Psychology
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The Department of Psychology will provide a collaborative environment for innovation and scientific discovery in psychological science and for attainment of psychological literacy.
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Item Identifying and clarifying arguments in a recent debate regarding measures based on memory-based methods(2019-04) Barnes, Ralph M.Two recent commentaries published in this journal argued against the usefulness of memory-based dietary assessment methods (M-BMs). A pair of responding commentaries disputed those negative claims regarding M-BMs and defended the usefulness of M-BMs. This article is intended to clarify the claims made in the four commentaries cited previously, identify the manner in which those claims have been supported, and suggest possible ways forward. In service of the goals of this article, I have identified the main arguments found in each of the four commentaries cited previously. I then partitioned each argument into two principle components: data and claim. I then identified the type of data used to support each claim. Finally, I have identified some of the potential reasons for the disagreements between the two parties and have suggested potential opportunities for progress on the issues at the heart of the controversy.Item Absent autonomy: Relational competence and gendered paths to faculty self-determination in the promotion and tenure process(2018-09) Skewes, Monica C.; Shanahan, Elizabeth A.; Smith, Jessi L.; Honea, Joy C.; Belou, Rebecca M.; Rushing, Sara; Intemann, Kristen; Handley, Ian M.This research examines ways in which men and women university faculty sought self-determination in the promotion and tenure (P&T) process. Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2012) research tends to view autonomy as the central factor in self-determination, taking priority over other psychological needs of relatedness and competence. The P&T process occurs within a context that inherently limits autonomy, providing a unique opportunity to examine experiences of relatedness and competence when autonomy is constrained. We used a qualitative research strategy with a matched case study design to explore how individuals experience the constructs of SDT (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) within the P&T process. Our project focuses on faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments undergoing P&T review at one university. Women faculty in STEM were compared with men faculty at the same rank and in similar departments concurrently going through P&T review. Findings showed that men reported experiencing self-determination via informational competence whereas women approached self-determination through relational competence. Creating a level playing field for faculty navigating the P&T process requires being attuned to different paths to self-determination, fostering relationships between faculty, and clarifying policies and procedures.Item Association of belief in the "firewater myth" with strategies to avoid alcohol consequences among American Indian and Alaska Native college students who drink(2018-05) Gonzalez, Vivian M.; Skewes, Monica C.Belief in an American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) specific biological vulnerability (BV) to alcohol problems (aka the "firewater myth") is associated with worse alcohol outcomes among AI/AN college students who drink, despite also being associated with greater attempts to reduce drinking. The current study examined how belief in a BV may have affected how 157 AI/AN college students who drink (a) attempted to moderate their alcohol use and avoid alcohol-related problems using abstinence-based and harm reduction strategies, and (b) attitudes toward these strategies as a means of addressing alcohol problems. Contrary to our hypotheses, belief in a BV was not found to be associated with use of harm reduction strategies or with how effective students believed these strategies to be. However, greater belief in a BV was associated with lower self-efficacy for the use of harm reduction strategies among more frequent heavy episodic drinkers. This is concerning, as the use of harm reduction strategies was associated with less frequent heavy episodic drinking in this sample. In contrast, belief in a BV was positively associated with the use of abstinence-based strategies and with how effective these strategies were perceived to be. However, for individuals with average or greater belief in a BV, abstinence-based strategies were associated with greater alcohol consequences. The results suggest that for AI/AN students who drink, belief in a BV may be influencing the strategies used to moderate alcohol use and avoid alcohol-related harm, as well as attitudes toward these strategies, in ways that do not appear helpful.Item Childhood socioeconomic status and risk in early family environments: predictors of global sleep quality in college students(2018-03) Counts, Cory J.; Grubin, Fiona C.; John-Henderson, Neha A.Objective Low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood associates with poor sleep quality in adulthood. Separately, childhood family environments shape health into adulthood. Here, we investigated whether these early life factors independently or interactively inform global sleep quality in college students. Design Cross-sectional. Participants College students at a state university (N = 391). Measurements As a measure of childhood SES, we asked participants to consider their families’ socioeconomic standing relative to the rest of the society during their childhood. We used the Risky Family questionnaire to measure adversity and the presence of warmth and affection in the family environment during childhood, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index as a measure of current global sleep quality. We used linear regressions adjusting for age and sex to examine relationships between childhood SES, risk in childhood family environments, and global sleep quality. Results Lower childhood SES and greater risk in childhood family environments independently predicted poor sleep quality. Importantly, in low-risk family environments, there was no significant difference in sleep quality as a function of childhood SES. However, students who were from low childhood SES backgrounds who also reported high levels of risk in their early family environments had the worst sleep quality. Conclusions Findings highlight the importance of considering socioeconomic and family environments in childhood as informants of sleep quality across the lifespan. Compromised sleep quality in college students could affect academic performance and health over time.Item Early life socioeconomic status associates with interleukin-6 responses to acute laboratory stress in adulthood(2018-05) Lockwood, Kimberly G.; John-Henderson, Neha A.; Marsland, Anna L.It is proposed that environmental exposures in early life influence immune programming. Specifically, socioeconomic disadvantage is thought to program an immune phenotype that is prone to inflammation and associated with increased risk for inflammatory disease later in life. Existing literature shows an inverse association of early childhood socioeconomic status (SES) with adult levels of systemic inflammation. Here, we extend that literature to examine whether early childhood SES also relates to the magnitude of inflammatory response to acute psychological stress in adulthood. Healthy volunteers (N = 110; 40–58 years; 59% female; 90% white) performed a laboratory stress protocol, with blood samples drawn at the end of a 30-min baseline, a 5-min speech task, and a 30-min recovery to assess interleukin (IL)-6 stress responses. An early childhood SES index was derived from reports of parental home and vehicle ownership, and number of bedrooms per child in the home across ages 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6. Regressions adjusted for current age, sex, race, and BMI showed that lower SES at age 1–2 was associated with larger IL-6 stress responses in adulthood (ΔR2 = 0.05, β = −0.24, p = .03). This association was independent of adult SES and task-evoked affective responses. No association was found between SES at ages 3–4 or 5–6 and IL-6 responses. These results provide initial evidence for a link between disadvantage in the first 2 years of life and heightened inflammatory response to stress in adulthood; this link may contribute to the increased disease risk that accompanies being raised in disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances.Item No Hiking Beyond this Point! Hiking Risk Prevention Recommendations in Peer-Reviewed Literature(2017-12) Kortenkamp, Katherine V.; Moore, Colleen F.; Sheridan, Daniel P.; Ahrens, Emily S.Outdoor recreation in wild areas has many benefits, but also poses risks. We conducted a systematic review of the prevention recommendations in peer-reviewed articles about hiking incidents (injury, illness, or need for rescue) published between 1970 and 2015. Searches in PubMed, Web of Science, and Engineering Village yielded 91 articles after screening for relevance. A total of 559 prevention recommendations were extracted from articles. The foci of the recommendations were categorized using a systems-oriented approach to accident prevention, an adapted Haddon matrix. Five non-mutually exclusive categories were used: hiker, groups and relationships, agent inducing the incident, institutions and sociocultural practices, and equipment. We also coded prevention recommendations that pertained to education within each of the five categories. Sixty percent of the prevention recommendations focused on changing the hiker\'s decisions and behaviors, and 39% referred to institutions and sociocultural practices. Few addressed the social influences of groups and relationships (8%), equipment (16%), or the agent of harm (16%). Education was the focus of 27% of the recommendations. We conclude that effective prevention needs to include multiple aspects of outdoor recreation systems and their interactions with the hiker\'s behavior and characteristics. Management implications: This systematic review introduces outdoor recreation managers to the systems-oriented Haddon matrix framework for accident prevention in outdoor recreation. By using this framework, this paper: 1. Views accidents as resulting from interactions of individuals with both social and physical environments. 2. Highlights areas for prevention that tend to be missing from published safety recommendations (groups, agent of harm, and equipment). 3. Gives examples of how managers can look at outdoor risk prevention from a broader perspective in order to find innovative solutions to common accidents and rule violations.Item How do associative and phonemic overlap interact to boost illusory recollection?(2018-10) Hutchison, Keith A.; Meade, Michelle L.; Williams, Nikolas S.; Manley, Krista D.; McNabb, Jaimie C.This project investigated the underlying mechanisms that boost false remember responses when participants receive study words that are both semantically and phonologically similar to a critical lure. Participants completed a memory task in which they were presented with a list of words all associated with a critical lure. Included within the list of semantic associates was a target that was either semantically associated (e.g., yawn) to the critical lure (e.g., sleep) or shared the initial (e.g., slam) or final (e.g., beep) phoneme(s) with the critical lure. After hearing the list, participants recalled each list item and indicated whether they just knew it was on the list or if they instead recollected specific contextual details of that item\'s presentation. We found that inserting an initial phonemic overlap target boosted experiences of recollection, but only when semantically related associates were presented beforehand. The results are consistent with models of spoken word recognition and show that established semantic context plus initial phonemic overlap play important roles in boosting false recollection.Item The effect of ad hominem attacks on the evaluation of claims promoted by scientists(2018-01) Barnes, Ralph M.; Johnston, Heather M.; MacKenzie, Noah; Tobin, Stephanie J.; Taglang, Chelsea M.Two experiments were conducted to determine the relative impact of direct and indirect (ad hominem) attacks on science claims. Four hundred and thirty-nine college students (Experiment 1) and 199 adults (Experiment 2) read a series of science claims and indicated their attitudes towards those claims. Each claim was paired with one of the following: A) a direct attack upon the empirical basis of the science claim B) an ad hominem attack on the scientist who made the claim or C) both. Results indicate that ad hominem attacks may have the same degree of impact as attacks on the empirical basis of the science claims, and that allegations of conflict of interest may be just as influential as allegations of outright fraud.Item Grant-Writing Bootcamp: An Intervention to Enhance the Research Capacity of Academic Women in STEM(2017-06) Smith, Jessi L.; Stoop, Chatanika; Young, Michaela; Belou, Rebecca M.; Held, SuzanneBroadening the participation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields is more than a social-justice issue; diversity is paramount to a thriving national research agenda. However, women face several obstacles to fully actualizing their research potential. Enhancing the research capacity and opportunity of women faculty requires purposeful changes in university practice. Therefore, we designed an intervention, a grant-writing bootcamp informed by self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan 2012), to support the participants\' feelings of relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Three grant-writing bootcamps were run over an 18-month period. Using a pre-and post-test design over the span of 1 year (and contrasting results with a comparison sample who were not part of the intervention) showed that the women participating in the grant-writing bootcamp significantly increased the number of external grants submitted, the number of proposals led as principal investigator, the number of external grants awarded, and the amount of external funding dollars awarded.Item Perception of scenes in different sensory modalities: A result of modal completion(2017-04) Gruber, Ronald P.; Block, Richard A.Dynamic perception includes amodal and modal completion, along with apparent movement. It fills temporal gaps for single objects. In 2 experiments, using 6 stimulus presentation conditions involving 3 sensory modalities, participants experienced 8–10 sequential stimuli (200 ms each) with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 0.25–7.0 s. Experiments focused on spatiotemporal completion (walking), featural completion (object changing), auditory completion (falling bomb), and haptic changes (insect crawling). After each trial, participants judged whether they experienced the process of “happening†or whether they simply knew that the process must have occurred. The phenomenon was frequency independent, being reported at short ISIs but not at long ISIs. The phenomenon involves dynamic modal completion and possibly also conceptual processes.