Digital Commons Network^™

Imagined Contact Intervention With An American Muslim Target, Jamie Williams

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Recent studies have shown that imagining contact with a member of a differing social group can reduce prejudice toward said group. This type of prejudice intervention, known as an imagined contact intervention, can be beneficial when direct contact with the outgroup is not feasible. This study adds to existing research on imagined contact interventions by replicating a simple version of the intervention by Husnu and Crisp (2010) and assessing attitudes toward an American Muslim out-group. This study extends the research of Husnu and Crisp (2010) by using American participants as opposed to British participants and also uses an online distribution …

The Effect Of Viewing Advertisements Depicting Information And Communication Technology On Older Adults' Technology Self-Efficacy, Hollie Brianne Coleman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an important part of society today. Older adults often report ICTs as difficult to use and unhelpful; however, ICTs can support older adults’ ability to stay in touch with family and friends across long distances and help increase their quality of life. Unfortunately, training programs targeted at teaching older adults to use ICTs are often costly and time-consuming. The current study attempts to determine whether advertisements depicting older adults using ICTs can be used to increase self-efficacy without the use of training programs.

A within subjects experimental design was completed using an independent variable …

Late Adolescent Evaluating Responsibility Attributions And Social Distance Preferences Toward Peers With Mental Illnesses, Hannah Jo Turner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Pro-Anorexia Content On Eating Disorder Development, Skyler Green

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Pro-anorexia content, or content that promotes the development and sustainment of eating disorders, is an important topic that has been understudied in the literature. Previous research has primary examined the content featured on pro-anorexia websites, but few researchers have conducted experimental studies examining the direct impact viewing pro-anorexia content has on individuals struggling with an eating disorder. The current study was an experimental study that exposed participants to three conditions: proanorexia content, pro-recovery content, and a control group. The researcher examined the impact that viewing the three levels of content for 10 minutes had on individuals who met criteria and …

Explicit And Implicit Nonsuicidal Self-Injury In Young Adults, Jeffrey Thomas Powers

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Musical Components On Retrieval Performance, Adkins Franklin Dane

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Many students claim that they can study well while listening to music (Anderson & Fuller, 2010; Patton, Stinard, & Routh, 1983), but how does listening to music affect students’ ability to encode and recall studied information? Previous research on background music and attention has revealed mixed results, with some studies indicating that background music can help reduce inattentional blindness (Beanland, Allen, & Pammer, 2011), while others suggest that music may hinder the attention of the listener (by Shih, Huang, & Chaing, 2012). Additionally, individual differences in working memory capacity impact one’s ability to store and retrieve information, as well as …

Examining Collegiate Students’ Perceptions Of Date Rape And Sexual Assault, Jalen Rhodes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine how collegiate males and females perceived date rape and sexual assault by looking into their views on sexual scripts, consent, and alcohol in dating situations. Participants consisted of 323 male and female undergraduate students enrolled in psychology classes at a mid-south university. All participants were directed to an online questionnaire and were randomly assigned to one of four versions of a vignette where a man and a woman are at a party together. After reading their vignette, all participants answered researcher-created questions pertaining to the behavior of the people in the vignette …

A Review Of Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement With A Focus On English Language Learners, Shelby Montgomery

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to review the literature on English Language Learners and written expression curriculum-based measurement. In recent years, there has been little research completed in the area of curriculum based measurement for writing for English Language Learners. A systematic review of the literature was conducted and all available literature on the use of written expression curriculum-based measurement since 2006 was identified and reviewed. Given the increasing diversity in our schools, particularly non-native English speakers, this review focused on studies including this group. There were differences in some of the technical features such as sample durations, writing …

Infant Emotion Regulation With Mothers And Fathers: The Roles Of Infant Temperament And Parent Psychopathology, Ashley Quigley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The ability to regulate emotions is a key part of infants’ social and emotional development, but this ability may differ due to different factors internal and external to the infant. The current study examined the association between infant temperament and parent psychopathology to predict emotion regulation strategies in a sample of 4-montholds using the diathesis-stress model (Monroe & Simons, 1991). Parent-report questionnaires were used to measure infant temperament (the Infant-Behavior Questionnaire-Revised, IBQ-R; Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) and parental psychopathology (Inventory of Depression and Anxiety, IDAS; Watson et al., 2007). Infants’ use of parent-focused, attentional distraction, and self-soothing strategies were rated …

Preschool Self-Regulation: A Predictor Of School Readiness, Romin Emmanuel Geiger

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Substantial evidence from previous research has supported the idea that greater self-regulation in the form of “cool” self-regulation or executive functioning and “hot” self-regulation or effortful control is associated with higher academic achievement within the preschool years and school readiness in the kindergarten years (Anaya, 2016; Carlson, 2005). However, there are only a few studies that assess the prediction of school readiness through validated cool and hot self-regulation tasks (Carlson, 2005; Krain, Wilson, Arbuckle, Kastellanos, & Wilham, 2006; Rothbart, Ellis, Rueda, & Posner, 2003; Thompson & Giedd, 2000). There also few studies examining to what extent cool and hot-self-regulation tasks …

How Are Professors Preparing School Psychology Students To Evaluate Research?, Tyler Bryant Burton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examines how school psychology professors are preparing graduate students to evaluate research and seeks their views on problematic assessment and intervention practices. School psychology faculty members’ e-mails were identified based on the National Association of School Psychologists’ (NASP) list of Approved Programs (NASP, 2017) and a total of 127 professors responded. Each participant completed a survey that included 22 Likert scale items and three free listing items. Three research questions were proposed: What percentage of school psychology faculty members are using each of the strategies recommended by Lilienfeld et al. (2012)? What school-based assessment practices do school psychology …

Self-Efficacy Of School Psychologists: Developing A Scale For Working With And For Lgbtq Youth, Shelby Monahan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students report higher levels of harassment and assault, exposure to prejudiced language, and diminished feelings of safety at school compared to their non-LGBTQ counterparts. Due to the difficulties these young people experience at school as well as their increased risk for psychological distress and suicidality, these students may need additional support to be successful. Although professional organizations support school psychologists acting as advocates to support LGBTQ students, research suggests that practitioners’ knowledge about issues faced by LGBTQ students as well as training related to their needs may lag behind this appeal for …

How Does Classroom Context Affect Head Start Teachers' Use Of Cognitively Challenging Talk?, Jordan Alexis Gregory

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

Characteristics Of Behavior Rating Scales: Revisited, Ellen Cox

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was a replication of a study by Hosp et al. (2003), which looked at items on behavior rating scales to determine if they can be used to plan and monitor positive behavior interventions. For this study, ten forms of commonly used behavior rating scales were selected, and the so what and dead man tests were applied on each scale. Each item on the scale was placed into one of four categories: positive action, negative action, lack of positive action, and lack of negative action. Then, these categories were used to rate each scale to determine which subscales survived, …

The Impact Of A Therapist's Language In Computer-Mediated Communication, Robert E. Twidwell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Background: Nearly 45 million adults in the United States live with a mental health disorder and only 43% of them seek treatment. One of the major barriers to seeking treatment is accessibility and can be addressed through telepsychology, or providing services with technology. With technological improvements in written communication, using computer-mediated communication (CMC; e.g. text messaging) has become more regularly used and examined in healthcare. To date, little research has focused on the use of practitioner language in telepsychology.

Method: Two samples (university sample and national sample) totaling 396 participants were asked to rate a therapist on attractiveness (i.e. likability …

The Effects Of Message Matching In Climate Change Persuasion, Matthew R. Penner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Public opinions of climate change are not consistent with the reality that climate change is occurring. Effective persuasive messages must be created to ensure that irreparable damage to the environment is prevented. This study investigated the cognitive processes that occur when an individual is exposed to a persuasive message regarding environmental concerns that is matched to an individual’s personality characteristics like right wing authoritarianism and purity.

Messages on two environmental topics (solar panels and the Environmental Protection Agency) were created. Each topic was framed in multiple ways to test hypotheses about personality-based message matching. Participants completed a thought listing task …

Participation In Extracurricular Activities And Academic Achievement: A Comprehensive Review, Erin Morris,

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

At school, students are provided numerous opportunities to use their skills and abilities to complete tasks or solve problems. Students are considered to have academic success when they meet specific criteria on outcomes such as grade point averages (GPA), scores on standardized tests, and skill acquisition across areas like reading and math. Given the importance of academic achievement (AA) as an outcome measure, researchers have attempted to study certain variables that may relate to or predict AA. Extracurricular activities (EAs) are defined as school-sanctioned activities that students can participate in outside of the traditional school day. Participation in EAs has …

A Look Into The College Readiness Needs Of First Time College Students, Lindsey Coomer Cox

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examines the college readiness needs of first year college students based on experiences from students and staff involved with a first year transitional initiative program at Western Kentucky University. The purpose of the study is to share students’ college readiness needs with public school systems in hopes to intervene with these needs before students arrive at college. A total of 45 participants volunteered to be in focus groups, an interview, and complete a survey. Two research questions were proposed: What college readiness needs still exist for first time college students upon entrance to a four year public university? …

The Influence Of Aging, Gaze Direction, And Context On Emotion Discrimination Performance, Alyssa Renee Minton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined how younger and older adults differ in their ability to discriminate between pairs of emotions of varying degrees of similarity when presented with an averted or direct gaze in either a neutral, congruent, or incongruent emotional context. For Task 1, participants were presented with three blocks of emotion pairs (i.e., anger/disgust, sadness/disgust, and fear/disgust) and were asked to indicate which emotion was being expressed. The actors’ gaze direction was manipulated such that emotional facial expressions were depicted with a direct gaze or an averted gaze. For Task 2, the same stimuli were placed into emotional contexts (e.g., …

Aging And Visual Spatial Integration, Alexia J. Higginbotham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study evaluated the ability of 20 younger and 20 older adults to discriminate shapes depicted by Glass patterns. On any given trial, observers identified a particular pattern as either possessing a radial or concentric organization. Detecting a shape defined by a Glass pattern requires the successful detection of the orientations of its constituent local dipoles. In addition, long-range processes are needed to integrate the spatially separated dipoles into perceivable contours that have a particular (e.g., radial or concentric) organization. In the current experiment, the shapes were defined by either 40 or 200 oriented dipoles spread over an area …