Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Linking Childhood Sexual Abuse And Abusive Parenting: The Mediating Role Of Maternal Anger, David Dilillo, George C. Tremblay, Lizette Peterson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective: This study had two primary objectives: First, to examine the association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and later parenting characteristics, particularly physical abuse potential, and second, to explore maternal anger as a mediator of the relationship between CSA and adult physical abuse potential.

Method: Utilized a community sample of low SES participants that included 138 mothers classified as having experienced CSA, and a comparison group of 152 non-sexually abused mothers. Parenting variables examined included the mothers' physical abuse potential, nurturance toward their children, unrealistic developmental expectations of children, as well as frequencies of spanking and general punishment. Data was …

Gender Differences In Brazilian Street Youth’S Family Circumstances And Experiences On The Street, Marcela Raffaelli, Silvia H. Koller, Caroline T. Reppold, Mateus B. Kuschick, Fernanda M. B. Krum, Denise R. Bandeira, Carson Simões

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: It has been proposed that homeless street girls are more likely to be from dysfunctional families and exhibit psychological distress than homeless street boys, reflecting cultural factors that result in differential norms for male and female behavior. The current analysis examined whether male and female street youth in a mid-sized Brazilian city differed in their family circumstances and day-to-day functioning on the street.

Methods: The opportunity sample consisted of 33 male (mean age 14.3, range 10-17 years) and 33 female (mean age 14.6, range 11-18 years) street youth who participated in a sentence completion task and structured interview examining …

Nicotine Enhances Acquisition Of A T-Maze Visual Discrimination: Assessment Of Individual Differences, J. Besheer, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the present report, rats' performance was assessed in five tasks designed to measure behavioral response to different novel stimuli under different experimental situations. Daily nicotine treatment (0, 0.3 or l.0 mg/kg) began after the conclusion of the behavioral tasks and continued throughout the experiment. Training of a T-maze visual discrimination task commenced after 11 days of nicotine pretreatment. As a group, rats treated with the higher dose of nicotine (l.0 mg/kg) made fewer errors to acquire the initial T-maze discrimination than saline-treated controls. Activity induced by an inescapable novel environment (i.e. first behavioral screen) was positively correlated with the …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Ability, The Big Five, Task And Contextual Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Alexander Alonso

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For years, researchers and human resources specialists have been searching for predictors of performance as well as for relevant performance dimensions (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Borman & Motowidlo, 1993; Campbell, 1990; Viswesvaran et al., 1996). In 1993, Borman and Motowidlo provided a framework by which traditional predictors such as cognitive ability and the Big Five personality factors predicted two different facets of performance: 1) task performance and 2) contextual performance. A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the validity of this model as well as that of other modified models. The relationships between predictors such as cognitive ability and personality variables …

Social Anxiety Scale For Adolescents: Normative Data And Further Evidence Of Construct Validity, Heidi M. Inderbitzen-Nolan, Kenneth S. Walters

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Replicates and extends prior work with the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS– A) by providing psychometric data, further evidence of construct validity, and largesample based normative data. Participants were 2,937 students (1,431 boys and 1,506 girls) in Grades 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11. Students completed the SAS–A, the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Results replicated a three-factor structure for the SAS–A, with good internal consistencies for its subscales. Normative data were subdivided by sex and grade group. Construct validity included replication of prior relations with general anxiety (RCMAS) and depressive symptomatology …

Children Of Alcoholics: An Update., D Z Lieberman

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

One of four children in the United States lives in a family in which the child is exposed to alcoholism. Children of alcoholics (COAs) are two to ten times more likely to develop alcoholism than non-COAs. This paper reviews studies that have attempted to identify risk factors that mediate the increased vulnerability and the protective factors that moderate the risk. Factors discussed include parental antisocial personality disorder, externalizing behavior, internalizing symptoms, differential response to the effects of alcohol, and positive and negative alcohol-related expectancies. The heterogeneous nature of COAs is emphasized, and some of the challenges related to treatment and …

Primate Numerical Competence: Contributions Toward Understanding Nonhuman Cognition, Sarah T. Boysen, Karen I. Hallberg

Sentience Collection

Nonhuman primates represent the most significant extant species for comparative studies of cognition, including such complex phenomena as numerical competence, among others. Studies of numerical skills in monkeys and apes have a long, though somewhat sparse history, although questions for current empirical studies remain of great interest to several fields, including comparative, developmental, and cognitive psychology; anthropology; ethology; and philosophy, to name a few. In addition to demonstrated similarities in complex information processing, empirical studies of a variety of potential cognitive limitations or constraints have provided insights into similarities and differences across the primate order, and continue to offer theoretical …

Implicit Memory For Music In Alzheimer's Disease, Andrea Halpern, Margaret G. O'Connor

Faculty Journal Articles

Short, unfamiliar melodies were presented to young and older adults and to Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients in an implicit and an explicit memory task. The explicit task was yes–no recognition, and the implicit task was pleasantness ratings, in which memory was shown by higher ratings for old versus new melodies (the mere exposure effect). Young adults showed retention of the melodies in both tasks. Older adults showed little explicit memory but did show the mere exposure effect. The AD patients showed neither. The authors considered and rejected several artifactual reasons for this null effect in the context of the many …

Perceptual Calibration Of F0 Production: Evidence From Feedback Perturbation, Jeffery A. Jones, Kevin Munhall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Hearing one’s own speech is important for language learning and maintenance of accurate articulation. For example, people with postlinguistically acquired deafness often show a gradual deterioration of many aspects of speech production. In this manuscript, data are presented that address the role played by acoustic feedback in the control of voice fundamental frequency (F0). Eighteen subjects produced vowels under a control ~normal F0 feedback! and two experimental conditions: F0 shifted up and F0 shifted down. In each experimental condition subjects produced vowels during a training period in which their F0 was slowly shifted without …

One-Trial Context Fear Conditioning With Immediate Shock: The Roles Of Transport And Contextual Cues, Rick A. Bevins, Anthony S. Rauhut, Janice E. Mcphee, John J. B. Ayres

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In three experiments, using a total of 120 albino rats, we assessed whether transportation cues might evoke some of the freezing (i.e., defensive immobility) that we see in a context on a day following a footshock given immediately after placement in that context. The results suggested that immediate shock could directly condition strong fear to both simulated and actual transport cues. Although conditioning to transport cues explains some of the freezing that is seen on the test day, it does not explain all of it. We also found evidence that some of the freezing is due to conditioning to permanent …

Anticipating Adulthood: Expected Timing Of Work And Family Transitions Among Rural Youth, Lisa J. Crockett, C. Raymond Bingham

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examined family and individual processes influencing the future expectancies of adolescents (N = 345) from an economically stressed rural community. The anticipated timing and sequencing of key role transitions (school completion, job entry, marriage, and parenthood) were examined for each gender. In addition, factors contributing to individual differences in expected timing were examined, and gender differences in predictors were tested. Results indicated that rural adolescents' expectancies about adult role transitions diverged somewhat from societal norms with respect to timing. Family background and relationships, adolescents' attitudes and behaviors, and educational aspirations all contributed to individual differences in expected …

Parental Monitoring And Adolescent Adjustment: An Ecological Perspective, Kristen C. Jacobson, Lisa J. Crockett

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study uses an ecological framework to examine the associations between parental monitoring and a variety of indicators of adolescent adjustment. Specifically, investigators examined whether higher levels of parental monitoring were associated with higher adolescent grade point average, lower levels of adolescent depression, and lower levels of adolescent sexual activity and minor delinquency, and whether these relations were moderated by gender, grade level, or mothers’ work status. Participants were 424 7th to 12th graders from a single rural school district in central Pennsylvania. Bivariate correlations indicated that parental monitoring had strong associations with all indicators of adjustment for both boys …

"Preface" To Negotiating Adolescence In Times Of Social Change, Lisa J. Crockett, Rainer K. Silbereisen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In February 1996, a diverse group of social scientists (psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists) from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States convened at the Pennsylvania State University to discuss the ways in which social change may affect adolescent development, the likely consequences for adolescent functioning and well-being, and the kinds of social interventions needed to support healthy development in a changing society. Entitled "Negotiating Adolescence in Times of Social Change," the conference was organized to consider the abrupt and more gradual social changes affecting Western industrialized countries. Drawing on the ecological and life course perspectives, we were especially interested …

Social Change And Adolescent Development: Issues And Challenges, Lisa J. Crockett, Rainer K. Silbereisen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Determining the consequences of such societal-level changes for adolescent development presents formidable challenges. Social change on one or more dimensions must be documented, the complex processes through which social change may affect adolescents must be identified, and the hypothesized causal processes must be linked empirically to adolescent outcomes. In this chapter, we discuss these challenges and the conceptual issues they raise. We begin with one example of social change and use it as a springboard for discussing four questions:
1. What kinds of contextual changes are produced by social change?
2. How (through what mediating processes) do these changes affect …

Rural Youth: Ecological And Life Course Perspectives, Lisa J. Crockett, Michael J. Shanahan, Julia Jackson-Newsom

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Drawing on the themes of social change, ecological risk, and their implications for the life course, this chapter is intended as a point of departure for future research on rural adolescents. We begin by considering the basic but difficult issue of defining the ecology of rural youth, noting possible sources of risk and resilience. We then examine research on psychosocial adjustment among rural youth, identifying how they are advantaged and disadvantaged relative to other youth. Third, we turn to a central challenge facing contemporary rural youth: the need to reconcile attachments to family and place with a desire for educational …

Prevalence And Risk Factors For Potentially Avoidable Hospitalization Of Medicaid-Enrolled Assisted Living Residents, Marion Becker, Timothy Boaz, Ross Andel, Joshua Digennaro

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Center-Based Prevalence Of Anxiety And Depression In Women Of The Northern Areas Of Pakistan, Sunita Dodani, Rukhsana Wamiq Zuberi

Department for Educational Development

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression in women of the Northern areas. Methods: A cross-sectional center-based study was conducted at Singal Medical Center (SNIC), Gilgit, in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Results: One hundred and twenty women, between the ages of 16 and 60, attended the SMC over a two month period and were included in the study. Using HADS, it was found that 50% of the women had anxiety and/or depression; 25% suffered only from anxiety, 8% from depression and 17% had features of both.

Conclusion: This study …

Choosing A Doctor: An Exploratory Study Of Factors Influencing Patients’ Choice Of A Primary Care Doctor, Brian H. Bornstein, David Marcus, William Cassidy

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We assessed the relative importance healthcare consumers attach to various factors in choosing a primary care doctor (PCD) in a cross-sectional, in-person survey. Three survey locations were used: doctors’ offices, a public shopping area, and meetings of a women’s organization. A total of 636 community residents, varying across major demographic categories, participated. Participants completed a 23-item survey, designed to assess which factors consumers perceive as most relevant in choosing a PCD. Participants perceived professionally relevant factors (e.g. whether the doctor is board certified, office appearance) and management practices (e.g. time to get an appointment, evening and weekend hours) as more …

A Review Of Offenders In A State Psychiatric Hospital, L. E. C. Lim, L. L. Tan, M. Sung, K. L. Chan, M. I. Loh, Paulin T. Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Patients remanded over a two-year period to Woodbridge Hospital by Court Order were studied retrospectively. Schizophrenia was the most common diagnosis, theft and robbery the most prevalent offences. Males greatly outnumbered females. There were important gender differences, with males tending to commit sexual offences and females, theft and mischief. Males were less likely to be acquainted with their victims but those who caused hurt were more likely to know their victims. Outrage of modesty and theft were more likely to be committed against strangers. The reconviction rate was 26%, with repeat offenders more likely to commit sexual offences and theft. …

The Suggestibility Of Older Witnesses, Brian H. Bornstein, Christy J. Witt, Katie E. Cherry, Edith Greene

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study compares younger and older adult witnesses’ susceptibility to misinformation. Previous research on the misinformation effect has not measured the relationship between the effect and individuals’ perceptions of their own memory abilities. Such perceptions, and general knowledge of one’s own memory processes, are referred to as “metamemory.” In order to examine the relationship between metamemory and the misinformation effect in the present study, participants also completed a questionnaire that assessed their perception of their memory functioning. Although older persons tend to perceive their memories as being faulty, the correlation between self-assessment of memory abilities and actual memory performance …

The Differential Relations Of Parent And Peer Attachment To Adolescent Adjustment, Deborah J. Laible, Gustavo Carlo, Marcela Raffaelli

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Whether or not close emotional relationships with parents and peers serve similar functions for adolescent adjustment is an issue of increasing interest. The present study was designed to examine the relations between parent and peer attachment and adolescent adjustment. Eighty-nine adolescents (M age = 16.1 years, SD = 1.8 years) completed self-report measures of parent and peer attachment, sympathy, academic efficacy, aggression, anxiety, and depression. Adolescents were divided into four groups on the basis of their parent and peer attachment scores: those high on both, those low on both, those high on peer but low on parent attachment, and those …

Conditioned Place Preference: What Does It Add To Our Preclinical Understanding Of Drug Reward?, M. T. Bardo, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Rationale: Among the various experimental protocols that have been used to measure drug reward in laboratory animals, conditioned place preference (CPP) has been one of the most popular. However, a number of controversial issues have surrounded the use of this experimental protocol.
Objective: The present review provides a theoretical overview of some critical issues relevant to CPP. The advantages and limitations of CPP are also covered.
Results: Based on modern and traditional theoretical formulations of Pavlovian conditioning, CPP appears to reflect a preference for a context due to the contiguous association between the context and a drug stimulus. Within this …

Self-Mutilation : Using Pain To Cope, Wendy S. Cook

Graduate Research Papers

Self-mutilation is a serious mental and physical health problem that is often under-reported and misdiagnosed. The mutilation is a reaction to negative internal feelings, such as despair, anxiety, anger, or cognitive constriction. The goal of the self-mutilation is relief from emotional pain by using physical pain. The self-mutilator has low self-esteem, bouts of depression, difficulty forming intimate relationships, and usually suffered some type of trauma such as physical or sexual abuse. Pharmacological treatment for the self-mutilator has been experimental but has not been well researched. However, research seemed to indicate that individual and group therapy, specifically cognitive-behavioral therapy, is helpful …

The Effect Of A Suggestive Interview On Children’S Memory Of A Repeated Event: Does It Matter Whether Suggestions Are Linked To A Particular Incident?, Martine Powell, Kim P. Roberts, Donald M. Thomson

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study examined the impact of linking misleading information to a particular occurrence of a repeated event. Children aged 5- to 6-years took part in the same staged event four times and 16 target details varied in each occurrence (e.g., the colour of a cloak varied each time). Three days or three weeks later they were asked questions, some of which included false information, about the final occurrence. The next day, the children were required to recall what happened in the final occurrence. Compared to children whose biasing interview was not focused on any particular occurrence of the repeated event, …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Child Maltreatment: Child Harm, Family Healing, And Public Policy (Discussant's Commentary), Ross A. Thompson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

For almost a half-century, the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation has profiled many of the evolving themes and issues at the heart of psychology. It has also documented, less directly, changes in society. When the symposium was inaugurated in 1951, child maltreatment was a sad reality of life for many children, but it was not a topic of considerable professional attention. With the identification of the "battered child syndrome" (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Droegemueller, & Silver, 1962) in the early 1960s, however, professional concern with the plight of abused and neglected children quickly grew. National attention to child maltreatment also increased as …

An Updated Look At Depressive Symptoms And Job Satisfaction In First-Year Women Teachers, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This report updates a longitudinal study (I. S. Schonfeld, 1992) of the effects of working conditions on newly appointed womenteachers. The update included a later graduating cohort and additional outcome measures. Moreover, women who were not fully exposed to work stressors (e.g. part-time work, change of schools) were now excluded from the analyses. Among the 184 teachers (average age 27 yrs), work environment measures were more highly correlated with future depressive symptoms, self-esteem, job satisfaction, and motivation to teach than with pre-employment counterparts of the outcomes. Regression analyses underlined the effects of the work environment on …

An Instructor's Guide To Electronic Databases Of Indexed Professional Literature, Scott T. Kidd, Cheryl L. Meyer, Brian M. Olesko

School of Professional Psychology Faculty Publications

This document reviews 20 databases that are relevant to psychology but that are used primarily by professionals in other disciplines. Each database is described, any corresponding paper index is indicated, searching tips are provided, and, when available, free Internet access sites are identified.

Versatility From A Single Song: The Case Of The Nightingale Wren, Daniel Leger, Katherine E. Brooks, Judith E. O'Brien

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Versatility in song production of birds has drawn considerable attention since its description by Hartshorne (1956), who suggested that birds vary their vocal output to avoid habituation in listeners, especially if singing is extensive. The best-known route to song versatility involves creating permutations and combinations of song elements learned from neighbors or relatives, combined with improvisations (Nowicki et al. 1999). Birds may learn whole songs or individual song elements, which then may be arranged in novel ways.

Versatility might be achieved in other ways besides acquiring numerous song types. For example, individuals could shift the tempo of their songs by …

Precious Little Guidance: Jury Instruction On Damage Awards, Edith Greene, Brian H. Bornstein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Jury instructions on damage awards are notoriously vague and ambiguous. As a result, awards are sometimes unexpected and seemingly illogical. In this article, the authors argue that jury instructions regarding damages are vague because the law of damages itself is purposefully ambiguous—allowing particularized justice across a variety of different circumstances. The authors review research on comprehension and application of substantive jury instructions related to damages and on procedural variations at trial (e.g., use of preinstruction, bifurcation, blindfolding jurors to various issues, special verdict forms, caps on damages, and instruction revision) that impact the substantive instructions that jurors receive from the …

Striving To Do Well What Comes Naturally: Social Support, Developmental Psychopathology, And Social Policy, Ross A. Thompson, Lenna Ontai

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Social support can have significant stress-preventive and stress-buffering benefits for troubled individuals in everyday circumstances. Consequently, it is not surprising that many therapeutic and preventive programs enlist social support to address problems of child and family psychopathology, especially in the context of “two-generation interventions” that seek to improve child well-being by strengthening parental functioning and parent–child relationships. Home visitation programs are the best known of these two-generation strategies and have become the focus of state-level and national efforts to support families and prevent harm to children. The conclusions of basic research studies on social support converge significantly with the findings …