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The Psychology Of Realistic Characters: Utilizing Psychological Theory In The Character Creation Process, Sophie Mcfarlane Holmes
The Psychology Of Realistic Characters: Utilizing Psychological Theory In The Character Creation Process, Sophie Mcfarlane Holmes
Masters Theses
When creating characters for a story, authors should seek to make them as realistic and relatable as possible to their respective audiences. In order to achieve that, authors need to understand humanity and why humans behave the way they do. Psychology offers insight into the human mind, and covers all aspects of personality, socialization, and development within humanity. These same three areas can be used when crafting characters for a story. By utilizing personality tests, social backgrounds, and developmental life stages, authors gain an understanding of how and why people may act the way they do. This knowledge can in …
The Effects Of Social Comparison On Immediate Mood And Reaction Time Performance, Jane K. Wolterink, Elizabeth A. Weizeorick, Meghan Fox
The Effects Of Social Comparison On Immediate Mood And Reaction Time Performance, Jane K. Wolterink, Elizabeth A. Weizeorick, Meghan Fox
Masters Theses
Context: Being compared to others in social situations is commonplace, whether at work, school, or sport. For example, athletes typically receive feedback on performance from a coach in front of their teammates. Likewise, during lab experiences, students often receive feedback from their instructors in front of their peers. While feedback has been shown to affect mental health, mood, and self-confidence both positively and negatively, the effects of feedback given as a social comparison have not been studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess how both positive and negative social comparison affects individuals’ immediate mood and reaction time …
The Mirror: How Writing Is The Reflection Of An Author’S Emotions, Tamia Charón Ranae Branch
The Mirror: How Writing Is The Reflection Of An Author’S Emotions, Tamia Charón Ranae Branch
Masters Theses
This thesis examines research that shows writing can be more than just putting words on a page. Writing, especially in prose and poetry, can be therapeutic as it allows for the individual to separate the problem from themselves, analyze, reflect, and simultaneously lead the individual to a path of healing.
Social Anxiety And Substance Use In College Students: Understanding The Potential Role Of Substance Use Expectancies And Fear Of Evaluation, Devangi Pant
Masters Theses
The relationship between social anxiety and substance use among college students has been researched extensively, but it is difficult to understand this relationship due to the uncertainty imposed by mixed findings. However, most studies have found a positive link between social anxiety and alcohol use, as mediated by positive alcohol use expectancies. This study reviewed the literature on social anxiety and alcohol use expectancies and proposed a model that evaluated the predictive ability of social anxiety and alcohol use expectancies on alcohol use. Results indicated that social anxiety does not predict alcohol use and only negative alcohol use expectancies were …
Understanding Toxic Cycles And How To Defeat Them: How Poetry Can Heal, Tosha Marie Brown
Understanding Toxic Cycles And How To Defeat Them: How Poetry Can Heal, Tosha Marie Brown
Masters Theses
Cathartic writing dates back millennia. Poetry, as a form of therapy, has been used in history to nurture the soul. Its effects go deeper than spiritually, and has been shown to aid in dealing with depression, anxiety and negative behaviors.
Finding Faith Within The Fantasy: Helping Middle Graders Conquer Foes And Fears, Joy Johnson-Summerville
Finding Faith Within The Fantasy: Helping Middle Graders Conquer Foes And Fears, Joy Johnson-Summerville
Masters Theses
The Balance of Time is a work of middle grade fantasy that explores the struggles of children in the world today. It was written with the intent to help all children understand the world and the people around them. The story follows a pre-teen protagonist as she navigates familial relationships, loss, and a world in chaos. Along with her siblings, she finds herself in a position to restore a sense of balance in her own life and in the world. The critical review, “Finding Faith Within the Fantasy: Helping Middle Graders Conquer Foes and Fears,” examines previous works of middle …
Covid Fears And Social Anxiety In College Students, Clayton Crozier
Covid Fears And Social Anxiety In College Students, Clayton Crozier
Masters Theses
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with numerous negative mental health outcomes such as social anxiety, and lead to a great deal of uncertainty. Intolerance of Uncertainty is a relatively new concept in the psychology literature and has begun to be studied in the context of anxiety. Literature has found a positive correlation between Intolerance of Uncertainty and several types of social anxiety. With these findings, researchers have begun to examine the COVID-19 pandemic to see how Intolerance of Uncertainty affects people’s mental health during the pandemic. Intolerance of Uncertainty may be a mediator between social anxiety and the fears …
Tomb And Temple : The Poet’S Use Of Positive Body Imagery To Communicate Messages Of Psychological Wellbeing, Shelby Elizabeth Poulin
Tomb And Temple : The Poet’S Use Of Positive Body Imagery To Communicate Messages Of Psychological Wellbeing, Shelby Elizabeth Poulin
Masters Theses
Mary Oliver writes that imagery is the texture of a poem, and the “detailed, sensory language incorporating images . . . gives the poem dash and tenderness” (Oliver 92). Imagery brings poetry to life, offering the reader a whole-body experience over simple description. Oliver cautions, however, that imagery is powerful and should be used responsibility, further implying that this texture can also become jolting, harsh, or offensive if used incorrectly (Oliver 107-108). With this caution in mind, the purpose of my forty-six poem collection—Tomb and Temple: Letters to the Body—is to use images of the body responsibly, in a way …
Teachers’ Use Of Diverse Praise: A Middle And High School Sample, Aubrey Toosley
Teachers’ Use Of Diverse Praise: A Middle And High School Sample, Aubrey Toosley
Masters Theses
The current study examined teachers’ use of diverse praise or the use of verbal statements or gestures of approval that are delivered in a variety of distinguishable ways in response to desired student behavior. Verbatim general praise and behavior-specific praise data collected during the 2017-18 academic year were analyzed from a larger study where a total of 1,320 observed minutes were collected across 66 middle and high school classrooms. Teachers used an average of 1.7 total diverse praise categories per observation. Both middle and high school teachers used more general diverse praise categories compared to behavior-specific diverse praise categories. The …
Explorations Into Religiosity And Its Implications On Physiological Health, Self-Esteem & Life Satisfaction, Fadi Edwar Hakeem
Explorations Into Religiosity And Its Implications On Physiological Health, Self-Esteem & Life Satisfaction, Fadi Edwar Hakeem
Masters Theses
In the current study, I examined the association of religiosity on the psychological and physiological health of individuals. I administered a survey to determine the religious levels of the participants along with two surveys that inquired about self-esteem and life satisfaction. Two physiological measures were utilized to aid the findings of the self-report measures. These included heart rate variability and salivary cortisol. Heart rate variability measures included heart rate mean, high frequency power and standard deviation normal to normal (SDNN). My primary hypothesis was that higher religiosity levels would positively impact self-esteem, life satisfaction, heart rate variability and cortisol levels. …
A Parametric Analysis Of Choice Under Risk, David W. Sottile
A Parametric Analysis Of Choice Under Risk, David W. Sottile
Masters Theses
Accurate assessment of risk propensity is important because risky choices underlie a broad range of behavioral problems. The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is an assessment that measures propensity to engage in risky choice. While this is a useful assessment, the BART changes two variables that affect risky choice simultaneously, probability of an undesirable outcome and stake size, which cannot be separated within the context of the BART. The goal of this study was to evaluate the separate and combined effects of key factors that are likely to risky choice (Magnitude of payoff, probability of an undesirable outcome, and stake …
The Role Of Affective Forecasting And The Impact Bias In Nutritional Health Behaviors, Matthew D. Fallon
The Role Of Affective Forecasting And The Impact Bias In Nutritional Health Behaviors, Matthew D. Fallon
Masters Theses
Previous literature on affective forecasting has studied its role in health decisions, but there is little research investigating affective forecasting in diet choices and eating behaviors. The present study collected affective forecasts from 43 college participants before eating an indulgent snack and then observed emotions immediately after eating the snack. We predicted that emotion predictions would be significantly stronger than observed emotions, in support of previous literature on the impact bias. We also predicted that optimism would predict a stronger impact bias and that extraversion and neuroticism would have a role in forecasts and observed emotions. Contrary to our hypothesis, …
“The Cracked Pots Of Humanity”: Post-World War Ii American Literary Perspectives On Psychiatric Treatment/Containment Of Mental Disorders, Jennifer Chichester
“The Cracked Pots Of Humanity”: Post-World War Ii American Literary Perspectives On Psychiatric Treatment/Containment Of Mental Disorders, Jennifer Chichester
Masters Theses
This thesis examines the ways in which characters in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Bird’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces grapple with the concept of “madness” on individual and societal levels. Each of these Post-World War II novels question whether “madness” is a social construct. Is the person mad, or is society? These three novels, written in an era when inpatient psychiatric care was losing its prominence as a method for treating those deemed insane, reflect the growing trend of deinstitutionalization in the 1950s …
The Effects Of Replacing Dispersed Trash And Recycling Bins With Integrated Waste Receptacles On The Accuracy Of Waste Sorting In An Academic Building, Katherine J. Binder
The Effects Of Replacing Dispersed Trash And Recycling Bins With Integrated Waste Receptacles On The Accuracy Of Waste Sorting In An Academic Building, Katherine J. Binder
Masters Theses
Numerous researchers and theorists have attempted to explain the existence of the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and awareness and the display of pro-environmental behavior (Glasser, 2007; Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Behavior analysis is uniquely aligned to contribute to this discussion through its emphasis on the role of controlling variables in behavior change. A growing number of behavioral research studies address the challenges of group-contingencies in an effort to solve real-world gaps (Lehman & Geller, 2004). This study was designed as a continuation of the line of behavioral research designed to increase recycling rates and also as an …
The Effects Of Task Exposure And Simulated Grasping Experience Upon The Emergence Of Reaching, Joshua L. Williams
The Effects Of Task Exposure And Simulated Grasping Experience Upon The Emergence Of Reaching, Joshua L. Williams
Masters Theses
Based on previous research, three-month-old infants who received simulated grasping experience via "sticky mittens" showed increased object-directed activity relative to infants who did not receive experience (Needham et al., 2002). The current study wanted to examine the importance of the "stickiness" aspect of the "sticky mittens" experience. Thirty pre-reaching infants were followed for 16 consecutive days. Each infant was randomly assigned to one of three groups: Velcro (grasping simulation), non-Velcro (no grasping simulation), or Control (no experience). On the first day of the study all infants visited our laboratory for a baseline assessment without mittens to ensure they were unable …
Moderating Effect Of Intimate Exchange On The Reciprocal Relation Between Best Friend Delinquency And Child Externalizing Behavior, Alden Elizabeth Gaertner
Moderating Effect Of Intimate Exchange On The Reciprocal Relation Between Best Friend Delinquency And Child Externalizing Behavior, Alden Elizabeth Gaertner
Masters Theses
Research indicates both peer selection (choosing behaviorally similar individuals as friends) and peer socialization (mutual regulation of behavior) processes impact the development of problem behavior in childhood and adolescence. Differential association theory explains these processes by suggesting children and adolescents elect to participate in peer groups that conform to a commonly accepted set of group norms. Moreover, deviant peer groups ascribe to unconventional norms characterized by a higher proportion of pro-deviance messages learned in the context of intimate personal groups. Consistent with differential association theory, the current study examined the moderating effect of intimate exchange, or relational closeness, on the …
Conscientiousness Moderates The Relationship Between Life Change And Life Satisfaction, Cynthia Ward Hackney
Conscientiousness Moderates The Relationship Between Life Change And Life Satisfaction, Cynthia Ward Hackney
Masters Theses
This field study examined the relationship between orderliness, a facet of the personality trait conscientiousness, life change in retirement and life satisfaction in retirement. Hypotheses for this study are derived from current research and theory. Life satisfaction in retirement and the trait orderliness were hypothesized to have a positive linear relationship. The relationship between life change in retirement and life satisfaction in retirement were hypothesized to have a negative linear relationship. The narrow personality trait of orderliness was hypothesized to have a moderating influence on the relationship between life change and life satisfaction in retirement. Data were collected during a …