Pownall, Madeleine ORCID: 0000-0002-3734-8006 (2022) Social cognitive explanations for ‘baby brain’ in pregnancy. PhD thesis, University of Leeds.
Abstract
There is a widely held perception that women have reduced cognitive abilities during their pregnancy and into the immediate postpartum period, a concept referred to colloquially as mummy brain, pregnesia, or, more commonly, ‘baby brain’ (Brett & Baxendale, 2001). However, the current evidence base, which spans cognitive, neuropsychological, and evolutionary perspectives, has vast inconsistencies and is generally inconclusive (Davies et al., 2018). There are also concerns with the robustness, reliability, and suitability of these research paradigms to understand ‘baby brain’ in its social context (Hurt, 2011). Therefore, the mixed-methods work presented in this thesis aims to investigate empirically how ‘baby brain’ may be better understood through a social psychological lens. This thesis starts with an overview of the chapters (Chapter 1) and a critical review of the current ‘baby brain’ literature (Chapter 2), before then qualitatively exploring pregnant women’s first-hand accounts of their memory changes using qualitative content analysis (Study 1). The contents of pregnancy stereotypes are then investigated (Study 2, Study 3). Finally, this work investigates experimentally how stereotype threat theory (Study 4, Study 5) and objectification theory (Study 6, Study 7) may account for differences in pregnant women’s memory functioning and how objectification alters perceptions of women in pregnancy (Study 8). Overall, this research found that pregnant women are stereotyped to have poorer cognitive abilities and do self-report negative changes to their memory. However, stereotype threat and self-objectification manipulations did not harm memory performance in the hypothesised ways. Taken together, this work has important implications for understanding ‘baby brain’ in pregnancy, while also testing the core mechanisms of both stereotype threat theory and objectification theory in unique and understudied populations of women.
Metadata
Supervisors: | Russell, Hutter and Mark, Conner |
---|---|
Awarding institution: | University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > Institute of Psychological Sciences (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Madeleine Pownall |
Date Deposited: | 24 Feb 2023 12:22 |
Last Modified: | 24 Feb 2023 12:22 |
Download
Final eThesis - complete (pdf)
Embargoed until: 1 July 2024
Please use the button below to request a copy.
Filename: Final_Thesis_Madeleine Pownall.pdf
Export
Statistics
Please use the 'Request a copy' link(s) in the 'Downloads' section above to request this thesis. This will be sent directly to someone who may authorise access.
You can contact us about this thesis. If you need to make a general enquiry, please see the Contact us page.