Recent PhD Graduates

Name: Samantha Bowden '24

Dissertation Title: Investigating the role of a novel oxytocinergic neural pathway in the modulation of male and female juvenile social play

Dissertation Description: Samantha designed three sets of experiments to test the hypothesis that juvenile social play is modulated through a hypothalamic-striatal OXTergic pathway. Her findings indicate persistent OXT mediated sex differences in juvenile social behaviors, in which NAc-OXT signaling increases female social play behavior but may decrease male social play behavior. These findings could inform clinicians of the potential need for sex-specific OXT-based therapeutics in the treatment of social deficits.

Name: Allison Costello '24

Dissertation Title: Light, orexin, and SAD: A mechanistic study using a diurnal rodent model

Dissertation Description: Allison's dissertation uses a combination of behavioral, pharmacological, and molecular approaches to reveal sex-specific behavioral and neural responses in sleep/wake, depression-like behavior, as well as neuroplasticity and neuroinflammatory markers to light and to orexin. Allison's findings support the hypothesis that the orexinergic system mediates the effects of ambient light on mood, and identifies the orexinergic system as a novel therapeutic target in Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Name: Jessica Lee '23

Dissertation Title: Involvement of the nucleus accumbens to ventral pallidum pathway in the regulation of social play behavior in juvenile male and female rats

Name: Lauren Raycraft '23

Dissertation Title: Accumbens-Projecting Lateral Hypothalamic Melanin Concentrating Hormone Neurons Interact with Ovarian Hormones to Modulate Motivated Food-Seeking

Name: Courtney Louis '24

Dissertation Title: Worry and Working Memory Function: Investigating Interactive Effects of Worry, Basal Dopamine and Estradiol on Theta-Gamma Coupling in a Female Sample

Predoctoral Internship: Pre-doctoral clinical fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Name: Aksheya Sridhar '24

Dissertation Title: Implementation Strategy Mapping Methods: Piloting Concept Mapping Within Community-Mental Health Agencies Providing Services to Autistic Youth

Predoctoral Internship: Aksheya completed the Autism Track at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Through this program, Aksheya gained additional experience working with autistic youth across a range of ages and settings.

Name: Diondra Straiton '24

Dissertation Title: Examining the Active Ingredients of Group Consultation to Improve the Implementation of a Parent Coaching Intervention for Medicaid-Enrolled Autistic Children

Predoctoral Internship: Diondra completed her predoctoral internship at the University of Pennsylvania on the Child/Development Disabilities track. Diondra worked in the Penn Medicine Autism Clinic, in the PATCH Anxiety Clinic, and has two rotations in the Philadelphia public school district.

Name: Lauren Wiklund '24

Dissertation Title: Sexual Well-Being Among Queer Women of Color

Predoctoral Internship: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Name: Abigail Mundorf '24

Dissertation Title: Automatic and Controlled Influences on Memory Organizations

Dissertation Description: Abigail's dissertation uses computational modeling to examine the automatic and controlled mechanisms that determine how we navigate through our memories. For example, events are often recalled in the same order they were experienced, but it is unclear if his organization occurs automatically or if it is a result of internal strategies. Across four experiments, Abigail found evidence that order information is both learned and retrieved automatically, but intentional strategies also play an important role in guiding memory search.

Name: Elle Wernette '23

Dissertation Title: Melatonin supplementation in young adults: It's prevalence and effect on nocturnal sleep and morning cognition

Dissertation Description: Elle surveyed undergraduates’ melatonin use using an online survey, and investigated the effect of melatonin on sleep and morning cognition in healthy young adults in a separate experiment. Elle found that melatonin was the most popular sleep aid among undergraduates- over 57% of our participants reported using melatonin. Importantly, the experiment revealed that melatonin did not affect sleep, but did cause cognitive deficits the following morning.

Name: Rosaura Domínguez-Rebollar '24

Dissertation Title: The Potential for Targeted Continuous Quality Improvement to Enhance College Integrated Student Supports for Latine Students: A Case Study

Dissertation Description: Rosaura used a mixed methods case study to test whether a targeted Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) approach is a feasible, acceptable, and appropriate method for improving MSU's College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) to more holistically support and promote the retention of Latine migrant farm-working students.

Name: Jasmine Engleton '24

Dissertation Title: Black Women’s Experiences Healing from Sexual Assault and Institutional Betrayal by the Criminal Legal System: A Qualitative Exploration

Dissertation Description: Drawing on Black feminist and intersectional frameworks, Jasmine’s dissertation focused on the healing trajectories of Black female sexual assault survivors with previously untested kits and their intersections with the criminal legal system. Jasmine found that those who experienced prolonged institutional betrayal from the criminal legal system were less likely to seek help resources, which delayed their healing process.

Name: Lucas Al-Zoughbi '23

Dissertation Title: Palestinian Solidarity Tourism: A Rapid Assessment of Host Experiences and Perceptions

Dissertation Description: Lucas's dissertation examined Palestinian host experiences with, and perceptions of Solidarity Tourism in Palestine, which is a form of justice tourism that emphasizes solidary with the subjects of oppression. This is estimated as a $20 million industry in the Palestinian context, but historically there has been limited scholarship on host perspectives and experiences. This study addressed this gap by utilizing a rapid assessment approach featuring ethnographic methods.

Name: Jaleah Rutledge '23

Dissertation Title: Exploring Resilience Among Black Women After Being Diagnosed With A Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI)

Dissertation Description: Guided by Resilience Theory and Black Feminist Thought, Jaleah's dissertation explored how Black women become resilient after being diagnosed with an STI. Her dissertation also disrupted the dominant narrative about Black women’s sexuality and sexual health that has been derived from deficit-based research. More specifically, her study was concerned with understanding how Black women in emerging adulthood define resilience after having an STI and investigated the processes that lead them to resilience.

Name: Corbin J. Standley '23

Dissertation Title: "Just Somebody to Listen"; Identity, School Climate, and Mental Health Among High School Students

Dissertation Description:  Corbin conducted participatory focus groups with high school students as part of a convergent multi-stage mixed-methods project that looked at the complex public health issue of suicide. This project furthers our understanding of how youth experience the intersections of identity, mental health and suicide, while informing the ways that schools can better support and affirm youth to aid in prevention.

Name: Jo Alanis Barker '24

Dissertation Title: An Examination of Immigrant Workers' Experiences of Overqualification Using Relative Deprivation Theory

Name: Connor Eichenauer '24

Dissertation Title: A Model of User Reactions Toward and Beliefs About Selection Procedures 

Dissertation Description: Connor's dissertation investigates how employee selection decision-makers choose to utilize (or not) candidate information from different selection procedures when evaluating candidates. The goal of this research is to identify why hiring managers often do not utilize the most valid predictors when making selection decisions, which would facilitate the development of interventions to improve the predictive accuracy of selection decisions by reducing science-practice gaps.

Name: Caitlin Briggs '23

Dissertation Title: Applying Construal Level Theory to storytelling for diversity training

Dissertation Description: Caitlin's dissertation examined the growing number of DEI trainings and initiatives that are implementing storytelling as an effective means for reducing prejudice and bias. Her primary aims were to investigate theoretical pathways by which storytelling used in DEI training may have beneficial outcomes and to then provide empirical support for the use or disuse of storytelling in DEI training. Her results highlighted the complex relationship between storytelling and DEI outcomes.

Name: Daniel Griffin '23

Dissertation Title: Coordination Signal Theory: A Formal Framework for Social-Informational Mechanisms of Coordination in Teams

Dissertation Description: Daniel leveraged a model of emergent coordination that has been used to study various phenomenon ranging from chemical reactions and physics to spontaneous social behavior such as clapping and walking in step, to investigate the nature of task work coordination in teams.

Name: Sarah Kuang '23

Dissertation Title: From Outsiders to Insiders: Examining the Effects of Socialization Tactics on Organizational Newcomers' Inclusion Outcomes

Dissertation Description: Sarah investigated how organizations may promote inclusion for new employees, particularly those with minoritized identities, during the socialization process. In her dissertation, she identified the organizational socialization tactics that lead to the best inclusion, wellbeing, and retention outcomes.

Name: Jenna Van Fossen '23

Dissertation Title: Implications of Need Satisfaction in Work and Home Roles for Work-Family Enrichment and Parenting Style Expression

Name: Brian Brutzman '24

Dissertation Title: Change For The Better: Assessing Readiness to Adopt Applied Behavior Analysis in Michigan Public Schools

Dissertation Description: Many students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder need evidence-based intervention in school, and applied behavior analysis (ABA) offers an array of treatment options shown to improve outcomes. However, in Michigan, ABA has not been thoroughly integrated into public schools. Brian’s dissertation assessed the mechanisms thought to predict organizational readiness for change among Michigan public educators faced with the potential adoption of specialized ABA classrooms.

Name: Alejandro Carillo '24

Dissertation Title: Examining Racial Bias in Evidence Accumulation: Exploring the Impact of Object Search

Dissertation Description: Alejandro’s dissertation investigates the role of racial biases in weapon identification, exploring how race affects search efficiency and evidence accumulation in complex visual settings. This study extends our insight into decision-making in critical scenarios, offering a new perspective on the dynamics of racial biases.

Name: Mariah Purol '24

Dissertation Title: Post-Traumatic Growth Across Partners and in Relationships

Dissertation Description: In a series of three studies, Mariah examined trajectories of post-traumatic personality change for individuals and their romantic partners. Each study used dyadic growth curve modeling to parse apart patterns of personality change, determine if experiencing ostensibly negative life events (directly or vicariously) influences these patterns, and examine the role of potentially influential relationship characteristics (e.g., relationship satisfaction, support, responsiveness). Using data from three longitudinal panel studies (i.e., HRS, LISS, and CouPers), she examined these questions in a total sample of over 7,500 couples.

Name: Prachi Solanki '24

Dissertation Title: Testing Impression Formation from a Bayesian Perspective

Dissertation Description: Prachi's dissertation aimed to answer the question, "How do people combine various sources of information when forming impressions of others?" Past social cognition research has identified two broad types of information that can impact impression formation: individuating information and categorical (stereotype) information. Prachi's goal was to move beyond this traditional distinction - which assumes stereotype information to be the base rate or prior - by exploring if both types of information can be combined and used within a Bayesian framework. This work also links social-cognitive work in impression formation with the broader literature on Bayesian decision-making in cognitive psychology.