RSS 1.0Psychology Honors Theses
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A Families' Guide to Emotional Intelligence in Early ChildhoodThis literature review looks over multiple research articles from researchers who investigated emotional intelligence, the different aspects of it, as well as its importance and how it can positively affect a person. Intelligence has long been considered the number one way to determine how successful someone is going to become, but plenty of research ahs been done to prove that it is far from the truth. but a different type of intelligence called emotional intelligence has been found to support success in both a person's career and social life.Emotional intelligence itself can be broken down into multiple aspects: emotions identification (identifying your emotions), emotions utilization (expressing your emotions in the right way), emotional understanding (understand your emotions as well as the emotions of others), emotions regulation (a person’s ability to respond and regulate their emotions), and empathy (understanding and being able to sense and understand the feelings of others, whether or not you yourself are feeling those same emotions or have ever felt those emotions before). The development of these skills helps support lower stress levels and better relationships with others, both in an individual’s personal life and their work life. These aspects can be taught at any point during a person’s lifetime, but the younger the individual is, the longer period of time this individual will have to develop and incorporate these skills in their lifetime. Also, although this may seem like something new to many, these skills are already being taught through practices that families utilize today such as building relationships, having open and clear communication with one another, and modeling how families themselves regulate their emotions. My work is dedicated to educating and supporting families interested in teaching their young children emotional intelligence to further build their children to success.
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The Relationship Between Abusive Relationships and Substance AbuseVictims of abusive relationships attempt to leave seven times before officially ending the relationship (Respond, 2023). This behavior pattern characterized by leaving and returning to their abusive partner may also be seen in substance abusers, as a user terminates drug use but relapses to it three or more times. Both cases share patterns of incidence behavior representing a vicious cycle. The aim of this literature review is to study this vicious cycle of victims of abuse relationships and substance abusers to increase our knowledge on the inconsistent leaving process. The second objective is to find similarities between abusive relationships and substance abuse in neuropsychological, behavior analytical, and social aspects. Lastly, the third objective is to suggest a more effective treatment plan to eliminate the negative stigma characterizing victims of abusive relationships. It is possible to dismantle this stigma of "character flaw" by educating individuals about the vicious cycle characterizing abusive relationships and substance abuse. This study contributed to improve our understanding of abusive relationships by showing that there is a connection between abusive relationships and substance abuse proposed in the neuropsychological, behavior analytical, and social perspectives. Each view provided a rationale to understand the behaviors of victims of abusive relationships and substance abuse, showing that both cases share neurological dopamine pathways, behavior patterns, and mental health disorders. Together, the present findings demonstrated that abusive relationships and substance abuse are related to one another, and they should be treated in comparable ways. It is concluded that the productive treatment plan for victims of abusive relationships could be like that elaborated to substance abuse. This conclusion is important because it will guide future researchers to develop successful treatment plans for victims.
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The Role of Attachment and Well-Being on Adult RelationshipsThis study looked at the relationship between the attachment theory, familial systems, gender, culture, conflict resolution skills and well-being. All participants recruited in the study were 18 years or older from the social media platforms Instagram and Snapchat, along with SONA, Salem State University’s Psychology Department Research Participation System. Data were collected from 63 participants who completed a survey including self-reported information about well-being, conflict resolution skills, and relationship satisfaction. Consistent with some of the hypotheses in the study, participants who identified as Hispanic were higher in collaborating conflict resolution style than participants from other racial/ethnic groups, and secure attachment was positively correlated with self-acceptance. Contrary to our hypotheses, there were no significant differences in conflict resolution styles between men and women, gender was also not related to anxious or avoidant attachment. Individuals who come from married households scored higher on avoidant attachment than those from unmarried households. There was no significant relationship between collaborating, accommodating, and compromising conflict resolution styles and secure attachment. Other findings indicated that the competing conflict resolution style was negatively related to well-being, and fearful attachment was strongly negatively correlated with personal growth, relationship well-being, and self-acceptance.
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Black Honors Students in Honors SpacesThere are not many studies addressing Black Honors students and their sense of belonging to the Honors program. This study addresses Black honors students in honors spaces. This study examines students’ interactions with the honors programs, their racial identity development, and their sense of belonging. To measure racial identity development the Multidimensional inventory of Black identity (MIBI) was used. To measure sense of belonging the Community subscale of the Relational Health Indices (RHI-C) was used. Black honors students (N=26) were surveyed from thirteen different 4- year and 2-year colleges in the United States. Overall, there was a high sense of belonging among participants, though there was little time spent interacting with the program. There was a positive correlation between Humanist and Nationalist ideologies with sense of belonging. Assimilationist ideology had a positive correlation with how often students attend events. There was a positive correlation between Oppressed Minority ideology and time spent interacting with others in the program. These findings can help determine whether honors programs need extra support for Black students.
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Examining The Link Between Attachment Styles, Individual Resiliency, And COVID-19 Effects On Salem State StudentsThis study investigates the link between attachment style, resiliency through challenges, and COVID-19 pandemic outcomes in a sample of 53 Salem State University students. Past research has identified the importance of attachment style as how humans securely or insecurely tether to each other. The study hypothesized that students' attachment style would be related to COVID-19 experiences and coping strategies during the pandemic. Salem State students currently enrolled in psychology courses and the honors program were recruited via email. Those willing to participate were asked to rate themselves first on attachment style (their perceived relationships with others and self-worth) using a Likert scale (Iwanaga et al, 2020). The second section contained statements pulled from the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (Sherman, 2020) concerning worries about the COVID-19 virus infection, spread, and aftermath. An open-response question was included concerning students' strategies that helped them manage their mental health and how these strategies may have changed throughout the pandemic. The results from correlation analyses revealed that items on the COVID-19 response scale were not significantly correlated with their overall attachment score. Nonetheless, the descriptive findings are beneficial to faculty and staff to comprehend students' individual struggles and strategies.
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The Effects of Police Killings on Mental Health of African American Individuals: A Review PaperThe purpose of this review is to develop a better understanding of how current racial issues influence the mental health of minority groups. It covers the death of two individuals, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, who were victims and killed by police violence in 2020. Within one week of George Floyd’s video being released, it was found that anxiety and depression among African Americans shot to higher rates than experienced by any other racial or ethnic group. Their deaths sparked a wave of civic upheaval aimed within African Americans communities across the country. Research shows that police violence negatively impacts the health of many minority groups. Information for this review was acquired through government publications and peer reviewed articles. Qualitative data was gathered by investigating comments made on these events on various social media platforms. The aim of this paper is to educate people on the impact of racism, police violence and injustice on African Americans lives.
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A Literature Review Of Alternative Approaches To Escape Extinction In Feeding ProtocolsThis literature review investigated different treatment packages for feeding protocols in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A literature review was conducted on case studies that were conducted on children under the age of eighteen with at least one problem behavior related to feeding. The case studies included were peer-reviewed and published in a journal article in the past twelve years. The review considered a set of variables for each study that included: the number of children who were treated, the effectiveness of the treatment, consistency of results between participants, consistency of results across studies, and follow up treatment effectiveness. Based on the literature reviewed, the results indicated there was no single treatment package that consistently demonstrates a decrease in inappropriate mealtime behavior and an increase in acceptable mealtime behavior. High probability sequences, noncontingent reinforcement, behavioral skills training, least-to-most prompting, and lag schedules of reinforcement were at least moderately effective at decreasing inappropriate mealtime behavior and increasing appropriate mealtime behavior without using escape extinction.
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Social Isolation And Loneliness In The COVID-19 PandemicThe COVID-19 pandemic is a problem that the world has been facing for just about two and a half years. During this time, governments around the world implemented a variety of mandates – most prevalently lockdowns, quarantines, and other social isolation guidelines – in an attempt to curtail the spread of COVID-19. It makes intuitive sense to expect social isolation to have impacted loneliness levels in the general adult population during the first year of the pandemic, when social isolation related guidelines were widespread. Thus, the present study sought to conduct a search and review of the psychological literature related to the impact of social isolation and other related variables on loneliness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological databases and studies’ reference sections were searched until a pool of 11 studies was formed. Aside from loneliness, variables that were examined as predictors of loneliness in at least five of the 11 studies were chosen for discussion in the present literature review. Ultimately, it was found that loneliness was high and widespread during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that a number of sociodemographic variables were risk factors for loneliness during this time. However, there were some contradictory findings in the studies regarding whether or not loneliness increased in the general population during this time. Thus, further longitudinal research investigating this phenomenon is warranted.
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The First School Shooter: Examining Multiple Causation In A Case Of Mass MurderViolence in schools and in public settings is an unfortunately growing problem in modern society, and understanding why and how these crimes happen is an integral part to preventing future occurrences. This thesis is a case study of Charles Whitman, the person recognized as perpetrating the first mass shooting on a college campus. This case study examines multiple causation theory using Charles Whitman’s case as an examine and guide for discussion. Areas of discussion include childhood abuse, drug use, self esteem, brain chemistry, social learning, locus of control, limbic system dysfunction, and cancer. It is argued through the case study that multiple causation theory provides the strongest, most encompassing explanation for why a person may end up committing a violent crime. Connections between sections, relation to the Whitman case, and discussion about how multiple causation theory is applicable to preventing similar cases are discussed.
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How Our Relationships With Ourselves Impact Our Relationships With OthersOut of the many theories as to why and how humans choose their long-term mates, two different models are explored in the present study. Evolutionary models examine the mating strategies used by the two sexes, focusing on the resources each sex can provide to their mate and any subsequent offspring. Alternatively, cognitive models explore the reasons behind a human’s thought processes and potential emotions that contribute to mate choice. Evolutionary models cannot explain all human mating, especially those who cannot reproduce heterosexually. Specifically, the LGBTQ+ community have been historically overlooked regarding these theories. The present study investigated whether human mate preference is most accurately described using a cognitive versus an evolutionary model. It was hypothesized that the mating preference for those who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community will be best explained by a cognitive model, while the mating preference of heterosexual participants will be best explained by an evolutionary model. Participants (N=97) were asked to rate certain traits, first for themselves and then for a potential future partner. Results showed that a cognitive model could explain mate preference for both LGBTQ+ and heterosexual individuals [linear regression: df = 1, F = 983.528, p < .0001, R2 = .912] Someone who rated a characteristic in themselves highly would rate that characteristic important in a partner highly as well. Those who recreate this study should try a random sampling method, and further, explore how people’s expression of their sexuality impacts their long-term mate preference.
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Perspectivas De Acceso Y Tratamiento Para La Salud Mental En La Comunidad Latinx De Los E.E.U.U.Addressing the mental health crisis in the United States for members of Latinx communities is a matter of sociocultural limitations. Through a qualitative essay written in Spanish, this study investigates the attitudes of Latinx people in the U.S. regarding mental health care and their identity through qualitative face-to-face interviews or via Zoom. I had a group of eight subjects who were between 20 and 35 years old, identified as Latinx while living in the U.S., and were students or employees of a Massachusetts public university. First, the subjects completed a written survey where behavior was evaluated on the search for treatment, knowledge of treatment and its value, stigma, discomfort with the emotions generated, access and cultural barriers. After subjects completed the survey, I used a script of questions to facilitate our discussion of reactions to the survey, personal and relevant anecdotes, and one's own experience when seeking treatment for mental health (example: "Have you gone to therapy?"). I performed a thematic analysis of the information recorded during interviews to look for the significance in regard to the area of psychology. In the second stage of analysis, I collected evidence from the interviews and written sources, and organized them into four themes with three sub-themes for each category. I investigate the four themes of access to resources, discrimination and intersectionality, relationships with family and society, and psychological observations, specifically regarding how public health and psychology workers can improve the effectiveness of mental health care for the Latinx community.
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Exploring The Line Between Representation And Exploitation Of Disabilities In Entertainment MediaConsistent with the sociocultural model, consumption of popular media influences a community's thoughts, opinions, feelings, and actions towards groups of people represented. Because of this it is important that historically marginalized groups of people are accurately represented in the entertainment media. However, this is often not the case, especially in regard to the disabled community. To showcase the lack of representation a content analysis of 100 popular media sources with disabled characters was conducted. These sources were then analyzed to see the types of representation in much of the popular media of today, i.e., if characters were played by an actor with a disability or if the disability was a main plot point of the story. Along with the content analysis, ten qualitative interviews with people within the disabled community were conducted to learn about their views of disability representation, exploitation, and existing examples in the media. These interviews asked questions about their view of representation, exploitation, and opinions on the existing examples in the media. This research found that not only is there a lack of representation in the media, but a lack of accurate representation, and this is viewed as problematic by participants in the current study. This research provides guidance on how the entertainment industry can improve the representation of the disabled community.
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An Investigation Into Which Techniques Of Play Therapy Are Most Effective Across A Spectrum Of Behaviors In ChildrenPlay Therapy, a type of therapy in which play is used to help a client share their emotions and work through their issues, is a globally used practice (Cassado-Frankel, 2016). It is used to help many children combat their trauma, anxiety, depression, and several other disorders and conditions. This thesis reports on a meta-analysis of 11 previous research studies in the psychological literature research conducted on this subject and an analysis of data collected via an original survey completed by seventeen child therapists in the New England area who use play therapy on a regular basis with their clients. Consistent with previous studies in the literature, survey respondents reported that play therapy is very effective in helping children clients with their struggles. The survey found that the participants believed a play therapy session should be 30-60 minutes on average in order for it to be effective. The survey also found several patterns in which types of play therapy are most commonly practiced for different types of conditions. For example, the most preferred types of play therapy to practice were Child- Centered Play Therapy and Non-Directive Play Therapy. Another pattern found was that play therapy was most popularly practiced with clients who have anxiety disorders and least used with clients who have oppositional defiant disorder.
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A Literature Review Of Alternative Approaches To Escape Extinction In Feeding ProtocolsThis literature review investigated different treatment packages for feeding protocols in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A literature review was conducted on case studies with participants under the age of eighteen with at least one problem behavior related to feeding. The case studies included were peer-reviewed and published in a journal article in the past twelve years. The review considered a set of variables for each study that included: the number of children who were treated, the effectiveness of the treatment, consistency of results between participants, consistency of results across studies, and follow up treatment effectiveness. Based on the literature reviewed, the results indicated there was no single treatment package that consistently demonstrates a decrease in inappropriate mealtime behavior and an increase in acceptable mealtime behavior. High probability sequences, noncontingent reinforcement, behavioral skills training, least-to-most prompting, and lag schedules of reinforcement were at least moderately effective at decreasing inappropriate mealtime behavior and increasing appropriate mealtime behavior without using escape extinction.
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Streaming Consciousness: Treading the Conceptual Rapids of Psychological TheoryThis thesis is the first section in a book length project. The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the academic field of psychology and the creative nature of the field. Through use of memoir, detail, and conscious experience, this thesis is a contemporary interpretation of the theories of Sigmund Freud.
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The Effect of Instagram on Self-Esteem and Life SatisfactionThis quasi experiment examined the effects of Instagram, a social media site that consists of posting pictures, on self-esteem and life satisfaction. Specifically, I looked at the effects of following celebrities on Instagram in relation to the ideas of social comparison theory. Traditionally aged college females (N = 51) were assigned to either the control group where they were asked to use Instagram as they normally would, or the experimental group where they were asked to follow 15 specific celebrities for 4-6 weeks. Participants were given a pretest and posttest which included a self-esteem and a life satisfaction survey. There were no statistically significant differences found between the experimental group and the control group, nor between the pretest and posttest scores, and there was no interaction effect between time of measure and experimental group. However, a subgroup of participants that initially followed a minimal amount of celebrities before the experiment showed a decline in their life satisfaction at posttest which approached statistical significance. Further experimental research is needed to confirm that altering one's social comparison group on Instagram can lower life satisfaction among traditionally-aged college females.
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Medical Mistrust across Different Ethnic GroupsThis study explores various factors that contribute to medical mistrust among a population of college students from a medium sized, public university. The hypothesis of the study was that ethnic minority status would be related to high levels of medical mistrust. This was tested using a self-authored instrument, which was made available to participants online. Participants were asked to rate various statements pertaining to medical mistrust (i.e. "I feel a high amount of anxiety when going to see a doctor" on a Likert scale, ranging from 1 to 7, 1 indicting that the participant strongly agreed and a 7 indicating strongly disagreed with the statement. Results were analyzed using statistical tests such as independent samples t-tests, one-way analyses of variance, and a factor analysis. While a relationship was not found between ethnicity and medical mistrust, other factors such as gender, age, citizenship status, socio-economic status, and birth country were found to be related to medical mistrust.
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A 21st Century Update of Gender Portrayal in Caldecott WinnersThis study replicated previous studies that investigated the portrayal of gender in Caldecott award-winning books. Past studies found that females were nearly invisible. Females tended to be under-represented in titles, central roles, and illustrations (Weitzman, Eifler, Hokada, & Ross, 1972). In addition, they appeared in the illustrations to be indoors more often than outside and displayed gender-typical behavioral traits. The current study utilizes the methods and procedures of past researchers to present an updated account of gender-portrayal in the Caldecott winners for 2010 through 2015. A content analysis, and a character trait analysis were performed to analyze the books. The researchers found no significant increases or decreases for human single-gendered illustrations and human characters. However, there was a significant increase in the percent of females for non-human single-gendered illustrations and non-human characters. In addition, females were over-represented outdoors, which is in contrast to past research. Furthermore, only three traits were rated as being more salient for females than males: nurturant, rescue and traditional role. Compared with past studies, children's books are becoming more gender equitable in terms of representation, location and behavior traits. However, improvements can still be made to reflect the actuality of societal proportions.
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The Relationship: Partners’ Behaviors and Their Impact on Overall SatisfactionRelationships are a top priority for many people, perhaps because relationships fulfill an important human need: love. Relationships tend to be complex and have many predictors related to whether or not a relationship will be satisfying. It is important that one evaluates how satisfied he/she is with the relationship in order to decide whether to continue. If one learns early in the relationship that they are not satisfied, then they can terminate the relationship before it continues too long. Relationship satisfaction was examined in terms of positive and aversive behaviors commonly demonstrated in relationships. The positive behaviors analyzed included support/praise, affection, security, and communication, while the aversive behavior categories included exclusion, deceit, avoidant behaviors, undesirable actions, and potential competitors. A survey was administered through surveymonkey, in which participants completed demographic information, a pre-survey rating of their overall level of relationship satisfaction, questions regarding the frequency of certain behaviors, and a post-survey rating on their level of relationship satisfaction. When analyzing the pre and post survey responses, participants were more satisfied with their relationship after completing the questionnaire. Regarding the pre-survey satisfaction rating, a stepwise regression procedure indicated exclusion and support/praise as having the most significance in a relationship, where as the post satisfaction rating was most closely associated with exclusion, support/praise, deceit, and potential competitors. Therefore, the clearest correlations appear to be exclusion, deceit, support/praise, and potential competitors. Another finding is that filling out the survey changed both the satisfaction level and the predictor variables. It is likely that the behavioral categories tend to produce satisfying relationships because both people in the relationship are experiencing both generic and idiosyncratic reinforcement from the significant other. Also, participants' satisfaction ratings appear to increase as a result of completing the survey. Is is not clear why this is the case; however, it may be that "taking stock" of the positive and aversive behaviors may have led this sample to be more satisfied with their current relationship. These findings suggest that reviewing the positive and negative aspects of a relationship can be beneficial, but more research is indicated.
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Teachers' Views of Inclusion and Social Development: A Comparative Analysis of Practices and BeliefsThis thesis examines teachers' attitudes towards social skill development and beliefs towards inclusion and social integration in their young students with disabilities, while also examining some of their current practices. With the increasing push toward integrating classrooms, it is important to pay attention to how teachers are adapting to having more students with disabilities in their classrooms and how they are approaching developing social skills among their students. Children with special needs can be at a disadvantage because of the decreased amount of attention paid to their socialization. A sample of elementary teachers, special education teachers, administrators and counselors were surveyed to ascertain their views on the topic, including whether teaching social skills is seen as important or not, what age to start teaching social skills, how much room in curricula do teachers have for developing social skills, and their views on the inclusion of special education students in the general education classroom. The main objective of the study was to compare attitudes and beliefs about inclusion and social integration that are held by elementary teachers with those held by special education teachers, administrators and counselors. Differences emerged in the practical application of social skill training strategies, and in the beliefs about when children should receive the most focused social skill training.
