Much research finds that low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood has a lasting impact on women’s psychosexual development and later sexual behavior. Women from harsh environments have been found to begin puberty earlier, have an earlier sexual debut, and have more sexual partners than women from less stressful, higher SES environments. However, little research has examined the psychological changes within individuals who grew up in low SES communities which would facilitate an accelerated mating strategy in response to stress. Do stressed women from low SES backgrounds show more sexual fluidity and more attraction to a range of gender identities than women who are not stressed out? The current work addresses this gap by first measuring participants’ baseline sexual fluidity and attraction to a range of gender identities through an online survey. Stress was then experimentally manipulated in single, undergraduate women. Participants were randomly assigned to either the stress condition or the control condition of the Trier Social Stress Test, before reporting their sexual fluidity and scope of gender inclusive attraction again. Psychological shifts in mating psychology were examined by assessing the changes in sexual fluidity and gender inclusive attraction before and after the stressor. Results revealed a relationship between experimentally manipulated stress exposure and shifts in mating psychology in women.

Stigma, or the negative social attitude towards an attribute of a perceived individual (American Psychological Association, 2023), could contribute to treatment avoidance among people experiencing problems related to their mental health. In a previous study, stigma towards mental health treatment had a negative impact on college students' willingness to see psychologists or psychiatrists (Komiya et al., 2000). The current study collected surveys from 59 college undergraduates to describe the internalized stigma felt by those with mental health disorders (MHDs) compared to the level of stigma reported by individuals without a MHD. Results indicated that participants with a diagnosed MHD were more likely ready for treatment than those with an undiagnosed MHD. Treatment readiness and social support were positively correlated, as was problem recognition and MHD stigma (n = 23; ps < .05). These results provide knowledge on how internalized and externalized stigma affects the willingness of individuals who are struggling with MHDs to receive treatment, which can be used to better inform the development of interventions and awareness programs.

The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the culturally perceived aspects of childhood, from pregnancy to adulthood, of four different countries. The elements of childhood included in this research relate to different attitudes towards and aspects of childhood events (e.g., childbirth, education, puberty), childhood milestones, rites of passage, and reaching adulthood. The four focus countries include France, the United States of America, India, and Kenya. To obtain data, 4-5 participants from each country were interviewed via Zoom, in-person, or by email. The objective of the research is to explore how childhood experiences vary in different communities and uncover common themes that appear in this period of life. Through these interviews, we (1) gain knowledge on how each country values children and childhood events, (2) step out of the expectations of the western world to evaluate how children globally are raised, and (3) discover common themes amongst various cultures in child rearing.

Humans, are capable of is finding a relationship between two objects that are otherwise unrelated based on similar shared relationships i.e. if A = B and B = C, then A = C. Despite not being told A = C, a person makes this inference by using their prior experiences and events in a relational network. Previous research has examined effects of learning strategies on this outcome, visualization. In a derived relational task referred to as the intraverbal naming task, participants are taught the names to various images, and then later taught certain names are related. Then participants are tested on the relationships between different pictures in a match to sample test (derived relations). In previous studies, participants who were instructed to visualize the images when taught the words pairs performed better at correctly identifying image relational pairs than non-instructed participants. However, in a recent study participants asked to engage in verbal mnemonics during the word pairing stage, performed equally as well as the visualization group in the match to sample test. The current study seeks further compare the effects of two different instructed behaviors, using more monitorable learning behaviors than previous studies. During the intraverbal phase, one group of participants will be instructed to draw images related to the word pairs; another group will be instructed to complete verbal mnemonic exercises on paper, and a third will receive instructions to simply copy the word pairs from the screen.

Previous research on life history theory has suggested that childhood environments characterized by low socioeconomic status (SES) and exposure to high levels of unpredictability reliably predict unhealthy eating and greater risk of obesity. While perhaps evolutionarily advantageous in adverse environments, disordered eating behaviors can contribute to obesity risk. For example, higher levels of environmental unpredictability and lower childhood SES predict less mindful eating and more eating in the absence of hunger (EAH) through its impact on body awareness. Furthermore, slower salivary habituation (i.e., decreasing salivation over time) to new foods has been displayed in obese individuals. These previous findings highlight a largely unexplored area addressing the biological mechanisms linking childhood environment and obesity. The current research aimed to explore whether childhood environment leads to EAH due to changes in salivary habituation. We hypothesized that individuals from low SES and highly unpredictable childhood environments would exhibit less salivary habituation to food stimuli. We tested this hypothesis using a sample of 116 female undergraduates. We began by measuring participants’ blood glucose levels to control for physiological hunger levels. Then, we measured participants’ saliva responses to baseline stimuli (0.5 ml water), habituating stimuli (lemon lollipops), and novel stimuli (green lollipops) over the course of 14 trials using the Strongin-Hinsie-Peck technique. In addition to measuring saliva production and blood glucose levels, participants also completed surveys assessing their childhood SES and childhood unpredictability. Consistent with our prediction, the results demonstrated that childhood SES significantly predicted levels of salivary habituation, such that higher levels of childhood SES were associated with greater salivary habituation. Overall, this suggests that women from lower childhood SES environments habituated to the food stimuli less than women from higher childhood SES environments. This relationship may explain why individuals from low childhood SES environments exhibit greater eating in the absence of hunger, and therefore, greater risk for obesity. We discuss the implications of these results in understanding how interactions between early life environments and evolutionary biology influence the development and progression of disordered eating behaviors.