Matching Items (92)
Description
Being able to self-regulate has been found to be an important part of a person’s physiological and psychological health. It allows someone to regulate their emotions well in trying to obtain a goal, or in realizing a goal is unobtainable and re-evaluating the situation to form an obtainable goal (Rasmussen, Wrosch, Scheier & Carver, 2006). Self-regulation can be measured in many ways, but a physiological measure of self-regulation is heart rate variability (HRV). HRV monitors the body’s response to emotional stressors through measuring how variable a person’s heartbeat is (Appelhans & Luecken, 2006). A second potential factor contributing to self-regulation is social closeness. Research has also shown that the more social closeness a person experiences, the better able they are to regulate their emotions (Kok & Fredrickson, 2010; Kok et al., 2013). Social closeness is assessed via self-reports. There is a difference between partners’ and self-reports, such that the partners tend to be more positive when asked about the participants through questionnaires (Vuorisalmi, Sarkeala, Hervonen & Jylhä, 2012). When examining the relationship between reports of spouses, research has shown that the husbands are worse at reliably reporting their wives’ behaviors, but are more reliable when reporting on personal situations between the couple than is the wife (Khawaja & Tewtel-Salem, 2004). To date we know that a higher HRV is associated with better self-regulation and that social closeness leads to better emotional regulation; however, we do not know if HRV and social closeness combine to predict better functionality or if it matters if the husbands or wives are filling out the self-reports on social closeness. This study investigated four hypotheses regarding the relations between HRV and social relations between partners and how the social or emotional functioning of female fibromyalgia (FM) patients. The first hypothesis is that when the FM patient feels disregard from her partner, she is more likely to exhibit a decline in her social functioning, and that this decline is less pronounced in high HRV. The second hypothesis is that if a FM patient feels disregarded by her partner, her emotional functioning will become inhibited; furthermore, that this relationship is moderated by her HRV. The third hypothesis is that when her partner feels he disregards her, her social functioning is impaired, and that this relationship is moderated by her HRV. The last hypothesis is that when her partner feels he disregards her, her emotional functioning declines, and that this relationship is moderated by HRV. The FM patient’s HRV was measured in a laboratory setting, and the partner disregard was measured by a partner survey that was administered to both the FM patient and her partner. Through the analysis of all of the results, none of the four hypotheses had significant results showing that none of them were supported by this experiment.
ContributorsKillion, Jordan Ann (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Yeung, Wan (Committee member) / Zautra, Alex (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Literature on the undocumented population in the United States is rich, and is growing in the area of the 1.5 generation (which refers to undocumented individuals, typically under age 30, who have grown up in the U.S.), but is scant regarding the health of this population, how they alleviate illnesses and what resources they have to do so. While Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provides temporary benefits to undocumented youth, a DACA health gap persists. Even for those who are awarded DACA, when compared to their citizen counterparts, resources are still unequal. The 1.5 generation faces unique health challenges and even with policy progress, circumstances tied to their documentation status leave them reverting back to limited resources. In this study, ten members of this generation were interviewed. Findings show that they suffer from minor physical health challenges, but significant mental and emotional health challenges without the means to access adequate healthcare comparable to their citizen counterparts.
ContributorsDay, Elinor Gabriela (Author) / Estrada, Emir (Thesis director) / Perez, Marisol (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Sibling interactions are natural contexts for learning about the appropriate expression of emotions. The emotionally charged nature of sibling interactions creates a convenient context to explore emotional reactivity and regulation. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among parent-reported sibling relationship quality, observed sibling prosocial and antisocial behaviors displayed when playing a competitive marble game, and children's emotions coded from videotape. The sample consisted of 58 twin children who are currently participating in the longitudinal Arizona Twin Project. Parents completed the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire online at 5 and 8 years. Additionally, a competitive marble game interaction between the siblings took place in the home at 8 years and was videotaped for objective coding of prosocial, antisocial, and control behavior. Facial expressions were also coded from videotape using Emotient FACET software across the marble game interaction. Three mean composites of emotion were created, including positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Results showed that parent reported warmth did not predict the occurrence of positive emotions during the sibling interaction. However, siblings with high conflict showed less fear during the interaction. Parent reports of warmth predicted the extent to which siblings differed on emotion expression, however conflict did not. Parent ratings of conflict and warmth did not predict the extent to which the sibling dyad was emotionally intense. Findings regarding genetic and environmental effects were in line with previous reports of genetic influence on prosocial behavior and negative emotion, and expressions of joy being influenced by the environment. This study investigated noteworthy aspects of the sibling relationship that appear to promote children's adaptive development.
ContributorsGanase, Anaelle Shelina (Co-author) / Oro, Veronica (Co-author) / Roth, Winter (Co-author) / Doane, Leah (Co-author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Co-author, Thesis director) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
College-aged women are at an increased risk for the development of subclinical levels of eating disordered symptoms, which have been correlated to lasting deleterious cognitive, physical, and academic effects. The Body Project (TBP) is a universal group-based eating disorder prevention program that targets undergraduate women and challenges thin ideal messages through cognitive dissonance. Burlingame, Strauss, and Joyce (2013) in a meta-analysis of group treatments proposed five factors that independently and congruently work to promote individual change in group treatments: formal change theory, patient characteristics, leader characteristics, structural factors, and small group processes. A host of literature within TBP exists surrounding four of these factors, however, little research has been conducted on the small group processes that moderate individual change within this eating disorder prevention program.
The current study was designed to replicate and extend previous findings on the prevalence of the lemming effect within TBP, as well as examine how the lemming effect is related to outcome of treatment at a 3-month follow-up. Thirty-two participants aged 18-24 were examined. Groups ranged from 3 to 21 participants, including peer leaders. Twenty-nine audio recordings of session one of TBP were coded for lemming effects by the main research, and ten were coded by blind raters for inter-rater reliability measures. Three scales, the Ideal Body Stereotype Scale-Revised (IBSS-R), the Body Parts Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BPSS-R), and the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), were used to measure levels of thin-ideal internalization, body satisfaction, and frequencies of eating disordered (ED) behaviors, respectively.
Partial correlations revealed nonsignificant relationships between the number of lemming effects and the change in thin-ideal internalization and body satisfaction from baseline to follow-up. Additionally, a reliable change index revealed that the majority of change from baseline to follow-up was reliable for the IBSS-R, and the majority of change for the BPSS-R was unreliable. Lastly, chi-square tests of independence revealed nonsignificant relations between the number of lemming effects and change in ED behaviors.
Due to the small sample and lack of findings, future research would benefit from including a larger sample. This would enable larger power to detect effects and allow for more thorough statistical analyses to be performed to compare the relation of lemming effects to changes in outcome. However, this was the first study to look at the lemming effect variable as a small group process within TBP and added to the growing literature on how small group processes result in efficacious outcomes of treatment within group treatments.
The current study was designed to replicate and extend previous findings on the prevalence of the lemming effect within TBP, as well as examine how the lemming effect is related to outcome of treatment at a 3-month follow-up. Thirty-two participants aged 18-24 were examined. Groups ranged from 3 to 21 participants, including peer leaders. Twenty-nine audio recordings of session one of TBP were coded for lemming effects by the main research, and ten were coded by blind raters for inter-rater reliability measures. Three scales, the Ideal Body Stereotype Scale-Revised (IBSS-R), the Body Parts Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BPSS-R), and the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), were used to measure levels of thin-ideal internalization, body satisfaction, and frequencies of eating disordered (ED) behaviors, respectively.
Partial correlations revealed nonsignificant relationships between the number of lemming effects and the change in thin-ideal internalization and body satisfaction from baseline to follow-up. Additionally, a reliable change index revealed that the majority of change from baseline to follow-up was reliable for the IBSS-R, and the majority of change for the BPSS-R was unreliable. Lastly, chi-square tests of independence revealed nonsignificant relations between the number of lemming effects and change in ED behaviors.
Due to the small sample and lack of findings, future research would benefit from including a larger sample. This would enable larger power to detect effects and allow for more thorough statistical analyses to be performed to compare the relation of lemming effects to changes in outcome. However, this was the first study to look at the lemming effect variable as a small group process within TBP and added to the growing literature on how small group processes result in efficacious outcomes of treatment within group treatments.
ContributorsStadheim, Jenna Lynn (Author) / Perez, Marisol (Thesis director) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases affecting children, and investigators have identified a number of risk factors that worsen asthma symptoms. Most prior studies have concluded that there is an association between one risk factor, poor sleep quality, and asthma; however, whether sleep quality predicts future asthma symptoms, asthma symptoms predict future sleep quality, or the relation is reciprocal is still unclear. The methodology of studies examining the asthma-sleep association has consisted of actigraphy and parent report to determine children's sleep duration and sleep efficiency, and lung function assessments with a spirometer on the participants to determine children's overall lung function. The purpose of the proposed study is to determine the strength of the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between indicators of sleep quality and asthma. The proposed study plans to use a combination of actigraphy, sleep diaries, and lung function assessments using a spirometer to determine sleep quality and lung function, respectively. Future directions include determining the directionality of the association between sleep quality and asthma as well as strength of association.
ContributorsLacy, Kordell Reggie (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Early childhood environment is critical to subsequent physical health in children and is influenced by children's primary caregivers \u2014 typically mothers. Maternal stress, one aspect of a child's environment, may shape the functioning of the child's physiological stress response system, which has been linked to later health outcomes, including pain. The current study evaluated whether: 1) early maternal stress, defined as maternal depressive symptoms and low socio-economic status, predicts later child pain; 2) early maternal stress relates to later child daily cortisol output; and 3) child's cortisol output across the day mediates the relation between early maternal stress and child pain. Maternal stress was assessed via questionnaires at twin age 12-months. At twin age seven years, twins' salivary cortisol was collected three times per day for three days. At twin age nine years, twins rated how often they experienced stomach, headache, and back pain weekly or more frequently. Results of multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses showed that early maternal stress did not predict later children's daily cortisol output or extent of child pain. Therefore, findings were inconsistent with the proposed mediation model. However, there was a marginally significant negative relation between child daily cortisol output and later extent of child pain. Current findings suggest that functioning of the stress response system, reflected in cortisol output, may have implications for the development of child pain. Future work evaluating intensely stressful early environments may provide clues about the links between a child's early environment and the development of his/her stress response system.
ContributorsRoth, Winter Rayne Nicole (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
The ability to regulate emotions, attention, and behavior develops early in life and impacts future academic success, social competency, behavioral problems, and psychopathology. An impairment in regulation is known as dysregulation. Past research shows that children of mothers with postpartum depression are more likely to show impairment in regulatory abilities. There is an established link in the literature between family support and maternal depression, which in turn can impact child behavior. However, further research is needed to explore the impact of family support on early childhood dysregulation in the context of maternal depression. Using a sample of 322 Mexican-American, mother-child dyads, two models were examined. Model one hypothesized family support would buffer the effects of maternal depression on child dysregulation at 24 months. Model 2 hypothesized that family support is related to child dysregulation through its effect on maternal depression. Results showed that increased family support was related to more child dysregulation when there were high levels of maternal depression. There was no evidence to support the hypothesis that maternal depression mediated the relationship between family support and child dysregulation.
ContributorsRodrigues, Samantha Jean (Author) / Luecken, Linda (Thesis director) / Benitez, Viridiana (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Recognition memory is examined by exposing a person to a stimulus and later prompting them with the same stimulus to examine their ability to accurately acknowledge that the stimulus was previously encountered (Kahana, 2012). In recognition memory, confidence ratings are taken during the testing phase to assess how confident the participant is that the old-new judgment that they just made is accurate (Busey et al., 2000). Confidence is a metacognitive assessment about the accuracy of perception of decision making based on the amount, speed, and clarity of thoughts that come to mind (Dunlosky and Metcalfe, 2008). The goal of the current study is to better understand how assessing recognition memory using a variety of test procedures influences memory accuracy using the signal detection theory and adding multiple confidence scales that vary in granularity. Based on the previous literature, it is hypothesized that; 1) tasks ordered sequentially will produce greater recognition accuracy (d') than the simultaneous (dual task) condition; 2) confidence scale of 3 points will produce a larger d' than the 7 point scale, and the 7 point scale will produce a larger d' than the 100 point scale; and 3) task mode (ordered vs. sequenced) will interact with confidence scale granularity to predict memory accuracy, such that sequential judgments lessen demands on working memory that come from maintaining an increasing number of decision criteria in comparison to the dual task. Results indicated all hypotheses were not upheld. The findings suggest that taxing working memory may not affect decisional accuracy on a recognition task incorporating confidence judgments.
ContributorsSullivan, Krysten Jennifer (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Nicotine addiction remains a prevalent public health issue, and the FDA has released a statement outlining the systematic reduction of nicotine to non-zero levels in the coming years. Current research has not yet established the effects of abrupt nicotine dose reduction on vulnerability to relapse, nor has abrupt nicotine dose reduction been evaluated in terms of behavioral economic characteristics of demand and elasticity been evaluated for reduced doses of nicotine. Using a rat model, we first evaluated the comparability of between- and within-session protocols for establishing characteristics of demand and elasticity for nicotine to shorten experimental timelines for this study and future studies. We then tested environmental enrichment and sex as factors of elasticity of demand for nicotine. Using a rat model of relapse to cues, we also examined the effects of nicotine dose-reduction on vulnerability to relapse. We found differences in maximum consumption and demand between the between- and within-session protocols, as well as sex differences in elasticity of demand on the within-session protocol where male demand was more elastic than female demand. Additionally, we found that enrichment significantly increased elasticity of demand for nicotine for both males and females. Finally, preliminary analyses revealed that nicotine dose reduction yields more inelastic demand and higher maximum consumption, and these outcomes predict increased time to extinction of the association between nicotine and contingent cues, and increased rates of relapse. These studies highlight the usefulness and validity of within-session protocols, and also illustrate the necessity for rigorous testing of forced dose reduction on nicotine vulnerability.
ContributorsCabrera-Brown, Gabriella Paula (Author) / Gipson-Reichardt, Cassandra (Thesis director) / Olive, M. Foster (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
It is a well-established finding in memory research that spacing or distributing information, as opposed to blocking all the information together, results in an enhanced memory of the learned material. Recently, researchers have decided to investigate if this spacing effect is also beneficial in category learning. In a set of experiments, Carvalho & Goldstone (2013), demonstrated that a blocked presentation showed an advantage during learning, but that ultimately, the distributed presentation yielded better performance during a post-learning transfer test. However, we have identified a major methodological issue in this study that we believe contaminates the results in a way that leads to an inflation and misrepresentation of learning levels. The present study aimed to correct this issue and re-examine whether a blocked or distributed presentation enhances the learning and subsequent generalization of categories. We also introduced two shaping variables, category size and distortion level at transfer, in addition to the mode of presentation (blocked versus distributed). Results showed no significant differences of mode of presentation at either the learning or transfer phases, thus supporting our concern about the previous study. Additional findings showed benefits in learning categories with a greater category size, as well as higher classification accuracy of novel stimuli at lower-distortion levels.
ContributorsJacoby, Victoria Leigh (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis director) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12