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Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Treatment Program With A Latency-Aged Male Child, Michael Calavetta

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a therapeutic treatment program for a latency-aged male child. This eight-year old child presented with several problem areas. These included poor academic performance, attention difficulties, symptoms of depression and acting out behaviors. The client also had a long standing history of family dysfunction and instability. The client participated in a multimodal treatment program consisting of individual and family counseling, as well as a school-based partial care intervention program. The client also received Adderall and Zoloft. The Connor's ADHD Scales, Children's Depression Inventory, and a Patient Satisfaction Survey were administered …

Assessment Of Problem-Solving Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy And An Ssri In The Treatment Of A Single Subject Presenting With Major Depressive Disorder And Dysthymia, Jennifer Miller

Theses and Dissertations

After diagnosis, a review of the literature was conducted to determine empirically supported treatments for depression. Based upon this review, this study examined and evaluated the effectiveness of various treatments determined in the current literature to be the best practice in treating depression in adults. The subject was a 44 year old Caucasian woman who initiated treatment voluntarily following a referral made by her primary care physician. This study was conducted in a community-based agency. A diagnosis of depression and dysthymia was reached through an initial intake interview and use of the DSM-IV. Best practice methodology was determined through an …

The Integrative Model Of Personality Assessment For Achievement Motivation And Fear Of Failure: Implications For The Prediction Of Effort And Performance, Mark Nathaniel Bing

Doctoral Dissertations

While both self-report (SR) and conditional reasoning (CR) measures of achievement motivation (AM) and fear-of-failure (FF) have been shown to be predictive of academic and organizational outcomes (James, 1998; Spangler, 1992), substantial criterion variance is often left unaccounted for by either measurement system when used in isolation. The current work proposes a new, theoretical model of AM and FF created by integrating information on explicit cognitions gathered from SR with information on implicit cognitions gathered from CR. This “integrative model” of assessment provides an enhanced understanding of the approach-avoidance conflicts people experience when they are faced with challenging tasks. Predictions …

Public Displays Of Affection With Relation To Comfort Levels And Culture, Janice R. T. Bryden

Student Dissertations & Theses

To determine the tolerance levels of public displays of affection between males, females, Hispanics, and White Non-Hispanics (Whites), a total of 152 participants completed the Attitudes Toward Public Displays of Affection Inventory. While the hypothesis that males would be significantly more tolerant than females of observing public displays of affection was statistically supported for certain settings and certain levels of affection, overall, results may not be clinically meaningful. The second hypothesis, that there would be a significant difference between Hispanics and Whites and their tolerance levels for watching public displays of affection, was not supported. Overall trends indicate passionately kissing …

Reproductive Experience And Aging : Possible Neuroprotective Effects Of Motherhood, Jessica Dawn Gatewood

Master's Theses

Hormonal fluctuations associated with pregnancy and post partum periods create significant changes in the brain and behavior in female rats. Animals were tested in a land version of the Morris Water maze for three days at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. At the ages of 12, 18, and 24 months animals were also tested in the same maze using a reversal task. At the conclusion of the study brains were analyzed for Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) to determine the amount of neurodegeneration among the groups. Multiparous animals showed significantly superior performance , followed by primiparous animals, and nulliparous animals …

The Effects Of Childhood Social Competence On Young Adults Interpersonal Competence In Dyadic And Family Relations: An Exploratory Analysis, Gwen Renae Pursell

Master's Theses

The majority of peer relations research focuses on the short and long term effects of childhood peer rejection and aggression for development. The importance of social competence and more specifically, its long term effects on development have not been as thoroughly examined within the peer research. In this 20 year follow-up investigation, preadolescent social competence, peer rejection, and aggression scores were used to predict adult measures of dyadic adjustment, family environment, and family expressiveness. In addition, both preadolescent peer relation scores and concurrent adult dyadic and family scores were used to predict offspring emotion regulation abilities, internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, …

Comparative Perceived Breast Cancer Risk Before And After An Intervention, Constance F. Welebir

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Breast cancer screening has the potential of early detection, more effective treatment, and possible arrest of certain breast cancers, yet many women do not adhere to screening guidelines. With research showing that people use social comparison while making risk judgments, often holding optimistically biased beliefs about their health, women who maintain an optimism bias about their breast cancer risk may not practice routine breast cancer surveillance. Therefore, effective interventions designed to inform women of their breast cancer risks and to encourage adherence to breast cancer screening guidelines are necessary. This study investigated the role that social comparison plays in risk …

Social Anxiety: Attentional Bias In Reaction To Emotional Faces Before And After Participation In A College Level Public Speaking Course, Scott Walter Maieritsch

Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a semester-long public speaking course in reducing the self-reported levels of communication anxiety and social anxiety among college students enrolled in such a course. The current study also sought to replicate and extend a recent line of research that has demonstrated that highly socially anxious individuals show an attentional bias away from emotional faces under conditions of social-evaluative threat. The current study extended this line of research by conducting the same reaction time procedure with participants in a pretest/post-test design. The project was designed to determine if groups (rating high vs. …

A Curriculum-Based Approach For Social-Cognitive Skills Training: An Intervention Targeting Aggression In Head Start Preschoolers., Erika Michelle Carpenter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a social-cognitive skills training curriculum targeting aggression in Head Start preschoolers. Developmental psychopathology research clearly suggests that early intervention with aggressive preschoolers is critical. Despite the fact that aggressive behavior becomes stable by the elementary school years, there has been relatively little interest in intervening with preschool-aged children. In the present study, the COMPASS program is a 12-session curriculum teaching basic individual social skills (e.g., sharing, questioning, listening). Following the work of Mize and Ladd (1983; 1990), the curriculum was puppet-facilitated and employed the components of instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and …

Cognitive Disinhibition And Creativity, Oshin Vartanian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Eysenck (1995) and Martindale (1999) have proposed that creativity is characterized by cognitive disinhibition. Cognitive disinhibition is hypothesized to underlie many of the cognitive processes that have been associated with creative cognition, such as defocused attention and wide associative horizon. Whereas Eysenck (1995) argued that lower cognitive inhibition is a relatively permanent characteristic of the thinking style of creative people, Martindale (1999) has argued that creative people can focus or defocus attention depending on task demands. This dissertation describes four experiments that were designed to test the disinhibition theory in general, and specific predictions derived from Eysenck's and Martindale's versions …

Emotion Regulation In Adolescent Females With Bulimia Nervosa: An Information Processing Perspective, Leslie A. Sim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although the increased attention to affect regulation in bulimia nervosa is encouraging, most theoretical models describing the relationship between binge-eating and emotion dysregulation neglect to place their observations in the context of the growing knowledge base on normal emotional development. Because the nature of abnormal functioning is best understood in relation to normal development, integrating these fields of research would identi@ deficient skills in bulimia nervosa, suggesting new avenues for treatment. The present study compared 16 adolescent girls with a DSM-IV diagnosis of bulimia nervosa to 16 age- and SES-matched girls without a psychiatric disorder, on three aspects of the …

The Measure Of Adolescent Heterosocial Competence: Development And Construct Validation, Rachel L. Grover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the widespread consensus regarding the importance of other-sex relationships in adolescence, surprisingly little research has addressed the construct of adolescent heterosocial competence. The goal of this series of studies was to construct a measure of adolescent heterosocial competence, and in doing so, further define the construct. Nearly 500 adolescents participated in a series of four studies that followed the five-step method outlined in Goldfiied and D'Zurilla's (1 969) seminal article on assessing competence. The data generated in the first three studies were used to construct a 40-item multiple-choice measure entitled the Measure of Adolescent Heterosocial Competence (MAHC). These studies …

Social Information-Processing In Adolescent Girls: A Comparison Of Sex Offending Girls, Delinquent Girls, And Girls From The Community, Elizabeth Knapp Kubik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various lines of evidence suggest that sex offenders exhibit "thinking errors" or cognitive distortions about their sexually offensive behaviors (e.g., blaming the victim). Numerous clinical reports have documented cognitive distortions among adolescent male sex offenders; empirical research consistently finds evidence of cognitive distortions among adult male sex offenders; sex offender treatments that focus on cognitive distortions as a primary target of treatment have been shown to be the most effective type of treatment for sexual offending; and research on general aggression in adolescent boys and girls consistently demonstrates that aggressive children tend to have distorted beliefs about their aggressive behavior. …

Adolescent Drinking And Driving: A Descriptive And Intervention Study, Emalee M. Fields

Masters Theses

Given the high rates of alcohol use and abuse among adolescents in our society, it is not surprising that drinking and driving is also relatively common. This paper starts with a summary of national statistics, which is followed by a critical review of previous interventions. The purpose of this project was to attempt to find an effective drinking and driving intervention for high school students which was relatively inexpensive, less time intensive than past interventions and required little or no training for the facilitator to present. Two related intervention conditions (a video only intervention and a slightly more extensive package …

Individual Differences In The Neurophysiology Of Creativity, Jonna Kwiatkowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Theories dating back to the 1800's have suggested neurophysiological specialization as a key factor in creative production. A common theme in these theories is that greater flexibility in neurophysiological response to stimuli allows more creative individuals to customize their response to the task at hand (Martindale, 1999). In particular, more creative individuals are able to enter a more relaxed, free associative cognitive state when it is necessary for them to produce a creative solution (e.g., Kris, 1952; Mednick, 1962; Mendelsohn, 1976). There is empirical support for individual differences in neurophysiological state between more and less creative participants performing creative tasks …

Clinically Relevant Aspects Of Chronic Pain: Normal Personality Predictors, Stephen Ray Nitch

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study examined the normal personality characteristics of chronic pain patients using cluster analysis. To date, much of the research involving chronic pain and personality has assumed that signs of psychopathology are likely to be present (Jay, Grove, and Grove, 1987; Love and Peck, 1987). There have been some exceptions to this trend by researchers who sought to measure the normal personality structure of individuals with chronic pain (see Wade, Dougherty, Hart, and Cook, 1992). One of central aims of the current study was to further refine the psychosocial taxonomy of chronic pain patients by paying more attention to individual …

Effect Of Employment On Generativity In Married Mothers, Tracy Sierra Dern

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Generativity is Erikson's seventh stage of psycho social development in his life cycle theory, but he postulates different ways of achieving generativity for males and females. Erikson proposed that a woman achieves a sense of generativity from raising a family. However over the last twenty years social roles have changed and there is an increasing number of women developing careers. It is important to determine whether the role of employment has an effect on generativity in women. This study had ten women participants: five married with children, homemakers and five married with children, professionals. Using a semi-structured interview, the·participants shared …

Differing Death Scenarios: Self Esteem And Death Anxiety., Kenneth Grant Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found a correlation between death anxiety and self esteem. Researchers have found that both self-esteem and death anxiety play a significant role in an individual's behavior.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a correlation, if any, between death anxiety and self esteem using death related scenarios. It was hypothesized the high death anxiety groups will have lower self-esteem than the low death anxiety group, and that the low self-esteem group will have higher death anxiety than the high self-esteem group.

Results of an ANOVA indicate that there is a significant difference between the high death …

The Relationship Of Corpus Callosum And Cingulate Gyrus Surface Areas With Intelligence Scores In Persons With Early Hydrocephalus, Heather Gerschler

Theses and Dissertations

This study served as a pilot study of cingulate gyrus surface areas and their relation to intelligence in individuals with hydrocephalus. Surface areas of the corpus callosum and cingulate gyrus regions were compared between individuals with early hydrocephalus (n = 9) and controls (n = 7). Subsequently, the surface areas were correlated with full-scale intelligence scores and the verbal and nonverbal discrepancy scores. Corpus collosum surface areas were significantly smaller in participants with hydrocephalus. These areas also robustly correlated with full-scale intelligence scores. Although the cingulate gyrus did not differ significantly between the groups, the cingulate gyrus regions were increasingly …

Effects Of Sleep Duration, Sleep Quality, And Time Of Day On Executive Function Performance In Children, Judy T. Klaus

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

Executive functions are the cognitive abilities that include self-regulation, inhibition of responding, planning, and mental flexibility. Previous studies on executive functions I I have focused on people with ADHD and other impairments. Studies on sleep and cognitive function abilities have focused on the effects of lack of sleep and the ability to perform executive function tasks. This study examined the cognitive abilities of children with no impairment in relationship to Time of Day, Sleep Duration and Sleep Quality.

Thirty children ranging from age 7 to age 12 were recruited from the area. A self-report questionnaire on typical Sleep Duration and …

Time-Based Work-Family Conflict: Myth Or Reality?, Karyn H. Bernas

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined a time-based model of work-family conflict for a sample of 176 working women with childcare responsibilities. Building on the work of Edwards and Rothbard (2000) and role theory, a model was proposed to test the specific variables that define time-based work-family conflict. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Contrary to assumptions about time-based conflict, the results suggest that role time has a very limited impact on work-family conflict. Variables that were related to role performance and satisfaction included traditional gender role expectations, family involvement, family instrumental support, leader-member exchange, role overload, and …

Creating Inclusive Organizations: Its Meaning And Measurement, Bryan Christopher Hayes

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

There is growing interest in the concept of inclusion by both scientists and practitioners. The goal of the current study was to bring empirical support to the organizational inclusion literature. Inclusion was defined as a psychosocial need and a model was developed specifying its relationship to antecedent and consequence variables. The measurement model was explored with a sample of responses from 418 undergraduate students (Study 1). The measurement model was confirmed and the structural model was assessed with a sample of responses from 609 employees of a medical center (Study 2). Results of structural equation modeling provided limited support for …

Memory Functioning In Children Exposed To Domestic Violence Trauma, Deanna Cosgrove

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the memory functioning in children exposed to domestic violence trauma. Research findings suggest that adult participants with a clinical diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as defined by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) suffer from impairments in memory associated with reductions in hippocampal volume. However, a question arises as to whether children who have been exposed to domestic violence trauma will differ from controls in their memory functioning. A question also arises as to the relationship between the children's parent-reported behaviors and their memory functioning. The Children's Memory Scale (CMS) (Cohen, 1997) was administered …

Individualism/Collectivism, Psychological Processes, And Styles Of Conflict Resolution, Gangaw Zaw

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Conflict resolution styles in relation to Individualist (IND) and Collectivist (COL) value orientations were examined in the present study. Past research (Ting-Toomey et al., 1991, Pearson et al., 1998) has focused on cultural groups in order to explain conflict resolution styles. The current study analyzed conflict resolution styles (using the ROCIII) in relation to antecedent variables of culture, measured by the Collectivism and Individualism scale (Thandis et. al. 1993) as well as attribution processes and related emotions. Psychological factors such as causal attributions (the belief to which other's actions are attributed) and interpersonal emotions such as anger and empathic feelings …

Psychological Aspects Of Ventilator Dependent Children, Tanya Renee Burley

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Rapid advances in medicine and technology have meant more medically invasive procedures as well as the survival of more individuals who are more immanently faced with death. Ventilator-dependent children (due to sleep apnea, neuromuscular disease, and acute physical injury) make up one such group of individuals. The current study assessed a group of home-based, ventilator-dependent children for symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress. It was found that there was a negative correlation between the child's level of depression and the amount of time per day that the child was on the ventilator. There was also a negative correlation with the …

Assessment N>E Discriminative Stimulus Effects Of (±)-3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Mdma, "Ecstasy") And (+Lysergic Add Diethylamide (Lsd) In A Three-Lever Drug Discrimination Procedure, Amy K. Goodwin

Dissertations

(±)3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a common drug of abuse known as "ecstasy." Currently, MDMA is classified into the traditional drug classes as both a "stimulant" and a "hallucinogen" because it is reported to share both subjective and physiological properties of both classes. MDMA is thought to produce its psychoactive effects by acting as both a serotonin and a dopamine agonist. However, the relative importance of the serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter systems in mediating the stimulus properties of MDMA remains unclear.

The drug discrimination assay is used to classify drugs as "similar" or "dissimilar," as well as to examine underlying neurochemical changes …

Factors Predicting Distress At Marital Therapy Onset, Joseph J.H. Horak

Dissertations

Higher levels of distress at marital therapy onset predict poorer treatment outcomes in several studies. This study selected nine variables to determine their ability to predict distress at marital therapy onset. The first two predictor variables, shame (measured by the Internalized Shame Scale; Cook, 2000) and expressive atmosphere in the family of origin (measured by the Family of Origin Expressive Atmosphere Scale; Yelsma, Hovestadt, Anderson, & Nilsson, 2000), were chosen from the literature and studies that considered these variables to be related to marital distress. The remaining seven sociodemographic predictor variables—(1) parental divorce as a child, (2) pregnancy before marriage, …

Self-Control Training In Young Children, Laura Kay Murray

Dissertations

The incidence of conduct and behavioral disorders is steadily on the rise. Externalizing problems in the preschool years are considerable predictors of problems in later childhood, and even adulthood. There is a growing need for effective prevention programs for young children that can be implemented in school environments. Prevention efforts with young children often focus on self-control training for the reduction of impulsive behaviors. Impulsivity is an early presenting behavior pattern that can lead to a variety of disorders. The present study had two goals: (1) to measure the effects of a package intervention containing cognitive and behavioral treatment techniques …

Pain Experienced By Patients During Periodontal Recall Treatment, Thu-Diem Chung

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The aims of this study were to determine; 1) the degree of pain experienced by patients during probing and debridement; 2) if the treating hygienists could estimate the degree of pain experienced by the patients; and 3) if the patients' pain responses could be predicted by factors such as the patients' age, gender, number of residual periodontal lesions, and the patients' answers to a questionnaire on dental anxiety.

Prior to the maintenance procedures, 2 groups of 20 adult patients to be treated by 2 hygienists completed an anxiety questionnaire. Subsequently, measurements of probing depths were performed, followed by pain ratings …

Case Study To Assess The Effectiveness Of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Psychotropic Medications As A Treatment Approach For An Adult Male With Major Depressive Disorder And Opioid Dependence, Brian Newman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to assess the treatment effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on a client with a dual diagnosis of major depressive disorder and opioid dependence. The client exhibited severe depressive symptoms along with symptoms of opioid dependence. The client's depressive disorder was the primary diagnosis on Axis I due to onset of symptoms beginning before substance use began. A review of major studies evaluating Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with depressive disorders and substance dependence was conducted. Studies which evaluated the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a treatment modality alone and coupled with psychotropic medications …