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Literature Reviews

Investigating the Attitudes of College Student: Athletes toward Mental Health Stigmas & Symptoms

This article explores the attitudes of college-aged student-athletes towards mental health, highlighting a disconnect between their understanding of mental health and their willingness to seek treatment, due to stigmas and the pressure of maintaining a strong athletic image. It emphasizes the need for improved mental health literacy and intervention programs tailored to student-athlete populations to address the unique challenges they face in seeking mental health support.

Violations of Expectation in Infants

This literature review explores the concept of "Violation of Expectation" (VOE) in infant learning, highlighting how surprises and unexpected events facilitate cognitive, visual, and kinesthetic learning behaviors. It discusses the importance of VOE in enhancing infants' curiosity, attention, and exploration, and how these mechanisms contribute to their overall development and understanding of the world.

Learning and Language Development in Children Through Parent-Child Reading

Reading to children significantly enhances their language development, especially in terms of vocabulary and expressive language skills, by promoting joint attention and parent-child engagement. Starting from infancy, consistent parent-child reading lays a foundation for future learning abilities and school readiness.

Science and Society

The Role of Childhood Trauma in Schizophrenia

This piece explores the significant role of childhood trauma in the development of schizophrenia, highlighting how adverse experiences, particularly emotional neglect, can influence the disorder's onset and severity through altered brain development and genetic predispositions. Understanding these connections has crucial implications for developing targeted, trauma-informed treatments to manage and potentially prevent schizophrenia.

The Reggio Emilia Approach: A Framework Analysis for Children’s Education

The Reggio Emilia Approach, rooted in social constructivism, emphasizes child-centered learning through creativity, collaboration, and flexible, aesthetically stimulating environments, integrating theories from Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner, and Bruner. This paper explores the approach's benefits, such as enhanced critical thinking and empathy, and its limitations, particularly its applicability beyond early childhood education.

Impacts of Racism in the Mental Health Field on Black Americans

The racist history of the mental health field, exemplified by figures like Samuel A. Cartwright, has led to a persistent mistrust among Black Americans towards mental health professionals. Addressing this mistrust requires race-conscious providers who understand and empathize with the unique challenges faced by Black patients, thus fostering a more inclusive and effective mental health care environment.

Undergraduate Research

The Gut-Brain Axis

The gut-brain axis, a bidirectional communication system between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system, significantly influences both physical and mental health. Recent research highlights the potential of cognitive behavioral therapy and probiotics in treating disorders like irritable bowel syndrome by modulating the gut microbiome.

Encoding variability and event segmentation across narrative contexts

This study explores how varying the modality of narrative presentation (visual-only vs. audio-only) affects event segmentation and memory recall, using an episode of the TV show Friends. Results indicated significant differences in event boundaries between modalities but found no significant improvement in memory recall, though a trend suggested mixed-modality presentation might enhance detail recollection in dialogue-heavy scenes.

Mental Health and Socio-Emotional Well-Being of Minority Groups During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper examines the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and social-emotional health of marginalized communities in the U.S., particularly focusing on minority ethnic groups and the LGBTQ+ community. It compares findings from an empirical study by Mpofu et al. (2022) and a statement by the Society for Research in Child Development, highlighting the significant role of systemic inequalities and perceived racism in exacerbating mental health challenges for these populations.