Psychology

This paper describes the development of COMPsych, a computerized system to disseminate information about software dealing with all aspects of psychology. The need for such a service, the various components, and the general operation of the system are described. The system will contain a catalog of commercial and public domain software, a library of freeware, a directory of computer users, and a bulletin board.

Two lexical decision experiments were performed to investigate the lateralization of the word frequency effect and the interaction with word class. Positive results would support proposals of multiple lexicons in lexical retrieval models. The first was a small-n experiment varying visual angle of presentation, signal to noise ratios, visual field and word class (noun/verb) while using high frequency word and nonword items. The purpose of this experiment was to document the sensitivity of observers to material presented varying distances from a central fixation point while replicating previous research results of a word class by visual field interaction. The second experiment was a large-n design varying visual field, word class (noun/verb/mixed), and word frequency, looking for greater differences in lateralization of word class by frequency. Results of the first experiment show no visual field by word class interaction, failing to replicate previous research. Speed of response slow...

Growing attention has been paid to examining how women present themselves on Social Networking Sites (SNSs). Recently, researchers have found that SNSs seem to provide a unique forum for the reproduction of traditional gender roles, including the sexualization of women. In the current study, we evaluated various correlates of self-sexualization in the Facebook profile pictures of young women. Ten Facebook profile photographs of each of 98 young adult women, ranging in age from 18 to 28 years old, were coded for self-sexualization. Participants also completed self-report surveys measuring appearance-related contingencies of self-worth, body surveillance, and internalization of sociocultural beauty norms. Appearance-related contingencies of self-worth and body surveillance were both independently positively associated with self-sexualization in Facebook profile photographs. Although internalization of sociocultural appearance attitudes did not have a direct effect on self-sexualization in Facebook profile pictures, it did have an indirect effect through body surveillance. Potential theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

While traditional face-to-face (FTF) communication has been studied by scholars for decades, research on computer-mediated-communication (CMC) is only just beginning. One of the most popular forms of CMC is social media. The increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) has sparked the interest of many social scientists and has become a novel way to study social psychological phenomena. This chapter will review a new phenomenon-social media use-in light of a very old phenomenon: the self. We address how the self is manifested in online vs offline contexts. Three basic self-related motives will be discussed in relation to SNSs: 1) defining the self, 2) enhancing and defending the self-concept, and 3) presenting the self to others. These self-related motives will help us to shed light on why SNSs are so appealing to people. In addition, these motives can help to understand the construction of gendered identities on SNSs. Because Facebook is the most widely used SNS with 1.35 billion monthly active users (Facebook, 2015), the majority of the research we discuss in this chapter examines Facebook users.

To address faculty concerns about the quality of student writing in their disciplines, we wanted to learn which factors influence faculty to assign-or not assign-writing in their courses. We designed several faculty surveys to identify variables that impact faculty intentions to assign writing, anticipating that if we could influence faculty to assign more writing throughout the curriculum, writing would improve.) later suggested that there may be complications, depending on whether a specific behavior is under an individ-ual's own control. For example, if the curriculum for a course is standardized across course sections, instructors may not believe it is within their control to select the textbook for their own sections. To deal with issues related to control, Ajzen developed the notion of perceived behavioral control, which acts as a proxy for actual control. To further explain we can amplify the example above: Instructors may perceive that they cannot require or use a different textbook in their course, though in fact they could require it in addition to the standardized text. Further research by Trafimow, Sheeran, Conner, and Finlay (2002) showed that perceived behavioral control actually is an amalgamation of two variables: perceived control and perceived difficulty. Perceived control refers to the extent to which people believe the behavior is under their control whereas perceived difficulty refers to the extent to which people believe that the behavior would be difficult to perform. Although these often go together, which is why both are used in traditional measures of perceived behavioral control , Trafimow et al. (2002) showed that they do not always go together. In fact, it is possible to perform experimental manipulations that influence perceived difficulty without influencing perceived control, and to influence perceived control without influencing perceived difficulty. In our study, we disentangled perceived control from perceived difficulty. With respect to the issue of faculty assigning writing, whether a teacher believes that assigning writing is under her control may or may not be a different matter from whether the teacher believes that assigning writing is difficult. To further ensure optimal understanding of influential variables, we also measured attitudes and subjective norms. Attitudes are people's evaluations of behavior. In this study, attitude reflects how positively or negatively faculty view assigning writing in their classes. Alternatively, subjective norms reflect people's perceptions about what others who are important to them think they should do. Note that, for subjective norms, what is important is not what others actually think, but what subjects believe others think. If I identify my department head as an "important other," then what I believe he or she thinks about assigning writing contributes to my subjective norms. Important others could include colleagues, students, and perhaps even friends or family members. Because research bears out that there is high correlation between intended and actual behavior, and because we could not directly observe and measure actual behavior, our first study was designed to identify faculty behavioral intentions (hereafter, intentions) to assign writing. Study 1 first determined which of the four main variables-attitude, subjective norms, perceived control, and perceived difficulty-best predicted faculty intentions to assign writing and, second, obtained a list of relevant beliefs for each of the variables, which were then used in Study 2. Study 2, in turn, first investigated open-ended beliefs obtained in Study 1 to find out which beliefs best predict intentions to assign writing and, second, identified which beliefs should be the focus of interventions intended to increase faculty intentions to assign writing. Faculty Writing Survey-Study 1 Study 1 involved the development of a faculty survey. Careful attention was given to measurement issues, including using the principle of correspondence, which states that all items should match with respect to an AALHE Intersection Fall 2016

Teachers who offer undergraduate courses agree widely on the importance of writing assignments to further undergraduate education. And yet, there is a great deal of variance among teachers in their writing assignments; some teachers assign no writing whatsoever. To determine the variables that influence the decisions of teachers about whether to assign writing, we predicted their intentions to assign writing from attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control, and perceived difficulty pertaining to assigning writing. Zeroorder correlations and hierarchical regression analyses implicate attitude and perceived difficulty as the most important predictors of teacher's intentions to assign writing in two studies. We also obtained open-ended belief statements in Study 1 and used them to obtain quantitative belief data in Study 2 to find and validate the importance of the impact of particular specific beliefs on intentions to assign writing.

Depression is a highly heterogeneous condition, and identifying how symptoms present in various groups may greatly increase our understanding of its etiology. Importantly, Major Depressive Disorder is strongly linked with Substance Use Disorders, which may ameliorate or exacerbate specific depression symptoms. It is therefore quite plausible that depression may present with different symptom profiles depending on an individual's substance use status. Given these observations, it is important to examine the underlying construct of depression in groups of substance users compared to non-users. In this study we use a non-clinical sample to examine the measurement structure of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in non-users and frequent-users of various substances. Specifically, measurement invariance was examined across those who do vs. do not use alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis. Results indicate strict factorial invariance across non-users and frequent-users of alcohol and can...

Background: Identifying genetic relationships between complex traits in emerging adulthood can provide useful etiological insights into risk for psychopathology. College-age individuals are under-represented in genomic analyses thus far, and the majority of work has focused on clinical disorder or cognitive abilities rather than normal-range behavioral outcomes. Methods: This study examined a sample of emerging adults 18-22 years of age (N = 5,947) to construct an atlas of polygenic risk for 33 traits predicting real-world outcomes. Twenty-eight hypotheses were tested based on the previous literature on samples of European ancestry, and the availability of rich assessment data allowed for polygenic predictions across 55 psychological and medical phenotypes. Results: Polygenic risk for schizophrenia in emerging adults predicted anxiety, depression, nicotine use, trauma, and family history of psychological disorders. Polygenic risk for neuroticism predicted anxiety, depression, phobia...

The genetic and environmental contributions of negative valence systems (NVS) to internalizing pathways study (also referred to as the Adolescent and Young Adult Twin Study) was designed to examine varying constructs of the NVS as they relate to the development of internalizing disorders from a genetically informed perspective. The goal of this study was to evaluate genetic and environmental contributions to potential psychiatric endophenotypes that contribute to internalizing psychopathology by studying adolescent and young adult twins longitudinally over a 2-year period. This report details the sample characteristics, study design, and methodology of this study. The first wave of data collection (i.e., time 1) is complete; the 2-year follow-up (i.e., time 2) is currently underway. A total of 430 twin pairs (N = 860 individual twins; 166 monozygotic pairs; 57.2% female) and 422 parents or legal guardians participated at time 1. Twin participants completed self-report surveys and pa...

The extent to which earlier age of onset (AO) is a reflection of increased genetic risk for major depression (MD) is still unknown. Previous biometrical research has provided mixed empirical evidence for the genetic overlap of AO with MD. If AO is demonstrated to be relevant to molecular polygenic risk for MD, incorporation of AO as a phenotype could enhance future genetic studies. This research estimated the SNP-based heritability of AO in the China, Oxford and VCU Experimental Research on Genetic Epidemiology (CONVERGE) case-control sample (N = 9,854; MD case, n = 4,927). Common single nucleotide polymorphism heritability of MD was also examined across both high and low median-split AO groups, and best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) scores of polygenic risk, in split-halves, were used to predict AO. Distributions of genetic risk across early and late AO were compared, and presence of self-reported family history (FH) of MD was also examined as a predictor of AO. AO was not signi...