Digital Commons Network^™

Unit Cohesion, Attachment, Personality Factors, And Mental Health In Veterans Of Iraq And Afghanistan, Allison Adrienne Whitesell

Doctoral Dissertations

One hundred forty seven veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and/or Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) completed an internet survey with questions related to unit cohesion, romantic attachment style, personality factors, and mental health symptoms. Participants completed five self-report measures: the PTSD Checklist-Military, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-21, Deployment Social Support scale from the Deployment Risk and Resiliency Inventory, the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Short Form, and the International Personality Item Pool Big Five Short Form Questionnaire. Most participants were male and Caucasian. Hierarchical linear regression analysis results indicated that emotional stability predicted both general distress and PTSD symptom severity, while avoidant attachment …

Personality And Religiosity: The Influence Of Normative Personality On Black Sunni Muslims' Religious Attitudes And Practices, Halim Khidher Naeem

Dissertations

There is a dearth of literature on Black Sunni Muslims in the field of psychology. More so, there is no literature specifically analyzing the influences upon Black religiosity. The literature has established that personality has significant influence upon religiosity. The literature also says that females are more religious than their male counterparts. The present study analyzed the influence of personality, gender and social class upon religiosity for Black Sunni Muslims. The following hypothesis was investigated: Personality, gender, and social class will affect religious attitudes and practices.

A canonical regression analysis using SPSS revealed that personality, gender and social class had …

Sex Differences And Within-Family Associations In The Broad Autism Phenotype, Jessica Klusek, M Losh, G Martin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Goal Orientation Profile Types On Organizational Outcoms In Veterinarians, Kathleen Arnold

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Goal orientation and work avoidance dimensions and profiles were studied in relationship to performance, satisfaction, self-efficacy, commitment and tenure. It was found that dimensions were the only significant predictors of satisfaction and self-efficacy. Still, there was evidence that the profiles were related to outcomes and, specifically, profiles were a stronger predictor of tenure. In addition, the dimension of work avoidance appears to provide additional information to the emerging profile types. These results provide important evidence of the emerging common goal orientation profile types. These groups were found to have different outcomes, most notably in performance and tenure. This research provides …

Openness To The Unconscious: Clinical Validity, Scott Andrew Swan

Doctoral Dissertations

Theory provides a background for the underlying construct of Openness to the Unconscious and in turn for the Openness to the Unconscious scale (OU), which was designed to predict personal fit for different kinds of psychotherapy. Two studies test the clinical validity of the scale using records review from a training clinic. Cross-sectional analysis with MMPI-2 data failed to support hypotheses regarding OU's relationship to personality psychopathology. More importantly, the scale failed to predict attrition from psychotherapy, which had been expected. Results also fail to support the hypotheses that OU interacts with treatment type to predict attrition. These findings are …

Effectiveness Of Ceo Blogs As A Recruiting Tool: Impact Of Message Congruence With Applicant Personality And Implicit Leadership Theories, Rebekkah Beeco

All Dissertations

Organizational recruitment websites have become an important tool for both recruiters and job seekers. The structural characteristics of such websites (e.g., aesthetics, usability) have received some attention but less research has examined the content of these websites. A weblog (or blog), specifically a leader or CEO blog, is one novel way that organizations can impact recruitment through their website. Although research is limited, anecdotal evidence suggests that blogs may be a powerful recruiting tool.
In line with research that suggests followers prefer leaders who are similar to themselves (e.g., Keller, 1999), the effectiveness of leader blog messages for recruitment purposes …

Patient Perceptions Of Comorbid Depression In Heart Disease, Rebecca Lynn Reese Akcakaya

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Depression is a risk factor for the development of heart disease, as well as for poor prognosis among patients with existing disease. However, clinical trials of treatment of depression in patients with heart disease have not resulted in improved cardiac outcomes, and have demonstrated modest effects on depression. The nature of depression in heart patients must be better understood in order to improve treatment and health outcomes. In samples of patients with medical illness as well as in patients with depression, illness perceptions have been useful in predicting both treatment outcomes and self-management behaviors such as coping and adherence. This …

Associations Between Maternal Personality And Parenting: A Multi-Informant Approach, Brigitte Hanna

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

More is known about contextual factors associated with parenting than associations between intrinsic characteristics of parents, namely personality, and parenting. The current study investigated associations between parent personality and parenting behaviours with known relevance for child outcomes. A community sample of 385 mothers of preschool-aged children completed self-report measures of personality traits. Informant reports and observer ratings of maternal personality were also obtained. Parenting was assessed observationally during a mother-child interaction in the home. Personality traits were associated with both positive and negative parenting. The magnitude of these associations was generally modest, with the strongest effects emerging for the trait …

Personality, Organizational Commitment, And Job Search Behavior: A Field Study, Cynthia Ward Hackney

Doctoral Dissertations

This field study examined the relationships among the personality traits conscientiousness and openness to experience; organizational commitment; and job search behaviors in a work environment, to test hypotheses about the relationships of three types of commitment – affective, normative and continuance – with the personality traits and search behaviors, using established measures. Participants were 282 employees of cell phone sales organization located in the Southeastern United States, who completed on-line surveys. As hypothesized, individual conscientiousness showed a strong positive relationship with affective, normative and continuance commitment and a strong negative relationship with job search behaviors. Openness to experience showed the …

Blood Cortisol Concentrations Predict Boldness In Juvenile Mulloway (Argyosomus Japonicus), Vincent Raoult, Culum Brown, Amina Zuberi, Jane E. Williamson

Sentience Collection

There is a growing interest in animal personality because individual variation is the substrate of the evolutionary process. Despite revelations that personality traits affect key fitness variables, little is known about the proximate mechanisms generating consistent behavioural differences between individuals. Boldness, the propensity to take risks, is one of the most widely studied aspects of personality in fishes. We assessed the position of juvenile Argyosomus japonicus on the ‘‘boldness–shyness’’ continuum by repeatedly recording the time taken to exit a refuge and explore a novel environment. Stress-related hormone concentrations after exposure to a mild stressor were analysed 1 month before behavioural …

A Typology Of Preadolescent Sexual Abusers Based On The Emerging Personality Patterns In The Millon Preadolescent Clinical Inventory, Sam Wallace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a personality-based typology of preadolescents with sexual behavior problems based the Emerging Personality Patterns in the Millon Preadolescent Clinical Inventory (M-PACI, Millon et al., 2005). Grounding a typology in a theory driven personality system may offer clarity and specificity in understanding preadolescents with sexual behavior problems in a manner that has not yet been explored. A personality and theory driven typology could provide a more comprehensive framework for assessing and treating children who sexually abuse than any of the current taxonomic models.

The study used an ex post facto design with test …

Personality Assessment In African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana), Kristina Marie Horback

Dissertations

The following study assessed personality in twelve African elephants using both observational behavior coding and standardized trait rating methods, thus demonstrating consistent individual differences across time and contexts. During the summer of 2010 and 2011, over 640 hours of behavioral data were collected onsite at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, CA. Four coding-based personality traits were determined after analysis: PLAYFUL, CURIOUS, TOLERANT, and, AGGRESSIVE. This data was then compared to survey ratings completed by the animal keeper staff during both summers. Four rating-based personality traits resulted from this analysis: PLAYFUL, CURIOUS, TIMID, and, AGGRESSIVE. All eight composite …

Achievement Motivation: Examination Of Explicit And Implicit Measurements In Two Studies, Jessica L. Deslauriers

Dissertations

Two theories that seek to explain personality are explicit traits (Allport, 1937) and implicit motives (Murray, 1938; McClelland, 1951). The present research investigates both implicit and explicit cognitions (specifically cognitions related to achievement motivation). Scores on three implicit measures, one explicit measure, and cognitive ability were obtained (N = 294) as well as performance on an attention task. Study 1 examined the theoretical similarities and differences among the implicit measures, as well as their relationship with an explicit measure. No significant correlations were observed among the implicit measures, and only the IAT correlated with the explicit measure. Factor analysis revealed …

An Exploratory Study Of Reception Of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors And Work Related Outcomes: It Is Good For Your Co-Workers, Xinxuan Che

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The predictors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) - performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place - have been studied extensively in previous research. Surprisingly, only a few studies have looked into OCB's effects on individuals who might benefit from it. The purpose of the current study was to explore effects of individual-level OCB on its recipients. Reception of OCB (ROCB) is described and proposed to be related to targets' performance, job stress and job strains. In addition, narcissism and proactive personality were explored as predictors of reception of OCB also as moderators of …

Personality And Reactions To Organizational Politics, L. A. Witt

L. A. Witt

No abstract provided.

Cultivating An Engaged Workforce: The Roles Of Leader Personality, Motivation, And Leadership Style, Amy Marie Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the links between leadership style, leader personality, and motivation to lead, with employee engagement. Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and abusive supervision styles were examined in relation to levels of employee engagement via a sample of n=195 employees and n=130 managers. Consistent with findings from Christian, Garza, and Slaughter (2011), transformational leadership showed a positive link to employee engagement (r= .38, p< .05). On the opposite end, abusive supervision was negatively related to employee engagement (r= -.27, p< .05). Contingent reward leadership showed a positive link to employee engagement (r= .32, p< .05).

Relationships between personality and leadership style were framed according to the socioanalytic framework (Hogan & Shelton, 1998). This study did not find any significant differences in the relationships between the expected leadership behaviors and the traits …

Training Evaluation In Virtual Worlds: Development Of A Model, Richard N. Landers, Rachel C. Callan

Psychology Faculty Publications

Many organizations have adopted virtual worlds (VWs) as a setting for training programs; however, research on appropriate evaluation of training in this new setting is incomplete. In this article, we address this gap by first exploring the unique issues relevant to evaluation faced by training designers working in VWs. At the macro-organizational level, the primary issue faced is an organizational culture unreceptive to or otherwise skeptical of VWs. At the micro-organizational level, two major issues are identified: individual trainees unreceptive to VWs and general lack of experience navigating VWs. All three of these challenges and their interrelationships may lead to …

Impression Management Across Applicant And Incumbent Contexts: The Effect On Job Performance, Jenna Noelle Filipkowski

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Social desirability (impression management) scales often accompany personality measures in selection to detect those who might be engaging in response distortion. Applicants' personality scores may be corrected or eliminated based on scores from the impression management scale. My studies test the effectiveness and usefulness of having social desirability measures in personnel selection. Study One examined whether social desirability (impression management) scales are able to detect faking behavior. The hypotheses were tested on an archival dataset of participants who took personality measures on two separate occasions as incumbents or applicants. Those identified by the faking indicator, who raised their scores beyond …

Impulsivity Traits And The Longitudinal Prediction Of Addictive Behaviors During The Transition From Elementary To Middle School, Leila Guller

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The aim of this study was to test for prospective relationships between personality factors measured in elementary school and drinking, smoking, and binge eating during the first year of middle school. Data were collected among adolescents drawn from 23 elementary schools and 15 middles schools in central Kentucky. In a two-wave study, 1,906 children completed questionnaire measures in the spring of 5^th grade and the spring of 6^th grade. After controlling for sex, pubertal status, and prior engagement in addictive behaviors, it was found that urgency at wave 1 predicted drinking, smoking, and binge eating at wave 2, …