She's everywhere and this month Taylor Swift restarts her world tour meaning coverage of this American mega-star will be global.
Recently TCU's Naomi Ekas was featured in USA Today and Time Magazine where her expert opinion and insight into Taylor Swift's impact on American psychology is helping to explain her place atop planetary pop-culture.
Professor Naomi Ekas teaches a course about the connection between psychology and Swift's place in pop culture at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. She believes there are universal themes listeners have experienced in Swift's lyrics but notes that the pop star's particular worldview may not translate to everyone. At the beginning of the spring semester, Ekas asked her students what labels they attached to Swift. Many of the responses reflected that were "these are white girl experiences, and this is white girl music and there isn't kind of that representation or that connection kind of outside of that particular racial group," she tells USA TODAY. "Everyone's dated the bad boy and they’ve had the friendship breakups and they’ve, you know, crashed and burned in relationships, revenge – these are pretty common themes across humankind, but then her particular life and how she's living them out might not connect to everybody," Ekas says. April 24 USA Today Last year, when millions of people were trying to snag Eras Tour tickets, students at Texas Christian University were working just as hard to get into "Psychology (Taylor’s Version)," a new class offered by developmental psychologist Naomi Ekas. “We take different topics and themes from her music or her life and apply a developmental perspective to it,” she says. Classes have centered, for example, on infidelity, revenge, attraction, and breakups. During one recent class, Ekas played Marjorie, the devastating Evermore tune that pays tribute to Swift’s grandmother. (I should've asked you questions, I should've asked you how to be, she sings.) Many of the 120 students started crying and asked if they could have a few minutes to text their grandmother or their mom or their dad. “We were all like, ‘Do we continue with class today? Because we’re very sad,’” Ekas recalls. April 19 Time Magazine
There will be no shortage of Taylor Swift coverage in the coming months and if you're a journalist looking to fill a blank space in your story and avoid a cruel summer with no expert sources then let us help.
Naomi Ekas's research program utilizes a developmental psychology approach to understanding children’s social and emotional development. She also teaches a course about the connection between psychology and Swift's place in pop culture.
Naomi is available to speak with media simply click on her icon now to arrange a time today.
Media
Social
Biography
Naomi Ekas's research program utilizes a developmental psychology approach to understanding children’s social and emotional development. She studies how both intrinsic (e.g., temperament) and extrinsic (e.g., parenting quality) factors impact children’s emotion regulation and mental health. She studies these processes in autistic and non-autistic children using a variety of research methods.
Areas of Expertise
Marital Conflict
Emerging Adulthood
Parenting
Emotion Regulation
Caregiver Care for Families with Autism
Autism
Early Infant Development (Birth to Age 3)
Emotional Development
Adolescence
College Students
Marital Relationship
Accomplishments
Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award for Excellence in Teaching
University of Notre Dame, 2008
Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Award
University of Notre Dame, 2009
Society for the Teaching of Psychology Faculty Development Award
2012
Education
University of Notre Dame
Ph.D.
Developmental Psychology
2009
Advisor: Julia M. Braungart Rieker, Ph.D. Dissertation: Adaptation to stress in mothers of children with autism with autism spectrum disorder: The role of positive affect and personality factors
University of Notre Dame
M.A.
Developmental Psychology
2007
Advisor: Julia M. Braungart-Rieker, Ph.D. Thesis: Toddlers’ behavioral strategies with mothers and fathers
University of California, Davis
B.A.
Psychology with Highest Honors
2005
Affiliations
International Society for Research in Autism : Member
International Society for Infant Studies : Member
The Society for Research in Child Development : Member
Male versus female college students react differently to helicopter parenting, study finds
Medical Xpress online
2017-04-05
Helicopter parenting reduces the well-being of young women, while the failure to foster independence harms the well-being of young men but not young women.
Raising a child with autism: How optimism can help to cope
ScienceDaily online
2016-05-09
Humans are resilient, even facing the toughest of life's challenges. How individuals and families deal with demanding and emotionally charged circumstances plays a large role in how they view and face the world and the possible outcomes of a difficult situation. There's no exception for the challenging Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how families adjust and cope with the reported stress of raising a child with autism.
Countering prejudice might be as easy as kicking back with the right sitcom.
That's according to new research that suggests media that depict Muslim characters in a positive, relatable way, can counter prejudiced attitudes toward Muslims.
Patterns of nonverbal emotional communication between infants and mothers to help scientists develop a baby robot that learns
ScienceDaily online
2010-10-28
To help unravel the mysteries of human cognitive development and reach new the frontiers in robotics, University of Miami (UM) developmental psychologists and computer scientists from the University of California in San Diego (UC San Diego) are studying infant-mother interactions and working to implement their findings in a baby robot capable of learning social skills.
A Pilot Study of Responses to Interparental Conflict in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
2021
Research supports that parents of children with ASD experience higher rates of marital conflict compared to parents of neurotypically developing (NT) children; however, no known research examining reactions to interparental conflict in children with ASD exists. This study compared emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses to interparental conflict in ASD (n = 21) and NT children (n = 29).
An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Adoption on Adoptive Siblings
Journal of Child and Family Studies
2021
There is extensive literature on the effects of early-life trauma in children who are adopted, but limited research on the effects this early-life trauma may have on the other members of the adoptive family system. This qualitative study explored the experience of adoptive siblings, defined as biological children in families who adopt children, and the impact adoption has had on them.
The Development of Infant Emotion Regulation: Time Is of the Essence
Emotion Regulation
Naomi V. Ekas, Julie M. Braungart-Rieker, Daniel S. Messinger
2018
The ability to effectively regulate emotions is considered a hallmark of early social and emotional development and is associated with a variety of developmental outcomes. Emotion regulation is a dynamic process that involves the temporal sequencing of emotion and behavioral strategies. Despite an increased interest in and investigation of emotion regulation, however, there is little attention given to these temporal dynamics. Infancy is an especially important period during which to examine these dynamics as early development is associated with the greatest changes in emotion regulation, and emotion regulation skills, and these skills are reliably linked to later developmental outcomes (Feldman, 2009). This chapter aims to present research that focuses on the temporal dynamics of emotion regulation during infancy by presenting: (1) an overview of the development of emotion regulation during infancy; (2) traditional, global approaches to the measurement of emotion regulation during infancy; and (3) temporal, momentto-moment sequencing of emotion and regulatory strategies with an emphasis on the methodological and statistical approaches to studying temporal associations. Finally, we highlight new statistical techniques that would allow researchers to further unravel the complexities of emotion regulation during this time period.
Giving thanks: Findings from a gratitude intervention with mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Lisa Timmons, Naomi V.Ekas
2018
Gratitude is a character strength related to greater well-being in the general population; however, it has not been studied extensively in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, an online, writing-based gratitude intervention was conducted with mothers of children with ASD.
Associations Between Resilience and the Well-Being of Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Other Developmental Disabilities
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Elizabeth Halstead, Naomi Ekas, Richard P. Hastings, Gemma M. Griffith
2018
There is variability in the extent to which mothers are affected by the behavior problems of their children with developmental disabilities (DD). We explore whether maternal resilience functions as a protective or compensatory factor. In Studies 1 and 2, using moderated multiple regression models, we found evidence that maternal resilience functioned as a compensatory factor—having a significant independent main effect relationship with well-being outcomes in mothers of children with DD and autism spectrum disorder. However, there was no longitudinal association between resilience and maternal well-being outcomes. There was little evidence of the role of resilience as a protective factor between child behavior problems and maternal well-being in both studies.
Relationship between the broad autism phenotype, social relationships and mental health for mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder
Autism
Megan M Pruitt, Madeline Rhoden, Naomi V Ekas
2016
This study aimed to examine the mechanisms responsible for the association between the broad autism phenotype and depressive symptoms in mothers of a child with autism spectrum disorder. A total of 98 mothers who had a child with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 2 and 16 years completed assessments of maternal broad autism phenotype, child behavior problems, romantic relationship satisfaction, friend support, family support, and maternal depressive symptoms. Results indicated that only romantic relationship satisfaction was a significant mediator of the relationship between maternal broad autism phenotype social abnormalities and maternal depressive symptoms, where greater broad autism phenotype social abnormalities were associated with lower relationship satisfaction, which in turn was associated with increased depressive symptoms. Child behavior problems were directly related to increased depressive symptoms. Implications regarding maternal mental health outcomes within this population as well as intervention implications are discussed.
Mortality salience increases death-thought accessibility and worldview defense among high Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) individuals
Personality and Individual Differences
Robert B. Arrowood, Cathy R. Cox, Naomi V. Ekas
2017
The Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) is an individual difference whereby persons exhibit mild characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including being socially aloof and having a rigid personality. Given that individuals high in BAP rigidity have difficulty adjusting to change, the present research examined whether rigid persons report greater concerns about death and adhere to their cultural beliefs following mortality salience (MS). In Study 1, we found that BAP rigidity was positively associated with greater mortality-related concerns. In Study 2, high rigid individuals evidenced increased death-thought accessibility following MS. Finally, Study 3 found that MS led to heightened worldview defense for individuals high in rigidity, while decreasing defensiveness for those low in rigidity. These results provide evidence for the moderating role of individual differences in terror management effects. Specifically, ASD characteristics in young adults, particularly in the area of rigidity, contribute to heightened death concerns and greater defensiveness.
