Digital Commons Network^™

Emerging Adults' Friends With Benefits Relationships, Emily Child Aguilar, Taelor Trimble

Psychology and Child Development

Friends with benefits is a relationship where friends are sexually, but not romantically, involved (Lehmiller, VanderDrtift, & Kelly, 2011). It is a type of relationship that is growing in popularity for young adults, frequently replacing traditional dating (Bradshaw, Kahn, & Salville, 2010). The goal of friends with benefits relationships is to maintain a friendship while engaging in physical intimacy without romantic emotional attachment (Gusarova, Fraser & Alderson, 2012). Although this type of relationship aims for equality, friends with benefits relationships are controversial due to the presence of a sexual double standard in which men are permitted to have more sexual …

The Temporal Association Between Alcohol, Negative Affect, And Dating Violence, Ryan Christopher Shorey

Doctoral Dissertations

Dating violence is a serious problem, with psychological aggression being the most common topography of aggression. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of research on temporal risk factors for psychological aggression perpetration and victimization. Thus, the proposed study examined whether alcohol and negative affect increased the odds of psychological aggression perpetration and victimization, and whether these two risk factors interacted to temporally predict aggression. That is, consistent with the Attention-Allocation Model (AAM), it was hypothesized that at high levels of negative affect, acute alcohol consumption would increase the odds of aggression. However, at low levels of negative affect, acute alcohol consumption …

A Comparison Of Descriptive And Injunctive Norms Brief Interventions For College Drinkers, Mark A. Prince

Dissertations - ALL

College drinking remains a major public health concern. One contributing factor is the overestimation by college students of their peers' alcohol use (DN: descriptive norm) and their peers' acceptability of excessive drinking (IN: injunctive norm). Normative re-education interventions have traditionally focused on changing descriptive norms even though the Theory of Normative Conduct identifies both DN and IN as beliefs that motivate behavior. The current study developed a brief, manualized, personalized, IN intervention, delivered face-to-face, in a Motivational Interviewing style that can be used as a stand alone treatment or added to existing descriptive norms interventions. This randomized controlled trial compared …

College Students’ Attitudes Towards Adults With Developmental Disabilities: Does Direct Contact Make A Difference?, Caroline E. Greene

Honors College Theses

Data were collected from thirty college students who participated in an alternative break trip and approximately seventy college students who did not attend the trip. Study subjects served as counselors at a camp for adults with developmental disabilities. Data were collected using five measures: a) before the week started, students filled out a survey which questioned their comfort level and attitude when interacting with this population; b) this same survey was administered to a random sample of college students who did not attend the break trip c) at camp, students kept a journal throughout the week documenting their experiences; d) …

A Cultural Examination Of Hardiness: Associations With Self-Esteem, Wisdom, Hope, And Coping-Efficacy, Asea L. Gilmore

Honors College Theses

It is imperative that college students cultivate and exhibit traits associated with resilience to successfully complete their course of study and to protect themselves against the onset of mental health issues. This study aimed to examine positive psychology variables in relation to resilience in order to find variables that promote resilience in college students. Wisdom, hope, and coping self-efficacy were examined amongst 436 undergraduate students. Ethnicity amongst the sample consisted with 136 self-reporting as African American (31.9%), 264 self-reporting as European American (60.6%), 3 self-reporting as Asian (0.7%), 2 self-reporting as Native American (0.5%), and 28 self-reporting as biracial (6.4%). …

College Students' Lingering Negative Emotional Reponses To Movies Viewed During College, Brianna M. Kuck

Selected Honors Theses

Although much research has been conducted on children’s negative emotional responses to movies, and even negative emotional responses to the media in general, limited research has been conducted on college students’ lingering negative emotional responses to movies they have viewed during their college years. Through a qualitative analysis using a focus group at a Florida Christian college, this thesis will examine what kinds of disturbing movie content and elements cause these lingering negative emotional responses in college students. The lingering negative emotional responses these students have will also be discussed in detail, as well as what triggers the reemergence of …

Evaluation Of A Digitally-Automated Alcohol Curriculum Designed To Alter Expectancies And Alcohol Use In First Year College Students, Amy Schreiner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High-risk alcohol consumption remains a primary public health concern for students on college campuses. In response to this concern the National Advisory Council of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism created a task force to identify and recommend strategies to aid college administrators in implementing effective alcohol programming at their institutions. While most administrators report being aware of these recommendations, many have not successfully implemented empirically supported interventions on their campuses. One significant barrier is the cost and difficulty of training and hiring skilled staff to implement these interventions. Of the strategies identified as effective, challenging alcohol expectancies …

Religiosity-Spirituality And Risky Drinking Over The Transition To College: A Multi-Wave Longitudinal Study, Brian J. Klassen

Wayne State University Dissertations

Although the relationship between religiosity-spirituality and risky alcohol use is one of the most frequently studied topics in mental health, relatively little is known about how these variables relate to each other over time, especially during specific developmental periods such as the transition from high school to college. This study analyzed three waves of self-report data collected from a sample (N=623) of college students over a two-year period. Analyses examined (1) the stability of religiosity-spirituality and risky drinking over the transition to college, (2) the magnitude and direction of relationships between religiosity-spirituality and risky drinking, (3) the degree to which …

Identifying And Understanding Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Among College Students, Angela S. Fedewa

Wayne State University Dissertations

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior in college students

at an urban university was studied. Relations between NSSI

and poor quality relationships with their parents and peers, as

well as deficient coping and help-seeking behavior were examined

from an attachment perspective. Undergraduates were recruited

via an online psychology subject pool and completed an online survey.

T-tests were conducted to identify what variables differed between

students who engaged in NSSI in contrast to students that did not.

In addition, a discriminant function analysis was conducted. It was

found that intrapersonal and interpersonal variables predicted group

membership (i.e. social desirability, body protection, positive affect, …

Examining The Effectiveness Of The After Action Review For Online And Face-To-Face Discussion Groups, William Cradick

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

There is not enough research in the utilization of the After Action Review (AAR), in a college setting. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the AAR in both face-to-face and online classroom environments. Over the period of a semester, participants of undergraduate psychology courses, at a mid-sized university, conducted AARs with their static groups. Overall course and group activity grades were measured, along with self-efficacy, satisfaction, and motivation ratings. The AAR was found to be overall ineffective at improving performance outcomes. The evidence is not conclusive enough to suggest that the AAR will not be …

Cultural Factors In Mental Health Referral Among Asian Americans, Ishani Deo

Scripps Senior Theses

Epidemiological studies have shown that disparities in mental health service utilization still exist among ethnic minority groups in the United States. This study looks specifically at the lay referral system and what factors influence the likelihood of an individual referring a friend to mental health services. Since college student populations have fewer barriers than most to seeking treatment, 60 Asian American and 49 White American college students were sampled for the purposes of this study. They evaluated one of four vignettes in which cultural competency of the potential therapist and type of symptoms being presented were manipulated. Though there was …

A Pilot Study Examining The Impact Of A Brief Health Education Intervention On Food Choices And Exercise In A Hispanic College Student Sample, Julie Ann Blow

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

It has been suggested that intervention efforts should focus on prevention of weight gain and the adoption of healthy eating and physical activity behaviors. There is a dearth of literature as to what theoretically-based interventions would be most amenable and efficacious in a Hispanic college student sample. This study assessed the impact of a pilot intervention based on components derived from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) that focused on increasing healthy eating and physical activity in Hispanic college students. Measures in the study included demographics, theoretical constructs from SDT and the TTM, eating behavior, and a food …

The Efficacy Of Interactive Journaling® In Reducing Alcohol Use And Alcohol-Related Problems Among Mandated College Student Drinkers, Steven Lee Proctor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Alcohol use and alcohol-related problems remain serious public health and safety concerns on United States college campuses. Considerable research has amassed to support the efficacy of the Alcohol Skills Training Program (ASTP), most notably the Brief Assessment and Screening Intervention for College Students, in reducing alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among mandated and voluntary college student drinkers. The most recent outgrowth of the ASTP curriculum, CHOICES About Alcohol: A Brief Alcohol Abuse Prevention Program, is a self-guided, experiential writing process which utilizes Interactive Journaling®. The present study sought to evaluate the efficacy of CHOICES in reducing alcohol use and alcohol-related …

The Peer Environment, Body Dissatisfaction, And Disordered Eating, Erin Elizabeth Reilly

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Body dissatisfaction has long been implicated as an important etiological factor in the development and maintenance of disordered eating; however, despite the high rates of body dissatisfaction observed within the general population, only a small fraction of individuals develop clinical levels of eating pathology. The current study endeavors to test whether variables related to the peer context may be helpful in better predicting when body dissatisfaction may lead to eating disordered behavior. Undergraduates (N = 500, 63.6% female) completed various questionnaires related to body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and the peer environment. Results indicated that various types of peer commentary were …

Examining The Relations Between Disgust, Fear, And Eating Disorder Symptomatology, Lisa Marie Anderson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Exposure interventions for eating disorders typically identify fear as a key treatment target (i.e., fear of fat) and integrate a hierarchical list of the patient's fears into treatment. Recently, research has suggested that the disgust emotion may be equally important for exposure efficacy, as it appears to be more resistant to extinction than fear. Currently, the independent contributions of fear and disgust to eating pathology are unknown, which may limit our ability to develop and implement the most effective exposure interventions. Thus, the current study employed hierarchical multiple regression analyses to evaluate each emotion's relative contribution to eating disorder symptoms …

The Resilient Turn: College Students' Perspectives - A Phenomenological Inquiry, Perah Kessman

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenology was designed to explore with a sample of undergraduate students in psychology-related majors their perceptions of psychological resilience and the factors they believe contributed to it. While previous studies have examined the construct of resilience in childhood and adolescence, relatively little is known about the phenomenon later in the lifespan. Thus, the rationale for the study stems from the researcher’s wish to fill this gap in knowledge by studying resilience among emerging adults. It was the researcher’s assumption that the knowledge generated from this study would both provide new insights into emerging adult resilience and inform higher …

Curiosity Killed The Cat: Investigating A Link Between Curiosity And Risk-Taking Propensity, Carolyn E. Gibson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Curiosity, or the drive for information and experiences that motivates exploration, plays a role in intellectual development. Curiosity is perhaps essential to education and intellectual achievement, but curiosity research is limited. Curiosity has been thought a motivation for learning and a cause of non-sanctioned behaviors and behavioral disorders. This prompts a connection with decision-making, specifically risky decision-making, perhaps with curiosity as a motivating force. In Experiment 1, college students were primed with curiosity, then participated in a lab-based behavioral measure of risk-taking, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, and answered self-report inventories concerning risk-taking and curiosity. In Experiment 2, 4th and …