Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Examination Of The Disparity Between Self-Identified Versus Legally-Identified Rape Victimization: A Pilot Study, Dorothy F. Marsil, Corinne Mcnamara

Faculty and Research Publications

Objective: Researchers compared rape victimization based on self-identification to the current, federal legal definition in a pilot study of college students. Methods: The sample was comprised of 1,648 (69.8% female; 30.2% male) college students who completed the SES-SFV online. Results: Based on the current, legal definition of rape, 9.4% (11.1% female; 5.2% male) of students had been raped since being enrolled, but only 2.9% of students self-identified as being raped. Moreover, 15.1% of students reported ever being raped, with females acknowledging higher rates (19.7%) than males (4.3%). Conclusions: Rape continues to be a major issue for colleges and universities. A …

Case Study Of The Eastern State Hospital As Evidence Of English Influence On American Ideas About Mental Illness, Grace Devries

James W. Jackson Award for Excellence in Library Research in the Social Sciences

Grace DeVries, Class of 2016 at the University of Richmond, received the James W. Jackson Award for Excellence in the Social Sciences. Her research paper is entitled, Case Study of the Eastern State Hospital as Evidence of English Influence on American Ideas about Mental Illness.

Understanding The Pxs Aspect Of Within-Person Variation: A Variance Partitioning Approach, Brian Lakey

Funded Articles

This article reviews a variance partitioning approach to within-person variation based on Generalizability (G) Theory and the Social Relations Model (SRM). The approach conceptualizes an important part of within-person variation as Person x Situation (PxS) interactions: differences among persons in their profiles of responses across the same situations. The approach provided the first quantitative method for capturing within-person variation and demonstrated very large PxS effects for a wide range of constructs. These include anxiety, five-factor personality traits, perceived social support, leadership, and task performance. Although PxS effects are commonly very large, conceptual and analytic obstacles have thwarted consistent progress. For …

The Relationship Between Elevation, Connectedness, And Compassionate Love In Meaningful Films, Sophie Janicke, Mary Beth Oliver

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Expanding on the research of meaningful entertainment media and its effects, this study investigated the relationship between experiences related to elevation responses to film. Whereas research thus far has focused primarily on portrayals of altruism to elicit elevation, the results of this study show that portrayals of connectedness, love, and kindness in meaningful films are also able to elicit feelings of elevation. Moreover, elevation mediated the relationship between meaningful films and feelings of connectedness towards the transcendent, close others and toward one’s family; compassionate love towards close others; and compassionate motivation to love and be good to humanity. The study …

The Female Perception Of Safety On A College Campus, Kimberly N. Miles

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Previous research has shown the prevalence of females on college campuses across the nation experiencing a generalized fear of being victimized or violently assaulted while on campus. This fear is generated by the knowledge of violent crimes towards women on campus, as well as the perception alone that there are assaults happening on campus. Studies have noted that this fear held by female students can significantly affect their academic progress and overall wellbeing while at school. This study chose to examine the female students of Western Kentucky University and their personal perception of safety on college campuses comparing students who …

Women’S Perceptions Of Muscular Body Image And Its Impact On Eating Disorders, Juliana Eovino

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD, 2015), the largest majority of people with an Eating Disorder (ED) are female college aged students. The current study suggests this is due to the differences in society’s portrayal of gender. Media suggests women should strive for a thinness that is unrealistic and unattainable for most women. Participants for the current study take two surveys at separate times to measure how media portrayals of the female body affects eating disorders. The surveys are made up of either a media influence stressing the importance of muscularity or a thinness …

Impact Of Working Alliance On Clinical Outcomes In Veterans Enrolled In Suicide-Specific Group Therapy, Brittany N. Groh

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Suicide is a global issue that has led researchers to seek interventions that will have a significant impact on mental health and wellbeing. Veterans comprise the largest number of suicides annually compared to other groups. There is a higher prevalence of mental disorders due to combat related experiences that may play a role in increased rates of suicide. Examined clinical diagnoses in this study include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, alcohol use and substance use. This study explores how group therapy and working alliance play a role in reducing suicidality in a group therapy setting. The first hypotheses is that …

Anxiety, Uncertainty, Distress Tolerance, And Eating Disorder Symptoms As Related To Non-Suicidal Self-Injury In Young Adults, Mandi L. Martin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Adolescents and college-aged individuals are particularly at risk for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and eating disorders. Research is lacking regarding the cognitive and emotional factors behind the formation and maintenance of both types of pathology. This study examines anxiety, intolerance to uncertainty (IU), and distress tolerance in relation to both constructs in two separate samples (Sample 1: n=364, 58.5% freshmen, 75.8% female; Sample 2: n=156, 52.6% freshman, 66.0% female) with 32.4% and 40% reporting any history of NSSI, respectively. Participants completed a packet of questionnaires regarding the variables of interest and were debriefed and referred as necessary. In the first sample, …

Dude Looks Like A Feminist!: Moral Concerns And Feminism Among Men, Renee F. Precopio

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Even though male participation in feminism is essential to its success, it is possible that men are reluctant to get involved in the movement because of its primary association with women (Holmgren & Hearn, 2009). This research investigated whether certain moral concerns contribute to men endorsing feminism. According to the Moral Foundations Theory there are five moral concerns: harm (i.e., the concern for someone’s physical and emotional well-being), fairness (i.e., the concern for equality and justice), ingroup (i.e., the concern for loyalty to group membership), authority (i.e., the concern for tradition and the social hierarchy), and purity (i.e., the concern …

Effects Of Repeated Quetiapine Treatment On Conditioned Avoidance Responding In Rats, Jun Gao, Min Feng, Natashia Swalve, Collin Davis, Nan Sui, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study characterized the behavioral mechanisms of avoidance–disruptive effect of quetiapine in the conditioned avoidance response test under two behavioral testing (2 warning signals vs. 1 warning signal) and two drug administration conditions (subcutaneous vs. intravenous). In Experiments 1 and 2, well-trained adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were tested under the subcutaneous (s.c.) quetiapine treatment (5.0, 15.0, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg) for 7 days in a novel procedure consisting of two conditioned stimuli (CS) (white noise serving as CS1 and pure tone as CS2). Only the highest dose (50.0 mg/kg) produced a persistent suppression of the avoidance response without impairing the …

Campus Community Readiness To Engage Measure: Its Utility For Campus Violence Prevention Initiatives—Preliminary Psychometrics, Katie Edwards, Mary M. Moynihan, Kara Anne Rodenhizer-Stampfli, Jennifer M. Demers, Victoria Banyard

Peer-Reviewed and Other Publications

The researchers present preliminary psychometric information on a recently developed measure—the Campus Community Readiness to Engage Measure (CCREM)—which was developed as a tool for campuses to determine their readiness to address sexual assault (SA) and relationship abuse (RA). Participants were 353 community leaders and administrators at 131 colleges and universities across New England. Factor analytic results demonstrated that the CCREM had three factors for both SA and RA: denial (the campus community is unwilling to acknowledge that SA and RA are issues for the community), initiation (the campus community is beginning to create efforts to address SA and RA and …

A Randomized Comparison Of Two Instructional Sequences For Imitation Intervention For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Elaine Espanola

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine differences in effectiveness and rate of skill acquisition between a recently developed and empirically validated instructional sequence, Motor and Vocal Imitation Assessment (MVIA), and a commonly used instructional sequence in a curriculum guide, Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP).

Methods: Children with ASD were randomly assigned to two treatment groups to determine difference in imitation performance. The treatment group followed the instructional sequence proposed in the MVIA. The comparison group followed the instructional sequence proposed in the VB-MAPP. Initial levels of imitation were assessed via the MVIA. The intervention …

Comparing Rapid Scene Categorization Of Aerial And Terrestrial Views: A New Perspective On Scene Gist, Lester C. Loschky, Ryan V. Ringer, Katrina Ellis, Bruce C. Hansen

Psychology Faculty Publications

Scene gist, a viewer's holistic representation of a scene from a single eye fixation, has been extensively studied for terrestrial views, but not for aerial views. We compared rapid scene categorization of both views in three experiments to determine the degree to which diagnostic information is view dependent versus view independent. We found large differences in observers' ability to rapidly categorize aerial and terrestrial scene views, consistent with the idea that scene gist recognition is viewpoint dependent. In addition, computational modeling showed that training models on one view (aerial or terrestrial) led to poor performance on the other view, thereby …

Services For People With Intellectual And/Or Developmental Disabilities In The U.S. Territories, John Butterworth, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

The following report represents an expansion of the data collection activities mandated by a 2012 Administration of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Prior to 2012, the AIDD funded data projects, Access to Integrated Employment, Family and Individual Information Systems project (FISP), Residential Information Systems Project (RISP) and the State of the States in Developmental Disabilities only collected data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 2012 FOA requested that three of the AIDD data projects work together to include the five U.S. Territories (American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, …

Greater Magnocellular Saccadic Suppression In High Versus Low Autistic Tendency Suggests A Causal Path To Local Perceptual Style., David P Crewther, Daniel Crewther, Stephanie Bevan, Melvyn A Goodale, Sheila G Crewther

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Saccadic suppression-the reduction of visual sensitivity during rapid eye movements-has previously been proposed to reflect a specific suppression of the magnocellular visual system, with the initial neural site of that suppression at or prior to afferent visual information reaching striate cortex. Dysfunction in the magnocellular visual pathway has also been associated with perceptual and physiological anomalies in individuals with autism spectrum disorder or high autistic tendency, leading us to question whether saccadic suppression is altered in the broader autism phenotype. Here we show that individuals with high autistic tendency show greater saccadic suppression of low versus high spatial frequency gratings …

Skidmore Clips Of Neutral And Expressive Scenarios (Scenes): Novel Dynamic Stimuli For Social Cognition Research, Casey Schofield, Justin Weeks, Lea Taylor, Colten Karnedy

Psychology

Social cognition research has relied primarily on photographic emotional stimuli. Such stimuli likely have limited ecological validity in terms of representing real world social interactions. The current study presents evidence for the validity of a new stimuli set of dynamic social SCENES (Skidmore Clips of Emotional and Neutral Expressive Scenarios). To develop these stimuli, ten undergraduate theater students were recruited to portray members of an audience. This audience was configured to display (seven) varying configurations of social feedback, ranging from unequivocally approving to unequivocally disapproving (including three different versions of balanced/neutral scenes). Validity data were obtained from 383 adult participants …

Reducing Eating Disorder Risk Factors: A Pilot Effectiveness Trial Of A Train-The-Trainer Approach To Dissemination And Implementation, Rebecca Greif, Carolyn Becker, Tom Hildebrandt

Psychology Faculty Research

Objective: Impediments limit dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs), including lack of sufficient training. One strategy to increase implementation of EBIs is the train-the-trainer (TTT) model. The Body Project is a peer-led body image program that reduces eating disorder (ED) risk factors. This study examined the effectiveness of a TTT model at reducing risk factors in Body Project participants. Specifically, this study examined whether a master trainer could train a novice trainer to train undergraduate peer leaders to administer the Body Project such that individuals who received the Body Project (i.e., participants) would evidence comparable outcomes to previous trials.We …

Latina/O First Generation College Students And College Adjustment: An Examination Of Family Support Processes, Patricia R. Cerda-Lizarraga

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

First generation Latina/o college students are at a higher risk for not completing their college degrees when compared to other ethnic minorities due to added barriers and challenges of being the first to go to college. Researchers reported that poor college adjustment is one of the factors contributing to the lack of college completion among Latina/o college students. A few studies exist on the role that family support has on the college adjustment of Latina/o students and these yielded mixed findings. The central role of the family among Latina/o students and their support during the college adjustment period merits attention. …

Physical Aggression, Compromised Social Support, And 10-Year Marital Outcomes: Testing A Relational Spillover Model, Kieran T. Sullivan, Lauri A. Pasch, Erika E. Lawrence, Thomas N. Bradbury

Psychology

The purpose of the present study was to test a relational spillover model of physical aggression whereby physical aggression affects marital outcomes due to its effects on how spouses ask for and provide support to one another. Newlywed couples (n = 172) reported levels of physical aggression over the past year and engaged in interactions designed to elicit social support; marital adjustment, and stability were assessed periodically over the first 10 years of marriage. Multilevel modeling revealed that negative support behavior mediated the relationship between physical aggression and 10-year marital adjustment levels whereas positive support behavior mediated the relationship between …

Culture Shapes Whether The Pursuit Of Happiness Predictshigher Or Lower Well-Being, Brett Q. Ford, Julia O. Dmitrieva, Daniel Heller, Yulia Chentsova-Dutton, Igor Grossmann, Maya Tamir, Yukiko Uchida, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Victoria A. Floerke, Meike Uhrig, Tatiana Bokhan, Iris B. Mauss

Psychology

Pursuing happiness can paradoxically impair well-being. Here, the authors propose the potential downsides to pursuing happiness may be specific to individualistic cultures. In collectivistic (vs. individualistic) cultures, pursuing happiness may be more successful because happiness is viewed--and thus pursued--in relatively socially engaged ways. In 4 geographical regions that vary in level of collectivism (United States, Germany, Russia, East Asia), we assessed participants' well-being, motivation to pursue happiness, and to what extent they pursued happiness in socially engaged ways. Motivation to pursue happiness predicted lower well-being in the United States, did not predict well-being in Germany, and predicted higher well-being in …

Ethnic Differences In Self-Efficacy At Southern Adventist University, Seth L. Daly Stennis

Senior Research Projects

Valid concern has been expressed about the poor academic performance of African American students, in comparison to their other ethnic counterparts. The literature has attempted to explain this anomaly. A large portion of the studies show how socioeconomic standing and parental involvement play a role in this achievement gap. A more modest smattering used psychological factors to explain the deplorable academic achievement in African Americans. One such psychological factor, self-efficacy, was not well represented in the literature; few papers discussed the association of self-efficacy and African American academic success. The purpose of this study was to describe self-efficacy levels of …

Psychological Well-Being Of Roman Catholic And Episcopal Clergy Applicants, Shannon Nicole Thomas, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The current study investigated the psychological functioning of over 200 applicants to the priesthood or diaconate in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, as revealed by the subjects’ scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition (MMPI-2). Results revealed an overall trend of psychological health in the sample population, evidenced by few systematic elevations in indices of psychopathology. Within the Catholic sample, deacons demonstrated lower MMPI-2 scores on several measures, perhaps suggesting slightly better psychological well-being than their priest counterparts.

Psychometric Properties Of The Centrality Of Pain Scale, Benjamin J. Morasco, Dennis C. Turk, Christina Nicolaidis

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

The Centrality of Pain Scale (COPS) is a recently developed patient-centered, 10-item self-report measure designed to assess how central, or dominating, in their lives individuals with chronic pain perceive pain to be. The COPS underwent initial development and validation previously; preliminary results suggested that the measure had excellent psychometric properties and that COPS scores were associated with important clinical factors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the COPS in a sample of individuals with mixed chronic pain diagnoses (N = 178) being treated at a U.S. Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Principal components analysis …

Creating Trauma Focused Educational Milieus, Theresa Fraser

Faculty Publications and Scholarship

Children and youth who have experienced developmental trauma can be successful in their various life spaces if we - the adults who support them: administrators, teachers, special education teachers, lunch room monitors, Educational Assistants and Child and Youth Care (CYC) practitioners - are cognizant of the need and benefits of creating trauma sensitive if not informed educational milieus. This is especially important if those of us supporting children don’t always have the history of each child in the class room or the child that we meet in the busy hallway. If all adults supporting children learn more about the impact …

Building Psychosocial Assets And Wellbeing Among Adolescent Girls: A Randomized Controlled Trial, K. S. Leventhal, Jane Gillham, L. M. Demaria, G. Andrew, J. W. Peabody, S. Leventhal

Psychology Faculty Works

We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a 5-month resilience-based program (Girls First Resilience Curriculum or RC) among 2308 rural adolescent girls at 57 government schools in Bihar, India. Local women with at least a 10th grade education served as group facilitators. Girls receiving RC improved more (vs. controls) on emotional resilience, self-efficacy, social-emotional assets, psychological wellbeing, and social wellbeing. Effects were not detected on depression. There was a small, statistically significant negative effect on anxiety (though not likely clinically significant). Results suggest psychosocial assets and wellbeing can be improved for girls in high-poverty, rural schools through a brief school-day …

Adherence And Dosage Contributions To Parenting Program Quality, Thomas J. Gross, W. Alex Mason, Gilbert R. Parra, Robert Oats, Jay Ringle, Kevin P. Haggerty

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective—The 3 most frequently examined elements of treatment fidelity are adherence, dosage, and quality. The relationships between these fidelity elements are complex, and additional research is needed to provide clarity. Improving clarity may be especially relevant to parenting programs, which tend to include direct explicit instruction (DEI) elements (i.e., instruction, modeling, and practice). The adherence to and dosage of these DEI elements are frequently assumed to improve program quality; however, little information is available to determine if such adherence and dosage affect program quality. This study examines whether adherence to and dosage of DEI elements predict quality ratings for …

Values Narratives For Personal Growth: Formative Evaluation Of The Laws Of Life Essay Program, Victoria Banyard, Sherry L. Hamby, Ed De St. Aubin, John H. Grych

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Evidence that even very brief writing exercises can change the way people see themselves and promote more positive mental and physical health has led to increased interest in their use in school settings and elsewhere. To date, however, research designs rely heavily on samples of college students and experimental studies of writing tasks carried out in the lab. There has been less investigation of the potential impact of more naturally occurring expressive writing exercises that exist in places like schools and that focus on adolescents. The current study was a process evaluation of the Laws of Life Essay, a values-based …

It’S All In How You Use It: Managers’ Use Of Meetings To Reduce Employee Intentions To Quit, Joseph E. Mroz, Joseph A. Allen

Psychology Faculty Publications

Meetings are often viewed as unnecessary, wastes of time, and overall negative experiences at work. In this study, we examined the positive side of meetings, specifically, how the relationship a manager fosters with subordinates in meetings affects those employees’ intentions to quit (ITQ). Using an online survey of working adults who regularly attended meetings, we found that the relation between perceived organizational support (POS) and leader–member exchange (LMX) quality in meetings on ITQ depended on an employee’s level of negative affectivity (NA). When POS or LMX in meetings was low or average, high-NA employees held significantly higher ITQ than low-NA …

Defining Treatment Response In Trichotillomania: A Signal Detection Analysis, David C. Houghton, Matthew R. Capriotti, Alessandro S. De Nadai, Scott N. Compton, Michael P. Twohig, Angela M. Neal-Barnett, Stephen M. Saunders, Martin E. Franklin, Douglas W. Woods

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The Massachusetts General Hospital Hairpulling Scale (MGH-HPS) and the NIMH Trichotillomania Severity Scale (NIMH-TSS) are two widely used measures of trichotillomania severity. Despite their popular use, currently no empirically-supported guidelines exist to determine the degrees of change on these scales that best indicate treatment response. Determination of such criteria could aid in clinical decision-making by defining clinically significant treatment response/recovery and producing accurate power analyses for use in clinical trials research. Adults with trichotillomania (N = 69) participated in a randomized controlled trial of psychotherapy and were assessed before and after treatment. Response status was measured via the Clinical …

Consequences Of Repeated Ethanol Exposure During Early Or Late Adolescence On Conditioned Taste Aversions In Rats, Jessica Saalfield, Linda Spear

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Alcohol use is prevalent during adolescence, yet little is known about possible long-lasting consequences. Recent evidence suggests that adolescents are less sensitive than adults to ethanol's aversive effects, an insensitivity that may be retained into adulthood after repeated adolescent ethanol exposure. This study assessed whether intermittent ethanol exposure during early or late adolescence (early-AIE or late-AIE, respectively) would affect ethanol conditioned taste aversions 2 days (CTA1) and >3 weeks (CTA2) post-exposure using supersaccharin and saline as conditioning stimuli (CS), respectively. Pair-housed male Sprague-Dawley rats received 4 g/kg i.g. ethanol (25%) or water every 48 h from postnatal day (P) 25-45 …