Psychology & Mental Health

Lisa Blanchard, lisa.blanchard@csupueblo.edu
Colorado State University Pueblo, with Dr. Susan Calhoun-Stuber

Neurodivergence: The Missing Perspective
This research assesses existing literature involving neurodivergent populations, specifically areas of transitional care. Transition is difficult for everyone, though to what extent do youth to adult transformations affect this population? Neurodivergent groups are met with several forms of barriers paired with difficulty in gaining support and education to assist with these limitations of inclusion in society. Articles were reviewed with relevance to neurodivergence and disability history, many sharing the absence of neurodivergent perspectives. From this literature review, common, notable themes were discovered; erasure of disabled voices from academic literature based on historical representations, and the ripple effects of barriers that stem from this continual missing perspective. Neurodivergent terms are provided to examine frameworks that require refining from the perspective of the experts living with these conditions. The existing research provides consistent findings of discontent within the lived experience of neurodivergent groups due to inconsistency in necessary tailored educational and assistive programs to help them thrive. This literature highlights the need to further inclusiveness within educational curriculums and research to account for neurodivergent differences in socialization, focusing on the spectrum of this population. Implementing services for these gaps in care call for communication among medical and social support teams, families, and educators collaborating to change the future of neurodivergent outcomes. A survey has been developed to address the missing neurodivergent perspectives pertaining to communication and education barriers in the Colorado area. Giving insight into how to proceed with creating the long-awaited educational programs tailored to fit the needs of this population.
 

Jolin Acosta, jacosta22@islander.tamucc.edu
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, with Dr. Collin Scarince

The Role of Self-Objectification and Fitness Centered Social Media Exposure in Relation to Body Dissatisfaction.
Discussions of fitness and heath focused content can be communicated through various modes and with an array of goals, the various forms of media that places emphasis on ones physical appearance may lead to heightened body dissatisfaction as a consequence of specific visual media. As previous studies show that there is a strong correlation between body dissatisfaction and time spend on digital networking platforms (Thai et al., 2023) and that traditional media such as television heightens ones self awareness as television shows visually promote thin body ideals (Te’eni-Harari & Eyal, 2015). The purpose of this study is to isolate the category of content to further investigate and understand how visual media shapes ones view of themselves and ones felt body dissatisfaction. With a pool of 75 undergraduate students, an online survey containing visual imagery meant to emulate traditional social media experience containing fitness related imagery and captions. The scale which contains questions categorized by body shape and weight, muscularity, facial features and hair to identify participants felt dissatisfaction. The importance of such findings is to understand how social media users experience body dissatisfaction and understand how categories of content published impact viewers. It is hypothesized that female participants are more likely to experience overall body dissatisfaction in comparison to men but few publications highlight women’s experience in muscular dissatisfaction. 

 

Maria Camila Ceron, camila_ceron1@baylor.edu
Baylor University, with Dr. Annie Ginty, Dr. Katie Knauft, Dr. Sarah Williams, and Dr. Thomas Fergus

Psychological and Physiological Anxiety Perceptions in Response to Acute Stress 
The mechanism through which trait, or baseline, anxiety influences physiological and psychological responses to stress is not fully understood. Heightened anticipatory anxiety may be positively associated with perceived physiological reactivity to a stressor as opposed to a physiological heart rate change. We expect that participants with higher levels of trait anxiety will experience an increase in somatic and cognitive anxiety intensity prior to a stressor (i.e., anticipatory anxiety), which would be associated with an increase in the perceived physical reactivity to a stressor. College students (N=421, 62.7% Female, 37.3% Male) reported cognitive and somatic anxiety intensity they experienced in anticipation of an upcoming stress task. Their heart rate was recorded during the task. After the stress task, they estimated the degree of physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate) they experienced. Higher traitanxiety was associated with higher anticipatory anxiety intensity before an acute stressor. Those reporting higheranticipatory anxiety perceived greater physiological arousal compared to those with lower ratings, despite seeing no association with actual heart rate during the task. Individuals with elevated trait anxiety may experience more anxious anticipation of a stressor, leading to a potential perceptual discrepancy in perceived heart rate as a response to the stressor. This work may contribute to anxiety treatment aimed at reducing anticipatory anxiety before stress, and healing the mind-body connection to better align perceptions of heart rate to actual physiological responses.