RWP #2

RWP #2

Professor’s Comment and Clearance:

Ok, I think you have a workable (and searchable) question now! You'll want to focus on a particular function (memory is a good one) to look at differences between the genders.

You are approved to move to Stage 2 of this assignment. Reply back in this thread with your answer.

Some KEYWORDS you might use on PSYCInfo (Links to an external site.) (need to sign into  NSU library  (Links to an external site.) for this), Pubmed (Links to an external site.), or  Google Scholar (Links to an external site.)  (all 3 of these are good websites to find scientific, peer-reviewed articles) include:

· memory

· gender differences

· individual differences

Never pay for an article. Our library holds subscriptions to many journals. You need to sign into the library to access them. If you are having trouble finding a specific article, you can ask the librarians for help (see the "Ask a Librarian" tab on the library homepage, or let me know.

Enjoy your search!

Examples From Other Students (How it must be):

Example 1:

Describe the article’s findings;

The question I decided to explore was, “What are the long term effects of childhood bulling”. I found and reviewed Richelle’s eye-catching thesis, “TO LOVE OR TO LOATHE”: THE IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD BULLYING ON THE QUALITY OF ADULT ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS”. Her study was conducted to explore whether or not there was a lasting impact on a person’s attachment style, who was bullied as a child, and the quality of their romantic relationships as an adult. She explained bullying and attachment style in length, as well as described the four different survey measures used to study the potential adverse outcome.

Her hypothesis’s consisted of the following; “Hypothesis 1: Higher levels of bullying experienced in childhood are related to insecure attachment within the romantic relationship. Hypothesis 2: Higher levels of bullying experienced in childhood are related to lower levels of romantic relationship satisfaction. Hypothesis 3: Higher levels of bullying experienced in childhood are related to lower levels of trust within the romantic relationship.” (Richelle 2021, p.11). Although her study lacked statistical power, and was considered underpowered, due to the limited number of people (<100) and the shortfall of diversity in participants (a majority being female), she did find a strong correlation between variables. Some of her hypotheses were partially supported, and she was also able to discover trends which she did not anticipate at the onset of her study.

There was a positive correlation between social manipulation and avoidant insecure attachment. This is a specific type of bulling, and when the bullying increased so did the avoidant attachment style. To a degree, this supported her hypothesis that there is an effect in higher levels of bulling. She found no association between overall bulling and pure romantic satisfaction. Lastly another positive correlation was found, this one being between overall bulling and trust. This was inconclusive, but the findings implied that physical victimization, a subset of bullying, increased co-dependently along with trust.

The analysis uncovered findings that were significant, but not anticipated. One of these being a negative association between the avoidant attachment style and the satisfaction in romantic relationships. Opposite of a positive correlation, which was discovered with two of Richelle’s hypotheses, there was a negative trend suggesting as the avoidant attachment style increases the level of relationship satisfaction decreases. Furthermore, another negative trend was found, when trust increases the avoidant attachment style decreases. Last, but not least, her findings revealed a positive correlation between trust and romantic relationship satisfaction, as one increases as does the other.

In conclusion this study stands as a great benchmark for continued and expanded research on this particular topic. There were significant correlations found and ideas partially supported, which will help pave the way when designing further studies. The findings indicate a great prediction for the growing concern of detecting the magnitude in effect of childhood bulling and adult relations. Future findings could then lead to the development of possible solutions in preventative measures and or healing techniques to avoid or reduce the long-term consequences of bullying.

 

Explain how it relates to your observation/question;

Richelle’s study related to my question in that the research’s overarching focus was long-term consequences of childhood bullying. On a more specific level, the connection is also there in how I thought it was important to study the possible influence and effect of bullying on a child’s future. Her study, on a micro level, provided insight into how bullying impacted adulthood attachment style and romantic relations. The focus could then be expanded and analyzed on a macro level to reveal if children who were bullied grew up to have shorter romantic relations and postponed marriage if one at all.

Although her study was considered underpowered, due to a shortage in the number of participants, it revealed the sample consisted mainly of females. This is congruent to my initial curiosity involving gender of how bullying may differ between male and female. If her sample was produced on a larger scale I would be curious to know whether she would still see a dominant female population. Therefore, this would lead me to wonder are women bullied more or do women feel bullied easier than men? If so, why? Overall it was a very interesting research paper and I enjoyed reading its focus relating to long-term attachment style and romantic relations in adulthood.

 

APA Citation:

Quetell, R. M. C. (2021, May 1). "To love or to loathe": The impact of childhood bullying on the quality of adult romantic relationships. STARS. Retrieved May 28, 2022, from https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses/931/ 

Example 2:

Question: Are there any neurological differences/imbalances between those who commit homicide versus those who do not? 

Article Findings:

In order to learn more about this, I chose to reference an article, “Aberrant brain gray matter in murderers.” This article emphasizes understanding how big of an issue homicides are. Homicide in society has become very prevalent, no matter where in the country one may be. Not only does it leave an economical impact in the country, but a very unfortunate mark on the families that lost their loved ones. There are many different ways to view these unfortunate events, in this case through a psychobiological viewpoint (Sajous-Turner et al., 2020).

The abstract and introduction of the article talked about how studying the brains of murderers and those who have no intent of violence has always been a hot subject of investigation by psychologists. Advancements of technology have made it that much easier to get a closer look at brain factors which may result in violence. Earlier studies found that reduced activities in lateral and medial prefrontal cortex, as well as medial temporal regions are typically found in homicide offenders. The purpose of the experiment design was to see how different the brain structure was in those who committed a homicide versus those who did not (Sajous-Turner et al., 2020).

There were multiple assessments that were tested on the participants, including Psychopathy Checklist-Revised exam, IQ test, MRI examination, and a whole brain analysis. The results of the study showed that there was a major difference anterior temporal cortex, ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, dorsal anterior cingulate and a few other areas of the brain between participants who committed a homicide versus those who did not. Additionally, the study showed that there has been a significant decrease in gray matter noticed in those who committed homicide (Sajous-Turner et al., 2020).

Relation to Question:

This article helps answer my question, “Are there any neurological differences/imbalances between those who commit homicide versus those who do not?” This article presents a study which investigated any differences in the brain between a person who commits an act of crime, homicide, or does not. Based on the results of the study, there is a difference in many parts of the brain as well as decrease in gray matter observed in those who committed homicide, answering my question that there are neurological differences/imbalances between people who commit homicide and those who do not (Sajous-Turner et al., 2020).

Citation:

Sajous-Turner, A., Anderson, N. E., Widdows, M., Nyalakanti, P., Harenski, K., Harenski, C., Koenigs, M., Decety, J., & Kiehl, K. A. (2020). Aberrant brain gray matter in murderers. Brain imaging and behavior, 14(5), 2050–2061. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00155-y

Example 3:

*This one is a little short but just to provide you how it should be and what to talk about exactly*

Part 2

 

APA Citation

Rasheed, Naila. “Inclination toward Herbal Remedies as Immunity Boosters and Anti-Stress Agents during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Short Report.” International Journal of Health Sciences (IJHS), vol. 15, no. 4, July 2021, https://doi.org/10.15640/ijhs. Accessed 5 June 2022.

 

Article Findings

My article found the the pandemic was a major inducer of physiological stress and that many people who never experienced anxiety and depression have experienced it due to the pandemic. A major conclusion of the article was that the Hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), which mediates the physiological and psychological stress in the body, was altered in patients that had contracted COVID-19. This means that patients who had contracted COVID-19 were now more likely to develop depression, anxiety, OCD, hyperglycemia, drug addictions, and a decreased immune response due to this biological alteration in the brain. This is interesting to me because I knew COVID-19 had attacked strange things in the body, but I had no idea that it was so aggressive that it was attacking the brain and creating a chemical imbalance in the brain making the patients more prone to mental illness even after they recovered from their physical illness.

 

The article also discussed a potential remedy to the damage done, specifically herbs that are known to help reduce the body's stress response. The plants were Brahmi which has natural antidepressant properties, Panax quinquefolium which has neuroprotective potential and antianxiety properties. However, the most interesting finding was that a combination of these herbs actively fought enzymes in COVID-19 and actively protected against this HPA alteration in the brain.

How it Relates

This relates to my initial questions, but it only answers a few of them. I learned that stress is triggered by direct influences and feedback interactions between the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and the adrenal gland on a biological level. I am curious to continue my research on my own to develop a more complex understanding of how the stress response actually works in order to find out in general what makes people more prone to it. But, my article half answered the question because it concluded that people with COVID-19 were more prone to stress and mental illness due to the alteration. The article also answered the question about treatment. As a student interested in getting my doctorate in osteopathic medicine, which is often associated with treating the entire body instead of treating symptoms, it was fascinating that an herbal remedy combatted the alteration of the HPA on a chemical level and actively fixed the chemical imbalance that would make COVID-19 patients less likely to return to their peak physical and mental healt prior to contraction.