Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
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Both youth with a substance use disorder (SUD) and youth who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) show heightened vulnerability to psychopathology. We aimed to quantify the risk of...Show moreBoth youth with a substance use disorder (SUD) and youth who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) show heightened vulnerability to psychopathology. We aimed to quantify the risk of comorbid disorders in SUD youth with ACE-history. Additionally, we aimed to examine relations between ACEs, overall household experience, and general distress. We used cross-sectional YIT-study data from interviews with Dutch youth (aged 16-22) upon SUD treatment entry for cannabis, alcohol, or stimulant use. We measured ACE-types experienced up until 15 years of age, past-year DSM-5 disorders, general distress (DASS-21), and overall household experience rating. Logistic regressions quantified relations between ACE sum score and anxiety, depressive, behavior, and any disorder. Higher ACE sum scores related to increased risks for a(n) anxiety (OR = 1.12, highest odds = 2.84; χ2(1) = 6.71, p < .010; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.2), depressive (OR = 1.21, highest odds = 5.43; χ2(1) = 18.11, p < .001; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.6), behavior (OR = 1.20, highest odds = 5.24; χ2(1) = 17.41, p < .001; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.6), and any (OR = 1.25, highest odds = 7.58; χ2(1) = 17.26, p < .001; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.7) disorder. Exploratory analyses revealed that frequency of parental fighting, being hit/abused, getting belittled, emotional neglect, physical neglect, insufficient household income, long parental sickness, and overall household experience positively related to DASS-21. In a hierarchical regression analysis with all ACEs and overall household experience, only emotional neglect related to DASS-21 (B = 3.68, t(373) = 2.41, p = .017). Overall household experience did not improve the model (F(12) = 3.51, p < .001; R2change < .001). In hierarchical regression analyses containing ACE sum score and overall household experience, overall household experience was not uniquely related to DASS-21 (t = -0.22, p = .824; R2change < .01). In conclusion, ACEs relate to comorbid disorders in SUD youth. Our exploratory research suggests that ACE frequency might influence this relation, while overall household experience does not further explain this relation. Further research should investigate which ACE measures (a.o., type, frequency) strongly relate to SUDs and psychopathology and examine improved treatment options.Show less
Het aanleren van woordenschat aan NT2-leerlingen (leerlingen met Nederlands als tweede taal) in kleuterklassen is een cruciaal onderdeel voor de taalontwikkeling van de leerlingen en hun algehele...Show moreHet aanleren van woordenschat aan NT2-leerlingen (leerlingen met Nederlands als tweede taal) in kleuterklassen is een cruciaal onderdeel voor de taalontwikkeling van de leerlingen en hun algehele academisch succes. Echter is het effectief vormgeven van woordenschatonderwijs aan deze doelgroep een uitdaging voor basisscholen. Dit onderzoek richt zich op het identificeren van effectieve strategieën voor het geven van woordenschatonderwijs aan NT2-leerlingen in kleuterklassen alsmede onderzoek naar het gebruik van deze strategieën op een specifieke basisschool. Middels een literatuurstudie zijn er drie principes vastgesteld die bijdragen aan effectief woordenschatonderwijs: 1. Integreer de moedertaal in het onderwijs, 2. Verhoog de hoeveelheid verbale interactiemomenten 3. Werk met directe instructiemomenten. Uit semi-gestructureerde interviews met vijf werknemers van een basisschool die zich met het kleuteronderwijs bezighouden blijkt het volgende. Als eerste heeft de school de integratie van de eerste taal in haar onderwijs nog niet in grote mate geïmplementeerd. Daarnaast blijkt dat leerkrachten actief didactische impulsen geven om interactie tussen leerlingen te bevorderen. Ten slotte wordt vastgesteld dat de school bekend is met het concept van directe instructiemomenten, maar dat er niet altijd voldoende tijd beschikbaar is om dit toe te passen. Deze bevindingen bieden inzichten voor leerkrachten en ondersteunend personeel om woordenschat effectiever te implementeren voor NT2-leerlingen in kleuterklassen.Show less
There is increasing evidence for the negative effect of external aid programs on public health. Accordingly, it is essential to research how donors could effectively allocate their aid. It is...Show moreThere is increasing evidence for the negative effect of external aid programs on public health. Accordingly, it is essential to research how donors could effectively allocate their aid. It is established that institution-building in the health sector is crucial for enhancing public health, for example by fostering accountability and transparency. Aid that is spent on institution-building is expected to have a positive effect on public health. However, there is no empirical evidence for that, and therefore, this research contributes to the existing literature by answering the following research question: What is the effect of aid targeting institution building in the health sector on public health outcomes? Several linear regressions are performed to test the effect of Official Development Assistance for institution-building in the health sector on infant mortality, life expectancy, and immunization rates. The overall research findings show a positive, but small and insignificant relationship between health institutional aid and public health.Show less
In deze scriptie wordt de relatie tussen het eeuwenoude Pyrronistisch Scepticisme en gemoedsrust onderzocht. Aan de hand van Sextus Empiricus worden we meegenomen in de zoektocht naar ataraxia....Show moreIn deze scriptie wordt de relatie tussen het eeuwenoude Pyrronistisch Scepticisme en gemoedsrust onderzocht. Aan de hand van Sextus Empiricus worden we meegenomen in de zoektocht naar ataraxia. Ataraxia oftewel gemoedsrust, is een staat waarin men vrij is van zorgen en angsten. Volgens Sextus is het bereiken van gemoedsrust niet alleen een therapeutische vaardigheid, maar ook een manier van leven. Deze Pyrronistische manier van leven houdt in dat overtuigingen ten aanzien van non-evidente zaken worden opgeschort om zo gemoedsrust te bereiken. In dit onderzoek is onderzocht of de filosofie van het Pyrronisme ons kan helpen in ons dagelijks leven met onze angsten en stress. Om Pyrronisme te meten is er een vragenlijst opgesteld met non-evidente stellingen (NE-Q). Voor het meten van angst is de GAD-7 gebruikt en voor het meten van stress is de PSS gebruikt. De eerste hypothese was dat sterkere overtuigingen een negatieve relatie hebben met gemoedsrust. De tweede hypothese was dat de relatie tussen sterkere overtuigingen en gemoedsrust verzwakt wanneer men aan mindfulness doet. De hoofdrelatie was niet significant met zowel de GAD-7 als de PSS als afhankelijke variabele. Ook was de moderatieanalyse in beider gevallen niet significant. Wel bleek bij verdere visuele inspectie dat het doen van mindfulness leidde tot meer angst en stress, in tegenstelling tot wanneer men niet aan mindfulness deed. Dit onderzoek wijst uit dat de filosofische stroming van het Pyrronisme als psychotherapie niet toepasbaar is voor de behandeling van angsten en stress in de hedendaagse tijd. Ook kan geconcludeerd worden dat mindfulness de relatie tussen het hebben van sterkere overtuigingen en gemoedsrust niet beïnvloedt.Show less
The International Monetary Fund has often been criticised on account of its tendency to be lenient in loan conditionality to certain countries that it considers important. This research seeks to...Show moreThe International Monetary Fund has often been criticised on account of its tendency to be lenient in loan conditionality to certain countries that it considers important. This research seeks to narrow in on the effect of economic importance from the perspective of western donor states on IMF loan efficacy. Apart from providing a gap in the research, this topic is deemed important because of its value for developmental economics and upcoming issues in that field. Moreover, the results allow concrete policy decisions to be made. Employing a bivariate and multiple linear regression analysis, this paper seeks to answer the question what is the effect of the perceived economic importance of states for western actors on the efficacy of loans by the IMF? In foreshadowing results, this paper finds that a higher economic importance, and high rates of accountability and corruption, lead to a lower efficacy of IMF loans. It is argued that this is the case because of the moral hazard issue, time-inconsistency problem, and the structure of the IMF. The model does however lack full robustness.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
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This thesis is part of a multi-lab eye-tracking project investigating implicit Theory of Mind (ToM) in toddlers and adults (ManyBabies2). Given the recent number of unsuccessful replications in...Show moreThis thesis is part of a multi-lab eye-tracking project investigating implicit Theory of Mind (ToM) in toddlers and adults (ManyBabies2). Given the recent number of unsuccessful replications in this field, the focus of this thesis lies in investigating the impact of methodological considerations regarding data quality on the obtained results. Specifically, this thesis addresses differences in eye-tracking data quality (accuracy, precision, and data loss) between toddlers and adults. Further, it examines how differences in data quality (precision and data loss) affect the dependent variables in an anticipatory looking (AL) task to measure ToM, and whether the results of the AL task change by adjusting the parameters of a standard fixation classification algorithm (i.e., the Tobii I-VT filter) to account for low data quality. A total of 16 adults and 16 toddlers (N = 32) participated in the ManyBabies2 study at the Leiden University lab. The AL task included two test trials with an ignorance and knowledge condition, during which participants’ looking behavior (first look and proportion differential looking score [DLS]) was measured. The results showed a significant difference in average data quality between toddlers and adults, with toddlers having lower accuracy and precision and higher data loss than adults. Moreover, the results indicated that data loss significantly affects proportion DLS in the ignorance and knowledge condition. However, no differences in AL looking behavior were found between the Tobii I-VT default and adjusted parameters. The findings of this thesis emphasize the need for consistent reporting of data quality. Future research should conduct larger-scale studies to validate and expand upon the findings in this thesis, and focus on refining the fixation classification algorithm parameters of the Tobii I-VT filter to adjust for differences in data quality.Show less
This thesis examines how brain drain can be problematized in light of relational egalitarianism. This approach views the existing economy as that of joint production as it relies heavily on mutual...Show moreThis thesis examines how brain drain can be problematized in light of relational egalitarianism. This approach views the existing economy as that of joint production as it relies heavily on mutual dependency between citizens. Here, it aims to find whether the moral duty citizens hold towards one another can legitimately place restrictions on freedom of movement in the case of brain drain. Through taking relational egalitarianism to its normative furthests, it becomes clear that the right to exit can legitimately be constricted.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Poverty in the UK has increased, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic. To prevent people from falling into a poverty trap, it is important to understand how financial scarcity affects financial...Show morePoverty in the UK has increased, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic. To prevent people from falling into a poverty trap, it is important to understand how financial scarcity affects financial decisions involving risks. This topic lacks consensus in the literature with some authors arguing for a tendency towards more risk-taking, while others arguing for more risk aversion. This study posits that the risk tendency is influenced by frames of gains and losses. More specifically, financial scarcity leads to more risky choices in the domain of losses (H1), whereas it leads to less risky choices in the domain of gains (H2). People in financial scarcity tend to experience negative affect that impacts their cognitive systems, leading to more reliance on System 1 thinking, which exacerbates biases, such as the reflection effect. To test the hypotheses an online survey was conducted and 200 participants from the UK were recruited via Prolific Academic. The participants were divided into two groups for the manipulation of financial scarcity using the household task. Half of the participants were in the debts condition (financial scarcity), whereas the other half were not (control). Subsequently, all participants were presented with six risky choices, where they had to choose one of two options (one risky, the other conservative) framed in both gains and losses and three combinations of probabilities. Results from a Generalized Mixed Model showed that the cognitive bias associated with the reflection effect was found to be equally present in everyone and was more pronounced for more extreme probabilities (e.g., 10%/90% and 20%/80%), but not for moderate probabilities (e.g., 40%/60%). Thus, the expected interaction between debts and frames was not confirmed. It is suggested that future studies use an intuitive decision-making manipulation with more extreme probabilities (e.g., 1%/99%), consider a field risk manipulation, an incentivized lottery and the same expected value within and between probabilities at the lottery.Show less
While honesty itself is a widely researched topic, most research has been done on human-human interactions. This laid the foundation for many similar studies and a rapidly expanding literature on...Show moreWhile honesty itself is a widely researched topic, most research has been done on human-human interactions. This laid the foundation for many similar studies and a rapidly expanding literature on honesty for human-avatar and human-robot interaction studies. This experiment builds on such research. In the current study, we intended to determine how much (dis)honest behavior participants would display during a coin-toss game with three agents: a robot, an avatar, and a human confederate. In all three conditions, the agents’ pupil size had been manipulated to be either dilated or constricted form. There were three blocks, with 18 trials each. The trials were counterbalanced. We hypothesized that the participants would be more honest with the agents with dilated pupils compared to constricted pupils, as previous studies have shown that people with dilated pupils are perceived more positively. Additionally, we hypothesized that overall, the participants would show more honest behavior when interacting with the confederate because human-to-human contact is familiar and not (yet) comparable to human-AI (Artificial Intelligence) contact. Curiously, results show that our first hypothesis is not met, as pupil size did not have a significant effect (p = .171). Our second hypothesis is partly met as there was a significant difference between the human condition and robot condition (p = .007), but not between human condition and avatar condition.Show less
Suicide is a pressing, global concern, with a growing number of adolescents affected. Present research tends to focus on external factors, for example, stressful life events. Internal factors, like...Show moreSuicide is a pressing, global concern, with a growing number of adolescents affected. Present research tends to focus on external factors, for example, stressful life events. Internal factors, like defence mechanisms, remain understudied. This investigation aimed to explore variations between categories of defense mechanisms used by university students in the Netherlands, with respect to their suicidal ideation scores. A total of 115 participants engaged in the cross-sectional research design. The questionnaires used were the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS) and Defence Mechanisms Rating Scale-Self Report-30 Items (DMRS-SR-30). To assess these variations, a one-way ANOVA with a Bonferroni Correction was applied. The expectation was differences being present between used defensive categories, regarding varying scores of suicidal ideation. Gender was acknowledged as a potential influential factor. Significant differences were found within Category 1: Mature and Category 2: Neurotic in relation to the SIDAS scores (p < 0.001, p = 0.002), indicating differing scores of suicidal ideation within these groups. Category 3: Immature, as well as the subgroups Non-Depressive and Depressive, did not exhibit any significant variations within the SIDAS scores (p = 0.341, p = 0.882, p = 0.406), suggesting lack of differences in suicidal ideation scores among individuals in these categories. Gender was found to play a role in the association between suicidal ideation scores and each defensive category (all p < 0.05). The analysis revealed variations within the categories, due to the unavailability of finding the differences between them. Consequently, although the research question and hypothesis were not entirely validated, valuable information and findings were obtained pertaining to this subject. Implications of this research regard both practical aspects, such as new prevention strategies being designed, and theoretical factors, including further comprehension on psychological mechanisms of defence.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
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Prediction-based and repetition-based learning are two learning strategies, differing most profoundly in their depth of processing. In repetition-based learning, students repeat information shortly...Show morePrediction-based and repetition-based learning are two learning strategies, differing most profoundly in their depth of processing. In repetition-based learning, students repeat information shortly after learning it, while in prediction-based learning, students make a prediction before learning the information. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of the two learning strategies for memory recall, as well as consider the influence of age, the magnitude of the prediction errors, and the involved brain areas. It seeks to enhance the educational debate on these learning strategies by uncovering the strategies' mechanisms and guiding educators on their effective use. To accomplish this, 28 young adolescents and 46 young adults were scanned in an MRI scanner while learning numerical facts using both strategies: predicting and repeating. The study explored the influence of strategy, age group, and prediction error on memory recall. Furthermore, it investigated strategy-specific and age-specific differences in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), striatum, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). While it was expected that prediction-based learning would result in better learning for both age groups as it requires deeper processing, results showed that adults had improved memory for repetition compared to prediction, whereas adolescents did not show a significant difference between the two learning strategies. Within prediction-based learning, adults showed increased memory for small and large prediction errors, while adolescents only did for large prediction errors. Lastly, among the investigated brain areas, the ACC, which is involved in error detection, showed the most prominent role in prediction-based learning.Show less
