Article archive / March 1, 2016
Originally published: . Volume 7, No. 3. Source pages: 1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
APA Regional Meeting, SEPA convenes in the Big Easy Southeastern Psychological Association Meets in New Orleans –March 30 to April 2
The Southeastern Psychological Association, known as SEPA, a regional group of the American Psychological Association (APA), will hold it’s 62nd Annual Meeting March 30 to April 2 in New Orleans at the Sheraton.
Psychological scientists, psychologists and students from around the state will participate, including those from Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech, Loyola, Northwestern State University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Southeastern Louisiana University, Tulane, University of Louisiana Lafayette, University of New Orleans, and Xavier University.
Presentations and invited addresses include the Rosecrans Invited Address II by Oscar Barbarin, PhD, previously at Tulane and now at the University of Maryland. He will speak on “Paradoxes in the Development of Boys of Color,” and give a workshop, “Socio-emotional Development of African American Boys and Young Men.”
Other featured speakers are Pam Imm, PhD, community psychologist from South Carolina, speaking on prevention in community settings, and Paschal Sheeran, PhD, Professor in the Social Psychology program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who will speak on health psychology.
Louisiana State University Psychology Professor, Julia Buckner, PhD, will present a continuing education workshop, “Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Comorbid Cannabis Use and Anxiety Disorders.” Attendees will learn techniques used in this integrated treatment which includes transdiagnostic CBT for anxiety disorders, known as False Safety Behavior Elimination Therapy.
Lee Matthews, PhD, from Grief Resource Center, will Chair a Symposium, “Reminiscence 10 Years after the Hurricanes: Application of Elder Therapy.” Participants are Janet Matthews, PhD, from Loyola University; Shiva Akula, MD, and Laura Philips, LCSW, from Akula Foundation; Theresa Wozencraft, PhD, and Emily Sandoz, PhD, both from the University of Louisiana Lafayette, and Megan Alsop, PsyD, from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Xavier University. Presenters will review the development and application of “Reminiscence Therapy” groups in over 100 nursing homes and following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2006.
Janet Matthews, PhD, Professor Emerita from Loyola, will also participate in a special tribute to Dr. Ray Fowler in, “Eminent Psychologists of the Southeast Series: A Special Symposium in Honor of Raymond D. Fowler.”
Lillian Range, PhD, Psychology Professor at Our Lady of Holy Cross College, will participate in the Luncheon for SEPA Past Presidents. Dr. Range served as president in 2007.
The conference will showcase psychological research from around the state, grouped below by affiliated organization.
Louisiana State University – Psychology
Spatial Location in Auditory Distraction: The Case of Cross-Modal Stroop
by Dr. Emily Elliott, LSU Psychology Professor in Cognitive and Brain Sciences, will co-present with Danielle Lutfi-Proctor
What Underlies Individual Differences in Auditory Distraction Effects?
by Dr. Emily Elliott, Jenna Zeringue, Corey McGill, and Juan Ventura
RSVP Search: Typicality Effects in an Atypical Visual Search Task
by Dr. Megan Papesh, Assistant Professor, with researcher Juan Guevara Pinto
Test Enhanced Learning: Strategy Change and Conscientiousness
by Juan Ventura, Peter Delaney, and Yoojin Chang
The Role of Attention Deployment in Mistaken Eyewitness Identifications
by Dr. Sean Lane, Professor, and Daniella Cash, Lindsey Bernard, Hannah Stintson, Chelsea Cockburn, Olivia Ogden and others
Jury Decisions, Victim Attractiveness, and Negative Pretrial Publicity
by Daniella Cash and colleagues from Florida Southern College
Effects of Source Monitoring and Commitment Effects on Mugshot Exposure
by Daniella Cash and colleagues from Florida Southern College
“The Attention Deployment and the Mugshot Exposure studies focus on eyewitness identification, which is a topic that I have enjoyed studying throughout my academic career,” said Daniella Cash. “Mistaken eyewitness identification is one of the top contributors to wrongful convictions and there are many factors that can cause an eyewitness to be inaccurate. By better understanding how different factors impact witness memory it can be possible to reduce misidentifications.”
Louisiana State university – Human Resource Education & Workforce Development
Inter-Organizational Resource Based Collaboration Network
by Dr. Tracey Rizzuto, Associate Director and Professor in the School of Human Resource Education and Pallavi Singh
In 2015 Dr. Rizzuto was granted the Mary Ethel Baxter Lipscomb Memorial Endowed Professorship in the College of Human Science and Education, and provided three-years of project funding. “This past April, I applied the first year of funding,” Rizzuto said, “to the delivery of a data-driven multisector event designed to forge strategic and mutually beneficial ties connecting non-profits in the Baton Rouge community to like-minded businesses and government agencies. The event was called the Baton Rouge (BR) Choice Collaborative.”
The effort extended Rizzuto’s previous and ongoing work funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Justice (Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation).
Louisiana Tech University
Relationship between Features of LGB Identity and Authenticity
by Sarah McConnell and Dr. Guler Boyraz
Examining the Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the MEI-R.
by Dr. Melanie Lantz and Michael Garza
Paranormal Beliefs of Latvian and American Students: Support for Motivational-Control
by Dr. Jerry Tobacyk, Dr. Mary Livingston, Elizabeth Dixon, and Quinn Warner. Co-presenters are Arturs Utinans, Gunta Ancane, and Vinita Cauce from Riga Stradins University.
Dr. Tobacyk explained, “Our group presentation at SEPA concerns a cross-cultural comparison of paranormal beliefs of Latvian and American students. The theoretical rationale that informs our comparison is Keinan's motivational control model: that societal stressors can threaten one's sense of personal control and that internalization of paranormal belief is one method for persons to re- establish a sense of control ––even if illusory.”
Self-Stigma toward Counseling: Internet Online and Office Settings
by Dr. Mary Livingston, Christopher Coleman, Dr. Guler Boyraz, and Dr. Jerry Tobacyk, and Margaret Hindman from the University of Arkansas.
“This is one part of a larger project looking at various types of online counseling and computer security concerns,” Dr. Livingston said. “This piece focuses on self stigma in seeking help and online counseling.”Online counseling is usually studied as a unitary phenomenon; little research has examined the public’s differentiating attitudes about the various types of online counseling––face-to-face, video, chat, and email counseling.”
“Results indicated that individuals who have self-stigma toward face-to-face counseling also hold negative attitudes toward online forms of counseling.”
“Findings indicated that online counseling might reduce self-stigma associated with seeking counseling. It appears that greater anonymity associated with online counseling may appeal to individuals who have self-stigma associated with seeking help,” said Dr. Livingston.
Loyola University
Financial Stress, Coping Behaviors, and Satisfaction with College Experience
by Maria Bruyn and Dr. Charles Nichols
Effects of Song Valence and Autobiographical Memory Valence on Mood
by Kim Ernst, from Loyola University, and Alexandria Lake from New York University.
Effects of Well-known and Lesser-known Nonprofits' Requests on Donor Intentions
by Kim Ernst and Ally Keene
Northwestern State University
How Meta-memory affects Emotion and Repetition
by Dr. Tanya Karam-Zanders, Assistant Professor, Amanda Boudreaux, and Courtney Foret-Chiasson
“Research suggests that memory accuracy does not benefit from repetition of negatively arousing information to the same extent as neutral information,” noted Dr. Karam-Zanders, and “a potential explanation for such a discrepancy involves meta-cognitive awareness.
While Karam-Zanders and her team are still collecting data her results suggest that neutral information benefits more from repetition than emotional information. “Completion of this and future studies will likely shed light into the nature of that difference,” she said. “My co-authors are very bright and talented undergraduate students at NSU graduating in May.”
Nova Southeastern University & The Neuropsychology Center of LA
Cognitive Rehabilitation and Its Effects on a Geriatric West Nile Encephalitis Survivor
by Julia Hussey, Traci Olivier, and Dr. Darlyne Nemeth
Our Lady of Holy Cross College
Help-Seeking Behaviors of African American Christians in the South
by Lillian Range, PhD, Professor of Psychology Education at Our Lady of Holy Cross College, and Ashley Ojo and Tara Payne.
Trauma in New Orleans Adults: Does Age Make a Difference?
by Dr. Range and Anna MacLellan
Emergency Medical Personnel: Burnout, Depression, Anxiety, and Fear Seeking Treatment
by E. Joy Hutchinson and Lillian Range
Dr. Range is a Past President of SEPA and Professor Emeritus at The University of Southern Mississippi. “I am proud of these research activities of my students, and look forward to these presentations to the scientific community.”
Southeastern State University
College Students' Attitudes towards Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) Based on Maternal Age, Marital Status, and Sexual Orientation
by Dr. Sara Sohr-Preston, Assistant Professor at Southeastern.
Examining Potential Bias against Prospective Adoptive Parents due to Age, Sex, Marital Status, or Sexual Orientation
by Olivia Moreno, Dylan Zepeda, Holly Kliebert, and Dr. Sohr- Preston
Student Biases and Potential Effects on Faculty Rating Websites
by Karen Phung and Dr. Sohr-Preston
Predictors of Parenting Self-Efficacy in Parents Attending College
by Heather Conn and Dr. Sohr-Preston
“In 2015, my students and I collected data regarding undergraduate students' attitudes toward assisted reproductive technology (ART) and infant adoption,” said Dr. Sohr-Preston. “Participants viewed vignettes about fictional adults seeking to become parents using either intrauterine insemination (IUI) or adoption.”
“No evidence emerged for bias based on parental age or sex. However, both sets of results suggested that participants were more positive in their appraisals of prospective parents in an opposite-sex marriage than those listed as single or in a same- sex marriage.”
Dr. Sohr-Preston said that the findings of differences suggest that “… while single adults and same-sex couples have increasing options for becoming parents, they may still face subtle bias or covert prejudice regarding their ability to parent.”
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Xavier
Performance Differences for Children on Repeat Administrations of a Sustained Attention and Inhibitory Control Task
by Dr. Matthew Holcomb, Professor, and Melissa Ulbricht, and Jonathan Lichtenstein from Dartmouth Medical School and Laszlo Erdodi from University of Windsor.
University of Louisiana Lafayette
Behaviorism Isn't Dead: Research in a Behavioral Approach to Cognition
by Dr. Emily Sandoz, Assistant Professor of Psychology, and Madison Gamble, Garret Cantu, Nolan Williams, and Gina Boullion
Hassles Experienced at Work by Emergency Medical Technicians
by Dr. Theresa Wozencraft, Associate Professor, and Alecia Vaughn
Effects of Cell Phone Distraction on a Pair Cancellation Tasks
by Dr. Theodore Scott Smith, Grant Chaisson, and Chelsea Shaeffer
Social Identity Theory and Victim Blame in the United States-Iraq Conflict
by Emily Broussard
Assessing Vignettes Depicting Sexual Scenarios for Perceptions of Consent
by Sara Gibson and Dr. Amy Brown, Assistant Professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Assessing Media Print Images to Elicit Self-Objectification in Viewers
by Casey Bevens and Dr. Amy Brown
Prior Exposure to Sexual Violence Awareness Education and Gender Impact Bystander Attitudes and Intention
by Jada Horton, Holland Campbell, Dr. Amy Brown, and Casey Bevens
Assessing the Hypothetical Effectiveness of Two University Condom Administration Policies
by Cristian Rivera and Dr. Amy Brown
(Not) Talking about Death: Implications for Terror Management Theory
by Dr. Brooke Breaux, Assistant Professor of Psychology at U. of Louisiana Lafayette, Dylan Richard, Dr. Laurie Robinette, Kylie Garber, Mark LaCour, and Dylan Harrell
How Does Thinking About Religion (And Other Factors) Influence the Way People Talk About Death?
by Dylan Richard, Kylie Garber, and Dr. Brooke Breaux.
“The members of my Cognition and Psycholinguistics (CaP) Research Lab,” said Dr. Breaux, “were dedicated to their research efforts last semester.” Dr. Breaux said. Her team of two masters students and two undergraduates, and colleague Dr. Laurie Robinette began work on their "Talking About Death" project. “… we started collecting and analyzing pilot data to explore some of the language that people actually use to talk about the topic of death and dying and how this language related to Terror Management Theory.”
Recent graduate Kylie Garber said, “The research we are conducting about death is definitely catching people's attention.” And, “Hopefully it will provide insight on the best ways to speak about death in order to promote positive coping. It is very rewarding to be apart of a research project with that kind of potential.”
Dylan Harrell said efforts have “… provided valuable groundwork on the ways individuals talk about death aside from using the words ‘death’ and ‘die.’ Being in this lab provides a fresh perspective on why better understanding the cognitive or psycho-linguistic aspects are important to consider in research.”
Dylan Richard, said, “Conducting this research is beneficial because it is allowing me and other students to use our critical thinking skills and our individual creativity in order to construct a sound experimental model while also exploring topics that we are passionate about.”
Mark LaCour, Graduate Assistant, is also on the research team. "In our lab, we are combining research on conceptual metaphor theory with terror management theory—the idea that physical experiences in the world affect not only the way we speak about death but also the way we think about it.”
“Because many of our lab members, especially the principal investigator,” Mark said, “work (or have worked) with a local organization for bereaved children, this research has helped us explore the ways in which our linguistic practices affect the grieving process and we hope to share our findings with others who are grieving or attempting to console someone who is grieving, whether in a professional role or a personal one.”
Priming Prepositions: Attempting to Replicate and Extend Boroditsky’s (2000) Findings
by Iesha King, Dustin Dronet, and Dr. Breaux.
“At first, this project was very challenging for me to grasp an understanding of,” said researcher Iesha King, “but over time I began to see its true essence …” And, “It is very important for us to understand the conceptual connection between abstract and concrete stimuli and why we subconsciously use these instances interchangeably.”
Dustin Dronet, said, “Metaphoric structuring is the idea that we use spatial objects to talk about abstract ideas such as time.” He said, “I am currently developing stimuli and surveys as a means to re-norm our stimuli that we had previously used. Its very rewarding to see the results that we receive.”
Xavier University
The Effects of Gender and Parenthood on Career Competence Judgments
Aliyah Jones, Zaharra Withers, and Assistant Professor, Dr. Katherine Eskine
The Effects of a Multimedia Meditation Video on Self- reported Executive Functioning and Procrastination- related Behavioral Traits
by Efehi Edomwonyi, Chinyere Okafor, and Dr. Katherine Eskine, Xavier
The Effects of Music on the Cognitive Abilities of Patients with Dementia
by Zaharra Withers and Dr. Katherine E. Eskine
Not So Reality Television: The Media’s Effect on Cognitive Dissonance
by Abigail Maristela
Parental Selection of Collateral Witnesses in High Conflict Custody Evaluations
by Hannah Lubman, Courtney Wineland, Sara Mermer, and W. Michael Nelson
Psychometric Properties of the ABAS-II with Adults Diagnosed with Intellectual Disability
by Rachel Holden, W. Michael Nelson, Kathleen Hart from Xavier University; and others
Effectiveness of Seven Challenges Program for Adolescents with Substance Disorders
by W. Michael Nelson, Caroline Sawyer and others
University of New Orleans
Enhancing Effectiveness of Teenagers' Supervised Driving Practice
by Yinan Zhao, Laura LaFleur, Megan Zeringue, and Dr. Robert Laird, Professor, all from University of New Orleans.
“The presentation is based on Yinan Zhao’s Master’s Thesis and is one of the first analyses of the data from our three-year longitudinal ‘Teen Driving Project’ which was funded by the W. T. Grant Foundation,” said Dr. Robert Laird, UNO Professor of Psychology, Associate Chair and Undergraduate Coordinator.
Researchers has focused on parent-teen relationships and negotiations around driving and they hope to understand factors in how families negotiate this risky venture to make driving safer for teens.
“This first analysis sought to find predictors of more extensive driving practice during the learner’s permit stage, which is a presumed to linked to safer driving subsequently. Results showed that the adolescents’ enjoyment of driving, and motivation to drive were the strongest predictors of both the amount of driving and of driving in different conditions …” said Laird.
“Future analyses will test whether more extensive driving practice during the learner’s permit stage is linked with safer driving during later,” said Dr. Laird.
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