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Introjection, Mentalization, Ego Functioning, And Lacan’S “Name Of The Father”, Chloe T. Cohen

Doctoral Dissertations

Psychoanalytic literature has traditionally focused on the theoretical explanations of psychological phenomena rather than empirical research to support those ideas. One such theory is Lacan’s “Name of the Father” (NOF), which recast Freud’s Oedipal situation, positing its representation in language use and situating it even earlier in psychological development. Lacan suggested that the NOF construct (establishing psychological structure and preventing psychosis) was best represented by metaphor use and linguistic structure. The current study attempted to measure the NOF construct (1955) through linguistic structure and metaphor use. We examined the relationship between an indirect measure of NOF functioning and overall personality …

Intersections Of Culture And Romantic Relationships: A Thematic Analysis Of College Students' Inter-Identity Romantic Relationships, Rachel Miriam Maskin

Doctoral Dissertations

Emerging adulthood is a critical period for identity development. Emerging adults who date outside of their social identity groups (e.g., race, class, sexual orientation) must negotiate issues related to identity difference in their relationships while exploring and refining their own identities. The current study explored the messages emerging adults receive about their own identities and the ways in which they navigate identity-related issues within inter-identity relationships. Undergraduate inter-identity couples (N = 25 couples; N = 50 participants) participated in a semi-structured interview regarding their individual and dyadic experiences of identity. Thematic analysis yielded four themes related to messages individuals …

A Village: Examining The Associations Between Social Support, Aggravation In Parenting, Child Behavioral Problems, And The Mother-Child Relationship., Natalie Christine Blocher

Doctoral Dissertations

The following study examines the relationships between maternal social support (measured individually by instrumental, policy, and emotional), aggravation in parenting, child behavioral problems (CBPs), and the mother-child relationship during middle childhood (ages 6 to 12) and adolescence (13-18). The purpose of the study was to create nuance in the social support literature of the unique role of different types of maternal social support. The study collected data from a subsample of mothers and their children from Wave 5 (2007-2010) and Wave 6 (2014-2017) from the Future Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), when the child participants were 9 and 15-years-old, …

From Non-Reaching To Reaching: A Micro-Analysis Of Group Differences In Movement Behavior Around Reach Onset., John Paul Connell

Doctoral Dissertations

The onset of reaching during infancy, a critical milestone influenced by developmental experiences, is the focal point of this research study. The individual differences in these experiences may significantly impact when infants achieve this milestone. Traditionally, the study of reaching onset has focused on the interplay between the visual and motor systems, with researchers often overlooking the motor system. However, a detailed analysis of motor behaviors is warranted, given the extensive research on the visual-motor system. This study, therefore, not only fills a gap in the existing research but also makes a significant contribution to the developmental psychology field and …

The Effects Of A Novel Adaptive Method With Task Variations Of Different Inherent Task Difficulty, Andrew J. Strick

Doctoral Dissertations

Practice schedule optimization is an important topic for practitioners and researchers alike. One way to optimize a practice schedule and promote motor skill learning is to adapt practice conditions to the learner. This is important as creating customized practice conditions based on the learner could provide a new way to improve skill acquisition. The literature review starts with a history of adaptive practice followed by definitions and terms relevant to this topic. Then, our current understanding of adaptive practice is overviewed by first explaining the characteristics of different methods and models, and second, introducing the practice conditions adaptively modified in …

Presentations Of Value: Evaluative Outlooks And Practical Reason, Michael Ebling

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue for an evaluative outlook account of human practical reason by developing a viable representational psychology that vindicates the following key claims. First, some mental states are evaluative representations with ineliminably evaluative representational content. Second, any successful explanation of a rational action must appeal to evaluative representations. Third, many evaluative representations are products of subrational processes and capacities. Fourth, in humans evaluative representations function to be elements in an overall evaluative understanding. And fifth, evaluative representations by nature have motivational efficacy. In addition to these five foundational claims, I add two more speculative points. Some evaluative …

“If They Look At Me And Land At He/Him, It's The Consolation Prize”: Transmasculine Nonbinary Individuals’ Conceptualization Of Passing, Lex Pulice-Farrow

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study sought to understand how transmasculine nonbinary individuals conceptualize and understand passing for themselves and for other transmasculine nonbinary individuals. Much of the literature on this topic focuses on binary identified trans women or men, while the ways that nonbinary individuals conceptualize passing remains largely unexplored. Utilizing a critical-constructivist grounded theory framework, 20 transmasculine nonbinary individuals participated in semi-structured interviews that centered on how this population understood passing for themselves and for other transmasculine nonbinary people. Using minority stress and intersectional theories as frameworks, the following core category was identified: for transmasculine nonbinary individuals, passing includes a cognitive …

The Role Of Psychological Distance On The Antecedents And Consequences Of Political Outgroup Moral Derogation, Phillip P. Mcgarry

Doctoral Dissertations

Political polarization in the United States has continually increased at least across the past 40 years. Political partisans now regard out-party members as immoral. I employed three experiments (Experiment 1: n = 1070; Experiment 2: n = 402; Experiment 3: n = 392) to explore the antecedents and consequences of moral derogation in an inter-party context using the Ultimatum Game (UG) paradigm. Psychological distance was manipulated in Experiment 3, by randomly assigning participants to play the UG either in the same room or an adjacent room as a confederate. Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 were conducted online and served as …

The Walking Threat: Traits Of Pathogen Avoidance, Pathogen Threat Proximity And Functional Flexibility, Lahai Alexander Massaquoi Wicks

Doctoral Dissertations

The threat of infection to humans is unwavering, and it is increased through social interaction, which human life is based around. This has been demonstrated through the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, where social distancing was recommended to prevent the spread of the virus. Therefore, it is important to understand both the behavioral and physiological defenses that we possess against illness. However, the characteristics of the relationship between the behavioral immune system (BIS) and the physiological immune system (PIS) are still murky. This dissertation sought to better understand how the BIS considers the costs of mounting an immune response via functional flexibility …

The Role Of Awe In Risk-Taking And The Exploration Of The Unknown, Matthew Thomas Richesin

Doctoral Dissertations

Much has been learned about awe through scientific inquiry in the last twenty years, however, few researchers have looked to understand the adaptive function. Recent work has suggested that the function of awe is cognitive in nature. This view argues that the function awe plays is linked to how individuals respond to uncertainty. This approach proposes that awe should be linked to various epistemic dispositions such as curiosity, impulsivity, intolerance to uncertainty, and existential thinking. It further suggests that awe will have a distinct effect on risk-taking behaviors compared to fear and curiosity. The current project consists of three studies …

Discriminative Nursing Care Practices Towards Patients With Opioid Use Disorder In The Hospital Setting: How Knowledge And Social Attitudes Impact Care Delivery, Jeanne Adam Bernier

Doctoral Dissertations

Discriminative nursing care (DNC) practices towards patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) is a current phenomenon negatively affecting patient care and patient outcomes. It leads to delays in care, insufficient pain control, and feelings of guilt and shame, and it is linked to self-isolation, social isolation, social rejection, and even unemployment and housing disruption which perpetuate a dangerous cycle of inequity that is hard to overcome. In some cases, OUD stigmatization even increases morbidity and mortality rates. OUD stigmatization and discrimination are real problems in today’s health care climate due to the vast number of people affected by OUD and …

Rapport And Collective Attention: How We Predict Others Will Share Knowledge, Andrew S. Heim

Doctoral Dissertations

When we observe people playing cooperative games together, there are several factors such as their rapport, attention, and theory of mind reasoning ability that might influence the information we think they will prioritize. On the one hand, we might expect players to clear up uncertain information. On the other hand, we might expect them to instead share information that is unknown to their partner. Participants observed two players in a cooperative game and predicted how the players would choose to go about prioritizing the sharing of information. We found that participants generally chose to discuss private knowledge. Additionally, it appears …

Bridging Biological Systems With Social Behavior, Conservation, Decision Making, And Well-Being Through Hybrid Mathematical Modeling, Maggie Renee Sullens

Doctoral Dissertations

Mathematical modeling can achieve otherwise inaccessible insights into bio-logical questions. We use ODE (ordinary differential equations) and Game Theory models to demonstrate the breadth and power of these models by studying three very different biological questions, involving socio-behavioral and socio-economic systems, conservation biology, policy and decision making, and organismal homeostasis.

We adapt techniques from Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological models to examine the mental well-being of a community facing the collapse of the industry on which it’s economically dependent. We consider the case study of a fishing community facing the extinction of its primary harvest species. Using an ODE framework with a …