Psychology URC Student Scholarship
Recent Submissions
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"Signal to Noise" Ratio of a Novel Object Increased By Ritalin: A Study with Two Rat Strains
(2012-07-01)My research was designed to investigate the effects of Ritalin (methylphenidate) administration on the novelty-seeking behavior of two rat strains, the Occidental high saccharin-preferring (HiS) and low saccharin-preferring ... -
Locomotion and Anxiety After Caffeine Intake in HiS and LoS Rats
(2012-07-01)Caffeine is a widely consumed psychoactive substance, present in many types of comestibles. As a stimulant, caffeine is positively correlated with increased alertness and energy. Caffeine’s arousing effect stems from the ... -
Stress-Induced Alcohol Preferences: A Novel Test in Selectively Bred Rats
(2012-07-01)This summer research is a novel test that examines stress-induced alcohol preferences in selectively bred high versus low saccharin-consuming rats. Susceptibility to alcohol abuse is dependent on various environmental and ... -
Babies and Blunders: How Socialized Medicine Affects Maternity and Emergency Care in Sweden Anne Davis and Jeremiah Ray
(2004-01-01)As America moves into an election year, the question of how to provide health care to our nation has become a major issue. Caring for the poor, developing medical technology and controlling malpractice insurance costs only ... -
Communication Across a Conceptual Divide: Effects of Collaboration on Evolutionary Reasoning
(2012-07-01)Teaching students the theory of evolution by natural selection has become a fundamental goal of science education. Nevertheless, students often construct an intuitive understanding of evolution that impedes their ability ... -
Psychophysiological Markers of Jealousy vs. Anger
(2008-01-01)This study primarily investigates some of the boundaries and definitions of jealousy and the ways that it differs from anger. We theorize that jealousy may elicit a threat response while anger may elicit a challenge response, ... -
The Role of Metacognition in Conceptual Change
(2012-07-01)Metacognitive ability- proficiency in analyzing ones own thought processes - is related to the ability to correctly gauge one's mastery of a task (Kruger, 1999; Dunning, 2003). It may also be tied to the ability to make ... -
Emotional Reactivity in a Rat Model of Depression
(2010-01-01)This project examines proneness to submissive behavior in rats and interventions to prevent its expression, by way of modeling human depression and its alleviation. Occidental Low Saccharin-consuming (LoS) rats, which are ... -
Differentiating the Physiology of Emotions with Impedance Cardiography: Pilot Study
(2004-01-01)This study piloted techniques to render shame and anger in a laboratory. Participants (13 women, 7 men) were asked to recall a past instance that made them feel either shameful or angry and then to either write the experience ... -
A Case Study of Mobile Hospitals in Tamil Nadu, India
(2005-01-01)When I set out on my Richter I intended to have a perfect understanding of the workings of a mobile hospital in Tamil Nadu, India. My goals in included but were not limited to: understanding the mobile hospital on all ... -
Oxy Students' Attitudes about Rape
(2012-07-01)The purpose of this study was to examine different perceptions and attributions of male and female victims who were sexually assaulted by an acquaintance or a stranger. 97 undergraduate students read a vignette that described ... -
Racial Identity and its Relationship to Political Attitudes.
(2000-01-01)Racial diversity has long been a part of history in the United States. The meanings, however, attached to race have changed significantly in the past forty years. Americans of various structural positions (race, class, ... -
Feminism in Fiji: a Study of Family Structure, Perception, and the Transformation of Gender Roles by University Women.
(2000-01-01)Past research has suggested that institutions, such as the family in rural agrarian societies, influence women's adjustment to roles in society.This project explores socialization processes involved in constructing traditional ... -
The Impact of Intergroup Dialogue Program on Students' Recognition and Interruption of Microaggressions
(2011-01-01)Research concerning microaggressions is a new and developing area. The literature on the topic began in 1974 with Chester Pierce's description of 'assaults to black dignity and black hope' as persistent and increasing ... -
Attitudes Toward Acquaintance Rape: The Impact of Social Context & Feminist Consciousness
(2010-01-01)This study examined relationships between a non-linear measure of feminism, the Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS), and responses to two rape vignettes one depicting a clear rape scenario and the other an ambiguous ... -
The Potential of Interactional Diversity: Outcomes Related to Oxy's Intergroup Dialogue Program.
(2004-01-01)Challenges posed by an increasingly diverse society have prompted institutions of higher learning to develop co-curricular initiatives that maximize diversity engagement, understanding, and value. This study explored the ... -
African-American Nomenclature: What we call ourselves and why?
(2005-01-01)Strong, positive racial identification and group status have been linked to psychological health (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Racial labels significantly influence the social connotations associated with the groups described. ... -
The Relationship between Acculturation, Self-Esteem, and Home Visitation: A Portrait of Oxy Latinos/as
(2008-01-01)We explored the predictive relationship of these variables for home visitation among students who are succeeding at a small, southern California, private college. 34 students, primarily juniors and seniors, completed an ... -
Latino/a Identities and Support Sources: The significance of home, class and co-curricular activities
(2008-01-01)Latinos have the largest growing population especially in California yet, they remain the lowest percentage in graduation rates. In fact, Yosso (2006) claims that out of 100 Latinos enrolling into elementary only 7 graduate ... -
Stereotype Threat Among OXY Male Athletes and Non-Athletes
(2010-01-01)This research investigated stereotype threat on academic performance in Occidental College male athletes and non-athletes by having participants either identify their athletic status (or lack of) either before or after ...