Non COES Majors

Project Summary

An identified shortcoming in previous research of undergraduate coursework in psychology and social work is providing adequate content knowledge and training that prepares students for careers as frontline child protection professionals. Psychology and social work are two of the most popular bachelor degrees entering into child protection occupations, yet training for mandated reporting and child protection is lacking, with many students receiving little to no education before their on-the-job training. This lack of preparation contributes to high levels of burnout, turnover, and mismanagement of maltreatment cases. The present study intended to compare the current status of undergraduate child protection programs in psychology and social work in the southeast to determine potential strengths and weaknesses in this region's bachelor degrees. Despite the acknowledgment that psychology and social work programs need to improve child maltreatment content, only social work programs appear to provide a majority of child protection training at the undergraduate level when compared to psychology. Students leaving psychology programs hoping to enter the working world may find that they are inadequately prepared for the intensity of child maltreatment work and would greatly benefit from CAST-focused courses. Working alongside the Zero Abuse Project, this project's goal is to help psychology programs across the southeast expand their child protection course offerings as well as understand how working with CAST focused programs in a multidisciplinary fashion can help benefit their students and future working professionals.

Project Objective

This study’s goal was to evaluate and compare the amount of child maltreatment coursework currently being offered to undergraduate students in psychology and social work bachelor’s programs within the Southeastern U.S.

Project Summary

Episodic memory is accounted for with two processes: ‘familiarity’ when generally recognizing an item and ‘recollection’ when retrieving the full contextual details bound with the item. Paradoxically, people sometimes report contextual information as familiar but without recollecting details, which is not easily accounted for by existing theories. We tested a combination of item recognition confidence and source memory, focusing upon ‘item-only hits with source unknown’ (‘item familiarity’), ‘low-confidence hits with correct source memory’(‘context familiarity’), and ‘high-confidence hits with correct source memory’ (‘recollection’). Results across multiple within-subjects (trial-wise) and between subjects (individual variability) levels indicated these were behaviorally and physiologically distinct. Behaviorally, a crossover interaction was evident in response times, with context familiarity being slower than each condition during item recognition, but faster during source memory. Electrophysiologically, a Condition x Time x Location triple dissociation was evident in event-related potentials (ERPs), which was then independently replicated. Context familiarity exhibited an independent negative central effect from 800-1200 ms, differentiated from positive ERPs for item-familiarity (400 to 600 ms) and recollection (600 to 900 ms).These three conditions thus reflect mutually exclusive, fundamentally different processes of episodic memory. Context familiarity is a third distinct process of episodic memory.

Project Objective

The focus of the present investigation was to assess if the ERP effects for context familiarity can be reliably dissociated from those for item familiarity, and to add novel insights from behavioral measures of response times.

Project Summary

This research examines the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on college students' health, well-being, and academic success. Notably, ACEs, encompassing various forms of childhood adversity, have been linked to enduring negative effects on individuals' health, education, and job potential. The study, conducted with Florida Tech students, aimed to explore these relationships with the additional consideration of socioeconomic status. Our findings revealed that students with a history of more ACEs reported significant adversities including reduced sleep and exercise, increased workload, lower physical and psychological health, and heightened test anxiety. Interestingly, despite an expected inverse correlation between ACEs and income level, ACEs remained significantly correlated with negative health and wellness outcomes even after controlling for income. These results emphasize the importance of recognizing ACEs as a potential predictor of academic risk among college students. The study suggests that universities could enhance their ability to identify at-risk students by screening for ACEs and incorporating psychoeducation on ACEs into university programs. However, further research is warranted to refine measures of academic success and fully understand the complex interplay between ACEs and college student outcomes.