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Description
Females are highly vulnerable to the effects of methamphetamine, and understanding the mechanisms of this is critical to addressing methamphetamine use as a public health issue. Hormones may play a role in methamphetamine sensitivity; thus, the fluctuation of various endogenous peptides during the postpartum experience is of interest. This honors thesis project explored the relation between anxiety-like behavior, as measured by activity in an open field, and conditioned place preference to methamphetamine in female versus male rats. The behavior of postpartum as well as virgin female rats was compared to that of male rats. There was not a significant difference between males and females in conditioned place preference to methamphetamine, yet females showed higher locomotor activity in response to the drug as well as increased anxiety-like behavior in open field testing as compared to males. Further study is vital to comprehending the complex mechanisms of sex differences in methamphetamine addiction.
ContributorsBaker, Allison Nicole (Author) / Olive, M. Foster (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Hansen, Whitney (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
Popular culture tends to downplay strong female characters to favor a plethora of male figures that children look up to as heroes. This creates a gender imbalance in exposure to inspirational characters that children can look up to as role models. For our team's creative project, we chose to write and illustrate a children's book mainly targeted at young girls, ages eight to twelve that focuses on the stories of selected female figures of Norse mythology. The five stories in our collection focus on the figures Frigg, Skadi, Elli, Idunn, and Freya and are inspired by the mythology contained in the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson and selected medieval texts on the Germanic Lombard tribe. Through our book, Women of Norse Myth: For Little Goddesses, we wanted to introduce children to Norse mythology, a branch of myth that is often overshadowed by more popular mythologies such as Roman and Greek. Additionally, our goal was to bring light to the female figures within Norse myth that are generally given less attention than their male counterparts. Keeping in mind these goals, the stories were adapted from the original myths in a manner that would be suitable for a young audience as well as our aim for female empowerment. The final manuscript contains an introduction to Norse cosmology, introductions to the figures, a glossary of Norse terms used, and the illustrated stories themselves. Together with our combined talents, interests, and goals, Women of Norse Myth: For Little Goddesses was completed, and we hope that someday it can be published and serve as a fun and inspiring storybook for children to read and learn from.
ContributorsFarine, Brittany (Co-author) / Muth, Margaret (Co-author) / Youngjohn, Trystan (Co-author) / Alexander, John (Thesis director) / Wells, Cornelia (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Social Networking Sites (SNSs), such as Facebook and Twitter, have continued to gain popularity worldwide. Previous research has shown differences in online behaviors at the cultural level, namely between predominantly independent societies, such as the United States, and predominantly interdependent societies, such as China and Japan. In the current study I sought to test whether self-construal was correlated with different ways of using SNSs and whether there might be SES differences within the US that were analogous to previously observed cross-cultural differences in SNS use. Higher levels of interdependence were linked with using SNSs to keep in touch with family and friends, and providing social support to others. Interdependence was also correlated with Facebook addiction scale scores, using SNSs in inappropriate situations, and overall SNS use. Implications for assessing risk for Internet addiction, as well as understanding cultural variations in prevalence of Internet addiction are discussed.
ContributorsSobota, David Stanley (Author) / Varnum, Michael (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Dorman, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Abstract
Diagnosing psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) requires admission to an epilepsy monitoring unit, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Despite the cost of and time commitment to this inpatient evaluation, a definitive diagnosis at the end isn’t always guaranteed. Therefore, predictor variables such as demographic information and psychological testing scores can help improve the accuracy of diagnosing PNES or epilepsy at the end of a patient’s EMU admission. Locke et al. have demonstrated that the SOM scale and SOM-C subscale on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) are the best indicators for predicting PNES diagnosis, with an optimal cut score of T≥70 on both of these scales. The aim of the current study was to determine whether evaluating male and female performance separately on these relevant PAI scales improves the accuracy of diagnosing PNES. The results support the hypothesis, such that male optimal cut scores on the SOM and SOM C scales are T=80 and T=75, respectively, and female optimal cut scores on the SOM and SOM C scales are T=71 and T=72, respectively. Utilizing the results of this study can help clinicians diagnose patients with PNES or epilepsy at the end of EMU evaluation with more certainty.
Diagnosing psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) requires admission to an epilepsy monitoring unit, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Despite the cost of and time commitment to this inpatient evaluation, a definitive diagnosis at the end isn’t always guaranteed. Therefore, predictor variables such as demographic information and psychological testing scores can help improve the accuracy of diagnosing PNES or epilepsy at the end of a patient’s EMU admission. Locke et al. have demonstrated that the SOM scale and SOM-C subscale on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) are the best indicators for predicting PNES diagnosis, with an optimal cut score of T≥70 on both of these scales. The aim of the current study was to determine whether evaluating male and female performance separately on these relevant PAI scales improves the accuracy of diagnosing PNES. The results support the hypothesis, such that male optimal cut scores on the SOM and SOM C scales are T=80 and T=75, respectively, and female optimal cut scores on the SOM and SOM C scales are T=71 and T=72, respectively. Utilizing the results of this study can help clinicians diagnose patients with PNES or epilepsy at the end of EMU evaluation with more certainty.
ContributorsCorallo, Kelsey Lynn (Author) / Lanyon, Richard (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The transition from high school to college is marked by many changes, one of the most significant being the increased accessibility of alcohol, putting college students at high risk for alcohol-related consequences. It is imperative to identify factors that can protect young adults against these risks during this critical period. Although peers become increasingly influential in college, extant literature has shown that parents still have an impact on their children's behavior during this time. While parents spend less time with their children after college matriculation, they may indirectly protect against risky drinking behaviors by instilling certain values into their children before they make this transition. Using data from a large sample of students during their senior year of high school and their freshman year of college, the current study sought to examine interactive effects of parental communication and parental knowledge and caring on drinking behavior, and the extent to which internalization of personal drinking values mediate these effects. The primary study hypotheses were tested using path analysis conducted in Mplus 7.0. Full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation was utilized to estimate missing data and bootstrapping was used to address non-normality in the data. Results showed that, for those whose parents were high in knowledge and caring, higher levels of communication were associated with lower risk for alcohol use and problems at wave 3 through less permissive drinking values at wave 1. This finding has important implications for prevention approaches designed to reduce risk for heavy drinking and related problems during the transition to college.
ContributorsHartman, Jessica Danielle (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Often learning new skills, such as how to throw a basketball or how to play the piano, are better accomplished practicing with another than from self-practice. Why? We propose that during joint action, partners learn to adjust their behavior to each other. For example, when dancing with a partner, we must adjust the timing, the force, and the spatial locations of movements to those of the partner. We call these adjustments a joint body schema (JBS). That is, the locations of our own effectors and our own movements are adapted by interaction with the partner. Furthermore, we propose that after a JBS is established, learning new motor skills can be enhanced by the learner's attunement to the specifics of the partner's actions. We test this proposal by having partners engage in a motor task requiring cooperation (to develop the JBS). Then we determined whether a) the JBS enhances the coordination on an unrelated task, and b) whether the JBS enhances the learning of a new motor skill. In fact, participants who established a JBS showed stronger coordination with a partner and better motor learning from the partner than did control participants. Several applications of this finding are discussed.
ContributorsMunion, Amanda Kathleen (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / McBeath, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The relationship between parent and child is one that has been studied intensively for years. Much of the previous research in this field has quantified the parent-child relationship through self-report measures, with a subsample coding behavior from videotape and averaging individual scores across the entire parent-child interaction. Using a dynamic systems approach, we attempted to gain a deeper understanding of the parent-child relationship by quantifying the relationship in terms of dyadic patterns using the software Gridware. We then used these dyadic patterns to predict internalizing and externalizing behaviors in eight-year-old twin children. Dyadic relationship patterns predicted externalizing behaviors such as aggression and conduct disorder (i.e., frequency and stability within negative attractor states, and infrequency and low stability in positive attractor states), but not internalizing behaviors. Findings provide a method for capturing variance in parent-child interactions that is important for children's externalizing behaviors. Future studies should utilize these patterns in understanding risk and resilience family processes for children's mental health and well being.
ContributorsEccles, Jenna Christine (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Women are now living longer than ever before, yet the age of spontaneous menopause has remained stable. This results in an increasing realization of the need for an effective treatment of cognitive and physiological menopausal and post-menopausal symptoms. The most common estrogen component of hormone therapy, conjugated equine estrogens (CEE; Premarin) contains many estrogens that are not endogenous to the human body, and that may or may not be detrimental to cognition (Campbell and Whitehead, 1977; Engler-Chiurazzi et al., 2011; Acosta et al., 2010). We propose the use of a novel treatment option in the form of a naturally-circulating (bioidentical) estrogen called estriol. Due to estriol’s observed positive effects on synaptic functioning and neuroprotective effects in the hippocampus (Ziehn et al., 2012; Goodman et al., 1996), a brain structure important for spatial learning and memory, estriol is promising as a hormone therapy option that may attenuate menopausal- and age- related memory decline. In the current study, we administered one of the three bioidentical estrogens (17β-Estradiol, 4.0 µg/day; Estrone, 8.0 µg/day; Estriol, 8.0 µg/day) or the vehicle polyethylene glycol by subcutaneous osmotic pump to ovariectomized Fisher-344 rats. We compared these groups to each other using a battery of spatial learning tasks, including the water radial-arm maze (WRAM), Morris water maze (MM), and delayed-match-to-sample maze (DMS). We found that all estrogens impaired performance on the WRAM compared to vehicle, while 17β-estradiol administration improved overnight forgetting performance for the MM. The estriol group showed no cognitive enhancements relative to vehicle; however, there were several factors indicating that both our estriol and estradiol doses were too high, so future studies should investigate whether lower doses of estriol may be beneficial to cognition.
ContributorsStonebarger, Gail Ashley (Author) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Engler-Chiurrazzi, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The transition from high school to college is associated with considerable life strain for adolescents, including higher reported levels of daily stress and negative affect (NA), and alterations in stress physiology have been linked to poor health. The purpose of this thesis was to use an ecological momentary assessment design to study associations between momentary experiences of negative affect and cortisol levels in a sample of adolescents transitioning to college. I also examined the potential moderating effects of two potential vulnerability or protective factors, alone status and perceived social support from friends. Adolescents provided salivary samples and completed paper-and-pencil diary reports of socioemotional experiences and alone status five times per day for three consecutive weekdays, as well as completed self-report questionnaires on perceived social support from friends. Within-person increases in momentary negative affect were associated with momentary cortisol reactivity. Alone status significantly moderated this association such that the association between momentary negative affect and momentary cortisol levels was only significant when individuals were with others and not when they were alone. Perceived social support from friends did not significantly moderate the within-person associations between negative affect and momentary cortisol levels. The findings add to our understanding of physiological correlates of socioemotional experiences, as well as contexts in which these associations may be exaggerated or attenuated. The findings inform our understanding of potential pathways by which physiological reactivity to socioemotional experiences may affect the health of adolescents as well as how prevention efforts could reduce potential poor health outcomes associated with heightened stress reactivity.
ContributorsKomarnisky, Sydney-Paige Milan (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12