Psychological scientists from Louisiana joined more than 2,000 researchers from around the world who gathered in Washington D.C., for the 2023 APS Annual Convention of Psychological Science to share psychological research. This year’s
event was held from May 25 to 28.
Louisiana State University
Raymond Tucker, PhD, collaborated on the “Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) facilitates the study of complex, time-varying phenomena in daily life, such as suicidal ideation.” According to the program: The presenters described the recent EMA research examining suicidal desire variability and sexual orientation, emotional differentiation in relation to suicidal thoughts, and person-specific models of suicide risk, with implications for just-in-time suicide prevention efforts.
Tonya Vandenbrink, PhD., was a co-collaborator on “The Influence of Age and Divided Attention on Eyewitness Memory.” The collaborators abstract noted: Their study supports previous findings that children are more suggestible than adults to misleading questions. This study also found that the negative influences of divided attention on eyewitness memory are not only present in adults but also can be found in younger populations, such as preschoolers.
University of Louisiana Lafayette
Aidan Guidry, Anna Catherine Romero, BS, Prynceston Fant, and Hung-Chu Lin co-authored “Attachment Insecurity and Empathy: Comparison between Inmates and College Students.” The authors noted: When compared to college students, inmates reported significantly lower levels of empathy but higher levels of attachment anxiety. For inmates, but not college students, regression results predicting empathy indicated main effects of attachment anxiety and avoidance, suggesting the role of attachment insecurity in empathy for criminal justice involved population.
Anna Catherine Romero, BS, Jaci Philliber, Kinsey Hatfield, Sydney Guidry and Hung-Chu Lin, PhD. Contributed to “Adverse Childhood Experiences, Mindfulness, and Health Outcomes.” The abstract noted: Data from 650 emerging adults revealed a main effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on depression, anxiety, stress, and somatic symptoms. Separate regression analyses (with age, gender, race/ethnicity controlled) indicated that mindfulness emerged to be a protective factor for all four outcomes above and beyond ACEs, social support, and resilience.
Ashley Messina, B.S. and Theresa Wozencraft, PhD. presented “The Relation between Race-Based Traumatic Stress and Stress Appraisals.” According to the presenters: The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relation between race-based traumatic stress (RBTS) and stress appraisals (i.e., threat, challenge, and centrality appraisals). Preliminary analyses demonstrated that the relationships between each variable were significant (p < .05) and that threat appraisals significantly predicted RBTS (p = .02).
Ayodeji Adegoke and Manyu Li, PhD., presented “Egocentric Network Analysis of Undergraduate Students’ Support Network.” From the presenters abstract: Using an egocentric network analysis approach, this study took a step further to understand the types of social support that relate to students’ academic motivation. The preliminary analyses demonstrated initial evidence that students’ support network indices were related to their intrinsic academic motivation and academic/career success values.
Brianna Sadighian, BA, and Manyu Li, PhD., discussed “Generation Status and Social Restrictiveness As Predictors for Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Mental Health Services in Asian Americans.” According to the abstract: Though the Asian American population and rate of mental health disorders continues to increase, there is still an underutilization of services in this population. Results show that generation status and levels of social restrictiveness may predict treatment-seeking attitudes in Asian Americans.
Brooke O. Breaux, PhD, Robert B. Michael, PhD and Ayush Deshpande. Collaborated on “Fake News: Towards an Empirical Definition.” From the abstract: College students were more likely to label a news story as “fake news” when it contained information that they disagreed with, made them unhappy, was thought to contain false information, and was thought to be written by a blogger, politician, or Facebooker whose intent was to mislead the reader.
Brooke O. Breaux, PhD., authored “Psychology Research Proposals: Benefiting from Explicit Instruction, Content Alignment, and Strategic Simplification.” According to the presenters: Within an introductory research methods course, it can be challenging for undergraduates in psychology to produce a quality research proposal. To improve outcomes, I created a sequence of three assignments for which there are explicit instructions, aligned the delivery of course topics with the assignment deadlines, and eliminated unnecessary complexity.
Hung-Chu Lin, PhD, Dianne Olivier, Roger Rholdon, Tricia Templet, Kaylee Ackel, Megan Bergeron, and Aidan Guidry and Paula Zeanah collaborated on the “Experiences of Student-Parents during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The presenters abstract noted: Data of a sample of student parents enrolled in a mid-size public University in the South of US during the COVID-19 pandemic were compared to non-parent students. Young student-parents (aged below 25) were at the greatest risks for academic difficulties and overall negative experiences, when compared to older student-parents and non-parents.
Kiara E. Martin, BS and Valanne MacGyvers, PhD., coauthored “The Role of ACEs on Academic Achievement and Psychological Well-Being: Examining Protective Factors.” From their abstract: Abuse, violence witnessed in the home, and divorce are all considered adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and can limit a person’s potential for success. However, protective factors such as resilience, growth mindset, and campus connectedness can help individuals overcome adversity from their childhood and improve their chances of success.
Kirsi S Michael, HS and Brooke O. Breaux, PhD, presented “Are Perceptions of Criminality Biased? The Roles of Name Popularity and Socioeconomic Status.” According to the presenters abstract: Are people with unpopular first names and people with lower socioeconomic status perceived by others as more likely to have committed a crime than people with popular first names and people with higher
socioeconomic status? Such biases would potentially impact the criminal justice system and convictions in court.
Taylar Johnson, BS and Manyu Li, PhD., co-authored, “Threat to Sense of Belonging: The Buffering Effects of Social Media Influencers.” The presenters abstract noted: This study examines whether parasocial bonds with social media influencers and cultural similarity to the influencers will moderate the negative relationship between threat to sense of belonging and sense of belonging. It is hypothesized that the moderators will buffer against the negative role of threat of sense of belonging.
Ainsley Graveson contributed to “Adverse Childhood Experiences, Mindfulness, and Health Outcomes.” According to the abstract: Data from 650 emerging adults revealed a main effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on depression, anxiety, stress, and somatic symptoms. Separate regression analyses (with age, gender, race/ethnicity controlled) indicated that mindfulness emerged to be a protective factor for all four outcomes above and beyond ACEs, social support, and resilience.
Tulane University
Anna Wilson, Hilary Skov, Kavya Subramaniam and Sarah A.O. Gray, PhD, co-collaborated on the “Maternal Depressive Symptoms during COVID-19: Pandemic-Related and Other Stressors Confer Risk.” According to the abstract: In a sample of low-income and economically marginalized, primarily Black mothers of young children, maternal depressive symptoms increased from pre- to post-COVID, elevating to clinically significant levels. Pre-COVID depressive symptoms were the most significant predictor of pandemic depressive symptoms, but exposure to COVID-related stressors accounted for 7.3% additional variance.
Charles Figley, PhD, was the co-chair for the presentation on “Filling Gaps in Research on Disaster Related Traumatization and Growth: Lessons from Catastrophic Category-5 Hurricanes.” From the abstract: Facing the surging impact of major disasters, trauma psychologists pointed to certain research gaps. This symposium on hurricane studies seeks to address gaps via following modalities: 1) Complex pathways to multifaceted outcomes; 2) Bayesian structural equation modeling (SEM) on prospective research; and 3) In-depth analysis concerning resilience of underserved communities.