新澳彩开奖结果

Professor takes a sober look at college drinking

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is looking forward to July 4, but it鈥檚 not necessarily because of the barbecues or fireworks. Actually, it鈥檚 what happens at those events that piques Martinez鈥檚 interest, because of their effect on her research. Martinez, assistant professor of psychology, studies drinking, specifically in the college-age group. 

Julia Martinez, assistant professor of psychology

This summer, she is conducting four alcohol studies with the help of her students. Three of the studies are campus based, while the fourth is through Amazon鈥檚 Mechanical Turk global survey tool.

Two of Martinez鈥檚 studies focus on how college students use social reinforcement to influence their peers to drink and encourage pathological behavior that leads to alcohol use disorders.

In 鈥淗ow Is Facebook Used by College Students to Reinforce Drinking?鈥 Martinez and Malin Lilley 鈥15 are examining how elements of a person鈥檚 Facebook profile and its traffic coincides with actual drinking (assessed through surveys).

Kristina Bodnar 鈥14 has teamed up with Martinez on 鈥淒rinking in the College Age Population: A Public Health Problem,鈥 which asks participants to relate their most positive and negative drinking experiences in story format. 鈥淭here is a lot of alcohol-related story data from people who have already reached alcoholism and tell stories of their own personal 鈥榬ock-bottom.鈥 This is a novel look into it 鈥 asking people at the start of their drinking career about what types of [social or psychological] reinforcement they鈥檙e getting from drinking,鈥 Martinez explained. 鈥淭hese two studies get at what it is about drinking in the college years that promotes a 鈥榙rinking career,鈥 as we call it.鈥

Her third campus-based study, assisted by Noah Bacine 鈥13, takes a biological approach: 鈥淚nvestigating the Association among Executive Cognitive Functioning Behavioral Measures and Binge Drinking in College Students.鈥

鈥淎lcohol use and alcohol use disorders are so prevalent during the 18- to 25-year-old range, but also, college is a time when people are developing their problem-solving abilities and decision-making skills,鈥 Martinez explained. 鈥淭hese things are happening in tandem, so the point of this is to look at how these decision-making and problem-solving processes occur alongside different drinking behaviors.鈥 She and Bacine are using neuropsychological tests like games and riddles as well as surveys in order to acquire their data.

To expand her research to a global platform, Martinez is using Mechanical Turk to gather data on the different drinking phenomena.

The campus studies will continue throughout the summer and into the fall.

鈥淲e will likely see an upsurge in drinking around July Fourth,鈥 Martinez said. 鈥淐ertain dates like that, New Year鈥檚, and anyone鈥檚 twenty-first birthday tend to promote drinking.鈥