http://hdl.handle.net/1803/205 2013-05-19T16:52:40Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5268 Title: Disordered Eating, Coping, and Perfectionism in a College Sample Authors: Reiff, Anna E. Abstract: Perfectionistic tendencies and coping strategies have been implicated as important factors in both the onset and maintenance of eating disorders but have not been widely researched in conjunction with each other. Given the elevated levels of eating disorders and subclinical manifestations among college student populations, this study surveyed 180 undergraduate students about multiple aspects of health and well-being, in addition to disordered eating attitudes and behaviors, coping strategies, and trait perfectionism. Results showed that avoidant coping strategies are positively associated with measures of disordered eating. In addition, certain dimensions of perfectionism correlated with avoidant coping and other dimensions correlated with problem-focused coping. Implications for treatments targeted at improving coping strategies in individuals with disordered eating are discussed. Description: Survey: Lifestyle health and coping (pdf) is included. Thesis completed for PSY 296B Honors Thesis with Professor Leslie D. Kirby. 2013-04-03T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5267 Title: Sex Differences in Positive Emotions within Appraisal Theory Authors: Adler, Erica Abstract: The psychological study of positive emotions is a relatively new and underdeveloped area of inquiry. This study examines sex differences in the understanding, experience, and expression of positive emotions. Our participants (N=108) responded to multiple questionnaires and surveys looking at affect, emotional differentiation abilities, appraisal style, emotional elicitors, and language surrounding positive emotions. Women and men exhibited equal ability to differentiate positive emotions. Women’s positive emotion experiences were more tied into social experiences than were men’s. Men experienced pride in response to a broader array of experiences than did women. Taken together, our findings suggest that there are some significant differences in the ways that women and men understand, experience, and express positive emotions. Description: A study examining the way that men and women understand, express, and experience positive emotions differently. Completed under the direction of Professor Leslie Kirby in PSY296b, Honors Research 2013-04-29T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5266 Title: Peer Victimization and Its Adverse Effects on Self-Schema in Children and Adolescents Authors: McMillan, Jessica Abstract: Our current study builds on Beck’s cognitive model of depression by testing whether peer victimization gives rise to depressive schemas in children and adolescents. Specifically, we created a model stating that chronic peer victimization affects the construction of self-cognitions and adds negative information to the content of self-schema, in turn predisposing for depression. Stemming from a larger 2-year, 3-wave longitudinal study, our experimental study yielded a sample of elementary and middle children who were either chronically peer victimized (n = 110) or those who were not (n = 105). Using self-reports and a self-referent encoding task, this study yielded four major findings: (1) all forms of chronic peer victimization were positively associated with students’ self-reported negative self-cognitions, (2) all forms of peer victimization were negatively related to students’ self-reported positive self-cognitions, (3) relational and verbal peer victimization were related to a decrease in or eradication of the positive memorial bias, and (4) the association between peer victimization and some indicators of depressive self-schemas was stronger for relational and verbal peer victimization than for physical peer victimization. Clinical implications and future research are also elaborated upon in this study. 2013-04-19T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1803/5265 Title: Prehension Enrichment Experience Facilitates Motor and Perceptual-Cognitive Development in Early Infancy Authors: Ballard, Rachel Abstract: Infants received a prehension enrichment experience (active training), which allowed pre-reaching infants to gain experience with prehension before they would normally begin such behaviors. During the prehension enrichment experience, infants received 10-14 ten-minute play sessions wearing “sticky mittens”: mittens with palms covered in the loop side of Velcro, allowing them to pick up small toys covered in Velcro hook. Two months after the enrichment session, infants who received the prehension enrichment experience were compared with age-matched peers who wore “non-sticky mittens” while observing their parents and the experimenter manipulating objects (passive training). The results of this study indicate that two months after the prehension enrichment experience, infants who received active training engaged in more object exploration and exhibited accelerated reasoning about the support relations between objects when compared to infants who received passive training. These results suggest that early prehension enrichment experience facilitates the processes of object exploration and engagement while also enhancing infants’ cognitive and perceptual development. 2013-04-09T05:00:00Z