Evidence suggests that adolescence and young adulthood is a transitional stage whereby unique contextual factors may increase the likelihood for certain individuals to engage in risk-taking compared to their peers. In addition to influential environmental aspects (i.e. parenting, societal affiliations, peer influence) an adolescent’s and young adult’s underdeveloped cognitive control system is unable to successfully inhibit early maturing tendencies such as sensation seeking and reward sensitivity. However, previous research indicates that certain parental mechanisms may serve as protective/promotive agents for stabilizing this neurobiological imbalance. Therefore, the focus of the current research was to examine how parenting behaviors and styles moderate the relations between neurobiological variables and risk-taking during young adulthood. It was expected that authoritarian parenting methods would have adverse effects on young adult behavior by inhibiting maturing cognitive control abilities and exacerbating early developing socioemotional tendencies. Conversely, it was suspected that authoritative parenting would serve as a protective agent against young adult risk-taking by increasing cognitive control abilities and suppressing socioemotional tendencies. Additionally, parental monitoring is a behavior that, depending on context, may serve to either inhibit or exacerbate young adult risk-taking. An online survey was conducted to assess young adults from MTurk. Participants completed a variety of questionnaires regarding parent-child interactions, levels of sensation seeking and self-regulatory abilities, and engagement in risky behavior such as alcohol abuse. In sum, this research may be used to inform parents and caregivers of the influence of parent-child interactions on adolescent and young adult risk-taking.

There is a gender gap in United States politics; men are over represented, and prioritize issues/policies differently compared with women. Stereotypes may be associated depending on group memberships. Stereotypes of men (competent) are consistent and stereotypes of women (warm) are inconsistent with politicians (competent). I examined stereotypes of major/non-major political parties, and how party affiliation affects whether stereotypes about men/male politicians/women/female politicians predict female politicians’ traits. Stereotype valence ascribed to political parties is important because people vote for a positively viewed party/representative. I assessed the strength and valence of stereotypes associated with political parties, and found major parties were viewed more positively than non-major parties, and the Democratic and Republican parties were viewed more positively than the Independent Party (Study 1). I found warmth and competence attributes ascribed to women/female politicians/men/male politicians predicted Karen Johnson’s warmth and competence depending on whether Karen Johnson was a major or non-major party candidate. When men/male politicians were perceived as competent Karen Johnson was perceived as competent, but no relationship between men/male politicians’ warmth and Karen Johnson’s warmth emerged. When women/female politicians were perceived as warm/competent, Karen Johnson was perceived as warm/competent. As a major candidate, Karen Johnson was perceived as warm/competent when women/female politicians were perceived as warm/competent. However, when Karen Johnson was a non-major candidate, there was no relationship between women’s competence and Karen Johnson’s competence, and when women/female politicians were perceived as warm, Karen Johnson was perceived as warm (Study 2). Women in office and members of multiple social groups are discussed.

The aim of this study is two-fold. First, we want to understand the levels of metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. Previous research states that recall is the most effective method of studying, but most students prefer to reread their notes or textbook which is ineffective. Second, we want to explore the link between Working Memory and metacognitive awareness of learning strategies in undergraduates with learning disabilities. The learning strategies that college students with and without disabilities is examined, we found that students in both groups preferred the usage of the same strategies equally. The most preferred strategy was rereading notes/textbook, and least preferred was studying in groups. Interestingly, we found no differences between the groups with regards to their: motivation, metacognition, and working memory. Initially, it was found that the group of students with disabilities greatly differed in visual-spatial working memory, however, once we controlled for those who were visually-impaired or had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the results became non-significant. Gender differences in learning strategies was examined and we found that males preferred the usage of completing practice problems and the usage of mnemonic devices, whereas females preferred highlighting their notes or textbook.

In recent years, terrorism and radicalization has been a consistent issue that many countries have faced. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been the most recent in a long trail of organizations that have sought to strike terror against the western world. However, ISIS is distinguished from other groups, like Al-Qaeda, in that ISIS supports a complex propaganda machine. Although ISIS is not the first organization to use the social media platform, they are the first to use it with such diversity. The two main channels that ISIS uses to spread their propaganda messages are through social media sites such as Twitter and through online journals such as the Dabiq. Recent research has attempted to determine how recruitment messages are being received and which messages trigger recruitment. It is the goal of this paper to determine which messages are salient, and the psychological constructs that support them. By coding messages for appeals to identity, need for cognitive closure, time pressure, and appeals to ideology, the researchers expect that the two main channels of ISIS propaganda differ in their messages. We hypothesize that Twitter messages will be targeted towards novice ISIS sympathizers, whereas the Dabiq will be focused on already-radicalized individuals who have moved past the introduction of the radical ideology.

Effective parent-child relationships contribute to the development of well-adjusted children. Taxing personal and situational factors encumber a caregiver’s capacity for responsivity with his or her child. The purpose of the present study was to identify interpersonal factors that impact child outcomes in low socioeconomic status family populations. Data was collected in northeast Florida Head Start centers from 219 low income, at-risk caregivers and their children ages one and a half through almost five. Parents completed questionnaires on parent perceived stress, child temperament, and child developmental outcomes. Hierarchical regression was used to assess the influence of child temperament and parent perceived stress independently and interactively on child developmental outcomes. Although parent stress and negative child temperament significantly influenced child developmental outcomes, there was no significant interaction effect. Policies aimed at ameliorating negative child temperaments or subjective parent stress may serve families and improve child developmental outcomes. Researchers should investigate the potential moderating influence of parent sensitive responding on the relationship between parent stress and child developmental outcomes.

Two studies explored individual difference moderators of spillover. Positive spillover occurs when one prosocial behavior leads to an increase in subsequent prosocial behavior, whereas negative spillover or moral licensing occurs when one prosocial behavior leads to a decrease in prosocial behaviors. The moderators of interest were internal motivation, external motivation, and preference for consistency. It was predicted that those who exhibit high external motivation would demonstrate negative spillover, those who exhibit internal motivation would demonstrate positive spillover, and those with high preference for consistency would demonstrate positive spillover. Although these moderation predictions were not supported, Study 1 replicated previous work demonstrating moral licensing, or negative spillover. Participants who completed an initial non-prejudiced act later donated less money to a charity supporting racial equality than participants in the neutral control condition. The results of Study 2 demonstrated positive spillover. Participants who completed an initial pro-environmental act were more likely to help a local environmental organization compared to those who completed a neutral initial task. Future research is needed to understand the cause of the differing results, including measuring potential mediators in future studies.

Adolescence and young adulthood are the periods of development associated with the highest amount of risk-taking. One theory, the Dual-Systems model, suggests that this could be due to an imbalance in the maturation of two brain systems: reward appraisal, which matures first, and cognitive control, which matures later. This imbalance may be the cause of adolescents’ tendency to favor immediate rewards, disregarding consequences. Depressed adolescents, however, behave differently. While it is not exactly clear whether they take more risks or fewer risks, depressed adolescents display different interactions and decision making with their peers than non-depressed adolescents. This study attempted to use these patterns of behavior already identified in previous research to predict where an adolescent would fall on a depression continuum based on their Self-Focused and Other-Focused risk behaviors. Results did not find a link between depression and either type of risk. Results may be inconclusive due to issues within the data and data collection process.

Being without the financial means to have reliable access to enough food to sustain members of a household is known as Food Insecurity (FI; Gundersen, 2013). Previous research has linked FI to obesity and depression (Adams, Grummer-Strawn, & Chavez, 2003; Bronte-Tinkew, Zaslow, Capps, Horowitz, & Mcnamara, 2007; Huddleston-Casas, Charnigo, & Simmons, 2009; Kim & Frongillo, 2007). Although there have been findings about FI being related to depression and obesity, little research has used African Americans; even less research has used young adolescents as the target population. This study had five aims: 1) Observe the impact of FI on health, 2) Observe the impact of weight status on depression, 3) Observe gender effects, 4) Testing mediation effects of child and caregiver depression, and 5) Observe income effects on FI. There were 228 participants (Mage=13.27) recruited from a large Mid-Atlantic city. Self-administered questionnaires were used to assess psychosocial functioning, and caregivers answered the Two-Item Screening Questionnaire for Food Insecurity to assess FI status. FI was not significantly related to child depression but was related to caregiver depression. There was no relation between FI and weight status. Obese children reported higher levels of depression than normal and overweight children; weight had no relation to caregiver depression. Female children had higher rates of depression, overweightness, and obesity. Poverty was not related to FI or depression in children and caregivers. With more FI research, advances can be made to reduce the negative impact of this issue.

The school resource officer (SRO) program is a program developed in the United States with the goal of making schools a safer environment for students across all grades (Cray & Weiler, 2011). To date, the majority of research surrounding SRO programs focuses on recommended characteristics and qualities of SROs, as well as appropriate utilization of SROs (Weiler & Cray, 2011). However, relatively little is known about the effect of increased presence of SRO’s in the school setting. With SRO’s being tasked with disciplinarian roles Barnes (2016), it would be important to look at the effect of SRO’s on school discipline variables such as out-of-school suspension (OSS). With OSS being linked to increased risk for arrest (Theriot, 2009), it would be important to analyze the effect of these variables on each other. Taking it one step further, minority populations are typically disciplined at a higher rate than their white peers (Okonofua & Eberhardt, 2015). The purpose of this study is to examine the increased presence of SRO’s, OSS and minority and their effect on school-based arrest. The results support previous research in finding that OSS and number of SRO’s employed were significant predictors of school-based arrest. However, percentage of minority population was not found to be a predictor of school-based arrest. More research is needed to understand the extent of the relationship between OSS, SRO’s, and school-based arrests and how it might be possible to reduce this connection.

Previous research suggests that writer’s block can have multiple causes and occur at any part of the writing process (Boice, 1985; Flaherty, 2015; Kaufman & Kaufman, 2013). A survey was distributed to a sample of 146 writers with experience in a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres. Research objectives concerning the causes and characteristics of writer’s block were investigated using mixed-method, qualitative and quantitative analyses. Effective solutions provided by writers were presented and described. Blocks with physiological and motivational components were the most frequently reported in general and were found to interfere with the composition process more than the creative process. Writers who wrote daily reported shorter periods of writer’s block than those with less consistent writing habits. These findings suggest that there may be an association between components of blocking and cognitive processes associated with specific parts of the writing process.