Matching Items (49)
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- All Subjects: psychology
- Creators: School of Life Sciences
- Creators: Presson, Clark
- Creators: Brewer, Gene
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Status: Published
Description
Humans use emotions to communicate social cues to our peers on a daily basis. Are we able to identify context from facial expressions and match them to specific scenarios? This experiment found that people can effectively distinguish negative and positive emotions from each other from a short description. However, further research is needed to find out whether humans can learn to perceive emotions only from contextual explanations.
ContributorsCulbert, Bailie (Author) / Hartwell, Leland (Thesis director) / McAvoy, Mary (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Abstract: Behavioral evidence suggests that joint coordinated movement attunes one's own motor system to the actions of another. This attunement is called a joint body schema (JBS). According to the JBS hypothesis, the attunement arises from heightened mirror neuron sensitivity to the actions of the other person. This study uses EEG mu suppression, an index of mirror neuron system activity, to provide neurophysiological evidence for the JBS hypothesis. After a joint action task in which the experimenter used her left hand, the participant's EEG revealed greater mu suppression (compared to before the task) in her right cerebral hemisphere when watching a left hand movement. This enhanced mu suppression was found regardless of whether the participant was moving or watching the experimenter move. These results are suggestive of super mirror neurons, that is, mirror neurons which are strengthened in sensitivity to another after a joint action task and do not distinguish between whether the individual or the individual's partner is moving.
ContributorsGoodwin, Brenna Renee (Author) / Glenberg, Art (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
In this study, potential differences in the manifestation and rates of eating disorders and symptoms (body dissatisfaction, weight and shape concerns, food restriction, and compensatory behaviors) in college women across sexual orientations were examined. The sociocultural model of eating disorders was also examined for these women across sexual orientations. The participants were organized into three different sexual orientation groups for analysis: heterosexual (group 1), bisexual, pansexual, and polysexual (group 2), and lesbian, gay, queer, transsexual, asexual, and other (group 3). Using cross-sectional data, it was revealed that there were significant group differences when comparing the three sexual orientation groups on loss of control over eating, but no significant group differences on body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and weight-related eating pathology, and total eating disorder symptoms scores. The sociocultural model was not predictive of eating disorder symptoms among non-heterosexual groups. Longitudinal analyses revealed that the sociocultural model of eating disorders prospectively predicts eating disorder symptoms among heterosexual women, but not non-heterosexual women. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses indicate that non-heterosexual women may be protected from societal pressure to subscribe to the thin ideal and its subsequent internalization. However, the comparison group of heterosexual women in our study may not have been completely representative of undergraduate women in terms of total eating disorder symptoms or eating pathology. Additionally, regardless of sexual orientation, our sample reported more total eating disorder symptoms and emotional eating than previous studies. These findings have both clinical and research implications. Future research is needed to determine what risk factors and treatment target variables are relevant for non-heterosexual women.
ContributorsNorman, Elizabeth Blair (Author) / Perez, Marisol (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The relationship of attachment style to both the selection and efficacy of emotion management strategies in adult dyadic contexts is not well elucidated. In non-romantic contexts, the interplay between emotion management and individual attachment style may provide a better understanding of how affect can be mitigated in daily life. The present study investigated these interactions by studying 56 pairs of college age women who were close friends. Participants were asked to have a conversation about a current source of concern/distress to one partner, while seated in the laboratory. After the conversation, participants were asked to report their subjective experience of several emotions during the conversation, such as ‘sadness,’ ‘joy,’ and ‘fear.’ Participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire assessing adult attachment style, specifically attachment anxiety and avoidance. Behavior during the conversation was coded for co-rumination and co-cognitive reappraisal by the “listener.” Listener attachment insecurity showed a trending association with increased use of co-detached reappraisal, for both avoidance (p=0.14) and anxiety (p=0.14). Listener attachment insecurity also predicted lower use of co-rumination, for both anxiety (p=0.10) and avoidance (p=0.02). Speaker attachment insecurity moderated the relationship between co-detached reappraisal and speaker emotion. Greater co-detached reappraisal predicted higher reports of non-fear negative and positive emotions, but only for high-avoidance speakers. Greater co-detached reappraisal also predicted greater non-fear negative emotions among speakers high, but not low, on attachment anxiety. Greater listener use of co-positive reappraisal was associated with higher reports of speaker fear; this effect was not moderated by speaker attachment style. These findings are discussed in relation to theoretical conceptions of attachment style, and in terms of the impact of context on emotion.
ContributorsJakob, Nicholas (Co-author) / Tolmachoff, Georgeanne (Co-author) / Shiota, Michelle (Thesis director) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / Yee, Claire (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
First-semester student retention is a constant priority for undergraduate institutions. The transition to the collegiate level, and to a new scholastic program and format, is frequently challenging academically and socially—for this reason, many first-semester course schedules for incoming freshman undergraduates feature an introductory seminar to ease transition to an undergraduate lifestyle. Arizona State University features a required “Careers in the Life Sciences” course for its first-semester School of Life Sciences students, which has had tractable results in first semester student retention and academic success. Here, we evaluate a component of the seminar, the peer-mentorship program, for its efficacy in students’ first semester experience. Analysis of self-reports from 168 first-semester “mentees” and their 25 mentors indicates frequency of mentee-mentor contact was the best indicator of a higher first semester GPA, comfort with academic resources and study habits, and desire to engage in extracurricular activities and internships. These data indicate that access to a mentor who actively engages and verbally connects with their mentees is a valuable component of first-semester student academic integration and retention.
ContributorsMathews, Ian T. (Author) / Capco, David (Thesis director) / Clark-Curtiss, Josephine (Committee member) / Harrell, Carita (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations among diurnal cortisol rhythms and sleeping patterns in adolescents. 79 participants completed the study over three days during the spring semester of their senior year in high school, and 76 of these subjects participated again over three days during the fall semester of their freshman year in college. They completed daily saliva samples and diary entries, while wearing an actigraph to obtain objective measurements of sleep duration and efficiency. Cross-sectionally, longer sleep duration was associated with a lower cortisol awakening response, a smaller area under the cortisol curve, and a steeper cortisol slope. Longitudinally, there was no significant relationship between sleep duration and these cortisol parameters. Moreover, sleep efficiency was not associated with cortisol parameters cross-sectionally nor longitudinally. Results suggest associations between concurrent sleep duration and cortisol patterns, and may have significant impact on understanding adolescents' physiological response to stress.
ContributorsLathrop, Devon Olivia (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Orchinik, Miles (Committee member) / Zeiders, Katherine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
An introduction to neuroscientific thought aimed at an audience that is not educated in biology. Meant to be readable and easily understood by anyone with a high school education. The first section is completed in its entirety, with outlines for the proposed final sections to be completed over the next few years.
ContributorsNelson, Nicholas Alan (Author) / Olive, M. Foster (Thesis director) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
There is preclinical evidence that the detrimental cognitive effects of hormone loss can be ameliorated by estrogen therapy (Bimonte, Acosta, & Talboom, 2010), however, one of the primary concerns with current hormone therapies is that they are nonselective, leading to increased risk of breast and endometrial cancers as well as heart disease. Thus, in order to achieve a successful and clinically relevant long-term hormone therapy option, it is optimal to find an estrogen therapy regimen that is selective to its target tissue. Recently, phytoestrogens have been found to exert selective, beneficial effects on cognition and brain. For example, genistein and diadzein produce neuroprotective effects in cognitive brain regions (Zhao, Chen, & Diaz Brinton, 2002). The purpose of this study was threefold: 1) to examine the cognitive impact of phytoestrogens in young ovariectomized rats, 2) to replicate the dose effects found in the Luine study (Luine et al., 2006), while controlling for manufacturer differences, and 3) to assess if the rodent diet used in our laboratory has an estrogenic-like cognitive impact.The current findings suggest that, at least for object memory, diets containing varying amounts of phytoestrogens can alter cognition, with diets containing high amounts of phytoestrogens showing potential benefits to this type of memory.
ContributorsWhitton, Elizabeth Nicole (Author) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Baxter, Leslie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
This study aims to examine how crossover relations from one parent relate to the other parent's view of familial relationships. The study examines mood state and psychological distress as variables that relate to each other and familial relationships. Home visits were scheduled with families of normally developing three-year olds. During these home visits, naturalistic observation and surveys were done. Researchers then conducted regression analyses to examine the relation between mood state, psychological distress, and familial relationships. The data showed that there were significant relations between one parents' psychological distress and how the other parent viewed the marital relationship, indicating a crossover relation between those two variables.
ContributorsLopez, Nicole Marie (Author) / Crnic, Keith (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Nelson, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
I propose that norms regulate behaviors that negatively impact an individual's survival and reproduction. But because monitoring and enforcing of norms can be costly, individuals should be selective about which norms they police and under what circumstances they should do so. Two studies tested this idea by experimentally activating fitness-relevant motives and having participants answer questions about the policing of norms. The first study examined a norm prescribing respect for status and another proscribing sexual coercion. Results from Study 1 failed to support the hypotheses; activating a status-seeking motive did not have the predicted effects on policing of the respect-status norm nor did activating a mating motive have the predicted effects on policing of the respect-status norm or anti-coercion norm. Study 2 examined two new norms, one prescribing that people stay home when sick and the other proscribing people from having sex with another person's partners. Study 2 also manipulated whether self or others were the target of the policing. Study 2 failed to provide support; a disease avoidance motive failed to have effects on policing of the stay home when sick norm. Individuals in a relationship under a mating motive wanted less policing of others for violation of the mate poaching norm than those in a baseline condition, opposite of the predicted effects.
ContributorsSmith, M. Kristopher (Author) / Neuberg, L. Steven (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Hruschka, J. Daniel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05