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Functional Connectivity Of Eeg Loreta In Cortical Core Components Of The Self And The Default Network (Dnt) Of The Brain, Rex Lee Cannon

Doctoral Dissertations

INTRODUCTION: Recent research exploring cortical functional connectivity defines a default network (DNt) of brain function and activation of a core midline network (CMS) in the processing of self. The electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in these components of the human DNt and CMS is not well understood. METHODS: This study was conducted with 63 participants. Individuals were recorded during eyes-closed (ECB) and eyes-opened (EOB) baselines and active task (AT) conditions (e.g., self-referential, self-image, self-concept, recent symptomology, other face and object processing). We estimated EEG source localization with standardized low resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA). Subjective experience was obtained for baselines and photographic conditions. …

Sociality, Cognition And Social Learning In Turtles (Emydidae), Karen Marie Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

Turtles are little studied with respect to learning, cognition and social behavior in spite of being phylogenetically a central group. Populations of many species of these long-lived animals are declining due to commercial activities (pet trade and food), pollution, and habitat destruction. This integrative study of freshwater turtle (Emydidae) behavior investigated their sociality, individual learning and memory capabilities, and the ability of turtles to learn from others.

First, I studied turtle underwater social behavior which involved naturalistic observations and ethogram development of the underwater social behavior of (Family Emydidae) at the Chattanooga Aquarium. Turtle social behavioral repertoire and interaction sequencing …

A Comparison Of Attachment-Related Defenses And Ego Defense Mechanisms, Elaine M. Rivas

Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of ego defense mechanisms has been a central component of psychoanalytic theory since Freud and the repeated subject of psychoanalytic research. Attachment theory, originally formulated by John Bowlby as a radical revision of psychoanalytic views regarding the fundamental forces that drive our behavior, includes the concept of defensive processes, but so far these attachment-related defenses have not yet been the subject of research. The current study utilized attachment-related defense ratings adapted from the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP) and more traditionally defined ego defense mechanisms as measured by the Defense Mechanism Manual (DMM) in a sample of 90 college …

Optimism And Achievement: A Domain-Specific And Within-Construct Investigation, Salmaan F. Toor

Doctoral Dissertations

Academic optimism is the general tendency to expect positive outcomes in terms of personal, current and future academic experiences. Academic optimism is similar to general optimism with the exception of academic optimism’s focus on the academic life domain. The study investigated the psychometric properties of the newly constructed Academic Optimism Scale (AOS), as well as the relationships among academic optimism, general optimism, self-esteem and depressive symptoms in relation to academic achievement. The within-subject design included 292 college students at Time with 160 of those students returning for Time 2. At each time, participants completed a general optimism, academic optimism, self-esteem, …

Career Satisfaction Of Sales Professionals: The Role Of Personality, Nancy A. Foster

Masters Theses

According to P-E fit theory from a vocational psychology perspective (see Holland, 1985), individuals differ in their attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors, which in turn affect their career choices and their satisfaction with those choices. These differences, collectively termed "personality," influence both work and life outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits and career satisfaction in a sample of sales professionals. An archival dataset was examined that included the "Big Five" and other work-related, narrow personality traits, as well as career satisfaction variables. All traits were significantly and positively related to career satisfaction …

Electronic Diary Assessment Of The Temporal Association Between Angry Affect And Intimate Partner Violence, Sara Rachel Elkins

Masters Theses

The proposed project examined the temporal association between three forms of angry affect and dating violence among a sample of college students using electronic daily diary assessment methodology. It was hypothesized that the odds of dating violence would be greater on days of angry affect relative to days of no angry affect. It was also hypothesized that relevant distal variables would moderate this association, although examination of the direction of such effects was exploratory in nature.

Participants were 184 men and women attending a large university in Tennessee. Participants completed a baseline survey packet assessing distal variables. They were also …

Effect Of Maternal Borderline Personality Disorder On Autonomy And Relatedness In The Mother-Adolescent Relationship, Miriam Rose Frankel

Masters Theses

This study examined autonomy and relatedness in a low socioeconomic status sample of adolescent children of mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD), compared to a normative comparison group, during a video-taped problem solving task. The interpersonal difficulties with individuation and separation within relationships that characterize BPD, may create a diathesis for psychopathology among adolescent children of women with this disorder. The parent-teen interactions were transcribed and coded using Allen, Hauser et al., (2003)’s Autonomy and Relatedness Coding System. Mothers with BPD scored significantly higher on the inhibition of autonomy and inhibition of relatedness than did comparison mothers, although no group …

Influence Of Parenting Behavior On Behavioral And Psychological Associations Of Proactive And Reactive Aggression, Jamie Lee Rathert

Masters Theses

Child aggression is often categorized by the motivation behind the behavior, namely proactive and reactive aggression. Proactive aggression is goal oriented in nature whereas reactive aggression is in response to a perceived threat. There is some evidence to suggest that these subtypes are associated with distinct behavioral and psychological problems, with proactive aggression being associated with delinquency and reactive aggression being associated with depression. However, the behavioral and psychological correlates of these subtypes of aggression are not one to one relations and little research has examined the variables that impact these relations. This is a notable omission in the literature, …

The Effects Of Betrayal Characteristics On Laypeople’S Ratings Of Betrayal Severity And Conceptualization Of Forgiveness, Lee J. Dixon

Doctoral Dissertations

The two studies included in this project were aimed at understanding the effect that relational closeness has on perceived ease of forgiveness and betrayal severity and, in turn, how betrayal severity and relational closeness influence people’s conceptualization of forgiveness. Study 1 addressed the fact that although past studies have shown that relational closeness predicts one’s willingness to forgive and researchers have posited that betrayals that are committed by those closest are the most severe, it is still unclear whether these trends are due to the characteristics of close relationships or to the characteristics of the types of betrayals that are …

The Executive Coach And Clients In Reflective Practice: Levelising As A Special Case, David T. Duncan

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how my executive coaching clients and I engaged in reflective practice through a model of dialogical interaction called Levelising. Four individual coaching clients, representing a variety of management expertise, participated in this study. I engaged them in coaching by both inquiring into their experiences and reflecting on my own. Data consisted of verbatim transcripts from the coaching sessions, which were analyzed qualitatively using a structured, typological approach. Findings indicated that as my clients and I engaged in a reciprocal reflective process centered on the Levelising model, they experienced uncertainty along with insight …

Associations Of Behavioral Profiles With Social And Vocal Behavior In The Carolina Chickadee (Poecile Carolinensis), Ellen H. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

The research described here tested for relationships among behavioral consistency, personality traits, and communicative behavior in a socially and vocally complex avian species, the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). First, I tested for the existence of behavioral profiles, also known as non-human animal personality, across varying contexts (presence of predator, foraging within a novel object, and novel conspecific) in the laboratory. I found evidence for behavioral profiles encompassing behavioral patterns such as activity, affiliation, aggression, and boldness. Second, I incorporated a larger social component to these studies by testing birds housed in social groups in semi-naturalistic aviary settings. In …

Configurations Of Leadership Traits And Their Relation To Performance Ratings: A Person-Oriented Approach, Taylor Poling

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of traits has re-emerged in the leadership literature despite its checkered past. There is now ample evidence that a variety of individual traits consistently relate to leadership effectiveness. Nonetheless, enormous ambiguity remains regarding the patterning of these traits within leaders and the implications of the various interactions among traits. A major contributor to these issues has been the failure to examine these traits within their founding theoretical context, as elements operating simultaneously as a configural system within the individual. Thus, this study examines the configurations of leadership traits in a sample of middle and upper-level managers. The main …

Parsing Out Everyday Suggestibility: A Test-Retest Study, Nicole Perez

Doctoral Dissertations

The construct of “suggestibility” has garnered great interest in the field of psychology over the years. It has been invoked as an explanatory construct in social, clinical, and forensic psychology. Yet, the nature of the construct and of its factor structure is unclear. In earlier studies we operationalized suggestibility by measuring conformity, interrogative suggestibility, placebo effects, persuasibility and hypnotizability. There was no discernible factor structure obtained. Similar results were found when we narrowed our focus to sensory suggestibility. There was no cohesion among responsiveness to these types of suggestive situations by examining this phenomenon across eight sensory measures (tactile, auditory, …

The Role Of Physical Attractiveness In Adolescent Romantic Relationships, Rebecca Furr Webb

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role that physical attractiveness plays in many aspects of adolescent romantic relationships, such as relationship longevity, relationship satisfaction, and power dynamics within the relationship. Three specific questions are examined in this project. First, is partner physical attractiveness associated with relationship satisfaction? Second, do adolescent couples who are well ―matched‖ according to physical attractiveness remain together longer that those who are not? Third, does the couple member who is higher in physical attractiveness have more power in the relationship?

To examine these questions, we used data collected from 99 middle adolescent and 106 late adolescent dating couples. …

Experiential Avoidance, Emotional Expression, And Psychopathology In Early And Late Adulthood, Sarah Marie Robertson

Doctoral Dissertations

Experiential avoidance (EA) is an unwillingness to remain in contact with private and overt experiences, with higher EA associated with increased psychopathology. This study investigated relationships among EA, age, and the use of emotion words in positive and negative autobiographical narratives, as well as whether EA was associated with depression, anxiety, quality of life, and social support. Participants included younger (n=60) and older adults (n=60), who completed a positive and negative emotion narrative task along with measures of psychopathology. Results indicated that relative to younger adults, older adults spoke for longer time intervals in both narrative conditions. EA did not …

Exploring The Mechanisms Of The Connection Between Offspring‟S Perceptions Of Interparental Conflict And Their Current Relationship Functioning, Jennifer Mary Willett

Masters Theses

The effects of interparental conflict upon offspring‟s own relationships and marriages have been well-documented and current research has narrowed its focus to the examination of the mediators and moderators of this transmission of relational patterns across generations. Two hundred and thirty-nine undergraduate participants completed measures assessing their perceptions of their parents‟ conflict, social cognitions about relationships, their communication patterns in their relationships, and their current relationship satisfaction. Results showed that offspring‟s attitudes toward marriage mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and offspring‟s current relationship satisfaction, even while accounting for communication patterns in relationships. Further, it was found that attitudes toward …

Expanding The Theory Of Traumatic Bonding As It Relates To Forgiveness, Romantic Attachment, And Intention To Return, Jennifer Anne Christman

Masters Theses

Various empirically validated theories have explained the phenomenon of women in abusive relationships engaging in a repeated leave/return cycle when trying to terminate the relationship. The current study was designed to add to the already existing theories that focus on factors constraining women to stay in abusive relationships by evaluating the relationship between traumatic bond, forgiveness, and intention to return to the abusive relationship, and by evaluating the relationship between traumatic bond, attachment to abusive partner, and intention to return. The current sample consisted of 121 women residing in both urban and rural emergency domestic violence shelters. Forgiveness was found …

Relationships Between Birth Order And Adjustment In Adolescents From Post-Divorce Families, Christi Nichole Nash

Masters Theses

This study proposal seeks to examine the relationship between actual birth order, psychological birth order and adjustment in adolescence from post-divorced homes. Both actual birth and psychological orders are included in this particular study to investigate correlations, commonalities, and trends associated with each order and its affect on adjustment. The targeted group consists of freshmen attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Participants who identify their parents as currently divorced from each other within the past five years will be eligible to complete the research process. Participants will be administered both the Campbell-White Psychological Birth Inventory and Adult Behavior Checklist online …

"The Natural History Of Truth: The Neurobiology Of Belief", Neil Greenberg

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The pursuit of truth is woven into the fabric of every organism*. Any estimate of how best to survive and thrive in the reality in which we are immersed requires a sense of self, of the world, and of their relationship to each other. I wish to explore the idea that this pursuit has at its heart two complementary modes of reality testing utilizing separate cerebral systems which deal, respectively with the correspondence of experience with the world and the coherence of the experience with previous experiences: “is it real” and “does it fit?” At multiple levels of the nervous …