Psychology, 1930-2024

This research critically examines mental well-being outcomes in a randomized sample of Princeton undergraduate students. By asking students to report retrospectively on their upbringing (first 18 years of life) and currently on several mental well-being measures, this study specifically explores the impact of adverse and benevolent childhood experiences on subjective well-being, sense of belonging, and self-esteem during the college years. The online survey study included six validated psychological scales: the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Scale, the Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCEs) Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the General Belongingness Scale (GBS) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Participants were also asked three novel questions regarding conflict in the household, family engagement, and happiness in the home during their upbringing. Overall, a robust relationship was found between childhood experience and overall mental well-being in college. A one-way ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect of ACEs on positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction, sense of belonging, and self-esteem during the college years. Similarly, BCEs had a significant effect on all of the same measures, with the exception of negative affect. A two-way ANOVA found no interaction of ACEs and BCEs with any mental well-being component, suggesting BCEs operate through direct, promotive effects rather than as a buffer for early adversity. Three novel questions were explored for their predictive correlation with all scales, shedding light on brief, nuanced measures of assessing childhood experiences and predicting college mental well-being outcomes. Most notable was the significant, strong relationship between the presence of conflict with both higher adversity and lower promotive influences. Similarly, happiness in the home strongly predicted ACEs score, BCEs score, and sense of belonging during college.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences, benevolent childhood experiences, subjective well-being, sense of belonging, self-esteem

This thesis explores the Attention Schema Theory (AST) as a computational framework for understanding consciousness and social cognition. Through a series of behavioral experiments, we test whether humans can distinguish real from artificial attention sequences based on gaze-like motion patterns. Participants consistently performed above chance, even under degraded visual conditions, and confidence ratings tracked performance—suggesting the presence of an internal model guiding judgments. Open-ended commentary further revealed partial introspective access to this modeling process. A follow-up fMRI study is discussed in support of AST’s proposed neural architecture, though the primary emphasis remains on behavioral evidence. I propose a multi-level refinement of AST, integrating predictive coding and a hierarchical account of awareness.

Keywords: attention schema, consciousness, predictive coding, social brain, fMRI, TPJ, meta-consciousness

Exploration is a cornerstone of early learning, yet it remains unclear whether toddlers use it not only to investigate the world around them but also to probe their emerging abilities. This thesis examines whether young children are intrinsically motivated to resolve uncertainty about their own competence through play. Across two experiments, toddlers were presented with pairs of practical life toys—one previously explored independently (unconfounded) and one explored in a way that left their own role ambiguous (confounded). In Experiment 1, toddlers systematically preferred the confounded toy, suggesting a drive to explore their own competence. Experiment 2 extended this finding by introducing tasks of varying difficulty. Pilot data revealed that toddlers’ preferences to explore the confounded toy increased with task difficulty, providing preliminary evidence that toddlers selectively explore toys when doing so provides information about their own competence—but not when the toys are trivial. Together, these findings suggest that toddlers are not just curious about how the world works—they are also motivated to understand how they work within it. This early sensitivity to self-relevant uncertainty may serve as a foundation for metacognitive development and learning motivation later in life.

Superstitions are very common in the world of sports, and can be practiced both individually and collectively. Although often considered irrational, when these behaviors expand to the team level, they can become a shared belief that strengthens group cohesion, enhances motivation, and mentally prepares athletes for a game. This study investigates the role of team-wide superstitions and rituals in varsity sports at Princeton University, focusing on athletes’ perception of their impact on team dynamics and performance. Across 20 teams, 150 participants began the online survey and 75 completed it. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed, including team-level comparisons across key variables. The questionnaire assessed the frequency, inclusivity, and depth of each teams’ rituals, as well as athletes’ beliefs about their effects on game outcomes, team cohesion, motivation, and overall performance. Although statistical significance was not reached, several trends emerged in the descriptive analysis. Teams with stronger ritual cultures, defined by higher levels of frequency, inclusivity, and belief, reported that these rituals helped reduce anxiety, boost confidence, and bring players together before games. Correlation analyses revealed links between stronger ritual cultures and higher self-reported levels of team cohesion, motivation, and perceived performance. Interestingly, there was a positive association between teams’ season records and their belief that superstitions improve outcomes. Open-ended responses revealed that rituals and symbolic traditions were seen as integral to the team experience. These findings suggest that team rituals serve an important psychological and social function in competitive environments.

How do people decide when and how to collaborate during cognitively demanding tasks? This thesis investigates the dynamics of joint visual working memory, focusing on the mechanisms by which individuals coordinate attention and form collaborative strategies under varying task constraints. Utilizing a novel spatial working memory task in which pairs of participants viewed a grid of images, we examined when participants chose to collaborate, whether they adopted spatial specialization strategies, and how these behaviors differed according to changes in task complexity. Participants completed a series of trials in both solo and dyadic conditions, each involving 10 seconds to encode images hidden under tiles across one of five grid sizes (4, 8, 16, 24, or 36 images). Results showed that participants performed better in dyads than alone, most notably within mid-sized grid conditions. Dyads who adopted collaborative strategies – such as dividing the grid into regions – tended to form these conventions early, even without verbal communication. However, not all participants collaborated effectively, as some displayed no significant behavioral differences between solo and dyadic task performance. Together, these results suggest that humans can tacitly arrive at collaborative conventions to split up cognitively demanding tasks, and can moderately calibrate their strategies based on the potential benefits of collaboration on memory performance.

Narrative research has emerged as a promising methodology to better understand the human experience. Narratives have become an especially apt tool for researching meaning-making, as they offer a unique window into how individuals interpret and articulate their experiences. The present study compares participant data from a narrative-based meaning-making measure with the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), examining to what extent narrative meaning-making and meaning scores on the MLQ predict various measures of mental health. Neither the MLQ nor narrative meaning significantly predicted symptoms of depression or anxiety. The narrative methodology, though, allowed for a richer investigation into the impacts of meaning-making through the framework of Narrative Identity. Participants’ narrative meaning significantly correlated at an item level, but not at a composite level with the MLQ. The present study ultimately highlights the complexity of meaning-making as a construct and also illustrates why narratives are an effective methodological tool for handling such complexity.

Chronic illness is an increasingly urgent global issue, affecting nearly one-third of adults worldwide. Beyond biomedical challenges, chronic conditions are strongly linked to elevated rates of mental illness and psychological disorders. Despite this, dominant medical models prioritize physical symptom management over the psychological experiences of illness and the narratives people construct to make sense of it. This study draws on narrative psychology to examine how individuals with chronic illness frame and communicate their illness experiences—and whether these narrative processes relate to mental health. A total of 149 adults with chronic physical conditions wrote and edited two personal illness narratives (a high point and a low point) for imagined audiences either with or without shared illness experience. Narratives were analyzed for lexical change (edit quantity, cosine similarity), typology (Chaos, Quest, Restitution), and emotional themes (e.g., Turmoil, Growth). Contrary to predictions, audience framing had no significant effect on editing behavior or narrative content. However, event type did: low-point narratives were more uniform and emotionally negative, while high points were more diverse and individualized. Most strikingly, narrative type—particularly Quest narratives marked by agency and meaning—predicted greater life satisfaction, even among participants with worse illness severity. Participants with a Chaos–Quest pairing (Chaos low-point, Quest high-point) reported the highest well-being, suggesting that psychological resilience may stem not from denying or erasing suffering, but from narratively integrating it with purpose and agency. These findings position narrative identity not just as a reflection of mental health in chronic illness, but as a potential pathway toward it. Keywords: narrative identity, chronic illness, mental health, audience effect, master narratives

Previous work has demonstrated the importance of social support and the deleterious effects of peer victimization on mental health in LGBTQ+ youth. However, most studies on this topic to date have focused on samples with few trans youth. In this study, we assess the relations between social support, peer victimization, and mental health (anxiety, depression, and positive affect) in a sample of LGBTQ+ youth ages 12-17 (N = 351; M=14.4, SD=1.6) that includes an especially large sample of transgender youth (N=283), allowing us to assess the degree to which these relations hold in that sample. A subset of these youth completed the same measures twice (N = 142; years between responses: M=1.5, SD=0.5), allowing us to assess these relations longitudinally, as well. Consistent with our pre-registered hypotheses, cross-sectional analyses showed social support predicted better mental health, and victimization predicted worse mental health. Unexpectedly, we did not observe a buffering effect: having social support did not reduce the association between victimization and poor mental health. We then explored if changes in social support and victimization over time predicted changes in mental health, with mixed findings. Overall, our findings are consistent with prior research in suggesting that identity-related support and identity-related victimization are associated with LGBTQ+ youth’s well-being.

Social support is an essential component of emotional and physical well-being and has been implicated in cardiovascular disease risk as well as the experience of daily stress. This study primarily seeks to understand potential differences in receiving versus giving social support and their relationships with cardiovascular disease (CVD), along with an auxiliary focus on the relationship between daily stress and CVD. Through a secondary analysis of the Midlife in the United States study (Wave II), we examined the relationship between daily stress and CVD, the relationship between receiving versus giving social support and CVD, and how these two forms of social support interact in their links to CVD. We found that daily stress does not robustly predict cardiovascular disease, but both receiving and giving social support are associated with a reduced cardiovascular disease risk. However, giving social support ceases to confer protective cardiovascular health benefits on the giver when they receive high levels of social support. Moreover, receiving social support was consistently associated with a lower CVD risk, but the effect was greater when participants were giving a low level of support. These results illustrate that the effects of receiving and giving social support are not necessarily equivalent and should be considered distinctly and simultaneously, rather than in aggregate, in efforts to mitigate cardiovascular disease risk.

Infant-directed speech (IDS) is a form of caregiver communication characterized by high frequencies, wide pitch variations, repetition, and short phrases. However, caregiver depression significantly affects the quantity and quality of IDS, resulting in fewer exaggerated intonations, lower pitch, and reduced positive affect in speech. This study investigated the role of caregiver depression on pitch, given findings that IDS-based pitch serves as a communicative signal for children to modulate their attention. Additionally, we examined how caregiver responsiveness and at-home reading routines shapes toddlers’ responses to different pitches in speech. Participants included caregivers and their toddlers (ages 12 to 24 months). At the start of the study, caregivers completed questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, parental responsiveness, and daily reading routines. Toddlers then watched a video of an actress describing toys using varied pitch contours, followed by a caregiver-led book-reading task. During the study, toddlers wore a heart rate (HR) monitor, with HR measuring attention to pitch. Results revealed that higher caregiver pitch during book reading was associated with increased toddler HR. Caregivers with more depressive symptoms used lower pitch during book reading, and their toddlers had lower HR responses. More responsive caregivers produced higher pitch during book reading. Analyses of at-home routines found that caregivers who read less frequently to their toddlers used higher pitches during the book-reading task, and their toddlers had greater HR differences between trials. These findings underscore the importance of pitch in shaping toddler attention, with caregiver mental health and reading routines being critical in influencing toddlers’ physiological responses to speech.

As digital environments continue to become a central part of our social interaction, the ways individuals construct their virtual identities have become an increasingly important subject of research, offering unique insights into psychological functioning. This study explores how mental health symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other related symptoms influence how we create and use avatars. The sample included 154 undergraduate students at Princeton University completing the study in exchange for course credit. Participants completed demographic questions, avatar-specific questions, and validated psychological measures assessing depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), social anxiety (SIAS), self-esteem (RSES), body image (BISS), and fear of negative evaluation (BFNE). Results indicated that fear of negative evaluation was the most robust predictor of avatar idealization, suggesting that those with this fear may create idealized avatars as a way of online social protection. Depression showed modest associations with idealization, with elevated symptoms being significantly related to anxiety over avatar perception. Interestingly, socioeconomic status emerged as a significant predictor of both avatar idealization and consistency across platforms, with participants from lower-income households reporting higher levels of both of these behaviors. Additional exploratory analyses were also conducted, although results were largely insignificant. Combined, these findings highlight the psychological nature of avatar creation, and how the digital representations we create can serve as both a mirror of how we’re feeling internally and a tool for online social navigation.

Keywords: Avatar Design, Digital self-perception, Depression, Anxiety, Virtual Identity

In an increasingly digital world, brands seek to connect authentically with Generation Z audiences through platforms such as TikTok. This study examines how explicit acknowledgment of Gen Z authorship in TikTok-style advertisements influences audience perceptions of authenticity, humor, and connection. Participants (n = 195), all members of Gen Z, viewed one TikTok-style ad with slang (either with or without explicit acknowledgment of Gen Z authorship) and one traditional ad without slang. They then rated each advertisement on measures of authenticity, self-awareness, amusement, brand positivity, and engagement likelihood. Results from a series of one-way ANOVAs revealed that traditional ads were rated significantly more authentic and less effortful in their humor, while explicit Tiktok-style ads were rated as significantly more amusing. However, there were no significant effects of ad condition on perceived self-awareness, brand positivity, or engagement likelihood. These findings suggest that while cultural fluency and self-awareness are valuable marketing tools, overt signaling of cultural alignment may backfire, highlighting the importance of thoughtfulness and genuine connection when engaging Gen Z audiences.

Linguistic differences are pervasive among many neurodivergent populations. Autistic individuals, for example, commonly engage with and use language rigidly, as is exemplified by their echolalia, pronoun reversals, and reliance on fixed phrases. Some of their linguistic differences may be explained by the fact that much of language use and comprehension necessitate flexibility–namely, generalizing learned forms and functions by extending them to new contexts. The Flexible Language and Meaning Extension (FLAME) hypothesis, developed in the Princeton Psychology of Language Lab, postulates that autistic individuals exhibit language differences due to the challenges they experience with linguistic tasks that necessitate FLAME as compared to linguistic tasks that do not require such flexibility and extension of meaning. Building on experimental research that supports this hypothesis, this thesis examines whether other neurodivergent populations, including a subpopulation of autistic people who exhibit remarkable strengths in languages, also experience challenges with FLAME. While pursuing this question, I provide a review of literature on four neurodivergent populations: autistic linguistic savants, other autistic people, people with Fragile X syndrome, and people with Down syndrome. Particular attention is paid to the rigid versus flexible aspects of each group’s language. In addition to synthesizing the literature in this area, evidence is provided that all four of these populations exhibit linguistic rigidity and possible challenges with flexible language use. Further research, however, is necessary to more thoroughly understand neurodivergent language, particularly whether language differences are generally due to difficulties with FLAME. Keywords: language, linguistic flexibility, linguistic rigidity, neurodivergence

In recent years, the climate for political discourse in the United States has become increasingly heated, with the 2024 presidential election serving as an apparent inflection point. Concurrently, developments in machine learning have enabled large language models (LLMs) to become progressively more human-like, allowing them to take on the role of a social companion. Previous research has suggested that AI chatbots can be successful persuaders in political contexts due to their wealth of factual knowledge and their objective nature. The present study looks to 1) further evaluate AI chatbots as an effective agent in reducing polarized attitudes on political topics, 2) compare their effectiveness to other humans, and 3) to pursue an ideal political identity for the chatbot. College students from Princeton University (N = 42) participated in an 8-round debate on two of their strongest political viewpoints with an AI chatbot (powered by GPT-4o), in which they were informed they were either chatting with the AI or a neighboring human participant through an online message room. Chatbots were prompted to either personify an extreme or moderate opposition to that of the participant. Results from the debates revealed that the chatbot was successful in depolarizing attitudes across all conditions, though differences between conditions were all statistically insignificant. As a follow-up, this paper also includes a textual analysis of the dialogues produced, building on prior research that suggests linguistic styles between humans and AI tend to converge over the course of their conversations.

Since the publication of Katherine Phillips’ landmark 2000 guide for dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons, the clinical understanding of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) has undergone significant transformation. This thesis revisits and expands Phillips’ foundational work, offering novel insights that address the dramatic sociocultural shifts of the past two decades—most notably, the meteoric rise of social media, the growing prevalence of BDD in adolescents and young adults, and the increasing normalization of cosmetic enhancement. These contemporary forces have reshaped how BDD manifests, is perceived, and is (often inadequately) treated. By synthesizing current psychiatric, dermatologic, and psychological literature, this thesis highlights the limitations of aesthetic interventions in treating BDD and reinforces the importance of early psychiatric recognition. It introduces new data on neurobiological correlates of the disorder, demographic shifts in onset and severity, and emerging digital treatment modalities such as app-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The work uniquely contextualizes BDD within a modern ecosystem of algorithmically curated beauty ideals, digital avoidance behaviors, and growing mental health stigma, particularly among younger, gender-diverse, and neurodivergent populations. Crucially, this thesis offers a novel framework for integrating psychiatric screening tools and interdisciplinary collaboration into dermatologic and cosmetic care. It provides practical clinical recommendations, an updated ethical lens for aesthetic practitioners, and a forward-looking call to action for systemic reform. In doing so, it advances the field beyond Phillips’ original scope—bridging psychological and aesthetic medicine to more effectively recognize, prevent, and treat BDD in the 21st century.

Working memory (WM) plays a critical role in maintaining and manipulating visual information in the absence of sensory input. While attractor dynamics, where memory representations stabilize around specific locations in memory space, have been observed in simpler visual domains like color or orientation, it remains unclear whether similar mechanisms apply to complex stimuli such as natural faces. The present study aims to explore whether repeated exposure to specific faces can induce attractor dynamics in working memory for natural images. Using a continuous report paradigm with VAE-generated face stimuli, participants were shown target faces at varying frequencies and later asked to recall the target face from a set of images. Although some participants showed memory biases and attractor-like structures near the target face, these effects were not robust across the group. A statistical learning phase, where participants were passively exposed to a target face, did not induce a consistent shift in memory responses. These results suggest that while attractor dynamics may generalize to natural stimuli, they are resistant to passive statistical learning manipulations, highlighting the need for stronger or behaviorally relevant interventions to modulate attractor dynamics. Future research should investigate the impact of more active learning strategies, cognitive load, and long-term memory tasks on attractor stability and flexibility.

Empathy supports social connection and well-being while counter-empathy can weaken relationships and promote conflict. Compassion-based interventions such as loving-kindness meditation (LKM) have been shown to increase feelings of social connectedness and reduce self-focus. However, the impact of LKM on both empathy (measured through both positive and negative empathy) and counter-empathy (measured through schadenfreude and gluckschmerz) remains unexplored. The present study explored whether a brief, 9-minute LKM could increase empathy and reduce counter-empathy compared to a neutral visualization meditation. Forty-two undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the LKM or control condition. As an implicit measure of empathy and counter-empathy, participants rated how good or bad they felt in response to 32 everyday scenarios both before and after the meditation. These ratings captured four outcomes: positive empathy, negative empathy, schadenfreude, and gluckschmerz. Results showed the LKM group experienced significantly greater increases in both positive and negative empathy compared to the control condition. Although both groups showed reductions in counter-empathy (both schadenfreude and gluckschmerz), these changes did not differ significantly amongst the groups. Exploratory analyses suggested that greater focus and adherence during meditation may be linked to lower counter-empathy. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of a brief loving-kindness meditation on significantly increasing empathy. Future research should explore how to best tailor loving-kindness meditations to effectively reduce counter-empathy.

Keywords: empathy, counter-empathy, loving-kindness meditation, schadenfreude, gluckschmerz, compassion intervention

While suicide is something that impacts all Americans, disproportionately impacts certain populations—United States college students among them. Though college students have access to internal health care through their university health centers, a luxury that most Americans do not have, it is still the 2nd leading cause of death among their population. This study aims to explore clinical practices and the use of evidence-based practices in university health centers. By asking clinicians what tools and strategies they use to screen and prevent suicide, the barriers they encounter when doing so, and testing their knowledge on the most effective evidence-based prevention strategy, safety planning, we aim to understand the effectivity of suicide prevention practices being implemented. Results were mixed. While some results highlighted promising practices and positive patient outcomes, others exposed gaps in clinicians’ knowledge and training. Results also confirmed barriers that clinicians tend to encounter in other clinical settings while reporting new barriers that are only present in university health centers. Ultimately, however, there is not enough research done in this area. Both researchers and universities share a responsibility to examine this matter further to strengthen efforts to support the health and well-being of their students.

Weight stigma remains a pervasive form of bias, even as explicit prejudice related to race and gender has declined. Ironically, healthcare providers are among the most frequent sources of weight-based discrimination, with consequences for patient trust, healthcare utilization, and treatment outcomes. To address this issue early in professional development, the present study tested a brief, theory-driven intervention targeting implicit and explicit anti-fat bias in premedical undergraduates. Grounded in cognitive dissonance theory and integrating elements of attribution theory, social identity, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the intervention included educational materials, a counterattitudinal essay, and a public pledge. Participants (n = 51) were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control condition and completed baseline and posttest measures of implicit bias (IAT), explicit attitudes (AFAT, BAOP), and internalized weight stigma (WBIS-M). Results revealed significant reductions in both implicit and explicit anti-fat bias in the intervention group compared to the control group, with medium-large effect sizes. These findings demonstrate that dissonance-based strategies, when supplemented with identity- and empathy-relevant content, can reduce bias even at the level of automatic associations. Keywords: cognitive dissonance, explicit attitudes, implicit bias, obesity, weight stigma

Rates of mental health concerns among college students in the United States are rising, often exceeding the capacity of traditional campus resources. This study investigates the impact of structured, repeated therapy dog interactions, as an innovative and accessible mental health intervention for undergraduates. Using a within-subjects design, 21 Princeton University students participated in four independent study sessions: two with a certified therapy dog present and two without, over a two-week period. Participants completed surveys evaluating depression, anxiety, and stress at the beginning and end of the study, along with surveys assessing stress, anxiety, and productivity for each study session. Results showed statistically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress over the two-week study period. While therapy dog presence did not produce statistically significant short-term effects, observed trends and subjective feedback suggest a potential pattern worth further investigation. Additionally, students who perceived the therapy dog’s presence as helpful reported higher productivity scores, suggesting the potential influence of subjective experience on academic engagement. These findings support the potential of repeated, structured therapy dog interventions, which remain largely unexplored in existing research, as a valuable complement to existing campus mental health resources. Future research should employ larger, more diverse samples and incorporate more objective outcome measures to further understand therapy dogs’ potential in supporting student well-being and academic performance.