spirit than white women, and (3) spirituality will be negatively correlated with eating disorder symptomatology and body dissatisfaction. (4) African American women will have lower body dissatisfaction and (5) less eating disorder symptomatology than Caucasian women. It is predicted that (6) ethnicity will have more influence on eating disorder symptomatology and spirituality than current and ideal weight. (7) Current weight will have more influence on body dissatisfaction than ethnicity or ideal weight. Finally, (8) the ideal weight of black women will be higher than that of white women. Participants included 95 African American and Caucasian female college students. All the hypotheses were supported. Prospective research can discern whether racial differences in spirituality have causal influence on healthier body image held by many black women.

The Utilization of the Q-Sort Methodology to Develop a Measure of Women's Response to Intimate Partner Violence

Tiffany Lenell Young — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:40 PST

Q- sort methodology was used to detect underlying structures in 45 statements that reflect women’s attempts to make themselves feel better after incidents of abuse. Eight dichotomous categories were created as plausible descriptors of the 45 statements within the measure. Graduate and advance undergraduate students used the categories to sort the 45 statements. The individual sorts were input with PQMethod software. The Centroid method was used for data analysis. Three of the eight proposed categories were supported: perspective (i.e. the woman’s thought and perceptions regarding the abusive relationship), health behavior, and social relationship. Data analysis displayed that the 45 “feel better” items are able to be grouped into meaningful categories.