This study was carried out to better understand differences in the practice of breast selfexamination (BSE) by Latinas and Caucasian-American women. Current estimates from the American Cancer Society (ACS) place Latinas at much greater risk for morbid . . .

Obesity is a growing health concern. In the US, 50% of women enter pregnancy overweight, which can pose serious health outcomes for both the mother and offspring, including preeclampsia, hypertension, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, and fetal mac . . .

Children struggle with weighing relevant and irrelevant information when making purchasing decisions about products. Advertisers often take advantage of this weakness, as product marketing strategies include popular cartoon characters specifically to . . .

Maternal defense behavior is a behavior that is uniquely associated with the hormonal changes that accompany late pregnancy and lactation. The general onset and maintenance of maternal behavior in a lactating dam is dependent on the dam having a funct . . .

According to Isbell’s (2006) Snake Detection Theory, the need to rapidly detect and thus avoid snakes had a major impact on the evolution of the primate visual system. Snake Detection Theory rests on the assumption that there are both cortical (consci . . .

Research on ostracism indicates that brief instances of exclusion threaten feelings of control, belonging, meaningful existence, and self-esteem (collectively known as need threat) and increase negative affect. The temporal need threat model of ostrac . . .

The present study examined children’s evaluation of self-serving and prosocial lies and whether these evaluations were altered by the presence of arbitrary social groups. As 3rd party observers, children (3- to 7-year olds) listened to four stories ab . . .

Research has shown that messages containing descriptive normative feedback can induce behavior change in the direction of the norm. However, the literature is mixed regarding the relative influence of more specific referent groups. This study compared . . .

Working memory (i.e., the capacity to maintain, manipulate, and retrieve multiple bundles of information) has been shown to be independent of, albeit correlated with, intelligence (g), and is variable across the population. As a result, the question h . . .

Due to the current economic decline, numerous employees are faced not only with financial concerns, but with the additional stressor of potentially losing their jobs. This feeling of powerlessness in the workforce is referred to as job insecurity. Whe . . .

The noncompetitive NMDA antagonists PCP and ketamine are valuable in research aimed at understanding a variety of disorders. Current findings are generating an interest in the mechanisms by which these drugs modify behavior, a process which is not ful . . .

Infidelity is a ubiquitous phenomenon that is experienced by a multitude of individuals in exclusive relationships. The revelation of a partner’s unfaithful transgression can elicit numerous negative emotional responses and potentially lead to the dis . . .

Previous research has demonstrated that lower emotional awareness, lower conscientiousness, and higher neuroticism scores correlate with substance use. Additionally, substance users have been found to have more difficulty controlling their impulses. N . . .

Social norms approaches have emerged as promising intervention strategies in promoting individual-level conservation behavior. In order to maximize the effectiveness of these approaches, it is important to further understand what factors moderate norm . . .

The ocular-vestibular system integrates visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive information in order to aid individuals in navigating the environment. Individual differences arise in the relative weight that individuals give to visual information over . . .

Recent studies in eyewitness identification have pointed to an advantage in accuracy for witnesses to identify suspects from a sequential, rather than simultaneous, lineup. Under the sequential procedure, some witnesses may wish to see another viewing . . .

Autism affects 1 of 50 children in the United States (Blumberg et al., 2013). Given its high rate of occurrence, many children are growing and providing care for siblings in a family context that contains an autistic child. Due to this provision of ca . . .

The emotion regulation (ER) strategy of reappraisal involves thinking about a particular emotion-eliciting stimulus so as to regulate one’s emotional response. In contrast to suppression, which involves “hiding” one’s response (e.g., facial expression . . .

Ketamine and dextromethorphan belong to the drug class known as dissociatives. They produce several behavioral effects, including dissociation from self and disruptions in learning and memory. Initiation of dissociative use is often in adolescence, an . . .

Evolutionary psychology assumes that humans evolved specialized cognitive mechanisms in response to specific adaptive problems. Models of social exchange and reciprocity have led to the prediction that humans are equipped with cognitive capacity for e . . .

Poverty can have detrimental effects on early childhood development. Although poverty has been correlated with child outcomes, specifically with language delays and problem behaviors, the language and problem behaviors in relation to ethnicity and pri . . .

Many animal traits are the result of inter- or intra-sexual selection. Intersexual selection which usually takes the form of female mate choice, is the process by which an individual chooses a particular mate that exhibits desirable traits, or that pr . . .

Over one billion cell phones are being used around the world today, yet little psychology-related research has been conducted on the topic of cell phone use. Most previous work has studied cell phone use while driving. Results show that using a cell p . . .

Dholes (Cuon alpinus) are canids that inhabit much of Asia. This species has been classified as vulnerable; therefore, maintenance and breeding of dholes in captivity is important. Successful husbandry protocols involve a minimum of stress for captive . . .

Family relationships are often considered to be blueprints for future relationships with others. The purpose of this research was to increase knowledge of how father-child relationships and perceptions of parents’ relationship in childhood are related . . .

The emotions of others can have a powerful influence on our own emotions. Emotional sharing in social contexts can be as benign as the shared enthusiasm of sporting events and as menacing as shared hatred that fuels radical terrorist movements. Despit . . .

Behaviors that are differentially associated with one hemisphere or the other are considered “lateralized.” Dozens of studies have demonstrated individual side biases for motor tasks across species and taxa. Over the last 20 years, research has confir . . .

It is estimated that about half of all women in college demonstrate eating disturbances that do not meet the clinical threshold for diagnosis (Berg, Frazier & Sherr, 2009). Researchers have speculated that social influences play a large role in th . . .

The purpose of the present study was to examine cognitive variables that predicted an individual's relationship with exercise and to obtain the self-reported activity levels of Whites and Latinas. Self-efficacy for exercise, hope, the pros and cons of . . .

Past studies have explored and supported the hypothesis that trichromacy offers an advantage over dichromacy in detecting ripe fruit. Few studies have explored whether this advantage is maintained in food selection, that is, if the color cues availabl . . .

Substantive issues in cross cultural testing require that tests be offered in different languages to suit the needs of a diverse society. However, the fundamental issues involving measurement accuracy become complicated when applied to crosscultural t . . .

The purpose of Positive Psychology is to acquire a scientific understanding of the strengths and virtues that people need in order to thrive, and to use that information to develop effective interventions for positive change. A large part of Positive . . .

A growing body of research has distinguished implicit from explicit attitudes. Yet, very little research has been conducted on the implicit attitudes of children; and no research has examined the implicit environmental attitudes of children. The purpo . . .

Thesis Abstract Efforts to promote psychological well-being have been a concern for researchers. While psychosocial factors have been identified as indicators of well-being, limited research has been conducted on the effects of attachment styles and n . . .

Attachment research has demonstrated that the early mother-child relationship plays a significant role in shaping a child’s emotional development. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of emotion regulation between the quality . . .

Adolescents and young adults are the primary consumers of drugs of abuse (including prescriptions drugs); yet, most of the preclinical research aimed at understanding the effects of these drugs has been performed in adult animal models. Drug use durin . . .

The proportion of adults aged 65 and over is projected to increase from 13% (40.2 million) to 19% (72 million) of the U.S. population by the year 2030 (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010), with over seven million of these older adults expected to have Alzhei . . .

Major depression is a significant health concern affecting approximately 14.8 million adults in the United States each year and is commonly undetected in primary care settings. This study evaluated the use of the Voice-Interactive Depression Assessmen . . .

The present project examined whether the effects of an appearance-based sun protection intervention would be enhanced through consideration of individual time perspective (TP) biases and the manipulation of different time frames. Southern California c . . .

Research has examined food knowledge in elementary- and high school-aged children; however, very little research has been done examining preschool-aged children’s understanding of health behaviors. The purpose of this research was to better understand . . .

Religion plays an important role in the lives of most people. Individuals’ concepts of God stem largely from the socialization they receive from parents. The literature on religion draws heavily on the attachment relationship as the foundation for spi . . .

Two factors that may influence the quality of romantic relationships are attachment style to one’s parents and current adult attachment to romantic partners. This study utilized the attachment literature to establish a framework for examining how adul . . .

This experiment examined the role of social norms in encouraging conservation behaviors. Participants were 624 households from neighborhoods located in North San Diego County, California. This was a field experiment with participants randomly assigned . . .

People across cultures form expectations about love; research suggests that there are cultural differences in the kind and amount of love that is expected in marriage. Marital expectations also vary by relationship status (i.e., single, engaged, and m . . .

Smokers have been regarded as having low distress tolerance, a characteristic shown to be linked to smoking behavior. Individual and population based interventions have proven to be effective in changing behavior; however, no research exists that has . . .

Increased communication technology use, including contact through email, cell phones, chat rooms, instant messaging and social network systems, has dramatically modified social interactions. Specifically, communication technology has increased the fre . . .

The mental health of individuals of Mexican origin varies as a function of generational status. Studies have found that Mexican Americans tend to have more depressive symptoms than Mexican immigrants. The goal of this study was to identify possible ex . . .

Individuals with depressive symptoms report less specific autobiographical memories than healthy individuals. Depressed rumination is commonly seen in this population and evidence suggests it may interfere with autobiographical memory retrieval by dep . . .

This study addresses the various factors that influence an individual’s level of cognitive complexity in the domain of music. Specifically, the links between intelligence, practice, musical ability, and musical cognitive complexity were assessed. It w . . .