Emma Cardin

Psychology
Advisor: Tricia Waters

Predicting Abortion Stigma: Impacts of Religiosity, Political Orientation, Gender, and Age

Previous studies have found that people who have had an abortion experience negative psychological impacts associated with the effects of abortion stigma. This study aims to establish the validity of a new scale measuring abortion stigma while evaluating four possible predictors of abortion stigma: gender, age, political orientation, and religiosity. It is predicted that men, older participants, political conservatives, and the very religious will hold more stigma than their young, female, liberal, secular counterparts. The new abortion stigma measure is reliable (α = .90). While accounting for impacts of social desirability, it was found that a person’s political orientation is the best predictor of their level of abortion stigma, followed by religiosity. Age was found to moderately predict a person’s abortion stigma. Gender did not significantly predict a person’s abortion stigma. The five variables of political orientation, religiosity, gender, age, and social desirability accounted for 57.1% of the variance in abortion stigma.

Lani Flagg

Psychology
Advisor: Jason Weaver

The Impact of Cultural Appropriation on Academic Performance in Asian American and BIPOC Populations

This study addresses the gap in Psychological research on cultural appropriation and its impact on marginalized groups. Cultural appropriation is defined as negative, racially stigmatizing cultural exploitation (Rogers, 2006). This research examines whether culturally appropriated news article headlines can prime participants members of a stigmatized group of the stereotype associated with their ethnic identity, inflicting stereotype threat or stereotype boost. Stereotype threat hinders performance out of fear of conforming to negative stereotypes directed on their marginalized group (Abdou & Fingerhut, 2014; Hively & El-Alayli, 2014; Steele & Aronson, 1995; Joanissea, Gagnona, & Voloaca, 2013; Riciputi & Erdal, 2017), while stereotype boost affects members of stigmatized groups by increasing engagement and motivation (Armenta, 2010). Data was collected via 59 Colorado College students on online surveys. The surveys consisted of 10 news article headlines that were either culturally appropriating or neutral, a 10-question math exam and demographic questions. It was hypothesized that (1) Asian American students would experience stereotype boost and score higher on the math exam, (2) BIPOC participants would experience stereotype threat and score lower on the math exam and (3) White participants would not be influenced by either stereotype threat or stereotype boost and would score consistently on the math exam. Results revealed non-significant findings of race and cultural appropriation on math scores. Non-significant findings can be attributed to recent surges of anti-Asian sentiment and increased discrimination against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research on racial slights is crucial in understanding the impacts of a racialized climate on academic performance and is essential in implementing future solutions for all minority groups.

Anabelle Harden

Psychology
Advisor: John Horner

Eating Disorders Across Cultures: Dismantling Eurocentric Thought on Disordered Eating

The socio-cultural model of eating disorders (EDs) proposes that Western/industrialized societies have higher rates of eating disorders due to idealization and internalization of a thinner body, stemming largely from representations in the media. Through examination of both historical accounts and cross-cultural studies on disordered eating, it is wise to reexamine this model and consider a multitude of other factors contributing to EDs. The present literature review proposes that EDs arise cross-culturally due to numerous factors that include higher average BMI, familial relationships, state and trait qualities, and psychological, physiological, and genetic factors. An investigation of studies both in the Western and non-Western world show that EDs have the potential to arise in any location, regardless of relative Westernization and industrialization. These findings are relevant given that there is currently a lack of knowledge on these EDs in non-Western countries and, therefore, appropriate interventions are not present. Limitations of the research at hand are discussed.

Isabel Leadbeater

Neuroscience
Advisor: Tricia Waters

The Neurocognitive Foundations of Intergroup Response Regulation: A Developmental Review of Theory of Mind and Inhibitory Control

The study of intergroup psychology emphasizes the formation, maintenance, and regulation of stereotypes and prejudice.  While stereotypes describe the characteristics associated with a social group, prejudice describes the affective response tendencies related to these characteristics.  The literature often separates the study of developmental, cognitive, and environmental factors contributing to stereotypes and prejudices, which inhibits an interactionist understanding of these processes as they arise during early childhood.  Bigler and Liben’s (2006) Developmental Intergroup Theory (DIT) introduces a cognitive-developmental approach which rejects the essentialization of prevalent social categories and contributes to a social-constructionist view of both stereotypes and prejudices.  The present review contributes to DIT by expanding stereotype and prejudice formation to include the maturation of response regulation, which describes the ability to prioritize individual-relevant information over group-relevant information.  The simultaneous development of Theory of Mind (ToM) and inhibitory control suggests that these cognitive mechanisms account for differences in response regulation and subsequent expression of prejudices.  Through a developmental, cognitive, and neural analysis of the association between ToM, inhibitory control, and response regulation, the present review proposes a neurocognitive model of response regulation development that further implicates the cognitions underlying mental state attribution accuracy.

Rachel Loevy

Psychology
Advisor: Tricia Waters

The Impact of the COVID-19 Quarantine on Domestic Violence

This literature review discusses established research on major risk factors for domestic violence, specifically intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. These risk factors include the COVID-19 pandemic/quarantine as a natural disaster, isolation, feelings of powerlessness, pregnancy/childbirth stressors, financial insecurities, and mental health comorbidities. Each risk factor is first presented through previous research linking it to domestic violence, and then related to the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020. The final section includes a small-scale study of semi-structured interviews held with advocates and state officials from a variety of Colorado organizations. These interviews reveal how these advocates and state officials responded to the rise in domestic violence during the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020. This project concludes with areas that require more resources and further research.

Carlton Moeller

Neuroscience
Advisor: Lori Driscoll

Time Perception Changes During Open Monitoring but not Focused Attention Meditation: A Possible Result of Attentional Scope Dilation

This study explores how our perception of time expands and contracts as a result of different styles of meditation. Experienced meditators completed auditory duration discriminations, using a temporal bisection paradigm, while engaging in open monitoring meditation, focused attention meditation, and a control audiobook listening condition. Significant underestimation of durations was observed in the open monitoring condition in comparison to the audiobook control. No such difference was observed in the focused attention meditation. Significant negative correlations between the power of neural oscillations in the low theta range (4-6 Hz), as measured by EEG, and duration overestimation were found in all three conditions. These findings may reflect a widening of attentional scope elicited by open monitoring but not focused attention meditation. In addition, increased posterior theta power may be an indicator of such attentional dilation.

Grace Pantalone

Psychology
Advisor: Lori Driscoll

Possessed by PANDAS: How a Common Childhood Infection Can Cause Extreme Psychiatric Symptoms 

When a child is diagnosed with streptococcal pharyngitis, or strep throat, the physician typically prescribes a regimen of antibiotics, fluids, and rest and predicts improvement within twenty-four hours. It is a prediction that is true for 98 percent of children. However, for a small percentage of children, this common infection has effects far beyond a sore throat and a fever, and can lead to a psychiatric firestorm with debilitating symptoms that can impact them for the rest of their lives. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections, abbreviated as PANDAS, presents with rapidly occurring psychological symptoms of OCD, tic disorders, and other psychiatric symptoms, following a group A β-hemolytic streptococcus (GABHS) infection. The post-infectious etiology of PANDAS is what best characterizes the syndrome as receiving a unique diagnosis, and thus treatment is distinct from that of ordinary psychological disorders, typically including the prescription of antibiotics and forms of immunomodulatory therapy, due to the infectious origin. Although there is evidence that this treatment works and can reduce the severity and lasting effects of PANDAS, the results are mixed, which has led to resistance in accepting and treating PANDAS as a real syndrome. Thus, developing a better understanding of PANDAS through further research and investigation has the possibility to lead to more effective treatment and change the lives of children suffering from this illness.

Thomas Perry

Neuroscience
Advisor: Lori Driscoll

I Feel You: Affective Empathy and its Neural Underpinnings

Empathy consists of both high order (e.g., mental perspective taking and bias modulation) and low order (e.g., Shared emotional affect) processing. Social neuroscientists have attributed these two abilities to two systems: a cognitive empathy system, thought to underly the high order aspects of empathy, and an affective empathy system, thought to underly low order aspects of empathy. Although a dual processing model of empathy has merit, it has been an oversimplification to characterize the affective empathy system as being absent of high order processing. Evidence suggests that elements of the affective empathy system are responsible for deliberate evaluations regarding the feelings of others, distinguishing self-representations from other-representations, and top-down bias related modulation. Within the affective empathy system, the inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobe, cingulate cortex and occipitotemporal cortex are the primary suspects for this high order processing. Additionally, at its core, a system of neural mirroring and a collection of regions including the inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula and anterior cingulate work to engender affective empathy. Future research directions and implications are discussed.

Ilana Rosenberg

Psychology
Advisor: Tomi-Ann Roberts

“Fake it ‘Til You Make it”
Calming the Existential Threat of the Female Orgasm

Previous research has shown that female reproductive bodily functions such as menstruation, lactation and childbirth remind us of our animal nature, and hence provide an existential threat of mortality. These studies sought to examine whether the female orgasm also is existentially threatening. Study 1 demonstrated the reliability of a new Sexual Experiences Subjectivity scale (SESS) which measured the appeal of and the amount of attention paid to the physical aspects of sex from three perspectives: action, creatureliness, and spectatoring. Study 2 examined how the SESS scale and self-objectification predicted frequencies of orgasms and faking orgasms. Results showed that self-objectification and spectatoring in sex were highly correlated, and that the SESS predicted frequency of faking orgasms and motives for faking orgasms. This research shows that there are potential motives connecting faking and spectatoring to the existential threat of the female orgasm, but more research must be conducted to support this statement.

Olivia Schultz

Psychology
Advisor: Tomi-Ann Roberts

The Double-Edged Sword of Digital Devices: What Predicts Healthier Relationships with Technology for Youth?

Over the past 20 years, digital devices and digital media have become integral to the functioning of society and culture, particularly in the West and developed nations. Together, they provide many benefits for young people by helping them establish and continue social connections, making information and social activism more accessible, helping them manage their health, and keeping them safer. However, many consequences of device and media use have emerged recently for young users. These include impairments in their memory and learning, increasing prevalence of mental disorder diagnoses, increases in feelings of loneliness, decreases in senses of belonging, and a fear of missing out (FOMO) on social events or information. An increasing amount of research supports the notion that while helpful, the current engagement with digital devices and media may be harming young users’ wellbeing more than they are helping. While there are differences in these harms based on the gender, addictive tendencies, socioeconomic status, and race of the user, research strongly suggests that young users can limit the negative impacts of digital device use by limiting their screen time, removing devices to the extent possible when learning, and engaging more actively with positive content on social networking sites (SNS).

Fred Stein

Psychology
Advisor: Jason Weaver

Effects of Social Isolation on Resistance to Persuasion, and the Moderating Role of Self-Monitoring

This study aimed to test the relationship between social isolation and resistance to persuasion, and the potential moderation of that relationship by individual differences in self-monitoring, in order to investigate the impact of COVID-19 social distancing measures on public attitudes.  To produce social isolation, participants were administered a decoy personality test, after which they read a fabricated paragraph predicting negative social outcomes in their future.  Persuasion was then manipulated by the presentation of several arguments against capital punishment.  There appears to have been no effect of the attempt to produce social isolation in participants; however, low self-monitors were found to have responded more to arguments against capital punishment than did high self-monitors.  This incidental finding provides support for the functional matching hypothesis, which states that messaging is more effective when it is relevant to its audience’s personal motivations.  However, the failure of the manipulation to produce an effect implies that instantiated online interventions are suboptimal methods of observing social isolation as it occurs naturally.

Brett Wilsey

Neuroscience
Advisor: Lori Driscoll

Overcoming Obstacles: Affect, Anxiety, and Context in the Optimization of Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition (SLA) is a complex, culturally dependent, and dynamic process that employs countless neural pathways. Collaboration between native and second languages seems to be an important aspect of SLA that goes into shaping how language is structured in the brain. Factors that influence the process of language acquisition include age of acquisition, motivation, attitudes, foreign language anxiety, and learning context. However, in many studies, optimization of SLA focuses on testing proficiency and grammar rather than assessing if meaning is conveyed effectively in conversation, which is a more important aspect of SLA. In future research, optimization of language should be redefined to signify effective communication in order to more accurately reflect the deep multicultural nature of cross-language communication. Classrooms should implement positive attitude and foreign language enjoyment interventions, utilize virtual and social settings, and encourage circumlocution, discussions of meaning, and peer support to diminish anxiety, boost positive affect and enhance the most vital part of language—communication!

Gillian (Rujun) Xu

Psychology
Advisor: Kristi Erdal

Perfectionism-related Suicide: Expressions and Preventions

This paper discussed adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in adolescents, potential consequent suicidal ideation, and preventions, accordingly. Maladaptive rather than adaptive perfectionism, characterized by difficulty in accepting the discrepancy between expectations and reality, as well as fear of failure, was identified as the more dangerous type of perfectionism that could lead to mental disorders. Perfectionists following socially proscribed standards instead of self-determined ones are more likely to develop maladaptive behaviors. For adolescents, in particular, academic performance related perfectionism needs further exploration given the ever increasingly competitive atmosphere for growth. Academic performance related perfectionism is observed cross-culturally, but the prevalence varies across cultures, with a relatively higher prevalence in Asian cultures. Preventions were discussed in two categories: the general prevention for suicide, and perfectionism-specific preventions that are aimed at preventing maladaptive perfectionism. Future research should consider direct cross-cultural and cross-gender comparisons on perfectionism as well as evaluating prevention effectiveness.