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Effects Of Subchronic Dietary Lead Exposure On Dmtp And Dnmtp Performance In Fisher 344 Rats, Joshua D. Vardigan

Masters Theses

Recent attention has focused on the possibility that even low-level Pb exposure can produce subtle neurological impairments in the absence of overt signs of toxicity. Previous behavioral assessments of learning and memory using DMTS procedures have documented learning impairments in monkeys exposed to Pb during early postnatal development, and although a variety of operant behavioral assays have documented detrimental effects of dietary Pb treatment in rats, the DMTS procedure has not been examined in rats following short-term low levels of Pb through dietary exposure. Thus, the objective of this study was to measure the degree of cognitive impairment produced by …

A Study Of Intake And Assessment In Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Christopher J. Richmond

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare clients' assessment of two different counseling intake procedures used by clinicians. This study compared a Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) intake intervention with an intake intervention constructed from the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I). The SCID-I is one of the most widely used diagnostic interviews and reflects a "gold standard" in formulating accurate diagnoses. The SFBTintake intervention developed for this study stands in stark contrast to the SCID-I and its primary objective, evaluation of the problem. SFBT is a strength-based model that maintains a positive and future-oriented focus. …

The Effects Of Acute Nicotine Abstinence On Vigilance And Verbal Memory In Non-Diagnosed Smokers, David W. Ayer

Dissertations

Research has shown a differential prevalence of smoking in the schizophrenic population compared to other psychiatric and non-diagnosed populations. The three most commonly investigated reasons for this differential prevalence in schizophrenics are: the self-medication hypothesis, side effects hypothesis, and sociological hypothesis. The self-medication hypothesis which proposes that schizophrenics smoke at a higher rate to ameliorate cognitive deficits is the most substantiated by the research. Of current interest is the possible role of nicotine in improving performance on vigilance and verbal memory, the two areas shown to be most related to impaired social functioning in schizophrenics. It is difficult to make …

Treatment Of Co-Morbid Methamphetamine Substance Abuse And Borderline Personality Disorder Features Using Modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Jessica R. Schultz Fischer

Dissertations

The study investigated the effectiveness of a time-limited, skills-based treatment in a population of female substance abusers. This project implemented a pilot clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-session modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) protocol among a small sample of women, with co-morbid borderline personality disorder features, receiving concurrent outpatient treatment for methamphetamine abuse. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design was used. In addition to on-going assessment conducted during baseline and weekly over the course of treatment, a comprehensive assessment battery was administered pre-, and post-treatment as well as at 1 and 3 months following treatment. Findings suggest that …

An Investigation Of Relationship Characteristics, Exercise And Physical Activity, Couple And Life Satisfaction, Mark W. St. Martin

Dissertations

Exercise has been shown to be positively related to many different variables including sexual satisfaction, mental health, and physical health. These variables, in turn, have been linked to increased life satisfaction and couple satisfaction. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between exercise and couple satisfaction as well as exercise and life satisfaction. A secondary purpose was to replicate previous findings on the relationships between communication, love, sexual satisfaction, self-esteem, and physical health and couple satisfaction.

A total of 229 undergraduate and graduate students from a large Midwestern university in the United States participated in this …

Behavioral, Attitudinal, And Decision-Altering Effects Of Aggressive Video Games On Young Adults, Kent Smallwood

Dissertations

Each year, interactive video game technology becomes more and more advanced, offering more lifelike environments, immersive experiences, and realistic situations in which the player must decide how to act. As a result of these technological advancements, the violent content in video games has become increasingly realistic and graphic. Unlike the passive viewing experience of television, video game players adopt roles in which they initiate actions and direct the progression of video game experience. In these active roles, they may engage in and be rewarded for violent acts against fictitious video game characters or other online players. Furthermore, the videogame industry …

Neuropsychopharmacological Investigations Of Mdma/Cocaine Combinations, John J. Panos

Masters Theses

Despite the popularity of polydrug abuse among recreational MDMA users, relatively few controlled experimental studies have documented the neurobehavioral effects of MDMA in combination with other abused substances. In this study, the neurochemical and behavioral effects of MD MA/cocaine combinations were assessed using in vivo microdialysis with simultaneous measurement of locomotor activity (LMA). Rats were administered cocaine (10 mg/kg or 20 mg/kg, IP), MDMA (1.5 mg/kg or 3.0 mg/kg, IP) or combinations of cocaine and MDMA during microdialysis experiments. Microdialysis samples were collected every 30 min for three hours prior to drug injections. Following drug administration, six additional 30 min …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Computerized Physician Order Entry On Medical Errors, Shannon Loewy

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system on medication error. The study took place in a 343-bed hospital in the pediatrics inpatient unit. During baseline, participants placed medication orders in the same manner that they always had, handwriting them on a specific form and handing the form to the unit clerk who then faxed the order to the pharmacy. In the CPOE phase, participants used the computerized system to place orders, which were electronically sent to the pharmacy. The primary dependent variable was errors made during physician medication …

Therapists' Handling Of Secrets Between Partners In Couple Therapy, Michael Alan Jansen

Dissertations

This study examines couple therapists' policies, procedures, and perspectives regarding secrets between partners in couple therapy. Handling secrets appropriately is necessary to avoid legal, ethical and therapeutic problems, especially when the secret involves contentious or potentially dangerous material such as infidelity, divorce, paternity, and HIV/AIDS infection. One hundred sixty randomly selected Clinical Members of the AAMFT participated in a 38-question researcher-generated mail survey. Data provided descriptive statistics and allowed for between-groups comparisons to explore for differences between therapists with regard to experience and several specific practices related to handling secrets. The study also examined whether courses in HIV/AIDS confidentiality law …

A Qualitative Exploration Of First-Generation Asian Indian Women In Cross-Cultural Marriages, Monica Thiagarajan

Dissertations

The literature on Asian Indian women has not adequately addressed the experiences that first generation Asian Indian women face while going through the process of making the decision to marry cross-culturally. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify, describe, and understand the struggles, challenges, and conflict experienced by Asian Indian women who decide to marry cross-culturally and to understand the consequences of the decision on the lives of these women and their interpersonal relationships.

Initial and follow-up phone interviews were conducted with eight Asian Indian women who had experienced cultural and familial challenges regarding their decision to marry …

The Effects Of Feedback On The Accuracy Of Completing Flight Checklists, William G. Rantz

Masters Theses

This study examined whether pilots completed airplane checklists more accurately when they received post-flight graphic and verbal feedback. Participants were 8 college student pilots with instrument rating. The task consisted of flying flight patterns using a Personal Computer Aviation Training Device. The main dependent variable was the number of checklist items completed correctly per flight. A multiple baseline design across pairs with reversal was used. During baseline, the average number of correctly completed items per flight varied considerably across participants, ranging from 21 to 39 out of 40. It increased to near perfect levels for all participants after they were …

Evaluation Of A School-Based Program Targeting Pediatric Asthma Self-Management Skills In An Urban Population, Dawn J. Dore-Stites

Dissertations

Asthma is the most commonly diagnosed chronic disorder in childhood and is linked with several problematic outcomes including frequent school absences, increased hospitalizations and decreased quality of life. Further, urban populations struggling with low socioeconomic status are disproportionately represented in prevalence statistics and suffer from increased functional morbidity relative to other children with asthma. These findings exist in the midst of largely effective pharmacological interventions.

Asthma self-management programs (SMPs) target several behaviors linked to improved outcomes and are often used as an adjunct to medication management. SMPs have been employed using a variety of techniques and treatment targets in a …

Effect Of Extinction Across Multiple Contexts On Renewal Of Responses Within A Functional Response Class, Jennifer L. Sobie

Dissertations

Resistance to extinction in applied settings is a common problem seen in behavior excess scenarios including those that deal with dangerous responding such as high-intensity aggressive responding, or drug dependence--where relapse is discouragingly high and is acknowledged as the most significant challenge in treatment--or eating disorders, or those that include simple reduction of common but undesired behavior in adults, children, and even pets. Behavior reappearance (i.e., the untargeted return of a learned response following extinction) implicates the physical context in which learning occurs as having a critical influence on what is learned and how, when and where this learning will …

Evaluating The Immediate Impact And Short-Term Therapeutic Effects Of The “Internalized-Other” Interviewing With Couples, Shai M. Brosh

Dissertations

The present study examined empirically the immediate and short-term therapeutic effects of the internalized-other interview (Tomm, 1996) with couples during a single session and compared it with the standard method of interviewing couples (i.e., treatment as usual). Thirty-two married couples (N = 64 participants) were randomly assigned into one of two conditions (internalized-other versus standard interviewing). Couples attended an initial interview session and two follow-ups (one and four-weeks respectively). Self-reported measures of session impact were taken immediately after the session, while self-reported measures of marital satisfaction, intimacy, closeness and empathy were taken at baseline (before the session) and during …

Cognitive Vs. Supportive Therapy For Distressed Collegians, Jean Clore

Dissertations

Rates of depressive symptoms, psychological distress, and low self-esteem appear to be growing on college campuses. Determining how best to help distressed collegians is an important public health concern, as these individuals appear to be at significant risk for further deterioration, disrupted quality of life, and impaired ability to succeed in college. This study compared the effects of (a) six sessions of cognitive therapy (CT; training in two cognitive modification strategies—building positive self-thoughts and disputing negative self-thoughts) to (b) six sessions of non-directive, supportive therapy (ST). Fifty-three students from a large mid-western university reporting low self-esteem and significant levels of …

Citation Analysis And Journal Impact In School Psychology: 1995-2004, Rebecca Lanai Jennings-Knotts

Dissertations

The present study is a citation analysis of the school psychology literature from 1995-2004. Data from six major journals over a 10-year period were analyzed to determine the disciplines, books, and authors who most heavily impacted school psychology. Findings suggest that school psychology is characterized by high levels of interdisciplinary collaboration, and that the school psychology literature maintains relatively low self-citation and cross-citation rates when compared to other domains of psychology. As in previous investigations, the field of education was found to be less influential than the field of special education. The impact of behavior analysis varied significantly by school …

A Phenomenological Study Assessing African American Women’S Perspectives On Successful Heterosexual Relationships, Shamika Yolanda Latrell Hall

Dissertations

This study seeks to understand successful African American relationships from the perspective of African American females. Recognizing the impact of structural factors on African Americans, as well as the limits of imposing Eurocentric definitions of successful relationships, this study seeks to understand how African American women themselves describe successful relationships and to identify factors that have influenced their ideas about what is required for them to have healthy, happy, long-lasting, nurturing relationships. Design of the present study is informed by findings from Stephens-Williams' (1992) study of successful African American relationships, as well as a broader review of structural, sociological, and …

Private Narratives In Public Places: The Experiences Of Predominantly White Gay Male Undergraduates On Lgb Classroom Panels, James Patrick Dolan Jr.

Dissertations

The scholarly literature addresses the common practice and effectiveness of using classroom panel presentations by lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) speakers to increase awareness of LGB experiences and to change attitudes. However, little is known about the experiences of the speakers themselves or how the experience may affect the speaker's sense of self or identity. From an identity as narrative perspective, the goal of this study was to learn what effect the repeated telling of a coming out story in a public setting may have on the teller's identity, the story they tell, and the meanings and feelings associated with …

A Qualitative Study Of Women Therapists’ Experiences Of Spirituality In The Counseling Process, Sharon A. Carney

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Tolerance Under Variable Ratio Schedules Of Reinforcement, Barry Eshkol Adelman

Dissertations

Previous studies (e.g., Hoffman, Branch, & Sizemore, 1987) have demonstrated that greater drug tolerance develops in responding under fixed-ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement when the schedule parameter is small than when it is large; little research has been done on related schedules such as variable-ratio (VR). In Experiment 1, three pigeons responded under a multiple FR 5 FR 125 VR 5 VR 125. A range of prechronic doses of cocaine produced dose-dependent reductions in response rates under the component schedules. Following chronic dosing with daily administrations of 5.6 mg/kg, similar dose-response curves were derived by substitutions of the usual dose. …

The Role Of Automatic Reinforcement In Early Speech Acquisition, Barbara E. Esch

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Struggling With Race: A Grounded Theory Study Of The Developing Of Awareness Of Racism, Shawn Victoria Macdonald

Dissertations

White counselors and psychologists need to have a strong understanding of racism and white privilege for effective therapeutic work with people of color. However, many white counselors struggle in various ways with multicultural training. The phenomenon of white counselors in training struggling with awareness of racism and white privilege is well-recognized but not fully understood.

A constructivist grounded theory study was conducted to explore the phenomena of "struggle" among white counselors in training who were engaged in multicultural training. 33 interviews were conducted with 17 participants who were students in master's and doctoral level counseling, counseling psychology, and related programs. …

A Role Of Problem-Solving In Complex Intraverbal Repertoires, Rachael A. Sautter

Dissertations

kinner described intraverbal behavior as verbal behavior with no point-to-point correspondence between the stimulus and the response. This verbal operant encompasses a wide range of response topographies ranging from answering simple questions to complex conversational exchanges. Previous interventions for teaching complex responding to questions about category membership have focused primarily on transfer of stimulus control procedures to teach specific intraverbal responses. These procedures have proven effective at establishing basic intraverbal responses but have consistently produced small and somewhat restricted repertoires. Theoreticians have hypothesized that effective use of problem-solving strategies rather than simple stimulus control may account for the performance of …

The Effects Of Differential Reinforcement Of Unprompted Responding On Skill Acquisition Of Children With Autism, Amanda M. Karsten

Masters Theses

The common recommendation to reserve the most potent reinforcers for unprompted responses during acquisition programming, sometimes referred to as differential reinforcement of independent responding, has little published empirical support for its purported benefits (enhanced rate of acquisition, decreased likelihood of errors and prompt dependence). The purpose of the current investigation was to compare the delivery of high-quality reinforcers exclusively following unprompted responses (differential condition) with the delivery of high-quality reinforcers following both prompted and unprompted responses (non-differential condition) on the rate of skill acquisition for two children with autism. Participants were taught multiple· pairs of target skills (picture sequencing, tacting) …

Evaluation Of An Outpatient Training Service For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Their Families, Britt Winter

Masters Theses

Autism spectrum disorders have a substantial impact on the lives of families and can result in a variety of enrichments to the family environment as well as certain specific stressors (Hecimovic & Gregory, 2005; Tidmarsh & Volkmar, 2003). One service that has proven effective for treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders as well as improvement in family dynamics is parent training (Schreibman, 1988). The current study examined 46 individual client files from an outpatient parent training clinic serving children with autism spectrum disorders. Parents were taught to implement interventions for skill acquisition with their children using a behavioral skills …

Teaching Children With Autism To Mand For Information Using Video Modeling, Courtney Dillon

Masters Theses

Skinner's taxonomy of verbal operants defines language in functional terms specifying the relevant controlling variables in terms of antecedent and consequent influences. A mand for information is a request for a specific verbal response that has momentarily high reinforcing value due to the presence of an establishing operation. Contrived establishing operations have been used for teaching mands for information, however, researchers have not yet investigated the effects of using video modeling to teach mands for information to children with autism. This study investigated the effects of video modeling with a contrived establishing operation for teaching two children with autism to …

Functional Assessment Of Problem Behavior In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review Of 32 Cases, Jessa R. Love

Masters Theses

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among children aged 4 to 17 years is approximately 5.5 to 5.7 out of 1000 children (Centers for Disease Control, 2006). It is not uncommon for children with these disorders to display a wide range of problem behavior (e.g., Farrar-Schneider, 1992; Oswald et al., 1992). While a number of studies have reported aggregated data on the reinforcement functions of such problem behavior, none have reported the distribution of functions with a sample comprised solely of individuals on the autism spectrum. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine individual client data from an …

Fluency In Pigeons: The Effects Of Response Rate On Learning, Matthew L. Porritt

Dissertations

Instructional procedures that build high response rates are purported to have significant benefits over procedures that do not focus on fast responding (Binder, 1996). However, much of the research exploring rate-building procedures is confounded by two variables: rate of reinforcement and number of exposures (Doughty, Chase, & O'Shields, 2004). In six experiments, the present study examined the effects of three variables, rate of reinforcement, number of exposures, and rate of responding, on learning under rate-building procedures in pigeons. In Experiment 1, rate-building produced significantly better learning outcomes when compared to a rate-controlled condition with number of exposures held constant. In …

The Effects Of A Still-Photo Computer Module Without Feedback On Ergonomic Behaviors, Rhiannon M. Fante

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a still-photo computer training module without feedback on safe positioning of individuals performing an assembly task and a lifting task using a multiple baseline design across behaviors and tasks. The study took place in an analogue office setting and participants were 6 college students. The dependent variable was the percentage of observations scored as safe and each session was recorded via a hidden camera. During each session, participants completed a 5 minute assembly task followed by 2 lifts and this task sequence was repeated a minimum of four …

Scholarly Art: The Writing Experiences Of Student Affairs Professionals, Wanda L.E. Viento

Dissertations

Special issues of the major student affairs journals recently have reflected on the scholarship of the profession (Blimling, 2001; Roper, 2002). The focus of these recent reflections, as well as prior publications on student affairs scholarship (e.g., Davis & Liddell, 1997; Engstrom, 1999; Hunter, 1986; Hunter & Kuh, 1987), largely has been on mentoring research, describing scholarship trends, critiquing existing patterns, and/or envisioning the shape of future scholarship. While the profession of student affairs acknowledges the critical need to promote scholarship and the dissemination of information, little has actually been done to help people get there. Only a few articles …