Psychology

Early life stress (ELS) is considered a risk factor for the development of psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety disorder. Individuals living in adverse environments are exposed to multiple stressors simultaneously, such as neglect, maltreatment, and limited resources.

Established in 1976, Reachout is a free, non-judgmental crisis and information hotline serving residents of St. Lawrence County. It answers after-hours calls for many other human services agencies as well as operates a mobile crisis team that sends trained counselors to meet and assess people at risk. Reachout provides a vital service to our community. For example, in 2005 alone, Reachout logged over 28,000 calls. I completed the training and became an official volunteer at Reachout in the Spring of 2019.

The purpose of this study is to further examine the relationship between academically-focused character strengths (positively valued personality traits) and positive academic outcomes among college students. Over 320 SLU students took an online survey. Results demonstrated (1) a new grouping of character strengths, (2) links between character strengths and academic outcomes for all students, and (3) important differences between groups of students on these relationships.

Our study attempts to add to the literature involving the hippocampus and temporal processing. We plan to achieve this by creating a causal experiment that examines the relationship between the hippocampus and interval timing. In this study, a double-blind stereotaxic surgery is performed on the hippocampi of two groups of Wistar rats: one in which the rats receive a sham injection and one in which they receive an excitatory neurotoxin. The rats are then subjected to a temporal attention task.

Previous research suggests that consistent preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards is associated with a host of maladaptive health-related behaviors. Non-human and humans studies have shown that chronic exposure to immediate rewards increases the consistent preference for smaller, sooner rewards. For all experiments, human participants were exposed to acute delay exposure via a series of surveys based on assigned conditions: delay exposure, immediate exposure, or standard control.

The creation of innovative digital social networks and platforms has transformed how information is disseminated for online users. The following paper is comprised of a literature review that examines the relationship between Twitter and journalism, democracy, disinformation and citizen journalism. The sections in the literature review aims to provide a framework in understanding the significance of using Twitter and the theoretical framework revolving around it.

Spatial cognition in rats has long been a model system used to explore links between neural encoding of the environment and behavior. Remarkably, however, little is known about how animals and humans navigate in three-dimensional (3D) spaces. This summer I plan to investigate the role of the hippocampus in processing vertical space. The hippocampus is a brain structure well-known to be involved in learning and memory, especially spatial memory. However, it is not clear whether the hippocampus is used to process the vertical aspects of space.

The purpose of this research is to understand how international students experience psychological sense of community on American college campuses. In light of recent crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the literature reviewed on the international student experience is applied to understand the specific consequences this population faced during the pandemic, and to provide an understanding for their experiences during other forms of crisis.