Development and Psychometric Properties of the Mobile Device Dependency Scale

College of Professional Studies

Communication through cell phones is increasingly prevalent in our society and places individuals at risk of developing a mobile device dependency (Salehan, & Negahban, 2013). The purpose of this study is to develop a measure of psychological and social dependence on mobile communication. Also, this research aims to provide reliability and validity of the Mobile Device Dependency Scale (MDDS). Participants completed four self-report surveys that showed high reliability and validity of the MDDS. This scale may provide valuable information about dependency in regard to technological advancements and the societal pressures associated with device usage.

Development and Validation of the Academic Procrastination Scale

College of Professional Studies

Academic procrastination is the intentional delay of starting or continuing progress on school-related work. Academic procrastination often leads to negative outcomes such as submitting late assignments, cramming for exams, and test anxiety. To assess this we created a 21-item Academic Procrastination Scale (APS). The APS showed appropriate criterion (r = .69, p < .000), convergent (r = .49, p < .000), and discriminant (r = .29, p = .001) validity. The APS also showed good internal consistency with an alpha of .88 and a test-retest reliability of r = .75, p = .000. Validity and reliability analyses show that the APS is a valid and reliable measure of academic procrastination.

Development and Validation of the Humboldt Idealism Questionnaire

College of Professional Studies

Idealism is defined as believing that desirable consequences can, with the “right” action, always be obtained. This involves decreasing the amount of negative outcomes and increasing the amount of positive outcomes. Due to the lack of a reliable and valid existing measure of idealism, our goal was to create a psychometrically sound scale. Morality and justice are two important domains that were addressed during item creation. The HIQ was compared to the Global Belief in a Just World Scale in order to establish criterion validity; the short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was used for discriminant validity.

Development of Wilderness Therapy Programs Over Time

College of Professional Studies

This project aims to illustrate the growth, development, and fundamental transformation of Wilderness Therapy programs over time. This research includes highlighting the health benefits of nature experiences, dissecting the historical background of Wilderness Therapy programs, and the shift towards Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare.

Deviant Leaders: Examining the Effect of Group Consensus on Individuals' Attitudes Towards a Leader's Position

College of Professional Studies

The current study investigates how high or low consensus around a leader who holds a deviant or normative position influences individual attitudes, all contingent on the perceived group’s attitude towards said position. We hypothesized that exposure to a leader with a deviant position who was elected by a landslide (high consensus) vs. marginally (low consensus) will convert individual attitudes to align with the perceived group attitude, which is supportive of the deviant position.

Diversity Among University Students in the U.S.: An Analysis of Student Ethnic Group Preferences and its Impact on Campus Diversity

Joseph Pang, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The current study explores students' ethnic identity, ethnocentrism, and friendship diversity and how they these variables relate to with whom students interact. The study uses research from intergroup relations, friendship diversity, and ethnic identification. Specifically, the study will examine how ethnic identification, ethnocentrism, and student cultural group involvement relate to intergroup anxiety which, in turn, relates to intergroup bias. Through this work, we seek to understand how intergroup relations stands amongst People of Color (POC) in the United States.

Does cleft palate repair surgery restore normal neural processing for infant faces?

Francesca Messina, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Infant faces readily capture our attention and elicit enhanced neural processing, likely due to their importance in facilitating bonds with caregivers. Cues of poor health are associated with a lower degree of parental investment and facial malformations have been shown to negatively impact early infant-caregiver interactions, possibly due to altered perceptual processing of these faces compared to unaffected infant faces. The current study used eye tracking and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate responses to infant faces before and after cleft palate repair surgery.

Does cleft palate repair surgery restore normal neural processing for infant faces?

Rachael Kee, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The current study used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate adults’ processing of infant faces with cleft lip/palate before and after surgical repair. We found enhanced N170 responses for faces pre-repair surgery compared to post-repair surgery, suggesting that cleft lip/palate repair surgery may restore a more “normal” N170 response. Additionally, the P200 was smaller for the pre-repair surgery faces compared to post-repair surgery, which likely reflects the P200 responding to “typicality” for face stimuli as the post-repair surgery faces would appear more face-typical.

Does Having Siblings Affect Caretaking Responses to Infants?

Joshua Worthington, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Because siblings often fulfill a caregiver role in the home, this study investigated whether having siblings, and younger siblings in particular, impacts the reward value of and perceptual sensitivity to the ‘baby schema’. Participants completed a cuteness sensitivity rating task and an effort-based keypress task to measure the reward value of cuteness. They also reported whether they had siblings, and if so older vs younger siblings. Contrary to our hypotheses, having siblings did not influence the reward value of or perceptual sensitivity to ‘babyschema’.

Does Having Siblings Affect The Recognition of Children’s Emotional Displays?

Nathan Boone, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The present study investigated the relationship between sibling caretaking experience and the ability to recognize emotions in children’s faces. Accuracy for recognizing emotional displays in children's faces was compared among individuals with younger siblings, older siblings, and no siblings. We did not find any evidence that having siblings impacts sensitivity to emotional displays in children's faces. We did, however, find evidence that some emotions are more easily assessed than others regardless of sibling status.