A Nonhuman Primate Model of Anxiety-Induced Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

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J. Dee Higley, Psychology Summary This is the final report for the MEG Grant titled: A nonhuman primate model of anxiety-induced alcohol abuse and alcoholism. The formal phase of the project ran from June 1 through August 23, 2016, with the students learning how to safely work with their research subjects, joining a research team, […]

Dataset on Political Institutions in Authoritarian Regimes around the Worlds

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Joel Selway, Political Science 1. Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met The Dataset was completed and two papers were produced. One has been sent out for review and the other presented at an annual political science conference. 2. Evaluation of the mentoring environment The Mentoring Environment was organized well […]

Multimodal Neuroimaging of Insomnia During Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (MNI_NREM)

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Daniel Kay Application Abstract The impact of insomnia on brain regions/networks during sleep may represent mechanisms through which insomnia contributes to the risk for mood disorders. As a first step toward understanding the risk relationship linking insomnia to mood disorders, this study will utilize functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with multimodal techniques to investigate alterations […]

Pathways to success: Refugee families define successful resettlement outcomes

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Stacey Shaw, Social Work Successful refugee adaptation to life in the United States (U.S.) has traditionally been measured in terms of economic self-sufficiency and English language acquisition. While these indicators may relate to independence and acculturation, major questions remain about how refugees fare in the U.S. Recent programmatic efforts incorporate attention to integration, wellbeing, empowerment, […]

Funding American Democracy

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Michael Barber Academic Objectives The academic objectives of the project were largely met. Students participated in a number of research projects from beginning to end. Two students were included as coauthors on papers that were eventually published in academic journals. Other students participated throughout the process as research assistants. They collected data from archival sources, […]

Unseen, But in Plain Sight: Identifying Developmental Patterns of Females with Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Rebecca Lundwall Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met I will document the academic objectives met in terms of posters, presentations and papers. Posters Beck, J. S., Lundwall, R., Gabrielsen, T., Cox, J., Dixon, A., Spencer, M., Farmer, M., DeMordaunt, T., Peacock, L., Kamhout, S., Ekins, L., & South, M. […]

Effects of Acute Sleep Restriction on Neural Responding to Anticipated Peer Evaluation and Food Consumption in Overweight and Obese Adolescents

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Chad D. Jensen, Ph.D., Department of Psychology Abstract Research conducted with adults has demonstrated increased neural response to high calorie food images among sleep-deprived individuals (Benedict et al., 2012). Furthermore, a significant body of research suggests that social stress increases risk for unhealthy food consumption. Research examining the neural underpinnings of the social stress suggests […]

Analyzing a Corpus of President Trump’s Public Statements to Reveal Possible Media Bias

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Kevin Zalewski, William Eggington Introduction In recent years, America has become extremely politically divided. As political polarization has increased, so has distrust of the media, especially during President Trump’s current term of office. The Media Insights Project reports that “just 17 percent of Americans give the news media high marks for being ‘very accurate.’” In […]

Do Support Groups for Medical Patients Reduce Risk for Mortality? A Meta-Analytic Review

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Connor Workman, Dakota Jake, Daniel Rallison, Timothy Smith, PhD; Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, Psychology Recent scientific findings show that loneliness is found among the highest predictors of mortality. This information could prove to be a major influence on future interventions for medical patients. However, the literature is inconclusive on how best to implement these findings in the real […]

How to Get the Attention of Government Officials: A Test of the Effectiveness of Social Proof Treatments

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Aubriana Wolferts, Darren Hawkins, Political Science Social proof treatments—informing people about the behavior of their peers—have generally been shown effective in influencing subjects to engage in behavior due to a psychological desire to conform.1 Social proofs are more effective when they describe what peers typically do rather than what peers generally approve of, and when the […]