Digital Commons Network^™

The Experience Of Being Loved: Physical Affection From Parents As Remembered From Childhood, Ellen Senter Denny

Doctoral Dissertations

This project provided a description of the experience of physical affection as remembered from childhood. In-depth, non-directive interviews were conducted with 21 adult participants who were asked to describe their experiences of receiving physical affection from their parents during childhood. The raw data consisted of transcriptions of the interviews, and a method informed by phenomenology and hermeneutics for the purpose of describing the thematic structure of the experience was employed.

The ground of Being Loved provided the context upon which three themes became figural. It included the awareness of feelings that participants experienced, such as love, security, being cared for, …

An Investigation Of Automaticity In Learning Disabled (Ld) And Non-Clinical Adults, Kerry Towler

Doctoral Dissertations

Dyslexia research has implicated phonetic dysfunction in the phoneme-grapheme associations which underlie reading skills. Expert readers of normal developmental etiology have required less mental effort, faster processing speed, and reduced focal attention when applying reading subskills. Readers with dysphonia and poorly automatized reading subskills have required more time, mental effort, and attention. Dyslexia automaticity deficit has been attributed to left hemisphere neuro-cortical disruptions of the underlying neurological substrata that support developmental acquisition of reading subskills. Effects of inefficiently automatized phoneme-grapheme skills accumulate over time resulting in poor reading skills that are detrimental to academic achievement.

Using neuropsychological methodology, adults with …

Psychological Adaptation Of Mainland Chinese Female International Students: A Phenomenological Inquiry, I-Wen Chan

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to obtain a description of Mainland Chinese female international students’ experiences of adjustment in the U.S. Thirteen participants were asked the one question that guided the study: “Please tell me in as much detail as you can, regarding being a female and originally from China, your process of adapting to your studies and living in the United States.” Participants described their experiences in individual audio-taped in-depth interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, creating thirteen separate transcripts. These transcripts, serving as the primary data source, were analyzed using a phenomenological method. Analysis revealed six …

Justifying Leadership: A Social Cognitive Approach To Understanding And Predicting Egotistic And Philanthropic Leadership, Katherine R. Helland

Doctoral Dissertations

This study extends the current literature on egotistic and philanthropic leadership by considering the role of social cognition in explaining self-serving versus collective- serving leadership behaviors. Specifically, this study proposed that the overt traits and behaviors that constitute egotistic and philanthropic leadership are surface manifestations of the justification mechanisms (JMs) stemming from uninhibited and inhibited power motives. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify the JMs that egotistic leaders rely on to enhance the rational appeal of self-serving influence behaviors and the JMs that philanthropic leaders rely on to enhance the rational appeal of collective-serving influence behaviors. Additionally, …

A Multi-Source Model Of Perceived Organizational Support And Performance, Sarah Kay Nielsen

Doctoral Dissertations

The two-fold purpose of this field study was to examine: 1) the collective contributions of supervisor support (PSS), coworker support (PCS), and direct report support (DRS)to an employee’s global sense of organizational support (POS), and 2) the additive value of counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) to a performance outcome model of POS that also includes in-role and extra-role performance. To this end, the researcher predicted a 360-model of POS such that PSS, PCS, and DRS would better predict POS than any individual support variable alone. Additionally, the researcher hypothesized that POS would predict in-role performance, extra-role performance, and CWB over time. …

Exploring The Relationship Between Time-Series Data Collection And Duration Of Treatment In A University Clinic: A Survival Analysis, Justin D. Winkel

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between participation in time-series research and the duration of psychotherapy. In previous research, 50 patients were accepted into the Time-Series Study at the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic. Study participation included a significant degree of patient involvement, including repeated assessment of process and outcome variables totaling 120 items which patients were asked to complete twice a week. It was hypothesized that participation in this type of research may have resulted in shorter treatment duration due to increased subject burden, or may have motivated patients to stay in treatment, thus increasing …

An Investigation Of Sense Of Identity Among College Students, Christine Susie Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study the construct, Sense of Identity was examined. Specifically, variables conceptually related to Sense of Identity will be described, and the nature of any relationships with personality traits including the Big Five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness were explored. Additionally, the study examined the nature of the relationships between narrow personality traits and Sense of Identity. Lastly, the relationships between Sense of Identity and extracurricular activities were investigated. Sense of Identity was positively related to the Big Five personality traits with a range of r=.32 to r=.46 with p<.01. Additionally, the selected …

The Thematic Meaning Of Face-To-Face Conflict Experiences: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Investigation, Thomas Rhett Graves

Doctoral Dissertations

Face-to-face interactions are the experiential basis for our reflected understandings of the social world. Face-to-face conflict (as a form of social transaction) is present across different forms of social conflict (e.g., international or intergroup conflicts). Understanding the phenomenology of face-to-face conflict thus provides insight concerning experiences of social conflict and our evaluations of it. In this investigation, a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to describe the thematic meanings of face-to-face conflict experiences.

Eleven dialogical interviews were conducted concerning situations in which participants “experienced a conflict between themselves and another person(s)” and comprise 17 hours of recorded dialogue between the participants …

Changes In Perceptions Of Social Support, Constructive Communication And Marital Satisfaction In Couples Participating In A Marital Enrichment Program, Nikki N. Frousakis

Masters Theses

Marital enrichment programs have been gaining considerable recognition in the past several decades. Thousands of individuals participate in these programs yearly. However, the particular effects of enrichment programs are still under investigation, and many remain empirically unanalyzed and their effectiveness undetermined. Also, many dyadic interventions focus on helping couples improve their communication skills and become more socially supportive of their partner. This study explored changes in levels of perceived social support, constructive communication, and marital satisfaction in couples participating in a marital enrichment program, Marriage Alive. Couples who completed all 3 phases of the study (i.e., pre-seminar, post-seminar, 2 month …

The Environmental Reward Observation Scale (Eros): Development, Validity, And Reliability, Maria Elizabeth Anne Armento

Masters Theses

Researchers have established a strong association between the frequency and duration of environmental reward and affective mood states, particularly in relation to the etiology, assessment and treatment of depression. Given behavioral theories that outline environmental reward as a strong mediator of affect and the unavailability of an efficient, reliable and valid self-report measure of environmental reward, we developed the Environmental Reward Observation Scale (EROS) and examined its psychometric properties. In Experiment one, an exploratory factor analysis supported a unidimensional 10-item measure with strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability. When administered to a replication sample, confirmatory factor analysis suggested an excellent …

An Examination Of Competitiveness And Personality In Relation To Academic And Sales Performance, Matthew Charles Valenti

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate potential non-linear relationships between competitiveness as measured by the Revised Competitiveness Index and performance in both college students (Study 1) and insurance agents (Study 2). In addition, relationships between competitiveness and personality were explored. All participants completed the 16PF Fifth Edition to measure personality and the Revised Competitiveness Index to measure self-reported competitiveness. Study 1 consisted of 188 undergraduate students, and performance was defined as college GP A. Study 2 consisted of 30 licensed insurance agents and performance was measured by raw sales, sales efficiency, cross sell, average commission earned, and commission …

Molar And Molecular Perspectives On Mothers' Responsiveness To Their Clinic-Referred And "Normal" Children, Vanessa Ann Vigilante

Doctoral Dissertations

An abundance of research has investigated the mother responsiveness construct as an aggregate measure of the degree to which mothers react sensitively to what their children say and do. While the aggregate measure has proven useful in accounting for the ways mothers and children join in dyadic harmony, there is a dearth of information regarding the aggregates’ components. Twenty clinic-referred and thirty-two volunteer mother-child dyads were observed in their home settings for 1 hour per dyad. Observers monitored mother and child responsiveness during the dyadic interactions and childrens’ neutral, positive, and negative responses were recorded. The mother’s responsive social reactions …

Depression, Cognition, And Anosognosia In Alzheimer's Disease: A Rorschach Analysis, Lisa Lillard Oglesby

Doctoral Dissertations

Research investigating the relationship between depression and anosognosia, or lack of insight, in Alzheimer's disease has reported positive, negative, and no correlation. One possible reason for the discrepant findings may be due to depression not being accurately assessed or cleanly defined. Overlap between the symptoms of depression and dementia make discerning the presence of depression in dementia difficult, especially when diagnosed by interview or self-report methods. Further, the role cognitive dysfunction associated with Alzheimer's disease and premorbid psychological functioning play in depression and anosognosia also remain poorly understood, as does the effect on the phenomenological perspective of the individual with …

Investigating Forgiveness In Relation To Offensive Experiences Among Black And White Respondents, Allen R. Bellamy

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary focus of this dissertation was to investigate the degree to which Blacks and Whites are able to forgive their own and other ethnic groups for those who have offended them. In relation to forgiveness, furthermore, this project examined psychological and emotional variables such as anxiety, anger, racism, and forgiving personality among the participants. Four-hundred and eighty two participants were recruited for this study. Personal narrative accounts were obtained from participants who were asked to describe an offensive act committed by another person(s) with specifying details of the offender. Findings indicate that when controlling for Forgiving Personality and rated …

Empathic Accuracy And Adolescent Romantic Relationships, Peter T. Haugen

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes a study that seeks to understand the role of empathic accuracy in adolescent romantic relationships. Such relationships are important in their own right and play a central role in shaping the general course of development in adolescence. Five specific questions are examined in this project. First, is there a gender difference in empathic accuracy? Second, does empathic accuracy improve over the course of a relationship? Third, does empathic accuracy improve with age? Fourth, is empathic accuracy related to relationship satisfaction? Fifth, is an individual’s hiding something when discussing disagreements related to a decrease in the partner’s empathic …

Sense Of Identity And Life Satisfaction In College Students, Beverly Carol Huffstetler

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the relationships between sense of identity, life satisfaction, and the Big Five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability (inverse of neuroticism), extraversion, and openness. It considered overall life satisfaction as well as the life satisfaction subsets of personal, extrinsic, school, and outcome satisfaction. The present investigation was a secondary analysis of an archival data source. The data were collected from 2,300 students at a large, southeastern university. Significant correlations were found for sense of identity in relation to all aspects of life satisfaction. Sense of identity added incremental validity to the Big Five normal personality traits …

Anaclitic And Introjective Personality Distinctions Among Psychotherapy Outpatients: Examining Clinical Change Across Baseline And Therapy Phases, David Dix Kemmerer

Doctoral Dissertations

S. J. Blatt and colleagues (e.g., Blatt, 1995; Blatt & Blass, 1996; Blatt & Shichman, 1983) have theorized that individuals develop and function along two basic lines— that of interpersonal relatedness and that of self-definition. These two modes, while moderately-oscillatory across the lifespan, suggest two respective, relatively-fixed, personality configurations—the anaclitic and the introjective. It is suggested that psychopathology arises when investment in the themes of one’s preferred personality configuration become enduringly over-emphasized. Individuals with anaclitic psychopathologies tend to be plagued by feelings of helplessness and weakness, and they tend to have fears of being abandoned; they generally have a depleted …

Disentangling The Meaning Of Multisource Feedback: An Examination Of The Nomological Network Surrounding Source And Dimension Factors, Brian J. Hoffman

Doctoral Dissertations

This study combines internal and external approaches to construct validation in examining the construct validity of multisource feedback (MSF). First, consistent with prior MSF research, within source agreement was greater than across source agreement, the MSF instrument was equivalent across sources, and source and dimension latent factors characterized the MSF data. Next, existing MSF construct validity research was extended by examining the pattern of relationships between factor analytically derived source and dimension factors and externally measured constructs (e.g., assessment center dimensions, personality constructs, and intelligence). The pattern of relationships between MSF dimensions and conceptually similar and dissimilar external constructs suggested …

The Relationship Among Personality Traits, Character Strengths, And Life Satisfaction In College Students, Nalini Maria West

Doctoral Dissertations

Utilizing a sample of college students who completed the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory for College Students (Lounsbury & Gibson, 2004), the VIA Classification of Strengths (Peter, Park, & Seligman, 2004), and a Quality of Life Scale, specific relations between the Big Five Factor Model personality traits, character strengths, and life satisfaction in college students were hypothesized and examined. With the exception of the Big Five trait, Conscientiousness, all of the hypothesized correlations were found to be significant at the .05 level. This study also investigated whether the character strengths model and the Big Five model were significant predictors of life …

Socio-Emotional Conflict In Teams: A Social Relations Analysis And Exploration Of Causes, Jacqueline Zelno Bergman

Doctoral Dissertations

Substantial research has consistently shown that socio-emotional conflict detracts from team performance and decreases team member satisfaction. However, little research has been done to determine what leads to this type of conflict. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine in more detail the underlying causes of socio-emotional conflict among team members from a person-perception perspective. A round-robin design and D. Kenny's (1994) social relations model (SRM) were used to examine the extent to which perceptions of socio-emotional conflict stem from individual versus relational factors. Moreover, several individual difference variables were examined to investigate who is most likely to …

Political Practice: A Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Inquiry, Michael E. Arfkin

Doctoral Dissertations

The present project focuses on some of the similarities between social cognition, transcendental phenomenology, literary theory, and epistemological hermeneutics. I argue that developments in hermeneutic theory call into question the view that interpretation is a cognitive process residing within the minds of individuals. Drawing on Heidegger’s project for a fundamental ontology, I suggest that hermeneutic phenomenology provides a radical critique of social cognition’s view of the nature of social reality. I also introduce the concept of practice as an alternative to psychology’s focus on subjectivity.

These theoretical explorations provide a foundation for investigating the practices that embody an interpretation of …

Sexual Communication And Contraceptive Use In Adolescent Dating Couples, Laura M. Widman

Masters Theses

This study had two aims: first, to examine the relationship between general sexual communication and contraceptive use in sexually active adolescent romantic couples, and second, to explore predictors of open communication from characteristics of adolescent couples and individual adolescents. Data were drawn from 209 male-female couples dating a minimum of four weeks who participated in the Study of Tennessee Adolescent Romantic Relationships. Seventy-three adolescent dating couples (ages 14-21) that engaged in sexual intercourse and completed a sexual communication questionnaire were included in current analyses. Results indicated that nearly 30% of couples failed to use contraception at first intercourse and almost …

Infidelity In Adolescent Romantic Relationships, Rebecca E. Furr

Masters Theses

Infidelity within adolescent dating relationships is a commonplace behavior that has received very little empirical attention. The present study examines multiple facets of this behavior in a sample of 209 middle and late adolescent couples. An ecological model is used to explore factors related to the individual, relationship, and context in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. While multiple variables on all of these levels were significant in cross-sectional analysis, a few stood out as being important predictors of infidelity over time. In particular, participants who had a higher opinion of their own physical attractiveness were more likely to cheat at …

Feeding Behavior And Chick-A-Dee Calls In The Presence Of Predator Models: A Field Study Of Carolina Chickadees (Peocile Carolinensis), Ellen Jolene Mahurin

Masters Theses

This study describes feeding and chick-a-dee calling behavior of Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) in the presence of predator models. Chickadees occur in stable social groups over much of the year, and birds in social groups often indicate the presence of predators through alarm calling and calling related to mobbing behavior. Research with two other chickadee species has found a relationship between predator stimuli and calling behavior, including the note composition of chick-a-dee calls.

Here, I presented Carolina chickadees with avian models, and a “no model” control. The species represented by the avian models were the Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii), a …

The Construct Of Sensory Suggestibility: A Factor Analysis, Nicole Alexandra Perez

Masters Theses

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 an earlier study we operationalized suggestibility by measuring conformity, interrogative suggestibility, placebo effects, persuasibility and hypnotizability. There was no discernible factor structure. In the present study, we narrowed our focus to sensory suggestibility alone expecting to find some cohesion among responsiveness to these types of suggestive situations by examining this phenomenon across eight sensory measures (tactile, …

Being Authentic In Life And On Stage: A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Actor As Character, Sanderien Marieke Bosshardt

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to describe the process of character development as experienced by the actor. Twelve professional actors participated in 60 to 90 minute phenomenological interviews in which they were asked to talk about their experiences of character development. Each participant was asked to respond to the following statement, ''Take a moment to think about a specific character you played. Please describe for me in as much detail as you can what stood out for you during the development of that character."

Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed individually and in a group format …

Identifying The Underpinnings Of Compulsive Behavior: A New Measure Of Addiction Proneness, Jennifer Lynn Bowler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation describes the development and initial validation of an indirect measure of addiction proneness. This new measurement system is based on the concept of differential framing, that is, the idea that individuals with different personalities tend to frame the same situations and stimuli in qualitatively different ways. This new measure (called the Conditional Reasoning Test of Addiction Proneness, or CRT-AP) consisted of 23 items that were designed to assess framing proclivities associated with addiction proneness. These items used Conditional Reasoning methodology to assess the extent to which implicit biases are used to justify the perpetuation of chemical dependency. Data …

Differential Attributions Of The Causes Of Subordinate Success And Failure By Aggressive And Non-Aggressive Individuals, Mark Connor Bowler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined the differential causal attributions of non-aggressive and aggressive individuals responding to incidents of subordinate success and failure. Participants (N = 407) were presented with 16 vignettes (eight describing subordinate success and eight describing subordinate failure) that utilized unique combinations of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information. Participants made attributions regarding the cause of the subordinate’s behavior (i.e., person, task, circumstances, or any combination of the three) and indicated their preferred behavioral response (i.e., praise/reward, reprimand/punish, coach/train, redesign the task, or do nothing). When responding to incidents of subordinate success, the causal attributions of aggressive individuals were similar to …