Psychology Doctoral Work

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Assessing the Neural Correlates, Sources and Consequences of the Attentional Rhythm
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Bocincova, Andrea
Evidence suggests that even when sustained at a single location, spatial attention waxes and wanes over time. These fluctuations are cyclic, lasting about 125-200 ms (i.e., ~4-8 Hz), and are characterized by alternating periods of focused attention to a single location together with exploratory periods during which attention is prone to switching to a new source of stimulation. Despite an increasing interest in this temporal property of spatial attention, multiple aspects of rhythmic attentional sampling remain to be explored. In this dissertation, I introduce and examine three unexplored areas related to this topic. The first area, addressed in Experiment 1, concerns the potential neural oscillatory signatures of attentional rhythmicity. Precisely, it assesses the role of a well-established oscillatory correlate of selective attention, alpha band power, in rhythmic switching of attention over time. The second area focuses on the neural sources controlling rhythmic attentional sampling. More specifically, the goal of Experiment 2 is to establish causal evidence for the involvement of an important attentional hub in generating the attentional rhythm using transcranial magnetic stimulation. Finally, the last area examines the consequences of attentional rhythmicity on the encoding and storage of information in working memory. In particular, Experiment 3 provides evidence that rhythmic changes in spatial attention affect the quality with which information is encoded into working memory. Finally, Experiment 4 assesses whether attention rhythmically cycles between items stored in WM in a manner similar to the cycling observed when attention is directed to the external world. In summary, the work included in this dissertation makes an important contribution to extending our understating of the attentional rhythm and introduces multiple avenues for further research necessary in this area.
Awakening the Social Self: Nostalgia Regulates Loneliness by Energizing Approach-Related Social Motivation
(North Dakota State University, 2017) Abeyta, Andrew Allen
Chronic loneliness is predictive of poor health. Therefore, it is vital to identify psychological resources that combat loneliness and encourage social connection. However, loneliness is difficult to overcome, in part because it is associated with a maladaptive high avoidance and low approach motivation orientation that limits a person’s ability to connect with others. I hypothesized that nostalgia, a positive emotional experience that involves reflecting on cherished memories that are typically social in nature, is a psychological resource that regulates the tendency for lonely people to be less oriented toward social approach goals and motivation. I tested this hypothesis across 3 studies. Studies 1 and 2 examined whether nostalgia mitigates the inverse relation between loneliness and approach-related social goals, intentions, and behaviors. Studies 2 and 3, explored whether nostalgia mitigates the inverse relation between nostalgia and general approach/avoidance motivation. The results provided mixed support for the hypothesis. Nonetheless, there was preliminary evidence that feelings of nostalgia may weaken the relationship between loneliness and deficits in approach-related goals and intentions.
The Benefits of Metaphoric Thinking: Using Individual Differences in Metaphor Usage to Understand the Utility of Conceptual Metaphors
(North Dakota State University, 2013) Fetterman, Adam K.
Metaphor representation theory posits that people often think, rather than merely speak, metaphorically. Particularly, concrete domains (e.g., tactile experiences) are recruited to represent abstract concepts (e.g., love). Based upon this theory, three assumptions can be derived. The first assumption is that metaphors should be common in speech and are not relegated to the realm of poetics. Second, the manipulation of metaphoric mappings should activate associated domains. The final assumption is that the use of conceptual metaphors facilitates the understanding of concepts with no physical referents (e.g., emotion). Research has supported the first two assumptions. The current studies were the first empirical test of the third assumption. A metaphor usage measure was developed and validated in the first study. Two additional studies directly tested the third assumption. Study 2 demonstrated that the metaphor usage measure predicted emotional understanding. Study 3 demonstrated that low metaphor usage predicted dysfunctional responses to negative daily events to a greater extent than high metaphor usage. Those scoring higher in metaphor usage also showed the established sweetness-pro-sociality metaphor effect to a greater extent than those low in metaphor usage. These findings empirically support the idea that metaphor use is associated with an increased understanding of concepts lacking physical referents, an important theoretical question in the metaphor literature. A foundation for future research is provided.
Combining Trait and Processing Perspectives of the Individual: Toward a New Assessment Model of Interpersonal Competence
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Persich, Michelle Ruth
Satisfying interpersonal relationships are an important and beneficial part of life. However, despite that fact that most people desire close interpersonal relationships, some people are less successful at forming and maintaining these relationships than others. One plausible explanation for such individual differences is that people differ in their levels of interpersonal competence – their ability to consistently enact behaviors that are effective, socially appropriate, and satisfying to others. The present research sought to examine different approaches to understanding and assessing interpersonal competence. A comparison of these approaches led to the creation of an Integrated Interpersonal Competence Model (IICM) that sought to maximize the strengths of each individual approach. This new model was tested in two studies (total N = 348) with the goal of understanding why people receive higher (or lower) interpersonal competence (IC) scores and how competence is related to successful interpersonal functioning. Both Studies 1 and 2 examined how the individual components of the IICM contributed to one’s overall IC score. Both studies found that the ability to accurately process social information was related to one’s likelihood of receiving a high IC score. In addition, how an individual evaluated response options seemed to play the largest role in determining whether or not the person would enact the response. Finally, IC appeared to be composed of a blend of interpersonal warmth and dominance. Study 1 also examined the relationship between IC and daily life outcomes. Results showed that higher competence individuals tended to experience a greater frequency of positive events, higher levels of prosocial feelings and satisfaction, and enacted fewer hostile and submissive behaviors on a daily basis. Study 2 investigated how IC was perceived by others. Individuals who were higher in IC were perceived to have fewer antisocial feelings, and be less selfish by peers and parents, and had higher quality relationships with their parents. Interestingly, processing abilities were unrelated to daily and informant-reported outcomes, but personality-like tendencies toward enacting friendly and hostile behaviors were consequential. Overall, the integrated model produced insights into interpersonal competence and can provide a useful guide for future investigations of interpersonal competence.
Context Processing and Aging Older Adults' Ability to Learn and Utilize Visual Contexts
(North Dakota State University, 2013) Gayzur, Nora Denise
The purpose of the present study was to examine how older adults utilize contextual information to guide attention in visual scenes. Studies that have examined context and attentional deployment have used the contextual cueing task. Contextual cueing reflects faster responses to repeated spatial configurations (consistent context-target covaration) than random spatial configurations (inconsistent covariation). Research has shown mixed results in older adults' ability to utilize context with this task. Young (18-23 years) and older (60-85 years) adults were tested in two contextual cuing experiments to assess age differences in how individuals utilize context in novel and real-world visual scenes. Experiment 1 investigated the development of contextual cueing effects using low-meaning visual contexts (letter arrays). In low-meaning arrays, young and older adults were able to use context effeciently with no age differences in the development of contextual cueing effects. Experiment 2 examined older adults' ability to utilize context when context was meaningful (real-world images). Younger and older adults saw real-world images in an upright (meaningful) or inverted (less meaningful) orientation. Older adults were able to use context similarly to younger adults, with no age differences in the development of contextual cueing. Contrary to predictions, context utilization was not impacted by the meaningfulness of the image. Contextual cueing effects occurred at the same time for upright and inverted images for young and older adults. Together, these studies demonstrated that older adults were able to utilize context. Meaningfulness did not provide an additional benefit for older adults, but this was true of young adults.
Does Social Support Influence Bulimic Behaviors through its Impact on Cognitive Appraisal
(North Dakota State University, 2016) Kwan, Mun Yee
Social support is one of many interpersonal functions that is impaired among individuals with bulimia nervosa. The buffering hypothesis of social support posits that social support shields the deleterious impact of stress on bulimic behaviors. However, the specific mechanism by which social support protects against the negative impact of stress on bulimic symptoms remains to be clarified. To investigate this mechanism, two studies examined the potential role of cognitive appraisal as a mediator in the relationship between social support and bulimic behaviors among undergraduate students. Study 1 was a longitudinal, naturalistic study in which participants completed online surveys at two assessment points that were four weeks apart. Bootstrap analyses revealed that cognitive appraisal did not mediate the relationship between perceived social support and bulimic behaviors. Exploratory analyses demonstrated that perceived stress, a construct parallel to cognitive appraisal with the emotional experiences taken into consideration, acted as a mediator in this relationship. Perceived social support appeared to be associated with decrease future bulimic behaviors through lowered stress perception. Study 2 was an experimental study that examined the role of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between social support and food consumption, which was used as a laboratory analogue of binge eating. Female participants were randomly assigned into one of two groups: with or without social support available. Stress was induced with a speech task, followed by a bogus taste task. Results demonstrated that perceived stress, instead of cognitive appraisal mediated the relationship between subjective ratings of the experimenter’s supportiveness and calories consumed. Unexpectedly, perceived supportiveness was associated with more caloric consumption through lower stress perception among individuals with high restraint. These studies extended the existing literature by examining perceived social support, perceived stress, and bulimic behaviors in a mediation model. Findings have theoretical and clinical implications for the role of social support in bulimic behaviors and the stress-disordered eating relationship. For example, stress does not always predict binge eating. Moreover, findings suggest the importance of social support in stress management and eating disorder treatments as well as the potential for emotional interventions for eating disorders.
Dual Effects of Social Support on Cardiovascular Reactivity: Social Support as a Comfort and an Encouragement
(North Dakota State University, 2015) Teoh, Ai Ni
The stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, 1984) proposes that social support attenuates cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) in times of stress. Past research which tested this hypothesis has obtained inconsistent findings. A dual effect model of social support and stress (Teoh & Hilmert, 2015) suggests that these inconsistent findings could be due to different effects of social support on CVR that depend on how engaged participants are during a stressful task. Specifically, this model proposes that when people are not engaged, social support encourages, increasing CVR relative to no support; and when people are engaged, social support comforts, attenuating CVR relative to no support. This study examined the dual effect model by empirically manipulating social support and task engagement while monitoring participants’ cardiovascular readings. We randomly assigned the participants (N = 121, all women) to give a speech on either a more engaging or a less engaging topic while receiving social support or no support from two evaluative female audience members. Before and after the speech, the participants completed several questionnaires that included measures of perceived stress and task engagement. Our results showed that, consistent with our prediction, socially supported participants responded to the task with greater CVR than nonsupported participants in the less engaging condition, indicating a social encouragement effect of social support. However, when the speech topic was more engaging, there was no significant effect of social support on CVR. Our findings show that task engagement moderates the effects of social support on CVR. The health implication of a CVR-elevating effect of social support is relatively unexplored and suggests that increased CVR to stress may be associated with positive health in certain situations.
The Effects of Cultural Dispositions on Behavior in Social Dilemmas: Examining the Impact of Expectations on Cooperation and Competition
(North Dakota State University, 2010) Ladbury, Jared Lee
Many groups require cooperation in order to efficiently complete tasks in a manner that benefits all group members. The antecedents of cooperative and competitive behavior have been well studied using a particular class of problems called social dilemmas. Cultural variables, such as collectivism, are often thought to influence cooperative behavior in groups, but experimental evidence has seen mixed results. The current study attempts to add to our understanding of the effects of cultural variables on cooperative and competitive behavior in groups by advancing two major ideas: (1) that the Input-Process-Output (I-PO) framework-a theoretical framework of group functioning which proposes that group members' individual characteristics, dispositions, etc. influence the processes of groups when interacting which, in turn, impact the outcomes the group produces-can be used as a conceptualization for understanding the impact of cultural variables on potential group outcomes, provided that a distinction is made between potentially meaningful but taskunrelated distal inputs such as collectivism and task-related proximal inputs, and (2) that group process can be indexed using variance components calculated from the Social Relations Model (SRM}-a statistical tool used to analyze dyadic data. Using two social dilemmas as experimental media, participants were placed in groups of four and asked to report what they expected each of their group members to do during the social dilemmas and how much they trusted each of their fellow group members. Results demonstrate that collectivism increases the tendency to expect similar behavior from fellow group members and to trust fellow group members at similar levels when given little diagnostic information. In turn, more competitive behavior is demonstrated in groups that have members who all expect similar behavior from each group member, but show variability regarding what the behavior will be. The study demonstrates (1) a significant relationship between collectivism and expectations of other group members' behavior, (2) expectations will synthesize into meaningful variance components as calculated using SRM, (3) SRM variance components serve as useful indicators of group process and, (4) SRM variance components can be used to predict cooperative and competitive behavior in social dilemma situations. This research demonstrates the value of using SRM variances as indices of process and underscores the theoretical utility of the I-P-O framework as an explanatory tool of group behavior.
Finding Meaning in Misery: Can Stressful Situations Provide Meaning in Life?
(North Dakota State University, 2013) Juhl, Jacob
Theory and research investigating the relationship between affective experiences and meaning in life have focused on how positive affect contributes to perceptions of meaning in life. No work has considered how people can attain meaning in life while experiencing negative affect. The present work tested whether affectively negative circumstances can provide meaning in life. Specifically, two studies, using distinct methodologies, tested whether people can attain meaning in life while experiencing the stress associated with goal-pursuit. In Study 1, the salience of stressful college-related goal-pursuit was experimentally heightened and then perceptions of goal-engagement, meaning in life, and positive and negative affect were measured. In Study 2, trait levels of meaning in life and positive and negative affect were assessed. Later in the semester, stress associated with college-related goal-pursuit, perceptions of goal-engagement, meaning in life, and positive and negative affect were measured. In Study 1, the salience of stressful goal-pursuit did not affect these outcomes. In Study 2, when controlling for trait levels of meaning in life and positive and negative affect, regression and mediation analyses showed that college stress predicted increased negative affect; and that college stress predicted increased perceptions of goal engagement, which in turn predicted increased meaning in life and subsequently positive affect.
Group Marginalization Promotes Hostile Affect, Cognitions, and Behaviors
(North Dakota State University, 2012) Betts, Kevin Robert
The present research investigates relationships between group marginalization and hostility. In particular, I focus on the experiences of small, contained groups that are intentionally rejected by multiple out-group others. An integrative framework is proposed that attempts to explain how group processes influence (a) coping with threatened psychological needs following marginalization, (b) affective states, (c) cognitions regarding the marginalization and its source, and ultimately (d) hostile behavior. Study 1 describes a unique paradigm that effectively manipulates interpersonal rejection. Study 2 then implements this paradigm to empirically test relationships between the components of the integrative framework and examine differences among included and rejected individuals and groups. Results reveal partial support for the framework, particularly in regard to the impact of group marginalization on psychological needs and hostile affect, cognitions, and behaviors. Implications for natural groups such as terrorist cells, school cliques, and gangs are considered.
I Want to Break Up: Testing an Integrative Framework for Understanding and Predicting Romantic Relationship Dissolution
(North Dakota State University, 2021) Semanko, Anna Maruska
Romantic relationships are desired by the majority of individuals. Despite this prevalent desire, romantic relationships end often. What are the underlying motivations and reasons for breaking up with a romantic partner? The current research investigated this question through an innovative theoretical approach. First, salient beliefs associated with breaking up with a committed romantic partner were elicited (Study 1). Based on the prominent themes associated with breaking up, measures were designed to test a unique integrative framework for understanding and predicting romantic relationship dissolution (Study 2). This integrative framework is largely based on the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2011) and the theory of interpersonal behavior (Triandis, 1977), elaborated to include select factors important in goal setting literature (Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1990; Gollwitzer, 1999). Results from a path analytic test of the integrative framework highlighted that attitudinal, affective, and social factors were particularly relevant for understanding and predicting intentions for romantic relationship dissolution. In all, the evidence gathered relating to the integrative framework contributes to our understanding of romantic relationship dissolution intentions and behavior. Furthermore, the integrative framework advances theoretical considerations for behavioral intention models, while also providing insights for behaviors and research regarding romantic relationships.
Intense Emotion Reactions Predict Enhanced Well-Being and Adaptive Choices
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Klein, Robert John
Existing evidence has linked individual differences in emotion reaction intensity to both enhanced and decreased psychological well-being. We propose that this contradiction is related to methodological shortcomings in some existing research. We present a novel emotion reactivity task capable of addressing these methodological shortcomings by continuously measuring the subjective intensity of individual emotion episodes with high temporal resolution. Four studies were conducted (total n = 499). In Studies 1, 2, and 4, participants continuously reported their emotions while viewing objectively pleasant or unpleasant images. Thousands of reaction intensities were coded using algorithms developed for this purpose. We expected that people showing more intense emotion reactions, regardless of valence, would report greater subjective well-being in the lab and in daily life. One reason that such situationally-congruent reactions might be beneficial is that that they enable more flexible situationally-appropriate behavior. In Study 3, participants were asked to rate their emotional responses to pleasant and unpleasant images. Following this, people choose a location for their Self avatar within a computerized environment that included one image of each valence. We expected that the tendency to report intense emotion responses to these images would predict both adaptive location choice and subjective well-being. Results confirmed most major hypotheses: more intense reactions to both positive and negative stimuli were predictive of greater subjective well-being in the lab and in daily life, and analogous reactivity patterns were associated with more flexible, adaptive avatar placement. The results suggest that a key feature of maladaptive emotion generation systems (and lower well-being) may not be overly intense reactions as has been suggested, but a failure to flexibly adapt emotion output to match changing circumstances.
Longitudinal Examination of Sleep and Chrononutrition
(North Dakota State University, 2022) Veronda, Allison Christine
Chrononutrition (i.e., circadian timing of food intake) offers promising opportunities to improve weight management strategies, but many fundamental aspects of chrononutrition are still unknown. While research to date has suggested that unhealthy chrononutrition behaviors are linked to weight gain, chrononutrition preferences are markedly understudied, and research has not yet determined whether chrononutrition preferences and behaviors are variable or stable over time in the natural environment. Potential mechanisms underlying chrononutrition’s impact on weight are still being explored. Recent evidence suggests that weight gain is the result of an imbalance of energy consumption and expenditure that is influenced by sleep duration. Though short sleep duration may undermine weight loss efforts, lead to increased preference for energy-dense foods, and even alter chrononutrition, chrononutrition’s role in energy balance has been less studied. The purpose of the present online study was therefore to examine chrononutrition, sleep duration, and body mass index (BMI) in the natural environment, over time, in a sample of healthy, non-shift working adults. Participants completed a series of measures online and self-reported their body weight and height three times, approximately every six months, for one year. This longitudinal study showed that chrononutrition preferences were largely stable over time, while chrononutrition behaviors were more variable over the study period. Results also showed that, contrary to our hypotheses, chrononutrition was not a significant predictor of later BMI, and chrononutrition did not mediate the relationship between sleep duration and later BMI. This study provided a novel examination of fundamental aspects of chrononutrition, knowledge of which may be vital for the development of obesity prevention and treatment strategies.
Modeling Approach Motivation in Terms of Perceptual Biases Involving Appetitive Stimuli
(North Dakota State University, 2011) Ode, Scott Byrum
Accumulating evidence suggests a potential relationship between approach motivation and perceptual enhancement. The current investigation was undertaken with the goal of exploring the causes of the phenomenon as well as implications for personality. Below, a model is introduced to help explain the causes and consequences of relations between approach motivation and perceptual size. Two studies are then presented testing a number of assumptions made by the model. In Study 1 (n = 78), state-related variations in approach motivation were manipulated with the intent of sensitizing the perceptual system to appetitive stimuli. It was predicted that such sensitization would result in greater size estimations. In Study 2 (n = 123), size overestimates were used to assess relations between daily events and outcomes. It was hypothesized that individual differences in size estimations for appetitive words (relative to neutral words) would predict daily motivations, emotion, and behaviors, as well as reactivity to daily events. In addition, several individual difference variables ostensibly related to dopamine activity were assessed in both studies and entered as moderators of the degree to which size overestimations varied by stimulus type. Many of the hypotheses were not supported, but size overestimations did, as hypothesized, moderate relations between positive events and goal-related motivation.
Neural Synchrony and Asynchrony as Mechanisms for Perceptual Grouping and Segmentation
(North Dakota State University, 2010) Clarke, Aaron
The question of whether neural synchrony has functional significance for cortical processing has been an issue of contention in the recent scientific literature. Although the balance of evidence now seems to be favoring a vie,v that synchrony does indeed play a significant functional role, this role's mechanisms and its behavioral consequences have not been fully elucidated. In this research I add to the growing body of evidence in favor of a significant functional role for neural synchrony in cortical processing. By leveraging a modified version of Cheadle, Bauer, Parton, Muller, Bonneh and Usher (2008)'s psychophysical paradigm and through experiments of own design, I find evidence suggesting that when contrast oscillations serve as inputs to the visual system, the system produces behavior that may be more synchronous than the stimulus or less synchronous than the stimulus depending on whether or not the oscillations occur on elements of a common object or on elements of separate objects respectively. The current paradigm has the potential to test behavioral manifestations of the underlying neural dynamics that heretofore were largely thought to be confined to physiological measures. Furthermore, I provide a biophysical model that predicts this behavior and other related electrophysiological findings.
On Distance Perception
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Lauer, Shanda Deleen
A crucial, but little studied, visual function involves estimating distance from the self to an object in the environment (absolute distance perception). This is a fundamental component in the creation of our perception of the 3D world and is likely to be affected by alcohol, and be a factor in drunk driving accidents. To better understand which visual cues observers use to determine distance, participants completed a series of psychophysical judgments under different viewing conditions. By controlling and isolating specific distance cues through a novel viewing apparatus, we were able to investigate which cues are used to accurately judge distance. Alcohol intoxication allows us to selectively investigate the specific visual systems that are and are not involved in contributing to the accuracy of this type of task. Finally, an investigation of the effects of training and feedback on distance estimation tasks in a real 3D environment was also conducted. In summary, this research attempted to uncover not only how the visual system processes spatial information, but also how visual processing changes with alcohol intoxication with implications for understanding alcohol-related visual-spatial dysfunction that may arise in drunk driving. These findings will then be applied to a real world, 3D outdoor environment while investigating the impact of training and feedback on a distance estimation task.
Playing the Objectification Game: How Women's Self-Esteem Impacts the Existential Consequences of Objectification
(North Dakota State University, 2017) Roylance, Christina
Living in a culture of objectification harms women’s well-being in a number of ways. Despite this well-studied phenomenon, no research has yet investigated whether objectification impacts women’s existential well-being, or meaning in life, which is a critical component of psychological and physical health. Using a terror management theoretical perspective, I propose that objectification is a worldview women are encouraged to participate in in order to achieve meaning. More specifically, I propose that objectification’s effect on meaning will be dependent on women’s perceived success at living up to the standards of objectification (i.e. her self-esteem about her appearance), or how much she values the objectification worldview (i.e. how much important she places on her appearance). Results support that body esteem and appearance contingency of self-worth both play a role in moderating various outcomes after women have contemplated an experience of being objectified. Additional results support that an unrelated contingency of self-worth related to religion and spirituality may also moderate the impact of objectification. The importance of these results in the landscape of objectification intervention research is discussed.
Popular in the Digital Age: Self-Monitoring, Aggression, and Prosocial Behaviors in Digital Contexts and their Associations with Popularity
(North Dakota State University, 2015) Ranney, John D.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role in the social lives of adolescents, as many of the social interactions that once occurred in face-to-face contexts are now occurring through digital technologies. Although many of these interactions are prosocial in nature, adolescents may also engage in high levels of aggression in ICT-mediated contexts (Bauman, 2013; Bauman & Newman, 2013). Furthermore, they often engage in self-monitoring when communicating with peers through ICTs in order to maintain a positive public image (Subrahmanyam, Garcia, Harsono, Li, & Lipana, 2009). These digital behaviors may have implications for how individuals establish and maintain their place within social hierarchies in natural peer contexts (e.g., schools). Drawing on both The Hyperpersonal Theory of Computer-Mediated Communication and Resource Control Theory, the current study examined concurrent associations between digital self-monitoring, cyberaggression, cyber-prosocial behaviors, and popularity. A sample of 273 (112 boys; 161 girls) adolescents attending high schools in the Upper-Midwest of the United States provided data for this study during the fall of the 2014 – 2015 school year. Students completed a series of questionnaires consisting of peer-reports and self-reports of aggressive and prosocial behaviors in face-to-face and digital contexts, peer-reports of popularity, and self-reports of self-monitoring in digital and face-to-face environments. Small positive correlations were found when examining associations between peer- and self-rated cyberaggression and peer- and self-rated cyber-prosocial behavior (rs between .11 and .22). Controlling for face-to-face overt and relational aggression, cyberaggression was negatively related to adolescents’ popularity, particularly for individuals who engaged in low to moderate levels of digital self-monitoring. Cyber-prosocial behavior was positively associated with popularity generally, and specifically for adolescents low in face-to-face prosocial behaviors. Cyberaggression, cyber-prosocial behaviors, and sex also interacted to predict popularity. Analyses revealed that for boys high in cyber-prosocial behaviors, cyberaggression was positively associated with popularity, while the relation between cyberaggression and popularity was not significant for girls or for boys low in cyber-prosocial behavior. Results are discussed within the context of Resource Control Theory and how they may be applied to researchers’ understanding of peer relationships in digital and face-to-face social contexts.
Psychological Stress, Stress Reactivity and Blood Glucose Metabolization During Pregnancy
(North Dakota State University, 2020) Strahm, Anna Marie
Gestational diabetes mellitus impacts between 3-10% of pregnancies, and increases the risk of pregnancy complications and lifelong health effects for mother and child (Bellamy, Casas, Hingorani, & Williams, 2009; Ross, 2006; Ryser Rüetschi et al., 2016). About half of cases occur without an evident risk factor (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), 1994; Dode & Santos, 2009). The present study was designed to examine possible psychophysiological connections linking psychological stress and stress reactivity, the magnitude of an individual’s response to stress, to blood sugar metabolization during mid-pregnancy between 24-28 weeks gestation. Participants were recruited from Sanford Health in Fargo, where patients underwent routine Oral Glucose Tolerance Testing (OGTT) a diagnostic assessment in which higher results indicate less blood sugar metabolization. They also completed a Virtual Trier Social Stress Task while psychological and physiological markers of stress reactivity were assessed. Additionally, maternal stress and stress reactivity were assessed using psychosocial questionnaires. There was support for proposed psychophysiological connections, including models in which positive associations between OGTT and maternal stress and anxiety were moderated by psychological stress reactivity. Results suggest that both the presence of stress and a women’s responses to that stress are influential over blood glucose metabolization during pregnancy. Continuing research in this area may have implications for improving outcomes of women at higher risk of GDM and other adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.
Social Norms' Influence on Gendered Behaviors
(North Dakota State University, 2013) Ewing Lee, Elizabeth
Individual variability in engagement in gendered behavior is primarily assumed to be the result of variability in gender roles (i.e., femininity, masculinity; Bem, 1981). However, contextual factors have also been shown to influence behaving in gendered ways (Leszczynski & Strough, 2008; Pickard & Strough, 2003). The current studies sought to explore engagement in gendered behaviors by examining the influence of social norms on gendered behaviors, as well as how those perceptions interact with gender self-concepts (i.e., gendered contingencies of selfworth, self-efficacy for behaving in gendered ways, similarity to others of one's sex) to influence engagement in gendered behaviors. Two studies were conducted in which participant behavior was measured by having them complete tasks with ambiguous gender stereotypes associated with them: pain threshold and endurance. The norms were presented through direct feedback in Study 1 and through behavioral modeling from confederates in Study 2. Each study also examined the moderating effect of gender self-concepts: gendered contingencies of selfworth, self-efficacy for behaving in gendered ways, and similarity to others of one's sex. In study 1, sex differences were found such that men who were told that their sex was superior evidenced elevated pain threshold when compared to men who were not given any gender specific information. Furthermore, similarity to others of one's sex moderated the association. In study 2, direct tests of the effect of presented norms on groups were not found to be significant. However, when controlling for each of the gender self-concepts, individuals who had same-sex superiority demonstrated had significantly higher pain threshold than those who had observed same-sex confederates demonstrating inferior pain threshold and endurance. Additionally, individuals with higher levels of gender self-efficacy were more likely to have the gendered information impact their behavior than individuals with low levels of gender self-efficacy. Overall, social norms were found to have an impact on individuals' engagement in gendered behaviors, although individual personality factors moderated those relationships. The current work shines a light on how gender norms can both heighten or diminish engagement in gendered behaviors, and underscores the need to examine individual differences when exploring the impact of contextual norms.

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